OOC Discussion

[Starbeard]

I got started similarly, by trying to play emulated copies of Japan-only Nintendo games on my computer. Took it all through high school and my family hosted exchange students, then I kept up classes at university and bunked with international students in the dorm. Unfortunately I was stupid, and when I had class conflicts with my music major I thought I just had to be grown up and drop Japanese. It fell away almost immediately, and I realized too late that I would have been a lot happier going that route instead of the music/history route I did.

Busuu is excellent, but if your daughter is already past B2 comprehension then it might not help much. It's accredited by McGraw Hill, so you can take certification tests (for Japanese currently up to B2). It was helpful for me because I just started right at the beginning and blitzed my way back up toward the end in a short time.

[jemmus]

Nice, it sounds like you got some good immersion. I'm throwing some occasional Japanese at ffilz and Marullus in my Bushido game, just for flavor. A couple of characters said Yoroshiku, onegai shimasu in my last post. I'm not sure if I'm annoying them with that or not.

You're welcome to join that game anytime, of course. We're posting around twice a week, sometimes more.viewforum.php?f=1094

[Marullus]

I knew no Japanese, and little about Japan, when we started this game. I never even watched anime.

I binged Japanese history podcasts and am really enjoying Jemmus' efforts to educate us. I am blatantly plagiarizing him to run the other game.

[ffilz]

I knew no Japanese, and little about Japan, when we started this game. I never even watched anime.

I binged Japanese history podcasts and am really enjoying Jemmus' efforts to educate us. I am blatantly plagiarizing him to run the other game.

Heh, I guess we're all leaning on Jemmus...

[ffilz]

On another note, I'm not sure that a Buddhist temple actually makes sense where I was going to set a little initial adventure. I was trying to make sure the monk would be hooked in, not quite sure the best way to do that. A little Shinto shrine being overrun with bakemono would make more sense, but would that attract a Buddhist monk to get involved? Maybe with a rumor of a naughty ghost stirring up the bakemono?

[Starbeard]

I knew no Japanese, and little about Japan, when we started this game. I never even watched anime.

I binged Japanese history podcasts and am really enjoying Jemmus' efforts to educate us. I am blatantly plagiarizing him to run the other game.

It's a fascinating history, with loads and loads of excellent media to binge if you're into it. For instance, there's a thing called a Taiga Drama ("Great River" drama) which NHK has been putting on annually since the 1960s. Each one is essentially a prime time, hour-slot, 50ish-episode historical epic that airs every Sunday across the whole year; the sort of format we all wish Jackson would have used for LOTR, really. They are always based on historical biographies and can be pulled from any century of Japanese history, but most lean toward the classic sword & samurai eras.

The language is also addictively fun. It has the reputation of being hard, but honestly I think people just don't know how to approach it because the grammar is so alien to Greco-Latinate westerners. Once you realize you just have to forget pretty much everything you know about even the most basic principles of grammar, it makes it much easier to jump straight into thinking in Japanese to speak Japanese, without the mental crutch of translating in and out of English as you go.

[jemmus]

A lot of initial modules/adventures I've seen are set in abandoned Buddhist temples. There's no real explanation of how they became abandoned and overrun with rokuro-kubi, vampires (forgot what they're called in Bushido), etc). And the encounters seem kind of tough for 1st levels. But the provide OSR-style exploration and puzzles for ways to defeat the fiends. Extinguish the blue flame in the brazier, remove the amulet from the corpse, things like that. I have my own theories about how the temples came to be overrun by bad ones in the first place.

I'd think a newb Buddhist priest would help out a Shinto shrine for the same reasons that a newb bushi, ninja, or anyone else would. "This is the journey and quest I've set out on. To test my skills and mettle, and increase my knowledge and power along the way. And to be of use to other people along the way."

[Starbeard]

There are plenty of examples of temples that are also shrines, or temples with shrines housed inside of them, so if it were a local shrine I think a Buddhist monk would have invested interest in that.

As jemmus said, abandoned temples show up in stories a lot, often as the mystical meeting place between worlds. We don't even need to know why or how it's abandoned, just that it is and supernatural stuff is going on there. Maybe it's even a haunted place that just showed up already abandoned, like a ghost ship.

[Marullus]

Yesterday's RL news of the wierd...

https://nypost.com/2022/03/08/ancient-j ... cked-open/

[ffilz]

Yesterday's RL news of the wierd...

https://nypost.com/2022/03/08/ancient-j ... cked-open/

Yes, I've been seeing reports about that for several days on Facebook and other places.

[jemmus]

“My guess is the demon is going to look around at 2022 and want to go back into the rock for another millennium.” I wonder if this rock going to appear in one of our three Japan-based games....

[Starbeard]

Spooky!

[ffilz]

“My guess is the demon is going to look around at 2022 and want to go back into the rock for another millennium.” I wonder if this rock going to appear in one of our three Japan-based games....

Might be a fun idea, though the actual rock is quite a bit North East of where our campaigns are occurring.

[Starbeard]

Well the demon traveled all over India & China before being killed in Japan and turning to stone, so it could run off anywhere I think. It hasn't been in the rock since the 1300s anyway, when the monk Genno exorcised it after making the spirit repent from its evil ways.

So I guess having the rock break might not let the demon out, since it's already moved onto the next life. But maybe it could undo all the good mojo it had accumulated that was blanketing parts of the country. Or maybe it was never written that in order to exorcise the demon, Genno had to bind all the evil spirits that had followed him there to the stone, so now they're all free.

[Starbeard]

The monk turns his attention to the two samurai and the villagers. He raises one eyebrow at the mention of ghosts and lips his cup to finally sip his tea.

Bankei slurps the tea, a mark of poor breeding in the eyes of the present samurai. "Alas, a spirit in a woeful state. Perhaps peta, a hungry ghost? Or asurakya, a frightened ghost? This matters," he asks the peasants.


Saving link for later.

Could you point me to something that describes the Buddhist outlook on sprits etc so I can make sure I’m offering something workable?

This is the classic Japanese bestiary collection (go to "works" for a Wiki link to each book): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toriyama_Sekien

Most of the creatures and spirits have links to their own wiki pages. Fun reading!

[jemmus]

Thanks, that's helpful!

[ffilz]

BTW, my Google-fu showed me this the other day that I grabbed for some ideas on Shinto shrines:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/98 ... rimoire-10

I haven't found anything similar for Japanese Buddhist temples...

It may be the weekend before I get a chance to stat up a ghost and some bakemono and anything else I'll need. Fortunately it's pretty easy to stat things up in Cold Iron and I have lots of game resources to draw from for details...

[jemmus]

Thanks, I put it on my wishlist. DrivethruRPG has some kind of interesting Japan-based stuff. Quite a few samurai-based indie RPGs out there.

[ffilz]

Other recent purchases:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/21 ... udal-Japan
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/25 ... aign-Guide
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/27 ... the-Master
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50 ... nted-Lands
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/36 ... nture-Book

[jemmus]

Those look interesting, especially the first two (the guides to RPGing medieval Japan). I have Legends of the Samurai: Protect the Master, but I haven't read it. If you're going to use it, I won't read it. I've read the Lady Mijiko's Holiday adventure from the last link. I downloaded that one for free somewhere. I vaguely remember what it was about, but not enough to spoiler it for everybody if you use it.