I'm thinking about working on my Chinese set or going in detail and submitting my plane/story to the expanded thingy. The problem is I need names and things. I was working with cky originally but he was lost before the apocolyosw even happened. Anyone know anyone that could help?

Are you looking for Mandarin?

Doesn't matter, just needs to sound good on the tongue

use lots of Ks, Ts, S', TS', and OW's (the sound, not those two letters).

Well for those interested, the set is inspired by kung fu panda and the Chinese zodiac. It's about a plane with 12 humanoid animal tribes and how the ruler of the land cycles through the tribes by a magical contract. Eventually a war breaks out to attempt to overthrow the contract and cause chaos. Each tribe specializes in different skills, each represented by what I call type tribal. For example, dragons are legendary metal workers so they care about artifacts. The tigers fight in packs so they care about creatures, etc. Oh and there's a tribe of evil rabbits on the moon.

If it doesn't matter, why don't you just use a pinyin dictionary? example

I can, just thought getting a real Chinese speaker would make it more authentic.

Well, if it's Kung Fu Panda inspired, just go their route and select random chinese words for characters' names.

Also, if it's based on the Zodiac, you might want to recheck who're the metal workers or pack people. The Dragon sign is of the Wood element, which would be Green, I guess (though if you can get away with metal workers in Green, be my guest). Tigers are also of the Wood element, which fits since Green is community. But tigers are solitary, so...

In fact, let me just lay the list:


Water (Blue? Black?)

- Pig
- Rat
- Ox


Wood (Green?)

- Tiger
- Rabbit
- Dragon

Fire (Red?)

- Snake
- Horse
- Goat/Sheep

Metal (White?)

- Monkey
- Rooster
- Dog


Earth Signs (Earth is the Quintessence in Chinese thought, so it nourishes everything. Each of the elements has a sign that's also "earth", so they can belong to the unused colour, like Black for example)

- Ox
- Dragon
- Goat
- Dog

It's very losely based. Only using some of the animals, not all of them. And doesn't the elemental sign change each year or something? Because I'm an earth snake.

It doesn't change every year, but every few (but it changes by the time the sign comes back around so it's not noticed as heavly that it doesn't change). But each animal also as an innate element.

Is that thing with a cat in Fruits Basket actually part of the Chinese Zodiac? 'Cause it might be interesting to have one outsider tribe like that.

Might also be a good idea to include the Monkey King (from Journey to the West) and Mulan (from the poem) inspired cards.

wikipedia page for Chinese mythology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mythology

The Mogwai (remember the Gremlins movie?) are from Chinese lore.

Peaches that grant immortality could be some kind of life-gain related card.

You could base some legendary cards or stuff related to the war off parts of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The other two of the four great stories besides Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West are Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber and are also probably a good idea to look up the basic lore of, if only plot summaries or something.

My pc is off right now so I can't see the files but I believe the tribes are: snake, rat, rabbit, tiger, dragon, panda, monkey, birds (crane, eagle, and owl), turtle, bat, frog, and...Mantis people similar to natuko. Bat was possibly going to be replaced by oxen or cow people but they are a special case. Pandas where the start of the set when I created a random mechanic for them. Honestly it was more inspired by styles of kung fu than the zodiac.

The signs have an inate element, but each year there's another element influencing them. I am a Yin Water Rooster: I'm naturally aligned with Metal, but with a strong Water influence. Sure enough, most MTG quizzes pin me as White/Blue.

As I remember, the cat was originally supposed to be part of the 12 zodiac. However, in the race to determine the 12 zodiac animals, he/she/it was tricked by the rat and took a nap (I think, don't blame me, childhood tales are fuzzy at best.). The rat became the first of the zodiacs. When the cat woke up, it was already too late. Hence, all of the talks about cats hunting mice (It's revengeeeeee~~~~).

Yes, cats are portrayed as rather demonic, uncelestial animals in chinese myth. But, then again, in MTG all cats are cats, so anthropomorphic tigers would suffice in this setting.

I speak Cantonese.