Avoiding Orientalist Adventures

So, I lived in Japan 22 years, mastered the language, published research about Japanese culture, and learned to navigate their social rules enough to get a position as a tenured professor teaching Japanese Society & Culture classes.

You can believe me when I say most Japan-themed roleplaying misses the mark in depicting Japan. When I first started this blog over a decade in Japan, I wrote a series of blogposts on this subject called The Weird in Mystic Japan that became a 'hit' on Reddit and garnered me my first monster viewer number, over 5000 for the first installment.

(You can jump to Part One, Two, Three, Four, and Five here).

Although I am proud of those posts, they were ways to adapt Japan to AD&D in a satisfying way (to me). Ultimately, they are still 'D&D in funny hats', so for people wanting to make their Japan based game more authentic on a deeper level, here are a few suggestions.

1 READ THESE

Although it is fun to read Lustbader novels and watch movies with ninjas, the large majority of it is derivative and an exaggerated, fictionalized Japan. The following works will give you a more grounded view of Japan.

The Idea of Japan by Ian Littlewood. No other book peels away the layers of western (mis)conceptions of Japan and identifies all the tropes mapped onto Japan in response to world events (WWII, postwar slump, Bubble economy). This book is the first step in stripping away the western prejudices and Orientalist images you may have picked up from pop culture depictions of Japan.

Musashi's Book of Five Rings: The Definitive Interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi's Classic Book of Strategy translated by Stephen Kaufman. I have read early versions of the Book, but always found them short, almost unfinished. Kaufman's work builds on recent scholarship to provide the most complete text plus a few other of Musashi's lesser known works. He also debunks the samurai as national identity myth that started in the Edo period, was used during the war, and continues to this day. If you want to inject the true spirit of swordsmen into your game, this is essential reading.

Daibosatsu Toge (The Great Buddha Pass) - English versions of the first three books are available on the U Washington server HERE. This is the quintessential fictional representation of Edo samurai, as written by a Japanese watching his country slide into nationalism and militarism. It was serialized in newspapers from 1913 to 1944, and is the bedrock of samurai fiction. The books contain TONS of adaptable material, from sudden murders, to ninja-like thieves, lost children, dishonest merchants, physically strong but good hearted simpletons, etcetera, and you will be nodding your head as you encounter the originals that inspired everything up to Blue Eyed Samurai.

2 WATCH THESE

Although I have some fantasical suggestions such as Dororo a few years back, here are some more nitty gritty depictions of Edo Japan.

Sword of Doom - I am cheating a bit as this is a film version of Daibosatsu Toge above. But Sword of Doom is an electric, violent 1966 film starring Tatsuya Nakadai and Toshiro Mifune. Akira Kurosawa reportedly called The Sword of Doom (1966) the darkest and most psychologically complex samurai film ever made. There were two other serviceable films made from Daibosatsu Toge, but Sword of Doom is a special experience that shows the brutal truth about Japanese swordsmen.

47 Ronin - The story of 47 samurai who sacrifice their lives to get vengeance on the crafty Lord Kira whose taunts caused their beloved master Asano to draw his sword before the Diamyo and be forced to commit seppuku. The 1941 Kenji Mizoguchi is an expansive version (it has been remade many times on stage and screen), and Mizoguchi was filming at the height of Japan's wartime samurai fetish, so it really encapsulates that uniquely Japanese prioritizing of duty over humanity. Over 3 hours long, possibly on YouTube (cough cough).

Ballad of Narayama - 1983 film by Showhei Imamura, detailing the lives of mountain farmers who must make cruel life and death decisions for their village to survive. One of the two films that inspired me to go live in Japan (the other was Tanpopo). A must watch for capturing that desperate sense of being caught in Japan's vertical society and ironclad traditions.

Jidai Geki (Historical dramas) - There are a TON of these out there, from the Golden Age of the 60s in 70s with names like Mito Komon (1969) and Ooka Echizen (1970). The Hissatsu series with its myriad of spinoffs is probably the most useful for RPGs, as it shows a group of Edo citizens from various ranks working together to right a wrong or solve a mystery. Watch it to understand the invisible walls of Japanese social interaction, but also be inspired by 100s of eminently stealable plot points. There is a Jidai Geki channel on YouTube that has many of these. 

3 GET GIRI-NINJO

My game Giri-Minjou (義理人情 or Duty & Humanity) is a rules light, storytelling game of being Edo period Japanese trapped in a rigid vertical society. Coming out next year.

Response to 'You Don't Understand The OSR' Video & Advice For Gamers

I just caught this video of the Questing Beast talking with a 5E streamer. I was happy to find it was an intelligent discussion with a lot to learn for gamers of any system, and so I will throw in my two Large Bronzes.

