Does Ravenloft + Oriental Adventures = Awesome?

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

I have Oriental Adventures, but haven't done much with it. I just got Ravenloft, and it looks fun. Would combining the two into a single Pathfinder campaign be feasible fluff-wise? What I want is gritty horror in an Asian setting. Could running Oriental Adventures while borrowing a lot from Ravenloft lead to something fun, or is this trying to combine two things that don't belong together?

[Lincoln Hills]

I think you'd find the hybrid fairly playable. Some might say that a Western-style vampire "doesn't fit," but that would only truly apply if you were seriously trying to create, say, a 'strictly Japanese' Oriental setting. And lord knows there are enough Oriental ghost & monster stories to keep a Ravenloft-like campaign going for a long, long time.

(The Sword & Sorcery 3rd party once produced Ravenloft for 3.5, and expanded the campaign's Dread Realms to a wide range of 'cultures', including Egyptian, bayou, and Japanese regions. It wasn't a particularly inspired effort, though: you wouldn't miss much by doing the construction yourself.)

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

I don't want strict Japanese. I'm open to Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Filipino stuff.

At the moment I'm starting up an Eberron published adventure, and I have until it's finished to have this Ravenloft/Oriental Adventure hybrid ready.

[flash_cxxi]

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

I don't want strict Japanese.

I know you don't want strictly Japanese, but the Domain of Rokushima Taiyoo could at least be a good start for you. There is also the Indian realm of Sri Raji as well if you want to go as far West Asian as that. :)

There is also the quite awesome dark setting of Kaidan that you can mine for ideas as well. :)

[Dreaming Psion]

I think it's certainly doable. A lot of Ravenloft is built on the Gothic Mythos and related tropes (innate rights, the Enlightenment, Western conceptions of faith, and of course your classic gothic horror monsters). However, there are other things that could go well with a more Eastern setting (for example, powers checks to a certain degree are based on your relationship with the person you offend, and the "major betrayal" and "minor betrayal" would fit it well when a person intentionally dishonors his lord or family, for example). The concept of a land's fate being linked to the actions of its lord also exists in Asian mythology (for example, the Chinese Mandate of Heaven- the Mandate gives the Emperor his place only as long as he acts in the proper manner- otherwise natural disasters and the like can occur). So you got your excuse for darklords and such there. And of course mist-shrouded mountain temples and the like that blink into and out of reality every few centuries and decades are there in popular culture too, so now you can have reason to include domains, particularly floating pockets.

In addition to what's been mentioned, you might want to check out dungeon magazine for a few good ideas that might fit a Ravenlofty themed OA game. Workable ones off the top of my head: "The Coming Storm" (Dungeon 136), "Winding Way" (Dungeon 117), and "Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable ONes" (Dungeon 146, part three of the Seeds of Sehan arc), though in that latter adventure it ties to places of a non-OA nature in the other installments (more of Mesopotamian/typical fantasy world mash up). Most of these are of the mysterious monastery theme.

You might also want to check out the Rokugan stuff. They've got some nasty stuff in there, especially the Shadowlands.

Really the potential is there, I'd imagine you just need to know where to hit it (I've heard somewhere in one example of Japanese horror that didn't translate well over here was a priest drinking blood and eating flesh, because of the normal taboo on the impurity of dead flesh, for example).

[Doomed Hero]

Personally, I'd love a game like this, especially if the GM really knew their Asian folklore and could draw on the intensely creepy stuff there.

[st00ji]

Doomed Hero wrote:

Personally, I'd love a game like this, especially if the GM really knew their Asian folklore and could draw on the intensely creepy stuff there.

QFT

[SwnyNerdgasm]

I've been in a campaign that was pretty much exactly what you described, I didn't enjoy it at all, but the other players in the group seemed to like it.

[Lincoln Hills]

For some reason I suddenly flashed back to Sasuke of Usagi Yojimbo. Short version for those who don't know the series: in a Japan-like setting where the supernatural works but magical powers are exceptionally rare, he's become a sort of Samurai/Sorceror/Eldritch Knight in order to combat ghosts and demons. He has one very understated schtick - greeting people by name before he's told what their name is. D'you think that's a feat or a spell? ;)

[Thanael]

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

I just got Ravenloft, and it looks fun.

