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Deth Muncher
2008-10-20, 04:32 PM
Now that I've finally got a smidge of time on my hands, I plan on actually getting this Oriental Adventures Campaign I've been talking about for some time on its feet. That said, I need a few suggestions from you, the masses of Playgrounders, to help flesh out the world and help it run smoothly.

The story for this campaign is going to be very much the "You start here, villiage is attacked, must venture forth into the world and restore balance to the spirits in various areas of the world, and once you've gotten enough power, attack the BBEG."

Layout:

Currently, the map is set up as having the PC's village in the center of the map, having mountains to the west, Shadowland-esque desert area to the north, jungle to the east and ocean to the south. The mountains are divided as being more verdant in the top, and more Himalaya-esque to the south.

I'm planning on having the common enemies for each area being as follows:
Mtn (North) - Giants, Yak Folk, Giant Frogs, Korokoburu, Kobolds/Goblins?
Mtn (South) - Most of the Ice-Descriptored Monsters in the OA book.
Jungle - Velociraptors, Fire Toads, Goblins/Orcs?
Forrest Surrounding PC Villaige - Generic XP-Fodder
Ocean - Not sure as of yet, but I'm going to look into Stormwrack.

The expanded plotline of this world:

With the help of the Yak Folk of the Northwest Mountains, Shadowland Taint is spreading into the world at large, specifically targeting the major guardian spirits of the areas, corrupting the landscape and generally being a nuisance.

The major bad guys of the world will be the Oni and the Yak Folk, as well as the Corrupted Versions of the Guardian Spirits. Minor baddies will include the generic non-intelligent monsters, and tribes of Giants/Goliaths (should the PCs piss them off), as well as anyone else the PCs tend to anger.

Where do you all come in, you might be wondering? I'd like some advice on some mechanics things, and maybe a few suggestions on possible plot hooks and the such. Particular things I would appreciate are how interactions between the upper/lower/untouchable classes of the realm should interact in the PC's main villiage, as well as interracial relations (i.e. just how should a Korokoburu react to a Hengyokai?) How're some good ways to take existing non-OA monsters and flavor them to be more...oriental?

Also, the PCs are starting at level 3. Any tips on what're good low-level encounters?

I'll post more about the setting if this thread actually gets responded to.

Stupendous_Man
2008-10-20, 04:34 PM
For the love of East Asia, be careful not to name a major NPC "Chair" in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean :smallwink:

DM Raven
2008-10-20, 04:42 PM
The main character in one of my oriental-theme games was named Dabien. My friend choose the name because he thought it would be funny then the character ended up being played for over two years of weekly games without me ever knowing what it meant. Strange name for a savior-type character... ;p

Stupendous_Man
2008-10-20, 04:46 PM
The main character in one of my oriental-theme games was named Dabien. My friend choose the name because he thought it would be funny then the character ended up being played for over two years of weekly games without me ever knowing what it meant. Strange name for a savior-type character... ;p

I have on good authority that the name means "Large Sh*t in Chinese.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-20, 04:49 PM
For the love of East Asia, be careful not to name a major NPC "Chair" in Japanese, Chinese, or Korean :smallwink:

Ah yes. If only I had some friend of mine who spoke an Asian language who attended a nearby college that I could ask for help...

/insinuation.

elliott20
2008-10-20, 11:07 PM
generally, the OA suppliment takes on a very romanticist view of the samurai class even though the reality was far different. So it really depends upon how you want to play it: romanticist samurai ideals, (be they corrupt or otherwise) or legends of mundane people blown out of proportion?

in either case though, the interaction between the samurai class and those they deem below them are that the lower class just don't show up on their radar. It's not so much that they have actively dislike the lower class, they just don't care enough to know anything about them. Ever lived in a under developed country as an expat? that's kind of what it would feel like. You're richer, better educated, and will probably always have more than these people around you. So, you can react to this in two ways, you can either just let it all fly by with you and live feeling that you're pretty much in a different sphere of influence than them, or you can be the guy that is constantly trying to reach out to them because you're wracked with guilt about your position and you feel guilty for not using your position for good. But in either case, the samurai are superior to them, and in their daily life they have so little interaction with the general populace that it is not really an issue.

