(Raise Thread!) Help me flesh out my OA setting for next Friday.

Edit: This is an old thread about a campaign I was working on. I haven't worked on it for a while, but now I am running it next Friday. Go down to my "BUMP" thread to read my current (and much abbrevieated) thoughts on my campaign. Come back here for the more "big picture" worldbuilding stuff.

The original thread:

Okay, this is my other major worldbuilding project. Unlike my other worldbuilding project, this one is more likely to end up being something that I will run again, but for the time being, the PCs will probably only visit here for a few adventures.

Basically, what I am looking for is an OA style campaign setting. The setting is on a remote continent on my campaign world, specifically the eastern end of a rather large continent.

There are a few historical facts from old games I have to accomodate. There was an old campaign called the sea of glass centered around a sea of glass created long ago by a magical war. On the east end of the sea of glass was an Asian culture that was bent on stamping out nonhuman humanoid races. There was also an honorable human warrior order called the shang.

As a starting point, I pulled out my world builder's guidbook and came up with this:

World Hooks:
Culture: Oriental (obviously)
Historical: Crusades
Historical: Balkanization

The crusades would probably be the racial purging I referred to earlier; the balkanization I rolled and might refer to a three-kingdoms like splintering of one of the major empires.

I rolled in the WBG and chose a few races. Obviously the dominant race was human, and I threw in some OA races where I felt it appropriate.

Here is the "starting point" I came up with. Of course, this is highly mutable, just a place to start. a (?) indicates that I am really ambivalent about the given choice or roll.

Dominant Races:
Human (5 cultures)
Giant (since Oni are giants in OA, this is "Oni") (2 cultures)

Major Races:
Dwarf (Korobokuru) (2 cultures)
Rakshasa (3 cultures)
Vanara (1 culture)
Yuan-Ti (3 cultures)
Gripilli (?)
Lizard Men (?)

Minor Races:
Hengeyokai (2 cultures)
Yeti (2 cultures)
Kenku (tengu) 1 culture
Tasloi (2 cultures)
Naga* (2 cultures)
Hobgoblin (1 culture)
Rishi (aasimar) (2 cultures)
Goblin (Bakemono) (2 cultures)
Sylvan Races* (2 cultures)
Elf* (?) (2 cultures)
Mold Man (?)
Orc (?)
Mammal, hsing-sing (?)
Giant (?)

* - Naga -- I may use both OA naga and classic naga
Sylvan Races - these will probably be OA fey
I am ambivalent about elves, but they were in the sea of glass game, so they may exist somewhere.

I split up the human cultures as follows
Culture 1 - Psuedo mongolian (1 nation)
Culture 2 - Chinese Model* (5 nations)
Culture 3 - Japanese Model* (6 nations)
Culture 4 - Psuedo-arabic**
Culture 5 - Indian Model* (5 nations)

* - these three cultures will use the OA campaign design chapter as a baseline. Of course, there will be tweaks; the Japanese prototype will be adapted to fit an ancient Korea with Sulsa and Hwarang, for example.

** - I will probably make this race into the Ashalan from Creatures of Rokugan, a race of sorcerers from their burning sands setting.

Overall, what I picture is something like an analog of Asia, with a few oddities mixed in. I picture the China analog as being an analog of warring states era China. The empire launched a racial war, but eventually this taxed the nation morally and martially, and it eventually fragmented. The aforementioned Shang will be one of the more honorable states.

The Japan analog will represent nations on a peninsula and a nearby island. In the south will be an india analog (and some smaller nations), beset by teaming jungles filled with Naga and Yuan-Ti, much like the Mahasarpa campaign (in the OA web enhancement)


What to do with Rokugan

I want to lean away from simply sticking Rokugan in the setting. For one, I am fond of any Japan-analog being an island. But the Rokugan books have a ton of ideas and open game content that I can use in this setting. Further, I really like the shadowlands and the taint, but it won't easily fit in physically into the setting. So what am I to do?

I am thinking of pulling the clans apart, and reassebling them in different nations, and parsing out their feats as regional feats that can cover other regions. Frex, a shaolin-type nation might have access to a lot of the dragon clan feats.

