Hi Dark, That's precisely my problem. I don't know enough about Japanese history or culture to make a credible game. While I know something about Zen Buddhism I don't see a Buddhist monk or priest fighting vampires as it would totally be out of character for that faith. Not only that but all of the vampire mythology we have comes from a Christian point of view where a cross, ash stake, holy water, and so on would be effective tools against a vampire. Even Castlevania, which was written and produced by a Japanese company, chose to use western mythology rather than Japanese mythology.
In fact, if you think about it most of the monsters we have originated in Europe. Werewolves, vampires, goblins, trolls, and so on all are products of European cultures. Its no wonder therefore that once Catholicism became the main religion people would believe that things like a wooden cross and some holy water would be a powerful weapon against such creatures. Take them out of their historical context and you end up with nothing to hang a story on. As an author I'd have to end up reinventing the vampire from scratch if we don't use a Christian hero as the vampire Slayer, and have to do extensive research into some other religion and how it deals with evil spirits, demons, whatever.. Cheers! On 9/3/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Interesting ideas kieth.although I get a little sick of some people thinking > > japan was the only country in the world to have an epic history or > interesting weapons, it is true it could provide soem interesting vampire > ideas, ---- for instance imagining a vampire shogan cosealing his vampire > status from his samurai, or a vampire official in the maigi era government > using his position in the beurocracy to aide his blood drinking could be > quite different, though I don't unfortunately know enough about shinto or > Japanese buhdist traditions to suggest how the western ideas of vampires > being affected by faith, holy water, holy symbols etc would translate, > though there are probably enough japanese Demon legends and ghost stories > (there's a pretty major horror tradition in Japan), to create some credible, > > if not strictly accurate mythology. > > ? > > This would however in order to feel authentic and not be just the generic > samurai vs vampires in D&D land need to have the touches of culture and > history attached to it, which might, if Tom doesnt' already know about that > > part of the world require a little more research than Tom would be willing > to do. > > ? > > futuristic vampires could work too, indeed I've seen Doctor who use them on > > several occasions, sinse in the Doctor who mythos one explanation for > vampires is that they are an elder universal race who had a war with the > timelords but were scattered across all time and space when the time lords > kicked their rear. In fact the 4th doctor story state of decay involves a > vampire living as lord over a village of primative people on an alien planet > > in a crashed spaceship who's old fuel tanks he is filling with the blood > from villagers, sinse he can use the blood to fuel the ship if he gets > enough, which is again quite a unique take on the usual evil vampire > nobleman, lots of peasants version of that story. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