the lines begin to blur when you start talking about local powers that have ties with the families, as attitudes change when they deal with people with actual influence. But that is your starting point.

as for the racial issue, it also depends upon how you've defined the korokoburu. are they actually just really short humans who have effectively been assimilated or are they also just another outsider? Hengyokai, in Chinese lore, are typically creatures who have gained sentience after hundreds of years of karmic evolution (or meditation). So, they are usually very unique and are considered very powerful by those of the mundane. As such, they are looked upon with suspicion and distrust, though occasionally you'll find people who are willing to barter with them for favors. The korokoburu, by virtue of being a much closer to humans through proxy, would probably view them the same way.

of course, these are my own observations, so I could be wrong.

oh yeah, dude, dabien saving the world... I mean, honestly, in plain english? "a big pile of crap just saved the world". Imagine THAT going down in the history books.

Frosty
2008-10-20, 11:33 PM
:smalltongue: Play L5R instead

elliott20
2008-10-20, 11:37 PM
:smalltongue: Play L5R instead

hey there, stop encouraging them to stray from the proper path of roleplaying that is 3E! (OA is only 3E right? I don't think it was updated for 3.5E)

Frosty
2008-10-20, 11:43 PM
I wonder how Hida Kisada would be statted out in 3.5...

Probably as a Crusader with Immortal Fortitude or as a Knight. After all, he does get to challenge people to fight him, and he like, never dies.

elliott20
2008-10-20, 11:52 PM
considering the importance of the warrior class to the L5R mythos? I would say that most characters would be better replicated with ToB material.

though, most Hida characters would probably have immortal fortitude thrown in there somewhere.

Frosty
2008-10-21, 12:58 AM
Lion characters have all the Tactical feats. Crane have lots of great Bards, while Scorpians have the Beguilers. The Phoenix can have the Sorcerers/Shugenjas, and the Unicorn get all the non-ToB martial classes and take lots of mounted feats. Mantis take Dread Pirate and suck. Or maybe some sort of Ranger with squatic/seafaring sub levels. Dragon would either have a lot of Monks and suck, or have a lot of Swordsages and be good.

AslanCross
2008-10-21, 01:05 AM
Ah yes. If only I had some friend of mine who spoke an Asian language who attended a nearby college that I could ask for help...

/insinuation.

Run the name through this dictionary first: http://kanjidict.stc.cx
It's a good Japanese dictionary that covers a very wide vocabulary range.

elliott20
2008-10-21, 02:09 AM
Lion characters have all the Tactical feats. Crane have lots of great Bards, while Scorpians have the Beguilers. The Phoenix can have the Sorcerers/Shugenjas, and the Unicorn get all the non-ToB martial classes and take lots of mounted feats. Mantis take Dread Pirate and suck. Or maybe some sort of Ranger with squatic/seafaring sub levels. Dragon would either have a lot of Monks and suck, or have a lot of Swordsages and be good.

lion: crusaders/warblade with white raven
crane: warblade diamond mind or iron heart
phoenix: jade phoenix mage, c'mon. their clan name is already in there!
unicorn: trample, spirited charge, etc
dragon: a lot of dual wielding styles here, so either tiger claw base (with a slightly different flare) or they could just make up for it through picking up TWF feats.

EvilElitest
2008-10-21, 05:22 PM
i like the idea of the conversion
from
EE

TheThan
2008-10-21, 08:51 PM
What I suggest is you take a copy of the 4E players handbook, flip to page 35, and read the section entitled “playing a dragonborn”, then replace each instance of Dragonborn, with samurai. Then feed that to your perspective samurai players and you’re set. Another thing is that I don’t really like the idea of “the town randomly gets attacked”. Instead send the players out on some fetch quest or something where they come across some plot hooks that get them involved in your plot. Unless you’re doing the whole “seven samurai” bit where they have to defend the village. Talk to your players and decide if they know each other and how they met.

I suggest you NOT use the taint mechanics. I always get the vibe that if I use it, it’ll just cause the players to not want to risk their characters by traveling into tainted areas; which is the whole reason to use it anyway. Maybe the Sanity rules would be more appropriate. I guess it depends on what flavor your giving your game. Another good idea is to take a look at the Honor rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/honor.htm), that’ll help ensure the players will be trying to do the right thing.

