Aberrant RPG - Turning Japanese?

[gilgamesh2206]

I am going to be running an Aberrant game set in Japan, with an all Japanese team. Do any of the sourcebooks cover Japan in any depth? (I've got the Player's Guide, which has some information in, and of course Nippontai.) I have a fair grounding in Japanese history and culture, but some more game-world specific information than is in the main book and players guide would be useful. Do the "Worldwide" guides cover Aberrants in other countries?

[Bahamut810]

As far as I know the only books that cover Japan in any form are the APG and the Storytellers Handbook (and only the handbook because I believe it talks about the novacentric form of Buddism).

Just remember a few things and you should be fine:

1. If the nova's are japanese and they *Act* japanese they should be fine.

2. If they aren't japanese, then the public as a whole wont like them, and will usually be a bit rude to them (especially if they dont *speak* japanese)

[gilgamesh2206]

Nope, they are all going to be playing Japanese novas. Thanks for the answer...I'll carry on my resource search and hammer out a game specific background situation myself. If people are interested I'll post it here if the game goes well.

[Bahamut810]

Well...I think that I was being a bit extreme before...with modern japanese (if you are in japan of course) if you speak the language, then you should be able to get along without much problem.

I remember a story that my first Japanese teacher told me about one of his visits to japan...

He had walked up to a street cart vendor (I cant remember the food) and said in japanese that he wanted to buy some. The japanese man was nice enough and told him the price and started to get the food out for him. My teacher then looked over at his friend (another american, who didnt speak japanese) and asked him in english if he wanted some to. His friend said whatever he said and when my teacher turned back to the japanese man he had walked away...

Take this for waht its worth...but from what I hear (from non-japanese of course, it would be an insult to ask a japanese person if they are really like this) its pretty common for this in most of japan. I would imagine the tourist hot-spots would be different.

[ezekiel]

You could check out some of Prof's games...There's a very entertaining bit in QZ-Elites involving the Samurai protecting a diva in Japan.

Since I'm that nice of a guy, I even checked out the thread...the story starts on Page 51 of the QZ-elites game thread (Aberrant in-character games, obviously..) The Samurai is played by Knave and the rest is Prof. You can ignore what's not in Tokyo.

This actually made me wish for a purely "Samurai in Japan" chronicle...

[Heritage]

Which book has the write-up on Tokyo? Was it Aberrant: Year One? I also think there might be some stuff in Underworld (the downloadable e-book) about the Nakato Gumi - I own the damn thing, but since I hate reading e-books off the screen and haven't printed it up yet, I don't know the specifics ::biggrin

This actually made me wish for a purely "Samurai in Japan" chronicle...

Yeah, I kinda wish that one went on longer, too - it was tres cool ::cool

There also might be some stuff in the semi-official Asia Ascendant e-book for Trinity that covers the 'historical' early 21st Century that you might be able to use - there's probably some nice cultural stuff in there, too.

[knave]

::prof2

[Finbar]

Just don't do the usual mistake of assuming that anime=Japanese culture. There's a lot of things that are acceptable in anime that would get you is serious trouble in Japan.

I had one player assume that Ranma 1/2 was what Japanese culture was all about; it was a nightmare.

Basically, be aware that it's xenophobic and isolationist, avoids conflict (even when we'd think it was impossible), and loves technology while still being old-fashioned. Also, face is everything, and it is better to approach someone indirectly through a contact than directly by phone.

It's a weird place ::biggrin ...

FR

[gilgamesh2206]

Just don't do the usual mistake of assuming that anime=Japanese culture. There's a lot of things that are acceptable in anime that would get you is serious trouble in Japan.

Don't worry, I'm not going to, yes one of the characters does come straight out of an anime (light powers, mega-Dex and Wits), but as far as the culture etc. goes, I've got a pretty good idea (I did a course on Japanese religions at University, and have read a reasonable amount about Japanese history, both pre- and post- extreme isolationism.

One of the most important thing I have stressed to my players is that if they ignore the ettiquette skill, they are going to be in VERY serious trouble - it's THAT important in a country which places so much emphasis on face and on maintainance of a very strict code of social mores.

Part of the chronicle is going to be about the isolationist attitude and the problems when certain international organizations try to make inroads. I thought it was an interesting challenge to get a group of players trying to think as members of a different culture confronting their own (or as close to their own as the game gets). Thank you all for the responses on this. I'll check out Prof Potts and knave's stuff! ::bigsmile

[madcat82]

Tokyo is covered in Abberant year one, and by the way, Japan loves EVERY nova, even the non-japanese ones.

[Bahamut810]

I never picked up Year One, illh ave to now.

Re-etiquette:

Etiquette is important, but not *as* important nowadays. Their traditional values have declined somewhat since WWII and the modern idea of Westernisation set in. I wish there was an actual Japanese person who would be able to expand more on it, but from what I hear (which might be tainted, but I have met my share of Japanese college students) they are getting more informal as time goes on. The big exception to this are the elderly who are (as the old do) stick to their old values. There are, of course, politnesses that are everyday such as name extensions. There are a few past the "-san". I dont know them all so Im not going to go into it though.

Re-Dont use anime as a reference:

Some anime is based off a modern day society and should have a good representation of the people because of that. A few anime that I can think of (*if* you get the Fansubs) is Love Hina (very funny), Maiken Ikkou (I have heard this is good, I havent looked for fan subs on this though) and im sure there are many mroe.

Note...these arent going to be 100% this is how japanese act (far from it), but in the more 'normal' scenes you can see japanese politeness. Offering food, different name extensions (san, chan, kun, senpai, sama...im sure there are many more), small cultural references such as hot springs (not common anymore in japan but there are vacation stops that boast of them), even Okane Cats (which you can probably see in any local chinese/japanese resturants for luck in business) are shown.

[gilgamesh2206]

Tokyo is covered in Abberant year one, and by the way, Japan loves EVERY nova, even the non-japanese ones.

Cheers! Will have to look into picking that up!

Certainly as far as ettiquette is concerned at least a dot I think I will make my general guideline (I'm finding that the web resources I find tie in with your experience Bahamut). Sumo is going to need more if he is going to be following the traditions and ritualism of sumo wrestling rather than being a guy with lots of density increase in a loincloth. Again I did a course on the philosophico/religious and cultural aspects of martial arts, so have plenty of texts to work with depending on how "traditional" the players want to play it.