TEXT:  
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  By Jake Baker 
  Published by: Heroic Journey Publishing 
  To be used with the Mecha RPG – by Chris Perrin 
   
  Cover Art by Dennis Saputra 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  ©2012 Heroic Journey Publishing
  
  Mekayana 
  Thank You Page  
  To our Executive Producers 
   
  Gerhard Hellemann 
  Jamie Lackey 
  H. M. Lybarger  
  Ariel Pereira  
  Peter Aronson  
  Matthew Sullivan-Barrett  
  H Ray Spitz  
  Andreas Lathan  
  Mark Gedak  
  Edward MacGregor  
  Robert Cavender 
   
  We would like to thank the above people for their generous donations of our 
  executive producers without whom this project would not have been possible as 
  quickly. So Thank You from Heroic Journey Publishing. 
  
   
  3  
  Disclaimer: Throughout this book, I have striven to be as accurate and respectful to the cultures and religions of India as 
  possible, although errors of omission were impossible to avoid given the ancient and complex subject matter. However, I 
  took certain liberties in the SRSes in order to make a better game. No disrespect or insult is intended.  
   
      “Zero Zero One, no enemy in sight,” Ashok 
  reported in. Vijay scanned the Kashmiri hillsides 
  with his dark eyes, then glanced down again to his 
  mekayana’s sensors. They were telling him the 
  same thing his eyes and his wingmate Ashok were: 
  no enemy in sight. 
     His unit of Special India Defense Taskforce 
  mekayana had been sent out into this region, this 
  eternal battlezone, to seek out a terrorist cell that 
  had gone to ground here after a series of high-
  profile terrorists attacks on the city of Mumbai. 
  Vijay’s unit had driven them out of Mumbai and 
  back to their base here, somewhere in the epic 
  mountainscapes of Kashmir. Some friendly eyes on 
  the ground had reported seeing an unmarked Mail-
  0 mekayana in the vicinity; the same kind used by 
  the terrorists. 
     So Vijay and his squad had been mobilized to track 
  them down to their base, and the most recent intel 
  they had placed them in these foothills. Command 
  trusted Ashok implicitly to complete the task to the 
  best of his ability - he was the best officer they had, 
  the product of years of selfless service to the 
  country of India. 
     But Command did not know Vijay’s secret. With 
  the foothills growing dark in the long shadows as 
  the sun set behind the picturesque mountains, he 
  signalled his squad to move out to start sweeping 
  another area of the foothills. As they moved, their 
  twenty-foot tall mekayana camo coloring blending 
  in to the rich hues of reds, oranges and browns of 
  the mountains, Vijay’s mind went back into the 
  past... 
     The gown was beautiful blue, like the seashells 
  they had once collected together on the beaches of 
  Chandipur when they were both much younger, and 
  Naureen wore the dress beautifully. She smiled at 
  Vijay from across the street, and he waved to her. 
  They were both only seventeen years old, finishing 
  up Thakur high school. But their families hadn’t 
  been speaking to each other since that incident at 
  the marriage of his older sister Reena, where uncle 
  Marijke had told a very offensive joke. Later, he had 
  claimed he hadn’t known that some of the guests 
  were Muslims. He shouldn’t have told the joke in 
  any case, Vijay thought bitterly, watching his 
  beautiful neighbor walking to school across the 
  street from him. They always did this. People would 
  tell their parents if they talked, but they could share 
  this moment together as the sidewalks of their 
  Mumbai suburb woke up. 
     Yes, Reena was Muslim, and Vijay was Hindu, and 
  they were very much in love. They stole glances at 
  
   
  4  
  each other across the street, hardly noticing the 
  people crowding in around them. 
      “We got a blip on the LADAR, commander,” 
  Ashok announced. 
     Vijay broke out of his reverie and looked at his 
  own scanners. “Ok, men,” he said, his strong voice 
  not betraying a hint of his inner turmoil. “Ashok, 
  you hold back and provide fire support; Gupta, 
  you’re with me.” The three mekayana moved out, 
  low shadows against the darkening Kashmiri hills. 
     Naureen had moved away with her family after 
  that, and even though Vijay didn’t see her again 
  until years later, he never forget her. In the hollow 
  of his heart was a space only her presence could fill. 
  But then they met again, at the Special India 
  Defense Taskforce training grounds. She was in a 
  different training squad, and they reunited during 
  training exercises. There had been something about 
  they way her IND-1 Indra mekayana moved that 
  made him hesitate. Then the other mech had 
  moved, and he saw the vivid splash of seashell blue 
  painted on its forehead, shoulders and forearms.  
  Somehow then, he knew - and the revelation had 
  stunned him just long enough for the other 
  mekayana to score a killing shot against him.  
     Later, he had learned the other pilot was Naureen, 
  as he had realized, and they began their romance 
  again, not the hesitant romance of two young 
  people unsure of themselves, but the passionate 
  romance of two people in the blossoming of their 
  adulthood. They met under the stars, and they sang 
  to each other with their eyes. But Vijay could tell 
  Naureen was keeping something from him, and no 
  matter how he tried, Naureen always shied away 
  when he tried to approach that part of her.  
     Without warning a volley of fire erupted from 
  Vijay’s left, tracing rounds that sparked off his 
  Indra’s armor. Alarms blared at him like the brass 
  line of a music band. He pulled hard on the control 
  stick, and his mekayana broke into a run, diving for 
  cover. Not waiting for his sensors to lock-on, he 
  pulled the trigger button, and his mekayana brought 
  its assault rifle up, sending out a burst that tore up 
  the countryside, and the enemy fell prone. 
     Gupta’s Taj Mahal was already under cover, their 
  makayanas’ sensors chattering away to each other, 
  computing a firing trajectory for a volley of missiles 
  to take out the enemy. Ashok’s Ganesha pounded 
  away at the enemy’s position with its shoulder-
  mounted recoil-less rifles from his position 
  overlooking the firefight, but Vijay’s Indra was still 
  exposed. Four enemy mekayana - camo-painted, 
  unmarked Mail-0’s - burst from concealment, 
  spraying fire wildly as they charged his squad’s 
  positions. With the enemy Colossus getting ready to 
  fire another volley, that made the fight five to three, 
  but Vijay wasn’t worried - he knew his mekayana 
  were technologically superior to the Mail-0s, and his 
  men better trained. Vijay levered his mekayana to 
  charge one of the Mail-0s, his power knuckles 
  charging up to deliver a lightning punch, but then a 
  sixth enemy target suddenly pinged on his LADAR, 
  revealing itself from its position above him, 
  controlling its fall with its jump jets and laying down 
  a rain of assault rifle fire that scored three more 
  holes in his Indra’s armor. Vijay adjusted his own 
  jump jets, not letting himself feel the fear in his 
  heart, and boosted toward the enemy mekayana. 
     Indra looked up as the two mekayana passed each 
  other, so close that he could look into the cockpit of 
  the other mekayana. His eyes widened, but he 
  wasn’t surprised. It was as he had feared. 
     The other mekayana, another IND-1 Indra like his 
  own, had seashell blue markings.  
     Vijay’s heart had been crushed that day when 
  Naureen disappeared. He barely even registered the 
  
   
  5  
  report that she had gotten away with an entire 
  squadron of stolen mekayana, slaved to her Indra’s 
  control. Why hadn’t he seen it? He knew she loved 
  him, but she loved her own family’s traditions more. 
  Internal Security grilled him for hours about their 
  relationship, but Vijay could think of nothing to say. 
  The song had gone out of his heart, and his mind 
  rang instead with a melancholy dirge. 
     The two IND-1 Indras came to ground away from 
  their comrades, and then they just stood their, their 
  metal armor pinging rhythmically in the cooling 
  night. Neither moved for a moment. What could 
  Vijay say now that would be adequate to express his 
  grief and betrayal, that he still loved her. He nudged 
  his mekayana one step closer to the other. 
  “Naureen...” he started to say, but his voice choked. 
  He cleared his mind. No, mere words were not 
  enough. 
      “NAUREEN...” his alto voice rang into the night. 
  Strings crescendoed loudly, the pinging of their 
  mekayana merging into a rhythmic bass beat. His 
  mekayana’s legs moved, spread out, and he spread 
  his arms wide. “You who are my lost love, why must 
  we meet here...” he crooned, his arms swaying 
  rhythmically. His mecha waltzed to the side, and 
  then Naureen’s arms also raised, and she echoed 
  his dance movements. Her voice came over the 
  communication system in song. 
      “VIJAY.... You know why we must meet, although 
  I cannot bear...” 
     And the two mecha danced under the stars while 
  their pilots sang a melancholy song of lost love to 
  each other. 
   
  
   
  6  
     Fiery passion; colorful fashion; beautiful leading 
  ladies; handsome leading men; memorable song 
  and dance routines; these are the elements of 
  Indian cinema. Bollywood movies speak to the 
  ancient traditions of India, but also to the basic 
  goodness in people in a way that Hollywood no 
  longer does. And of course, Bollywood offers song 
  and dance, a feature which Hollywood can not 
  match. These are the features that have made it 
  more popular than Hollywood all over Asia and the 
  world. 
     What we call Bollywood movies are, in their 
  simplest form, simply movies made in India, usually 
  in the city of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). 
  Thus, they are more formally known as Indian 
  Cinema, or even Hindi Cinema, after the language 
  spoken in most of them (although that label then 
  disregards the large number of movies made in the 
  other languages of the Indian subcontinent, such as 
  Tamil). But they are so much more than that. These 
  movies have their own styles and characteristics 
  that set them apart from Hollywood movies, such 
  that a Bollywood movie is immediately recognizable 
  as something different. While Bollywood movies run 
  the usual gamut of movie genres, from romantic 
  comedies to science fiction to historical set pieces 
  and even to Westerns, they have a special style that 
  gives them their own character. They have 
  pageantry, glamour, explosions of vivid colors, 
  melodrama, and of course, world-famous song and 
  dance routines. 
     Indeed, in India, many movies are preceded by 
  their soundtracks, which are the largest selling 
  native musical genre. Many fans follow their 
  favorite composers, musicians or singers from 
  movie to movie, rather like some people follow 
  their favorite actors or directors from movie to 
  movie.  
     Indian cinema has its own idioms and visual 
  language. Restrictions on content make these films 
  more acceptable to large regions of the world than 
  Hollywood films; Bollywood films are very popular 
  in China, for instance, whereas that country’s 
  communist government continues to censor many 
  American films. At the same time, Indian Cinema 
  offers films that deal with the complex social and 
  political issues of the Indian people and state. 
     In this sourcebook for the Mecha roleplaying 
  game, we will look at India through the eyes of 
  Bollywood. India is a setting overflowing with 
  history that offers unique opportunities for any 
  roleplaying game. We hope you will spend some 
  time with us in this ancient culture. 
   
  
   
  7  
  “Study it for years with the best of teachers, and when you raise your head, nothing they have 
  told you quite fits.” 
   - E. M. Forster 
     Just as Hollywood movies are permeated with the 
  culture, religion and history of the United States 
  and Western Europe, so too are Bollywood movies 
  informed by Indian history, religion and culture. It is 
  certainly possible to enjoy these movies without an 
  in-depth knowledge of these subjects, but we would 
  be robbing ourselves of the cultural richness of one 
  third of the Earth’s peoples. Knowing a little about 
  Indian history will help you make your games feel 
  like genuine Bollywood movies. 
     Where do we start with the history of India, which 
  stretches back deep into a time before writing, a 
  time 
  made 
  rich 
  with 
  legends, 
  myth, 
  and 
  archaeological mysteries?  
     Very roughly speaking, seven eras divide India’s 
  history: the Indus Valley Civilization, the vedic era, 
  the Maurya empire, the rajput states, the Islamic 
  era, the British colonial era, and the modern era.  
     It was not so long ago that forgotten ruins were 
  discovered in northeast India of a lost civilization 
  that rivaled ancient Egypt or the civilization of the 
  Mesopotamia. This civilization thrived in the Indus 
  river valley for almost two-thousand years, 
  comprising some 40 cities with populations reaching 
  30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants each. While the dead 
  hold fast to their secrets, archaeological finds give 
  evidence to a peaceful, meditative people who 
  raised cattle, had indoor plumbing and worshipped 
  a goddess figure, but were also sharply divided by 
  class. 
     In the turmoil of war, the enemy holes up in one of 
  the ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, or 
  perhaps the PCs are sent on an expedition to recover 
  some irreplaceable archaeological artifact - a key to 
  the operation of the magical devayana? Are they 
  willing to fight within the ruins, knowing that each 
  stray rifle shot or rocket is destroying priceless 
  cultural artifacts? Is the Indus Valley Civilization the 
  origin of the mysterious mecha called the 
  devayana? Will the players experience their past 
  lives living in this society as they become closer and 
  closer to their mecha? 
     Far away from the Indus river valley, on the grassy 
  plateau to the north and west of the Black Sea 
  located in Eastern Europe to the south of the 
  Ukraine, a people arose who rode domesticated 
  horses, drove cattle and possessed the wheel, a 
  people known only by the language they spoke, a 
  language that just happens to be the ancestor of 
  English, French, Russian, Persian, and even modern 
  day Hindi. Linguists call this language Indo-
  European. 
     Thirty-five hundred years ago, as the Indus river 
  valley civilization was in decline, a tribe speaking the 
  Indo-European language called Sanskrit arrived in 
  the area of modern Pakistan and northern India. 
  These martial peoples, already divided into a three-
  
