Mystical Asian settings: What do you want to see in one?

[bento]

I think its worthwhile reading through some of the old TSR OA adventures and the Kara-Tur supplement for its grand scope, while the more recent Kitsunemori is great setting given that the entire game takes place in the rural countryside.

WoTC put out a great Web-Enhancement for their OA setting called Marhasarpa which is very reminiscent of Burma / SE Asia. Green Ronin also has a cool Mythic Vistas setting, Mindshadows, that has Asian-fantasy ideas in it.

Everything I could suggest would just be things I've used in my own OA games, which were really just ideas I took and warped from these resources. Personally, I like elemental magic, wandering monks, strong military traditions, spiritual corruption, and human-only protagonists. Ki powers, a stratefied society, focus away from accumulating money or magical items, and a focus on building honor are also in my playbook.

Which is one reason why, if and when I ever get to run another OA game, I'll only use True20. It would be nice if you were to put all these pieces under one cover. I'd also really like to see someone develop a town and a city book for Asian-fantasy gaming. Kinda like the village of Hommlet, Saltmarsh (DMG2) or Sharn, with NPCs, plot hooks and such.

[MdavidJ]

I have to do the research on nations like Cambodia, Vietnam, and Korea to see how culturally divergent they are before I tackle them in this Fantasy setting, but, to be clear, you won't see anyone being lumped together.

Joe and Suzi of Expeditious Retreat Press (publishers of True20 Nevermore) did a series of PDFs related to Tibet as well as India as part of their World Building Library product line.

I'll definitely add those to my research list!

[MdavidJ]

I think its worthwhile reading through some of the old TSR OA adventures and the Kara-Tur supplement for its grand scope, while the more recent Kitsunemori is great setting given that the entire game takes place in the rural countryside.

WoTC put out a great Web-Enhancement for their OA setting called Marhasarpa which is very reminiscent of Burma / SE Asia. Green Ronin also has a cool Mythic Vistas setting, Mindshadows, that has Asian-fantasy ideas in it.

Everything I could suggest would just be things I've used in my own OA games, which were really just ideas I took and warped from these resources. Personally, I like elemental magic, wandering monks, strong military traditions, spiritual corruption, and human-only protagonists. Ki powers, a stratefied society, focus away from accumulating money or magical items, and a focus on building honor are also in my playbook.

Which is one reason why, if and when I ever get to run another OA game, I'll only use True20. It would be nice if you were to put all these pieces under one cover. I'd also really like to see someone develop a town and a city book for Asian-fantasy gaming. Kinda like the village of Hommlet, Saltmarsh (DMG2) or Sharn, with NPCs, plot hooks and such.

Well this Begs thew question: "What do people want to see in the way of Monsters?

Oni are pretty much a given, but what else?

Orcs, ogres and the like seem a bit too far-fetched for an Asian fantasy setting IMHO, so what else do you think works, and what doesn't work?

[Kommando]

For monsters, the first thing I would like to see is a completely new take on them, referencing source material where possible and avoiding a rehashing of monsters which have appeared in RPGs (some of which have become cliche).

One reference I can think of is the Asian Mythology section of Monstropedia. Just looking through it has me inspired to have a go at the hindu/buddhist mythologies (which have strong links to one another). Also, sometimes surfing some fan and or neopagan/mythology sites yields some well researched information.

[MdavidJ]

For monsters, the first thing I would like to see is a completely new take on them, referencing source material where possible and avoiding a rehashing of monsters which have appeared in RPGs (some of which have become cliche).

One reference I can think of is the Asian Mythology section of Monstropedia. Just looking through it has me inspired to have a go at the hindu/buddhist mythologies (which have strong links to one another). Also, sometimes surfing some fan and or neopagan/mythology sites yields some well researched information.

Great resource.

Thanks, I'll definitely refer to it as I plan this more.

[Witchblade]

Well this Begs thew question: "What do people want to see in the way of Monsters?

Oni are pretty much a given, but what else?

Orcs, ogres and the like seem a bit too far-fetched for an Asian fantasy setting IMHO, so what else do you think works, and what doesn't work?

Oni... oni... oni... oni...

Sorry.

What else? Hmm, well how about:

Obake
Kappa
Tengu
Kitsune
Yōkai
Yūrei
Ryū
Or pretty much anything found on this page.

Hey, what can I say? I dig Japanese culture!

Ah, but the voices have said that too much concentration on one area is bad. Very well...

Rui shi
Huli jing
Yaoguai
Jiang shi
Quilin
Fenghuang
Xiezhi
And naturally, China has its share of dragons...

Still not enough? Okay...

Kumiho
Dokkaebi
And Gwisin are Korean ghosts.

[peluda]

Blood and Fist (True20 edition) has a nice insight in Martial Arts for True20

You can find it in RPG Now.

[MdavidJ]

Blood and Fist (True20 edition) has a nice insight in Martial Arts for True20

You can find it in RPG Now.

Yeah I did the layout on it

[peluda]

[peluda]

BTW I love that book

[MdavidJ]

Well,
David Garret of Amalara just emailed me asking if I still want to take over Land of the Crane.

I told I definitely wanted to, but I don't know what is going on with Dark Quest Games, so if he can clear it up so that I can legally take it over, I'm going to jump all over it.

Once I know more about the setting and where it was originally in development, I'll see how many of the elements we've been discussing can be added to LOC.

[bento]

I'd like to see specific roles given to certain types of monsters.

For instance, I'd like to see dragons take a more prominent roll. I like their place in Eberron, that they oversee this great prophecy that's playing itself out. Dragons in asian fantasy should be more than monsters, they should be real movers and shakers.

I like the idea of having one prominent evil humanoid race take the goblins/orc roll. I used goblins for this in my game because there's actually a lot of variety to them. Some were savagely wild, while others were industrious and civilized. Develop one flexible humanoid race over several similar ones.

Demons / oni are also good.

Giant Kaiju monsters would be nice. In 1st Ed OA they were used like forces of nature rather than as a real monsters to take down. Kinda like a Tarrasque, they wake up, bolder straight through the country, then go back to fall asleep under the ocean for another 30 years.

I like evil spider monsters. Ettercaps and Aerenas make good mid-level monster bosses.

Thanks for asking!

[MdavidJ]

Yeah I like your ideas on dragons alot.

The Blood Throne setting handles Dragons and Demons as singular entities like that, so I'm more than happy to bring that type of flavor to an asian setting.

[Kommando]

Well,
David Garret of Amalara just emailed me asking if I still want to take over Land of the Crane.

I told I definitely wanted to, but I don't know what is going on with Dark Quest Games, so if he can clear it up so that I can legally take it over, I'm going to jump all over it.

Once I know more about the setting and where it was originally in development, I'll see how many of the elements we've been discussing can be added to LOC.

Sweet! Good luck with that! As much as I would love to see an original setting, building off of something that is already familiar (and in the Worlds of Adventure book) would be the way to go. Got my fingers crossed.

[MdavidJ]

David's going to send me all the pertinent documents and other materials for Land of The Crane this week.

Once I get them and have a chance to digest the material, I'll be going full-steam ahead with it.