Oriental fantasy worlds

[Michael Hopcroft]

How would one go about desiging a FH world based on Japanese, Chinese or indian mythology? Would Samurai and Ninjas get their own package Deals seperate than theyr UMA/NH versions? What kind of magic would be used and who would use it (no self-respecting Samurai would sully his hand with magic!)?

 

What about the Chinese mythos? It's quite colorful in its own right. And india has very rarely been done in RPGs, but an India=style setting would be quite interesting. The Gods might actually be walking the Earth making michief, or might have contradictory natures (to Western eyes -- a Hindu sees no contradiction in Kali being the goddess of both birth and murder, for example).

 

learning how to use other mythos seems to be the next step towards developing a truly unique and alien fantasy world for your campaign....

[eepjr24]

Asian campaigns

 

I would start by recommending two web pages:

 

Mark Doc's Sengoku Page:

http://www.geocities.com/markdoc.geo/Gaming_stuff/Sengoku/sengoku_introduction.html

 

Mike Surbrook's character archives:

http://www.devermore.net/surbrook/index/archive.html

 

Other than that, I would start with the bibliography of the UMA, and expand from there. Know the culture and the conversion will come naturally.

 

- Ernie

[tkdguy]

You can also convert stuff from other systems. AD&D Oriental Adventures had the Kara Tur setting, while 3E has Rokugan. 7th Sea came out with the Cathay sourcebook, and you can also look for GURPS Japan and Bushido I vaguely remember Runequest having a Japanese setting, but don't quote me on that. The trick is many of these products are out of print now.

 

Or you can look at the literature of those countries and write everything yourself. Either way, you havea fair amount of work to do.

[HeroGM]

If you decide to go with Rokugan get either AEG's Rokugan book or try to find the Legend of the 5 Rings stuff. Same world, different rules.

 

AS for Ninja's and Samurai, yes, they do get their own packages and I belive their listed in Ninja Hero. Magic is based more on communications with elemenent spirits with minor spells on scrolls (basicly ways written down to help communicate and ask for what you want).

[Dauntless]

I definitely think the Indian mythos is underrated. The gods are pretty strange....so Shiva is the god of life and destruction? And the Rig Veda underwent a "revision" so to speak, so you have different sets of gods, which is why sometimes you'll see Indra as the most powerful god, and sometimes Shiva. Plus, Hinduism did influence Buddhism, and of course Buddhism originated in India.

 

And the Indian contribution to martial arts should not be forgotten. The Indians had their own warrior caste and many martial arts in their own right. I'm fairly certain Da Mo combined certain yoga and Indian martial arts into the exercises he designed for the Shaolin Monks. For that matter, it would be interesting to play out a combined Chinese-Indian campaign...considering that there was a vast exchange of monks between the two countries (and Tibetan Buddhism is in many ways a combination of Chinese and Indian ideas).

 

The Chinese mythos is a colorful one as you said. Replete with strange monsters, wandering knights, a celestial court, martial art sects and brotherhoods, secret organizations to overthrow governments, and secret martial arts styles. They even have their own version of the Ninja (which I've never heard of their ability to throw things...but definitely had the ability to hide very well as well as perform certain "mystical" feats like bending metal bars and the like).

 

I personally like the Japanese mythos myself. There's something about the Japanese culture with its refined elegance. Shibumi they call it....austere and simple beauty. Whereas the Chinese are baroque and loud, the Japanese are quiet and more unassuming. To the Japanese, nothing is too insignificant to escape their attention, and everything has a symbolic meaning. And depending on how historical you want to get, you can have the campaign set in Korea when Japan conquered it, or you could play against the Mongols assuming the Mongol fleet wasn't wiped out by a typhoon.

 

I agree that if you do a Japanese setting, you must buy Sengoku from Gold Rush Games. It is hands down the most authentic coverage of the Sengoku-jidai period anywhere (bordering on college textbook accuracy). I'd also buy their supplement, Shinobi, and Shinobi-Ryu for information about historical Ninja. The movie interpretations of Ninja and Samurai are so hackneyed, that it was a refreshing change to see a realistic portrayal of both of these character types. You'll get tons of ideas to create class packages if you buy these. And if you go to http://www.rpgnow.com, you can get them both for less than $13 in a .pdf format. That's almost 500pages worth of material....it's a steal. And since Sengoku uses the Fuzion system which is a mod of the Hero system, conversion will be really easy.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Or you could be the mages who called up the typhoon....

 

For a japanese Mythos game, you have to take Shinto into account. What are the typical powerrs of a Shinto priest or shrine maiden? And do Buddhist monks in a fantasy setting learn anything approaching divine magic?

 

Of course you can;t have a Japan fanatasy game with masterless samurai trying to perfect their swordsmanship skills until they can perform quasimytsical feats of swordplay.

[Susano]

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

Or you could be the mages who called up the typhoon....

 

For a japanese Mythos game, you have to take Shinto into account. What are the typical powerrs of a Shinto priest or shrine maiden? And do Buddhist monks in a fantasy setting learn anything approaching divine magic?

 

Of course you can;t have a Japan fanatasy game with masterless samurai trying to perfect their swordsmanship skills until they can perform quasimytsical feats of swordplay.

 

For the magic question I'll have to add "Get Sengoku" yet again. Also, try and find "Mystic China." if you have patience it has some workable ideas.

[Ron]

I enjoy playing Sengoku (although the Fuzion implementation is rather weak). However, I would like to play something more Chinese. Is there anything available?

 

Would Ninja Hero be useful in a project like this?