   
  8  
  caste social system, may have conquered the 
  declining Indus river valley civilization, or perhaps 
  they simply absorbed them, relegating them to a 
  new, fourth caste. While neither more numerous 
  nor more technologically advanced than the Indus 
  River Civilization, they were well-organized and very 
  powerful thanks to their use of horses and chariots 
  to wage war. Whatever the case, Indus River Valley 
  Civilization vanished into the mists of time, and with 
  it, standards of urban life that would not be 
  replicated by the agricultural invaders for a 
  thousand years. 
     Thus began the Vedic period, so-called after the 
  greatest manuscript left by these people, the vedas, 
  the most holy books of Hinduism. After conquering 
  much of Northern India, the vedic culture began its 
  decline during what is known as the Axial Age - a 
  span of several hundred years from 800 to 200 BCE 
  during which new philosophies flourished all around 
  the civilized world - Socrates and Aristotle in 
  Greece, the Hebrew prophets in the Middle East, 
  Confucius and Taoist philosophers in ancient China.  
     In India, the Axial age saw the transformation of 
  the vedic religion into classical Hinduism, as the 
  religion transformed itself from one focused on 
  worldly concerns to one focused on mystical 
  concerns. The belief in the transmigration of the 
  soul and karma originated during this time, as the 
  second great work of Hinduism was written - the 
  Upanishads, which were all but a smack in the face 
  to the ritualism of the vedic priests; “Wordly 
  concerns,” it is written, referring to the goal of vedic 
  rituals for prosperity and fertility, “are the concerns 
  of vanity.” The Indians in this age spoke a language 
  not Sanskrit, but its descendant, Prakrit. It was in 
  this language during the Axial age that the Buddha 
  taught the way to enlightenment, and the Mahaviri 
  founded of Jainism. However, Sanskrit remained the 
  language of Hinduism, as it is to this day. 
     During the vedic era, India was not a unified 
  whole, but rather divided into sixteen kingdoms, or 
  Mahajanapadas. These states weathered incursions 
  by the Persians and the Greeks, and proved the 
  downfall of Alexander the Great. 
     Imagine a mythic India where the states fight wars 
  with mortal armies led by great devayana, vehicles 
  of the Gods. What if Alexander the Great brought 
  the ultimate products of Greek artifice - the 
  steampowered colossi - to wage battle against the 
  devayana defending India? 
     The first empire to unite the Indian subcontinent 
  as a whole was the short lived Maurya dynasty. 
  Chandragupta 
  Maurya 
  united 
  all 
  the 
  mahajanapadas, and further extended Indian rule 
  all the way down to the tip of the Indian 
  subcontinent. To this day, Maurya remains a 
  common Indian surname. 
     How did Maurya unite an entire continent under 
  one rule, where the Greeks and the Persians failed? 
  Was he granted valley-striding giants by the devas, 
  or did his Kshatriya soldiers don Brahmin-summoned 
  armor that granted them battlefield-dominating 
  powers? 
  
   
  9  
     After the Maurya dynasty came the Golden Age of 
  India, the rajput states. Although no longer united 
  under 
  a 
  single 
  emperor, 
  India 
  prospered, 
  experiencing a cultural and economic Renaissance. 
  It is estimated that during this period India 
  possessed up to 30% of all the wealth in the world.  
     But the wealth of India attracted the covetous 
  attention of conquerors, the first of whom were the 
  the Umayyad caliphate, who annexed North-west 
  India and introduced Islam to what is now Pakistan. 
  This region remained under Islamic rule from the 
  8th until the 16th century, when the Mughal 
  dynasty again reunited most of India under Hindu 
  rule for a brief period. However, not all Islamic 
  contact with India was hostile, and the two cultures 
  maintained 
  an 
  active 
  and 
  profitable 
  trade 
  relationship. 
     Did the raja maintain their wealth with gold-
  plated mobile fortresses? 
     It was then British East India company, backed by 
  the authority and power of the British crown, 
  arrived 
  and 
  plundered 
  the 
  wealth 
  of 
  the 
  subcontinent, plunging a rich and proud people into 
  poverty. The Indian people did not take this lying 
  down, 
  and 
  there 
  were 
  several 
  rebellions, 
  culminating in Gandhi’s non-violent revolution of 
  1947, when the British empire found it could no 
  longer afford its colonial holdings after the 
  deprivations of World War 2, and their empire came 
  crumbling down. 
     The British empire spanned the world. Did they 
  steal the secrets of the mekayana from India, or 
  perhaps they brought them to India to try to tighten 
  their control? Did bandits hiding in the mountainous 
  regions use mekayana to mount lightning raids 
  against the colonial powers? Did the British steal the 
  secrets of science and technology from the very 
  vedas themselves, said to hold all knowledge? 
     Today, India is the world’s largest democracy, with 
  a secular constitution, home to almost a third of 
  humanity. And although it has its problems with 
  rural poverty, class struggle (of both the classical 
  varna kind and the modern capitalist kind) and 
  government corruption, it is poised on the verge of 
  becoming a new economic superpower in the new 
  century. 
     India’s military is large and modernizing quickly. Is 
  there a lab in some government facility working on 
  mobile battlesuits to give India the edge against its 
  temporal enemies? If terrorists got their hands on 
  these prototypes, would the India Defense Taskforce 
  manage to stop them before they deploy them 
  against the civilian populace? 
     Modern India has a tense relationship with 
  Pakistan, a country which was partitioned off from 
  India over religious differences shortly after the 
  1947 independence. One of the most contentious 
  flash points is the mountainous and beautiful region 
  of Kashmir; India and Pakistan have fought two 
  wars over Kashmir, and that conflict remains a rich 
  source of material for Bollywood movies, such as 
  Mission Kashmir and Fiza. 
  
   
  10  
     India 
  Defense 
  Taskforce 
  mekayana 
  battle 
  separatists in the wilds of Kashmir as tensions rise 
  between the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan. 
     Bangladesh, a country almost wholly contained by 
  India proper, gained its own independence from 
  Pakistan in 1971 with the help of the Indian army. 
  This rebellion would also make good fodder for a 
  Mecha game. 
     An important Indian businessman is trapped in 
  Bangledesh after violence breaks out. Your elite 
  squad of mekayana pilots must extract him without 
  bringing down the whole might of the Pakistani 
  army on your heads. 
     So where do Bollywood movies fit into modern 
  India? Bollywood unifies the people of India, their 
  many backgrounds, castes and ethnicities. The 
  twenty-four million people involved in the Indian 
  Diaspora, wherever they may be, are connected to 
  their motherland by Indian Cinema. These films act 
  as a unifying stratum to the various classes living in 
  India today, binding the diverse society together in 
  a shared experience. 
   
  
   
  11  
   
  This is the spirit that is in my heart; smaller than a grain of rice, or a grain of barley, or a grain of 
  mustard seed, or a grain of canary seed, or the kernel of a grain of canary seed.  
   
  This is the spirit that is in my heart; greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than 
  heaven itself, greater than all these worlds. 
   - The Chhandogya Upanashad 
     The largest religion in India is Hinduism, an 
  ancient belief system with its roots reaching back to 
  the Indus River Valley Civilization and the Vedic age. 
  About 80% of the two billion people in India are 
  Hindu. The second largest religion is Islam, with a 
  population of 13%, introduced into India by Islamic 
  invaders in the eighth century. Pakistan, India’s 
  northern neighbor, was partitioned from India on 
  the basis of this religious difference; whereas India 
  is secular nation with a large Hindu population, 
  Pakistan is an Islamic state. However, many Muslims 
  remain in India, and religious tension, sometimes 
  violent tension, persists between Hindus and 
  Muslims to this day. Islam gained ground in India by 
  appealing to the poor and low-caste of Indian 
  society, gaining many converts with its promise of 
  equality in the eyes of god, and an immediate 
  heaven rather than the endless cycle of death and 
  rebirth. All other religions, including Buddhism 
  (surprising because Buddhism was born in India) 
  and Jainism, constitute a very small percentage of 
  the population. Sikhism is a syncretic religion, an 
  attempt to bridge Hinduism and Islam, and is 
  popular in the Punjab, the region where India and 
  Pakistan meet. 
     Hindu themes permeate Bollywood films, and just 
  as a knowledge of Indian history can enrich our 
  Bollywood games, so too can an overview of this 
  religion, perhaps the most ancient in the world. 
  That’s a lot to ask. Hinduism is a huge topic. 
  Hinduism isn’t even really one religion, it is more 
  like a family of related religions; India has been 
  called the test kitchen of religions. And sometimes 
  Hinduism appears to be polytheistic, but there are 
  branches of Hindu thought that are monotheistic, 
  dualistic, or even atheistic. 
     The first question most Westeners ask about 
  Hinduism is “How many gods are there?” The 
  traditional answers are 33, 3306, 330 million, and 1. 
  Hinduism does not see any contradiction in these 
  numbers. Hindu mysticism states that ultimate 
  reality, Brahman, or Ishvara, is one, but that maya, 
  
   
  12  
  the veil of illusion that covers the world, makes us 
  perceive multitude where there is only one. It states 
  that atman, the soul, is ultimately indivisible from 
  Brahman. 
     Nevertheless, this refined mysticism is removed 
  from the daily experience of most Hindus. Images of 
  the Hindu devas decorate buses, and statues of 
  them are found in every home, street, and public 
  building. Most Hindus take on the worship of one 
  particular god, their personal god, which is 
  sometimes their family or village deity. 
     Could the devas of legend be the dim memories of 
  the mekayana from the mythic age of India? Could 
  the stories of their incarnations be inspired by the 
  actions of your heroes? 
     One 
  strong 
  aspect 
  of 
  Hinduism 
  is 
  the 
  transmigration of the soul, or reincarnation. “As a 
  person puts on new clothes and discards old and 
  torn clothes,” says the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu holy 
  work almost three thousand years old, “similarly an 
  embodied soul enters new material bodies, leaving 
  the old bodies.” However, the transmigration of the 
  soul is not seen as a desirable thing; instead, the 
  cycle is called samsara, the endless cycle of birth 
  and death, and we are locked into it because we still 
  perceive the illusion of the world; it is our ignorance 
  that perpetuates the cycle. 
     The cycle of samsara is fed by karma. Our deeds, 
  acting in accordance to our dharmas, generate 
  positive or negative karma. If we garner enough 
  positive karma in this life, we may hope to be 
  reborn as a higher caste, ultimately as a Brahmin, 
  whose dharma of prayer, ritual sacrifice and 
  spirituality brings us the closest to the possibility of 
  escaping samsara. 
     This brings us to the India’s caste system. It has 
  had one for a very long time; scholars think that the 
  current dual system comes from a fusion of the 
  castes of the Indus River Valley Civilization and 
  Vedic culture. The caste system is written into the 
  Indian Constitution and its holy books; it is 
  inseparable from the religion, government and 
  culture of India.  
     Unlike in the West, where the caste system is 
  determined by wealth, the Indian caste system is 
  determined by birth. Wealth and political power do 
  not neccessarily follow from one’s caste, however. 
  High-caste Brahmin may be poor, and low-caste 
  shudras might be quite wealthy. Also unlike the 
  West, there is no mobility between classes in life. If 
  one wishes to attain a higher caste, one needs to 
  follow their dharma and acrue good karma in this 
  life. 
     There are two parallel caste systems in India, a 
  large system of four tiers called varna and a more 
  granulated system comprised of hundreds of tiers 
  called jati. The varna system of castes is based on 
  the dharma of the Vedic traditions; the Brahmin are 
  the highest caste, the priests; the similarity to the 
  name of the god Brahma is not accidental. The 
  Kshatriya caste is second, and is charged with 
  defending the people and the caste system itself; 
  they are soldiers, kings, and diplomats. Below the 
  Kshatriya, the Vaisha are merchants and craftsmen, 
  
   
  13  
  and at the bottom are the Shudras, farmers. A fifth 
  caste, below even the bottom of the pile, exists and 
  is sometimes called the untouchables. They are 
  those whose labour - butchering meat, tanning 
  leather, cleaning out sewers - accumulates so much 
  negative karma that the normal methods of ritual 
  purification cannot cleanse them. It is sometimes 
  said that if a Brahmin even sees an untouchable, he 
  has become unclean. The Indian Constitution of 
  1947 theoretically did away with the untouchables, 
  rolling them into the Shudra caste; however, 
  thousands of years worth of tradition dies hard in 
  this ancient land, and the untouchables persist to 
  this day. 
     Bollywood movies, particularly the more socially 
  conscious ones, gain much drama from having plots 
  based around the caste system and the conflicts it 
  can create. The plot of the very famous early movie 
  Devda is about a Brahmin who falls in love with a 
  Vaisha girl. Your Mecha campaigns can speak to this 
  tradition; does the hero love someone of a different 
  caste? Is the best mecha pilot in the squadron an 
  untouchable, and is thus scorned by her peers and 
  passed over for promotion despite her abilities? 
  Hindu Festivals 
     Hindus love festivals, and have a very large 
  number of them; practically every day there is a 
  festival being held somewhere in India. The two 
  largest and most widely celebrated of these 
  festivals are holi  and diwali. 
     Holi is, essentially, opposite day. Untouchables 
  can berate brahmin, women control the household, 
  people shout insults at the king. India is a very rigid 
  society, and holi is the day that people get to let 
  their hair down. It’s more than that, of course. 
  There is feasting and celebration. The special drink 
  thandai (which sometimes contains cannibis) is 
  drunk. Bonfires are lit and people throw colored 
  water at each other. Holi is a spring festival, held in 
  February or March based on the lunar calendar, 
  initiating the season of rebirth. 
     Diwali, the festival of lights, is at the opposite end 
  of the calendar from holi. This five-day celebration 
  is important to many Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains, and is 
  cause for a reunion of family, feasting and 
  celebration. 
  For 
  each 
  faith 
  tradition, 
  it 
  commemorates the victory of good over evil. People 
  festoon their homes and gardens with colored 
  lanterns. 
  
