More house rules, addenda, and notes for Kala Mandala
WARNING TO MY PLAYERS: very minor spoiler alert for Drizzle Distillery here (July 15, 2026)
See previous post on this topic
Having now played Kala Mandala 200% more than in the previous post (read: 3 sessions total), I have some more notes on how I'm running it.
For the record, I really enjoy Kala Mandala and my players are really into it as well! The point of these posts is a) to help clarify my own thinking about the system and my GMing, and b) to share some tidbits that might be helpful to other GMs thinking of running the game in its current, Early Access state. Big thanks to Munkao both for writing the game and for generously engaging with some of my questions on Bluesky.
Also, I'm not from SE Asia and I'm not descended from anyone who is. I don't claim any expertise on the region or its cultures.
Contents:
Minor spoiler warnings for Stirring the Hornet's Nest at Het Thamsya, Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre, and Deluge at Drizzle Distillery.
Praying
When and where can PCs pray?
Having finished Het Thamsya and Zaya's Theatre and started Drizzle Distillery, the question of how and where to make prayers has come up a couple times. Zaya's and Drizzle include shrines inside that the PCs don't know about in advance. I don't think we can assume that there always shrines in sites (there isn't in Het Thamsya) and that those are the only locations for prayers and offerings - especially for sandboxes or more out-in-the-open play. However, I really like the in-site shrines as written.
My limited, direct experience in SE Asia (Cambodia, really) suggests that it's not unreasonable to posit that there are very small offering sites scattered about the place. In starting all 3 modules, I let the PCs make offerings at a small, roadside or forest shrine before entering the site. The only issue with letting the PCs do this is that they all want to make offerings as the start of the module now, and this reduces interest in the in-site shrine.
I read the notes on p. 32 of the core book as meaning that PCs could effectively only have one blessing per adventure (each published module comprising a region). Upon re-reading, I see there's room to interpret it as meaning that, as long as there were multiple shrines to multiple gods in a general area, they could add 'em up.
In the postmortem from Zaya's (where they didn't actually encounter the shrine but I told them about it after), the players really wanted to be able to engage with in-site shrines and also wanted to be able to get their blessings beforehand. One player explained that it gave them something to do with the money they were accumulating during the adventure, which is a novel take to me.
In Drizzle, I'm going to experiment with allowing them to top up their blessings at the in-site shrine, but will limit the effect so that, at most, two blessings stack.
A few other thoughts have since occurred to me, but I'm not sure if I'll run with them:
- small, ambient shrines might only be eligible for smaller offerings
- Major or Good offerings could be reserved for downtime activities
- there maybe be opportunities for players to develop skills through repeated prayers and interaction with shrines.
When to apply blessings?
Even though I've been writing down the results of everyone's blessing roles to keep them secret, it's easy to forget about them during play. So, I told my players that it was up to them to beseech the GM (as representative of the gods, I guess!) to apply them in-game.
Players also asked whether the blessings can be used on an opponent's save or damage roll. I decided to be a literalist and not allow this.
Legacy
For some reason I didn't have the players roll Legacy (core book, p. 34) when they picked or rolled characters after the TPK in Het Thamsya, so I had them do it after Zaya's. Because they had turned the Queen against Waji (albeit too late), I thought it made sense that the wasps would leave and that the Automata Path would gather the slain PCs' gear for the Meddlers Association in thanks.
Anyway, Legacy is fun. Use it.
Downtime
We had our first downtime after Zaya's due to the Het Thamsya TPK. I played it pretty generously IMO. I was planning on letting them skill up after Zaya's and still let them do so with the new characters. The downtime was of indeterminate length and I allowed them all to undertake a Growth activity, shop, and replenish skills.
In the future, I might try to limit the number of activities but I guess that's only an issue if we go beyond the published (and forthcoming) modules.
Growth
I gave them the choice of either learning a skill or training attribute/HP (core rulebook, p. 31).
One player trained HP. I charged him 1,000g for a single point. I would consider adding steps to the downtime activity for HP beyond 6 or attributes above a certain threshold: say, one downtime to find training and one downtime to do it.
The other players wanted to develop skills. Two PCs had read Dance Techniques of the Elites in Zaya's Theatre, so I gave them the one-time option of developing a skill from that. For the other players, I allowed them to choose a skill from the same type as either of their starting skills.
Here's what we came up with for the new skill from Zaya's:
Dance Techniques of the Elites
- Once per day, the player can make one of the hand gestures from Zaya's plays (fraternize, beseech, grovel, intimidate, command) on another person.
- I'm blanking on whether we decided it would give advantage or just work. We'll figure it out next week! Obviously, making it just work can be powerful. Another option would be to reduce the frequency of use.
- We didn't determine the type of the spell and I'm not sure it's necessary. I guess it would be Magic, although I'd also consider Fighting if we were to see rulership as a martial activity.
I like this idea of developing unique skills from key elements of the modules' plots as limited time options. The existing list of skills core rulebook is great and I'm eager of opportunities to expand it, while also respecting that RPG homebrew in general tends to overpower the core material pretty quickly.
One PC now has four skills, due to training and Legacy (see above). The one who trained HP and rolled a poorer Legacy only has two.
Limits on gear acquisition per downtime
The PCs made a pretty penny from Zaya's (plus Legacy from their initial characters) so some had quite a bit of money to burn. You can also buy all 6 pieces of armour from the core book for 1,180g at the highest recommended prices (950g at the lowest). I don't see any reason you can't equip that all at once but, at the same time, I thought that allowing them to buy it all over a session or two would be too quick an escalation. So, I limited them to one piece of armour acquired per downtime: you can't just assume an unlimited supply at all times!
Most players wanted new weapons. I didn't put any limits on this although I might in the future (possibly combined with armour - one weapon or one armour per downtime).
Two more ideas emerged from downtime:
- New recipes: one player was inspired by the notes on Food & Rations (core book, pp. 40-41) and wants to expand the list of skill recipes that players can learn.
- Other yantras: yantra cloth and yantra tattoos are items (or "items") of armour in the core book. From what I understand of the tradition behind them, yantras aren't just about protection. It could be that there are other yantra tattoos available or that yantras could be added to other items (magic weapons?!). Mechanically, it would be important to ensure that these don't just overpower Skills and Growth. Morally, I feel that I need to learn more about this tradition and symbolism before doing anything with this idea.
Rations
Players were deemed to have consumed a ration after the last adventure (on top of the ones they used making mud to blind the automata).
Hand-waving the realism a bit, I ruled that they needed to account for that ration (from inventory or by purchasing it) lest they start the next adventure with Exhaustion (core book, p. 30).
Guild membership fee
All the way back on p. 6 of the rulebook is the note that annual membership fee for the Bawan Meddlers Association is 880g per annum. A year might as well be the unreachable future in many campaigns (especially short ones) so I decided that the PCs' dues were coming up - maybe after this Drizzle Distillery, maybe after the following adventure!
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