I have posted before on the unpublished supplement Tetsubo. I expressed the commonly held view that the world it presented did not capture the feeling of Warhammer. However, it got me thinking about what a Warhammer Nippon setting should have looked like.

As Graeme Davis has noted, the Warhammer Nippon setting was influenced by “the 80s fad for all things Japanese”. As a first step to construct Warhammer‘s Nippon, it is probably worth while to understand the context of that fad.

The Japanese fad of the 1980s was preceded by a surge in interest in Hong Kong martial arts movies, especially those made by Bruce Lee (in 1971-1973). It led to mainstream TV shows such as Kung Fu (1972). By the mid 1970s it was so pervasive that martial arts featured in a James Bond movie (The Man with the Golden Gun, 1974) and a number-one single (‘Kung Fu Fighting’, 1974). Many of the ideas from this fad, especially the itinerant martial artist, found their way into western conceptions of historical Japan.

The zeitgeist

In the late 1970s and early 1980s interest shifted further east to Japan itself. Japan’s economic rise was probably a factor in this. There was interest in Akira Kurosawa’s films, such as Seven Samurai (1954), Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985), set in the Sengoku period. Most famously The Hidden Fortress (1958) was a significant influence on Star Wars (1977). James Clavell’s book Shogun (1975), based on the Tokugawa shogunate and the story of William Adams, became a bestseller and was made into a popular TV miniseries (1980).

The fad also extended to RPGs. The first far eastern RPG was Bushido (1978). This was set in semi-historical Japan. It wisely sacrificed historical accuracy for familiarity and blended the Sengoku period and Tokugawa shogunate along with some elements from Hong Kong movies. It firmly established the archetypes for far eastern RPGs. Its character classes comprised Bushi (a warrior in the chanbara style, including samurai and ronin), Budoka (a martial artist based on Hong Kong movies), Shugenja (wizard), Gakusho (priest, Buddhist or Shintoist), Yakuza (rogue) and Ninja (assassin). It had a magic system based on the five Chinese elements: fire, water, earth, metal and wood. It also included a short bestiary of fantastic creatures from Japanese folklore.

Bandwagon, anyone?

The two main fantasy RPGs of the time also explored far eastern settings. Oriental Adventures (1985) was published for AD&D, and Land of Ninja (1986) for RuneQuest. I have not read the latter, but I am familar with Oriental Adventures. It departed little from the conventions set by Bushido.

There were other examples. The Fighting Fantasy gamebook Talisman of Death (1984) and the Way of the Tiger series (1985-1987) featured Mark Smith’s Orb setting, which had strong Asian influences.

By 1986, when WFRP1 was released, a far eastern setting must have seemed a necessity for any fantasy RPG.

The next post will look at how Nippon was described in Warhammer.

Title art by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.