A Thousand Thousand Islands: OSR DnD Zine Review 

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I'm half Chinese-Malaysian and I just about spat my tea over my screen when you said these books were Malaysian! These sound fantastic, I'm going to tell my family about this!

"... a baby in a bird cage..." :D Those illustrations are superb. A wonderful lack of cheesecake.

4 years later and these settings are still my favorite.

That zine looks amazing. I love the fact that it prefers being dense in art rather than in text.

You have a very soothing voice, I really enjoy laying in bed watching these reviews after a long day. Keep up the good work!

Literally 2:20 in, and just seeing how this is illustrated, and the style of presentation, and I am already feeling hyper-energized to do some revising of my way-too-drawn out Jane Austen/Gothic novel inspired writing about my setting. What was I even thinking?

This is exactly what I've been looking for! Thank you!

These look great. These have a very Tekumel kind of vibe, but without the very heavy lore aspect which can make EPT kind of intimidating. I remember the Penanggalan from the Fiend Folio (they even use the Russ art), but I never knew it came from Southeast Asian folklore. Very cool.

I ran a session with a Penanggalan last weekend. My players absolutely loved it. I'd recommend it for DMs looking for cool new monsters

So interesting! Loved it! You have the best recommendations, sir!

The artwork is amazing!

Wow that looks really incredible. One more to pick up...

didn't even finish the video and went to buy a set. Thanks for the review!

'By and Large' this was a pretty good review..... Speaking of Western RPGs, you could have a loot at the remake 'into the borderlands' module? Best

This zine looks amazing, and I agree about lore. It can be very limiting to the imagination, whereas this material looks inspiring.

Hats off to the guy for selling half empty zines :D

This is great! I’m looking for something similar with an Afro-Indian feel for a Tabaxi kingdom in my setting. What an amazing idea.

A Thousand Thousand Islands just went back into print and they now have pdfs on Itch. athousandthousandislands.itch.io/ There are also a couple of new books. I'm so happy to finally get my hands on these. Maybe you could add the new link in the description? Maybe review the new books?

Excellent review! Nice find!! Is the setting suited for low or high level playing (if I were to run it in 5e)? Are there actually any islands in the setting? It seemed more like rivers and towns (though I suppose I can put them on islands myself...) I am currently running HOT SPRINGS ISLAND thanks to your review, and I and my players love it!! I have interpreted the HSI-setting as a fantastically strange melting pot of Eastern asian, Indian and Arabic fantasy - it has elvish opium dens, harems, a hookah-smoking tiger man and an Efreet wearing Samurai armor after all! I am now thinking that I could weave some of this in when expanding the world! Perhaps a mainland archipelago not too far from Swordfish Islands. I could have the Martel Company operate in that region too. It could fit quite neatly. What do u think? Thanks!

i like what you said about dnd being based upon a lot of american culture/assumptions despite being based in a superficially european setting, i feel like a lot of osr stuff feels more 'truly' european in flavour and style as well as just the setting, such as dolmenwood

As a fellow Nusantaran, I believe that the depictions and mythologies are not exclusively Malaysian per se. Half of them are quite obviously inspired by the regional cultures of archipelagic Southeast Asia especially Bali, Java, Lombok, Sumbawa, Buton Isle and southern Philippines. I mean some of them are clearly obvious: that distinctly Balinese Hanuman with the sacred Balinese sarong motifs. Plus that magic invocation is the traditional Balinese ritual of reading their Vedas in lontar forms that we can find in holy temples of Uluwatu or Besakih in certain occasions. Also one of the earlier drawing is definitely just a Javanese guy wearing New Mataram era of peasant clothing, complete with blankon cap, Javanese batik and traditional surjan coat with lurik pattern. People wear those in the Yogyakartan palace complex and surrounding areas until this very day. Indeed, the cat and crocodile mythos give me a distinct Malayan vibe, but roughly the other half of them are clearly from another regions of Southeast Asia. I apologize for this diatribe guys, it just like one of those scenarios when people blending all medieval Mesoamerican civilizations into one giant stereotype and call it Aztec! It is a disservice to the Mayan, the Incan and other non-Aztec folks IMO. Well it's just my two cents anyway. Cheers and have a nice day!

I have a buddy who is over in Vietnam right now and I wonder if they sell this over there.

I really like your style. It feels relaxed, engaged and engaging, but not effusive, which seems to be too much of the style these days.

As a fellow Nusantaran, I believe that the artworks and mythologies are not exclusively Malaysian per se. Half of them are quite obviously inspired by the regional cultures of archipelagic Southeast Asia especially Bali, Java, Lombok, Sumbawa, Buton Isle and southern Philippines. I mean some of them are clearly obvious: that distinctly Balinese Hanuman with the sacred Balinese sarong motiffs, that magic invocation is the standard Balinese ritual of reading their Vedas in lontar forms that we can find in holy temples of Uluwatu or Besakih in certain occasion. Also one of the earlier drawing is definitely just a Javanese guy wearing New Mataram era of peasant clothing, complete with blankon cap, Javanese batik and traditional surjan coat with lurik pattern. People wear those in the Yogyakartan palace complex and surrounding areas until this very day. Indeed, the cat and crocodile mythos give me a distinct Malayan vibe, but roughly the other half of them are clearly from another regions of Southeast Asia. I apologize for this diatribe guys, it just like one of those scenarios when people blending all medieval Mesoamerican civilizations into one giant stereotype and call it Aztec! It is a disservice to the Mayan, the Incan and other non-Aztec folks IMO. Well it's just my two cents anyway. Cheers and have a nice day!