The last few months have been pretty hectic with six weeks of summer holidays for my kids followed almost immediately by a four week to Indonesia to let the immigration authorities know that I'm still alive and wanting to keep my PR among other bureacratic nightmares.
Fortunately, I was able to use the time in Indonesia to network with local OSR/NSR fans at the LFG Ramadan event. The local indie scene is getting very exciting with at least two Discord based groups regularly playing OSR/NSR games, with some referees almost always playing in English. If you are interested in joing these groups to play with Indonesians let me know in the comments and I'll share the Discord invite links.
There were quite a few people at the LFG Ramadan event who are actively writing stuff that is in my view of a publishable standard. At least one piece was highly praised by the creator of the game (Durf maybe?). The most amazing piece I saw was written and illustrated by someone who only started teaching himself to draw five months ago and drafting his first intended for publication module two months ago. He's already at the test copy stage and it only needs a little editing and layout before being print ready!
Ramadan RPG session for LFG OSR ttrpg group based in Jakarta
On that note, I was talking things over with Munkao and he feels that most of the remaining illustrations should be done by a Sundanese person since this project is showcasing Sundanese culture. I had been thinking about it already and his advice pushed me over the line to committing to this. Rest assured you will still be gettuing some Munkao art in this project as the overall series isn't limited to Sundanese culture. His art work will probably feature in the settting guide which I decided to add to this project a freebie to backers. And in case you were unaware, his most recent work is now available in print form from his website Hey Centaur.
As far as the project is going, the overall planning is solid complete. The maps just needs a little tweaking in the form of icons etc, the details for the locations and their denizens are mostly in dot point form. I still have to work out encounter details that appeal to me, this is proving to be quite difficult because I am trying to minimise combat oriented encounters and foreground opportunities for role playing to get information and have civilised encounters, etc. I've also decided to drop the Babi Ngepet from this versiopn of the module and leave it in for the Cairn/human scale version unless I can think of a way of bringing it in at a mouse scale by adapting the myth a little without ruining it.
However the main problem I am facing is in the writing. Which is a shock for me as concise yet detailed writing has been one of my strengths over the years. What is getting me is the attempt to embed the cultural experience in the writing. This was something that really came to the fore for me while playing Liminal Horror at the LFG Ramadan event. Our experience was so rich because we were all immersed in Indonesian culture. Isaac was able to embed details in his descriptions that conveyed a lot of flavour, but we were only able to taste it because we understood. This is probably going to delay the project quite a bit.
In terms of the path forward, I am going to go over the material I have written by Zedeck Siew. He is the touted fairly widely in the scene as the best author in the NSR. He manages to convey an authentic experience even to those who have little or no familiarity with Southeast Asian cultures. I will also look over the work of other creators in the region, and even those like Yochai Gal with his Beyond the Pale which is supposed to capture a very Jewish experience and perspective.
One final note, I have opened up the project for late backing if anyone is interested in helping fund the art but was unable to contribute during Mausritter month.
Thank you for supporting this project come to life. Your support has encouraged me to go ahead with the fuller scope that I had originally planned.
MZ01 Pandan Island will have a few commissioned pieces by the amazing Mun Kao of Centaur Games' Thousand Thousand Islands fame. You will have the opportunity to chip in with a special add on in the pledge manager. Regardless of what money is raised, I've committed to getting at least the Sunda Stink Badger and the Pen Tailed Shrew rendered as anthropomorphic NPCs. Hopefully we can also get some mice NPCs dressed and equipped in a distinctly Sundanese style and maybe even some item cards.
I'll be adding some character generation tables with Sundanese names and equipment as well as some rules hacks covering areas like skills for pencak silat, a Nusantaran mystical martial arts style which will combine both magical and combat skills along with some horror rules to cover encounters with the supernatural and other elements that will assist the referee and players with grasping the feel of Mausantara.
In order to respect the printing budgets of the Print on Demand physical backers, this expanded content will be offered as a combination of files i.e. everything in one, the adventure, and the bonus rules.
For those of you that missed out on backing but who still want to follow along with the journey, I will be offering a late pledge option in the pledge manager and inclusion in updates.
