From my blog:
(http://rpgpundit.xanga.com)
My Indian game OSR-game, which I've now settled on (or more correctly, resigned myself to for lack of finding any other title I like better) calling "Arrows of Indra", now has a publisher.
I'm pleased to unofficially announce that its getting published by Bedrock Games, creators of Horror Show, Terror Network, and Servants of Gaius. This is their first Old-school RPG (though the guys behind Bedrock have been old school gamers since forever) and they tell me they're very excited about working with me, and bringing Bedrock games into the Old-school side of the hobby. We have some great plans for artwork, layout, promotion, and how we'll be publicizing the design and development process.
I want to take advantage of this moment to once again clarify a detail about Arrows of Indra: Its setting will be rich and exotic, but as a game its FIRST priority will be that its playable and approachable in a way that's familiar to all D&D gamers. This is not a "too weird to live" game; its the same old D&D at its core, you do the same stuff, you don't have a to learn a weird language full of accents and apostrophes, you don't need to read up 20 pages on "The Ecology of the Hrrgu'itsyál", you don't need to immerse yourself in culture-wank. The setting is of epic heroic fantasy and D&D players will be able to get right to what they want with it.
Stay tuned for more information about the game as we progress over the next few months, including a Q&A thread where you'll all be able to ask me whatever you want about the game.
RPGPundit
Excellent, hope it does well for you and Bedrock !
Quote from: Sean !;536613Excellent, hope it does well for you and Bedrock !
Thanks Sean ! Bedrock is excited about the project. I thought the concept was great from the beginning and look forward to publishing Arrows of Indra.
The (presumably) Tekumel barbs were probably unnecessary...
QuoteI want to take advantage of this moment to once again clarify a detail about Arrows of Indra: Its setting will be rich and exotic, but as a game its FIRST priority will be that its playable and approachable in a way that's familiar to all D&D gamers. This is not a "too weird to live" game; its the same old D&D at its core, you do the same stuff, you don't have a to learn a weird language full of accents and apostrophes, you don't need to read up 20 pages on "The Ecology of the Hrrgu'itsyál", you don't need to immerse yourself in culture-wank. The setting is of epic heroic fantasy and D&D players will be able to get right to what they want with it.
That's pretty cool given my grasp of Indian culture and history is not great.
I know this is a D&D game, but could we get more info on the system?
Quote from: RPGPundit;536612I want to take advantage of this moment to once again clarify a detail about Arrows of Indra: Its setting will be rich and exotic, but as a game its FIRST priority will be that its playable and approachable in a way that's familiar to all D&D gamers. This is not a "too weird to live" game; its the same old D&D at its core, you do the same stuff, you don't have a to learn a weird language full of accents and apostrophes, you don't need to read up 20 pages on "The Ecology of the Hrrgu'itsyál", you don't need to immerse yourself in culture-wank. The setting is of epic heroic fantasy and D&D players will be able to get right to what they want with it.
Yeah, that's EPT.
But what differentiates Arrows of Indra from that? :D
Grats! I hope the game does really well for you.
Super!
13th Age now has a publisher too!
For both of you. I look forward to reading it.
Great news, looking forward to seeing it!
Congratulations, Pundit and Brendan! Great news...
Quote from: Planet Algol;536627The (presumably) Tekumel barbs were probably unnecessary...
...marred, of course, by this.
Quote from: B.T.;536629I know this is a D&D game, but could we get more info on the system?
This. I would like to know how it's different from vanilla D&D, mechanics wise.
Well I hope it's set to Epic rather than Murder-Hobo/Dungeonwallah, bring on the Bollyweird !
Congrats
Very cool. Congrats to both RPG Pundit and Bedrock. :D
Quote from: B.T.;536629I know this is a D&D game, but could we get more info on the system?
You will, eventually. I'll be creating a Q&A thread sometime shortly.
Meanwhile, I can say that the game is quite similar to AD&D, though it also has significant differences: skills, totally different magic system, ascending AC, some differences in the combat system, etc.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;536780You will, eventually. I'll be creating a Q&A thread sometime shortly.
Meanwhile, I can say that the game is quite similar to AD&D, though it also has significant differences: skills, totally different magic system, ascending AC, some differences in the combat system, etc.
RPGPundit
I assume you are going for a Panrtheistic Vedic feel? With a magic system tied to this? Or will a concurrent Shramana-like approximate also exist supported by the mechanics?
Quote from: LordVreeg;536788I assume you are going for a Panrtheistic Vedic feel? With a magic system tied to this? Or will a concurrent Shramana-like approximate also exist supported by the mechanics?
Both and neither. The first times I thought of doing a game set in a pseudo-India, I gave tons of thought of how I would apply real-life knowledge of hinduism and buddhism into the mechanics of the game, and tried to work out all kinds of complex elements into the mechanics.
Then I realized this was a trap. What's more, I realized that the setting should no more make use of real-life hindu/buddhist philosophies as D&D makes use of real western-pagan/christian theology; most people wouldn't actually want to get that far into it.
