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<blockquote data-quote="Atridis" data-source="post: 1122999" data-attributes="member: 13919">In my opinion, a Victorian-era campaign actually makes Asian-style Monks -more- reasonable than in regular D&amp;D. By the 1880s, there were thousands of Chinese in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. Heck, Chinese immigrants built a lot of the cross-country railroads in the USA. In &quot;From Hell&quot;, a fun movie if you haven't seen it, and right up your alley for this campaign, Johnny Depp's character is an opium addict - opium was (and still is, probably) imported from Southeast Asia, and opium dens were a big reason that &quot;China Towns&quot; in the United States (maybe Europe, too) got such a bad rep. At the same time, Shanghai and Hong Kong were lousy with us &quot;gwailos&quot; (the Cantonese slang for Caucasians - similar to the Japanese &quot;gaijin&quot; or the Mexican &quot;gringo&quot;). Late 19th-century Shanghai had an entire community of English, French, Dutch &amp; Americans (I think it's still there - a clump of Victorian architecture in the center of an otherwise Chinese city). If you're a &quot;Buffy&quot; fan, you may remember the episode in which Spike recounts a tale of he, Angelus, Drusilla, and Darla in China, during what appeared to be the &quot;Boxer Rebellion&quot; (we Europeans and Americans called it the Boxer Rebellion because the Chinese were using Kung Fu - what we called &quot;Chinese Boxing&quot;). Of course, Asia is a big place, and Monks could be used for other nationalities. The Japanese around that time were extremely reticent to interact with foreigners, but maybe in another world they'd be a little less insular. A Monk could probably be modified to represent an Indian, a Phillippino, or a Siamese (I think it was still Siam in the 19th Century, but you'd have to check that).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Atridis, post: 1122999, member: 13919"] In my opinion, a Victorian-era campaign actually makes Asian-style Monks -more- reasonable than in regular D&D. By the 1880s, there were thousands of Chinese in London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. Heck, Chinese immigrants built a lot of the cross-country railroads in the USA. In "From Hell", a fun movie if you haven't seen it, and right up your alley for this campaign, Johnny Depp's character is an opium addict - opium was (and still is, probably) imported from Southeast Asia, and opium dens were a big reason that "China Towns" in the United States (maybe Europe, too) got such a bad rep. At the same time, Shanghai and Hong Kong were lousy with us "gwailos" (the Cantonese slang for Caucasians - similar to the Japanese "gaijin" or the Mexican "gringo"). Late 19th-century Shanghai had an entire community of English, French, Dutch & Americans (I think it's still there - a clump of Victorian architecture in the center of an otherwise Chinese city). If you're a "Buffy" fan, you may remember the episode in which Spike recounts a tale of he, Angelus, Drusilla, and Darla in China, during what appeared to be the "Boxer Rebellion" (we Europeans and Americans called it the Boxer Rebellion because the Chinese were using Kung Fu - what we called "Chinese Boxing"). Of course, Asia is a big place, and Monks could be used for other nationalities. The Japanese around that time were extremely reticent to interact with foreigners, but maybe in another world they'd be a little less insular. A Monk could probably be modified to represent an Indian, a Phillippino, or a Siamese (I think it was still Siam in the 19th Century, but you'd have to check that). [/QUOTE]

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