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Oriental Adventures 5e - What race options are there?
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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7124529" data-attributes="member: 45197"><p>Hiya!</p><p></p><p>I'm going to be, yet again, the nay-sayer here. So... No. Just a flat out "No" to all of the suggestions so far. Here's my reason why...</p><p></p><p>In most all "oriental" stories and movies that I see, the focus is on Humans first...with allies and enemies being the non-human ones. Generally you have human, human, human, human, human and the half-korobokuru side-kick....or maybe you have the human, human, human, human, human and they seek out a 'river spirit' to help them cross a mystical area laden with misleading rivers. That kind of thing. You don't really see stories where the human city of X has an uneasy truce with the spirit folk city of Y, and the poor hengiyokai towns in between are caught in the middle. That just doesn't seem to be a 'thing' in the oriental stories I've watched/read.</p><p></p><p>I think that adding in a dozen playable races would pretty much completely ruin the feeling of any oriental adventures setting/campaign. When I picture "western fantasy" settlements, they are usually filled with humans, but dwarves, halflings, elves, half-orcs, lizardfolk, cat people, etc are there too (almost like a mos eisley canteena! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> ). This is fine because a lot of these western-fantasy style stories involve humans, and a host of other civilized races, each with their own human-styled "history". We have wooded elven cities, vast underground dwarven enclaves, and dozens of quaint halfling farm-lands...each with relatively human ideas (laws, town councils, social structures, currency/trade, architecture, etc). Sure, each may "look" different and have a different name, but honestly, the "Elven Elder" is basically a Mayor, and the "Dwarven Boar-Rider" is basically a Knight.</p><p></p><p>Oriental Adventures? Not so much. The closest thing we really get is the Korobokuru, who are "oddly shaped, hairy, primitive, humans". The Spirit Folk and Hengiyokai? Nope...not even close, really. An "Elf" is described as "being one with the forest"...with virtually nothing to back up that claim. Spirit Folk are literally that...spirits of something, given form. When a river starts to dry up due to drought, a river spirit folk gets weak and feeble, and will die if the river doesn't return. If that river starts to swell due to a massive downpour, a river spirit folk gets wild, strong, and unpredictable.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, yeah, those are my thoughts on it. Oriental adventures doesn't need any "non-human" races more than the original 1e OA had for PC's. That said, I wouldn't be opposed to certain "regional humans" having a bonus/penalty to a stat pair, or other such <em>minor</em> adjustments to the base human. A human who grows up in a bustling capital city would likely have strengths and weaknesses that are quite different from that of a human who grew up as a trappers daughter who lived on the side of a remote, wooded mountainside.</p><p></p><p>^_^</p><p></p><p>Paul L. Ming</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pming, post: 7124529, member: 45197"] Hiya! I'm going to be, yet again, the nay-sayer here. So... No. Just a flat out "No" to all of the suggestions so far. Here's my reason why... In most all "oriental" stories and movies that I see, the focus is on Humans first...with allies and enemies being the non-human ones. Generally you have human, human, human, human, human and the half-korobokuru side-kick....or maybe you have the human, human, human, human, human and they seek out a 'river spirit' to help them cross a mystical area laden with misleading rivers. That kind of thing. You don't really see stories where the human city of X has an uneasy truce with the spirit folk city of Y, and the poor hengiyokai towns in between are caught in the middle. That just doesn't seem to be a 'thing' in the oriental stories I've watched/read. I think that adding in a dozen playable races would pretty much completely ruin the feeling of any oriental adventures setting/campaign. When I picture "western fantasy" settlements, they are usually filled with humans, but dwarves, halflings, elves, half-orcs, lizardfolk, cat people, etc are there too (almost like a mos eisley canteena! ;) ). This is fine because a lot of these western-fantasy style stories involve humans, and a host of other civilized races, each with their own human-styled "history". We have wooded elven cities, vast underground dwarven enclaves, and dozens of quaint halfling farm-lands...each with relatively human ideas (laws, town councils, social structures, currency/trade, architecture, etc). Sure, each may "look" different and have a different name, but honestly, the "Elven Elder" is basically a Mayor, and the "Dwarven Boar-Rider" is basically a Knight. Oriental Adventures? Not so much. The closest thing we really get is the Korobokuru, who are "oddly shaped, hairy, primitive, humans". The Spirit Folk and Hengiyokai? Nope...not even close, really. An "Elf" is described as "being one with the forest"...with virtually nothing to back up that claim. Spirit Folk are literally that...spirits of something, given form. When a river starts to dry up due to drought, a river spirit folk gets weak and feeble, and will die if the river doesn't return. If that river starts to swell due to a massive downpour, a river spirit folk gets wild, strong, and unpredictable. Anyway, yeah, those are my thoughts on it. Oriental adventures doesn't need any "non-human" races more than the original 1e OA had for PC's. That said, I wouldn't be opposed to certain "regional humans" having a bonus/penalty to a stat pair, or other such [I]minor[/I] adjustments to the base human. A human who grows up in a bustling capital city would likely have strengths and weaknesses that are quite different from that of a human who grew up as a trappers daughter who lived on the side of a remote, wooded mountainside. ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]
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