So what the system is going to have is a setting that (like the Vedic culture itself, and very much unlike some of the later "Hindu" religious movements) presumes that the Gods are actual and separate physical entities, traditional paganism in other words and not the kind of later evolution that happened to create panentheism.
It will also have a system of rituals (priest magic), secret energy-manipulation techniques (the magic of siddhis, who can be either renunciates or householder magicians) and Enlightenment Powers (which either of the above can obtain). The Yogi also gains his own special set of powers which are none of the above.
RPGPundit
Also, I'm now at 177 pages, and slowed to a crawl. Really, I just have the introduction to write now, and I've hit a complete writers' block as to what to put there.
RPGPundit
On the plus side, we ran the very first playtest last night, it went fairly well. Already led to a couple of little adjustments.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;537577On the plus side, we ran the very first playtest last night, it went fairly well. Already led to a couple of little adjustments.
RPGPundit
PLaytests are like that.
Amazing the things that get uncovered. My main skill based ruleset has been i use for 25+ years, but we just made a major tweak with the 'shield use' skill...I think a good GM keeps their eyes open for ways to make a better game, a bad GM just goes with the rules thinking someone else 'knows better'.
Quote from: LordVreeg;537627PLaytests are like that.
Amazing the things that get uncovered. My main skill based ruleset has been i use for 25+ years, but we just made a major tweak with the 'shield use' skill...I think a good GM keeps their eyes open for ways to make a better game, a bad GM just goes with the rules thinking someone else 'knows better'.
Yes, and when you happen to BE that "someone else", it can be a challenge. However, I'm quite willing in this case to listen to all advice; there are some areas right now I feel very satisfied with, and others that I know can have room for tweaking.
RPGPundit
Quote from: LordVreeg;537627PLaytests are like that.
It's an intimidating chair to be sitting in.
During the single (Sadly :( )playtest session of something I was working on, I realised (A little too late) that I shouldn't be arguing with one of my testers as to why what I had wrote was wrong, I should have been listening. The rest of the session was much more constructive when I was acting on that.
Quote from: Ladybird;538143It's an intimidating chair to be sitting in.
During the single (Sadly :( )playtest session of something I was working on, I realised (A little too late) that I shouldn't be arguing with one of my testers as to why what I had wrote was wrong, I should have been listening. The rest of the session was much more constructive when I was acting on that.
Arguing also wastes time. Even if the playtester is wrong, you want as much feedback as possible. You are not there to debate every point raise dby playtesters (some will be valid, others will not apply to the game in question and still others will just be way off).
But there are times when it is important to know if you can justify a mechanic or a decision about the overall system and one of e best ways to do that is to let one of you players challenge you and to offer a response. i have a few people in my group who I am comfortable doing this with.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;538147Arguing also wastes time. Even if the playtester is wrong, you want as much feedback as possible. You are not there to debate every point raise dby playtesters (some will be valid, others will not apply to the game in question and still others will just be way off).
But there are times when it is important to know if you can justify a mechanic or a decision about the overall system and one of e best ways to do that is to let one of you players challenge you and to offer a response. i have a few people in my group who I am comfortable doing this with.
I know! And these are friends who know their stuff, and the only reason they were there was because I'd asked them to help, and they'd stepped up. So, yeah, arguing with them was stupid of me.
Quote from: Ladybird;538148I know! And these are friends who know their stuff, and the only reason they were there was because I'd asked them to help, and they'd stepped up. So, yeah, arguing with them was stupid of me.
I think it is a natural impulse to want to defend what you designed. Everyone is a bit different. I tend to be pretty thick skinned, so I can usually stomach criticism pretty well.
Striking the right balance of listening and staying focused on a vision is hard though. One downside of my thick skin is sometimes I pay too much attention to other peoples' seemingly reasonable proposals so I have to regroup every once in a while and do a "focus check".
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;538151I think it is a natural impulse to want to defend what you designed. Everyone is a bit different. I tend to be pretty thick skinned, so I can usually stomach criticism pretty well.
Striking the right balance of listening and staying focused on a vision is hard though. One downside of my thick skin is sometimes I pay too much attention to other peoples' seemingly reasonable proposals so I have to regroup every once in a while and do a "focus check".
HAHAHAHA....
SO true.
I am, as I said, still tweaking, but it is a rare rule that does not get one of my players at least ready to get into it..at least to really understand it...and there are about 40-odd players now on those email alerts when a rule changes.
Especially when you need to nerf something. Ouch. Blowblack.
But it all makes for a better game.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;538151I think it is a natural impulse to want to defend what you designed. Everyone is a bit different. I tend to be pretty thick skinned, so I can usually stomach criticism pretty well.
Striking the right balance of listening and staying focused on a vision is hard though. One downside of my thick skin is sometimes I pay too much attention to other peoples' seemingly reasonable proposals so I have to regroup every once in a while and do a "focus check".
