Any good asian settings out there i should be aware of?

Setting or system?
Japan provides plenty of interesting content and if you throw in mythological creatures it could be as interesting as any European fantasy.

Yoon Suin the purple land

But honestly chinese history is so packed you could really just pick some period, read some history and get a good setting

>Late Qing Shitshow:

>The Opium Wars, The Taiping Rebellion, the Boxer Rebellion, the rise of Republican thought, gunboat diplomacy and unequal treaties, ethnic minorities revolting in the borderlands. Importation of decadent foreign ideologies of capitalism and liberalism via newly-translated texts.

Don't forget the part where we, the British, annoyed that the Chinese don't want to trade our crack cocain for Tea anymore build a giant solid metal fuckboat and ride up and down the coast murdering coastal towns with it's cargo of mad indian murderbastards.

Because you do NOT fucking come between the British and their Tea. Holy shit.

>above par writing
Your bar is super low.

Yoon Suin, Mad Monks of Kwantoom, Rokugan, Red Tide.

To be fair he's only on chapter 3. It doesn't shit the bed till later, but it does shit it HARD.

It does have horrid writing at some points, but it is an enjoyable ride... except for the Smelting Aura arc which was... well you'll see. Otherwise it is a fun read.

Good to know. so far they've talked about the smelter aura, and i'm not hating this trapped in a mine arc (though it does feel a bit like Guts on a boat)
If it builds its way back to that opening's feel, i'll be happy.

>korean
It's Chinese, just look at the cover you posted. They used the same ideograms as Japan, Korean writing is noticeably different.

It's not manga faggot.

>came here just to post this
at least contribute if you're going to be a fag

"Manhwa" is basically "manga" pronounced with a Korean accent.

It's not Korean either.

were you born this autistic or do you have to try hard?

>Veeky Forums is myself and another person
Yes, clearly I'm the autist here.
Maybe stop saying things wrong and people will stop correcting you.

Hold up, I thought Korean manga was referred to as Manhwa as well. I’m sure Google can figure it out when I try to find something, but still.

Does Chinese Manga have its own name?

It's not that good and not that Asian.

I can agree with this. it's very western-thinking-of-eastern but doesn't seem to grasp the ideas very well.

I don't know if it's good, but I'm fond of Tenra Bansho Zero's setting.

That would be the Opium Wars.

I've been enjoying rollplays Court of Swords setting, it's got some asian influences mixed with Tarot cards.

Manhua, I believe.

Can you be more specific as to what you mean? Because it kinda sounds like you just don't like it because it was made by westerners...

Yeah, it's really great. By the way, do you know if there is a map of Tenra out there?

I wanted to play TBZ so fucking much, but no one in my group got interested. Bummer, really.

The Smelting Aura arc isn't that great but Smelting Aura itself is probably the coolest ability in the series in my opinion

Tell me more of this Tenra Bansho Zero

...

Do you know Exalted? How it is rightfully heralded as being (nicely) more powerful than DND at first levels at least, that you're a fucking demigod hero with a mission?

Tenra is that to Exalted. In Tenra, you're not simply a magical monk, you're fucking Kenshiro. You're not a young naive princess, you have a fucking Evangelion unit at your helm. You're not a "courtesan", you're a biomechanical magical doll so beautiful and culture that you're worth more than an entire nation. You're not a wizard, you're a onmyouji that can summon and create demons at your will, as you like them, to do your bidding.

In Tenra, you're mechanically too cool to die unless you choose to (you can be out of action, tough). This is actually true for every lasting wound with a limited slot: you know how in anime when they bleed like a fountain they get pumped up? This is how it goes, if you select a wound slot you have more dice for the combat.

In Tenra, the only way to make your character more powerful is to rule it out well. Literally: you're given chits for playing out Fates (relationships/goals/personal philosophy), by the players, that in the end can be converted to get you more dice/more skills/etc.
(this works nicely with the Karma system that limits you and more of anything assures that Fates get changed)

But what is REALLY brilliant is that by now you'll think "ok, so this is basically every absurdly over the top anime scene ever". This is how it seems at a glance, the package of the thing, the SFX deparment (and yes, it actually is cinematically very nice, not even just in combat).
The actual stories are more like Lone Wolf and Cub, powerful in more than one sense, but in the end melodramatic and half-sad. The actual rulebook points to kabuki theatre, and it's accurate. Think of our opera plays, with less focus on love (well, in the sense that it can be there or not).
Believe it or not, this RPG does wabi-sabi right. Try it out, user.

How so? I can get the not very good, but how isn't it Asian?

Any books to recommend?

ever read a western written novel about the east that seems to want to be historically accurate in some measure but misses the mark in ways that fail to entertain? the initiate brother is a good example of this. focused more on the courtly bullshit while it could instead focus on the things that are actually neat. that's the vibe i get from rokugan in general.
I'm liking tenra as described here because it lies on the opposite end of the spectrum, and forgoes accuracy for sheer fun and scope. a lot like the novel Stormdancer, focusing on the cool stuff you can do in a setting like this instead.

Not him, but I'll try.

