D&D 5E (2014) What non-Western campaign settings do you want to play or run in?

[Afrodyte]

I'd love to hear about some of your favorite non-Western campaign settings. It doesn't matter if its published or homebrew. It can be based on a work of fiction or made specifically for D&D. All that matters for the purpose of this thread is that the setting doesn't take Western cultures, norms or aesthetics as the default. (Maybe the faux-Western Europe area is a strange, exotic land on the other side of the world inaccessible to PCs.)

Please share as much as you can about:

• What made you choose this setting
• How it's different from standard D&D settings
• The types of PCs and adventures that make sense for this setting
• Changes in fluff or crunch to accommodate this setting
• Other interesting stuff to know

Alternatively, share non-European settings would you like to play or GM in and:

• Why you'd like to play or run in this setting
• The kinds of campaigns you'd like to run or play in with this setting
• Other things that intrigue or delight you about this setting

 

[Shiroiken]

My favorite non-European setting is Rokugan. I fell in love with it when I played the Legend of the Five Rings CCG, and when they made an RPG for it, I jumped all over it. It's basically a Japanese setting (samurai) with some other Asian themes mixed in here and there. They did a really good job creating characters that were the movers and shakers of the world, and the original storyline was awesome. The concept of the world, with Honor being stronger than steel, helped to remove a lot of murder-hobo tropes from other RPGs I'd played. Generally you fought with human opponents, rather than monsters (other than the occasional Shadowlands beast).

Eventually they made a 3E version of it (WotC bought the company and made it the "official" 3E Oriental Adventures), so I can give a decent explanation of crunch differences. There was pretty much just Human for races (unless the DM allowed for the very rare Naga or Ratling), and each Human Clan had special Ancestor Feats that could be taken only with the bonus Human Feat at level 1. They were somewhat more powerful, but had some built in RP that enhanced the game (such as your ancestor advising you). It was "low magic" in that flashy magic items didn't exist (or were very rare), and that there was no resurrection magic (except for Maho - evil blood magic). There was a courtier class, because the social aspect of the game was far more important than most settings. Everyone had a Void Trait that would allow them to get a small bonus per day. There were specific rules for dueling, where you used a Skill Check for your attack (IIRC). The cleric/druid/wizard/sorcerer were all merged into one class: the shugenja that had it's own spell lists (and elemental limitations). I know there was more, but I didn't play the D20 version very much and it's been a long time.

 

[cmad1977]

Whatever world Avatar: the last airbender is. That was fun.


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[Zardnaar]

Been wanting to run a stone age game since 2E. Most advanced area would be something like the Aztecs.

 

[Ancalagon]

Without the shadow of a doubt, Yoon Suin. I liked it so much I wrote a review about it ( http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?479643-Yoon-Suin )

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My Albaron campaign setting does have some western influences, mostly Andalusian Spain, and "musketeer" France. The rest is Persian, North African, Incan, Oceanic, Polynesian, and a bit of Indian influence, in different parts of the world. Most of the world is under the umbrella of the Empire of The Sun, which is modeled after the First Persian Empire.

the world has no land masses larger than Indonesia, and the main region is a mega-Archipelago about as big as North America.

The tech level is reminiscent of Final Fantasy 9, I guess? Airships, magical living construct bird mounts, warforged, and humans are a very small minority.

 

[flametitan]

I really want to add some mesoamerican flavour to my games.

Right now though it's more like the Sunset Invasion DLC for CKII than a proper mesoamerican game, with the Yuan-ti (led by an Anathema) using a proxy war to take over a chunk of the game region and establish a colony.

 

[psiconauta_retro]

I’m sorry that I am not giving all the information requested (I will try to add it later) yet these are the 3 non-western settings that appeal to me the most:

“Tenra Bansho Zero” calls itself a "hyper-asian rpg" and is indeed very cool! It has its own system which is very different to D&D but it works well on its own. To make a very faithful adaptation to D&D may take some heavy tweaking but you could just borrow the setting.

“Kindred of the East” from White Wolf´s Old World of Darkness covers Asian vampires (that are not vampires in the same way as western vampires) shape-shifters and other supernatural creatures. It has a modern setting as well as an historical one. I haven’t even ever thought about trying to adapt it to D&D but it should be possible for a skillful DM.

“Al-Qadim” is a campaign setting of mythical Arabia (magic lamps, genies, flying carpets, etc.) within the Forgotten Realms already well developed and ready to be used.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Harry Turtledove's Darkness setting, involving a global war, would technically not be "Western". Turtledove- a historian in his day job- did an excellent job of reimagining WW2 tech and events in a fantasy setting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkness_Series

Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Fallen Cloud setting IS Western, but much farther to the West than is typically meant in discussions like this. With experimental dirigibles and Indians riding smallish theropods instead of horses, what could go wrong?*
https://seattleauthor.com/writing/novels/fc/






* in fact, I used those books to help another ENWorlder incorporate Moa-riding tribal societies into a campaign.

 

[MNblockhead]

For my homebrew campaign I created a large world map and have a number of regions and kingdoms that draw inspiration from real-world civilizations, some are an amalgamation of multiple civilations, others are "what-if" parlor games.

The ones that I have that are not derived from Western European civilations include:

The Hua Zhao Empire (loosely based on Tang China, with heavy influence from classic Chinese fantasy). Having studies, lived, worked, and married in China, it is easy for me to come up with NPC and place names. Also, I love a lot of the old fairy tales, ghost stories, fox-spirit tales, travelling scholar stories, and dragon stories. It is nice that many players are not as familiar with them, so you can play around with their assumptions.

Khakunun Khaganate: Established during the Great Wars when Batu Khan united the nomadic Zorigtoi clans against the Elves. He is also the prophet founder of a monotheist, evangelistic version of traditional shamanistic religions. He preached his vision whereby the Sky God tengri commanded he bring peace to the world by uniting all people and religions. Today the Khaganate has become increasingly intolerant of other religions. It also seeks to strengthen its economy and military by tapping into resources and technology trade with its southern trade routes into Felbulan and the Oghuz Empire.​ This civilization is based upon the Mongol Empire in the generation after Ghengis Khan, but one that did not become fractured and which established its own successful organized religion that was spread/imposed on the areas it conquered.

Oghuz Empire, and amalgamation of turkish and arabic cultures. Seaside city states and desert nomades. Traders, slavers, salt minds, and travelling merchants.

Tui Manu'a Empire: an empire of far-flung islands. I lived and studied in Hawaii for years, so it is heavily influenced by Hawaiian culture, but has elements taken from several Polynesian, Malay, and Austronesian cultures. Heavily influenced by the era of King Kamehameha in Hawaii and also Caribbean pirate haven tropes.

Yaksha Kingdom: Believed by many to be mythical, created by the Oghuz to justify the high prices they charge for the exotic spices, fabrics, and works of art they claim to have come from this land that is supposedly populated by beast people.​ There are areas rules by lizardfolk, kobolds, bullywugs, Yuan-ti and other beast folk. The human kindoms are an amalgamation of Harrapan (ancient India) and Mezo-American civilizaitons.

​Taiyo Kingdom: A mysterious hermit kingdom difficult to reach due to the treacherous, stormy seas that separate it from the mainland. Roughly modeled on Ancient Japan but one place under forced isolation by an Ainu inspired were-bear elementalist culture on one of the islands in the chain.