Excuse the rough sketch, Ben.
I'm bedridden by a sudden health emergency but still try to practice my art everyday for work.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT GAME FOR YOU, DON'T DISS OTHERS, FEEL FREE TO CHANGE

My first takeaway is that the 5E guy's title should be "The OSR is too deadly... for me." It is all a matter of taste. I've played in 4E where no one was ever in danger and the players all chewed the scenery for hours between endless combats. I was bored, not my taste. Give me the specter of death and players who are focused on doing great deeds without fear of consequences. This is why I run Stormbringer and prefer to play games like it.

Even 5E guy admits that he once enjoyed a video-gamey campaign, but that it wouldn't appeal to him now. And this is a totally normal reaction. Over our gamer lives we should be trying different modes and games, and even I get tired of Stormbringer from time to time.

Get out to your local FGS and get in a game. It'll do you loads of good.

REALITY CHECKS ARE FINE, BUT REMEMBER THIS IS FANTASY

The conversation sadly gets bogged down a bit in Reality Checks, and references the TPK of the Light Brigade, real war casualty figures, etc. Listen chaps, you are playing a FANTASY game. The creeping sway of reality in RPGs is a blight on the fantasy genre. Whenever I see a post about someone's amazing 'build' in D&D where they use some kinetic spell to speed up cannons and go beyond the speed of sound and blah blah blah I think SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Reality is player knowledge. Back in the day, we split up player knowledge and character knowledge. You may be a physicist in the real world, but your orc berserker probably has no clue about gravity or opposing forces, so give it a rest about modifying your axe for greater kinetic power.

Case in point, Mr 5E is afraid of sinking ships in a fantasy game. He needs to read more fantasy novels, get out of the gamey mindset. Strassha saved Elric, Fafhrd and the Mouser romanced the Sea God's daughters, there should always be an out that comes with a cost (I made a table Less Death More Story). The story is not exclusively a game thing, it is an imagination thing. And if you only have mechanics without imagination, you might as well play a boardgame or video game. RPGs and fiction are the kingdoms of imagination, and this is true for other genres, such as sci fi, cyberpunk, or horror.

USE WHAT IS IN THE RULES TO GET THE TONE RIGHT

On a similar note, Ben points out that in video games all monsters are hostile vs the OSR, where monster reactions can vary widely. This is why the 4E I played was an endless Gauntlet style series of combats with no punch. I was happy to watch the new Golden Axe animated series reflected this when a new character, played by the wonderful Danny Pudi, befriended the two hammer wielding brothers of the old arcade game.

Although the series is getting trashed by YouTubers for being 'woke' or 'ironic' for losing the 'gravitas' of fantasy, on the contrary, 1980s D&D sessions were filled with humour. Go read The White Box and older versions of D&D - still playable, still loved by many, and filled with laughs. Goodman games leans into this.

One thing missing from the video was mention of alignment. As Ben noted, yes, you can put all monsters to Sleep. But stabbing all of them is definitely Evil or Chaotic. Lawful or Good might bind them or take them back to meet justice. Neutrals just ignore and head on to the treasure. Just as Reaction tables added a whole dimension of interactions with NPCs besides combat combat combat, Alignment conversely added restrictions on behavior and who you likely interact with. I really enjoyed the webcomic Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic, which codified alignment visually into characters instantly getting along, laughing at the same jokes, and being able to talk to monsters. That comic finally made Alignment language click for me - just like in high school, the goody two shoes (Lawfuls), wall flowers (Neutrals), and Bullies (Chaotics) all spoke their own language.

BRING BACK ALIGNMENT LANGUAGES!

This also spilled out onto the table back in the day (late 80s early 90s). You couldn't play at the same table as some others because they always chose an alignment and acted in a way your character couldn't accept. There was a wizard player who was Chaotic on the 3 system, and would always torture captured NPCs and use them as living trap detectors. I was playing a Paladin at that time, and refused to adventure with him. In the end, he was banned from local tables in peoples' basement and (SURPRISE) started his own game shop where he assembled like minded folk.

DON'T ASSUME WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OTHER GAMES, GO AND SIT AT THEIR TABLE

Ben makes great points about not believing the marketing hype around 5E and other games. Whether it is the image of OSR deathcrawls or 5E LARPing drama students, he is right to suggest you need to get out and play at a wide range of tables to understand what good gaming can be. I am mostly over the OSR, but intended to play a DCC game the weekend when my health took a twist. But I am open to lots of gaming experiences, and I think Ben's video ends with the same message.

(PS Don't worry about my health, at home mending, read half of Monster of the Week awaiting surgery)

What Matters Most in Gaming? Safety, especially for women.

I just watched another good video by the Questing Beast (HERE).