Further, I am thinking that the shadowlands may exist, but only intersect the material world at certain points... multiple points, so it may be a plague to several nations.

Any ideas how to flesh this out?

Another few cultural types you could consider include Persian, Scythian/Saka or Hunnic. Also, if you have the Wheel of Time RPG, you can use those nationalities as more clans ala Rokugani clans.

Other than that: I dunno. You're not very specific on what kinds of suggestions you want!

Joshua Dyal said:

Other than that: I dunno. You're not very specific on what kinds of suggestions you want!

Click to expand...

Well, on a basic level, I was wondering how best to handle integrating Rokugan material, or looking for ideas for interesting social or political situations or ideas for the nations.

More specifically, some ideas arising from the culture that would make interesting challenges or encounters for the characters would be welcome.

What kind of effect does magic have on thier society? That's always a good question to start from. Wizards (or whatever class you are using) may be reviled for thier "black magic", or they may be revered as "wise men".

Well, the oni seem to be a major player, so I would start with them. Maybe an oriental "Against the Giants" mini-campaign would be interesting. Perhaps the oni are on a crusade against the humans and are forcing them to worship their dark gods. I'd make the oni the main villains of the campaign, and make them very tough.

The yuan-ti would make good secondary villains. With 3 cultures of yuan-ti, maybe they're having a bit of a civil war, or maybe each yuan-ti culture is "the power behind the throne" of another nation, and seeks to outdo each other with their manipulations. (with the more human appearing ones placed as high level ministers in human society)

The yuan-ti corruption prevents the humans from uniting against the impending oni threat.

Kill all the elves. You'll feel better and have less of a tolkein feel.

Psion:
Well, on a basic level, I was wondering how best to handle integrating Rokugan material, or looking for ideas for interesting social or political situations or ideas for the nations.

More specifically, some ideas arising from the culture that would make interesting challenges or encounters for the characters would be welcome.

Click to expand...

OK, got it. I'm not too fond, actually, of the idea of clans being monolithic cultures within a culture. The feats are good ideas, but the strong cultural bias just doesn't work for me, unless they are seperate ethnicities or nations within a much broader cultural spectrum. Mixing up Rokugan clans (the mechanics, at least) with the Wheel of Time races might give you more options and make it less obvious that you're stealing from Rokugan more directly.

Another interesting socio-political factor is something that I once stole from Egyptian history but is very applicable to an OA type setting because it happened several times in China as well is the concept of an outsider (not in the D&D sense) ruling caste. Barbarians that conquer the nation and rule it, but are eventually so naturalized that they become more Chinese than the Chinese. Like I said, I originally got the idea from the Hyksos (Shepherd Kings) of Egypt, who were eventually ousted by descendents of the Pharoahs who had kinda ruled from exile in the Upper Kingdom. Not that the ruling caste was necessarily bad for the masses: in fact, they often were even better, but their will be factions that are loyal to the original dynasties, and that gives all kinds of opportunities for the PCs to get in the thick of things regardless of which sympathies they have.

I actually have thought about the Shadowlands idea a bit, as I do like the Taint as a representitation of metaphysical corruption.

Maybe you could have the Shadowlands (or the closes Mexican fascimile) be the equiqvlant to the Underworld in this campaign, the realm of pure evil. At certain points it might break through into the material world, creating unholy locations of pure evil where the animals and the people in the surrounding area become tainted and fall into darkness.

It is up to you how easy you want for it to be to close off the connection, maybe a True Ritual will work(you use Relics and Rituals, yes?), maybe a Dispel Evil will work, maybe its impossible.

Joshua Dyal said:

Barbarians that conquer the nation and rule it, but are eventually so naturalized that they become more Chinese than the Chinese. Like I said, I originally got the idea from the Hyksos (Shepherd Kings) of Egypt, who were eventually ousted by descendents of the Pharoahs who had kinda ruled from exile in the Upper Kingdom. Not that the ruling caste was necessarily bad for the masses: in fact, they often were even better, but their will be factions that are loyal to the original dynasties, and that gives all kinds of opportunities for the PCs to get in the thick of things regardless of which sympathies they have.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's an idea. It did happen in China. That's one historical factoid I could throw in. During the dynasty in question, those loyal to the dynasty wore topknots. This tended to brand rebels, as it took TIME to grow topknots.

