[3.5] Running Wuxia/Martial Arts/ToB campaign help

[Callos_DeTerran]

Some people probably know that I run a ToB game in the forum's PbP section, and this thread is pretty much referring to that in it's entirety. The fact being that, while I'm a big fan, of wuxia movies like The Forbidden Kingdom, Fearless, etc. and even of manga and such fixated on that, I'm having some trouble running my CAMPAIGN on that. The problem is, I've played almost exclusively in Western-style games with knights and so on with no experience with oriental games other then my own bungling attempts IRL that...failed badly.

So...this time, rather then badly mangle things, I turn to forum goers who might have more experience with such matters for help. The game is entirely ToB based, with ToB replacements for some of the base classes (Like Fax's Sublime classes), some entirely homebrew classes, and a metric poop-load of homebrew disciplines for the players to have access to and add variety to the game. Magic is exceedingly rare, as in I'm developing 'PrCs' with strict requirements that can only be entered into at level ten that give access to 'real' magic and magical items are just as rare. I wanted for magic to be something special and unique when seen, so those characters/NPCs/bad guys who use it stick out in the players mind. Magical items are just as rare, but I've adopted a 'mundane equipment enhancement' system.

The game is SUPPOSED to focus on the conflict between people, different territories of the empire, dojos, masters of the arts and so on.

But here are my problems...

-I'm a bit short of actual adventure and quest ideas that fit the theme. Sure, I COULD just throw fight after fight at them, but that's frankly a bit dull. How do I add proper oriental context and meaning essentially?

-The question if I should just stick to one Oriental culture or not. At first I had figured to have the 'Empire' the PC's live in for the game be a mash-up of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Indian...but then I realized I knew the most about Japanese and close to nothing about the other three. Should I keep the idea or just go with the culture I have the strongest understanding of?

-Is it a bad idea to introduce too much homebrew? Most of it so far has been in the form of disciplines and alternate base classes the PC's could take, but I plan to acquire a third-party book that handles martial arts in the d20 system via feats. Is it just too much third-party stuff to introduce those if I feel they might deepen the combat system more?

-What advice can be given for this sort of game?


Of course there's other problems, but I think these are the biggest.

[Rolaran]

I ran an Oriental-style campaign a couple of years back, using a combination of Oriental Adventures and homebrew. I might be able to offer some advice.

- Adventure Ideas: What kind of things do you tend to do when you run a Western campaign? I'm asking partly because a bit more info about what kind of game you like to run is useful. But you should know that there's really very little you suddenly can't do just because it's an oriental setting. If you have a story or an idea that works for a more typical setting, it can probably be translated.

- Japanese or Mashup: This is a question of personal preference really. If you're interested in doing the research, go for it; if you feel more comfortable with Japanese culture, you can use that straight up.

- Homebrew/Third-Party Stuff: As I said, I used a fair bit of homebrew- I came up with two additional clans, a dueling system for each clan, and so forth. I told the players that this stuff was available, and that I was going to be using it, but they were free to take it or leave it. Some ignored it, but a couple decided to try it out- including one guy who built his entire character around the stuff I had homebrewed up. I think the best approach is to let the players know that you are using this stuff, and make sure they know it's OK for them to use it too.

- Other Advice: If you want to focus on inter-territorial conflict, dojo rivalries and so forth, be sure that the party has a reason to stay together. Otherwise you risk having the party fracture on you.

If you have any other questions, let me know. I could also dig up some of my homebrew stuff if you think it would be useful. I might spiff up my duel system and post it on the homebrew forums, I always meant to put it up after the campaign ended and I forgot to do so.

[Callos_DeTerran]

- Adventure Ideas: What kind of things do you tend to do when you run a Western campaign? I'm asking partly because a bit more info about what kind of game you like to run is useful. But you should know that there's really very little you suddenly can't do just because it's an oriental setting. If you have a story or an idea that works for a more typical setting, it can probably be translated.

