Asian fantasy: Good, Bad, Impure

[joela]

martial arts

One would hope so. But on the other hand, this...
...might still confuse some people.

basically, being a combat monster will either get your PC looked up with scorn, killed, or be really, really, bored. And there's always someone better and with Heaven's Blessing if that PC decides to go "western" on the entire society

 

[joela]

chinese

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)

i'll probably borrow elements. most of my players, though, are more familiar with the japanese fantasy stereotypes than chinese ones.

 

[joela]

feel

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.

definitely. there's a big difference in going into the dungeon to pillage/loot (standard DnD); it's quite another to enter and convince the "spirits" (e.g., neutral oni, dungeon lord, etc.) to allow the party to search and find one of the interred (sp?) bodies so they can place an ancestral sword in his/her tomb.

 

[joela]

honor, family, settings

Honor is more important than money, as it is the real grease in the cogs of social encounters.

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.'

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.

I have Kara-Tur and I just found out about Kitsunimore recently. It definitely looks interesting. Also, Steampunk Musha by PIG will be available later this year. I'll probably purchase it as well.

 

[joela]

???

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.

Don't know any of those games.

 

[joela]

ninja and manservant

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.

Thanks for the warning. I'm hoping that my requirement that everyone be members of minor families of a minor clan will alleviate some of that issue. (Course, I could have the ninja clans approach the family. Hmmm....)

 

[frankthedm]

Don't know any of those games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_of_Kamigawa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamigawa


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangokushi
Sangokushi, the Japanese transliteration of Sanguo Zhi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), is a computer and video game that originated from Japan, a series of turn-based computerized wargames by Koei. Eleven editions of the series have been published in Japan and Chinese-speaking countries in East Asia. Of the eleven Japanese editions, ten English versions are available as Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

 

[jdrakeh]

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

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.

 

[blargney the second]

you weren't warned?

Not really. I was also popping into a game already in progress, so I was also hooped on knowing the game story. It was an unfortunate confluence, but I tried my best to have fun.
-blarg

 

[kensanata]

Kitsunemori

I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to play Kitsunemori. As my players consist mostly of Powergamer, Kick Butt, and Casual Gamer types, it turned out to be a bad choice. The only thing that really made a lasting impression was the crunchy bits regarding weapons, samurai armor, and turn unnatural instead of turn undead for priests. They didn't enjoy new restrictions like shunned wizards, no monks, and more rules like geomancy.

We still have lots of fun, but I think it would have been more fun to just ditch all the crunchy bits and go with fluff-only + new monsters.

So it really depends on what your players want.

Part of this is probably explained by the fact that this is our first 3rd ed game after over ten years of not gaming.