   
  14  
     Watching Bollywood movies can be a fun way to 
  learn Hindi; likewise, we can make our Bollywood-
  inspired games a little more authentic by putting on 
  an Indian accent and sprinkling our speech with 
  Hindi-isms. Don’t worry about using gratuitous 
  Hindi; Bollywood movies are filled with gratuitous 
  English! 
     Hindi is a very difficult language for English-
  speakers to learn; never-the-less, since both English 
  and Hindi share an ancient ancestor in Indo-
  European, the two languages share words that have 
  the same prehistoric root; these cognates are noted 
  below, and can provide an “ah-ha” moment when 
  listening to the Hindi spoken in a Bollywood movie. 
   
   asura - a demon, the elder brothers and sisters of the devas who caused evil to come into the world 
   atman - the soul, from the Sanskrit word for “breath” (compare German: atmen, “to breathe”) 
   bharat - India 
   dharma - The law of the universe, one’s fate, destiny, and duty all rolled into one.  
   deva - god (cognate: divine, compare Latin deus). 
   ha - yes, more formally ji ha 
   jay ho - victory to, e.g.: bharat jay ho, “Victory to India!” 
   -ji - Sir, ma’am; honorific used with either gender (suffix) 
   kumari - Miss; honorific used with unmarried women and girls 
   maha - great 
   mahal - palace 
   nahi - no, more formally ji nahi 
   namaskar - hello, more formal than namaste. 
   namaste - hello (literally: I bow to you), said with hands pressed together and a small bow 
   pandit - a teacher, particularly one schooled in Hindu law and religion 
   raja - king 
   rishi - wise person, sage 
   shri - Mr.; honorific used with men, married or unmarried 
   shrimati - Mrs.; honorific used with married women 
  
   
  15  
   veda - the most ancient Hindu scripture; (it derives from the verb “to see”, cognate with Latin videre, 
  hence English video.) 
   yana - vehicle 
     From this list, you can know understand certain 
  Indian compound words that you may have been 
  exposed to by pop culture, for example, the Beatles 
  studied under the maharishi, the great sage. 
  
   
  16  
  
   
  17  
  If you are having trouble coming up with an authentic-sounding Indian name or just need to generate a name for 
  an NPC quickly, you can roll on or choose from the following chart. To generate a random name, roll d66 - that 
  is, roll one six-sided die and count its value in tens (10, 20, 30, etc.) and then a second six-sided die and count its 
  value as 1s, giving you a range of 11 to 66. 
   
  d66 
  Male 
  Female 
  Surname 
  11 
  Acharya 
  Anjali 
  Achaya 
  12 
  Chandra 
  Archana 
  Battacharya 
  13 
  Dushyant 
  Devika 
  Chaudhary 
  14 
  Gangadhar 
  Dyumna 
  Gupta 
  15 
  Harish 
  Jaya 
  Hiremath 
  16 
  Indivar 
  Komala 
  Iyer 
  21 
  Lais 
  Malina 
  Jain 
  22 
  Nikhil 
  Naima 
  Johari 
  23 
  Prem 
  Parvati 
  Kaur 
  24 
  Pulin 
  Rani 
  Kishore 
  25 
  Ram 
  Reena 
  Maurya 
  26 
  Rishi 
  Sakari 
  Patil 
  31 
  Rohan 
  Sati 
  Rao 
  
   
  18  
  32 
  Talan 
  Shreya 
  Shah 
  33 
  Uday 
  Uma 
  Singh 
  34 
  Vijay 
  Yuvika 
  Verma 
  35 
  Bogar 
  Vasanti 
  Devar 
  36 
  Ekaling 
  Buddhana 
  Talwar 
  41 
  Aadi 
  Aadrika 
  Achari 
  42 
  Bhima 
  Balamani 
  Banerjee 
  43 
  Chatur 
  Chapala 
  Chaturvedi 
  44 
  Devdan 
  Dharani 
  Dhawan 
  45 
  Ekaling 
  Esha 
  Guneta 
  46 
  Girish 
  Hiranya 
  Iyengar 
  52 
  Himadri 
  Indira 
  Johar 
  52 
  Inder 
  Jaya 
  Kocchar 
  53 
  Jitender 
  Kamala 
  Menon 
  54 
  Kiran 
  Lavanya 
  Mukhopadhyay  
  55 
  Naveen 
  Mina 
  Nehru 
  56 
  Prasad 
  Nikita 
  Patel 
  61 
  Rudra 
  Opalina 
  Reddy 
  62 
  Siddhran 
  Padma 
  Sharma 
  63 
  Tej 
  Rita 
  Trivedi 
  
   
  19  
  64 
  Vidur 
  Suma 
  Ahuja 
  65 
  Yogesh 
  Tara 
  Chattopadhyay  
  66 
  Laal 
  Vasundhara 
  Gowda 
   
   
  
   
  20  
     Each of the following SRSes can be used in one of 
  the following two ways. First, each SRS can be used 
  as a normal Mecha SRS for either a regular Mecha 
  campaign or a one-shot. However, each can also be 
  approached as if it were a Bollywood movie. That is, 
  the players and GM conceptualize their characters 
  not just as characters within the setting of the SRS, 
  but also as Bollywood actors who perform in many 
  movies over the course of their career. The 
  campaign may then span many different movies 
  (SRSes), while keeping the player characters - the 
  actors - the same between movies. In this way, the 
  troupe can experience a broad range of Bollywood-
  themed SRSes without having to make new 
  characters for each setting. 
   
  Campaign Option: Bollywood movies often have 
  strong villains. Whereas the heroes of Indian 
  Cinema have been largely based on the character of 
  legendary folk heroes and traditional Hindu 
  morality, it is the villain’s role that changes to 
  reflect the times, and an interesting villain can 
  provide a film with its dynamic character. 
   
     Therefore, the troupe may wish to experiment 
  with having one player in the role of the main villain 
  of the piece. The villainous player would get a 
  roleplaying scene as normal, and would fight against 
  the heroes during combat scenes. The most 
  appropriate archetype for villains is the Character 
  Actor, since the actors who played famous villains 
  were often typecast into that role for the rest of 
  their careers; however, Leading Man wouldn’t be a 
  bad choice either to represent a charismatic villain. 
     Another Bollywood tradition is the character of 
  the “vamp”, a sensuous woman, sometimes of 
  loose morals, who plays the foil to the hero. A 
  player could play the role of this vamp, and act as a 
  foil to a romance of one of the other characters. 
     All of the Bollywood SRSes described below use 
  the following character archetypes and mecha 
  designs. 
  Archetypes 
     When creating a Bollywood character, consider yourself to be creating not the character within the movie, but 
  rather the actor portraying that role. These archetypes reflect the style of your actor, and the roles that Indian 
  audiences have come to expect from them.  
   
  Leading Man/Lady 
     You are suave, graceful, handsome or beautiful, with a voice that could melt butter. If a Leading Man, men 
  want to be like you and women want to be with you; for a Leading Lady, men want to be with you and women 
  want to be like you. You get to wear the most gorgeous costumes and get to sing in the stirring love duets. 
  
   
  21  
     Despite the name of this role, the game may have as many Leading Men/Ladies as players who want the role. 
  Many famous Bollywood movies feature the adventures of groups of best friends.    
     Bollywood Examples: The “angry young man” of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan played the leading man in 
  almost a hundred films in the seventies and early eighties. Priyanka Chopra was Miss World 2000 who has 
  become a Bollywood sensation. 
  Strength: 2 
   
  Agility: 2 
  Intelligence: 2 Will: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Skills: Mecha Combat: 2, Personal Combat: 1, Social: 4, Field Ops: 1, Repair: 1, Medic: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Suave, Brave 
  Sidekick 
     You play the role of the faithful companion to the stars, helping him or her out tight spots and always 
  providing a shoulder to cry on, especially when the romance subplot starts going astray. Despite not always 
  being in the spotlight, you have your fans who appreciate your underdog roles. 
     Bollywood Examples: Arshad Warsi as Circuit in the influential Lage Raho Munna Bhai. 
  Strength: 2 
   
  Agility: 2 
  Intelligence: 2 Will: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Skills:  Mecha Combat: 2, Personal Combat: 2, Social: 2, Field Ops: 2, Repair: 1, Medic: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits:  
  Loyal, Dependable 
  Character Actor 
     You have become famous for playing a certain kind of character. Maybe you are a famous comedian, who 
  brings his routine to the spotlight with him, or an actress renowned for her portrayal stereotypical Indian 
  mothers. 
     Bollywood Examples: Actors who play villains are character actors, such as Amjad Khan, who played the 
  famous villain Gabbar Singh in Sholay.  
  Strength: 2 
   
  Agility: 2 
  Intelligence: 2 Will: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Skills: Mecha Combat: 2, Personal Combat: 2, Social: 1, Field Ops: 1, Repair: 2, Medic: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Funny, Melodramatic 
  Ingenue 
  You are an unknown in your first major role. You are almost as star-struck by the famous actors you are working 
  with as any other member of the general public would be. But you try your best to hide those feelings and put 
  on your best performance; you know this is your time to make a name for yourself. 
     Bollywood Examples: Any actor in their first few roles, waiting until they get a role in a blockbuster movie. 
  Strength: 2 
   
  Agility: 2 
  Intelligence: 2 Will: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  
   
  22  
  Skills: Mecha Combat: 3, Personal Combat: 2, Social: 2, Field Ops: 1, Repair: 1, Medic: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Naive, Enthusiastic 
  Child Actor 
     You’re a kid. Maybe you were raised by a famous family of actors, or maybe you were scouted by some 
  director or casting agent who attended a performance of primary school’s theater group. Some of the other cast 
  members don’t take you seriously because of your age, but even though you lack experience, you take the job 
  just as seriously as anybody else. Well, at least when you haven’t eaten too much sugar before the shoot. 
     Example: Slumdog Millionaire made its child actors, children literally from the slums of Mumbai, into household 
  names. Hrithik Roshan played the powerful role of Irfan in Mission Kashmir. 
  Strength: 1 
   
  Agility: 3 
  Intelligence: 2 Will: 2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Skills: Mecha Combat: 2, Personal Combat: 2, Social: 1, Field Ops: 3, Repair: 1, Medic: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Scrappy, Adorable 
  Stunt Man 
     You’re used to getting thrown about. You may not get much in the way of pithy dialogue and you might be 
  relegated to the backup dancers in the musical routines, but you know how to take a fall, and are always the 
  man the director calls on to jump through the pyrotechnics and come out unscathed when he doesn't want to 
  risk the smooth complexion of the Leading Man and Lady. You wouldn’t have it any other way. 
     Bollywood Examples: Naushad Abbas is an actor-stunt man who has played in many films, such as Jo Jeeta 
  Wohi Sikander and Baazigar. 
  Strength: 3 
   
  Agility: 3 
  Intelligence: 1  
  Will: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Skills: Mecha Combat: 2, Personal Combat: 3, Social: 1, Field Ops: 2, Repair: 1, Medic: 1 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Daring, Foolish 
   
   
  