Also are you using the campaign setting presented in the book (the half done L5R setting)? or are you making your own. If your making your own, I suggest you pick a culture and emulate the look and feel of that culture, without ripping off the whole culture. For example in mine, the humans wear kimonos, and eat sushi, that’s about as far as the similarities go. make each culture unique, while still giving it that Asian feel.

elliott20
2008-10-21, 09:04 PM
I've always found the taint mechanic problematic myself. On one hand, I love the concept of using taint to represent the internal corruption of the character, on the other, it's implementation is... kind of clunky.

You fundamentally want taint to be something that players DON'T want to have, but you don't want to make it so pervasive that they spend ALL of their time trying to fight it or in some cases, avoiding it all together.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-23, 06:15 PM
Whoa! Lots of responses.

@Elliot: Actually, they did update OA to 3.5. A friend of mine found it and printed it out for me, although I assume it's still hidden in the archives of the DnD website.

@Than: The whole plot with the "town being randomly attacked" the PC's are actually going to be able to (should they do things correctly) find out about ahead of time and plan for. They're much too low level to defend the villiage themselves (Level 3), even with the town guard on their side.
A Brief Bit of Plot:

The Yak-Folk (in cahoots with the Shadowlands Demons) have been encroaching on Giant territory near the lower mountains near the village. The PCs are going to go investigate why the Giants have been so pissed off lately (the PCs will, hopefully, find out about the Yak-Incursion at that point). They will, then, be able to go back and build up defenses in their village. The epic seige will have the yak-folk Body-Melding with some of the guards to infiltrate the town and then proceed to spread the Taint to the Village Guardian Spirit: Thus introducing the PCs to their ultimate quest, which is to destroy the Taint in the guardians across the land, and eventually to wipe the Taint from the realm.

EDIT: @Elliot again: I plan on making Taint a lot less...EVERYWHERE than it is in the book. Like, I'll probably remove the "Give Player Taint" effects from attacks, or at least make it easily removed, much like a Curse.

afroakuma
2008-10-23, 06:51 PM
Deth Muncher, if you need a better Samurai, there's one lurking in my sig. It got reasonable reception and might fight off oni and yokai better than the OA original.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-23, 07:33 PM
Deth Muncher, if you need a better Samurai, there's one lurking in my sig. It got reasonable reception and might fight off oni and yokai better than the OA original.

Well, I certainly do like your version.

I figure what I'll do is present any player wanting to make a samurai with the option of using the Updated OA one, or yours, and go from there.

afroakuma
2008-10-23, 07:33 PM
I thank you, sir.

I'm also busy updating the CA ninja base class. I know it wasn't base in OA, but you may be interested. It's an active thread in Homebrew right now.

elliott20
2008-10-23, 11:35 PM
Well, I certainly do like your version.

I figure what I'll do is present any player wanting to make a samurai with the option of using the Updated OA one, or yours, and go from there.

*chants*

warblade! warblade! warblade!

Deth Muncher
2008-10-23, 11:46 PM
*chants*

warblade! warblade! warblade!

Except that to allow that, I would have to assume that the person would use it to break the game. Which would mean I'd have to go and provide anti-game breaking measures. Which...well, you know, I'm kinda lazy.

Stupendous_Man
2008-10-23, 11:48 PM
Just have a caster Orb of Fore him in the face if he is being troublesome.

His character, I mean.

Of course.

elliott20
2008-10-24, 12:15 AM
well, it depends on what you'd define as game breaking. While there are some ToB builds that can really throw things out of whack, they're easy enough to spot and nip in the bud. Most ToB builds are probably mildly more powerful than your average blaster class.

It, of course, also depends on the rest of your class allowance. Without saying it, ToB will make other melee classes far less useful. And the inclusion of the book would mean that you would ahve to create ToB characters as well to compete, so yeah, it is more work.

anyway, just throwing ideas out there.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-24, 12:43 AM
well, it depends on what you'd define as game breaking. While there are some ToB builds that can really throw things out of whack, they're easy enough to spot and nip in the bud. Most ToB builds are probably mildly more powerful than your average blaster class.

