Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
- Jakob
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 3:43 am
- Gender: Male
- Location: Near Milano, Italy.
- Contact:
Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Hi everybody,
Haven't posted in a while, but my spirit lurked in the forum from time to time. I came back to submit to the community the result of a long overdue work I completed a few months ago.
Almost ten years ago I started imagining a Ravenloft campaign set in the domain of Rokushima Taiyō. Did I say ten years? Maybe it was twelve. My problem was, well... that the domain was not very well fleshed out.
It was not fleshed out at all beyond a "THIS IS JAPAN IN RAVENLOFT".
So, I started creating a small player's guide for my players. Then, in a hot Kyoto night three years ago (no joking. I was actually in Kyoto), I dusted the document I started all those years ago and well... it became the huge THING you can find by clicking HERE.
I took my time to make sure that RT was still JAPAN IN RAVENLOFT (but not really), just like every domain is [INSERT NATION] IN RAVENLOFT (but not really). I also took the time to ask an artist (follow her on Instagram @Giuliart: when life allows it, she takes commissions) to draw some art for it.
The attached file is simply the pdf obtained from the Word file, without any layout. I still have to teach me to do that. Be kind.
Some quick explanations about this work:
1 - I love Ravenloft very much, as everyone in here, I guess.
2 - I love Japan very much. Not a guy who says "kawaii" every two words: I graduated with a thesis on Japanese theater and I have been going to Japan for years to study Noh and Nihonbuyo (I WILL NOT GO THIS YEAR WONDER WHY, but I will start going again to visit its post-COVID ruins). My relationship with Japan is the same one as I have with Ravenloft: I love it very much and this is why I look at it and say "REALLY? REALLY JAPAN? REALLY?!"
3 - Rokushima Taiyō unites Ravenloft and Japan... though sometimes it felt like everything was a poorly translated stereotype, almost completely separate from the rest of the setting. I felt the need to make it more interesting.
3a - In addition, I felt it was never well thought: Shinpi Haki ("Shinpi", seriously?) was not very interesting and, above all, he COULD NOT ACT IN ANY WAY; personal names were borderline cringey, place names seemed translated with a pocket-sized dictionary and so on.
3b - Above all, you read it and IT WAS JAPAN. Where all the other lands of Ravenloft were like "Ok, it's Transylvania/Scotland/France/Romania/Tuscany but NOT EXACTLY like in the real world, Rokushima Taiyō was... JUST JAPAN. And I didn't like it.
3c - Also: it didn't seem to understand what kind of horror he wanted to be. Monsters? The horrors of humanity? Why are all the isles identical? Why are you not capitalizing on the fact you have four islands?! WHAT TONE DOES THIS DOMAIN HAVE?! REALLY RAVENLOFT? REALLY!?
This file is based on (the little) information from the Ravenloft Player's Handbook, but otherwise it's all my work. I realized I took inspiration for the Poison Sea from a post in the forum I read AGES ago, but I really can't find it anymore. I'm sorry I can't credit anyone.
Now, if you have read all my rambling, you will find the pdf in the link above. Hope you like it.
If you are interested in stats you can find them in the Damnatis Personae/Who's Doomed section (because doing stat for everything FEELS GOOD and we all are nerds), if you are interested in the fluff you can find it at the beginning.
I hope you like how much I liked writing it.
Yoroshkuonegaishimaaaaaaas!
...
BTW, did I mention it's ENTIRELY IN ITALIAN?
(Seriously, though: sorry but I can't translate everything. I found out Google Translate can do an adequate job, though. )
Haven't posted in a while, but my spirit lurked in the forum from time to time. I came back to submit to the community the result of a long overdue work I completed a few months ago.
Almost ten years ago I started imagining a Ravenloft campaign set in the domain of Rokushima Taiyō. Did I say ten years? Maybe it was twelve. My problem was, well... that the domain was not very well fleshed out.
It was not fleshed out at all beyond a "THIS IS JAPAN IN RAVENLOFT".
So, I started creating a small player's guide for my players. Then, in a hot Kyoto night three years ago (no joking. I was actually in Kyoto), I dusted the document I started all those years ago and well... it became the huge THING you can find by clicking HERE.