It's the translation bit that's giving me trouble. Mostly because I don't have a 'typical' kind of scenario that I run, but improv off what is happening at the moment. That said, I usually tend to run scenarios where the PCs can gain 'non mechanical' benefits such as the favor of local nobility, respect of an unknown tribe, that sort of thing. I want to aim for a more epic feel in this game, battling masses of enemies, challenging the legendary heroes of the land, slightly convoluted stories of revenge/love/so on. Hero was a big influence in this regard.


- Other Advice: If you want to focus on inter-territorial conflict, dojo rivalries and so forth, be sure that the party has a reason to stay together. Otherwise you risk having the party fracture on you.

I'm not worried about that actually. The PbP format allows for party fracture surprisingly well but I'm not expecting that to happen in the first place as they have been given a reason to work together.


If you have any other questions, let me know. I could also dig up some of my homebrew stuff if you think it would be useful. I might spiff up my duel system and post it on the homebrew forums, I always meant to put it up after the campaign ended and I forgot to do so.

Can't hurt.

[AslanCross]

It really depends how much you want to model the campaign. Do you really want to be accurate to Asia, or do you want to just loosely model the cultures and give a vague feel? (As you admit your understanding is mostly limited to Japan, the latter seems more viable.)

One piece of advice that I keep repeating to everyone I know interested in an Oriental campaign is that well, Asia isn't only Japan, and a lot of its history consisted of interaction between China and India; due to a long history of mutual trade, much of Asia inherited myths and cultural elements from both of those two.

Japan, especially, copied a LOT from both China and India, though it typically adds its own spin to these elements. Oriental Adventures is a good starting point since it does acknowledge the cultural elements from other parts of the world, not just Japan/Rokugan.

Persia is also part of Asia, and it had a lot of history in interacting with India. The funny thing is, the Indian gods (devas) are demons in Persian myth (deevs), and the Indian demons (asuras) have a name similar to the Persian god (Ahura).
There was some conflict between the two cultures, which might explain the treatment of mythical figures.

Despite all of the borrowing and cultural exchange, Asia is defined by its diversity. There are strong distinct cultural heritages tied to people of different ethnic groups. Nations based on China and India are going to be very, very different from each other compared to nations based on say, France and Germany. This is primarily the reason why I repeat the "Asia is not all China and Japan" thing a lot. There's a lot of legends and lore to draw from, and many of them make for great fantasy adventures other than "you killed my master" or "samurai vs samurai" cliches.

Although I can't get into detail due to board rules, Asian cultures are by default very religious, although the actual specifics vary wildly between nations. Some martial arts traditions started out as a method of focusing the mind and spirit, and as such are linked very closely to the spread of one particular religion, hence the idea of the martial artist monk in D&D. However, due to this close correlation between martial prowess and religion, a lot of heroes (in India, especially) were also religious figures. If you want specifics, we can discuss this off the boards.

Martial arts is a strong tradition in all of Asia. The general rule is that the oldest cultures (China and India) have the most diverse styles, with subschools under each style, but almost every country has a unique style. Here are a few:

India: Kalarippayattu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalaripayattu)
The Philippines: Kali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_(martial_art)), Yaw yan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaw_yan)
Thailand: Muay Thai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muay_Thai)
Korea: Hapkido, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapkido) Taekwondo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taekwondo)
Indonesia: Pencak Silat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencak_Silat)

I know there was a thread on the WOTC forums that discussed at length how to model real world styles with existing ToB schools, but I can't find it for the life of me. However, Tome of Battle pretty much models almost all of it pretty well. With the addition of homebrew ToB classes, you don't need to do much mechanically.

Here are some lore references for the various cultures:
India: The Ramayana, The Mahabharata. The former is about a prince rescuing his wife from a demon lord, while the second is a very long and bitter family feud.
Japan: The Tale of the Heike (pretty much the archetype of all samurai stories), the Kojiki (mythology)
China: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (the film Red Cliff touches on only one of the battles), The Art of War (if you want to know how military people think)
Persia: Shahnameh (The Book of Kings, an epic)

If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to help as best as I can.

[The Rabbler]

as far as the ToB homebrew goes, you might want to take a look at this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7623906)