   
  23  
  New Configurations 
  Bodyguard: Spend 1 Overdrive (instead of 1 movement) to Take the Bullet for another mecha; you may do this 
  at the moment of the attack. 
  Backup Drones: Spend 1 Overdrive to aid any character (including yourself) in the same sector engaged in a song 
  battle or musical number with a number of dice equal to your Engineering. 
     All the following SRSes use these same mecha designs. The settings may interpret the power sources and 
  realism of the designs differently, however. Borders of Blood assumes that these mecha designs are mekayana, 
  that is, conventional machines powered through technological means. Both Mythic India and Mumbai 2130 
  assume that they are vedayana powered through mystical means. However, it’s possible that the GM might 
  want to mix things up; perhaps the mekayana appear to be technological in origin, but are really powered by 
  vedic magic. After all, a persistent legend says that all of Western science and technology is based on 
  understandings gleaned from the Vedas, which are said to contain all knowledge. 
  Model TJM-7 Taj Mahal 
     This mecha is the largest and most regally designed mecha. Characters that come from wealthy backgrounds 
  or the kshatriya caste are likely to pilot this mecha. The Taj Mahal is designed for area control and command and 
  control. 
  Weapons:  
  2 
  Armor:  2 
  Technology:  
  3 
  Speed:  1 
  Bonus Points:  3 
  Traits: Analytical, Obvious 
  Weapon Systems: 
  Ban-Havai Multi-Rocket System (3/Missile) 
  Jangi Gattling Gun (1/Impact) 
  Configurations: Analyzer, Boomer 
  Model IND-1 Indra 
     The Indra is a sleek design preferred by classical action heroes. Not for the timid or sneaky, this mecha is very 
  in-your-face, designed to get the pilot into the thick of the action quickly and safely, where she can show off her 
  courage up close and personal against the enemy. 
  Weapons:  
  1 
  Armor:  3 
  Technology:  
  1 
  Speed:  3 
  Bonus Points:  3 
  Traits: Fast, Brave 
  Weapon Systems: 
  Vajra Power Knuckles 0/Impact 
  Configurations: Bulwark, Flanker 
  Model GAN-12 Ganesha 
  
   
  24  
     Genesha mekayana provide mobile fire support platforms. Possessing a wide range of weaponry and the speed 
  to get these weapons into their optimal firing solutions quickly, it is preferred by those who put strategy before 
  personal heroism. 
  Weapons:  
  3 
  Armor:  2 
  Technology:  
  1 
  Speed:  2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Brutal, Stout 
  Weapon Systems: 
  Vighnesha “Tactical Obstacle Remover” Strategic Cannon (4/Impact) 
  Hatyara Sniper Rifle (3/Impact) 
  Duragatacarya Assault Rifle (2/Impact) 
  Configurations: Assassin, Heavy Metal 
  Model CTR-7 Chatora “Stealthy Tiger” 
     The chatora is a scouting mecha, designed for light reconnaissance. Equipped with advanced cloaking systems, 
  it is not heavily armed, but pilots who prefer precision munition placement gravitate to this mecha. 
  Weapons:  
  2 
  Armor:  1 
  Technology:  
  3 
  Speed:  2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Sneaky, Quiet 
  Weapon System: 
  Katar Armor Piercing Dagger (0/Impact) 
  Tamancha Light Machine Pistol (2/Impact) 
  Configurations: Prowler, Sniper 
  Model COL-9 Colossus 
     The colossus is the biggest and heaviest devayana available. Neither fast nor stealthy nor heavily armed, it is 
  the immovable object of the battlefield. Colossus lend their heavy protective elements to their teammates to 
  get the job done. 
  Weapons:  
  2 
  Armor:  4 
  Technology:  
   
  1 
  Speed:  1 
  Bonus Points:  3 
  Traits: Stoic, Protective 
  Weapon Systems 
  Dual Behada Sanghata Recoilless Rifles (3/Impact) 
  Configurations: Bodyguard, Defender 
   
   
  Model MNG-5 Mongoose 
  
   
  25  
     The Mongoose is a quick striking mecha, designed for hit-and-run tactics against larger, heavier mechs. 
  Resilient and deadly, the Mongoose’s graceful lines can be seen on many battlefields, dodging effortless among 
  explosions and shrapnel to unleash its own deadly attacks in return. 
  Weapons:  
  2 
  Armor:  2 
  Technology:  
  2 
  Speed:  2 
  Bonus Points: 3 
  Traits: Brash, Weak 
  Weapon Systems 
  Belka Submachinegun (1/Impact) 
  Noonian RPG Launcher (3/Missile) 
  Configurations: Hot Shot, Ripper 
  Model Mail-0 
     Mail, the Hindi word for ‘dirt’, are unimpressive mecha cheaply produced and given to barely trained pilots. 
  The India Defense Taskforce use mail-0 to train its recruits, but certain terrorist and paramilitary organizations 
  have been forced to use mail-0 in field operations.  
     Note: This model is not intended for PC use. It is intended for poorly equipped allies and enemy mooks. 
  Weapons:  
  2 
  Armor:  1 
  Technology:  
  1 
  Speed:  1 
  Bonus Points: 1 
  Traits: Weak, Suicidal 
  Weapon Systems 
  Ak Saitalis Light Combat Rifle (2/Impact) 
  Configuration:  Brawler [Mail-0 only have one configuration due to their cheap construction.] 
  
   
  26  
  This is a battle for power,    
  A war between politicians.  
  The blood of innocents is the color used to 
  Draw borders between our hearts. 
   - lyrics from Dhuan Dhuan, from the film Mission Kashmir 
  Background 
     In the near future world of 2030, a rising India is 
  becoming an important economic power in the 
  world, having recently eclipsed the United States in 
  economic output. However, as India’s star rises, old 
  grudges come back to haunt this democratic nation. 
  A new Terrorist group known as Liberation Kashmir 
  has arisen in the province of Kashmir, always a 
  flashpoint of trouble between India and Pakistan. 
  This group commits violent acts of terrorism in India 
  proper. The player characters are a squadron of 
  Special India Defense Taskforce mecha pilots who 
  must defeat the terrorists in mainland India, and 
  then track them back to their secret base in Kashmir 
  and eliminate them once and for all. 
     But everything is not as easy as it appears. The 
  political rhetoric between Pakistan and India is 
  heating up again, and the war of words threatens to 
  turn into an actual war. Will the players find 
  evidence that that Liberation Kashmir is being 
  secretly founded by elements within the Pakistani 
  government? If so, is this evidence real, or has it 
  been planted by war hawks in the Indian parliament 
  so they can falsely justify initiating hostilities against 
  Pakistan. And even if they players do find this 
  evidence and it is legitimate, will they reveal it, 
  understanding the political repercussions? 
     Theme: Borders of Blood is a fairly straight-
  forward black-ops game. They PCs are tasked with 
  discovering and thwarting the plans of Liberation 
  Kashmir, locating their home base, and striking back 
  against them. The PCs should run their unit as an 
  military squad, which is given a great deal of leeway 
  to complete its mission, but they are still ultimately 
  answerable to the India Defense Taskforce. 
     The GM should try to lend the game an element of 
  tension, of time not being on the player’s side. The 
  players have limited time to find their opponents 
  and strike against them, otherwise Liberation 
  Kashmir will execute their own plans against the 
  Indian civilian population. As always in Mecha, the 
  game will alternate between roleplaying and mecha 
  combat scenes, but in this SRS, the stakes are high: 
  if the players are successful during their roleplaying 
  scenes, they can take the fight to the terrorists and 
  minimize collateral damage, but if they fail in their 
  roleplaying scenes, they are reactive, and the 
  terrorists bring the fight to them, often in very 
  public or sensitive areas. 
     But Borders of Blood is not just about the military 
  and anti-terrorist operations. In true Bollywood 
  movie style, it is not just their bodies that the PCs 
  they are putting at risk, but their hearts as well. Will 
  they be able to continue their mission when they 
  find out that their true love is secretly a Liberation 
  Kashmir extremist? Where is the line between 
  family and duty when a PC’s parents come out in 
  
   
  27  
  favor of Kashmiri liberation? When the leader of 
  Liberation Kashmir turns out to be the PC’s 
  respected mentor, will they have a change of heart? 
     This movie is about action, yes, no doubt about 
  that; lots of things are going to explode. However, 
  more important than the explosions are the 
  questions the characters must face, that they must 
  answer within the secret recesses of their own 
  hearts. 
     That is what makes them sing. 
  Story Stages 
  Borders of Blood Stage 1 -  
  Attack on Mumbai 
     This story stage starts off with a bang, literally. 
  The PCs are in downtown Mumbai when terrorists 
  attack. Their first order of business is to help protect 
  the people; maybe a family is trapped in a burning 
  building, or a child becomes separated from their 
  parent in the madness the attack causes. This is a 
  chance for the PCs to show their virtue; feel free to 
  grant bonus dice to PCs who put themselves in 
  harms way to save innocents - that’s what heroes in 
  Bollywood movies do. 
     After that, a mobile command center arrives with 
  the PCs mekayana, and they get suited up for 
  combat. The PCs should be wary of collateral 
  damage, and seek to drive the attackers off while 
  protecting the civilian population and preventing 
  property damage. The PCs should feel the pinch of 
  time against them here; the longer they take driving 
  the enemy off, the more civilians will be killed. 
  Borders of Blood Stage 2 - Counter 
  Terrorism 
     The PCs investigate the crime scene, trying to 
  determine who the attackers were. Can they track 
  them back to their staging area and hit them there, 
  or will the terrorists have the opportunity to target 
  more civilian targets before the PCs can arrive? 
  These investigation scenes should be interspersed 
  with how the attacks are personally affecting the 
  PCs. They should be worried about their families, 
  and go back to visit them. Meanwhile, other PCs can 
  be forming close friendships and starting romances 
  with NPCs. 
     Repeat this scene until the PCs have pinpointed 
  the terrorists’ location and have taken the battle to 
  them. Hopefully, the PCs will drive the enemy away 
  from Mumbai; if they fail, the terrorists will simply 
  relocate to another staging area and continue their 
  terror attacks. However, the enemy isn’t going to 
  leave quietly; they’ve set up bombs around the city 
  to distract the PCs while they evacuate. These 
  bombs can be dealt with either during roleplaying 
  scenes, as the PCs track down the bombs and 
  disposed of them, or they can be made part of a 
  combat scene, with bombs going off causing civilian 
  casualties unless a PC mecha moves to quadrant 
  containing the bomb and spends an action to 
  diffuse it - or take the hit themselves, covering the 
  exploding bomb with their mecha in order to save 
  civilian lives. 
   
  Borders 
  of 
  Blood 
  Stage 
  3 
  -  
  Hitting Them Where They Live 
     The PCs track the terrorists to their base in 
  Kashmir. The hilly terrain of kashmir provides the 
  terrorists with excellent cover, and approaching the 
  base overland will be problematic without getting 
  fired on or giving the enemy a chance to flee. 
  Maybe a better option would be to try to have one 
  character penetrate the terrorist cell to clear the 
  way for the mecha assault. 
  
   
  28  
     Varna Anti-Mecha Rockets: The terrorists have 
  been supplied with powerful man-portable anti-
  vehicular weapons. While these weapons pose no 
  real threat to a full mekayana, they are a nuisance 
  that can drain a mecha’s stability and leave it in a 
  weakened condition for ambushes. The terrorists 
  will try to make hit and run attacks with these 
  weapons, firing from a camouflaged position and 
  then rapidly moving the launcher via their tunnel 
  system to another site. When the terrorist mecha 
  finally do come out for a fight, they will be 
  supported by one to three groups of Varna rockets. 
     Represent a Varna rocket group on the map with a 
  token. The token can either move or fire each turn. 
  Other than that restriction, Varna rocket groups 
  operate as if they were mecha with the following 
  stats: Attack 2, Defense 5, Engineering 1, and Speed 
  5; Weapon Systems: Varna rockets 2/missile, 
  Configurations: None. One hit will completely 
  destroy a Varna rocket group. 
     Varna rocket groups are a nightmare for civilian 
  shipping in Kashmir; the PCs may be assigned to 
  protect critical convoys from attack. Run this 
  scenario like a normal combat; treat the civilian 
  trucks as Mecha with the following stats: Combat 2, 
  Defense 2 Speed 2 Engineering 1, Weapon Systems: 
  None, Configurations: None. Each truck can sustain 
  two hits from Varna missiles before being 
  destroyed. 
     Rebel Leader: Ambhitap Donovan is a charismatic 
  leader who strongly believes in the Kashmiri 
  Independence 
  movement. 
  He 
  is 
  a 
  truely 
  psychopathic terrorist, willing to stop at nothing for 
  his goals. Trained by the mujahadeen, he left that 
  group because he thought they were not militant 
  enough, and he founded Liberation Kashmir to 
  advance his violent agenda. Ambhitap sees himself 
  as the liberator of kashmir and has something of a 
  god complex - he sees himself not just as Kashmir’s 
  liberator, but as its saviour appointed by God. 
  Perhaps his men could be made to turn against him 
  if he was tricked into revealing his mental instability 
  in front of them? 
   
