Mridangam: The Calligrapher's Sword in another Medium

[Shreyas Sampat]

The Calligrapher's Sword is a game set in a rather rarefied medium.  I thought to condense it into something more concrete.

So, we have Mridangam, the game of Vedic superheroes.  I've been dancing around this concept for far too long, and so I figured I'd just hit the nail on the head for once.

Instead of the three qualities of a Caligrapher's Sword character, a Dancer has only two: Nritta and Abhinaya.
Nritta is pure dance.  It describes the Dancer's pure physicality.  Any physical action can be resolved through Nritta.
Abhinaya is the language of gesture.  It is the way that the Dancer's psyche interacts with the world.  Any action involving intelligence, communication, etc., is resolved through Abhinaya.
These qualities range from d4 all the way up to d12.

Instead of the CS Somnolence pool, Dancers have a sliding scale; at one end of the scale is Stamina, and at the other is Concentration.  Stronger Dancers can have longer scales; I'll come up with good Sanskrit names for the endpoints later.
You can wager points of Stamina to give yourself bonuses to Nritta rolls, or Concentration for Abhinaya rolls, but only if you're doing an opposed roll.  Then your score changes:  Suppose you're making a Nritta roll.
If you're tied, then nothing happens.
If you win, you gain a point of Stamina.
If you lose, then you lose whatever amount of Stamina you wagered.

So, what is it that makes the scale useful, exactly?
You cannot roll any higher than your relevant scale; Nritta is limited by Stamina, and Abhinaya is limited by Concentration.
There are special powers that work like Specialties in Kathanaksaya: They add to the wager you make, without costing you points.  These represent the mystical powers that Vedic heroes developed through their yoga disciplines, and so I'll call them Siddhis.  When these are used, they should be narrated appropriately.

In the place of Calligraphy and Words there are Mudras, the gestures that allow practicioners of the dance to tell stories.  This system is pretty well laid out in some books, so I won't bother to detail it here.

Even though there are only two qualities, there are still the three result categories, so Mridangam characters suffer a little more than CS characters do.

Finally, in the place of Illuminations, characters have Passions (bharat natyam is about love); a Passion lets you apply two dice to a result category.  A Passion is always a love or hate relationship with another person.

So, finally, I ask, "Here I have a system I really like, and a rich, interesting setting.  But what do the characters do?"

[Drew Stevens]

One quick thought-

You might want to consider toning down the sanskrit, a bit, in the mechanics themselves.  Lest they become a complete impedment to actual understanding :)

[Shreyas Sampat]

Drew,

I was thinking about that.  Game terms mean a lot.
I can go two directions there:

Take out the Sanskrit totally.  This adds to instant comprehensibility, but also loses colour, and adds verbosity, which I detest.  Still, a viable option.  I could use Dance and Gesture in the place of Nritta and Abhinaya, etc.

Throw Sanskrit around everywhere.  This has the benefit that I can pick and choose elegant, effective terms; the game mechanics are based on the terminology of Bharata Natyam, a traditional style of Indian dance.  This pushes outsiders away, but has Kayfabe's 'insider appeal', theoretically.  Anyone casually acquainted with Bharata Natyam or classical Indian music will know what a mridangam is (it's a kind of drum).

Right now, I'm operating under the assumption that the players will know enough about Vedic culture, and all the various Skt. terminology it throws around for lack of good English terms for the same, that the Sanskrit in the game will not put them off.  Actually, there was a time when I was going to have different 'scene types', like in Tim Denee's our frustration, named after the various segments of a traditional Bharata Natyam recital.  I haven't thrown that idea out yet, though it would increase the count of intimidating long Sanskrit words significantly.  (This is mainly because the terms look ridiculous translated, or I can't find translations anywhere.)

[greyorm]

Why write a game in an attempt to make it broadly appealing when it functionally has only limited appeal anyways?

In other words, go for the Sanskrit terms all over the place.

(And I don't mean "limited appeal" as an insult...lots of cool stuff has limited appeal...in fact, the coolest stuff.)

[Mike Holmes]

You could potentially do something not altogether different from In Nomine, and have it be about the war between Devas and Asuras. I'm no expert, but isn't there room there for a premise?

Mike

[Shreyas Sampat]

Excellent points, guys.

Mike, I think you're onto something there.  I have this thought that the premise could be something involving the conflict between Duty and Love.  I'll have to do some thinking to really involve that into the game, I guess.  The Deva/Asura battle would be a backdrop for the experiences of the characters, who are mortals, although very special ones with supernatural powers.

Which brings me to a couple of issues I realized I had last night.

The Calligrapher's Sword result categories - Import, Longing, Sorrow - are appropriate for that game, but not for this.  I was thinking of dancing-based categories for this game, but in light of Mike's comment, maybe it would be beter to tie the Premise into the resolution mechanic.
So, suppose that the categories are Dharma, Artha, and Kama: Duty, Profit, and Fulfilment of Desires.  Low rolls in Dharma equate to transgressions of duty, Artha to actions being ultimately valueless, and Kama to the action itself failing.  The Mudra reward mechanic is tied to very low rolls: the character can only gain in mystical power through some kind of suffering.