Need Oriental "Flavor

[Jovah]

I will be DMing an Oriental Adventure mini-campaign in the next few months. Our group normally plays "traditional" D&D.

I wanted to run an Oriental style game for something different rather than any deep knowledge of The Orient etc.

I have the Oriental Adventures Book and The Rokugan book. I have picked up several L5R adventures.

I am looking for suggestions or other games/books/movies/modules that will help me "get" the style and bring that out of the players.

Some of my "issues" are - no looting bodies, very low magic, no adventurer's curiosity to play on. Basically the characters have a boss and a mission/goal.

I guess I am rambling a bit. But basically I am looking for comments from people that run Oriental style games.

Is there a support group?

 

[haiiro]

Check out Green Ronin's Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts. It's a great OA monster book.

You also can't go wrong with the amazing Lone Wolf & Cub series of comic books. They are excellent in their own right, but also rich in details and color that you could use to enhance your game. Dark Horse just finished re-releasing them in digest format (very small, thick books -- about 4"x5" and 300 pages). There are 28 books in the series, and they're US$10 apiece.

 

[jester47]

Oriental flavor?

I would suggest Mongolian Beef. However some here seem to swear by hot italian beef.

Seriously there is an article in dragon that talks about movies and some good suggestions are made there. (obviously crouching tiger hidden dragon) Akira Kurosawa movies are good too.

Aaron.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

It all depends on how much of the society that your going to be using and what classes. I played/ing in an OA camp and found the OA and Rokugan books very helpful. i played a samuria and read through the family histories and backrounds. There is also another book way of the samuria that went futher into detail about them and their likes and dislikes. For intance two players in my group were married. One was a samuria and the other was a Gajin. The female samuria was also of the lion clan (i was Crane). All this boiled down to we would never get along. I played it well, I thought, i never actually talked to her in character. I also ingnored her husband as best as I could. That turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would have been. He played the Barbarian westerner well. He'd charge everything and tackle it.

Any way the books that you have should be enough. It is important that the players also read any material about the setting. you can be all into it, but if the players aren't then it's not going to work.

 

[Lazybones]

I'd recommend the very interesting Vietnamese adventures story hour by ForceUser. In the SH forum (hasn't been updated in a while, but there's a good chunk o' tale already up there).

 

[Starman]

Akira Kurosawa movies are good too.

I'll second that, especially The Seven Samurai. You can't go wrong with that one.

Starman

 

[Kyramus]

James Clavell's Shogun- great feel to it.

Make it known that Honor comes with a price and dishonor's price is almost always death.

Either honorable death or dishonorable death (hanging).


If you have read the Rift War Saga by Feist, you can always model OA after the Kelewans.
It comes complete with insectoid mercenaries (almost Thrikreenish).

 

[Dr. NRG]

Sesame seed oil and MSG are the keys...

Not kidding, okay maybe a little,

NRG

 

[Tzarevitch]

Akira Kurosawa movies are great to watch but some (The Seven Samiurai) are hard to sit through due to length. They can also be very slow moving.

The animae movie "Ninja Scroll" is a wonderful example to get in the OA mindset. Most large electronics outlets sell it (BEst Buy etc) and some large bookchains do as well (Barnes and Noble, and Borders). Get the DVD if you can, VHS tapes are hard to find and are invariably subtitled instead of dubbed. The subtitled version leaves off a lot of what is going on.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is also a great example for Oriental Adventures.

Lastly, I recommend a movie called "The Storm Riders". It is apparently based on a comic book/graphic novel from China/Hong Kong. You may have to order it or check specialty stores because it is not easy to find. Martial Arts stores that carry "Kung fu" movies tend to have it.

Tzarevitch

 

[MythandLore]

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon comes to mind if china is your taste.

Lone Wolf & Cub Moives (the comics are based on the live action moives - the moives are better)

Akira Kurosawa moives are good too - Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, Ran,Yojimbo, Sanjuro
(If you haven't seen these moives you should, they are fantastic)

What is Oriental by your standards?