Going back to the original flavor of world building, I am in the progress now of making this whole shebang more of Japanese center. Looking at things more through different lenses lately is that Rokugan is all of Asia wrapped into one, not just Japan with a smattering of other cultures... Not even just East Asia... But all Asia. I think I am going to break that up a bit, but still parallel some of the larger picture story. Of course as time goes by, it will start to diverge quite a bit. I think a big challenge will be redefining the Hantei line, which is more in tradition with Chinese emperors than Japanese emperors (which were more like Popes to be honest). I think this can be accomplished with a Kolat scheme here and there.

So far, I am working on renaming some towns and castles. I always thought the Shiro and Kyuden separation a touch odd, since all castles, regardless of size, share the same suffix.. -jo. So I am leaning that way. Some names I am fixing to make Japanese grammatical sense (My wife is Japanese so she is helping me out and letting me know what would be unnatural). Some place I will keep the spirit of the name, some places I will change it to something real life- as it makes some sense given the histories... So far my current homework is looking like this (Not close to completion and I am sure I am missing a town or two). If there is a name connected to a family, I am not going to mess with what Kanji those should be :

Imperial holdings

• Otosan Uchi- I actually have a few ideas here:
  • "Saikyō" ( 西京 , meaning "Western Capital")
  • Heian- Kyo ( 平安京 , "tranquility and peace capital"). Heian is the time period, so I dont think I will stick to history that much. I would likely replace Heian with something.
    • The actual forbidden city would be (name of city+ Gosho 御所. So far I am leaning with naming the capital Saikyo. So Saikyogosho 西京 御所
• City of the Rich Frog – Imperial holding
• Seppun palace the four temples

Crab lands

· Swirling pool village - 渦潮 町 – Uzushiocho – based off of Hokusai Naruto whirlpools

· Clear water village

· West mountain village- 西山 Nishiyama

· Forgotten village

· Hida castle – Hidajo

· Castle of the forgotten

·  Castle of the Nation - 国家城  Kokkajo     

· Carpenter castle

· Razor of the dawn castle

· Castle of the falcon - 鷹城  Takajo

· Barracks of the damned

· Castle of the sparrow - 雀 城 Suzumejo

·       Castle of the fox - 狐城 Kitsunejo

· Maemikake

Crane lands

· Kaori Tea farm 牧之原 – Makinohara – a famous tea farm in current Shizuoka

· Summerlands

· Wall above the ocean village-

· Cave of the stone children - 鋸 山 Nokogiriyama – Place in Chiba with lot of Jizo statues (Stone children statues you can see everywhere when walking around) as you hike up to the temple. Kind of the opposite of a cave, but who says there cant be a cave at the base

· Benten Seido

· Palaces of the Crane

· Friendly traveler village

· Black crane estates

· The port that never sleeps-

· Seven fold palace

·  Kyunden Shika-  鹿城 Shikajo   

· Musume Mura - 娘 町 - Komachi

· Kyunden Doji- Dojijo

· Shizuka Toshi- 静 市 Seishi

· Dragon lands

· High house of light- Togashi monastery - 阿夫利神 社 Afurijinja – mountain temple on Oyama in present day Isehara. I unintentionally climbed up this just to get some good camera shots, so honestly, I have to include it in this list. More of a shrine than it is a monastery though... and for the record... flip flops were a bad idea.

· Hyozensho

· Shiro Kitsuki- Kitsukijo

Scorpion lands

· Ryoko Owari- 歌舞伎町 Kabukicho - Its one of the highest crime rate areas in Japan at night and has a pretty bad reputation. While -Cho is more of a district and -Shi is a city. I am just used to the name, so a bit of inconsistency there.

· Silent one’s monastery

· Shinden Kasai

· Silk and Shadow palace

·

Phoenix lands

· Red Horn village

· Shrine of the Kirin- Kirinji

· Kyunden Asako- Asakojo

Lion Lands

· Temple of the listening ghosts

· Buzzing fly village

· Violence behind courtliness city

· Last breath castle- Matsujo

Unicorn Lands

· Khanbulak- (Moto family)

· Plains winds monastery

Mantis Lands- (While earlier someone pointed out an Indonesian theme with them…I can really see that now someone pointed it out), I am going to go with basing them off the Ryukyu kingdoms.

· Kyuden Gotei- 首里 城- Shurijo

· City of lightning

Shadowlands

· Fallen Chrysanthanum lake

· The lost library

· The defiled court of lady Youko

· False lantern grove

· Forgotton tomb of Fu Leng

· Daylight castle

· Blood nourished tree

· Pool of vile reflections

· Black tear peak

Still have a lot of homework, but I enjoy the insights of the community.

2 hours ago, Ellahrairah said:

Going back to the original flavor of world building, I am in the progress now of making this whole shebang more of Japanese center. Looking at things more through different lenses lately is that Rokugan is all of Asia wrapped into one, not just Japan with a smattering of other cultures... Not even just East Asia... But all Asia. I think I am going to break that up a bit, but still parallel some of the larger picture story. Of course as time goes by, it will start to diverge quite a bit. I think a big challenge will be redefining the Hantei line, which is more in tradition with Chinese emperors than Japanese emperors (which were more like Popes to be honest). I think this can be accomplished with a Kolat scheme here and there.

Except, each of the Chinese Dynasties were different families with the newer ones typically killing off all but the most distant cousins of the previous ruling family. Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan (Mongolian), Ming, and Qing(Manchu) were all different ruling families as the founder of each dynasty was not related to the previous ruling family having overthrown them. AEG's succession of Hantei first to the Toturi, then Iweko is a better match to the succession of Chines Dynasties.