He asks the question "What matters most in DND? and gives his 5 answers.

His list is as follows:

5 Physical Environment

4 Rules

3 Players

2 The Content

1 The Game Master

It is hard to find anything here to disagree with, and as TQB notes, the order of these shift around a bit.

As for me, I'd add a few things, what I call the 'hidden curriculum' of having a good game that has very little to do with externalities like the room or rulebook.

Here we go:

3 Buy In

By this I mean the game concept and how this is followed through. This is why early D&D was so popular and held people long enough to have campaigns - you were a party of heroes clearing out a dungeon to level up, find a relic, and save the world. I played in a year long campaign, and it was epic.

As other games grew popular in the 90s, this longform campaign became difficult to sustain. If you were playing superheros, you were emulating an episodic genre where everything reverted back to normal after the big bad was defeated. Ditto horror, where the chances of surviving and mechanisms for leveling up were absent, and saving the world was often a joke.

But the worst transgression I saw time and again was the GM who pulled a 'switcheroo' on the players and killed the game. If a GM pitches a supers game, but then sics a power leech on players to take away all their powers and hunt them down, (s)he should not be surprised when they all walk. As I have mentioned before, old school scifi games were BAD for this - promise players access to an infinite galaxy, then have them stranded on some backwater planet fighting primitives to get resources to repair their spacecraft.

TLDR make sure everyone buys into the game pitch, and follow through with it to have a satisfying game.

2 Style of Interaction

Another make or break aspect is the style of interaction of players and the GM. In teaching, we call this the 'Guide on side or sage on stage' dilemma. Does the DM handhold the players, or does (s)he sit back and riff off their roleplaying?

If the players are newbies, then the GM has to be in the driver's seat, but as the players become more skilled at improvisation, the GM can sit back and let them hand him or her story hooks to drive the narrative and keep interest high. This demands more from the GM, and new GMs can equally be overwhelmed by veteran players chewing the scenery and hogging the limelight.

To be sure, this is asking a lot of both GMs and players, which is why we should all strive to play at as many tables and in as many different games as possible to bring back skills and the consideration that allow us to match the flow of interaction at the table where we sit.

1 Game Mode

This is somewhat related to number 1, but focused more on player responsibility. This is what I call the 'Heroes or zeros' conundrum, as in some games like modern D&D promote (super)heroic playmodes, while OSR and horror games lean into characters who start as practically useless, and often remain that way.

I have seen modern D&D players try to swing from a chandelier while casting a spell and reloading a gun in a Call of Cthulhu game, and Cthulhu players meekly announcing one action at a D&D table. This mismatch really lets the air out of a game, so if you are checking that everyone has bought into to the concept, don't forget to remind them of the mode in which that game is best played.

Now, the biggest consideration, especially in light of recent events...

0 Player Safety

As you've no doubt heard, this past week the truth of the Cornell 57 and their (in)actions regarding preying on a female student have come to light. This may have come as a shock to some.

It sadly was not to me or many others.

During my MA, a senior professor constantly made lewd remarks to my female colleagues, and all of us who went to the office to protest were blacklisted and punished by lower marks and pressure to remain silent.

So higher education has a problem in its treatment of women. But so do roleplaying games.

I have personally seen a Vampire Storyteller go into graphic detail of a a female player's character being raped.

I have had a female friend ask me to come to a game and sit with her because she was afraid of the GM.

I am sure many of you have similar experiences.

About a decade ago 'safe words' and lists were a hot topic in the RPG sphere, and sadly were scoffed at by some.

Let me be clear - if you laugh at player or GM safety, you are part of the problem.

When I run a game, I always preface two things:

1) There is no rape in my game. If you get captured, you may be interrogated before you escape or are rescued, but it will never be sexual.

2) I gloss over intimate content. If you want your character to seduce an NPC, if it happens, it will be off camera.

(NB Other GMs may be fine with these things, but not me. And we all have to respect each other's boundaries.)

In my experience, games that include a diversity of genders and identities are always more interesting, and the first step in creating this kind of welcoming table is ensuring safety for everyone. But especially those who are most at risk.

Notes On Japan

 So, Japan just raised its Permanent Residence application fees 20x?!?

A few thoughts.

To be fair, it was ridiculously low. I think I paid $60. So an increase of 3 to 5 could be warranted for processing fees.

But the message of 20x increase is simple. Unless you're rich, we don't want you to stay here. And even if you are rich, we can still say no.

Funny story. When I first moved to Japan in the 90's, foreigners were rare. Japanese who saw me in the street would rush up and ask 2 questions.

1 Where are you from?

2 When are you going home?

I was shocked at first, and would reply, do you want me to go home? They would be shocked back, and apologize. I realized that they couldn't conceive of anyone leaving their home country without an idea of returning.