It, of course, also depends on the rest of your class allowance. Without saying it, ToB will make other melee classes far less useful. And the inclusion of the book would mean that you would ahve to create ToB characters as well to compete, so yeah, it is more work.

anyway, just throwing ideas out there.

I was actually thinking of making guards/hirelings with ToB things, but restricting their use to the PCs. It might be a tad unfair, but it keeps the PCs from breaking the game, and hey, if they want to hire out one of the level 1 crusaders in a village to help fight something, so be it.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-26, 10:50 AM
So I just finished watching Advent Children again, and I have to wonder, would perhaps using Knowstones as they use Materia be too game-breaking? I think it might be kind of amazing, knowing that "Oh, this weapon can hold two Knowstones. Let's shove...Flaming Sphere and Shocking Grasp in there." And then suddenly the weapon gets flame/shock? No, that sounds way too broken. But is there some way to perhaps incorporate this in? Perhaps have it so that each non-caster would need to sheath their weapon before being able to cast, at some sort of UMD check? I really have no clue how that would work, but damnit it sounds really cool! Has anyone done anything like this?

Random NPC
2008-10-26, 11:14 AM
So I just finished watching Advent Children again, and I have to wonder, would perhaps using Knowstones as they use Materia be too game-breaking? I think it might be kind of amazing, knowing that "Oh, this weapon can hold two Knowstones. Let's shove...Flaming Sphere and Shocking Grasp in there." And then suddenly the weapon gets flame/shock? No, that sounds way too broken. But is there some way to perhaps incorporate this in? Perhaps have it so that each non-caster would need to sheath their weapon before being able to cast, at some sort of UMD check? I really have no clue how that would work, but damnit it sounds really cool! Has anyone done anything like this?

You might want to check the Weapon Augment Crystal from Magic Item Compendium.

Deth Muncher
2008-10-26, 11:51 AM
You might want to check the Weapon Augment Crystal from Magic Item Compendium.

Okay, the Augment Crystals definately take care of the "give your weapon/armor this property, but what about the ability to cast? Would I even want to give my players such UNLIMITED POWER?!

I do like the Augment Crystal idea though, and I'll probably introduce them soon.

elliott20
2008-10-26, 09:29 PM
Okay, the Augment Crystals definately take care of the "give your weapon/armor this property, but what about the ability to cast? Would I even want to give my players such UNLIMITED POWER?!

I do like the Augment Crystal idea though, and I'll probably introduce them soon.

the OA book samurai has rules for the samurai class adding properties to their weapons. It basically goes to the tune of "go meditate, spend some XP, and boom, electrical damage on katana". That's the basic mechanic. You could always jazz that up for them by giving it some cool descriptions, rites and all that.

But for non-samurai? I would say the UMD route is the best way to go. After all, that would their investment.

As for the whole ToB issue, I would say it depends entirely upon what classes you make available to them, and what spells you make available to spell casters in game. After all, most ToB characters, if just played straight up, are about on par with say, characters from the Psionics book or maybe a more beefed up blaster character.

So, while I can totally understand the game breaking issue, I think the validity of that problem depends entirely on what you're putting in the campaign.

Having said that, I would advise against giving the classes to the hirelings and other NPCs. After all, you don't want the hirelings to outshine the players.

Deth Muncher
2008-11-02, 12:43 AM
Hello to all! So, since the campaign has semi-started, I'd like to fill you in on how it's gone thus far. Also, keep in mind that for the most part, this was by the saet of my pants, as I totally haven't written anything down yet (NPC-wise, that is):

