I have generally used Kaidan with some re-flavoring here and there to fill in the gaps that Tian Xia is missing from the limited books so far. They have a decent number of modules (and crunch/archetypes/monsters) out that are quite faithful and easy to use alongside the Paizo stuff.
Same here. A lot of the countries in Tian Xia sound fascinating.
Same!
I want to know more about the hobgoblin land and post-apoctiplic kraken ruled swampland xD
What I love about Tian Xia, is that it is not just chinese and Jappanese bases but also various other south asian cultures. :)
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I liked the idea of Jade regent as an exploration to and discovery of a whole new part of the world, but now that we are familiar with it I would like to see an AP that is based entirely in Tian Xia. It could utilize the Tian iconics and give tons of info on that part of the world while remaining fully Asian themed and it is difficult to find good Asian themed adventures for RPGs.
This may be my second comment, but I would love to see more fleshed out regarding Tian Xia. The Japanese, Korean, Viet-nam, and Chinese elements are cool to explore. There are other sources through Osprey books and online sites that can give everyone lots of info as to the r warlord era (1550-1600) of Japan and the various Chinese eras. I will add that the jade Regent Path is a great starter for that as well. Oh, there are plenty of Japanese anime series that can be watched to give ideas as well.
You could always incorporate 3pp material like Rite's Kaidan setting or Heroes of the Jade Oath. Other 3PPs have lots of great products pertaining to oriental stuff like ninjas, monks or martial arts...
One thing to take in account is that, IMO Tian Xia is Oriental-light in the case of honor, duty and so on. A perhaps better portrayal of honor is from the Legend of the Five Rings game which makes it very clear that classic tropes such as adventure parties and roaming samurai are not part of the setting. Your Lord owns your hide and you obey or if it gets to terrible, you commit seppaku.
I'm hoping that Tian-Xia starts getting more solidly fleshed out, right now it's pretty bare-bones.
both on an ethnicity-culture and nation level, and as far as religions/deities and 'schools' of magic, monks, etc. go.
Some things just baffle me, like why there's zero information on residents of the vastly long coast north of Goka,
the 'barbarian' residents of the north of the Minkai Empire only seem to speak Min,
(bizarre, given the clear Ainu/Nivkh/Manchu analogy),
and no indication is given to Nagajor's internal structure or significant details,
despite that Naga are known to widely vary in Alignment, and thus each sub-state could be expected to be very different.
(nothing is noted either about the disparity between the Lawful-inclined Nagaji and the TN Deity Nalinivati, their creator/patron...
at minimum, that suggests an aspect of her/her worship that is more represented outside of Nagaji society i.e. in Human society)
What Andrea1 says is largely correct, although that equally goes for 'pseudo European' regions in Avestan, etc,
which equally forgo realistic medieval depictions of serfdom and actual social hierarchies,
to better favor some idealized playground for Common-speaking adventurers of every race, creed, gender, etc.
It kind of goes with the territory of "mainstream D&D setting".
One difference to note is that Clerics and Paladins are supposedly much less common,
which I take to mean that religion and 'moral crusading' has less of an overt social role/presence than in the Inner Sea region.
Exactly what role Clerics/Paladins do have (and how that differs from IS) isn't exactly clear,
beyond that Oracles seems to have a much stronger presence...
But Paizo could very well go back and give Clerics/Paladins an equally solid presence.
Regarding magic schools, there is the 5 elemental schools (that Wizards can specialize in),
although I'm disappointed in that so far they all seem to be rather limited, in that
they don't comprise an alternate school system divy'ing up ALL spells between 5 schools,
they end up leaving most spells as 'non-typed' or 'universal' by the 5 elemental school system.
Until it's more fleshed out, the best you can do is just be well-read on whatever Asian ethnicity that each region is based off of, and try to pull that off well in a D&D context given the information that does exist re: Tian Xia.
Lone Wolf and Cub is a good series to read for a gritty Japanese story and shows the ugliness of the system. There was a story of a corrupt lord who was cut down by a samurai but he then prompt;y turned himself in for punishment. The authorities were sympathetic but he faced the ultimate price for his actions.
Well there are the Honor Rules from Ultimate Campaign
I guess for completeness sake, I should add in that Mythic Realms has info on the Valashamai Jungle as well as the lost Shory sky city
Dragons Unleashed also features two Tien Xia Dragons
Hoping we continue to get bits and pieces of Tien in non-Tien products