Time is almost up, Tripurans!
As of right now, OSE Month ends in just 48 hours. That means this is your last chance to get in on The Tiger Princess of Treacherous Tripura o...
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Mudknight Media
24 days ago
Custom Character Sheets Incoming!
Greetings, demonic donors!Â
It's been a very successful opening week: every single OSE Month project has fully funded, and we've personally hurtled past two of our stretch g...
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Mudknight Media
about 1 month ago
We've Funded!
To All You Awesome Backers,
The Tiger Princess of Treacherous Tripura is fully funded, and all we can say is: thank you! As the first "official" Mudknight Media project, t...
As of right now, OSE Month ends in just 48 hours. That means this is your last chance to get in on The Tiger Princess of Treacherous Tripura or increase your pledges to score more goodies, like this awesome character sheet designed by our resident artist Daniel Harila Carlsen:
WIP, natch
Munkao Mudtile Madness!
But that's not all! We've also brought on celebrated TTRPG illustrator Munkao(Centaur games, Kala Mandala) to draw all 40 Tiger Princess mudtiles, lending his considerable talent to each throne room, treasure hoard, and trans-dimensional catacomb in the city. We're exceedingly close to unlocking this digital stretch goal, and only 35k NOK to bundling a full printed set for every Deluxe Zine backer, so consider upgrading your pledge if you haven't already!
Digital mockup, design subject to change
This has been a wild ride, but it's not over yet. Please keep sharing the project and letting people know you've backed it on social media -- every little bit helps, and we're keen to pass that good will back to you with more unlocked stretch goals! Thank you all!
WIP: Some of the encounters you may stumble upon while carousing in the Silver Fortress.
I missed the campaign for DD, is it possible to have that added as an addon for the campaign? Not sure if that would help hit more of the stretch goals, but I would snag that.
It's been a very successful opening week: every single OSE Month project has fully funded, and we've personally hurtled past two of our stretch goals. That means that not only will EVERY backer be getting access to the digital demon and hellish market generators, but our resident artist Daniel Harila Carlsen will be hand-drawing a brand-new, Tiger-Princess themed character sheet for Old School Essentials.
If you're curious as to what that might look like, check out this one he did for our other OSE project, Duginthroat Divided:
Things are about to get much more lucrative for our Deluxe Zine tier backers as well, because our next stretch goal unlocks a 25-sheet pad of those very character sheets, printed and shipped at no extra cost to thee. If you haven't upgraded your pledge, now's your chance -- it's getting better with every pledge!
A Peak Into the Writer's Room
All of us here at Mudknight HQ are hard at work bringing The Tiger Princess of Treacherous Tripura to life, but none perhaps moreso than our writer Brian Yaksha. For this update we asked if he could share a little bit of behind-the-scenes information about the book, its systems, and his process.
City-Crawling Procedures
Hello, this is Brian Yaksha. I have a habit of getting a bit poetic when I'm talking about my design processes so I'll be brief and summarize it up top to save you all the hassle.
Urban Adventuring Sequence of Play Per Turn
1. Decide course: The players decide on their course of travel.
2. City Event: The referee makes checks as applicable (every 2 turns*).
2a. District Event: After 6 turns, a District Event is rolled in addition to any City Event.
2b. Disruption Event: Every 6 hours, a Disruption Event is rolled, in addition to any other events.
3. Description: The referee describes the locales passed through and any sites of interest that the party comes across, asking players for their actions as required, following standard encounter procedures.
4. End of Turn. The referee updates time records, with special attention to disruptions caused, spell durations, and the party’s need to rest.
* This is operating off 1 Turn = 10 Minutes, as dungeon traversal suggests.
Very much a syncretism of dungeon turns and wilderness adventuring procedures; with navigation built across approximate localities, supported by random generator tables and events prescribed by districts in the city, and the level of disruption to the natural flow of the city.
Approximate Locations
As a city-dweller myself, I often have to tell friends and family that I am ostensibly 45 minutes from anywhere in the city at any time. This depends on if the trains are running on time, if I can catch an express transfer, if there's a lack of nonsense going on in a public space, the weather - all the anticipated and unanticipated things that get in the way. This I say to you, as a being alive in Brooklyn in the year 2026 with access to GPS mapping and the ability to give block-by-block traversal updates.
For our purposes in Tripura, things are either Close, Near, or Far - and those things determine how many City Turns are spent getting from where you are to where you need to be. Knowing the route and knowing the directions can be useful (in theory) but there will always be something you run into which gets in the way if you choose to engage with it.
A trip to the post office shouldn't take me more than 20 minutes, but if the guy who has threatened to chop my head off more than once is day drunk outside of it (as he often is), then maybe it'll take me 30 to 40 minutes to do the whole trip.
Time passing for these purposes is marked when you travel. Spending a few hours at a tea shop doesn't mean things aren't happening in the city, but rather things are always happening - you're just not there to engage with it.
City Events
As noted above with that personal anecdote, city living is all about being part of a rich tapestry that really doesn't have to care about you. You matter in that you are part of that tapestry, but not one thread matters more than the other. Everyone in the city contains multitudes and nuances that you don't really ever get to engage with - unless you choose to, which runs the risk of disruption and intrusion into said lives.