While you are correct that the Japanese emperors had more of a religious component (namely Shintoism), how is that really any different that the King or Queen of England also being the head of the Anglican Church? I think the analogy of Rokugan's ruling family to the Japanese Imperial family is still correct until and unless FFG also choses to break the Hantei line as AEG did.

As to your campaign modifications:
As to your suggestions I like much of it. I whole heartily agree with your choice to model the Mantis Islands of Spice and Silk off of the Okinawan Kingdoms. Might I also suggest adding Formosa/Taiwan into the mix? As well as the real world Matsu Islands?

I am glad that you did make that mistake of climbing up to visit the mountain-top temple, even if you were in flip-flops. I have inadvertently climbed a few mountains in South Korea and seen the temples near or at the top. Very enlightening. And it pleases me that you are going to incorporate that experience into making the monasteries of the Dragon more realistic. Never underestimate the value of first-hand experience, even if totally by accident. Hopefully that can give you some ideas. If you can get a map of the temple layout, do use it in your game.

19 minutes ago, neilcell said:

Except, each of the Chinese Dynasties were different families with the newer ones typically killing off all but the most distant cousins of the previous ruling family. Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Yuan (Mongolian), Ming, and Qing(Manchu) were all different ruling families as the founder of each dynasty was not related to the previous ruling family having overthrown them. AEG's succession of Hantei first to the Toturi, then Iweko is a better match to the succession of Chines Dynasties.

While you are correct that the Japanese emperors had more of a religious component (namely Shintoism), how is that really any different that the King or Queen of England also being the head of the Anglican Church? I think the analogy of Rokugan's ruling family to the Japanese Imperial family is still correct until and unless FFG also choses to break the Hantei line as AEG did.

As to your campaign modifications:
As to your suggestions I like much of it. I whole heartily agree with your choice to model the Mantis Islands of Spice and Silk off of the Okinawan Kingdoms. Might I also suggest adding Formosa/Taiwan into the mix? As well as the real world Matsu Islands?

I am glad that you did make that mistake of climbing up to visit the mountain-top temple, even if you were in flip-flops. I have inadvertently climbed a few mountains in South Korea and seen the temples near or at the top. Very enlightening. And it pleases me that you are going to incorporate that experience into making the monasteries of the Dragon more realistic. Never underestimate the value of first-hand experience, even if totally by accident. Hopefully that can give you some ideas. If you can get a map of the temple layout, do use it in your game.

If you saw temples and know a bit about Korea, check My Country on netflix. It is awesome and feels L5R in an imperial/ronin/honor/intrigue way.

1 hour ago, Avatar111 said:

If you saw temples and know a bit about Korea, check My Country on netflix. It is awesome and feels L5R in an imperial/ronin/honor/intrigue way.

A friend of mine had introduced me to Kingdoms... for that Korean shadowlands feel. On Amazon, they have Yae's Sakura. Alas just one episode though. That was more when Perry arrived... Which eventually saw the Shogun regime overthrown and the Meiji emperor get back in as a prime player.

6 hours ago, Ellahrairah said:

A friend of mine had introduced me to Kingdoms... for that Korean shadowlands feel. On Amazon, they have Yae's Sakura. Alas just one episode though. That was more when Perry arrived... Which eventually saw the Shogun regime overthrown and the Meiji emperor get back in as a prime player.

Kingdom was allright, but very much a zombie show. My Country is more court drama, social casts, honor and shows a greater range of situations.

55 minutes ago, Avatar111 said:

Kingdom was allright, but very much a zombie show. My Country is more court drama, social casts, honor and shows a greater range of situations.

As far as Korean Dramas, I have seen Dae Jang Geum, Queen Seondeok, and Kim Soro the Iron King just to name a few. There is a VERY good reason why historic dramas are some of the most popular shows not just in Korea but Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

1 hour ago, Avatar111 said:

Kingdom was allright, but very much a zombie show. My Country is more court drama, social casts, honor and shows a greater range of situations.

Actually... Never seen any Korean dramas... Period. So that is my first ever K-drama is Kingdom. So far I would say its just ok. Im down with the fancy hats though.

3 minutes ago, Ellahrairah said:

Actually... Never seen any Korean dramas... Period. So that is my first ever K-drama is Kingdom. So far I would say its just ok. Im down with the fancy hats though.

yeah, Kingdom is "ok". My Country is more interesting, and closer to L5R!

4 hours ago, Ellahrairah said:

Actually... Never seen any Korean dramas... Period. So that is my first ever K-drama is Kingdom. So far I would say its just ok. Im down with the fancy hats though.

All hail the fancy hats

On 2/22/2020 at 10:06 PM, neilcell said:

Didn't learn a **** thing from gamer-gate huh?

Most of the gaming community don't give a dead rat's rump about wokeness. They just want to play in an immersive and dynamic campaign world. They play these roleplaying games as a form of escapism, not to simply re-hash reality. Yes, gaming PUBLISHING was dominated by men in the 80s and 90s, but the gaming community did have women even back in the 70s. I would know because my father rubbed shoulders at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana with people who would dominate the gaming industry in the 80s and 90s. Even then there were women who were VERY active in gaming. Kossuth in the Forgotten Realms? Yea, that deity was named after Kossuth Street in Lafayette, the one that leads directly into Caterpillar's factory. Did the male publishers at that time pander to a male audience? Yes. But the focus of the published materials does not equate to what the consumer base was; correlation does NOT mean causality. The identitarianism of wokeness is not representative of the gaming community but rather fringe outsiders trying to bully the industry. Don't believe me? Listen to what independent social commentators like Tim Pool have to say on the matter. Or Jeremy from Geeks and Gamers channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ot5Ccu6P24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPE6elDcmhY

So, changing the gender of Starbuck turned out poorly?