Rivers, swamps, Bengal: Why does a new D&D adventure feel so familiar?
Hindustan TimesFans call Dungeons & Dragons the world’s greatest table-top role playing game. It’s inspired by 5th and 6th century Bengal and written by award-winning sci-fi and fantasy writer Mimi Mondal, 35, a Kolkatan who now lives in New York City. When I grew up in Kolkata in the 1990s and 2000s, I didn’t know the actual table-top Dungeons & Dragons game, but I did play video games such as Baldur’s Gate, The Elder Scrolls, World of Warcraft and so on, nearly always pirated copies. Some of these are not the first images you think of at the mention of Bengal, but our popular stereotypes – Durga Pujo, roshogolla, Rabindrasangeet, red-bordered saris – emerged much later, and have a very upper-caste Hindu framing passed off as universal, which I didn’t want to lean into.
Discover Related
)