[HeroGM]

AEG Cathay for Swashbuckling Adventures has more of a Chinese feel. They tried to take it as far away from Legend of the Five Rings/Rokugan as they could.

[CorpCommander]

Book Suggestions

 

I would recommend the following books (and they are probably at your library)

 

"Goddesses, Heroes and Shamans - The Young People's Guide to World Mythology", Kingfisher, ISBN 1-85697-999-7

 

Yes, its a children's book but it gives a great survey of many, many mythos including Japanese, Indian and Chinese. For example, ever hear of Moyang Melur? That is a Malayan spirit, half human, half tiger. He lives on the Moon where there is order as the rules of civilized behaviour are kept there. On Earth there is chaos because humans are savages and don't know the rules. One day Moyang fell to Earth and would have destoryed all people unless he was returned at once. A hunter managed to trap the spirit, return him to the moon, capture the rules of society which he then returned to Earth with. Lots of neat stuff like that in here.

 

"Japanese Tales", Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library, ISBN 0-394-75656-8, edited by Royall Tyler.

 

Fantastic book. It has an amazing introduction that should be worth a few college Sociology credits just for reading. If you want an education on Chinese and Japanese folklore this is a great place to start! Learn the differences and similarities of Chinese Yoga and Buddhism. Learn Yin-Yang Lore. Learn what a Bodhisattvas is!

 

The other suggestions are good. Especially GRG's Sengoku. Look on Half.com for a cheap one. I have mine for sale up there. Hint hint.

 

Good luck, the Journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Book Suggestions

 

I've come across a HERO website that would be very useful for this type of campaign: Rising Sun: Adventures in the land of Mythic Nippon. Package Deals for "mythic style" ninja, samurai and other classes, and traditions of Oriental magic with system writeups.

[Rapier]

Re: Oriental fantasy worlds

 

All of these are wonderful examples.

 

Way back when, one of my bestest of friends and I split a campaign. He took the US and I took Europe and Asia. We crossed over (with consults) on the rest of the world. While I was rather acquainted with European history, I had little direct knowledge of day-to-day things. This did cause quite a bit of problems as I felt that the campaign was more of a Chicago-in-Britain. We said we were in London, but the only London I could envision looked like LaSalle and Michigan Avenue.

 

Oh, yes, my point. First of all, find a good campaign setting (doesn't matter what system you use, some of us whackjobs would just LOVE to help you convert whatever was needed). Then start immersing yourself in that culture. Get yourself an RP penpal that lives in that region...and this works really well. Start sending each other pics of typical day stuff and writing how your day went. Start reading as many news stories as you can about the region...see if there isn't a local rag (here in Chicago there are polish, korean, japanese, jewish [and anything else you can imagine] newspapers). Go to the library and pick up as many books as you can about the history and modern culture.

 

Yes, its a lot of work. But isn't that half the reason we sit behind the screen? This is important for a few reasons. You are going to have to be able to fill things in for the players. It will make it easier for you to create adventures. You will be able to make consistent quick rulings etc.

 

If I was going to tackle a new setting, as different from my own as the far east, I would give myself probably 6 months of research and design before a player even saw a character sheet.

 

Best of luck to ya, and give a shout if you need some assistance.

 

rgds.

[Lightray]

Good grief, all these recommendations and none yet for GURPS China or GURPS Japan? (unfortunately, no GURPS India yet, since it vanished into development limbo a while back).

 

GURPS is mechanically very similar to Hero, and its easy to port ideas over. Plus GURPS sourcebooks are the bees' knees for research info.

 

I'd really recommend thinking about what exactly you want to put into your "Oriental" campaign. Make a list. You'd mentioned samurai and ninja, and Indian religion.

 

Some ideas can be made to work together; some don't mesh too well. Samurai, for example, were a development of a very, very specific cultural situation -- they're unlikely to exist in a setting alongside armies of conscripted Chinese peasants supported by primitive cannon.

 

That cultural implausibility has always been one of the complaints leveled at Rokugan (L5R). I've had lots of fun with L5R, but some people can't stand the illogical premises, and prefer something like Sengoku.

[James Gillen]

Re: Oriental fantasy worlds

 

Or you could be the mages who called up the typhoon....

 

For a japanese Mythos game, you have to take Shinto into account. What are the typical powerrs of a Shinto priest or shrine maiden? And do Buddhist monks in a fantasy setting learn anything approaching divine magic?

 

Of course you can;t have a Japan fanatasy game with masterless samurai trying to perfect their swordsmanship skills until they can perform quasimytsical feats of swordplay.

 

Again: Get Sengoku.

 

One of the things it does is stress how the Japanese religious system would influence magic. There is no real 'hermetic' magic in the Western or D&D sense; you have a few wilderness hermits and Buddhist magicians (called yamabushi or 'mountain men', or shugenja; roughly similar to what D&D calls 'wu jen'). Then you have the various priesthoods.

 

One point with regard to Buddhism vs. Shinto in Japan that was also made in the out-of-print Bushido: They are in many ways complementary religions. Due to the spirit taboos associated with Shinto, Shinto priests cannot touch blood or corpses, nor can they be present at a birth. Whereas Buddhism is largely about the facets of life and death, so Buddhist priests are often called on to perform necessary ceremonies (like last rites) that would be taboo for a Shinto priest.

 

However, these taboos also mean (for example) that Shinto priests usually don't cure wounds (that would require dealing with a wounded person). Almost all priesthoods have taboos against eating meat. And so on.

 

JG