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Author Topic: Japanese influence in your campaigns  (Read 7836 times)

HappyDaze

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #15 on: August 11, 2022, 03:59:53 AM »
I used ti love anime, but that's faded since the early 90s. These days, I find most anime influences to be a negative, unless the game is specifically intended to be an anime-based game. In the latter case, I just skip it. Not judging, just a matter of personal tastes.

Omega

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #16 on: August 11, 2022, 05:00:24 AM »
I used ti love anime, but that's faded since the early 90s. These days, I find most anime influences to be a negative, unless the game is specifically intended to be an anime-based game. In the latter case, I just skip it. Not judging, just a matter of personal tastes.

Theres been a swing over the decades from ultra violence to more tame stuff and back to ultra violence as people get bored of too much of one or the other.

S'mon

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #17 on: August 11, 2022, 10:07:18 AM »
Likable female characters would be the big one.

HappyDaze

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #18 on: August 11, 2022, 10:11:18 AM »
Likable female characters would be the big one.
How is that a Japanese thing?

Eric Diaz

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #19 on: August 11, 2022, 10:16:27 AM »
I'd like a setting made of French illustrators, Japanese monsters, and pulp-era American protagonists.

Think Moebius plus Dark Souls plus Conan. Or John Carter in a Druillet world with bloodborne foes.

(But, other than that, Berserk and Souls games are a big influence).
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THE_Leopold

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #20 on: August 11, 2022, 10:50:35 AM »
James Clavell "Shogun" series of books was a boiler plate on how to run Japenese scenarios mixed with classical European Fantasy.

I've converted many of the traditional european races to be more asian-centric in my campaign for a mix of cultures (gnomes=korean, hobgoblins=japanese, dwarves=chinese, etc.) to spice things up.
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Lurkndog

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #21 on: August 11, 2022, 02:01:10 PM »
Cyberpunk games (2.0.2.0. & Shadowrun specifically) were already heavily influenced by manga, so it's only natural to continue to draw from those sources when you play those campaigns.

And that was before Ghost in the Shell, which was a gateway into cyberpunk for a lot of people too young to have experienced the original literary movement in the 1980s. And for a lot of people, Shirow's imagery and themes are a permanent part of cyberpunk.

rocksfalleverybodydies

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #22 on: August 11, 2022, 02:42:19 PM »
I picked up Goblin Slayer: a Japanese game mechanic TRPG, overseen and directly contributed to by the author of the manga, so figure it doesn't get more influenced than that.  :)

I like the look of the older stuff like Robotech, Starblazers, Golgo 13, and sometimes mine them for ideas.

Still amazes me how futuristic Ghost in the Shell still looks for '89: they really captured that weather-beaten, glistening cyber-tech look perfectly.  I swear the main heroine's look and attitude is Molly Millions in disguise (a least how I pictured her reading Gibson)

Omega

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #23 on: August 11, 2022, 07:20:38 PM »
Likable female characters would be the big one.
How is that a Japanese thing?

You havent watched any then.

Theres plenty. Sailor Moon is not one of them. aheh.

But thats a problem with more than a few US cartoons too.

Rob Necronomicon

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2022, 07:47:35 PM »
Old Manga or Anime 90s horror style would be the biggest influence when it comes to Japanese stuff for RPGs. I always like their gnarly demons and epic storylines.

Not so fond of the sleazy stuff. My brain just ignores that...

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zircher

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #25 on: August 11, 2022, 10:21:54 PM »
I still watch a lot of anime and read manga.  I generally prefer their brand of story telling.  I used to buy a LOT of comics, but they have gone to crap for the most part.  So, it's natural that there is some bleed over into my gaming.
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Philotomy Jurament

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #26 on: August 12, 2022, 10:08:21 AM »
Japanese pop culture has zero influence on the vast majority of my gaming. Most of my RPG gaming is Western medieval influenced (and Western swords-n-sorcery or fantasy fiction like Howard, Leiber, Merritt, Tolkien, et al.), although I also enjoy gaming inspired or influenced by ancient Rome, Greece, etc.

However, I've run some very fun Bushido games. My influences there would be things like actual history, Clavell's Shogun novel, and Kurosawa films. I guess the Kurosawa films could be considered pop culture.
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SHARK

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #27 on: August 12, 2022, 10:20:55 AM »
Greetings!

Yeah, Japanese Pop Culture is pretty much a non-starter for me. Zero influence.

I am much more primarily focused on Western European, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, the Slavs, the Germanic tribes, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages. Classical Medieval eras.

Secondarily, I am influenced by the cultures, history, and mythology of Ancient India and Ancient China.

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zircher

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #28 on: August 12, 2022, 01:07:12 PM »
That explains a lot, I play a urban fantasy, horror, sci-fi, as well as other indie stuff with an eye towards solo play.  I have more medieval fantasy on my to-do list and that is all Appendix N inspired [specifically stuff like Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or The Princess Bride.]
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Lurkndog

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Re: Japanese influence in your campaigns
« Reply #29 on: August 12, 2022, 04:50:07 PM »
I like the look of the older stuff like Robotech, Starblazers, Golgo 13, and sometimes mine them for ideas.
Sunrise Animation really hits an aesthetic sweet spot for me. Particularly their 1980s stuff. But even their recent stuff that has shown up on Netflix is gorgeous looking, even if the story is weak.

Still amazes me how futuristic Ghost in the Shell still looks for '89: they really captured that weather-beaten, glistening cyber-tech look perfectly.  I swear the main heroine's look and attitude is Molly Millions in disguise (a least how I pictured her reading Gibson)
That's an interesting observation. I never made any kind of connection between Molly and Kusanagi, mainly because I read Neuromancer long before Ghost in the Shell came out.