Bogblins

Welcome to the first monster deep dive! Today we're going to talk about asuras (Hindu demons), orcs, and how I'm choosing to represent typical fantasy monsters in my mythic Indian setting.   Part 1 - Hiravadesh To start, a brief setting primer.     Shivanasamudra Falls, Karnataka, India/Bharat   Hiravadesh is a verdant and hilly region of a larger subcontinent, bordered on the west by the ocean, to the north by a great arid desert, and to the east and south by thick, jungle-filled lowlands. Over the centuries petty dynasties rose and fell, marking the land with temples, forts, and ruins. Small farming and fishing villages dot the countryside, living off the land and the mercy of the gods. Despite Hiravadesh's long history of inhabitance, the land is older still, and remains wild and chaotic, ever-working to break the villages and kingdoms down into the jungles from whence they came. Hiravadesh is pretty directly inspired by the Deccan region of India, specifically W...

Apologies for the meme, it popped into my head and I had no way to ignore it. Anyways, this post is about combat-heavy games and the OSR, and how those two things are not necessarily as opposed as they're generally assumed to be. Essentially, I see a place for really cool combat-heavy OSR or OSR-adjacent games, and I think that shadowy little corner would be cool to explore.   Defining the OSR (for the purposes of this post) To start, let's take a look at the core tenets of the OSR. They aren't static, they aren't the same for every GM, and they're not written in just one place, which all in itself may be a central tenet - that the OSR is horizontally and loosely organized, more so a shared concept than a set of rules to be bought and sold.   I prefer this list when it comes to defining the OSR. For reference, I'll re-type it here: 1. This is a game about interacting with this world as if it were a place that exists. 2. Killing things is not the goal. 3. There ...