Did anyone try to interject asian themes and maybe some sayings of Buddha into their JR game to give it more of an asian feel?
Some asian themes and ideals some of the NPCs might have is that of honor/shame maybe. Some NPCs might quote buddhist sayings and focus on balance and inner peace or something?
What are some creative ways you can interject asian theme? I know some of these might be cliche but that is ok with me.
Thanks,
John
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I am.about to begin JR as a player and decided my PC will conduct Tai Chi each morning. Days when he has to spring into action without practicing Tai Chi first will result in a cranky attitude.
I was also thinking of my swordsage from Book of 9 Swords wearing a ting/yang symbol. With emphasis on both buring wind and shadow hand disciplines. I was thinking instead of traditional black and white, maybe yellow/red with purple/blue.
I might yell out "Yataa, yataa!" after each victory. I have been warned that can get old fast, Maybe once per game.
Going over the icy part of the world might give pleanty of snow and ice for sushi but then again, maybe the environment demands warm food. At at least the warm type of Saki.
This is probably the best campaign to arm your PCs with eastern weapons from UC. The AP is bound to have such weapons as treasure drops.
Maybe order Chinese delivery instead of pizza.
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There are a few things that I've done to introduce the proper theme. I separated the fact that there is a Chinese and a Japanese flavour to different parts of the campaign, rather than a pan asian mishmash.
However, if you want a great example of a pan asian world to help you with the AP, read the Initiate Brother duology by Sean Russell.
1. The campaign starts outside of Goka (Hong Kong) and progresses by ship past Chinese lands (tian-shu) towards Minkai (Japanese). It's all asian, all day, every day.
2. The Chinese (Tian-shu) believe in 5 elements (Wu Xing). These are earth, fire, metal, water and wood.
3. The Japanese (Tian-min) believe in 5 elements (Godai). These are air, earth, fire, water, void.
4. Wizards in my Jade Regent campaign will all be elementalists and either follow wu xing or godai.
5. I will not allow certain core and base classes and I will limit the archetypes to asian flavoured ones.
6. I've limited weapons and armour to eastern flavoured ones.
7. To deal with the very different concepts of culture and honour, I am giving all characters the Civilized trait for free so that they may make a roll on Knowledge/Local *at any time* when they are unsure of what to do.
8. For quotes, which is what the OP was asking for, you need to draw from 3 different real world anaolgies. Since I'm doing these from memory, I might have the PF reference wrong. Pao-Lung is Buddhism. Sangpotshi is Shintoism. And Tamashigo is Bushido. What you want to look for is books that have koans, the cryptic little phrases and paragraphs that one is meant to meditate upon for deeper meaning.
Good books for quotes/koans (you can often get these as pdfs to make searching quicker):
Pao-Lung/Buddhism (also Confucius):
Blue Cliff Record
Tao Te Ching
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
Sangpotshi/Shintoism (also Zen):
Zen Buddhism Selected Writings
The Gateless Gate
Bushido:
Hagakure - probably the best book for quotes as it is a book of quotes! It was popularized by the indie movie Ghost Dog. This book should be able to explain eastern honour to westerners. It is easier to understand if you replace the word Lord with employer and Retainer with employee. Also explained are the expectations and relationship between a Lord and his underlings which is analogous to the relationship within a family between the elders and the younger generations.
Book of Five Rings - by the legendary swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi.
There are more on my shelf at home that I'll post later.
The main source of misunderstanding for players in an eastern campaign is honour. If you can manage honour, you'll have a great foundation.
Western honour is personal. It is simple and easy to understand: Who insulted me and where are they so I can kill them and regain my honour?
Eastern honour is family/clan centric. Much harder to understand for us westerners because of the layers of complexity. One has to balance the honour of the self with the greater need of family/clan honour, which often conflicts. One should always choose family/clan honour over personal dishonour. And one can always expunge dishonour with an honourable (ritual) death. Easterners do not fear death because they believe in reincarnation. And as western gamers, the concept is foreign to us plus we are attached to our characters and don't want to kill them off for a nebulous concept like family honour.
Remember also, asian people are like cats. No matter how well or how poorly you treat them, they will always smile at you even while plotting your demise. Sense Motive will be very important for characters!
More books:
The Zen Reader
The Art of War (how could I forget this one?)
The Japanese Art of War