Oriental flavor campaign without Oriental Adventures

[Lord Tataraus]

I don't have Oriental Adventures, nor am I able to get it. Never the less, I want to run an Oriental campaign. Basically, have Japanese, Indian, and Mongolian flavor all in a campaign world. I have access to the various Oriental classes from the Complete series. What other classes does OA have? and where might I find Oriental-themed stuff online (free)?

Edit: I forgot a question: How Oriental is OA, as in is it just Japanese flavor, Chinese, etc?

[TheThan]

Oriental adventures have plenty of flavor from other cultures other than just Japanese. But its all mixed together so you’ll have to hunt and peck to pull out what bits and pieces belong to which culture. You don’t really need Oriental adventures to run an Asian campaign, but it does help, particularly with monsters. That’ll be the hardest thing to find.

[Innis Cabal]

look at the almighty Wiki

[I_Got_This_Name]

OA has the Samurai, Shaman (very different from the CD Spirit Shaman), and Sohei, plus the Shugenja (updated in CD, also made less setting-specific) and Wu Jen (CArc).

Flavor-wise, quite a bit of it is devoted to the Rokugan setting, which is very Japanese, but there's stuff for everything, and a page or two on world-building. I'd reccomend building your own world and doing your own research.

Also, there's no reason not to use the Tome of Battle here.

[Matthew]

Hmmn. Oriental Adventures without Oriental Adventures....? Have you searched the Wizard's Website for related material?

Well, anyway, most Core Base Classes are portable (I would not advise using The Complete Warrior Samurai over the Fighter). Basically, if you want to make this more than D&D 'in funny hats', you are going to need to be familiar with your source material. An Oriental Campaign isn't an end unto itself, it's a different background. What kind of Oriental Campaign are you looking to run?

[Latronis]

I used just research and the missus to create my oriental continent in my homebrew world, and the GURPS China book is worth a look.

[Talya]

Tome of Battle is a very good idea for such a setting,.

[Matthew]

How so, exactly?

[Tellah]

ToB is good for any setting; it doesn't particularly have anything more to do with Indian, Japanese or Mongolian myths than any other book, though.

Tellahs' Guide to Making an Orientalist Campaign:
Make a Fighter and call him a samurai. Make a Wizard and call him an onmyoji. Send them to Baator and call it Di Yu. Show them a spectre and call it enenra. Your fighting instructor is called your si fu, sabunim, or sensei. Dungeon crawling proceeds as usual.

Tellah's Guide to Making an Asian-themed Campaign Setting:
Read books. Read books about Shinto, about the Chinese Imperial system, about the dancing priestesses of Krishna, about life in a Yurt on the Mongolian steppes. Then do it yourself. D&D rulebooks will only get in your way.

[I_Got_This_Name]

ToB is good for any setting; it doesn't particularly have anything more to do with Indian, Japanese or Mongolian myths than any other book, though.

It has a little note in the front explaining what the supernatural martial arts and wire-fu stuff is doing in a standard setting. You don't need to make that argument to put it in an oriental setting.

It's good everywhere, but the only excuse to keep it out of an East Asian setting is that you don't have it and can't afford it.

[Viscount Einstrauss]

Making a Japanese setting is easy- give everyone gravity-defying hair and goofy names, arm them with weapons that are either completely ridiculous or way too big, have everyone make dramatic pauses and be unusually sensitive about even the idea of themselves being in a committed relationship, and then make sure the big bad guy has several bizarre henchmen, though only one actually has to be effective at anything other then comic relief or adventure padding.

[Latronis]

How so, exactly?

ToB = Wuxia

[Matthew]

Wuxia is not synonymous with Oriental Adventures. That's just one genre.

[Ruik]

Making a Japanese setting is easy- give everyone gravity-defying hair and goofy names, arm them with weapons that are either completely ridiculous or way too big, have everyone make dramatic pauses and be unusually sensitive about even the idea of themselves being in a committed relationship, and then make sure the big bad guy has several bizarre henchmen, though only one actually has to be effective at anything other then comic relief or adventure padding.

Pure gold...

...As for the setting, many of the RAW classes can be addapted for an oriental/asian themed game, but OA does have some nice fluff and monsters.

[Latronis]

Matthew seems to be synonymous with not reading though

[Matthew]

Tome of Battle is a very good idea for such a setting,.

How so, exactly?

ToB = Wuxia

Matthew seems to be synonymous with not reading though

Please explain?

[Latronis]

yes because one popular aspect mentioned obviously means that the sum of it

[/sarcasm]

[Matthew]

What? Tome of Battle is good for many things (Wuxia included), but why should it be thought particularly good for a generic Oriental styled game on account of its ability to model Wuxia? That makes no sense at all. Please try to be civil with your replies, insults and sarcasm are not really answers.

[Latronis]

What? Tome of Battle is good for many things (Wuxia included), but why should it be thought particularly good for a generic Oriental styled game on account of its ability to model Wuxia? That makes no sense at all. Please try to be civil with your replies, insults and sarcasm are not really answers.

yea sorry i put a 15yr old girl in hospital tonight, i'm a little out of sorts.

but why should it be thought particularly good for a generic Oriental styled game on account of its ability to model Wuxia? That makes no sense at all.