I did three "prologues" for the campaign thus far, each one introducing the players to the world, as well as a mini-thingy for two of the characters who'd already done prologues because they wanted to do something. In each prologue, I made sure to introduce a few key characters I'll need to name and stat out in the very near future. The first is a wine-peddling korokoburu, who is well known throughout the town. The second is an incredibly aged old man with a Buster Sword-esque sword, very drunk and mumbling about awakened velociraptors. The third, and quite possibly most important, is the Village guardian Spirit, which happens to be a Lung Dragon (I believe. That's the river one, right?) who resides in a shrine in the center of the village. Said dragon is sort of being the Voice of the DM in the game, to keep things on track for now. I realize it's blatant blatant railroading, but it was only because I hadn't exactly planned on doing stuff without having everything ready, so I had to have some way to keep the PCs from doing something I hadn't actually written yet. The dragon itself has handed out two Plot Devices, which are large coins with the image of the dragon on one side and the words "Plot Device" written on the other. I plan on rewarding the players with the ability to use those when they do cool things, or using in a Clue Bat-esque fashion when they're totally lost. Kinda like Navi, only less annoying, more like the medallion you get in Fable from the guild.

The first player, a Human Shaman of the Cran Clan got a really high roll on the d100, so he's part of the village's aristocracy, which may or may not let him access his family's funds should the need arise. The second player, a Bamboo Spirit Folk Rogue, has not only pissed off every guard in town but has also gotten introduced to various parts of the village's Thieve's Guild. The third player, a Vanaara Shaman only got a brief time to play, and was only introduced to the staple characters I already had planned out.

I also have a few other interested players. One of which really likes the sound of the Sohei, and the other will probably end up being a beatstick, like a Barbarian.

Laurellien
2008-11-02, 04:16 AM
The story for this campaign is going to be very much the "You start here, villiage is attacked, must venture forth into the world and restore balance to the spirits in various areas of the world, and once you've gotten enough power, attack the BBEG."


Hmmm... very legend of zelda...



Currently, the map is set up as having the PC's village in the center of the map, having mountains to the west, Shadowland-esque desert area to the north, jungle to the east and ocean to the south. The mountains are divided as being more verdant in the top, and more Himalaya-esque to the south.

Rotate that clockwise 90 degrees and you have yourself Termina.
Mtn (North): Gorons
Mtn (South): Don Gero's frogs, that weird blacksmith and his golem
Jungle: Deku Scrubs, monkeys (spirit folk)
Forest Surrounding PC Village: Chu Jellies
Ocean: Zora, beavers, Gerudo pirates


With the help of the Yak Folk of the Northwest Mountains, Shadowland Taint is spreading into the world at large, specifically targeting the major guardian spirits of the areas, corrupting the landscape and generally being a nuisance.

Sounds like the influence of Majora's Mask corrupting guardian spirits, the four giants.


How're some good ways to take existing non-OA monsters and flavor them to be more...oriental?

Give the monsters any of the following:

- Katana or similar
- Something made of Jade
- Japanese Armour
- Magical Green Fire
- Levels in Monk
- Levels in anything from ToB, and have them shout out the names of their manouvres as they employ them.
- A weapon that is two size categories too big
- Ranks in acrobatic skills like jump, tumble etc.
- Throwing stars
- Thin, whispy beards/moustaches
- Accents
- Levels in Oriental Classes


EDIT: Having re-read my post, it seems that I am accusing you of plagiarism. I am NOT doing so, I am sure that your ideas are original, it's just I had a look at it and noticed some similarities.

Deth Muncher
2008-11-02, 09:59 AM
Hmmm... very legend of zelda...



Rotate that clockwise 90 degrees and you have yourself Termina.
Mtn (North): Gorons
Mtn (South): Don Gero's frogs, that weird blacksmith and his golem
Jungle: Deku Scrubs, monkeys (spirit folk)
Forest Surrounding PC Village: Chu Jellies
Ocean: Zora, beavers, Gerudo pirates



Sounds like the influence of Majora's Mask corrupting guardian spirits, the four giants.



Give the monsters any of the following:

- Katana or similar
- Something made of Jade
- Japanese Armour
- Magical Green Fire
- Levels in Monk
- Levels in anything from ToB, and have them shout out the names of their manouvres as they employ them.
- A weapon that is two size categories too big
- Ranks in acrobatic skills like jump, tumble etc.
- Throwing stars
- Thin, whispy beards/moustaches
- Accents
- Levels in Oriental Classes


EDIT: Having re-read my post, it seems that I am accusing you of plagiarism. I am NOT doing so, I am sure that your ideas are original, it's just I had a look at it and noticed some similarities.

