Kaidan setting handbook - what do you want to see?

[gamerprinter]

I'm beginning preliminary work on a Kaidan Setting Handbook. What would you like to see in it?

I'm thinking the start would have an overview of Kaidan, from a perspective that anyone living there would know.

Next would be the players section, which would include races, new classes, archetypes, feats, equipment, spells and traits, as per the structure of the Core Rulebook.

The GM's section would include detailed discussions on running an oriental setting, then a horror setting, then specifics about Kaidan - the deeper knowledge that many locals are not aware of, at least regarding specifics such as politics, economics, religion, government, the social castes, cosmology and the Death and Reincarnation cycle.

Magic items, Ancestral Relics (Kaidan's artifacts), and then a Bestiary. This would be followed by a detailed gazetteer of main islands of Kaidan and their respective provinces, major cities, points of interest and wilderness reaches. Additional maps would be created as well.

Some people might prefer a bestiary section kept out, rather in it's own bestiary as a separate book. Would this be a preference?

What else would you like to see, or what better method of displaying the material would you prefer?

 

[gamerprinter]

On the Paizo boards, Endzeitgeist suggests a separate Players Hand Out, a GM's guide, and a separate Bestiary, as 3 different books rather than one large setting handbook.

Are there different or other suggestions?

 

[Lwaxy]

Not much into horror, although I love the map.

I'd only separate the bestiary if there are a lot of new monsters. Otherwise I'd stick them in the GM's guide, probably with a stat less list in the player's guide.

 

[gamerprinter]

There was some discussion early on about creating a #30 Obake of Kaidan - or something to that affect, that was a Kaidan bestiary to include new monsters, some monster templates and yurei ghost templates.

I've already got 20 pencil illustrations by Mark Hyzer for such a project even before I got involved with Rite Publishing. We've used not quite half of those illustrations in other Kaidan releases - especially the adventures that featured some of those monsters.

Bestiaries cost more to produce because the need for illustrations for each entry. I would need 10 more, and would like to get the previous artwork paid for - since that came out of my pocket, back then. I'd almost need a small Kickstarter to pay for this - which is the only thing holding me back from getting a bestiary out.

While Kaidan itself is built with a horror premise, it's also an attempt at an accurate/authentic portrayal of a fantasy setting closely based on Japan, Japanese history, culture, religion, folklore and ghost story tradition. Much more closely than previous oriental settings. It is detail rich and based on a lifetime research into my family heritage (my Mom is Japanese). You wouldn't have to play it's horror aspect and still have a very unique setting to play with.

I guess what I'm asking is should a Handbook emulate the Core with both player and GM information in the same book, or should I separate them into two smaller books... my goal was to produce a hardcover handbook.

 

[Lwaxy]

In that case, I'd go with one book unless it would get so big as to kill an elephant with it. At least I know if my players get us GMs something, they prefer to have to buy only one book even if that's more expensive.

I would try a kickstarter if I were you. although the response here is non-existing yet - weird enough - I know that everyone I showed the map to before liked it.

My original intention was to place Kaidan off to the Oriental Adventures mainland, thus separating our planned campaign into a Chinese & Korean setting and a Japanese setting (or Korean was complaining about oriental = Japanese ) but unfortunately, the campaign idea never got anywhere. I hope I can renew interest some time.

 

[gamerprinter]

OK, I'm starting to settle on the releasing of three books. One being a bestiary, as described in my previous post - something like a 60+ page supplement with 30 unique monsters, monster templates and yurei ghost templates. With an illustration and 3 pages of content per monster.

Then a Player Guide, something more or less comparable in size to the above bestiary, perhaps a little smaller, being a book primarily consisting of fluff, some background on society, the caste system, a touch on religion and politics, an overview of the culture, perhaps a listing of available archetypes (but not the archetypes themselves.)

Then a hardbound 180+ page b/w main setting handbook as a GMs handbook. Like the Core rulebook, the first part would consist of races, classes, archetypes, traits, feats, equipment and spells. This would be followed by GM core of all parts of the setting - government, politics, religion, economics, etc, plus setting specific rules like death and reincarnation, karma system, honor and glory, how magic works and how divine classes work, etc. Following the crunch would be a detailed gazetteer of all the main islands, plus a focus on specific sites of interest with their own detailed maps.

I think this would please the playing audience to distribute the intended setting handbook project into three distinct books.

Thoughts?

 

[Lwaxy]

Sounds good to me. Where do you plan to put the maps? Or will there be a GM version and a player version?

 

[gamerprinter]

Sounds good to me. Where do you plan to put the maps? Or will there be a GM version and a player version?

The player version is the map I currently have in the Kaidan Preview which shows the entirety of the island archipelago, the division of provinces, major cities and general topographical layout (rivers, mountains, forests).

My detailed map of Yonshu Island, at the start of the The Gift, Curse of the Golden Spear: Part 1 adventure would be the type found in the GM Kaidan handbook. Thus I'd create similar detailed versions of the other two major isles of Kaidan. Also would be more detailed maps of specific location of interest in Kaidan.

So yes, 2 different maps, but the GM handbook would also include a ton of extra maps...

 

[Lwaxy]

Nice. Do you send to Germany? I may be able to convince my husband to get this. Would fit right into the Asian part of one of our 13 worlds for the Cyndu campaign.

 

[gamerprinter]

While you can certainly order from DriveThruRPG and the Paizo store to ship to Germany, at least for our print products, they are usually available from Cubicle 7, and/or Amazon, and many independant book stores and book store chains worldwide, so you have many options for getting the printed books in your hands. I know of book stores in India, Australia, Finland, UK, US, Canada selling Kaidan books (and I'm sure some bookstores in Germany carry them too). I've seen pictures of the material on the shelves of an Anchorage, Alaska LGS, and a pic of one in Florida - so I know they are available all over the place.