D&D 5E Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms 5E

[Corinnguard]

I don't even know who the DND Shorts guy is. I'm backing it for the fact that I always had a thing for Yokai in Japanese Mythology and we get Sekiro style Prosthetic Arms in it.

He's the author of several D&D-related clips on YouTube.

 

[Weiley31]

He's the author of several D&D-related clips on YouTube.

Ah okay.

 

[Corinnguard]

The one negative thing I've heard about Loot Tavern is that a number of people complain that they just "bite off too much they can chew"

I hope they don't need someone to give them the Heimlich Maneuver if they were to choke. Currently 13,718 are backing it and have pledged $1,696,850.

 

[Reynard]

I don't even know who the DND Shorts guy is. I'm backing it for the fact that I always had a thing for Yokai in Japanese Mythology and we get Sekiro style Prosthetic Arms in it.

Serious question: do you worry about the actual quality of the game design, or are you okay if it turns out not-great?

 

[Weiley31]

Serious question: do you worry about the actual quality of the game design, or are you okay if it turns out not-great?

We'll cross that bridge when we get to doing the laundry.

 

[humble minion]

Serious question: do you worry about the actual quality of the game design, or are you okay if it turns out not-great?

Well, in this particular case they've got some pretty decent samples of game mechanical material on the kickstarter page that you can look at (and which i should look at, at some point before the campaign closes and i decide whether to or not to put cash into this thing). So it's not an entirely uneducated guess.

 

[overgeeked]

Now up to $1.7 million and 13,804 backers with 16 days to go.

 

[Raspberry Milkshake]

Oh I agree.

But these books are trying to be both, but often are coming from people who aren't from the cultures they're inspired by.

And even though those works mentioned are inspired by Europe, there's still a bunch of Japanese tropes built in to each of them. Hellsing even has anime miko shrine maiden warrior priestesses, but makes them into Catholic nuns. That's a classic trope of taking the direct equivalent but saddling it with tropes and concepts you'd have from the author's culture.

It's not a bad thing, it's just a thing. Animesque can be fine. But if you're going to do samurai and ninjas or wuxia and triads and tongs, you better have creators on-board who actually have a connection with the culture you're inspired by, lest you just turn it into a gross caricature.

D&D lives on tropes sure, but it's very easy to go down into offensive stereotypes even when well-meaning, and cultural consultants are a must.

re; animesque rpgs, recently I've been craving something in that action anime vein so I read through the Cubical 7 Warhammer Sigmar RPG and have been paging through a bunch of 4e books, which I know are both incredibly contentious properties but do a pretty good job at capturing that over the top battle anime feel without leaning on a tropey Asian setting. When I see "anime 5e" slung around I start wondering how much of it is going to be big Dragonball* type battles with special moves and absurd spectacle and how much is just the same old base standard 5e with an Asian coat of paint and some thrown on rules nobody ever really uses. IDK I find myself skeptical how much actual thought and design is going on under the hood of these insane multi million dollar 5e hype truck kickstarters and how much of it is just selling people on some pretty commissioned art
(felt the same way about that recent Ghibli one, if I wanted to evoke that game feel I'd just pick up Ryuutama or even One Ring, certainly not 5e)



*This is the idea of Dragonball I've absorbed through cultural osmosis, I was always a Sailor Moon kid. My ex made me watch Demon Slayer and Naruto+a few others though.

 

[dave2008]

Well, in this particular case they've got some pretty decent samples of game mechanical material on the kickstarter page that you can look at (and which i should look at, at some point before the campaign closes and i decide whether to or not to put cash into this thing). So it's not an entirely uneducated guess.

I have looked at them and that is one of the things that has me holding off at the moment (that and the time to delivery). At a quick glance I was not impressed / intrigued enough to purchase. I will dig in a little deeper and see if I change my mind.

 

[Cadence]

Have they said if it is OGL or CC or ... ?

Have asked twice a few days apart. I wonder if the lack of answer is:

• Don't want to say
• Haven't decided
• Haven't had time to answer