Yes, the key is to maintain the vision of what you want your game to be, and take advice that is concurrent with making that vision work better.
For example, some of my playtesters are admittedly not old-school gamers; and thus some of their advice as to how it could be "better" (though in fact they're quite self-aware of this and trying to check for it) might really not be so much about "better" as about "less old-school", and that's not something you want to implement.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;538267Yes, the key is to maintain the vision of what you want your game to be, and take advice that is concurrent with making that vision work better.
For example, some of my playtesters are admittedly not old-school gamers; and thus some of their advice as to how it could be "better" (though in fact they're quite self-aware of this and trying to check for it) might really not be so much about "better" as about "less old-school", and that's not something you want to implement.
RPGPundit
That is it exactly. For example if I am making a gritty "characters can die from a single stab wound" kind of game, someone telling me they want 90 more HP so they can survive multiple encounters a day is a perfectly legiimate opinion but it is an opinion that doesn't match the design goal.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;538291That is it exactly. For example if I am making a gritty "characters can die from a single stab wound" kind of game, someone telling me they want 90 more HP so they can survive multiple encounters a day is a perfectly legiimate opinion but it is an opinion that doesn't match the design goal.
It can be tough to please everyone. One player is fine with being 'one shot' by an arrow, while another throws a tantrum when their 150 hp fighter takes 2 hp of damage.
Well, that's really a pretty extreme example, the way that Bedrock presented it. I mean,it would be like someone telling me Arrows of Indra would be better if it included more Egyptian mythology.
You don't need to go that far to get into what I'm talking about, though.
RPGPundit
My current progress on the game has ground to a total halt, because of the recent computer problems (the computer I just bought doesn't work, and I'm stuck trying to get by with my netbook until at least monday).
Its very frustrating.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;538840My current progress on the game has ground to a total halt, because of the recent computer problems (the computer I just bought doesn't work, and I'm stuck trying to get by with my netbook until at least monday).
Its very frustrating.
RPGPundit
That is terrible. Right before we released terror network i had a hard drive failure and had to do the whole layout over again in a few days.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;538852That is terrible. Right before we released terror network i had a hard drive failure and had to do the whole layout over again in a few days.
Luckily I've been backing up everything properly; so no actual work has been lost. Its just that further work has been delayed. I've gotten a new computer now, but its been a bitch getting it to where its working right, so I still haven't actually gotten to do any real work on it yet, just installing shit, wondering why its crashing, trying to get it to do all the windows updates, etc.
Quote from: RPGPundit;539387Luckily I've been backing up everything properly; so no actual work has been lost. Its just that further work has been delayed. I've gotten a new computer now, but its been a bitch getting it to where its working right, so I still haven't actually gotten to do any real work on it yet, just installing shit, wondering why its crashing, trying to get it to do all the windows updates, etc.
Re-installing programs is the worst part of replacing a computer IMO.
Back on the subject, both the character sheet and the map are coming along very nicely, and I've just written out a rough chapter summary on my blog.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;539728Back on the subject, both the character sheet and the map are coming along very nicely, and I've just written out a rough chapter summary on my blog.
RPGPundit
Good. I do expect to buy this.
The maps are done, they look incredible. My sincerest thanks to Estar for the awesome work he's done!
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;540014The maps are done, they look incredible. My sincerest thanks to Estar for the awesome work he's done!
Thanks and I will be posting a section when I get home from work.
Quote from: estar;540023Thanks and I will be posting a section when I get home from work.
Please let us know when that's done!
RPGPundit
And its done now, in the other thread!
RPGPundit
http://www.facebook.com/ArrowsOfIndra (http://www.facebook.com/ArrowsOfIndra)
Arrows of Indra now also has a facebook page.
RPGPundit
And a facebook group too: http://www.facebook.com/groups/178860168906065/
Yeah, the Page is where I'll have to be active though, someone (a certain notorious pundit-hater I suspect) went and got my Pundit facebook account shut down (apparently facebook has a policy that you can't use any name other than your legal name, and while they clearly don't enforce it all that often, if someone reports you facebook will shut your profile down). So now I can only operate through the RPGPundit Page I set up, which means I can't access groups.
RPGPundit
I thought that this might be interesting and related to this RPG product:
Researchers believe that the have discovered the reason for the collapse of the Harappan culture. (http://news.yahoo.com/huge-ancient-civilization-collapse-explained-123449804.html)
Quote from: Drohem;543467I thought that this might be interesting and related to this RPG product:
Researchers believe that the have discovered the reason for the collapse of the Harappan culture. (http://news.yahoo.com/huge-ancient-civilization-collapse-explained-123449804.html)
Very interesting; of course, the mythologies don't match up with any of this stuff, obviously.
Its such a problem that India has its own version of Hindu "Fundamentalists" who like creation-scientists or mormon-archeologists desperately want to claim that modern archeology has it entirely wrong, and that Indian history follows the precise and literal accounts of the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
RPGPundit