What is Expected from an Oriental Game Setting?

[Ashanderai]

I have noticed a wide variety of different attitudes and expectations from prospective players when it comes to games that have an oriental setting and culture. Everyone either seems to expect a great deal of difference from an oriental game or that the game will be have little difference from a normal fantasy game with only the names changing. These expectations can range from the silly to the overly serious. I know how I feel about this topic, but I am curious what the community here feels about oriental fantasy game settings and characters.

Is playing in a fantasy game set in another culture or cultures a waste of time? What are your expectations about oriental fantasy game settings? Should such a setting try to exactly model itself on real world cultures, just capture the feel of Asian cultures, or find a happy medium? Do you expect thinly veiled stereotypes in the setting, characters, and plots or do you expect to see something more sophisticated? What are your expectations about oriental fantasy game characters? Are player's of such character just anime fans and munchkin players or do you realize that there is more to those who play these types of characters; that these players might be looking for something more out of their roleplaying perhaps? Do you think that new rules and game mechanics should be developed to handle certain things or should nothing new be developed for an oriental game? Do you think your expectations the setting and characters are fair?

 

[Psion]

Credible, but not excessive, mechanical differences.
Creatures appropriate to the setting
Cultural and religion details. I don't want a clone of real world religions, but an approximation.
Martial Arts! Sorry, old bias here.
Portability. I don't want a setting that won't make sense if it is put down in the same world as my traditional faux European setting due to cosmology consideration.
Psionics as ki.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I agree with Psion's list for the most part, but I think that the whole planet doesn't have to have a singular cosmology. Different planes can contact each other in only limited fashions, meaning that what's "objectively true" in one part of the world doesn't have to be true in other parts. The Elemental Planes of Void, Metal, Wood or whatever might simply only touch the Prime Material in a few spots on a given planet, which coincidentally are the "Asian" portions of the setting.

 

[jollyninja]

I expect oriental settings to contain different things based on which part of the orient they are based on and what time period. Three kingdoms china (200ish AD as i recall) would have an entirely different feel from japan or india. I will assume you want what comes to mind when someone tells me they want to run an asian themed game, what that makes me expect.

Samurai in stead of paladins, ninjas as opposed to assassins, tea ceremonies with npc's, ring swords, odd looking weaponry (to many examples to count), lack of plate mail, monks being the spiritual types, Androgenous spell casters with two faces, a great number of moments where the players look at eachother and think "what...... just....... happened......", NPC's with insane sounding nicknames, gangs with red axes, people who can fly/jump high, not wearing armor being a viable thing for characters, a premium on etiquite. In all, a completely different thing from a standard Eurocentric D&D game. Usually I get D&D with ninjas or dragonball Zish D&D but I can dream can't I? I usually have to run the game to get all those things in it.

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm not a really big fan of strongly mirroring specific real-world cultures in a fantasy setting. I prefer the whole "stick a bunch of influences in a blender and hit puree" approach.

Most D&D settings are a very heavily-stylized mess of vaguely-medieval European tropes, without specific countries that obviously correspond to England, Italy, and Norway (except in the sense that there might be some Vikingy guys, and they probably come from the northern bit of the map). I think "Oriental" fantasy settings should be assembled the same way. Don't worry about making a Japan analog and a China analog; just look up loads of Asian art, history, and culture, and rearrange all the cool bits however you please. Create a bunch of distinct cultures, definitely, but don't recreate existing ones.

Also, don't overlook the utter awesomeness of Tibet, Thailand, and India when you're doing your research. There's more possibility in Asian-style fantasy than just more ninjas and kung-fu monks. Hell, for that matter, don't shy away from tossing in non-Asian stuff if you think it works. You could base a really cool, exotic, Eastern-flavored city on Venice, and no one would suddenly think of Italy (as long as you don't include the gondoliers in stripey shirts).

 

[Dykstrav]

I can tell you that one thing I don't like about the way Oriental Adventures material has been presented thus far is that it's very Japan-heavy. I lived in Japan for a while and dig Japanese stuff, but it's Oriental Adventures, not Japanese Adventures.