  Ambhitap Donovan (Enemy Ace) -  
  Strength 2 
  Agility 3  
  Intelligence 4 
  Wits 5 
     
  Mecha Combat 4 
  Personal Combat 5 
   
  Personal Mecha: Taj Maha 
  Weapons  
  3 
  Armor  4 
  Tech  
   
  3 
  Speed  2 
   
  Attack: 5 (Linked to Strength) 
  Defense: 8 (Linked to Intelligence) 
  Engineering: 6 (Linked to Agility) 
  Speed: 7 (Linked to Wits) 
   
  Weapons: 
  Ban-Havai Multi-Rocket System (3/Missile) 
  
   
  29  
  Jangi Gattling Gun (1/Impact) 
  Ak Saitalo Light Combat Rifile (2/Impact) 
   
  Configurations: Analyzer, Boomer 
  
   
  30  
  Background
     A hundred years into the future, India is a 
  flourishing superpower. America was devastated by 
  a civil war in 2050 from which it never re-emerged, 
  the central government having disintegrated, 
  leaving warring states behind. With its shadow 
  removed from the world scene, Russia, Brazil, 
  Europe, India and China have all filled in the gaps, 
  vying for the title of new world superpower. With 
  the discovery of vedic technology at the turn of the 
  century, India laid claim to that title, with China 
  coming in a close second. While peace prevails 
  between the two economic superpowers, tensions 
  boil just below the surface. 
     This SRS takes place completely within the city of 
  Mumbai in the year 2130. In this bright future, 
  Mumbai is a shining beacon among the world’s 
  cities, a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis with a 
  population in excess of 36 million people. It’s super-
  skyscrapers, suspended on anti-gravitic fields, can 
  be seen from space. It’s space-port is the largest in 
  the world, with hundreds of low orbit shuttles 
  arriving from practically everywhere in the world on 
  a daily basis. The city of Mumbai is rich and 
  crowded, and the Mumbai Police Force often have 
  their hands so full with domestic and petty crime 
  that they do not have the manpower to tackle the 
  more dangerous threats such as rogue robots and 
  demonic criminals with mekayana. For this reason, 
  they have created a special task force dedicated to 
  countering these threats. 
     The secret to India’s promotion to superpower is 
  the cultivation of the secret knowledge encoded in 
  the vedas, a code unlocked by the Hindu scientist 
  and maharishi Rishi Singh almost thirty years ago. 
  The secrets of the universe opened themselves up 
  before India’s alarmed scientists like a flower 
  opening at dawn. In rapid succession, they 
  discovered ways of harnessing cheap energy 
  derived from the holy soma plant, antigravation 
  technology powered by transcendental meditation, 
  and the secret of creating human-like giant robots. 
     Devayana are the mecha of this setting, powered 
  not by fusion reactors but by their pilots’ 
  transcendental 
  meditative 
  prowess. 
  These 
  machines are partly alive, and the animating spirit 
  of the machines reaches deep into the heavens. The 
  pilot acts to bind the mecha to this plane, and 
  through 
  the 
  mecha 
  channels 
  awesome 
  transcendental powers. 
     When not being piloted, devayana are stored in 
  giant lotus flowers floating in glowing beds of pure 
  soma. If the mecha has been damaged or the pilot 
  wishes to soup it up, they spend time in meditation 
  next to the flower. This is also how pilots form their 
  initial bonds with their machines, sitting in silent 
  prayerful contemplation next to the closed lotus 
  flowers until they open, and the devayana allows 
  the human to touch it. 
     Because of the intensely close bond between man 
  and machine, many mecha pilots have trouble 
  maintaining their relationships with other people. 
  Some pilots have even been known to go into 
  meditation trances so deep that they never come 
  out; these pilots eventually whither away entirely.  
  
   
  31  
     To prevent this from happening to their highly 
  skilled and trained specialist pilots, the Commission 
  For the Study of Devayana has put into place a rule 
  that every pilot must have a “controller”, a 
  companion for the pilot who isn’t a mecha pilot and 
  whose sole job it is to keep them human and 
  focused on this world, instead of the next. The 
  controllers gently encourage the pilots to engage in 
  social activities outside their mecha, frequently 
  arranging parties, song and dance recitals, and 
  family visits for the pilots. It is not unknown for the 
  relationship between pilot and controller to become 
  very deep, even to the point of romance. 
     The city of Mumbai is beset with troubles beneath 
  its neon glistening that requires the specialized 
  attention of the devayana pilots. Corporations 
  experiment with the new vedic technologies they 
  barely understand, often to devastating results - 
  summoning uncontrollable demons, transforming 
  employees into monsters, or creating rifts in space 
  and time out of their control. The criminal 
  underworld employs its own devayana and soma-
  enhanced criminals to wage their secret wars, often 
  endangering civilians and merchants. Spies from 
  China, Pakistan and other countries constantly seek 
  to penetrate the innermost secrets of India’s 
  government, business and military, seeking the 
  secrets of vedic technology for themselves; their 
  mundane technologically created powered armor 
  and giant walkers are almost as dangerous as a 
  devayana. 
   
  NPC - Rishi Singh 
     Rishi was just a normal scientist, very intelligent 
  and dedicated to his work. He was a man of the 
  modern era; he didn’t believe in any of that 
  superstitious nonsense about devas, samsara, or 
  karma. The few visitors he accepted into his spartan 
  apartment, high above the always crowded streets 
  of Mumbai, were surprised when they didn’t find a 
  Hindu god placed in an alcove above the doorway 
  to greet them. His rejection of tradition made Rishi 
  an unwelcome visitor among his own family. And 
  Rishi liked it that way. Rishi worked in top-secret 
  projects for the Indian government, and he devoted 
  all of his energies to work, he had no time for idle 
  distractions like family and friends. 
     But then the new millennium rolled around. Rishi 
  was brow-beaten into attending the New Year’s 
  Celebration by his superior at work. There, he met a 
  charismatic and fascinating young woman, an 
  assistant from a nearby office he had never met, or 
  maybe just never noticed. The woman was 
  intelligent, smarter than anyone else - man or 
  woman - Rishi had ever met, and he found her 
  intelligence, her wit and her charm intoxicating. 
  What Rishi did not know was that he was being 
  literally intoxicated by a mixture of drugs the 
  woman, an agent for a foreign power, had slipped 
  into his drink, a mixture that just happened to 
  contain an extract from the soma plant. The woman 
  led the drug-addled Rishi back to her apartment, 
  where she intended to interrogate him for his state 
  secrets. 
     But before the woman was able to get anything 
  from Rishi, state police arrested her, and they left 
  Rishi in what they thought was just a normally 
  intoxicated state. But Rishi had fallen into a deep 
  mystical trance. Rishi could feel his atman leaving 
  his body, wandering deep into the cosmic heart of 
  things. There, he met the great Brahma, the creator 
  god, who laid out before him all the knowledge in 
  the world, and showed him how it was all secretly 
  encoded in the vedas. He could see the secret codes 
  encrypted into the texts, and when he awoke, he 
  began furiously scribbling down what he had seen 
  into his notebook. Thus began an period lasting 
  several months where Rishi alternated between 
  working at a feverish pace and day long sessions of 
  deep transcendental meditation. At the end of this 
  period, Rishi had cracked the code, and discovered 
  the secrets of vedic technology. 
     Dr. Singh is an absent minded professor or mentor 
  figure to the player characters. He discovered the 
  
   
  32  
  process of creating and controlling vedayana 
  through his vedic wisdom. They should look up to 
  him as a wise grandfatherly figure. However, he is 
  also absent-minded and a frequent target for 
  enemy agents, so they need to protect him as well. 
     Vedayana vs. mekayana: In the setting of 
  Mumbai 2130, India controls the secrets of 
  vedayana. Meanwhile, China, Pakistan, Brazil and 
  other countries are rapidly trying to play catch-up; 
  however, without the deep insight into the vedas 
  granted to Dr. Singh, they can only design 
  mekayana 
  - mecha 
  powered 
  by 
  traditional 
  technologies. When vedayana confront mekayana 
  on the battlefield, the vedayana’s  superiority 
  shines through. To reflect this mechanically, when a 
  vedayana is attacking or defending against a 
  mekayana, they may spend a point of Star Power to 
  add 1 success to a roll after the dice have been 
  rolled.  
  Story Stages 
  Mumbai 2130 Stage 1: Robot 
  Revolution
     When the game begins, the GM and the players 
  should work together to come up with the role of 
  the PC’s squad. Perhaps they are all recent 
  graduates, just assigned their own vedayana, or 
  maybe they’ve been a squad together for some 
  time, perhaps with one or two of the characters as 
  the newbies in the squad. Spend the first 
  roleplaying scene introducing the characters the 
  players work with, such as Rishi Singh, their 
  commanding officer, and their controllers.  
     After they have become comfortable with each 
  other, the mission bell rings and they are 
  summoned to mission control. Here, they are told 
  that a group of industrial robots have somehow lost 
  control and are on a rampage, terrorizing the 
  glittering shopping districts downtown. They PCs 
  suit up and head to the disturbance. 
     This should be a nice easy mission for the PCs to 
  get their feet wet. The out of control robots are 
  mostly composed of industrial loaders. They attack 
  random targets, not specifically targeting people 
  but doing a lot of property damage. The regular 
  Mumbai police force, even the crack squad of elite 
  special forces who have been called in, are unable 
  to do more than contain the robots and evacuate 
  civilians. It is up to the PCs to eliminate the threat. 
     The rogue robots are equipped with various 
  industrial implements, mostly sledgehammers and 
  industrial nail-guns. One rogue robot is equipped 
  with a flamethrower, and is a lot tougher than the 
  other robots. If the PCs suspect something is up, 
  then can spend an action to scan this robot, and will 
  discovered that it is being remotely controlled from 
  somewhere nearby; the other rogue robots are 
  taking their cues from the leader bot. 
     Rogue Industrial Robot: Attack 3, Defense 4, 
  Engineering 3, Movement 3; Weapon Systems: 
  sledgehammer (0/impact) or industrial nail-gun 
  (1/impact.) Configurations: None. 
     Remote-Controlled Leader Bot: Attack 5, Defense 
  6, Engineering 4, Movement 4; Weapon Systems: 
  Flamethrower (1/energy), Steel girder (0/impact). 
  Configurations: Supercharged, Boomer. 
     After the initial rogue robot attacks, the 
  characters must track the robots back to their 
  source. An anarchist criminal organization known as 
  the Black Family is using them to test their robotic 
  remote control equipment; once they have 
  perfected this equipment, they will use it to assume 
  
   
  33  
  control of all the robots in Mumbai at the same 
  time, starting a robot revolution and smashing what 
  they see as a symbol of capitalist decadence, killing 
  hundreds or thousands and making tens of 
  thousands homeless refugees in the process. Can 
  the player characters stop them before this 
  happens? 
  Mumbai 2130 Stage 2:  
  The Kidnap Plot 
     While defeating the rogue robots and tracing 
  them back to their point of origin, the players 
  should have plenty of time to socialize with Rishi 
  Singh and their controllers, their families and the 
  other officers on the police force. After a few weeks 
  of peace after the rogue robot incident, police 
  headquarters downtown is rocked by a explosion; 
  mekayana of unknown make start climbing up the 
  walls and infiltrating the building. They seem to be 
  trying to make their way to the Room of Lotuses; 
  are they trying to steal the devayana? 
     If the players are sharp witted, they will realize 
  that this is just a diversionary attack. Oh, the enemy 
  mecha pilots all think that securing one or more 
  devayana for their faction is their ultimate goal, and 
  indeed, their superiors would be more than pleased 
  if this were to happen. However, the real principal 
  purpose of main attack group is diversion. The 
  actual target of the attack is Dr. Rishi Singh. His 
  assistant, a long-term sleeper agent, is activated at 
  the same time as the attack, proceeds to drug him 
  and kidnap him under the guise of getting him out 
  of harm’s way. Enemy black ops will rendezvous 
  with them and eliminate any police guards that may 
  be escorting the doctor and his assistant. 
     Once the doctor has been kidnapped, the players 
  know that it is only a matter of time before he is 
  either made to divulge his vedic secrets to the 
  enemy, or is killed for keeping his silence. The 
  Indian government will not allow either possibility 
  to happen; the highest channels of the government, 
  all the way up to prime minister Gabira Saigal 
  herself, will contact the players to enforce upon 
  them the seriousness of the situation. 
     The PCs must now track down the criminals and 
  rescue the doctor. Will they make it in time, or have 
  the enemy already learned enough to start 
  modifying their mekayana with new technologies 
  derived from the vedas? The battle to free the 
  doctor is sure to be hard-fought. 
      (Even if the players succeed in preventing the 
  kidnapping of Doctor RIshi during the initial attack, 
  they enemy will succeed in stealing his research 
  data, which poses almost as great a threat.) 
     The enemy is desperate for results. With the 
  unwilling help of the doctor or his liberated notes, 
  they 
  have 
  already 
  started 
  modifying 
  their 
  mekayana. The GM should give each enemy 
  mekayana a third configuration. However, these 
  modifications to the mekayana are not without 
  consequences for their pilots, who become more 
  and more mentally unstable. The PCs can 
  manipulate this to their advantage. 
  Mumbai 2130 Stage 3 –  
  Rest and Relaxation 
     This campaign can run as long as needed. Each 
  stage will pit the players against a different criminal 
  organization with different goals on the city of 
  Mumbai. After the spectacular fights in stage 2, 
  perhaps the best thing is to put in a short breather 
  stage. Concentrate on the PCs themselves, their 
  families, and their growing relationships with their 
  controllers. Combat scenes take place in the 
  simulator, which allow for a variety of combat 
  scenarios. 
     Story Seed - Another pilot from a different unit 
  has gone AWOL along with his controller. It turns 
  out that the strain of piloting a vedayana was too 
  much for this young man, and he has snapped, 
  stealing his vedayana, kidnapping his controller and 
  taking them somewhere safe. Can the players find 
  
