Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How should be the future Oriental Adventures.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="GreenTengu" data-source="post: 8030694" data-attributes="member: 6777454"><p>Something that I feel very odd in regards to Fantasy that takes place in Asian settings written by Westerners-- and this is more about Legends of Five Rings that Karatur which I don't have so much familiarity with, but my only brush with it suggests it also has this element-- is this....</p><p></p><p>When the writers go and explain the world-- sure, there may be "nobles" and "peasants" and "a king". But not much emphasis is put on any of that. You aren't asked to determine exactly what social class your character has. People are not likely to be harmed or killed for having bothered someone in a higher class. There isn't emphasis put on the peasants being legally tied to the land and them trying to leave would be grounds for execution. We rarely hear of exactly how the tax system works and what the tax burden would be... and certainly the "adventurers" are not expected to be explicitly state-sanctioned in doing their wok with certain responsibilities they need to fulfill, or at least it is generally quite voluntary on the players part if they want to be involved with that.</p><p></p><p>But then they go and the write a setting with Asian themes-- suddenly, even though roughly an identical feudal system with extremely similar rules existed in Europe, it is only then that the writers feel the need to explicitly impose the details of the feudal system onto the setting. Suddenly, because it is set in an Asian-based setting, social class is massively influenced and players need to be from a particular social class or be denied tons of rights. Their relation to the "imperial system" is heavily emphasized and the it is explicitly detailed what the player's privileges, state-sanctioned powers and personal responsibilities are.</p><p></p><p>And they are all often taken to a rigorous extent beyond what really existed in Asia outside of maybe the Tokugawa Shogunite of the 1700-1800s. And often things that are explicitly horrors of European feudal system are placed in there even if they were hardly a thing in Asia.</p><p></p><p>So I always thought it was odd that when dealing with the European-based setting, one just handwaves stuff and says people are basically free and not to sweat the exact mechanical details of how all the politics work. But when dealing with an Asian-based setting, suddenly they really want to impose on players the horrors of the feudal system in order to make the whole thing seem more alien and oppressive.</p><p></p><p>And then there are other silly details-- like this idea that samurai explicitly used swords and only swords, refusing to so much as entertain using any other weapon, and building the entire class around having a magic sword-- when in reality, samurai, much like knights, started off as armored mounted horsemen and their primary weapons were spears and bows. They even used guns. And only once the samurai era was dead and gone was a large emphasis put on the swords (mostly because a ton of samurai sold everything else off to feed their drinking, gambling and um... other recreational... habits) so that the sword was the last thing left. Other than that it was just a side-arm that maybe they would have in case they were attacked inside a castle or on the streets in a city, but were not their primary weapon of war.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I really think it does everyone a massive disfavor.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreenTengu, post: 8030694, member: 6777454"] Something that I feel very odd in regards to Fantasy that takes place in Asian settings written by Westerners-- and this is more about Legends of Five Rings that Karatur which I don't have so much familiarity with, but my only brush with it suggests it also has this element-- is this.... When the writers go and explain the world-- sure, there may be "nobles" and "peasants" and "a king". But not much emphasis is put on any of that. You aren't asked to determine exactly what social class your character has. People are not likely to be harmed or killed for having bothered someone in a higher class. There isn't emphasis put on the peasants being legally tied to the land and them trying to leave would be grounds for execution. We rarely hear of exactly how the tax system works and what the tax burden would be... and certainly the "adventurers" are not expected to be explicitly state-sanctioned in doing their wok with certain responsibilities they need to fulfill, or at least it is generally quite voluntary on the players part if they want to be involved with that. But then they go and the write a setting with Asian themes-- suddenly, even though roughly an identical feudal system with extremely similar rules existed in Europe, it is only then that the writers feel the need to explicitly impose the details of the feudal system onto the setting. Suddenly, because it is set in an Asian-based setting, social class is massively influenced and players need to be from a particular social class or be denied tons of rights. Their relation to the "imperial system" is heavily emphasized and the it is explicitly detailed what the player's privileges, state-sanctioned powers and personal responsibilities are. And they are all often taken to a rigorous extent beyond what really existed in Asia outside of maybe the Tokugawa Shogunite of the 1700-1800s. And often things that are explicitly horrors of European feudal system are placed in there even if they were hardly a thing in Asia. So I always thought it was odd that when dealing with the European-based setting, one just handwaves stuff and says people are basically free and not to sweat the exact mechanical details of how all the politics work. But when dealing with an Asian-based setting, suddenly they really want to impose on players the horrors of the feudal system in order to make the whole thing seem more alien and oppressive. And then there are other silly details-- like this idea that samurai explicitly used swords and only swords, refusing to so much as entertain using any other weapon, and building the entire class around having a magic sword-- when in reality, samurai, much like knights, started off as armored mounted horsemen and their primary weapons were spears and bows. They even used guns. And only once the samurai era was dead and gone was a large emphasis put on the swords (mostly because a ton of samurai sold everything else off to feed their drinking, gambling and um... other recreational... habits) so that the sword was the last thing left. Other than that it was just a side-arm that maybe they would have in case they were attacked inside a castle or on the streets in a city, but were not their primary weapon of war. I really think it does everyone a massive disfavor. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How should be the future Oriental Adventures.
Top