D&D 5E (2014) Hoard of the Dragon Queen alternate

[DMAesh]

Aloha everyone. I have been mulling around this idea for a few days. Has anyone considered, or has anyone actually run Hoard of the Dragon Queen in an Asian setting?

 

[jayoungr]

You mean an Asian-flavored fantasy setting? I think it could work very well with a few tweaks. The biggest thing you'll have to deal with is the fact that dragons have generally positive connotations in Asian folklore.

 

[defendi]

You'd also need to find a way to bring the societal social stuff to the fore. Asian settings should have a strong component of conflict between what society expects of the character and what the character needs to do for his own reasons or morality.

 

[jayoungr]

You'd also need to find a way to bring the societal social stuff to the fore. Asian settings should have a strong component of conflict between what society expects of the character and what the character needs to do for his own reasons or morality.

Maybe redo the custom Bonds to bring in that element?

 

[defendi]

That's a start, but probably not nearly enough. In a proper asian campaign, at the very least a major subplot should be conflict between what the characters should be doing and what society demands they do.

Let me give you an example. When we were playing L5R, one of the players asked for an ascestor that would answer one yes or no question a session. Fearing it was WAY too powerful, he cleared it with the gm, who understanding the game better, agreed without blinking. We were magistrates hunting some evil doer, and thinking he had the "I win" button, the player asked his anscestor, "Did the daimyo do it?"

"Yep," the GM said cheerfully.

And that's when we realized the real conflict. Figuring out who the bad guy was didn't even really figure into to the adventure. The real conflict was the fact that the man who did it could have us executed with a word, and while our status meant he couldn't just kill us willy nilly without angering the Emperor all that he needed was the SLIGHTEST excuse to justify it and we were all dead (which would be bad) or disgraced (which would be worse).

Every mystery in that game involved us guessing the bad guy on our first try and then falling to, "Okay. So how do we prove it in their legal system, in a way that doesn't give them the right to kill us, or start a war between two clans, or disgrace our own lords, or just get so unpleasant that we're no longer welcome among the society in which we have to function."

 

[defendi]

Or to put it more simply, in most asian adventures (I'm assuming the china/japan region, of course) the interesting conflict is rarely the external Good vs. Evil. That's there so you get some proper bashing, but that's the relief. The real conflict is the internal Honor vs. Duty.

 

[DMAesh]

Thank you guys for the advice! I am trying to figure out the logistics, but I am drawing a lot of inspiration from the Keanu Reeves 47 Ronin movie, especially visual aspects. I do want to incorporate other Asian traditions as well though...

I am aware of the benevolence of Asian dragons and I am looking at ways to work that into the storyline. Imagine the confusion when a cult that venerates dragons is anything but benevolent...

To be honest, this was all started by a quote from Big Trouble in Little China...

 

[PnPgamer]

Thank you guys for the advice! I am trying to figure out the logistics, but I am drawing a lot of inspiration from the Keanu Reeves 47 Ronin movie, especially visual aspects. I do want to incorporate other Asian traditions as well though...

I am aware of the benevolence of Asian dragons and I am looking at ways to work that into the storyline. Imagine the confusion when a cult that venerates dragons is anything but benevolent...

To be honest, this was all started by a quote from Big Trouble in Little China...

Quote it here, please!

 

[DMAesh]

Don't want to mis-quote it, but it was when Wang Chi was holding Eddie hostage and they were crossing the cat-walk trying to draw the guard of the women out, and Wang Chi said, I'll send him to the hell of the Hoary Dragon or something like that... it morphed in my head to We are servants of the Hoary Dragon!

Sort of an epiphany when I immediately connected it to Hoard of the Dragon Queen!

 

[Eltab]

Find some 3e material about the Cult of the Dragon. These guys are already "doing it backwards": they revere _undead_ dragons. Then a new boss comes to power who is in thick with the (living !) Chief Evil Dragon. He is a nonconforming nonconformist in at least two dimensions.

The traditional Cult believes they have 'inside knowledge' on how to "think about the future" (to quote Jack Nicholson's future Joker), so there might be a (twisted) way they are doing society a favor by preparing a future leadership core - albeit their contribution is marred by the criminal gangs they sponsor in the Present.

Inhabitants of Kara-Tur (the part of Faerun which is Asian-culture-themed) who are asked to join the newfangled Cult of the Dragon ought to have their heads spinning as they consider the deeper ethical ramifications.