   
  34  
  him and bring him down from the edge before he 
  loses 
  it 
  completely?
  Action imprisons the world, unless it is done as sacrifice. 
   - Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita 
     Indian Cinema has always been strongly influenced by the Hindu classics, in fact some of the earliest silent 
  films were based on the lives of great Hindu heroes - Rama, Krishna, Harishchandra, Hanuman - and retold 
  stories from the Ramayana, Vedas, Mahabharata, and other sources. 
  Background 
     This is a time before history, an India steeped in 
  myth and legend, where the gods roam the earth, 
  and titanic wars are waged between civilizations 
  unknown to modern man. Demons plague mankind; 
  evil sorcerers serving wicked monkey kings oppress 
  the people, and bring the entire universe out of 
  kilter by ignoring their dharma, serving an inhuman 
  karma opposed by the gods. 
     The player characters are born into this world as 
  rakshasa. Something went wrong with their 
  reincarnation that left their souls stuck in the 
  celestial world with only a thin tether tying the 
  bodily shell to the soul. Thus, rakshasa are powerful 
  humans born of two worlds - half celestial, half 
  mortal, with one foot in the world of the mystic at 
  all times. However, in times of great need, a 
  rakshasa can summon their full soul into this world, 
  transforming themselves into a vedic superman, a 
  devayana.  
     Many Rakshasa also learn powerful mantras that 
  can affect the physical world as well as that of the 
  spirit. These mantras can transform their physical 
  bodies into physically perfect specimens of 
  humanity; they can give the rakshasa the ability to 
  see across the triloka into the world of spirits, gods 
  and demons; they can give the rakshasa the ability 
  to alter the minds and will of people. 
     Rakshasa learn their mantras in secret, passed 
  down from master to student in an unending 
  tradition. However, rakshasa do not have limitless 
  power: being half-deva or half-asura, they can be 
  harmed by a brahmin reading from the vedas, and 
  even their own spirit nature attracts demons and 
  other unwholesome things to them. 
     Rakshasa are born possessing one type of deva 
  spirit; this is their essence, their devayana and they 
  cannot ever change it because it is who they are. 
  However, the elder masters who pass down their 
  mantras to their students choose whom they wish 
  to teach. Thus it is possible to find a rakshasa who 
  has any given combination of devayana and 
  mantra. 
     Whatever the case, rakshasa will always find 
  themselves, by benefit of their flawed incarnation, 
  embroiled in the troubles of mortals and gods alike. 
  None can resist their dharma, although some may 
  try for a time. Whatever varna caste the rakshasa 
  was originally born into, their dharma is dominated 
  by the fact of who they are. Despite the blessings of 
  power that come from a soul that abides in the 
  
   
  35  
  heavens, the rakshasa are not fully human, and thus 
  they are ultimately on a lower rung of reincarnation 
  than even the lowest untouchable, because at least 
  the untouchable is fully human. The dharma of a 
  rakshasa is to protect the world from supernatural 
  forces, keep order in the world, and do good deeds; 
  if a rakshasa does these things, then in the next life 
  they may hope that their soul fully rejoins their 
  body, and they can be reborn as a human. 
     The Mythic Age of India is a lot like a certain TV 
  show about Hercules and his journeys which are 
  legendary; the exact time period is uncertain, and 
  myth and history commingle with each other in 
  exuberant abandon. Even history itself is fluid; in 
  one adventure, you might encounter a rajput raja, 
  and in the very next one, the vanguard of the British 
  East Trading Company. The devas walk the earth, 
  but are still worshipped in their traditional forms. In 
  one adventure, you might journey to the great fest 
  of the asura Bali Maharaja and assist Lord Vishnu in 
  his incarnation as the dwarf Vamanadeva (perhaps 
  he has lost his powers and needs to get them 
  back!), and in the next, you might encounter 
  travelling scholars who know the story from the Rig 
  Veda. 
     Because of this structure, particularly in Story 
  Stage 1, this game facilitates one-shots and a 
  disconnected campaign where players may drop in 
  and out. You can take a break from this SRS, turn to 
  the more grim Borders of Blood, and then come 
  back for a break from the grit of that series to bathe 
  in the wahoo of this one. 
  The Mantras 
     In addition to regular character creation, each 
  character chooses one mantra during character 
  creation. Once chosen, it cannot change, nor can 
  they learn another - the marga of one mantra takes 
  all the meditative energies and soul searching that 
  any one being, even one as powerful as a rakshasa, 
  can muster. Still, rumors spread through the 
  scattered rakshasa community speak of elder and 
  very powerful rakshasa who have mastered one 
  mantra and learned a second. 
     Mechanically, these mantras are written on the 
  character sheet as a new skill. Each character 
  receives a rating of ‘1’ in the selected mantra at 
  character creation, and may then raise it with bonus 
  points normally. During play, a player may roll their 
  mantra skill during a roleplaying scene whenever it 
  would be applicable. (During a combat scene, their 
  entire being has been transformed into a devayana, 
  and it is all their will can do to keep the divine 
  energy of their soul bound to this world; thus, they 
  cannot use mantras while transformed.) The mantra 
  skill is usually combined with Will, but dehamantra 
  may sometimes use Strength or Agility, and the 
  Mantra of All Knowledge might use Intelligence at 
  the GM’s discretion. 
   
  The Mantra of the Body (dehamantra); the mantra 
  of the body focuses the rakshasa’s mind on his or 
  her own body; through repetition of this mantra 
  and performing secret yoga techniques, the body is 
  strengthened, eventually reaching the peak of 
  human perfection and slightly beyond. Those who 
  master this mantra never get sick, and only need to 
  rest for one hour a day; it is said they may live for a 
  thousand years, although no one knows, since 
  almost all rakshasa meet the end imposed by their 
  dharma well before then. 
   
  The Mantra of the Spirit World (svargamantra); 
  svarga is the world of the gods, also known as the 
  devaloka. Those who study this mantra can see into 
  the spirit world, and attune their wills to the entities 
  found their. By focusing their will on the other 
  world, and repeating this mantra, the rakshasa 
  opens their ajna chakra - their third eye, an eye 
  composed of pure divine light. With their third eye 
  open, the practitioner can speak with the spirit 
  world, gaining great insight into other places. 
  Masters of this mantra can even bind asura and 
  
   
  36  
  preta, banishing them or leashing them to servitude 
  for a short time. 
   
  The Mantra of the Heart (jimantra) - The 
  Upanishads teach that the heart is greater than all 
  things, even the universe. The student of jimantra 
  studies his own heart; it becomes as well controlled 
  as his breathing and as well known to him as his 
  own skin. Masters of this mantra control their own 
  emotion perfectly, and can even influence the 
  emotions and minds of those around them. They 
  know no fear, and those who love them love them 
  perfectly, and those who fear them know the 
  deepest heart’s fear. 
   
  The Mantra of all Knowledge (gyanmantra) - It is 
  said the vedas contain all knowledge, even the 
  position of every star in heaven. By repeating this 
  mantra while studying the vedas, a rakshasa can tap 
  their innermost secrets. All knowledge lies exposed 
  to them; they can invent machines that fly in the 
  air, or mirrors that collect sunlight in jars. They are 
  never lost, and know the name of every animal, 
  down to the last beetle. They are never hungry or 
  thirsty, for their insight provides them the 
  knowledge of how to eat and drink things inedible 
  to other humans. 
   
  The Mantra of Earthly Powers (prithvimantra) - 
  Lightning that thunders down from the sky; fire that 
  rages like wrath itself; winds that howl through 
  canyons; whirlpools that make widows of a hundred 
  sailors’ 
  wives; 
  the 
  master 
  of 
  prthvimantra 
  commands them all. He walks through fire 
  unharmed. He calls down lightning from the bluest 
  of skies. The ships he sails always have favorable 
  winds. 
   
  The Mantra of Nature (prakritimantra) - All the 
  animals that walk upon this earth and all the plants 
  that grow upon its surface, everything that wriggles 
  beneath the earth or flies in the sky, that is the 
  purview of this mantra. The master of this mantra 
  rides tigers and controls armies of mice. He blights 
  crops or causes a boom harvest without a drop of 
  rain. His servants, the worms, tell him of everything 
  that walks on the land, and the birds tell him 
  everything they see from the sky. 
  Story Stages 
  Mythic India Stage 1 –  
  Wandering the Earth 
     As the movie begins, we find the heroic rakshasa 
  wandering mythic India, walking from village to 
  village and solving problems as they go. Each player 
  should have a reason to wander the earth - perhaps 
  one is seeking a loved one who spurned them on 
  discovering their half-deva nature; or they are 
  fleeing from a powerful secret in their past; or they 
  are wandering the earth to experience the beauty 
  and suffering of the world at the behest of their 
  rishi. 
     Story Seed - In a certain village, a Brahmin priest 
  has fallen from the graces of the local raj, and he is 
  therefore unable to perform his dharma, unable to 
  find work as a priest. He lives now with some poor 
  farmers on the outskirts of the village. When the 
  players come upon the village, they are just in time 
  to save it from an attack by asuras. 
     Asura Attackers: Attack 7, Defense 4, Engineering 
  4, Movement; Weapons: Demon Claws (1/impact), 
  Fire Breath (3/energy); Configurations: Boomer, 
  Disruptor 
     The PCs will discover that the reason the asuras 
  are attacking the village is because it has 
  accumulated too much negative karma. This is 
  because the raj is not performing his dharma by 
  
   
  37  
  protecting the caste system (he expelled the 
  Brahmin for political reasons), and because 
  therefore the priest is unable to fulfil his own 
  dharma. The player characters must convince the 
  raj to fulfil his dharma and reinstate the Brahmin 
  priest. 
     Story Seed - Zeenat is a dancer and a prostitute, a 
  vaishya who has fallen on hard times. She loves a 
  man named Murali, son of a wealthy merchant. 
  Murali loves Zeenat, but his parents have engaged 
  him to another woman, a proper woman whom he 
  does not love. But Zeenat is lusted after by a vile 
  man, an untouchable, who is trying to blackmail her 
  into marrying him. If this marriage goes through, 
  Zeenat will commit suicide on their wedding bed, 
  and much negative karma will be accumulated by all 
  involved. The player characters must find a way to 
  resolve this situation, and hopefully unite Murali 
  and Zeenat while having their families save face. 
     If the players manage to arrange Zeenat’s and 
  Murali’s wedding, they must fight off the spurned 
  suitor and his companions, who in their rage have 
  attracted preta - evil spirits attracted by strong 
  negative emotions. However, if the players fail to 
  resolve the situation, they will find themselves 
  fighting asuras attracted to the negative karma 
  generated by the suicide, perhaps even including 
  Zeenat-turned-demon herself, who is seeking 
  vengeance against the untouchable and Murali 
  both.    
     Story Seed - A peasant finds the player characters 
  while they are between villages, and begs them to 
  come help his village immediately. They are under 
  attack by a giant ogre. The players arrive and defeat 
  the ogre and his servants, and the village throws a 
  feast in their honor. But just after they have left, 
  they are summoned back again; this time, asuras 
  are attacking the village. They defeat the asura 
  menance. Later on, preta attack the village. 
  Investigating players will find no bad karma or build-
  ups of negative emotions; the village is running just 
  fine according to its dharma, so why is it under such 
  constant attacks by evil? 
     The answer is that the village headman, Vidya 
  Amarna, is a rakshasa who has tried to establish a 
  normal life here. Rejecting his dharma, never 
  practising his mantra, and never summoning his 
  devayana atman, he has married a local woman, 
  raised two strong boys and one beautiful daughter 
  and built a life for himself here. He is in denial of his 
  supernatural past, he sees it as a bad phase in his 
  life, as if it were an addiction he has gotten over. 
     But the supernatural part of a rakshasa always 
  shows through. Vidya’s presence in the village has 
  weakened the wall with the spirit world around it, 
  attracting all kinds of supernatural entities. The 
  players must convince Vidya to leave the village, no 
  matter how resistant he is. If he loves the village, his 
  wife and children, he will no longer endanger it with 
  his presence. If they are not diplomatic in this 
  conversation, Vidya may turn violent and attempt 
  to drive off the player characters. His vedayana is 
  still very powerful, and the local Brahmin priests will 
  summon lesser devas to fight by his side. 
  Mythic India Stage 2 –  
  The Mortal War 
     After the players have wandered India for a while, 
  they may come to hear about a powerful rakshasa 
  warlord who is gathering his forces in the 
  mountains. The Warlord says he wants nothing but 
  to unify India and make a peace that will last until 
  the end of the current age of the world, but others 
  see him only as an opportunistic conqueror. The 
  players will start becoming embroiled in the politics 
  behind the situation, being asked to lend their 
  strength to small towns and cities that are under 
  threat by The Warlord. However, the PCs are also 
  approached by heralds of The Warlord, who they 
  say has heard of them and wishes to give them a 
  place of honor in his army. If they join him, his 
  armies begin a march of conquest across India, and 
  the PCs serve as his arm, eliminating choice targets 
  