When you say you got Ravenloft, which product(s) do you mean? 1E/2E Ravenloft by TSR? 3E Ravenloft by Sword & Sorcery? WotC (imho abysmal) Return to Castle Ravenloft? The great Mistfinder Ravenloft conversion to pathfinder pdf?

Definately check the the Fraternity of Shadows site, the unofficial home of Ravenloft on the net. They got loads of netbooks, nice forums and stuff. There should be some stuff about Oriental domains in the forums at least. Check out Chris Nichols' Scattered Lotus Cluster proposal for example.

[Thanael]

flash_cxxi wrote:

There is also the quite awesome dark setting of Kaidan that you can mine for ideas as well. :)

+1. They offer a free adventure that you should definately check out.

[That Old Guy]

Ninja'd by Thanael. Nice work.

[Jib]

Might I suggest the graphic novel "Okko" book of water by HUB? It has a Japanese feel as the main character is a samurai but touches on other themes. The tale might inspire you. It's available on Amazon.

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

Thanael wrote:

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

I just got Ravenloft, and it looks fun.

When you say you got Ravenloft, which product(s) do you mean? 1E/2E Ravenloft by TSR? 3E Ravenloft by Sword & Sorcery? WotC (imho abysmal) Return to Castle Ravenloft? The great Mistfinder Ravenloft conversion to pathfinder pdf?

Definately check the the Fraternity of Shadows site, the unofficial home of Ravenloft on the net. They got loads of netbooks, nice forums and stuff. There should be some stuff about Oriental domains in the forums at least. Check out Chris Nichols' Scattered Lotus Cluster proposal for example.

Thanks for the advice. I got a mix of 3E and AD&D Ravenloft materiel and both 3.5 and AD&D Oriental Adventures, and I plan to run everything with Pathfinder.

[Lincoln Hills]

Are you thinking of using the Oriental Adventures races or the ones from PF? I'd recommend a bit of careful mix-and-matching: you might not want gnomes (or even elves), while some of the OA races (especially the nezumi and spirit folk) can readily be re-engineered with slightly... creepier backgrounds.

[Thanael]

Definately come by the forums at the FoS site. There are lots of nice people there and several oriental threads/projects.

Also definately check out the netbooks section. There are tons of excellent netbooks for RL.

[lupis2004]

Theres also the old Hammer film "Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070297/) you could take some inspiration from.

Peter Cushing last outing as Van Helsing (Christopher Lee turned down the role of Dracula after reading the script!).

An "interesting" mix of gothic and chinese mythology.

[gamer-printer]

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I got a mix of 3E and AD&D Ravenloft materiel and both 3.5 and AD&D Oriental Adventures, and I plan to run everything with Pathfinder.

As many have already mentioned, consider Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting which is a Pathfinder exclusive setting based on classic Japanese ghost stories and folklore with an emphasis on authenticity, and correcting many of the misconceived 'orientalisms' found in Oriental Adventures and L5R. (I'm the developer of Kaidan, and it is based on a lifetime of research of my heritage and love of ghost stories - I'm half Japanese.)

Kaidan has a free one-shot adventure called Frozen Wind.
3 part introductory mini-campaign Curse of the Golden Spear
3 racial supplements for Tengu, Kappa and Hengeyokai
1 (so far) faction supplement called Way of the Yakuza (with a samurai version coming out soon.)
1 haunts book, just released this month; #30 Haunts for Kaidan

Kaidan is strictly based on Japanese lore, and is not a mix of other oriental cultures. IMO, Kaidan is darker than Ravenloft, which is a setting that provided great inspiration, but takes a further step into darkness... check it, you won't be disappointed.

[Phim Kooj Koi]

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

I have Oriental Adventures, but haven't done much with it. I just got Ravenloft, and it looks fun. Would combining the two into a single Pathfinder campaign be feasible fluff-wise? What I want is gritty horror in an Asian setting. Could running Oriental Adventures while borrowing a lot from Ravenloft lead to something fun, or is this trying to combine two things that don't belong together?

A lot of Asian cultures have ghost stories coming out of every orifice. I think you could definitely do this. I'd try and get your hands on source material for inspiration, everything from Asian horror movies to books of folktales; as far as gaming books goes, there's one from about ten years back for 3.0 called Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts that, well, has a lot of said ghosties you could use.

[Gnomezrule]

Definately can be done. The key if I was working on this would be tone. More than synthesizing the cultural elements or folklore. The tone of Ravenloft is one of a hanging oppressiveness over everything and everyone.