Rather than wandering monsters, we have City Events, which have a chance of occurring at a 1-in-4 rate every 2 turns. These are the things you are witnessing, the moment where the crowds part to reveal people are trying to walk around a mariachi band that's just a bit off tune.
City Events in Tripura run on a d100 with a d4 of added nuance; ergo, after 20 minutes you might come across a Naj enchanter [d100 result: 25] who is playing the pungi to enchant drunken mortals [d4 result: 2]. Choosing to engage with this could raise the Disruption Index, choosing to ignore this could do the same - but you have places to be and must consider your duty of care. There's always a chance the next time the high thin tone is hummed it comes for you.
District Events
Every hour, an event which speaks to the nature of a given district occurs. These events are based off a d20. It can be engaged with or ignored; but unlike a busker on the street - this event will surely get in the way. The spice merchant you wanted to shake down for information isn't likely to be all that talkative when a parade of displaced mortal exorcists are boldly posturing through the plaza.
District Events compound on City Events, so if one were to roll the Exorcists and the Naj Enchanter ensorcelling mortals there is a chance the party might be witnessing a brawl which is surely causing a disruption. The intersection between a City Event and a District Event give novelty to the encounter, as well as the Locality in which it all takes place.
Disruption Events
There is a wedding going on in Tripura; and it is a big one. One that will shake the foundations of many cosmic concepts. Fate does not want that to happen, and that's why you matter. Every thing you do cascades into butterfly effects as the illusory Maya tries to overcompensate for something it cannot quite control.
Disruption Events escalate the stakes in Tripura and make the streets a more dangerous place for you, your party, and whatever allies you've made in your schemes. Disruption Events occur every 6 hours you're out in the city, and they compound.
Disruption Events want to personally stop you; but if you haven't caused enough harm to the ceremonies being prepared you might just fly under the radar.
Locality (Place & Purpose)
All of the above is well and good; these are the intersections of beings and happenings - but without a sense of place it scarcely feels like it occurs in a city. For Tripura, I have build out nuanced set of three d20 tables for each District so as to create implication via proximities.
You stumble across that Naj enchanter playing the pungi near an ill-tended street grave in the Silver Fortress [First d20 result: 20], up and steep and poorly paved hill [Second d20 result: 16]. A marut is sleeping one off in the gutter nearby [Third d20 result: 14].
Now if a parade of exorcists show up, boldly posturing; you know they're likely coming up the hill (and/or could tumble down said hill), and perhaps they do not want to disturb the sleeping marut. Perhaps the Naj didn't even mean to enchant the mortal in its coils, perhaps it was playing to keep that heinous storm-born brute asleep.
How Many Dice Are We Rolling?
I subscribe to prep being a form of play, but I understand that rolling too many dice to set-up a circumstance can gum up the flow of things.
If a City Event is not triggered.
d4 [1-in-4 chance of City Event] = 1 dice.
If a City Event is triggered.
d4 [1-in-4 chance of City Event] + d100 [City Event] + d4 [Nuance] = 3 Dice.
If a City Event is triggered and you need to establish location:
d4 [1-in-4 chance of City Event] + d100 [City Event] + d4 [Nuance] + 3d20 [Locality Details] = 4-6 dice.
When a District Event is triggered:
d4 [1-in-4 chance of City Event] + d100 [City Event] + d4 [Nuance] + d20 [District Event] = 4 dice.
If an event is triggered and you need to establish location:
As we've unlocked my construction of digital html outputters for Markets, Asura and Rakshasa descriptors; I have designed all these tables to function under similar design protocols so as to construct a one-button outputter for a few hours of traversal in the city.
End Notes
There is always something to be sacrificed in making sure a city feels like a city; but I remain hopeful that these protocols contribute to the greater foundational procedure models which may emerge. I think I have found a good balance between nuance and philosophy, I think there's something to all of this which scratches a mental itch. Something that can create montages and scenes, or which can be handwaved away as is often the suggestion in most city-crawl books trying to address the right way to traverse a city.
My guiding philosophies:
"Adventurers as displaced tourists."
"Proximity is interconnectivity."
"Everyone has somewhere to be."
"Nothing really happens, until it does."
That's all for this update, but stay tuned for more news on stretch goals, illustrations, and more in the coming days. Thank you all!
The Tiger Princess of Treacherous Tripura is fully funded, and all we can say is: thank you! As the first "official" Mudknight Media project, this is a big deal for us, and we couldn't be happier to have shared the stage with such awesome projects. There's still a few that haven't fully funded, so check those out!
Well, a whole bevy of stretch goals, to start with. Brian Yaksha has turned his eye for digital generators torwards the demons of Tripura, and will be creating a one-click online generator for all manner of cosmic threats once we hit $10,000 USD. After that we've got custom characters sheets, our patented Mudtile dungeon generator sets, and much more, so share the project far and wide and consider upgrading your pledge to take advantage of those physical stretch goals as they get unlocked.
Again, thank you all for your support in bringing Tiger Princess to life. Expect another update soon!
