Asian fantasy: Good, Bad, Impure

[Eric Tolle]

Ah, that explains it. Like "One Night In Paris", "Moby Dick" (implying a white guy with a big shlong), etc. While interesting, here's hoping folks will understand my question's intent and not some sorta xxx innuendo.

One would hope so. But on the other hand, this...

And strict marital artists will find many of their abilities either useless (I plan a fair amount of political/exploration type sessions) or countered

...might still confuse some people.

 

[rossik]

also, u could do chinese fantasy, not japanese.

chinese have lots of ghosts, spirits, supernatural creatures...and u have "priests" (taoist monks), "thieves" (lin kwei/ninja), fighter (shaolin monks,wutan swordsman,..) and mages (buddist priests)

 

[Dykstrav]

I ran an OA game a few years back and it was a blast. The single biggest thing I (and my players) really enjoyed about it was a chance to step away from the Tolkienesque/generic fantasy conventions that D&D has become notorious for and step into what seemed like an entirely different game.

The only advice I'd give you about running an OA-style game is to get a feel for how much "different" your players want. If they just want a chance to play samurai, wu jen, and ninja characters, you can give them the same types of adventures you usually do with different cosmetic features. Some players may complain that D&D shouldn't be anime/video game-esque, so I'd give them some basic fantasy handles to latch on to: small villages in distress, wilderness areas and dungeons to explore, et cetera.

 

[bento]

I like OA because it puts a new dimension in the game - honor.

Honor is more important than money, as it is the real grease in the cogs of social encounters. The more honorable players are, the easier it is to get things done. The less honorable, the harder it is. This is as true for Rogues as it is for Samurai.

Family is also very important, as social ties are as important to your character as what your class is. I'd recommend having your players write down two or three important family members and use them to build adventures around.
'Remember the money Uncle Hoji loaned us to rebuild our house? He's now asking for a favor in return.'

Games tend to revolve more around quests and less around dungeon crawls.

For a setting I'd suggest the Kara-Tur Campaign Setting, which you can pick up as a pdf for about $5 on RPGNow, and Kitsunimore, which is a d20 Japanese-flavored setting that came out last year. The Kara-Tur setting can be mined heavily as they have different nations represent real hitorical Asian nations - strong & weak China, Korea, unified and un-unified Japan, southeast Asia, Tibet and Mongolia.

I'm not fond of Rokugan because it is a little too much Japanese flavor, and filled with meta-plots. Kara-Tur on the other hand has few plots in the background and plenty of places and people to give you ideas.

 

[frankthedm]

Few games that I have seen hammer home the concept of honor to the degree I feel is needed. To me it should be so important that losing too much should make the character unplayable enough that retiring the character through suicide is the best course of action.

I would love a pure Japan setting for high fantasy, close to M:tG’s Kamigawa.

A lower fantasy mythic china setting would rule IMHO since 80% of my group are big fans of the Koei Romance of the Three Kingdoms strategy games.

 

[Dragonbait]

I've GMed and played in OA style games. I enjoy it greatly.

Pitfall personal experiences...
A player insisted on playing a ninja. I warned him that ninjas were shunned and had to move about public in disguise. All other characters were of the samurai social class (NOT the class, but the equivalent to saying all other players were nobles) and religious orders. The ninja play said his character was a manservent. He then became offended because the other characters treated him like one. It was his own fault.

The only times I see people rallying against OA-style games are when they have no idea what is in the setting. They think samurai and ninja, and that's it. It's usually said either out of ignorance or some degree of cultural-elitism. It would be like saying the only thing you can be in a D&D (and thus european-based fantasy) is a knight and maybe a wizard.

 

[Dragonbait]

For a setting I'd suggest the Kara-Tur Campaign Setting, which you can pick up as a pdf for about $5 on RPGNow, and Kitsunimore, which is a d20 Japanese-flavored setting that came out last year. The Kara-Tur setting can be mined heavily as they have different nations represent real hitorical Asian nations - strong & weak China, Korea, unified and un-unified Japan, southeast Asia, Tibet and Mongolia.

I'm not fond of Rokugan because it is a little too much Japanese flavor, and filled with meta-plots. Kara-Tur on the other hand has few plots in the background and plenty of places and people to give you ideas.

I'm a fan of L5R, but Kara-Tur is a D&D-made setting and conforms with more D&D ideas. It might be easier to write adventures for Kara-Tur if you want to avoid heavy social and political storylines and conflicts that come with a L5R setting.

 

[Clavis]

While I do plan to use the Book of Erotic Fantasy, I don't understand the porn connotation to "Asian fantasy". Thus this have to do with the anime/manga "lesbian ninja furry" stuff I read about on many gaming boards?

Lesbian-Ninja-Pirate-Strippers = The ultimate in fine entertainment!

 

[joela]

no clue

I played in a game of Lot5R, and I had one serious problem. I'm not an oriental history or fantasy buff, so I didn't have a bloody clue about anything. It was not particularly fun.
-blarg

you weren't warned?

 

[joela]

reminding players to be Asian

It certainly helps to give the players a brain-dump of the cultural things their characters should know, as well as being forgiving during play about having to remind them.

definitely. i'm compiling a list of the most common, yet important, things to know (e.g., don't commit seppuku at every dishonor, don't go up to the nearest samurai and treat him like a bud, do tell all your--and your ancestors--accomplishments at duels, don't use your left hand to pass a dish to someone, etc.); everyone's PC gets some etiquette skill (though ranks are up to the players); and I'll periodically remind the players of the mindset.

One way I'm making it easiers for the PCs is that they all belong to minor families of the equivalent Unicorn clan from Lot5R. That way the occasionally faux pas will be understood in game (though, of course, smirked about).