Right now I am trying to cast my China-analog in the warring states era, so I'm not too sure that will work in the present era for that nation, but I might try it with one of the other nations.

Tuerny said:

Maybe you could have the Shadowlands (or the closes Mexican fascimile) be the equiqvlant to the Underworld in this campaign, the realm of pure evil. At certain points it might break through into the material world, creating unholy locations of pure evil where the animals and the people in the surrounding area become tainted and fall into darkness.

It is up to you how easy you want for it to be to close off the connection, maybe a True Ritual will work(you use Relics and Rituals, yes?), maybe a Dispel Evil will work, maybe its impossible.

Click to expand...

Yes, I do use true rituals. And as I mentioned, I was thinking about making the shadowlands an alternate plane that connects to the land in various points, similar to how you describe. The idea of making them areas that can be dispelled by powerful spellcasters might increase the importance of spellcasters in those societies.

Thread ressurection!

BUMP!

Well, this one has been sitting on the back burner for a while, but now we spontaneously are having an "off week", and the game is up in the air for the next week, and I am shooting to (finally) run OA.

So it is contingent upon me to throw something together quickly. Any input appreciated. These are the topics I am looking at:

1) Setting. See above. For next week, I want to run it a bit Wuxia-esque, so I want to run it in my China analog. So I am going to focus all of my attention there.

I am going for the "three kingdoms" thing. Looking over some Chinese history before the three kingdoms era, when China was united, a very strict legal system was put into place.

What I am thinking is that the empire here was similar. At the advice of a court wizard with ulterior motives, a very harsh system was put in place, and nobility was replaced with beureacracy. This ushered less heridary leaders into power and created a class of eunuchs close to the imperial throne. Soon, the emperor becomes a puppet. Soon, rebellion begins, fragmenting the kingdom into three states.

I still want to put the stuff about racism it, but that might be deeper in the past.

2) Classes

PHB: No druids or wizards. Rokugan ranger variant.

From OA:

Samurai
Shaman
Sohei
Wu Jen

From Rokugan:
Courtier

Other:

Beyond Monks' Martial Artist
Mongoose's Shaman

2a) Samurai - how?

I want to go Wuxia-esque, but still want to make Samurai and ancestral feats an option. So in essence, I want to make fighters and martial artists as viable as samurai.

Here is what I am thinking. A fourth nation that broke off to the west rejected the bearucratic reorganization and maitained their military aristocracy. They still have samurai.

Further, some noble families still maintain their heritage.

However, since the days of the reorginization, anyone with sufficient talent could distinguish themselves and rise is station. The noble warriors/samurai disdain them, but they are widely accepted.

2b) Two shamans. How?

I like the Mongoose shaman for this setting, but the OA shaman is really more wuxia-friendly.

I think I will make the Mongoose shaman the more traditional animist type shaman. The OA shaman will be more of a zen budhist who follows/reveres/strives to emulate specific moral spirits or some "court of heaven" as a set, vice relating to amoral spirits that the Mongoose shaman relates to. I still need a way to distinguish them by name.

3) Shadowlands vs. spirit

First off, I think I already said this, but I am not making my "shadowlands" a physical place on the map. Rather, there will be certain places that are closer to it and have connections to it.

OA has two minds abuot evil creatures. Rokugan ones are tagged "shadowland", otherwise they are just "spirits". I am using a blend.

I think I will take a bead from Mongoose's Shamans and the Oriental Hardpoint website. The Oriental Hardpoint website makes the plane of shadow the literal shadowlands, which works. Mongoose's shamans makes the plane of shadow the plane through which negative energy flows into the world, and creates a "spirit world" which is the place life energy flows into the world. This fits well with asian myth & folklore with concepts of spirits and the concept of yin and yang being essential elements of the world.

That's the basics. Any ideas?