Asian fantasy: Good, Bad, Impure

[Defender_X]

I watched Naresuan(Thai historical drama) with my wife about two weeks back and since it's set in Ayutthaya, it got me thinking of a SE Asia game. You could have some or all of the PCs be foreign mercs and rulewise, you have to mainly worry about specific monsters and spells. Wouldn't need to have to add any classes from OA, unless one of the characters was a samurai merc. Yes, they had some down there.

 

[bento]

You may want to look at Legends of the Samurai from RPG Objects, then. It also has an honor system, as well as a more setting-appropriate selection of classes, point-based spell casting (which really, really, feels more 'right' than the D&D standard), and rules for social standing. It's easily my favorite d20/OGL Asian fantasy product and a stupendous product in general.

I've looked at it before and have thought about buying it.

In the OA game I ran, I was going for a prequel to "Avatar: TLAB" with the driving plot being the rise of the Fire Nation. I intended my players to flee the Japanese-like nation and go on a tour of the other lands to unify the different Shugenja branches against a splinter fire group. Unfortunately it fell apart as it was hard keeping the player roster consistent.

 

[Stormborn]

I think getting players to think outside their culture is a difficult thing to do. You can make a list of characteristics, values, etc and inplay they will likely just forget them. Even as a DM you can forget sometimes. This has been one of the biggest obstacles I have had to running an Asian inspired game, was the fear that I couldn't really pull it off. That it would wind up being just another fantasy but with the set pieces changed. And I have players who are very (very) character oriented, who really dig into back ground and development of motivations; so maybe I am more concerned with my ability to run it than I am their ability to play it.

However, if you choose to run one I would suggest, in as far as possible, "seeding" your and your players' imaginations. Find source materials that inspire you to think a certain way about the game - movies, books, tv, even music and comics. If you can do that then you can keep the tone and feel right long enough for the game to take on a life of its own.

I would suggest that no matter what the genre. Playing a fatasy western? Read Territory by Emma Bull and watch Firefly. Playing uberpowerful supers who save the world? Read Morrison's JLA. Playing in a faerie tale inspired setting? Read and watch Stardust.

Remind yourself why you want to play or run the thing.