Capsule Reviews #10: Kala Mandala Zines

I grabbed the set of Kala Mandala zines after the Hey Centaur shop went online. These are great zines of the old school OSR glory days - easily earning their shelf space beside any of the greats. We get a great setting in the Playbook and two Art Research zines, further expanded by three juicy adventures - all site exploration with a twist for each.

Six books existing in the core set at time of writing:
Kala Mandala Playbook - 42 pages, system
Stirring the Hornets Nest at Het Thamsya - 26 pages, adventure
Deluge at Drizzle Distillery - 42 pages, adventure
Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre - 26 pages, adventure
Earthly Beings - 38 pages, gazetteer
Heavenly Bodies - 38 pages, gazetteer

Plus the Paper Minis set. As a whole this is the character generation and system in the playbook, three adventures (Het Thamsya, Drizzle Distillery and Zaya's Theatre) and two world-books/gazetteers (Earthly Beings and Heavenly Bodies)

I did have a minor logistics issue in that I ordered the stickers collection and got a second playbook - strictly this has worked in my benefit because the playbook is a touch more expensive than the stickers. From a point of view of trying to get Kala Mandala to table, having a second playbook might end up being more helpful. So I am going to call it a wash, all to the good.

So what do you actually get in these zines?

Kala Mandala Playbook - 42 pages of character creation and system for all your rules-lite, shoes-lite meddling needs. I put together a more detailed review but the gist is that even though this is a beta version, the core is ready to use and I think worth giving a shot. There are some assumptions about how high-risk play should happen - with deadly combat but new characters inheriting stats and gear - that would colour how one plays through the adventures which, together with the setting flavour, make this more than just yet-another-retroclone and worth taking for a test drive even for other adventures.

Stirring the Hornets Nest at Het Thamsya - 26 pages to give us an evocative 25 room dungeon packed with factions, puzzles and threats. I reviewed Stirring the Hornets Nest at Het Thamsya and wrote up an actual play. We played through it with low-level 5e characters and it was a very good time - though the players fluffled it in the end by failing the mission objective and then compounded their screw up by accidentally setting the place on fire. Good times with some great puzzles in how to navigate the menacing but manipulable automatons and a great overarcing challenge of having to do everything without waking a sleeper.

Deluge at Drizzle Distillery - we got a review of Deluge at Drizzle Distillery on Trick's Tales recently. This is a ticking-clock challenge with a worsening storm, stalking worm-beasts and mind-controlling worm infiltrators. Players need to get through a distillery complex, unravel the mystery of what is wrong and decide what faction to back all against the clock of the storm.

Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre is an interesting twist in that it tells you what is going to play out and you need to figure out ways to subvert that. It joins a canon of 'messing with time' type adventures like Thulian Echoes, Curse of Strahd. Lots of tools to interact with the adventure-puzzle but this one is more of an in-world atmosphere compared to the others. Not your standard questing type at all. (Even nominated for an Ennie at time of writing.)

Heavenly Bodies - labelled as 'Art Research' this is essentially an art-book as world-book, providing lots of inspirational art without any stats or mechanics. Entirely visual fluff, in a good way. Notable are the four double-spreads of 18 whole body portraits - the same sketches who appear as the paper mini set. It also brings back some elements seen in "Drawings (Part Two)" of A Thousand Thousand Islands; betel nut chewing, finger knives and fire-pistons. Great to see these illustrations of cultural practice and technologies to ground the setting.

Earthly Beings another 'Art Research' book - in partnership with Elizabeth Gimbad for the writing - this is another world/art-book. We get more illustrated notes on barkcloth, blowpipes and Don Sung Drums and lots more evocative illustrations of the world and people out and about in it. This one omits the pages of small portraits and gives us more big sketches - pure personal preference over which will appeal to you more.

These would all feed into a Kala Mandala campaign - the adventurers would also serve elsewhere, with whatever system you might prefer. All worth getting your hands on in my view.