Necessary for Far Eastern based setting

[Shadus]

I'm currently working a setting based on feudal japan and china (mixed with other countries) for my next DND game. I've read through wiki articles and the Oriental Adventures book, but still feel a craving for more ideas to pull this setting together.

I have the basic concept down for what I want. The world has themes of religion vs the natural spirits, which also reflects in a newism vs oldism. The Gods are viewed as mighty Dragons. There is also a strong caste system involved.

What else should be a major theme in a Far Eastern campaign? Or where should I look are inspiration? I'm wanting a mix of fantasy Asia (with colorful ninjas and fire benders) and a historical Asia.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In terms of sourcebooks, I'd add Dragon#318 (the OA 3.5 update), Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts (9780970104892): Zeb Cook, Steven Schend, Leon Phillips, Wolfgang Baur, Chris Pramas: Books and Rokugan stuff if I'm running 3.X. I'd also trawl these boards for threads about monks (see my sig), and yoink ideas from GURPS Martial Arts.

So you have a setting, now ask yourself what the main conflict will be. Will it be unification of the nation? Putting down the monasteries that threaten the feudal system? Foreign invaders- barbarians from far or near? The launching of a treasure/exploration fleet? Fighting pirates? Being outlaws? Warring clans- warrior or criminal- or schools/monasteries? (All taken from Asian history.)

 

[gamerprinter]

Well... I just happen to be the creator of Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting with 8 products so far released, for PFRPG. While the premise for my setting is specifically feudal Japan/Asian horror, and not China and other oriental nations, it's chock full of historically accurate and Japanese folklore accurate details - based on my lifetime of research on Japan, studying my heritage. I'm half-Japanese.

While I certainly played Oriental Adventures 1e - 3e, it never sat right for me. So many of the tropes, class concepts presented seemed wrong to me. Shugenja aren't priests rather all followers of a religion (Shugendo). Yakuza is a faction consisting of many classes, not just rogues. There's no such thing as a Wujen, yet Japan featured both Jugondo (monster slaying peasant sorcerers) and Onmyoji - the latter actually having a branch of the imperial court called the Ministry of Onmyodo, to control magic. Why use made-up stuff, when arcane practitioners did exist quite prevalently in Japanese history?! (Not saying magic is real, but they believed it.)

My setting uses both Shinto and Buddhist concepts in its religion and cosmology, as well as the concept of karma and a very specific kind of reincarnation. The Japanese caste system is intrinsically tied to the cosmology and the reincarnation mechanic.

Player races, I have human, hengeyokai, kappa, and tengu, though I may add korobokuru at a later time. I have 3 race books for each of the non-human races included 'in-character' perspectives of their society, favored classes, distinct racial archetypes, and a racial paragon class. Also are feats, spells and equipment.

All the classes, except the wrong ones - like Wujen, exist in Kaidan, as they existed in OA, but due to PF archetypes, there are multiple kinds for every class. I've got tattoo wizards for the yakuza/eta caste. I've got hedge wizards for the commoner caste. I've got Onmyoji (origami wizards) for the samurai caste. I've got Mahou-Tsukai necromancers among the noble caste. So there's not just one kind of wizard. The same is true for ranger, fighter, monk...

Take a look at my free adventure, Frozen Wind, I released last month as a Halloween promo freebee, to get an idea and some inspiration of what my publications have to fulfill your needs. It even includes 5th level versions of one of my new ranger archetypes, Yojimbo, as PreGen PCs.

We've got at least one new release every month since April, and I see that continuing into the next year - at least until summer, maybe longer.

 

[amerigoV]

I've been playing some Iron Dynasty. Its a Savage World setting (so it is coooooool ) and it has a ton of ideas you could plunder

Iron Dynasty - Reality Blurs

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

If you can get it from a source, acquire WotC's late-AD&D-era Dragon Fist game. It was only a digital download in .pdf format. But it disappeared from the WotC servers. Very evocative of themes in medieval China, eunuch sorcerers, hopping vampires, demons, wuxia and martial arts societies.

Good stuff.

 

[gamerprinter]

Another Rite Publishing product to look at in covering the China analog side of the oriental equation (since Kaidan is the Japan analog), is Jade Oath, which currently is available in Beta. The updated full version is supposed to be released this month or next as a hard bound edition - so that might worth looking at too!

Link to Jade Oath.

I don't know of any specifically southeast Asian analogs, beyond the use of Naga (which are SE Asian only monster/deity/being).

It also might be worth checking out Paizo's own Jade Regent AP, Dragon Empires Gazatteer and Bestiary 3 which contains many oriental monsters. (Note: in Paizo's upcoming February release of the last portion of the Jade Regent AP - I have created some of the gazatteer listings for that part 6 of the AP, as well as having designed the cartographic layout for Kasai, the capital of Minkai - Paizo's Japan analog. So I've got my creativity in that publication too - Paizo thinks I have some knowledge on the orient enough to pay for my expertise!)