First, absolutely no offense taken. After you pointed that out, they are eerily similar. I didn't conciously make that decision, but that's certainly not to sat that somewhere, the hours and hours of playing LoZ didn't creep in somewhere. And a funny story on that note, I only ever played MM once, which got me about as far as Day 1. I need to see if I can hook my Wii up to the 'net so I can download that game.

Second, the characteristic selection:

All of this makes perfect sense...except the magical green fire. I'm assuming this is a reference that I *should* get, but for some reason or another it's lost on me.

But yes, I plan on having most characters (NPC or otherwise) wielding weapons way too huge for them. It's especially great with Goliaths, because Monkey Grip + Powerful Build = can actually have weapons 2+ sizes bigger than they should, I believe.

Doberler
2008-11-02, 11:18 AM
But yes, I plan on having most characters (NPC or otherwise) wielding weapons way too huge for them. It's especially great with Goliaths, because Monkey Grip + Powerful Build = can actually have weapons 2+ sizes bigger than they should, I believe.

I don't have my books in front of me right now, but if I remember correctly, Powerful Build and Monkey Grip don't stack.

Then again it could have been my DM's way of cutting down on the amount of min/max cheese my standard party is capable of.

Edit: Totally forgot to mention what I wanted to contribute:

The ToB in my opinion is almost perfectly suited to OA, specifically the yelling of maneuver names. There are also a metric sh*t-ton of homebrew martial adepts out there that are quite fantastic and truly... oriental...

I'll have to dig up the link when I get to a non-work computer, but in one OA I played a homebrewed Shinobi Martial Adept that made me feel like a true ninja... even though ninja don't exist... *shifty eyes*

Deth Muncher
2008-11-02, 11:50 AM
I'll have to dig up the link when I get to a non-work computer, but in one OA I played a homebrewed Shinobi Martial Adept that made me feel like a true ninja... even though ninja don't exist... *shifty eyes*

Of course ninjas exist! They're just absolutely horrible. Heck, a Rogue/Shadow Scout, or even Monk/Shadow Scout does better than the Ninja class.

Doberler
2008-11-02, 12:06 PM
Of course ninjas exist! They're just absolutely horrible. Heck, a Rogue/Shadow Scout, or even Monk/Shadow Scout does better than the Ninja class.

I was actually referring to the fact that everyone uses ninja, but no one will ever say that aloud due to the who "Must be honorable" thing

Crunch wise, Yes, the ninja class sucks... but the Ninja Spy most certainly does not.

elliott20
2008-11-02, 12:24 PM
You... I.... GAAHHH!!!!

*smacks posters upside the head*

There are so many bad stereotypes in some of these it HURTS. Seriously, a fu-manchu mustache? bad accents? throwing stars? are you friggin' kidding me? You might as well call your game "Big Trouble in Little China", then have all of your players play caucasian heroes. Seriously, it's THAT bad.

No offense, but if you don't want your game to turn into a caricature of the source material, you'd avoid a good deal of the stylistic advices given here. While giving monsters Japanese armor and some Japanese ornaments is okay, slapping jade on everybody is not. (For one, mechanically jade is actually used to fight taint. But also, jade while valuable is like gold... too much of it and it's just bling.)

the most stylistically thing you can do to make your game more Japanese depends more on what it is you want to achieve... a more serious and gritty tone or a more high fantasy action anime style one?

if you want to do anime style? go ahead and stick acrobatic skills on everyone. or just use ToB, and focus on all the stuff like desert wind which gives really flashy effects. In fact, if you want to do this style, not using ToB is probably a mistake.

if you want something grittier and far more serious, then play the characters straight up. in fact, I would read the manga Vagabond (you can probably find some scans somewhere. PM me if you want me to give you my source) for some inspiration if that's the style you're going for. In this style, duels are deadly, there are no fancy maneuvers, just simple but bold swordplay guided by a heart that desires battle. ToB can still be used here, but you'll need to be very judicious in how you describe the actions and maneuvers. desert wind and some shadow hand maneuvers are pretty much all out.