   
  38  
  for their new lord. If they oppose him, The Warlord 
  becomes angry and declares them his enemies. 
  They will be constantly harassed by his men. They 
  may wish to try to rally the various Indian states 
  into one army to resist The Warlord. 
     When the war reaches its climax, their adversaries 
  will reveal a new weapon, summoned by vedic 
  magic: a powerful mecha called the jagannatha, a 
  huge vedayana which they deploy in a last ditch 
  effort to win the war with one mighty blow. 
  Naturally, it is up to the PCs to defeat this awesome 
  weapon. 
  Mythic India Stage 3 –  
  The Eternal War 
     The PCs’ defeat of the jagannatha brings them to 
  the attention of the gods themselves, as well as to 
  their asura enemies. After a brief time to enjoy their 
  victory, round up any remaining enemy, and rest 
  and heal their wounds, they are ambushed by a 
  troop of asura demons. Afterwards, the herald of 
  heaven will come to them, explaining that they have 
  earned the right to fight by the side of the gods. 
  This is a war fought with prayer, dharma, and 
  mysticism as much as it is with raw firepower. 
  Whereas in the previous stage, they PCs fought in a 
  mortal war, in this stage they fight in an eternal 
  war, one fought with noble thoughts and actions, 
  that 
  cannot 
  be 
  won 
  outright, 
  but 
  whose 
  repercussions will echo through eternity. 
     The players are tasked with performing a series of 
  tasks which tax their very abilities, and at every 
  step, they find themselves harried by the asura. 
  Even the deva themselves are not always 
  trustworthy, and may challenge them in order to 
  test their worth for the trials to come. 
     The tasks they are given, which they receive 
  during sessions of meditation or dreams, should be 
  strange, difficult, and drenched in symbolism. They 
  must light three lanterns on three mountaintops at 
  the three corners of India, all in a single day. They 
  must gather and sacrifice one thousand goats. They 
  must defend a holy man during his meditations, 
  taking especial care not to disturb him, while he is 
  under assault from vermin, demons of temptation, 
  and strange huge birds. They must journey deep 
  into unexplored India, find the palace of illusions, 
  and escape with one of the intelligent bulls 
  quartered there. 
     During these tasks, the players should have lots of 
  time to meditate on the nature of the universe. 
  Devas and rishis will question them about maya, the 
  veil of illusion that shrouds the truth of the 
  universe, and all kinds of other arcane knowledge. 
     This is also the opportunity for the PCs to take 
  part in the legendary stories of the Vedas, the 
  Mahabharata, the Puranas, and other sources; and 
  also to take the battle to the asuras proactively. Will 
  the players venture into the territory of the asuras 
  atop a lightning-storm wracked mountaintop in 
  order to stop them from completing a terrifying 
  new form of vedayana? 
   
   
  
   
  39  
  NPCS and Enemies 
  Greater Asura Demon Core 
     Greater Asura demons only appear when brought into this world by the actions an evil Brahmin summoner, or 
  in places where the veil between worlds has been worn down to its thinnest at sites of great negative karma. 
   
  Attack: 9 
  Defense: 10 
   
  Engineering: 4 Movement: 4 
  Skills: (Greater Asura Demon is considered an enemy ace.) 
   
  Mecha Combat 5 
   
  Weapons: 
   
  2xChaos Beam 3/Energy 
   
  Razer Sharp Beak 1/Impact 
   
  Corrosive Stench 0/Energy 
   
  Configurations: 
   
  Special: Summon Preta. (Greater Asura demon can spend 1 point of overdrive to summon a mook squad 
  of preta to its location; this squad has 1d6 members and has a Base of 3. It can use this Configuration at most 
  once per turn.) 
   
  Defender 
   
  Greater Asura Demon Tentacles 
     A Greater Asura Demon is a huge monster that occupies not just its own space, but spreads its squamous 
  peusopods and tenctacles throughout the battlemap. When encountered, along with the Greater Asura Demon, 
  place several tentacle counters on the battlemap as well (one per PC is appropriate.) 
   
  Attack: 6 
  Defense: 4 
   
  Engineering: 5 Movement: 6 
   
  Skills:  
  Mecha Combat 3 
   
  Weapons: 
   
  Corrosive Slap 1/Energy 
   
  Entangle 0/Impact 
   
  Configurations: Disrupter 
  Flanker 
  Special: If the Greater Asura Demon Core is destroyed, all tentacles will likewise vanish. 
  Special: If all Tentacles are destroyed, the Core’s Defense is reduced to 6. 
  
   
  40  
  Star Power 
     Bollywood movies face a tough crowd. More than 
  800 movies are released each year, and simply 
  having a big budget does not guarantee success at 
  the box office. For the movie your troupe of actors 
  is making, you will need something else to succeed. 
  Something special. You will need star power. 
     Star Power is a new mechanic that rates how well 
  their movies are received. Actors gain acclaim from 
  starring in good movies; this translates as a small 
  bonus to AP. However, Star Power is also a measure 
  of how much faith the movie’s director has in its 
  stars, and how much he is willing to let them get 
  away with. So Star Power can also be used to bend 
  the rules of the game. This can be powerful, but 
  watch out! If you don’t earn enough Star Power, or 
  spend too much, your movie may be a flop. 
     Star Power is kept by the group itself, not an 
  individual character. A character who earns Star 
  Power adds it to the group’s total; a player who 
  uses Star Power subtracts it from the group’s total. 
  Gauging a Movie’s Success 
     At the end of a session, Star Power earned 
  translates into how successful the movie was with 
  Bollywood audiences; a successful movie might earn 
  the players extra overdrive or AP. 
     First, determine the movie’s overall Star Power by 
  taking the average Star Power of all the characters. 
  (Round fractions off normally.) 
     0 Stars: Execrable movie. The movie is not 
  screened for critics and opens to critical lambasting 
  and financial disaster. 
     1 Star: Bad movie. The movie screens for a few 
  weeks, barely makes back its investment, and is 
  then prompty forgotten in the deluge of other 
  movies. 
     2 Stars: Ok movie. The movie makes some good 
  money, although it doesn’t earn the highest marks 
  with the critics. 
     3 Stars. Hit movie. The movie makes it into the top 
  ten highest grossing films of the year. Talk of a 
  sequel is in progress. 
     4 Stars: Timeless movie. This movie left audiences 
  speechless and critics grasping for new superlatives 
  to describe it. 
     Additionally, if the movie earned at least 3 Stars, 
  each actor gets 1 bonus AP, Also, any actor who 
  earns 4 Star Power by themselves gets a 1 AP 
  bonus. 
     Example: Jake, Sharon and Chris are done with a 
  session of Mekayana. During the session, Jake 
  earned 1 Star Power, Sharon earned 3 Star Power 
  and Chris earned 4 Star Power. The movie’s final 
  rating is 3 Stars, so they each get 1 bonus AP. 
  Furthermore, since Chris earned 4 Star Power by 
  himself, he earns 1 additional AP, for a total of 2 
  extra AP. 
  Earning Star Power 
     You earn Star Power by engaging in Musical 
  Routines, either during character scenes or during 
  Mecha combat. 
     Note: the maximum number of Star Power a single 
  character can accumulate in one game is 4. 
     Character Musical Routines: At the end of the 
  scene, the player rolls against Social; if he is 
  successful, he earns 1 Star Power. 
  
   
  41  
     Solos and Song Battles: For sheer drama, nothing 
  beats fifty ton, twenty-foot tall giant robots dancing 
  in unison and singing songs. Musical routines 
  happen during combat. A player gives up their 
  attack actions for the turn to perform a musical 
  routine, in either a solo or a duet. The character can 
  solo only if they are alone in an area. The solo has 
  no combat effect, but it is not opposed. The 
  character rolls Social vs. Mecha; if they succeed, 
  they Earn 1 Star Power. 
     However, if an enemy is in the same area as the 
  character, they must song battle one opponent. 
  (Enemy mooks cannot be song-battled.) Both 
  characters rolls Social vs. Mecha Combat. If the 
  acting character wins, he earns 1 Star Power and 
  the enemy takes 1 damage. However, if the enemy 
  Mecha wins, the acting character takes 1 damage 
  and he earns no Star Power. 
     Earning Bonus Dice: You can earn bonus dice on 
  the Star Power roll in the following ways: 
  ● Playing an appropriate song during your 
  scene, +1d. 
  ● Karaoke during the scene, +2d. 
  ● Presence of mooks: allied mooks act as 
  backup dancers, adding +1d. 
  Spending Star Power 
     Accumulated Star Power is kept until the end of 
  the session; however, each Star can also be spent, 
  once, to use one of these special powers. 
     1. A player can spend one Star Power to turn a roll 
  with seven successes into a Cutscene. The roll 
  remains seven success; it does not become eight 
  success, but the player gets the cutscene anyway. 
  Bollywood audiences love flash. 
     2. In the Mumbai 2130 setting, a player can spend 
  one Star Power to raise the results of a roll by one 
  success if they are attacking or defending against a 
  mekayana in their devayana. 
     3. A player may spend 1 Star Power after resolving 
  any scene in order to take make an extra roll as for 
  a recovery or repair scene. Bollywood audiences 
  bore of endless hospital or repair scenes, they want 
  to get back into the action! 
     4. A player may spend 1 Star Power to activate 
  one Configuration their mecha doesn’t have for this 
  turn. They must also pay the normal overdrive cost 
  to activate the Configuration. Bollywood is 
  frequently silly, and the audiences are more willing 
  to accept things that don’t make total sense so long 
  as it’s exciting. 
   
  Optional Rule: Relationship Lines 
     The super-sentai giant robot genre of anime and 
  the gltizy star-studded world of Bollywood movies 
  may not seem to have anything in common at first 
  glance, but there is one thread that unifies them; 
  their stories tell the tales of people driven by their 
  relationships with the other characters. Whether its 
  Renton fighting to save Eureka in Eureka Seven or 
  Thakur nearly sacrificing himself to gain vengeance 
  against Gabbar in Sholay, the theme is the same. 
  The giant robots, the song and dance are the visual 
  appeal of the story, but the heart of the story is in 
  the relationships between the characters. 
     You can use this optional rule in a Mekayana game 
  or in any other Mecha SRS. It plugs right into the 
  system. The basic idea is that each character has 
  two or more relationships that are important to 
  them; these relationships see them through the 
  toughest times, and inspire them to action when 
  everything seems against them. Their lovers and 
  friends keep them tied to the world of the everyday 
  
   
  42  
  so that they do no lose themselves in the wires and 
  gears of their machines or the burning vengeance in 
  their hearts. 
     If you use this optional rule, the PCs will be slightly 
  more powerful than if you do not use it. 
  Mechanically a Relationship Line is roughly 
  equivalent to two points of Overdrive. However, 
  whereas a PC may gain Overdrive during combat, 
  Relationship Lines can only be “recharged” out of 
  combat. 
     Furthermore, only PCs ever have Relationship 
  Lines drawn from them, thus NPCs can never gain 
  the benefit of stressing a relationship. 
  Creating the Relationship Map 
     Start off during character creation by drawing a 
  relationship map. (If you plug Relationship Lines 
  into an ongoing game, just set aside a few minutes 
  at the start of a session - the existing relationships 
  formed during the campaign should populate the 
  map very quickly.) The map is simply a piece of 
  paper showing the PCs and their Relationship Lines 
  to the important NPCs in their lives. I like using a 
  large sheet of heavy duty poster board and drawing 
  the lines with thick, bold markers so that they are 
  easily visible to everyone at the table. You could 
  also use a whiteboard to draw the relationship map, 
  but you can just get away with using a regular sheet 
  of paper if that’s all you have. 
     First, each player puts their own character on the 
  map - write down the character’s name and draw a 
  box around it. Now, each player independently 
  creates a new NPC on the map in the same way - 
  you just need to come up with a name (use the 
  table for Indian names on page TODO if you can’t 
  think of one) and place a box around it. Now, each 
  player draws their first Relationship Line from their 
  PC’s box to the box of the NPC they just created. 
     Next, the players write a short descriptive label on 
  the relationship line they just drew. This label 
  indicates the kind of relationship the line 
  represents; 
  for 
  example, 
  Unrequited 
  Love, 
  Childhood Friend, or Rival. If you are having trouble 
  coming up with a label for the relationship, roll or 
  choose one from the table of relationships provided 
  below. 
     The last thing to do to finish the relationship line is 
  to add some boxes near the line to track the 
  mechanical aspects.  Each relationship line needs 
  four boxes. Place one box on one side of the line; 
  this is the Stressed box. While the box is unmarked, 
  the relationship is Unstressed. Conversely, when 
  this box is checked the relationship is Stressed. On 
  the opposite side of the line from the Stressed box, 
  put a row of three Advancement boxes. These 
  boxes are used to keep track of, well, how far the 
  relationship is advancing. I recommend using 
  permanent marker to make these boxes, as you will 
  need to draw and erase inside them during the 
  game. 
     For example, when playing the Mekayana SRS 
  Mumbai 2130, each pilot has controller whose job it 
  is to keep the pilot tied to the mundane world, 
  rather than vanishing into the heavens. In this 
  setting, the first Relationship Line each character 
  draws could be with their controller. 
     Now that they have completed their first 
  Relationship Line, each player draws a second 
  Relationship Line to any other PC or NPC already on 
  the map. You cannot add new NPCs to the map at 
  this point. Go ahead and label the line; rolling 
  randomly at this point for the label works really well 
  in creating interesting dynamics. If you draw a 
  relationship line to another PC, make sure you place 
  an arrow indicating which PC the relationship is 
  from; the “target” PC of the relationship cannot 
  stress that relationship line, but he or she could 
  draw their own line back to you, possibly with a 
  different label. For example, PC A could have a 
  Relationship Line labeled “Unrequited Love” to PC 
  B, while PC B draws a line back to PC A and labels it 
  “Professional Jealousy.” 
  