I took my time to make sure that RT was still JAPAN IN RAVENLOFT (but not really), just like every domain is [INSERT NATION] IN RAVENLOFT (but not really). I also took the time to ask an artist (follow her on Instagram @Giuliart: when life allows it, she takes commissions) to draw some art for it.
The attached file is simply the pdf obtained from the Word file, without any layout. I still have to teach me to do that. Be kind.
Some quick explanations about this work:
1 - I love Ravenloft very much, as everyone in here, I guess.
2 - I love Japan very much. Not a guy who says "kawaii" every two words: I graduated with a thesis on Japanese theater and I have been going to Japan for years to study Noh and Nihonbuyo (I WILL NOT GO THIS YEAR WONDER WHY, but I will start going again to visit its post-COVID ruins). My relationship with Japan is the same one as I have with Ravenloft: I love it very much and this is why I look at it and say "REALLY? REALLY JAPAN? REALLY?!"
3 - Rokushima Taiyō unites Ravenloft and Japan... though sometimes it felt like everything was a poorly translated stereotype, almost completely separate from the rest of the setting. I felt the need to make it more interesting.
3a - In addition, I felt it was never well thought: Shinpi Haki ("Shinpi", seriously?) was not very interesting and, above all, he COULD NOT ACT IN ANY WAY; personal names were borderline cringey, place names seemed translated with a pocket-sized dictionary and so on.
3b - Above all, you read it and IT WAS JAPAN. Where all the other lands of Ravenloft were like "Ok, it's Transylvania/Scotland/France/Romania/Tuscany but NOT EXACTLY like in the real world, Rokushima Taiyō was... JUST JAPAN. And I didn't like it.
3c - Also: it didn't seem to understand what kind of horror he wanted to be. Monsters? The horrors of humanity? Why are all the isles identical? Why are you not capitalizing on the fact you have four islands?! WHAT TONE DOES THIS DOMAIN HAVE?! REALLY RAVENLOFT? REALLY!?
This file is based on (the little) information from the Ravenloft Player's Handbook, but otherwise it's all my work. I realized I took inspiration for the Poison Sea from a post in the forum I read AGES ago, but I really can't find it anymore. I'm sorry I can't credit anyone.
Now, if you have read all my rambling, you will find the pdf in the link above. Hope you like it.
If you are interested in stats you can find them in the Damnatis Personae/Who's Doomed section (because doing stat for everything FEELS GOOD and we all are nerds), if you are interested in the fluff you can find it at the beginning.
I hope you like how much I liked writing it.
Yoroshkuonegaishimaaaaaaas!
...
BTW, did I mention it's ENTIRELY IN ITALIAN?
(Seriously, though: sorry but I can't translate everything. I found out Google Translate can do an adequate job, though. )
I coloni rovinavano la foresta costruendo il capolavoro dell'uomo civilizzato: il deserto.
- Luis Sepúlveda
- Luis Sepúlveda
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
I can't read a bit of it, but looks great. Heck, translate it we could add this to the fraternity netbooks.
- Jakob
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 3:43 am
- Gender: Male
- Location: Near Milano, Italy.
- Contact:
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
I'm afraid it would be a bit hard and also a bit of a problem, since I'm not a native speaker. Also, I'm currently finishing some other translations (the quarantine is helping, actually ), so I might not have a the time I'd need to do it in a reasonable amount of time.KingCorn wrote:I can't read a bit of it, but looks great. Heck, translate it we could add this to the fraternity netbooks.
I might be tempted to do so if I could find some help.
I coloni rovinavano la foresta costruendo il capolavoro dell'uomo civilizzato: il deserto.
- Luis Sepúlveda
- Luis Sepúlveda
-
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 1148
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2016 5:27 pm
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
I'm Italian, and I found this great. Od course, my version will have some difference, expecially in Shimpi's backstory, powers and the number of his children.
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
We're not asking you to do all the work, this is a community after all. We'll handle the translations, somehow. If only I had taken Italian instead of Chinese in college...Jakob wrote:I'm afraid it would be a bit hard and also a bit of a problem, since I'm not a native speaker. Also, I'm currently finishing some other translations (the quarantine is helping, actually ), so I might not have a the time I'd need to do it in a reasonable amount of time.KingCorn wrote:I can't read a bit of it, but looks great. Heck, translate it we could add this to the fraternity netbooks.
