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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9356543" data-attributes="member: 93670">I accidentally hit post on that while typing because a new post shifted the submit button under my thumb, but I wanted to go into some specifics about the good stuff I'd love to see <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />This thread kinda exploded fast, but I think that there is some noteworthy things that a well done karatura setting could really add to d&d that existing settings don't. With wotc doing a Japanese version of d&d it seems reasonable to have a setting in the Japanese version of generic nonspecific medieval fantasy.While the original 80s setting was pretty far into Asian versions of wooden Indian and lawn jockeys without the good location specific historical reasons that you sometimes see those things, there are a few historical periods often seen in the Japanese version ofgeneric nonspecific medieval fantasy that should absolutely be mined for all the same reasons we see them so often in anime without knowing the history to not even question them.Ironically some of those historical things we recognize as nonhistorical fantasy tropes are often pretty well rooted in standard d&d going way back to the early years because of how they improve many games and/or minimize needles bookkeeping & explanations of the world when combined.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">In the Edo period there was a long period of cultural and economic stasis. It might not have lasted the (tens) of thousands of years that many d&d settings maintain cultural stasis, but 1603-1867 makes it a shocking 250+ year stretch of cultural stasis that was never really seen anywhere else in world history. That cultural stasis might not seem significant by itself, but it becomes super noteworthy when combined with other Edo period elements because of how we sometimes see them in d&d as well.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Edo had (for the time period) rather extreme <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6hh4fm/japan_historians_what_rules_governed_domestic/" target="_blank">restrictions on travel </a>that limited who could travel and when/why they could travel... Even merchants needed to go through the equivalent of the more recent "papers please" checkpoints. Specifics shift a bit depending on who is traveling & for historical reasons which end of the time period is closer to the date of travel In the context of d&d that makes it easy to ensure that players need to consider the area they are in as an important home territory because they can't just faff off to water deep for shopping or to lay low if they want to</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period#:~:text=Older%20scholars%20believed%20that%20there,followed%20by%20craftsmen%20and%20merchants." target="_blank">Warrior peasant craftsman & merchant</a> social classes were present, as were rather significant class based restrictions on weapons that limited people in what weapons they could own, how many they could own, and how/if they could wear them. D&d having weaponless peasants/merchants/etc & under equipped individuals who really wish they could have things they could afford to buy goes all the way back to the early days of d&d. Coupled with the travel restrictions this makes for a good reason why an <a href="https://youtu.be/r89J0-vsq_g?t=408" target="_blank">adventurer class</a> of murderhobos roaming the monster infested land might be tolerated</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Tokugawa Shogunate as a ruling body had a policy of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankin-k%C5%8Dtai" target="_blank">alternate attendance</a>" that required the feudal lords to split their residence between their home territory & the capital with the goal of (among other things) Keeping roads in good condition & minimizing efforts to overthrow it & go back to the prior warring states period where everyone was at war When applied to d&d this makes for a good reason why the apocalypse engine known as a high level PC can't simply demand to see the local lord as well as why a lower level one meeting them while being hired to deal with some monster problem/adventure might be a big deal that can't simply be repeated</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prior to the Edo period was the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Sengoku_Period/#:~:text=The%20Sengoku%20Period%20(Sengoku%20Jidai,bitterly%20for%20control%20of%20Japan." target="_blank">warring states period</a>. I don't think that we even need to get into details beyond the nameon why that provides useful fodder for a d&d settng</li> </ul>All of those are great historical elements to mine for a karatura setting & we see them so regularly in anime that most d&d players won't even realize they are historical rather than anime derived.</blockquote>

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