It makes perfect sense, it is invariably going to come up in an oriental styled world. They won't all be imperial court intrigue games. Even then it comes up.

It's makes as much as sense to include it as a world (we arnt talking a specific game) as it does not too because it emulates only one aspect well.

[Tellah]

Matthew has a darn good point. If I may expand upon it, Wuxia is not a necessary an element in modeling historical Asian cultures, nor in modeling Asian legends. If Lord Tataurus wants to run a game based on the Tokugawa campaigns, or Mongolian raids into China, or the Iron Age Mahajanapadas of India, then a system of martial arts maneuvers isn't strictly required. I love the book, probably as much as anyone, but it doesn't model anything I think of when I think of real Asian cultures.

If, on the other hand, Lord Tataurus is looking to run an Orientalist campaign, based more in Western perceptions of Asia than on historical fact--nothing wrong with that, I've done it myself--then I agree that Tome of Battle is a good fit.

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

Core, TOB whatever, all can work if you change the flavor.

For an epic game, I made a character using the TOB who was inspired by Master Asia from G Gundam. All I did was change the name of the styles and the moves. Whoop-dee-do. You guys are making this way harder on yourself then you need too.

My suggestion? Watch a lot of movies/tv shows/cartoons whatever that match what you want to do. The rest is just renaming. :P

[Matthew]

yea sorry i put a 15yr old girl in hospital tonight, i'm a little out of sorts.

Okay, I am sorry to hear that. I hope everything works out.

It makes perfect sense, it is invariably going to come up in an oriental styled world. They won't all be imperial court intrigue games. Even then it comes up.

It's makes as much as sense to include it as a world (we arnt talking a specific game) as it does not too because it emulates only one aspect well.

Right, I can see where you're coming from with this. Tellah has pretty much said everything I was going to say in response. It does all come down to expectations. I wouldn't, by default, expect Wuxia or Tome of Battle in an Oriental themed Campaign, but I would if it was an Oriental Campaign based on Wuxia films or inspired by Jet-Li, Atsumi, Anime/Manga or something similar (and nothing wrong with that sort of game either). I would be a bit confused if they appeared in a campaign inspired by Akira Kurosawa's 'Samurai Drama' work, though.

[Latronis]

And Wuxia wasn't all that was mentioned so why attack it?

[Tellah]

And Wuxia wasn't all that was mentioned so why attack it?

I'm not attacking Wuxia; I'm pointing out that Asian culture has produced more than martial arts films and anime, and you don't need a set of rules emulating martial arts to explore other aspects of Asian culture.

[Latronis]

seems rather pointless since noone was arguing that's all there was

[Matthew]

And Wuxia wasn't all that was mentioned so why attack it?

I don't think anyone was attacking Wuxia. I was questioning the generic usefulness of Tome of Battle for an Oriental Adventures Campaign. The Original Poster didn't seem to be asking about Martial Arts flavour:

I don't have Oriental Adventures, nor am I able to get it. Never the less, I want to run an Oriental campaign. Basically, have Japanese, Indian, and Mongolian flavor all in a campaign world. I have access to the various Oriental classes from the Complete series. What other classes does OA have? and where might I find Oriental-themed stuff online (free)?

Edit: I forgot a question: How Oriental is OA, as in is it just Japanese flavor, Chinese, etc?

Hence my question as to why Tome of Battle should be considered useful without reference to the type of Oriental Campaign being proposed. Tome of Battle allows for over the top Martial Arts action, but has virtually nothing to do with an Oriental Campaign unless you are actually running an Oriental Themed Over the Top Martial Arts Campaign. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and 300 themed Greek Campaigns would work well with Tome of Battle, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend Tome of Battle for an Ancient Greek Campaign on that basis.

[Latronis]

well if you're going to be like that, there's no point recommending anything, because it might not be intending to run something that uses it.

[Matthew]

Well, it does rather depend on the campaign he is looking to run, which is why we requested more information as to what type of Oriental Campaign. This question is as broad as, "Hey, I want to run an Occidental Campaign, using French, English, German and Hungarian flavour. Any suggestions?"

Just saying, yeah Tome of Battle, isn't really good enough. However, saying "Well, it depends on what kind of Oriental Campaign you are looking to run. If you want it to be like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero or Atsumi then I would definitely recommend Tome of Battle, as it presents several interesting Base Classes and play options with mechanics that will support and reinforce an over the top Martial Arts experience. I would also recommend the following films, books and RPG resources to build a campaign flavour..." etc..

[Latronis]

It was a suggesstion made by someone, I later added a justification for.

It's as valid as anything when theres so little information for the OP to look and and potentially discard at his whim

[Matthew]

Sure, I know, but the suggestion implied that it would be good for any Oriental Style Campaign:

Tome of Battle is a very good idea for such a setting.

...which is what I was contesting.

What I was primarily interested in was what particularly about Tome of Battle Talya thought would make it particularly suitable for an Oriental Campaign over an Occidental one. Tome of Battle is good for a Wuxia Campaign, as I agreed, but it would not fit all types of Oriental Campaigns, which was why I questioned this line of reasoning.