Dragons of the Yellow Sea

Korean Dragon

Dragons of the Yellow Sea

The players will be humans and dragons who are part of the peasant rebellion in Korea. We will play at least 2 characters each. Players should not play their own dragon or human... We're going to play on Jeju-do island in the straits. The world is loosely based on Naomi Novik's Temeraire alternate history series of novels; His Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade, and Black Powder War.

General thoughts on game flavor - episodes, how characters become pivotal - Temeraire, Lawrence is a ship captain, not a tiny ship, but not an admiral, of medium importance

Game system: Maybe Serenity? Maybe something else.

• Madeline - leans towards playing an outsider, maybe a Mongol Han Solo.
• Madeline - Japanese spy
• Bill - A pirate, shipwrecked on Jeju-do, wants a dragon, potentially goes in drag as an older woman to . An Okinawan Jack Sparow.
• Bill - An emissary from the King, working undercover or overtly seeking to negotiate with the rebels? Or a Shaman spoil to Lee's Catholic priest.
• Cyn - A matriarch from Jeju-do.
• Cyn - A Shaman.
• Lee - Bitter fisherman seeking revenge. could have a dragon.
• Lee - Catholic priest
• Liz -
• Liz - a big hulking military battle veteran/ex bandit/secret military genius/sergeant who became a farmer and swore never to pick up another sword
• Liz - maybe Lee's fisher dragon with leanings towards amateur naturalist/science. i have a collection of cool ocean stuff as my dragon bling.
• Bob -
• Bob -
• GM: John Kim

Timeline of events

1850 - The Taiping Rebellion in China, lasts around 15 years. Ideals of equality. dragons too!

1862 - Peasant rebellion in Korea. Donghak rebellion Tonghak, religious movement, equality

Around this time there is a 10 year old king whose father is Regent. Paek nak-sin oppressive military commander. (Yi nong-nyun), intellectual who led the rebellion. Investigator sent to the scene.

Background

Government & official reading is in Chinese. Popular stuff, signs, etc in Hangul

Jeju-do (Cheju) Island to the south in the straits - 17th cent. period of taxes where men couldn't dive for pearls; women then did; women gained more economic and political power. Jeju

• Paper manufacturing... secrets of (blood rain)
• Textiles -

some kind of animistic syncretic buddhist thing - shamanic/priest etc. were women

Climate

Liz's note - I'm thinking of the Outlaws of the Marsh/Water Margin as an inspiration for this game as well though it's China not Korea and the wrong time period... it's the coolest adventure, hero tales, and a rebellion in the mountains, where dragons would fit right in.

Dragon ecology

• Transport - buses! cargo!
• Herding, pastoral, goats - flatlands and mountains
• Agriculture - flatlands
• Fishing - deep sea fishers, giant tuna, coastal

• Mountain dragons - in lakes - wise dragons and bandits
• Korean cockatrice - kye-ryong (Chariot-pulling beasts from legend). (Kingdom of Silla)

• Korean dragons

Quotes:

• Bill: "He could be a lady pirate, then."
• Everyone, suddenly: "Dragons love bling! OMG they DO love bling!"
• Scene from Blood Rain:

Official: "a 60 bo circle piece of land is insribed with a perfect pentagon. A 3-square bo plot of land yield 30 doi of barley. Nine farmers give the landowner 80% of their barley harvest. If due to a drought the yield were reduced to 30%, how much would the landowner recieve?" Old guy: "That's quite a challenge. Evil guy from village:"It's 34 bags, isn't it?" Official: "using trigonometry and statistics that's the answer but that's not the answer my father wanted"

• Madeline: "Wow. Awesome. Did they just kill a chicken, live?"
• "I'm just saying, never destroy the load-bearing walls of the building you are IN." - Lee

Sources:

• Wikipedia (list pages)
• Korea: Its History and Culture
• Art Treasures of Seoul
• Korea: An Introduction
• A Handbook of Korea
• Sensational Knitted Socks
• movie - Blood Rain. Takes place in 1808 in Korea. A commissioner from the mainland comes to a small island to investigate a murder and arson case which turns out to be one of a series of vengeance murders. Great complicated plot and characters!

• movie (not right time period or place but good) Musan The Warrior

Images

Blood Rain

Blood Rain

Blood Rain

Blood Rain