D&D 5E What should an official Indian subcontinent inspired setting have?

[Urriak Uruk]

I'm not American!

Canadian. Which funny enough on Wikipedia, apparently 17.7% is Asian (which is including East Asian of course).

 

[QuentinGeorge]

The Forgotten Realms takes most of it's Theological Influences mixing Neoplatonism and Gnostism theologies with Hinduism, most Christians influences are insolated to specific dieties, and church structures, skin deep combined with elements of thoughtforms.

Even D&D Angels have Neoplatonist, Gnostic, and Hindu influences.

Hence the shallowness, and trying to use Gnosticism and Neoplatonism without even making an attempt to model the big medieval religions that were most suffused with those concepts?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Tolkien's Middle Earth and G.W.Lewis "Chronicles of Narnia" show us good examples of "Crystal Dragon Jesus" enough politically correct.

I don't want troubles, only I say in your games you can use the trope of the religious zealot..some times, but try to avoid the abuse. And please avoid that speech about "wolves with lamb's clothing" because other could start to tell about Robespierre and Jacobins' French Terror, or the drownings at Nantes. If you want to use the fiction to stop the hate, then you should to promote the respect for the human dignity, or you only be replacing a madness with a other.

Once I read a book about India about the literature nobel V.S. Naipaul. The title was "India, a wounded civilitation". I also read "The City of Joy" by Dominique Lapierre. The movie wasn't bad but the book told more things. Sometimes I have readen in new agency Fides.org about the radical nationalists in India. You know nothing about violence against Christians in Kandhammal in the year 2008, do you?

* Even if ask to fandom from India suggestions and ideas, we could find different opinions. They are fantasy novels inspired in fictional version of India but these stories are too focused in the couple of the main characters, and D&D is more "coral", about working as a team.

 

[Redthistle]

Sort of like if you don't have Jesus, what's the point of a European-inspired setting?

Pointed, satirical, and a thoroughly justified question.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Sort of like if you don't have Jesus, what's the point of a European-inspired setting?

Christianity is not the only religion in Europe.

 

[Azzy]

Christianity is not the only religion in Europe.

Hinduism also isn't the only religion in South Asia.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Hinduism also isn't the only religion in South Asia.

That's for sure. I spent six months there while in college, where I learned even Hinduism itself is hard to define as a single religion sometimes: there are so many different versions of it, and the different versions are grounded in geographic location much more than in philosophical/theological differences. It is not analogous to the different denominations of Christianity.

But then apart from Hinduism there's Buddhism, Islam, Jain, Christianity, and Sikh. And those are just the big ones.

UNRELATED POINT: Here's one thing I'd like to see in an Indian subcontinent setting: an accurate and robust showing of the different sorts of physical climates. Goa is one kind of place; the mountains between north India and Kathmandu are quite a different kind of place. And don't even get me going on the differences between economies, cuisines, rules of etiquette, and the huge variations in kinds of cities--there's a lot one could flesh out here.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's for sure. I spent six months there while in college, where I learned even Hinduism itself is hard to define as a single religion sometimes: there are so many different versions of it, and the different versions are grounded in geographic location much more than in philosophical/theological differences. It is not analogous to the different denominations of Christianity.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

I’m a lifetime Roman Catholic who has taken not only courses on our theology, but also college-level religion courses. Finding out there’s over 30k different denominations of Christianity- including those that do not believe in the triune nature of God- was eye opening. Things some branches consider heresies are central tenets of others.

Look at any faith, and you’re bound to find fractalized branches that are difficult to reconcile with the roots.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Maybe yes, maybe no.

I’m a lifetime Roman Catholic

Me too, but not lifetime: I'm an adult convert.

who has taken not only courses on our theology, but also college-level religion courses. Finding out there’s over 30k different denominations of Christianity- including those that do not believe in the triune nature of God- was eye opening. Things some branches consider heresies are central tenets of others.

All true, and also truly controversial among theologians (their fights, I mean, over when something is a denomination versus a heresy versus a whole new religion). The difference I noticed in Indian Hinduism back in the 90s was that different versions of it were just so different from the main lines, yet no Hindu I met ever had any great quarrel with that. It was a more thoroughly eclectic religion than yours and mine.

 

[Tonguez]

The vast majority of western-influenced D&D settings blithely ignore the institutions of serfdom, pogroms, class immobility, feudal obligations, indentured servitude, child marriage etc. Not sure why it's at all important that an Indian-influenced setting includes coverage of the caste system, or a samurai-influenced setting detail the cheapness of non-samurai life when 'conventional' settings that riff heavily off western medieval/renaissance imagery casually edit out the unpleasant or un-fun-to-game-with historical bits.

yeah thats always been a bugbear for me too, caste system and fate of untouchables is constantly highlighted for India but serfdom (which persisted in parts of Europe up to 1900) is largely ignored and certainly never highlighted as relevant to pcs.

This is probably been posted elsewhere on this thread, but maybe we should all just read Ajit George's article on how he built some Ravenloft domains, partly inspired by India. It's a great case study for any cultural adaptation, but is especially relevant to this thread.

Ajit George: The Beautiful Challenge of Bringing India to D&D’s Ravenloft

Writing for Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft was one of the most exhilarating and daunting game writing experiences of my life. I am the first writer of Indian origin to write Indian-inspired mater…

terribleminds.com

I like the use of renown/favour to represent relationships between social classes. My influence system (level+cha) requires that pcs with negative influence must ally with a higher influence PC (as a servant/slave) etc but can earn influence like any other.