Either case though, you need to focus on also the etiquette of the era. work with that, and add in some description of people's clothes. You might want to just go online and grab some pics for respective nobles, laborers, merchants, and warriors to use for visual aids.

go read Basilisk and Vagabond for some inspirations. They can seriously help you visually.

elliott20
2008-11-02, 12:25 PM
I was actually referring to the fact that everyone uses ninja, but no one will ever say that aloud due to the who "Must be honorable" thing

Crunch wise, Yes, the ninja class sucks... but the Ninja Spy most certainly does not.
better ninja class? rogue.

Frosty
2008-11-02, 03:11 PM
better ninja class? rogue.

Factotum perhaps?

Deth Muncher
2008-11-02, 03:29 PM
You... I.... GAAHHH!!!!

*smacks posters upside the head*

There are so many bad stereotypes in some of these it HURTS. Seriously, a fu-manchu mustache? bad accents? throwing stars? are you friggin' kidding me? You might as well call your game "Big Trouble in Little China", then have all of your players play caucasian heroes. Seriously, it's THAT bad.

No offense, but if you don't want your game to turn into a caricature of the source material, you'd avoid a good deal of the stylistic advices given here. While giving monsters Japanese armor and some Japanese ornaments is okay, slapping jade on everybody is not. (For one, mechanically jade is actually used to fight taint. But also, jade while valuable is like gold... too much of it and it's just bling.)

the most stylistically thing you can do to make your game more Japanese depends more on what it is you want to achieve... a more serious and gritty tone or a more high fantasy action anime style one?

if you want to do anime style? go ahead and stick acrobatic skills on everyone. or just use ToB, and focus on all the stuff like desert wind which gives really flashy effects. In fact, if you want to do this style, not using ToB is probably a mistake.

if you want something grittier and far more serious, then play the characters straight up. in fact, I would read the manga Vagabond (you can probably find some scans somewhere. PM me if you want me to give you my source) for some inspiration if that's the style you're going for. In this style, duels are deadly, there are no fancy maneuvers, just simple but bold swordplay guided by a heart that desires battle. ToB can still be used here, but you'll need to be very judicious in how you describe the actions and maneuvers. desert wind and some shadow hand maneuvers are pretty much all out.

Either case though, you need to focus on also the etiquette of the era. work with that, and add in some description of people's clothes. You might want to just go online and grab some pics for respective nobles, laborers, merchants, and warriors to use for visual aids.

go read Basilisk and Vagabond for some inspirations. They can seriously help you visually.

I'm actually trying to limit the anime in the game. Thankfully, no one has tried to do anything too excessively anime-esque, but I think I'll put some hirelings/guards with ToB stuff in the game. I'm trying to draw away from the "Smackysmackysmack oh wait, there's a story line?" style of play and more on the actually trying to think about how to beat the puzzles presented. Now, keep in mind, there will definately be epic fight scenes, but we're not going to spend three sessions powering up shoot a laser at an enemy.

afroakuma
2008-11-02, 04:31 PM
Again, I recently did a ninja remake that got more positive reviews. If you need a shinobi, you might want to check it out.

elliott20
2008-11-02, 08:52 PM
I'm actually trying to limit the anime in the game. Thankfully, no one has tried to do anything too excessively anime-esque, but I think I'll put some hirelings/guards with ToB stuff in the game. I'm trying to draw away from the "Smackysmackysmack oh wait, there's a story line?" style of play and more on the actually trying to think about how to beat the puzzles presented. Now, keep in mind, there will definately be epic fight scenes, but we're not going to spend three sessions powering up shoot a laser at an enemy.
well, I say just cut out the ToB stuff all together then and just keep it simple.

if you're looking for art direction, look up pictures for the Samurai Warriors. as repetitive the gameplay might for that game, they have AWESOME art direction.

oh yeah, and factotum would make a pretty good shinobi class too.

Neithan
2009-02-24, 08:47 AM
I've heard about a kind of 3.5e-update-pdf for Oriental Adventures, but seem to be unable to find it. Someone knows about it?

enygmatic_me
2009-02-25, 12:07 AM
There was issue 318 of Dragon that had some updates. Also, on the WotC site, you can download a pdf guide for an India-esque campaign called Mahasarpa.