This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Japanese influence in your campaigns  (Read 7848 times)

jeff37923

  • Knight of Common Sense
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 18318
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #45 on: August 14, 2022, 03:19:52 PM »
What’s this, a balanced analysis? Hzilong, you’re doing it wrong, what you’re supposed to do is start a flame war  ;D
Here, let me help:
-Katanas are the best you idiot!
-Rapiers are much better you moron!
-You’re both losers! Viking swords rule!

Why?

If you cannot use both Japanese media/history and Chinese media/history for inspiration then you are doing yolurself and your players a disservice.
"Meh."

Trond

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2743
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #46 on: August 15, 2022, 10:41:45 AM »
What’s this, a balanced analysis? Hzilong, you’re doing it wrong, what you’re supposed to do is start a flame war  ;D
Here, let me help:
-Katanas are the best you idiot!
-Rapiers are much better you moron!
-You’re both losers! Viking swords rule!

Why?

If you cannot use both Japanese media/history and Chinese media/history for inspiration then you are doing yolurself and your players a disservice.

?
Jeff is either humor-impaired or responding to the wrong post.

Omega

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • O
  • Posts: 17102
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #47 on: August 15, 2022, 11:15:50 AM »
I was just recently watching an old Ultraman episode and a monster that had to be at least one of the basis for the figurine. Had the same body and back corrugation. Ultraman goes all Ultra 7 on it and it gets wrassled to death.

Found a clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ueCzFDYkA

jeff37923

  • Knight of Common Sense
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 18318
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #48 on: August 15, 2022, 11:49:50 AM »
What’s this, a balanced analysis? Hzilong, you’re doing it wrong, what you’re supposed to do is start a flame war  ;D
Here, let me help:
-Katanas are the best you idiot!
-Rapiers are much better you moron!
-You’re both losers! Viking swords rule!

Why?

If you cannot use both Japanese media/history and Chinese media/history for inspiration then you are doing yolurself and your players a disservice.

?
Jeff is either humor-impaired or responding to the wrong post.

I'll say both on this one.......

Mea Culpa
"Meh."

Lurkndog

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 823
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #49 on: August 16, 2022, 12:18:00 AM »
A katana is literally just a cavalry saber.

The samurai's primary weapon was the bow, followed by some form of spear or polearm, with either the katana or wakazashi in third place, depending on how close the quarters were. The wakazashi was preferred for fighting indoors, for instance.

Omega

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • O
  • Posts: 17102
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #50 on: August 16, 2022, 01:03:45 AM »
Ultraman needs no katana to wrassle a bulette.  8)

HappyDaze

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • H
  • Posts: 5337
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #51 on: August 16, 2022, 01:49:21 AM »
A katana is literally just a cavalry saber.

The samurai's primary weapon was the bow, followed by some form of spear or polearm, with either the katana or wakazashi in third place, depending on how close the quarters were. The wakazashi was preferred for fighting indoors, for instance.
The katana's blade is balanced differently and the hilt/grip is considerably changed (and generally intended for two-handed use) when compared to typical western cavalry sabres.

Visitor Q

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 217
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #52 on: August 16, 2022, 05:36:36 AM »
How much does Japanese media influence your campaigns? Their story, their characters, their world, and so on. In that vein, how does Japanese media influence your players and their PCs? And what specific titles do you select ideas from?

I pick from mostly anime and manga: Digimon (monster catching), Shin Megami Tensei (religious beings, law and chaos), Berserk (respectful depiction of the outcomes of sexual assault (with player consent of course), giant swords, CLANG), Xenoseries (giant robots, science focus, robot girls)

Japanese history and culture has a big influence on some of my 40K games. There are certain planets in the Sector I have devised that have more Oriental influence with Japan being a key influence. I do focus on direct real world inspiration however and less on associated Japanese media. The one exception would be Japanese hardboiled, and noir definitely finds its way into my GMing.

A katana is literally just a cavalry saber.

The samurai's primary weapon was the bow, followed by some form of spear or polearm, with either the katana or wakazashi in third place, depending on how close the quarters were. The wakazashi was preferred for fighting indoors, for instance.
The katana's blade is balanced differently and the hilt/grip is considerably changed (and generally intended for two-handed use) when compared to typical western cavalry sabres.

This is right. The katana isn't really a cavalry sword. That's more a tachi.

There is a tendency in the West to lump a lot of Japanese swords in together and describe them as katanas. It is true that Japanese swords developed their curvature as a response to samurai being used as cavalry troops. Prior to that Japanese swords (chokutō) were straight. However these curved cavalry swords are generally called tachi and the marked curvature is one of their distinguishing features compared to the somewhat later katanas.

Although confusingly a lot of this terminology is not what the contemporarous wielders would have used. E.g An 8th century Japanese warrior would also have called a straight sword a tachi, and it was only later that the term chokutō was used.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2022, 06:37:32 AM by Visitor Q »

Hzilong

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 122
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #53 on: August 16, 2022, 07:01:42 AM »

Although confusingly a lot of this terminology is not what the contemporarous wielders would have used. E.g An 8th century Japanese warrior would also have called a straight sword a tachi, and it was only later that the term chokutō was used.