   
  43  
     Now your map should contain all the PCs, one NPC 
  per PC, and two relationship lines leaving each PC. 
     Note that the GM can seed the relationship map 
  with important NPCs if they want, possibly an 
  antagonist and an important ally such as the 
  squad’s commanding officer. PCs are then free to 
  draw either or both of their Relationship Lines to 
  these NPCs. 
     With that done, the initial Relationship Map is 
  complete. Keep the map around - you will be using 
  it during play. 
  Stressing Relationships 
     When a character’s life is in danger, the memories 
  of the ones they love drive them forward through 
  the pain and the stress. Their mentor’s words echo 
  inspiration in their ears; images of their rival’s faces 
  pass 
  before 
  them, 
  egging 
  them 
  on 
  with 
  remembered mockery; their lover’s scent erases the 
  pain. 
     A character can stress a relationship for a 
  mechanical benefit. They simply put a check or X 
  into the Stressed box of the relationship, making 
  the relationship stressed. Then they add 3 dice to 
  their dice pool. They may elect to do this before or 
  after the roll. If a relationship is already stressed, it 
  cannot be stressed again. 
     However, the decision to stress a relationship is 
  not without consequences. Whenever a character 
  puts stress on a relationship, their is an equal and 
  opposite reaction in the NPC. At the same time the 
  character in the midst of battle is thinking of their 
  girlfriend, she is standing on the sidelines, worrying 
  herself to death over him. When he remembers his 
  mentor’s words under a lightning-streaked sky, that 
  very person at that very moment is looking up into 
  the sky, wondering if they’ve taught you the right 
  lessons. When you decide to press on because dying 
  here would break your mother’s heart, her heart 
  cracks a little bit as she flips through your baby 
  album. 
     These are the things that create stress and tension 
  in a relationship. The player character needs to deal 
  with these stress fractures in their relationships; our 
  bounds to other people give us strength, but they 
  also complicate our lives. 
     To undo this stress, the character needs to take 
  action. But once a relationship is put under stress, it 
  cannot come back in the same form - it can only 
  either deepen or break. The player may use their 
  roleplaying scene to try to Advance a Stressed 
  relationship. The player has their roleplaying scene 
  with the NPC and tries to fix the damage. 
     Their girlfriend might confront them when they 
  get back from the battle, saying “Every time you go 
  into battle, you [i]use[/i] me. I can’t take it 
  anymore!” 
     Or they go visit their old mentor, asking him for a 
  new lesson, but they are rebuffed, “I don’t think you 
  are ready for my ultimate technique... and maybe 
  you never will be.” 
     Or they face their rival in the debriefing room. The 
  rival smirks and boasts, “I shot down five. By my 
  count, you ah, only got four. Maybe next time, 
  slugger.” 
     You must react, you must do something, to 
  advance the relationship. Get down on your knee 
  and propose to her. Prove your worth to your 
  mentor. Show your rival the battle record of you 
  taking down two more enemy mechs while he was 
  busy. 
     At the end of the scene the player makes a roll 
  using their Social as the governing skill. The 
  difficulty of the role is equal to the relationship’s 
  level - that is, how many Stress boxes the 
  relationship has. If the roll is successful, remove all 
  Stressed marks from the relationship. If it fails, 
  there’s a consequence - the Relationship breaks. 
  Place a line through the Stress box to indicate this. 
     A broken relationship is one that has lost its 
  emotional heart. Love is replaced by hate; a 
  mentor’s wisdom turns to his scorn; a rival’s 
  boasting claims stop as he realizes you just aren’t in 
  
   
  44  
  his league any longer. A broken relationship cannot 
  be used for the remainder of the current session. 
  During the next session, the player may make 
  another attempt to heal the relationship. This takes 
  a roleplaying scene as normal, but repairing a 
  broken relationship is automatic, with no roll 
  required. Remove the broken line and all Stressed 
  marks. Do not advance the relationship, however. 
   
  Taking a Relationship to the Next Level 
     If the player makes the roll to unstress a 
  relationship, the relationship Advances. The player 
  removes the checks from all Stressed boxes and 
  places a new checkmark in one of the Advancement 
  boxes. If this is the third time the relationship has 
  Advanced, the relationship deepens to the next 
  level. Mechanically, this is represented by erasing all 
  Advancement marks and adding a new Stress box to 
  the relationship. 
     A relationship with multiple Stress boxes works 
  like normal, except that it can be stressed multiple 
  times (equal to the number of Stressed boxes) 
  before it can no longer be stressed and requires a 
  roleplaying scene to unstress. 
     Dramatically, the deepened relationship moves to 
  the next level. The player must narrate a scene of 
  the relationship growing deeper. When deepening a 
  romantic relationship from level 1 to 2, for example, 
  maybe the player narrates a quiet conversation the 
  two have under the moonlight sky, and the first kiss 
  they share under that moon. If the same 
  relationship moves from level 2 to 3, a more 
  intimate bond forms - both emotionally and 
  physically. (Feel free to “fade to back” before 
  anyone gets uncomfortable here.) 
     The 
  relationship 
  label 
  changes 
  when 
  the 
  relationship deepens. “Love interest” becomes 
  “girlfriend.” Maybe “girlfriend” becomes “fiancee”. 
  Maybe after narrating a scene where the PC and her 
  rival race motorcycles through the crowded streets 
  of the city, she changes the label “rival”to “partner 
  in crime.” 
     The dramatic scene and the new label are 
  mandatory for the relationship to deepen to the 
  next level. However, if the player does not want the 
  relationship to become deeper, they can refuse to 
  make it deeper. When a relationship is poised to 
  deepen and the character refuses, it Crashes 
  instead. 
  A 
  crashed 
  relationship 
  cannot 
  be 
  recovered; it is one where all possibilities of the 
  relationship continuing have been lost. The jilted 
  lover commits suicide in grief. The mentor goes into 
  retirement, calling you his greatest failure. The rival 
  gets promoted over you and relocated. Erase the 
  relationship line. 
  Adding New Relationships 
     As the game progresses, characters will meet new 
  NPCs, some of whom they will become attached to. 
  They can form new relationships with these NPCs by 
  expending 4 AP and drawing the new relationship 
  line as described above. A new relationship begins 
  at level 1 - even if game events have narrated a 
  relationship that has already reached a deeper 
  stage, that depth is new and fragile, and only work 
  can make the relationship really and truly deep. 
  Random Relationship Table 
     Random Relationship Table. If you roll a 
  relationship that doesn’t apply or that you don’t 
  like, roll again. To determine a random relationship, 
  roll d66 - that is, roll one six-sided die and count its 
  value in tens (10, 20, 30, etc.) and then a second six-
  sided die and count its value as 1s, giving you a 
  range of 11 to 66. Read the tens value down the 
  rows and the ones value across to locate the correct 
  column. Finally, this table is descriptive, not 
  proscriptive; if you want a relationship with a 
  completely different label than any of these, please 
  go right ahead! 
   
   
  
   
  45  
   
  d66 1 
  2 
  3 
  4 
  5 
  6 
  10 
  Twin 
  Childhood 
  Friend 
  Academy 
  Roommate 
  Business 
  Partner 
  Leisure 
  Friend 
  Betrothed 
  20 
  Professional 
  Rival - Young 
  hotshot 
  Professional 
  Rival - peer 
  Professional 
  Rival 
  - 
  old 
  guard 
  Romantic 
  Rival 
  Romantic 
  Rival 
  Romantic 
  Rival 
  30 
  Love Interest 
  Former Lover 
  Girlfriend 
  / 
  Boyfriend 
  Unrequited 
  Love 
  Spouse 
  Ex-spouse 
  40 
  Father / Mother 
  Brother 
  / 
  Sister 
  Niece / Nephew Uncle / Aunt Son 
  / 
  Daughter 
  Mysterious 
  Stranger 
  50 
  Landlord 
  Senpai 
  Religious 
  Leader 
  Wise Man 
  Medical 
  Professional 
  Mentor 
  60 
  Egghead 
  Government 
  Leader 
  Sidekick 
  Awkward 
  Friend 
  Comrade 
  Blood 
  Brother 
   
   
  
   
  46  
  -
  Learning More: Entire books have been written 
  about the subjects of Indian History, Hinduism, and 
  Bollywood, and new works appear on these topics 
  every month. Spend a little time investigating it, and 
  you will discover a whole new world. 
  Great Religions of the World: Hinduism, by Mark W. 
  Muesse. This is a marvelous DVD and CD audio 
  series produced by the Teaching Company. It now 
  comes available in a pack with the other Great 
  Religion Series - Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. I 
  can’t recommend it highly enough. 
  Pimsleur Hindi: Available as an audibook, you can 
  learn some basic Hindi on the commute to work. 
  The Hindi speakers speak slowly and the repitition 
  makes it easy to pick up on patterns. However, if 
  you are after a deeper grammatical knowledge of 
  Hindi, or want to learn Devanagari, the beautiful 
  script Hindi is written in, you will need to look 
  elsewhere. 
  Teach Yourself Hindi comes with three books, one 
  to teach Hindi, a small dictionary, and “Beginner’s 
  Hindi Script”, which teaches the script Hindi is 
  written in, Devanagari. The main book also comes 
  with a CD of some audio from the lessons. These 
  books are very useful to the self-motivated student. 
  www.shabdkosh.com - online Hindi to English 
  dictionary. Be sure to click the Show Transliteration 
  link unless you’ve mastered Devanagari!  
  he Upanishads, translation by Patrick Olivelle; a 
  good readable translation of some of the most 
  influential religious texts in the world. 
  Behind the Scenes of Hindi Cinema, by Johan 
  Manschot and Marijke de Vos, is a lavishly 
  illustrated 
  full-color 
  book 
  complemented 
  by 
  insightful commentary. If you are looking for one 
  book as a reference for Bollywood visual tropes, buy 
  this book. 
  Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story, by Nasreen 
  Munni Kabir, on the other hand only has a few color 
  plates, but is written by a Bollywood insider. With 
  an easy-to-read narrative, this book is a great 
  comprehensive lay introduction to Indian Cinema. 
  Frequent quotes from Nasreen’s interviews with 
  Bollywood’s movers and shakers lend this book an 
  air of authority few other sources can match. 
  Recommended Bollywood Movies 
  Enthiran - A Tamil Cinema movie, this is the most 
  expensive Indian movies ever made, about a robot 
  who falls in love with its creator’s daughter.  
  Krrsh - The adventures of an Indian superhero. 
  Sholay - An absolute classic. Set in a wild-west 
  version of India, this is one of the best movies ever 
  made, let alone Bollywood movies, about a police 
  man obsessed with revenge who hires two outlaws 
  to help him bring down his man. 
  Mission Kashmir - A powerful movie about the cycle 
  of revenge of Kashmir. 
  Mother India  - Made shortly after Indian 
  independence, this film shows the classic virtues of 
  a strong Hindu woman as takes on greedy money 
  lenders and her own criminal son. 
  Slumdog Millionaire - This is not technically a 
  Bollywood movie, but stars famous Bollywood 
  actors and has a common Bollywood theme of love 
  triumphing in the face of impossible adversity. Well 
  worth watching. 
  What’s Your Rashi - While a flop at the box-office, 
  this movie is notable for starring Priyanka Chopra in 
  twelve different roles.  
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deduped  Shit/Mecha RPG/Mecha - Mekayana.pdf