So sell me on Oriental Adventures

[Gnarlo]

I will admit right off the bat to having a huge prejudice against this sort of setting. I believe it probably was instilled within me back in college when I shared an apartment with Spud Ninja, Anime Porn Guy, and Bushido Boy and the original OA came out. Bad enough that all they ever wanted to talk about was how ninjas, samurai, and big-eyed sailor-suited schoolgirls were greater than anything that western civilization ever produced; once OA came out, it was the end of normal gaming around those parts for a long time.

Having said that, I really have no problems with the genre; I'm up for a good Kurosawa movie anytime I catch one on. I just have no desire to play in such a setting (I think it's the personal fear of devolving into one of the above mentioned Triad, and that apartment full of $20 katanas, throwing stars, and really bad "oriental" art).

So, everytime I walk into my FLGS, I see OA on the shelves; I'll pick it up now and then, quickly flick through it, get flashbacks from the bamboo margins and the oriental theme font choices, and put it back on the shelf. I need y'all to tell me what it has in it mechanics-wise, heck even flavor-wise, that would be good for a traditional style fantasy campaign, and whether it is a worthwhile investment for someone who really can't forsee ever palying an oriental campaign. Thanks!

 

[Dextolen]

Very funny history!

I hear you. I simply cannot get into asian fantasy roleplaying. The characters seem too two-dimensional to me. A samurai is pretty much a samurai, you know what I mean?

Chinese fantasy is a little better, I guess the characterization is just so foriegn or subtle to me that I just cannot detect it. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, for example. Everyone talked about how wonderful the movie was. While I enjoyed some aspects the characters were so boring to me... I dunno.

 

[barsoomcore]

OA really has very little to say about any particular STYLE of play. It's one of my favourite and most-used books, but I don't run an Oriental campaign. It just has cool spells, funky monsters and great classes.

Among the spells, I love earthbolt -- it's basically lightning bolt but instead of a blast of electricity the spellcaster sends a surge of energy roaring along the ground -- same effect but nice flavour change. There's a lot of that sort of stuff. It's not rocket science, but it's a cool switch-up from plain vanilla D&D.

There's some nice background changes that get reflected throughout the mechanics -- contacting ancestors instead of planar beings, fighting creatures of Shadow rather than the lower planes, the power of jade to heal eldritch horrors -- it's pretty cool stuff.

There's a skill called Iaijutsu Focus that swordsmen can use to get the drop on someone, lots of feats that make unarmed attacks more interesting and fun to play around with, and some of my favourite prestige classes -- great for creating surprising NPCs.

Don't look at it as a style book, is what I'm saying. It's got some of the most solid mechanics and imaginative ideas in any supplement I've bought.

 

[MerakSpielman]

From what I understand, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is an extreme condensation of a very long book trilogy. That's probably part of it.

I don't have the 3.x OA book, but I think it would be very hard to get the feel of such a campaign right. Maybe I just know too much Eastern history, but I don't think I could make such a campain without inserting religions obviously based on ancester worship, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, just because I know how much their interaction shaped oriental culture through the millenia. It would end up being a semi-historical setting instead of oriental fantasy, and it sounds less fun the more I think about it.

 

[Tsyr]

I would recommend Sengoku to anyone struggling with the concept of playing in a feudal japanese game. It would be the best introduction you could get.

RPGNow.com has the PDF of the main book for 5 dollars. Pick it up. Im sorry I waited so long to do so.

It dispells a lot of common myths about Feudal Japan.

 

[Olive]

I really like the book because it exemplifies the early toolbox approach of the WotC 3e books better than any other, even MotP. It's not a book for playing in feudal japan or mythic china or legendary malaysia, it's a book with elements ifor all for those.

It's got come cool mechanics, a lot of the classes can be used to represent something else (samurai could be any honorable knight class for example) and there are cool spells and magic items and stuff.

It's kinda hard to advise you because I'm itching to play in a mythic china type game, but not a lot of interest round here. So I got OA because I'd love to play in that game.

 

[aurin777]

Our group uses this book within our campaign, and well all very much so enjoy it because we use it very sparingly. I am not here to sell you on the campaign idea as a whole (because you either like Rokugan and L5R or you don't) but I'm sure there will be very nicely done aspects within the book that you will enjoy. Firstly, the monk prestige classes are great, as well as the cool races and spells. Our game is set in an oriental city that has been occupied for some time by european invaders. They now live in harmony over time, but it makes for an interesting mix of characters. We've got a typical euro berserker, a samurai/yakuza member, a gnomish explorer, a ranger, and a ratman from the underwarrens of the city. Its great.
~~Brandon

 

[haiiro]

OA really has very little to say about any particular STYLE of play. It's one of my favourite and most-used books, but I don't run an Oriental campaign. It just has cool spells, funky monsters and great classes.

Add useful feats to that comment, and that's what makes it one of my overall favorite 3e books. I've gotten a ton of use out of it -- along with the Rokugan hardcover -- without ever running or playing in an OA setting. I love these books.

 

[Dark Psion]

Well, I would say even if you do not like an Oriental setting, there is a lot here that you can hijack for you favorite setting.

The Samurai is a noble warrior and can easily become a Cavalier in a regular D&D setting. Replace the Daisho with an Anscestoral Sword and Shield.

The Shaman is perfect for an alternate cleric, especially with its focus on "Spirits". Exorcist anyone?

The Shugenja is a Divine Sorcerer with a focus on the elements. You can even play with them by changing their elemental focus to say Shadow, Ice or any other Theme.

The Sohei is a Warrior Monk, an excellent alternative to the Paladin, especially for the other alignments.

The Wu Jen basically is a witch or warlock. Their taboos fit in with the superstitions of witches quite well.

The Rokugan book also adds, the Courtier, a player's version of the Aristocrat /Noble. In some settings their abilities might be limited, but say in Pirate Cat's city of Eversink, they would own the city.

And of course, the Ninja! This is basically an assassin starting class. The Assassin PrC is good for someone learning to be a hired killer, but this one is better for someone born into the role of a Holy Slayer or into a family of assassins.

The Inkyo is very close to being a Psionic Monk. I use it as one in my games by allowing them to take psionic feats using their class level in the place of reserve power points. This of course means that an Inkyo's Inertial Armor is almost never coming down.

There are a bunch of feats in OA and in all of the Legend of the 5 Rings books and many of them are great feats, the best being the Ancestor Feats: A 1st level boost based off a special ancestor's legacy. Unfortunaly most of the new stuff in the Secrets of the Clans books are somewhat hidden among the setting. If I was AEG, I would put together a D&D conversion of all the feats, spells and PrCs in the Secrets of the Clans books, It would be great.

The Prestige classes are especially good in these books because they are all five level classes. More like D20 Modern's Advanced classes, since they focus and enhance an aspect of the PC instead of recreating him. There are several good ones in OA and Rokugan as well.

Lastly there are spells and monsters. The Magic of Rokugan and Creatures of Rokugan are two of the best books out there. The Spells do have an elemental focus overall and the best of the monsters are the Oni, each a unique demon to harass your players for a long time.

 

[hong]

OA really has very little to say about any particular STYLE of play. It's one of my favourite and most-used books, but I don't run an Oriental campaign. It just has cool spells, funky monsters and great classes.

M3 t00!!1!

There's a skill called Iaijutsu Focus that swordsmen can use to get the drop on someone, lots of feats that make unarmed attacks more interesting and fun to play around with, and some of my favourite prestige classes -- great for creating surprising NPCs.

Not to mention that it gives warrior types a great reason not to make Cha their dump stat.