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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bento" data-source="post: 3201688" data-attributes="member: 36597">I've outlined four ideas that I think are important differences between OA and "western" D&D games.SOCIAL CLASSESMost Asian cultures have a strong sense of social norms.  Everyone in society has a role to play and keeping to that role is critical for society to work.  Yes, occasionally a young sandal carrier will arrise to become shogun, but he WAS born into the samurai class. To either try and elevate oneself (tradesman carrying a katana) or debasing oneself (drunken samurai begging for food) outside of one's class is a shame and society will eventually eliminate the troublemaker.  This idea of place in society is alien to most westerners, as we have an ingrained ideas on individuality and that anyone can rise from a humble beginning to become whatever they want to. Creating this sense of rigid roles in society is important for the GM.HONORAs most players have some kind of powerbase that they work from, rewards often come in the form of "honor" or respect for taking the correct action and saying the right things.  Some OA games I've read or played have a mechanism to record this.  Rewarding players with "honor" points for carrying out missions, meeting challenges, and doing the right (not necessarily good) thing is an important component of this style of gaming.  As some classes may have a code against dealing with money, such as a samurai, monk or shugenja, providing this kind of reward helps add flavor to the game.  These rewards can be used to improve social interaction (+3 diplomacy, +2 intimidate, etc.).  MISSION-BASED ADVENTURESThe notion of dungeon crawling also becomes very difficult, as the stories are more mission based for the players.  While there are abandonded temples and castles here and there, the idea of "dungeon of the week" seems less fitting for this setting.  Players are instead challenged to go on a quest or deal with a problem, and come up with a solution, often using social interaction as much as combat.  POWER GROUPSBecause everyone has a place, and the adventures are typically mission-based, fleshing out power groups early on adds a lot of flavor to the game.  Coming up with unique spins on thieves and assassing guilds, ruling families, religious groups, temples, or mage groups add most of your flavor.  Watch almost ANY eastern movie, or TV show, or western ones inspired by asian culture, and you'll find at the heart of many of them power groups and their struggles.  Often the players are caught between different groups and for the early part of their adventuring have little to say in regards to group decisions.  I know there are many more differences than this, but I think any GM and group of players should consider these concepts before they dive into an OA-style game.</blockquote>

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