I'd say my single biggest expectation from an OA game would be that it's exotic. I don't want to have the same-old same-old with an anime veneer. There shouldn't be half-orc samurai or dwarves with battleaxes, it should look and feel different. Alot of this can be done with a little research at the library or on wikipedia. Give us things like tengu and martial arts masters and empires ruled by ancient dynasties. If it looks like Tolkien it's way off track.

Religion should be very open and tolerant. Think 'spirits' instead of 'gods' for different temples, animism is prevalent in most of the cultures. Enlightenment, culture, and cycles are religious concepts.

People have an idea where they fit into society, no matter their station or caste, or even whether or not they want to be involved with society.

Alot of what makes a setting oriental to me is the little details: things like having the characters passing by a rice field rather than a wheat field, for example. Nobles wearing silk robes rather than jewelry and furs. Taverns serving roast fish and rice instead of mutton and potatoes. To me, it's mostly in the design and description of the setting.

 

[Razz]

The only setting that got Oriental Adventures right was Kara-Tur.

Now, I agree Kara-Tur could use an overhaul and be redone, but the atmosphere should remain the same. The fact that it's a setting that satisfied all sorts of Asian culture made it perfect for anyone to run an OA campaign. Wanted Chinese influence for your OA games? There's Shou Lung and Tu Lung. Wanted more Japanese flavor? Wa and Kozakura. Mongolian? The Plain of Horses and the Hordelands. Phillipines? Bawa Islands. Tibetian? The mountainous region of Tabot. I believe there was even a Thailand culture in the jungles to the south (Malatra Jungles I believe they were called?) and Indian one more to the southwest.

So, yeah, WotC simply needs to re-release OA, make it as big as FRCS and use Kara-Tur.

 

[billd91]

I can tell you that one thing I don't like about the way Oriental Adventures material has been presented thus far is that it's very Japan-heavy. I lived in Japan for a while and dig Japanese stuff, but it's Oriental Adventures, not Japanese Adventures.

Did you ever get your hands on a copy of the Kara-Tur boxed set? There was a lot on Shou Lung and T'u Lung, both Chinese influenced, that was pretty sweet.

The 3.0 version of Oriental Adventures had some nice diversity in it as well, even if, with a focus on Rokugan, it was more Japanese than Chinese/Korean/SE Asian/etc.

I sought out other sources as well for my OA games, including Mystic China which I think was done by Palladium. Very useful resource, that.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have noticed a wide variety of different attitudes and expectations from prospective players when it comes to games that have an oriental setting and culture. Everyone either seems to expect a great deal of difference from an oriental game or that the game will be have little difference from a normal fantasy game with only the names changing. These expectations can range from the silly to the overly serious. I know how I feel about this topic, but I am curious what the community here feels about oriental fantasy game settings and characters.

Is playing in a fantasy game set in another culture or cultures a waste of time? What are your expectations about oriental fantasy game settings? Should such a setting try to exactly model itself on real world cultures, just capture the feel of Asian cultures, or find a happy medium?

It's a little difficult to exactly model itself on real world cultures when you've got spellcasters and dragons and things like that. Happy medium. I'd like to see an avoidance of stereotypes, however.

Do you expect thinly veiled stereotypes in the setting, characters, and plots or do you expect to see something more sophisticated?

The latter.

What are your expectations about oriental fantasy game characters? Are player's of such character just anime fans and munchkin players or do you realize that there is more to those who play these types of characters; that these players might be looking for something more out of their roleplaying perhaps?

First off, anime varies widely. Some anime, like Flame of Recca or Those Who Hunt Elves are extremely unrealistic. Others, like Berserk, are much more realistic.

Someone can be a powergamer and a roleplayer. (A munchkin shouldn't be playing - toss 'em out of the group.) Playing a samurai like a lawful stupid character is, in my opinion, not a sign of deep roleplaying.

Do you think that new rules and game mechanics should be developed to handle certain things or should nothing new be developed for an oriental game? Do you think your expectations the setting and characters are fair?

I think they should keep the mechanical differences minimal, actually. This makes the setting easier to use and also keeps stupid stereotyping to a minimum.

 

[Andor]

Fancy pajamas.