tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post8278004618559234545..comments2024-03-28T21:13:43.603+09:00Comments on What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse...: Ninjas in your Game [Ninja Week]Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-55964058083016634162010-08-24T23:41:24.094+09:002010-08-24T23:41:24.094+09:00Call me a stickler and a historical snob. I'v...Call me a stickler and a historical snob. I've always felt, though, that there was a lot more commonality between Holy Roman, Arthurian, Middle-Earthian, Hyborian, and Lankhmarian settings than between China and Japan. A lot of the similarities are obvious, but there are also massive, massive differences, so much so that it literally felt jarring to have samurai characters in a Chinese-esque setting. Personally, I'd rather see a campaign set in a continent that was directly modeled on feudal Japan.<br /><br />I agree that your class doesn't dictate your character concept, but I do think that character class should have something to do with it. Besides, ninjas are trained with a very specific skills set from birth, which makes me consider them a class unto themselves, one that cannot be multi-classed into later.<br /><br />As for your Flying Swordsmen game, I suspected it was that sort of game, but it keeps slipping my mind.Dave Cesaranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01454928720043301400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-9836390078136752342010-08-21T07:24:59.893+09:002010-08-21T07:24:59.893+09:00Oh, and I'll re-iterate that just because the ...Oh, and I'll re-iterate that just because the spot on your character sheet says "Rogue" or "Monk" doesn't mean that you need to call your character that.<br /><br />If you want your character to be a ninja from birth, OK, you're a ninja. Use the Rogue or Monk to build it.Dennis Laffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-37296973764806288602010-08-21T07:22:26.770+09:002010-08-21T07:22:26.770+09:00The nonsensical mesh of Chinese and Japanese and I...The nonsensical mesh of Chinese and Japanese and Indian cultures was one of the things I liked about 3E OA. Zeb's 1E OA was too Japanocentric. Baseline D&D isn't Holy Roman, or Arthurian, or Howardian, or Middle Earthian, or Lankhmarian. It's an 'unholy goulash' as Malizewski once put it. I like OA to be the same.<br /><br />Rokugan didn't do it for me, as a setting. Translating card game mechanics into a social dynamic seemed somehow wrong to me. I actually like the parts of OA that are more of a toolkit, minus the majority of Rokugan specific stuff.<br /><br />And I'm already working on a wuxia/youxia/xiake retro-clone, in case you missed it, Dave!Dennis Laffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-22513516671021610732010-08-20T20:27:19.942+09:002010-08-20T20:27:19.942+09:00A lot of it also depends on the time period in whi...A lot of it also depends on the time period in which your campaign is taking place. The samurai of the 戦国時代 (<i>Sengoku Jidai</i>) isn't the same as the 江戸時代 (<i>Edo Jidai</i>) samurai. Honor and devotion were great on paper. But 明智 光秀 (Akechi Mitsuhide) still betrayed 織田 信長 (Oda Nobunaga) at 本能寺 (Honnō-ji).<br /><br />I hated 3.0 <i>Oriental Adventures</i>. It was far worse than the 1st edition <i>AD&D</i> one (I dislike the nonsensical mesh of Chinese and Japanese cultures together). I actually found the <i>Rokugan Campaign Setting</i> book for 3.0 to have fixed many of the things James Wyatt broke when it came to the classes. I think ninja should certainly be its own class--you are born into it, you can't join like it's a club (i.e. prestige class).<br /><br />Off-topic, check out the Chinese 游侠 (<i>yóuxiá</i>)--awesome character background for an adventurer in a mythical Chinese setting.<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youxia<br /><br />As for other Japanese classes, especially ninjas (cyber-ninjas, techno-ninjas) in a modern or cyber-punk era, check out Palladium's <i>World Book: Japan</i>. It's one of my very favorite books for RIFTS, and just one of my favorite gaming-related products period.Dave Cesaranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01454928720043301400noreply@blogger.com