MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Indian Folklore Set-Set Design
Hello! This set's theme was told to me by my mom, who will also help with some of the worldbuilding.
If you don't know what vision design is, search it up. I'm lazy.
This set is about Indian folklore, and will include tons of stuff from that. This is a miniset, and will only need 250-325 cards.
Current mechanics from old sets being looked at:
New mechanics:
Meditation counters
Remember, all feedback welcomed.
Edit:This is all old, I will post new stuff in a comment soon.
If you don't know what vision design is, search it up. I'm lazy.
This set is about Indian folklore, and will include tons of stuff from that. This is a miniset, and will only need 250-325 cards.
Current mechanics from old sets being looked at:
New mechanics:
Meditation counters
Remember, all feedback welcomed.
Edit:This is all old, I will post new stuff in a comment soon.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
If it were me, I'd go all in on basing it off of the Ramayana. That's a truly epic scope adventure story, with a whole cast of legendary level characters- Prince Rama, Lakhsaman, Sita, Ravanna, and Hanuman to name a few. Of course you could include elements from the wider stories, including Krishna, Shiva, Ganesh, Kali and so on. What might be super interesting is if you made a planeswalker version of Vishnu, where the planeswalker type was always Vishnu, but his name changed based on his avataric incarnation- i.e. Rama, Krishna, and so on.
I think this is a super dope idea, and I'd love to help. Also if you're interested, I did a few long (like an hour) podcasts while I was in India with a friend where we discussed some of the deeper insights, and takeaways from the stories and characters of Hindu faith.
- Hanuman
- Ganesh(a). Speaking of this @Rayne-Lord, do you know why some people put an a at the end of his name?
- Shiva
- Kali
- Rakshasa
As much as I would love to do the Ramaynana, sadly, I actually haven't read it yet. I have read tons of other books about Indian folklore, specifically talking about the great book Aru Sha. I will read it when I get the time, but I would really need help when trying to nail down the aspects.I don't just want to base it off of the hindu religion, as there are some tales that I really like, such as the story(Of which I forgot the name of) which is basically Indian Cinderella, but wildly different.
So no, this is right now VERY broad @shadow123.
Also, by no means do I want to say I know a lot about this topic, I know very little, and a lot of what I know is things like gods. Speaking of gods, about a year ago, when I first planned to make this set, the mechanical theme was "Making your creatures gods", which was based off of a thing I heard at church one time, that no one Hindu knew all their gods. So, what better way to represent this than having tons of gods!
Anyways, I would love your help guys, muchly appreciated.
I would recommend even just doing a deep-dive on wikipedia to get you started. And there are abridged translations of both the Gita (I actually recommend this simply as its one of the deepest, profoundly insightful books I ever read.) and the Ramayana. The Gita is avtually just a short episode in the Mahabharata, which I have never read, apparently its the longest book in the world, ten times the length of the bible.
I just wanna say that regardless of Magic, had I never found Eastern (and specifically Hindu/Buddhist) spirituality/philosophy I would not be the man I am today. Its such an incredibly deep, rich culture and I hope that through this set you can in some way reconnent with that aspect of your heritage @LordTachanka123
Something else that could be interesting at least on the mechanical side, would be the idea of Enlightenment, Avatars and such.
This would almost certainly have to be changed, as it was originally designed for "Experimentation", an old set idea I had, based more on science than folklore/religion/mythology/philosophy. I also like the idea of having a "Avatars matter" theme, but I don't know how easy it would be to run through all the rarities.
@Rayne-Lord, had it not been for COVID.
I was actually thinking for an upcoming set about using Meditation counters. This would be instead of +1/+1, and -1/-1 counters to avoid confusion. Meditation counters could be used for all sorts of tracking and different abilities. Maybe an Enlighten ability could interact with them.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/nirvana-attained
Thought you might enjoy this
Also, I believe I did black as the only story I can recall off the top of my head(That's a lie. It's just my favorite story.) is when Hanuman attempts(And possibly succedes, I forgot) to eat the sun @Rayne-Lord
Prince Rama (Bant or Naya.)
Ravanna (Grixis, or Jund)
Hanuman (Naya)
Shiva (Jund or Esper) - I make the association with black here because Shiva is known as 'The Destroyer' - though whether he destroys material, or ego is up to interpretation.
Ganesh (Bant)
Kali (Jund)
Esper might be the only shard that would require a little more thought on who would fall into it, but the other ones seem fairly obvious to me.
Of course- Just so you know, Sunyata is a Buddhist term that basically refers the idea that all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature, but may also refer to the Buddha-nature teachings and primordial or empty awareness, as in Dzogchen, Shentong, or Zen forms of buddhism.
Also, I just used it to rename the existing mechanic of Devoid from Return to Zendikar. You could use it in a different way, or the same.