Japan is such a huge source of identity that many find it hard to leave. Even criminals who flee prosecution in Japan have a habit of returning to give themselves up after a few years, like the Red Army bombers of the 60's.

The flip side is that many Japanese feel stifled in Japan and emigrate to places like Vancouver. These people keep back door dual citizenship open for their kids, but again the Japanese government has stated it wants to close this avenue as well.

In a country where the population is in freefall, where big spending (and admittedly coarse) tourists are villified and hard working permanent residents who raise families and businesses are asked to pay the piper, these moves signal a very worrying us vs them mentality.

But the problem is this is always what Japanese culture has been built on - 内外, insider vs outsider. Welcome to sakoku 2.0.

(Excuse the weird text, typical Blogger kludge)

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

In Canada, today is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is also a day of mixed feelings.



The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation started as the grassroots Orange Shirt Day in 2013 to commemorate all the things taken from indigenous children at Canada’s vicious residential schools, from their clothes and innocence to their lives. From 2008 to 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the history and impacts of the 140 federally run residential schools in Canada, and concluded with a report containing 94 Calls to Action. After this victory, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) was launched in 2016, and delivered its final report (Reclaiming Power and Place) with 231 Calls for Justice in 2019.



I was out of Canada, living in Japan when all this happened. I had left Canada in 1996, an indigenous person who had experienced racism many times during his youth here. When I returned to Canada in spring 2023, I was both hopeful with all the land acknowledgments and holidays that things were better. My mother was Nunatsiavut (status Labrador Inuit), and my great aunt had been a Labrador Inuit elder who advised the Labrador Foundation, the wing of Memorial University made to study Inuit culture there. The only reason I was not status was due to The Indian Act’s second generation cutoff / blood quantum, a colonial rule that was designed to reduce indigenous numbers by disqualifying mixed blood children of indigenous mothers, thereby cutting off the matrilineal identity that were central to indigenous peoples across the Americas. In my absence, the NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC) had fought for decades for recognition. Their efforts culminated in 2023 with the Newfoundland & Labrador premier’s apology to NCC for residential schools, which followed a 2017 apology by then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Any day now, I reckoned, there would be a breakthrough.



How wrong I was.




In November 2023, Natan Obed, the head of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), wrote an attack letter accusing the NCC of being a ‘shapeshifter’ organization because it changed its name (although the ITK has changed its name twice). Shapeshifter is a slur in Inuit culture, and Obed’s word choice was ironic considering he was born in New Brunswick, raised in the USA, and couldn’t speak Inuktitut. A week later, the head of the Nunatsiavut followed his lead, parroting Obed’s attacks and adding a complaint about the $75 million the NCC has received from the Newfoundland government (while omitting the $225 million his group has received).

For three years NCC members have been in an anguished limbo as Newfoundland’s media published hit pieces against them, and Memorial University called in mainland ‘pretendian hunters’, who were ignorant of Labrador’s history of assimilation, to create a report denying NCC claims. (I was in the focus group for the report, and as a former professor I was appalled by the unprofessionalism, such as changing ZOOM groups the night before to ghettoize NCC members and using mainland ‘experts’ with no background in anthropology, sociology, or history.)

On September 9th, 2026, Ottawa ended its talks with the NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC), ending their bid for recognition. This was especially painful since NCC includes residential school survivors, who were addressed in Canada’s 2018 apology to residential school victims. The Carney government had already denied the land claims of the Innu, the First Person group living in southern Labrador, who are now filing in Supreme Court. Then, days later, Mark Carney met with American billionaires to sell Canada, including Labrador’s hydroelectric potential and natural resources. Instead of having three indigenous groups to consult with, he has now whittled it down to one.

So today I will go to the Truth and Reconciliation gathering in nearby (colonially named) Queen’s Park, and like a ghost I will move through that conflicted space, neither fully Canadian nor status indigenous.



But I know who I am.

New Art Tools

 

NUNA Lore change

So rewriting NUNA now.

I had originally set it 500 years after the fall. That is a LONG time and no technology would still function.

Going to bring it down to under 100. Just a few generations after the fall, old tech still holding on.

Also, baddies will not only include Inuit and Viking folklore monsters, sea monsters for the Riggers, and mad science / cosmic horror entities, but also (drumroll) CAPITALISM!

Specifically, the inevitable result of our prime minister opening up Labrador's rivers for hydroelectric power and resources both mineral and animal for sale to billionaires worldwide. Although I had hinted at this in the Quickstart, going to lean into it for the final game.

As Sheeran found out, art must speak to power. RPGs as a hobby started about playing heroes fighting to make the world a better place. From Red Markets to Paranoia, some of the best games have this as a central tenet.