Right. 90% of sword taxonomy is a modern invention. Hell, most of the names used for different types of swords are just “sword” in different languages. Messer? Knife. Grossmesser? Big knife. Spatha- sword, Jian- sword, tachi- sword, katana- sword pronounced/written differently, odachi- big sword.
Resident lurking Chinaman

Visitor Q

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 217
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #54 on: August 16, 2022, 07:14:04 AM »

Although confusingly a lot of this terminology is not what the contemporarous wielders would have used. E.g An 8th century Japanese warrior would also have called a straight sword a tachi, and it was only later that the term chokutō was used.

Right. 90% of sword taxonomy is a modern invention. Hell, most of the names used for different types of swords are just “sword” in different languages. Messer? Knife. Grossmesser? Big knife. Spatha- sword, Jian- sword, tachi- sword, katana- sword pronounced/written differently, odachi- big sword.

This is very true. And indeed to be honest there is overlap between swords described by different Japanese sources in different eras as tachi and swords described as katanas.

Steven Mitchell

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • S
  • Posts: 3772
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #55 on: August 16, 2022, 07:27:06 AM »

Right. 90% of sword taxonomy is a modern invention. Hell, most of the names used for different types of swords are just “sword” in different languages. Messer? Knife. Grossmesser? Big knife. Spatha- sword, Jian- sword, tachi- sword, katana- sword pronounced/written differently, odachi- big sword.

This used to bother me in games.  Then I realized that if I wanted several different sword names to use as cultural flavor in the setting, it was a whole lot easier to use several such names for essentially the same thing, instead of "forest elven sword", "steppe human sword" or even more specific with setting names. 

There is very little Japanese, or even Asian influence in my games.  I'll sometimes use a slight gloss on something from Asia as a style thing, in an otherwise western European or Mediterranean style.  A couple of times, we've had an Asian-based character as the fish out of water trope that Geeky mentioned.  However, I'm more likely to pull in something Native American based than Asian.

deadDMwalking

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2499
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #56 on: August 16, 2022, 09:53:24 AM »
Using one name for a bunch of similar items (and giving them the same in-game stats) definitely works.  I was watching a television program last night called Edwardian Farm.  On this episode the local blacksmith forged a bill hook for use in maintaining the hedges.  This specific bill hook was the Devon Bill Hook, and it was contrasted with the Cornish Bill Hook and while they basically do the same thing in the same way, there's a lot of variety.  Here's a Wikipedia Picture of some of the variety. 

Having 21 versions of a Bill Hook in your game is probably excessive.  On the other hand, a bill hook is different enough from a sickle or a machete that we don't just call one the other.  Mechanically, as weapons they might be the same.  On the other hand, if you want to tie some advantage or cultural association to a specific weapon or variant, giving it a unique name and a different mechanic makes sense.  A kukri is a type of knife, but it has an enhanced threat range in D&D.  Whether that makes sense or not in the real world case almost doesn't matter.  As long as it makes sense in the game (and since critical hits are a little abstract, it probably does) it can be a good thing.  Ultimately, what you want to avoid is one version of a weapon being entirely superior so that everyone uses it, or, for most games, making every weapon identical so there's no difference at all between them. 

I don't want to leave that last statement unexamined - it is perfectly defensible to say something like 'a hit does 1 damage' whether that's a dagger or a great sword.  Or small blades do 1 damage and large blades do 2 damage.  But since D&D is largely a game of imagination, I think that it's important to try to provide springboards for the imagination.  I think having different weapons with different mechanics encourages that to some degree. 
When I say objectively, I mean 'subjectively'.  When I say literally, I mean 'figuratively'.  
And when I say that you are a horse's ass, I mean that the objective truth is that you are a literal horse's ass.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. - Peter Drucker

Monero

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • M
  • Posts: 60
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #57 on: August 16, 2022, 01:40:31 PM »
None, because I want to make sure that there's zero chance that I appropriate any of their sacred culture.

Chris24601

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • C
  • Posts: 3326
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #58 on: August 16, 2022, 05:35:15 PM »
None, because I want to make sure that there's zero chance that I appropriate any of their sacred culture.
You're too new to tell if serious.

This is why English needs a 'sarcasm' punctuation mark.

Seriously though, any Japenese culture I use is mostly via filtration through other elements; ex. I'm currently assisting my GM on setting up a Star Wars campaign. There's plenty of Japanese influence on Star Wars, but its all second-hand in this case.

caldrail

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 59
Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #59 on: August 17, 2022, 03:37:21 AM »
During my longest running D&D campaign I used japanese inspiration for elven culture. No linguistic stuff and I had them using 'moon-swords' (similar to Klingon bat'leth's). I did this to make them more 'alien' than wishy washy Tolkien-esque concepts and even introduced a Warhammer 40k inspired idea of 'Craftholds', places like Rivendell but in pocket dimensions of their own, accessed through magical gates or event horizons in places like waterfalls, caves, or forest groves.

Wood elves were similar but worldly and less civilised. The one the players interacted with was walled off by a mystical hedge.

In retrospect it worked a little too well. Players more used to western mythology got a little confused as to why elves weren't pretty boy humans.