Role Playing in China

[Dana_Jorgensen]

I'd also suggest checking on your local PBS/public access channels for shows like Dawn of the Empire, Age of Warriors, or Emporer Wang Gun. They're all korean "historical drama", a euphemism for daily soap operas turned into period pieces. LOL

If you live in the philadelphia, PA area, you can catch many of them on WYBE 35 out of Wilmington, DE.

Another thing I'd suggest is a few animes. First of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is an older, less pretty anime, but based on the actual story. The other I'd suggest is Chronicle of the 12 Kingdoms (Junni Kokki), which is a completely fantastical setting based on Chinese mythology. 12 nations are ruled by the immortal emperors chosen from them by the 12 ki-rin, staving off attacks by hordes of man-eating monsters that infest the world, while fighting off any military advances that might come from less prosperous neighboring kingdoms. It would make a brilliant game setting. There's a series of associated novels, but deals to publish them in English keep falling through.

 

[hong]

I assume you're running a d20/D&D game, but I've heard good things about GURPS China. Most of the GURPS books are heavy on background and game ideas (as opposed to mechanics) so it might be useful to you.

IIRC, China is one of the GURPS books that doesn't have that good a reputation. There's too much to cram into 128 pages, and it ends up being relatively superficial.

Conversely, if you want details on how these monks beat each other up, GURPS Martial Arts is great for that.

Ninja HERO is very good as a primer for what sorts of campaigns might be appropriate for a mythic-China feel. Can't recommend it enough.


Hong "and not just because it has ninjae" Ooi

 

[CombatWombat51]

I'd certainly recommend the 1E OA. I assume you have the 3E one, and that's fine, but the two books are diferent animals. And as I always find true about 1E books, there's more in there that my little mind wouldn't think of as opposed to just a bunch of plugins for 3E. I'm sure 1E OA is like 5 bucks on Ebay.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Chris Pramas' "Dragon Fist" RPG is absolutely wonderful. Although it's now no longer available as the free download, many folks still have their .pdf copies of it (including yours truly).

 

[MonkeyPower]

I'd second hong's recommendations for Ninja Hero & GURPS Martial Arts - I'm using them to create a three-kingdoms style campagin.

As far as non-RP resources go, I'd strongly recommend A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought (amazon) - a very good book to read, even out of casual interest.
You could also take a look at The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (amazon - read it rather than buy it, if you can find it in a library somewhere).

I'll look into more resources I've got at home.


* I've aimed for a stereotypical mythical Chinese feel, which may not be what you're after, or could even be completely wrong, so I apologize if this is the case.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'd certainly recommend the 1E OA. I assume you have the 3E one, and that's fine, but the two books are diferent animals. And as I always find true about 1E books, there's more in there that my little mind wouldn't think of as opposed to just a bunch of plugins for 3E. I'm sure 1E OA is like 5 bucks on Ebay.

It costs about $5 as a PDF download at RPGNow.

 

[the Jester]

I too thought this thread was gonna be about Chinese roleplaying habits/any weird legal issues a rpger might face in China...

Hopefully you find what you need- I've heard great things about both GURPS Martial Arts and Dragonfist.

 

[Turanil]

Jade and Steel "Roleplaying in Mythic China" by Avalanche Press LTD. It is a 48 pages d20 supplement, probably out of stock, and of mediocre quality (art is really bad, and prestige classes unbalanced). However, if you can find it on ebay for 1 or 2 dollars, it can be worth picking (but not more!)

 

[Epametheus]

Go to http://www.threekingdoms.com and read some of it. Chapters 41 & 42 should be particularly inspiritional.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Also you may want to read Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, though you may want to do so with a notebook at hand since there are lots of characters and many have similar names (hard to keep all the Zhangs straight!)

If you get the unabridged version of Three Kingdoms, it is much harder to read than Shakespeare - keeping Henry & Hamlet straight is a lot easier to a native English speaker than Liu Bei and Lu Bu straight, and I speak a little Chinese.

I'd strongly recommend getting a full length DVD or VCD set of a television miniseries (or maxiseries?) of Three Kingdoms. I have a VCD set of a 58 episode series with English subtitles.

'Hero' is a good movie, as is 'The Emperor and the Assassin' with Gong Li.