Religion and folklore: perhaps the worst, as I kinda like that aspect of the elevens. There is nothing buddhist (reincarnation, the no-self doctrine... hell, there is no zen in Rokugan, which is kinda incredibile) or shintoist (animism, purity) in L5R. They go for the onmyouji route, which interestingly enough to me is more similar to the western alchemical things (well, at least the Rokugan way). Monsters aren't really out of folklore, there is an evident indoeuropean influece on cosmology (the Shadwolands are pretty much the giants' lands, or at least... Mordor, goddamn). It would probably make no sense to use the yokai as they actually are, the usual man-nature-numinous as equals and right at your door wouldn't work.
On this a sidenote: geography isn't japanese at all. Minor? I dunno. I tend to think that the sea (and the mountains "right there") inform their culture. Also, damn if I know how they have all that fish outside of major rivers.
The clans are Masquerade. There is no excuse here, honestly.
Sense of "public face" (not really that much of "honor") wasn't/isn't about "ah, you made a faux pas at court and activated my trap card!". It's more about "dude, get with the group, 'cause the group is serious business. And be positive when shit hits the fan".
In general L5R runs mostly like a spy/intrigue story with some action and a LOT of inter-PCs bullshit. It's not a bad idea per se (the system is pretty shit at doing it but that's behind the point), but I'd be hard-pressed to find it in their stories. Hell, probably even in chinese ones.
The Gempukku is interesting. On the plus side, very japanese. On the minus side, very "last 40 years" Japan.
No local ahestetics like mono no aware.

Hell, I don't even really see orientalism il Rokugan. The pics are too tame to give the "muh exotic den of debauchery with perhaps an hint of romanticism" vibe.

That being said Utaku chicks a cute, fight me.

>Tenra
But is it in English?

Yes.

(I am the person you responded to)
Ok... I'm not sure I followed most of that. Also, for all my enthusiasm, I'm not the biggest fan of L5r, but I usually attribute that to just preferring western fantasy and try to give it the benefit of the doubt (and because it's apparently the only fantasy rpg outside if the Agone game I run that my gaming group cares to play...)
Again, I'm not super aware of this, but isn't zen just about meditation? I mean there are several monk schools (especially the shinmaki sect) that are super about meditating and being "one with the void" also, while I can see the lack of animism in monks, shugenja worship the kami, which to my understanding are the animistic part of the belief system aren't they?
I don't quite understand what youre trying to say about yokai, or the great clans bit.
I think I understand what your saying about public face, but I'm not sure...

I wouldn't say the system is shit, but that's really a matter of perspective.

>The pics are too tame to give the "muh exotic den of debauchery with perhaps an hint of romanticism" vibe.
This I'm really not sure of. Tame as in no sexual pictures? I mean, it is a game made by a fairly prominent publisher, so it's not exactly like they can just put any if that in in the first place.

Also, I don't want to come off as defending it to much, as I said, I don't really like it anyway, just a little confused.

>reincarnation, the no-self doctrine... hell, there is no zen in Rokugan, which is kinda incredibile) or shintoist (animism, purity) in L5R.
Except there literally is. See also: every single monk in the setting that isn't affiliated with the Spider Clan.

>Sense of "public face" (not really that much of "honor") wasn't/isn't about "ah, you made a faux pas at court and activated my trap card!".
This too, is also directly in the setting.

I feel like you probably played with a bad group or were told about it by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

Also there are normal yokai, they're just not relevant to the metaplot.

>This I'm really not sure of. Tame as in no sexual pictures? I mean, it is a game made by a fairly prominent publisher, so it's not exactly like they can just put any if that in in the first place.
This is because you're just looking at what FFG has put out so far. I disagree heavily with it, but fucking Genzoman was an artist for the game at one point. Most characters dress modestly as part of that whole "face" thing, but there are some who don't.

Usually Scorpion courtiers and that one dragon girl who doesn't like clothes.

Jade Empire.

I talked about zen because for better of worse it's a relatively western-known subject. (mind you, we get the theme park version and treat it as it was some kinda of pre-socratic philosophy, but still). It's no Tendai, or some unknown shit out of there.
And it still isn't there! No koans, no meditation in the game, no talking about that shit.
What I'm saying is that buddhism doesn't enter the frame, nor directly in game or more subtly in the system or the implied setting. It is technically there, but it's not really called upon. Consider Tenra on the other hand.

Shugenjas don't worship at all the kami like in shinto, to my understanding. In fact they're basically onmyouji with less geomancy, for narrative reasons I guess.

I wouldn't LIKE secsy pics in L5R. I think it's already half bad and juvenile as it is, even.
What I'm saying it's not even that orientalist, strictly speaking, as they say. Unless the fanservice is muh honor, I dunno.

I mean that there it's not on the table if you don't bring monks to the group. Hell, I played a monk and never even got to talk or reflect about that. Religion is just not prominent.

I read the bestiary to get this impression, FWIW. Some have a passing resemblance; they don't work like them at all. Killing yokais as they're demons? Come on.

Public face is in the setting, exactly. Weren't we talking about that?

Anyway, read the books, not just played.

I'm honestly tempted to say Golden Sky Stories, but it doesn't exactly have a "setting".

Still, as Asian as you could be, seriously. Basically only from Japan: the game.

Ok, I gotcha, but
>no meditation in the game
What? There's an entire skill, and schools, dedicated to it. The entire concept of the center stance is you need to take a turn to meditate in battle, and it gives you a benefit on your following turn, directly proportional to the Stat that most closely related to zen from what I can tell: Void.

Other than that, I can't really argue for anything else.

It's just a roll. Not really played out. Not described, neither from the GM or tha player's side- and yes, meditating IRL is an active skill.

Also, void is not a concept in zen. Or to be more precise, that whole 4 elements + void is bogus. there is mu but transalting it as void is like translating the trinity as "number", something like that.

Which only points out in the direction L5R went.

Black Tokyo.

Chris pls go

No, I have to tell you about my shitting, pissing and flow fetishes.

You left out abortion magic and phallus space

Also forgot the kamen riders ripoffs and their war-penises.