Looking for material to aid with India-esque adventure

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I'm working on a short adventure based on an ancient India-like setting. Basically takes place in the middle of the indian jungle where a fey-lord of my own devising and his human wife live in a hidden garden/palace.

Looking for examples of indian native tropical fruits, interior and exterior designs, and the like.

This lord is a psionic type so wanting to go with a sort of mentalism feel to it to.

Any suggestions or sources to check out are welcome.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Does it have any kind of oriental feel to it? Oriental Adventures (obviously) would come in handy then.

Another good one is Races of the Wild.

Other than that, there's probably a bunch of stuff you could use scattered out between the 20 gazillion books that make up D&D.

[Jayabalard]

Any suggestions or sources to check out are welcome.

I think that GURPS has an India book, and in general those sort of GURPS books provide a whole lot of useful information regardless of the system that you actually run the game in.
Edit: Nope, looks like GURPS India got scrapped at the first draft stage.

[thegurullamen]

Probably nothing you haven't gone over before, but:

The Monkey King and Basic Hindu Info, hyperlinked. So, go from there.

As for mechanics, MM1 is full of Indian-origin creatures (though you'll need to re-reflavor them as they've been mostly Westernized), monks sound okay, but for less suck-for-the-buck, use ToB and some of the better homebrewed disciplines on the boards, Incarnum might make for some interesting flavor that your players may not have come across before thus enhancing the area's differences and of course, psionics.

[bosssmiley]

Oh good grief. Where to start?

Lets just take it as read that Hindi mythology is so complex, over-written, edited, rehashed and revised, fraught with complexities, contradictions and exceptions that there essentially is no unified Hindu mythos. One story's human is another story's nature spirit (or demigod or aspect or avatar), is another tale's demon, is another story's supreme governing force of the universe. Hindu myth is probably the original All Myths Are True cosmic mash-up.

With all that to contend with I'm not surprised GURPS India got cancelled (what are the odds the writer had a nervous breakdown trying to make sense of Hindu myth ).

That caveat given your best bet for a psionic fey lord that people acknowledge as traditionally 'Indian' in feel is probably to play around with the Shiva and Parvati archetypes. Shiva gets pretty big name recognition in the west, and the better known tales about him deal with not only asceticism, meditation and connection to the natural world (IIRC in one cosmology the River Ganges was supposed to flow from Shiva's third eye), but also world-shaking passions, vibrant activity and larger-than-life demon slaying. Sounds pretty fey to me.

For general visual inspiration you can't go wrong with one of the Rough Guides as a starting point. You should be able to get an older edition for next to nothing.

For architectural inspiration Wikipedia and GIS are, as always, your friends.

Cooking websites are a good starting point for an overview of the fruits of the sub-continent. There are dozens of the things.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Looking for examples of indian native tropical fruits, interior and exterior designs, and the like.

*facepalm*

And thus I completely miss the point once again.

http://www.boloji.com/architecture/index.htm

Try that.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Ok, let me elaborate. I've already designed the fey lord and their general existence. I'm just wanting to make the palace (inside and outside), the garden, and lifestyle within an Indian theme mixed with a sort of feyish fakir theme to it.

In other words some bits of it will be supernatural and simply put, based on their spiritualism without necessarily a need for a deity.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Sounds a little like ECS Xendrik with the Drow.

[ColonelFuster]

Random link!
http://moonscomplexion.blogspot.com/

[RTGoodman]

It took me about 35 minutes with Google, but I finally found what I was looking for - the Mahasarpa setting is based on Oriental Adventures but has, as far as I know, a strong Indian theme. You can download it there and probably get some ideas from that. I haven't read it and I've heard people say it's not that good, but it might be worth a shot to at least flip through.

Also, for the rest of the stuff you wanted, head to Barnes & Noble or whatever large-ish bookstore is near you and head to the bargain books section. There's almost always a huge section of coffee-table books about various countries ("The Castles of Ireland," "Scenic Italy," "Exploring China" and stuff like that), and you can probably find some good stuff in there (including player handouts if you're willing to make copies or rip out pages.

[TheThan]

Lets see, a good starting place for any sort of game based off of a real world setting (like India for example) is to google random bits of information like “fauna of India”. Although it might take less time to Wiki-fu it up and see what pops up.

I can’t provide a single book for actual reference. Although I do recall the guys over at WOTC made a India based oriental adventures setting.

Linky here

It took me about 35 minutes with Google, but I finally found what I was looking for - the Mahasarpa setting is based on Oriental Adventures but has, as far as I know, a strong Indian theme. You can download it there and probably get some ideas from that. I haven't read it and I've heard people say it's not that good, but it might be worth a shot to at least flip through.
.

wow it only took me five minutes to find this on my own. (as its the same link i posted above.).

[CASTLEMIKE]

Mythic Vistas Mindshadows by Green Ronin could also work.

[dyslexicfaser]

I know less than I'd like about Hinduism and India in general, but consider installing a banyan tree: they can grow to enormous size, covering several acres. They grow many downward roots that are basically indistinguishable from the original trunk. With access to a fey's magic, who knows what size it could reach?

You could have an entire forest consisting of a single, extremely ancient tree.

[Zeta Kai]

Oriental Adventures has some information on Indian culture, on pages 202 & 203. As for internet resources, you might want to check here.

[AslanCross]

While not set in traditional ancient India, Virgin Comics' Ramayan 3392 might give you some ideas. It's an adaptation of the Ramayana, one of India's best known ancient epics.

Of course, there's the archetypical Indian structure: The Taj Mahal.

Spoiler

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The Taj Mahal is Mughal architecture--a mix of Indian, Persian, and Turkish elements.

Shiva is the god of meditation and asceticism (in addition to destruction, which he is more known for in the West), so if your fey lord seeks the power of mentalism, he might be a good patron. A very large statue of him might be a good centerpiece to his garden. (Aside: while Hinduism has many gods, people tend to devote themselves to one deity or aspect of a deity in particular. Vishnu the protector and Shiva are the most commonly worshipped. Ironically, the creator member of the trio, Brahma, is rarely worshipped.)

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The jackfruit is among one of the many fruits you can find in South and Southeast Asia. There's also the mango and banana. A popular tree in mythological works is the Ashoka.

One of the lesser-known concepts in Hinduism is that of the Astras, or divine weapons. They're superweapon blessings that the gods give to mighty and deserving mortals, and their capabilities are incredible. You might want to flavor these into your psionic character.
Astras.