I might be tempted to do so if I could find some help.
- Jakob
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 3:43 am
- Gender: Male
- Location: Near Milano, Italy.
- Contact:
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Ok, that makes everything a bit more feasible. As soon as I finish the other translation I'm working on (the italian translation of AGE edition Blue Rose, right now) I think I can start working on it.KingCorn wrote: We're not asking you to do all the work, this is a community after all. We'll handle the translations, somehow. If only I had taken Italian instead of Chinese in college...
AAAAAH! Grazie. I hope you'll find in my atlas something to draw inspiration from.Mistmaster wrote:I'm Italian, and I found this great. Od course, my version will have some difference, expecially in Shimpi's backstory, powers and the number of his children.
If you noticed (the girl doing the art noticed it as soon as she read it ), in the campaign I was sketching the main antagonist was going to be Takami (the second son), since he is the only one capable of avoiding Shinpi's possession (thanks to his eidolon).
I coloni rovinavano la foresta costruendo il capolavoro dell'uomo civilizzato: il deserto.
- Luis Sepúlveda
- Luis Sepúlveda
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Regardless, this is fantastic! Three cheers for Jakob and the artist. Hip-hip, Hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip-hip Hooray!
- kourkenko
- Criminal Mastermind
- Posts: 131
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:39 am
- Location: Warsawa (Poland) / Troyes (France)
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
What a surprise and a really good one ^^.
83 pages coming from a few sentences in the main world book... That's a lot of work.
83 pages coming from a few sentences in the main world book... That's a lot of work.
- Gonzoron of the FoS
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 7561
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:02 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: New Jersey
- Contact:
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Looks incredible. Eagerly awaiting a translation....
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
- Starscream
- Agent of the Fraternity
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:34 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: Italy
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
I am also Italian but I have yet to read, but I am very interested in reading it, due RT is so potentially interesting as a east horror domain
Maybe we should plan a Italian team up to translate it
Maybe we should plan a Italian team up to translate it
- tomokaicho
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 527
- Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:27 am
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Is this project still underway? I can no longer access the PDF file.
- Starscream
- Agent of the Fraternity
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:34 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location: Italy
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Me too, probably he has changed the pdf and this link is now useless
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
tomokaicho wrote:Is this project still underway? I can no longer access the PDF file.
Got you covered:Starscream wrote:Me too, probably he has changed the pdf and this link is now useless
Atlante di Rokushima Taiyō by Jakob (2020-04-18 Version)
I have PMed Jakob to inform him I have rehosted the original version he posted here, as it wasn't clear if his intentions were to remove it deliberately or if the link expired by accident. I am more to happy to remove this link at any time.
- brothersale
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 293
- Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:02 am
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Does any one know what creature Jiānding was trying to turn into, the page number indicates a winterwight, but my translation indicates a "voracious " whatever that is. I ask because when i run wight through the translator to see if its mistranslated i get wight, so i'm stumped as to what it could be.
All great movements require a few martyrs... -Moebius (soulreaver 2)
- Jakob
- Evil Genius
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2004 3:43 am
- Gender: Male
- Location: Near Milano, Italy.
- Contact:
Re: Rokushima Taiyō Atlas [Pathfinder First Edition]
Hi everyone!
Sorry I disappeared, Real Life took its toll.
I’m sorry the link died. Thank you Mischief for covering for me!
Sorry I disappeared, Real Life took its toll.
I’m sorry the link died. Thank you Mischief for covering for me!
Jiānding was trying to become a Ravener. The page number refers to the Italian edition of Bestiary 2!brothersale wrote:Does any one know what creature Jiānding was trying to turn into, the page number indicates a winterwight, but my translation indicates a "voracious " whatever that is. I ask because when i run wight through the translator to see if its mistranslated i get wight, so i'm stumped as to what it could be.
I coloni rovinavano la foresta costruendo il capolavoro dell'uomo civilizzato: il deserto.
- Luis Sepúlveda
- Luis Sepúlveda