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
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Non-Japanese Elements of 1e 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="Orius" data-source="post: 8544033" data-attributes="member: 8863"><p>The wu jen is a hybrid of a few different things. In Dragon #229 (May 1996), Zeb Cook had an article which presented an updated wu jen for 2e. He explicitly stated that the class was "... originally a mix of Taoist hermits, Chinese sages, and the mountain hermits of Japan, among others." The wu jen sounds like what OA really should have been, a pan-Asian fusion fantasy rather than fantasy Japan with a collection of material from other Asian cultures awkwardly shoehorned in. At the very least, if you're going to have a dominant real world culture in a fantasy Asia, it should probably be Chinese rather than anything else, unless you're deliberately focusing on a particular culture. </p><p></p><p>Interestingly enough, the mountain hermits he mentioned as far as I can tell are the actual historical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugend%C5%8D" target="_blank">shugenjas</a> while the shukenja of OA is a sort of generic Asian priest that seems mostly Buddhist but mixes in other elements, possibly stuff like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onmy%C5%8Dd%C5%8D" target="_blank">onmyodo</a>. And onmyodo might also be one of the "others" Cook mentioned. I can't really say for certain, since I only have a surface understanding of these cultural elements myself.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Orius, post: 8544033, member: 8863"] The wu jen is a hybrid of a few different things. In Dragon #229 (May 1996), Zeb Cook had an article which presented an updated wu jen for 2e. He explicitly stated that the class was "... originally a mix of Taoist hermits, Chinese sages, and the mountain hermits of Japan, among others." The wu jen sounds like what OA really should have been, a pan-Asian fusion fantasy rather than fantasy Japan with a collection of material from other Asian cultures awkwardly shoehorned in. At the very least, if you're going to have a dominant real world culture in a fantasy Asia, it should probably be Chinese rather than anything else, unless you're deliberately focusing on a particular culture. Interestingly enough, the mountain hermits he mentioned as far as I can tell are the actual historical [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shugend%C5%8D']shugenjas[/URL] while the shukenja of OA is a sort of generic Asian priest that seems mostly Buddhist but mixes in other elements, possibly stuff like [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onmy%C5%8Dd%C5%8D']onmyodo[/URL]. And onmyodo might also be one of the "others" Cook mentioned. I can't really say for certain, since I only have a surface understanding of these cultural elements myself. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Non-Japanese Elements of 1e Oriental Adventures
Top