PDA

View Full Version : DM Help How Do I Make A Good Oriental Adventure



Gizmogidget
2017-03-02, 07:40 PM
I am trying to make an oriental campaign set in the equivalent of feudal Japan just at the beginning of 1200 AD. How can I make this campaign feel oriental?

Thanks

Canine
2017-03-03, 11:32 AM
Good references are Gai-Jin by James Clavell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai-Jin), and the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG/CCG (http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Legend_of_the_Five_Rings_Wiki) and its official background fiction (http://www.kazenoshiro.com).

Common elements are honor, duty, love, loyalty, and how they can all conflict with each other.

What system were you going to use?

Jay R
2017-03-03, 11:56 AM
I strongly urge you to buy a copy of Bushido, by Fantasy Games Unlimited.

You can buy it in book form (http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.net/category/Bushido-3), or as a pdf (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/582/Bushido?it=1).

LibraryOgre
2017-03-04, 10:07 AM
And I would add (though they're not the period you're aiming for) looking into the works of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima... Lone Wolf and Cub, Samurai Executioner, and Path of the Assassin. While set a lot later than you're aiming at (the Edo Period is 1600-1868), it's more or less what people think of when they think of medieval Japan, and will have some good insights into characterization.

Hoosigander
2017-03-04, 04:05 PM
Since your period of inspiration comes about twenty years after the Genpei War it might be a fun idea to see if you can find a translation of the Tale of the Heike (also called the Heike Monogatari), which could give insight into both warrior culture and a take on historical events heavily influenced by Japanese Buddhism (a central theme in the Heike is the impermanence of all things).

Gizmogidget
2017-03-04, 05:46 PM
Good references are Gai-Jin by James Clavell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gai-Jin), and the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG/CCG (http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Legend_of_the_Five_Rings_Wiki) and its official background fiction (http://www.kazenoshiro.com).

Common elements are honor, duty, love, loyalty, and how they can all conflict with each other.

What system were you going to use?

I was going to run it using the 5th edition rules, but with the honor variant.

Ultra4Life
2017-03-05, 11:25 AM
First decide what type of oriental feel you're going for. Do you want historical drama, wuxia, anime, period pieces, jidai geki, or something else?

Once you pick that you can move on to deciding what culture you primarily want to lift. It's certainly possible to do a blend of cultures, but I feel that when you decide to do something like this you should pick a primary culture with the others beings secondary. Once you've decided on that research names that fit. You don't need to get hung up too badly on what names mean (they can mean something else in your setting) but try to keep them sounding like the culture you're basing them off of. I personally recommend Japanese as an easy language to fake - it's pretty easy to figure out how pronunciation works and from there it's easy to make up names like Kurowaze or Hakuro off the top of your head. Likely gibberish in Japanese but sounds Japanese.

And then another big thing is to avoid falling into the interchangeable asian cultures trap. What I mean by that is please please please don't make (using real world terminology for this example so let's assume this is set in the real world) a Shaolin trained master ninja who fights with a kukri and shuriken who uses a mixture of muay thai and taekwondo for hand to hand combat. It just ends of being really, really stupid to anyone at all familiar with asian cultures. If you have a player like that you're likely to just cause them to derail what's going on.

Not to say you can't have some cultural blending, just make sure to keep it unusual or give a reason for it. And if you're trying to make a parody seriously go ahead and do the above. So long as you make sure it's clear it's a joke the hypothetical player will at least give a groaning laugh (I would).

Another consideration is how different cultures get along. It's pretty common to make asian cultures in fantasy a bit xenophobic. Why, no clue. Probably has to do with Japans history of isolationism, and how Korea, China, and Japan didn't particularly get along well (and still don't). Not strictly necessary, but a consideration.

Then you also need to consider whether non-asian cultures exist in your setting. You can go either way. If you want a black ships type story they're useful. But looking at the sheer number of western fantasy settings with little or no asian influence you can make it all eastern fantasy with no guilt or feelings of cultural favoritism (so long as you make it clear this is meant to be an eastern fantasy, not western, so players don't go in hoping to play a knight with a halberd or something).

Aside from that just get to work on it and see how it looks. I also second looking into Legend of the Five Rings. Even if you don't use the system the books still cover the setting very well.