D&D General D&D Releases New Japanese Campaign 'Oni’s Right Hand'

There's a new Dungeons & Dragons adventure in town--covertly announced on LinkedIn by Hasbro/WotC Japan's brand manager--designed for the Japanese market. It's designed to draw in new players in Japan, and is not currently available internationally.

The adventure is called Oni's Right Hand, and features 5 pre-generated characters from the land of Kara-Tur, the East Asian themed continent in the Forgotten Realms setting, lying to the east of Faerûn. The setting originally appeared in 1985's Oriental Adventures, before getting its own boxed set in 1988. Other than a brief description in 2015's Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Kara-Tur has not featured in D&D 5E.

Oni's Right Hand is not actually set in Kara-Tur; it's set in Phandelin. A cursed glove from Kara-Tur, known as Oni's Claw, arrives in the town and sets the adventure in motion.

The character sheets are illustrated by Toshiaki Takayama, translated by Masaki Yanagida, and voice actors like Ayana Taketatsu and Tomori Kusunoki bring them to life in the video announcement which you can view on LinkedIn.

When D&D Meets Japan…!

We’re thrilled to introduce an original Japanese adventure campaign: “Oni’s Right Hand.”

Set in the bustling trading town of Phandalin, a cursed glove from the East arrives - and when the sealed “Oni’s Claw” is unleashed, eerie, monstrous shadows begin to creep into the town.

This campaign features five original Japanese-style characters from Kara-Tur, complete with pre-generated character sheets,designed by renowned illustrator Toshiaki Takayama and D&D translator Masaki Yanagida, and brought to life by popular voice talents including Ayana Taketatsu and Tomori Kusunoki.

The response from Japanese fans has been overwhelmingly positive.
D&D’s global appeal lies in its ability to embrace diverse cultural styles, and we’re proud to see Japan’s unique creative spirit seamlessly integrated into the world of D&D.
By weaving traditional Japanese themes into gameplay, we hope not only to delight existing fans, but also to grow the community and welcome new players in Japan.

To support this, Learn-to-Play (LTP) sessions for “Oni’s Right Hand” will begin in Japan this August.

WotC Japan Brand Manager Himmy T confirmed on LinkedIn that they were exploring options for global availability.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Even stranger, the third character bio (for the barbarian named Waniguma) is a half-orc, which I thought wasn't a part of 5E 2024.

Well I don't know any Japanese, but the end of the video seemed to show covers of 2014 core books. Perhaps the Japanese localization of the 2024 rules is not out yet.

 

[Alzrius]

I haven't been able to find a translation; would you be willing to transcribe what the video says?

I took three years of Japanese in high school and I can barely remember how to ask for directions to a toilet.

My Japanese isn't that great, it's very much "functional" rather than proficient, and given that the basic description covers most of what's in the video, there isn't much left untranslated besides the characters, so I'll go ahead give a quick overview of the five of them (in order of presentation):

• Tatsuwakamaru, human fighter, noble background, age 15.
• Shikimi, wood elf rogue, spy background, age 145.
• Waniguma, half-orc barbarian, outlander background, age 24.
• Kugetsu, tiefling wizard, hermit background, age 33.
• Hakurokubou, forest gnome druid, acolyte background, age 323.

 

[Charlaquin]

Even stranger, the third character bio (for the barbarian named Waniguma) is a half-orc, which I thought wasn't a part of 5E 2024.

Half-orcs don’t have abilities distinct from humans and orcs. But that doesn’t mean a character can’t have half human and half orc parentage. On the contrary, that’s explicitly allowed, and indeed characters can explicitly have any mixed heritage the player wants, not just half-human-half-orc or half-human-half-elf.

Rumors of the half-orc’s removal from the PHB have been greatly exaggerated.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If you don't review it, it will "rust". Do you know the web Duolingo to learn languanges?
I guess after the Sundering and the great reboot by Vecna we may see some changes in Kara-Tur. For example "shifters", those humanoids with some werebeast ancestors.
I would like the idea of a construct-like PC specie whose origin is an old object that after a long time its "spark wakes up" and then to take a humanoid shape.
Maybe this project is to promote the Japanese-translated 2024 corebooks. I guess the message WotC wants to send is "now you can create your story with your own style".
Have you imagined a Dandadan-D&D collab? Yes, the main characters have got now their school club. They could play some D&D game to learn "team work", cooperation, creativity, comunication and critical thinking. The story? Rin Sawaki wants to become a writter of vampire novels, then somebody adviced her to learn D&D to know how to tell a story.

Other option could be an actual play show with former AKB48 members.

 

[Alzrius]

Half-orcs don’t have abilities distinct from humans and orcs. But that doesn’t mean a character can’t have half human and half orc parentage. On the contrary, that’s explicitly allowed, and indeed characters can explicitly have any mixed heritage the player wants, not just half-human-half-orc or half-human-half-elf.

Rumors of the half-orc’s removal from the PHB have been greatly exaggerated.

You would mind citing a page number for where in the 2024 PHB that's explicitly allowed?

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

You would mind citing a page number for where in the 2024 PHB that's explicitly allowed?

I believe Charlaquin is referencing some stuff that was in the UA but never made it to live.

 

[Muh]

My Japanese isn't that great, it's very much "functional" rather than proficient, and given that the basic description covers most of what's in the video, there isn't much left untranslated besides the characters, so I'll go ahead give a quick overview of the five of them (in order of presentation):

• Tatsuwakamaru, human fighter, noble background, age 15.
• Shikimi, wood elf rogue, spy background, age 145.
• Waniguma, half-orc barbarian, outlander background, age 24.
• Kugetsu, tiefling wizard, hermit background, age 33.
• Hakurokubou, forest gnome druid, acolyte background, age 323.

Great excuse to do some kanji work.

Tatsuwakamaru (辰若丸)
East + noble son + maru (fairly common name suffix).

Shikimi (樒)
A type of bush. Japanese star anise. Is it just me or are flower/plant names popular for ninja characters?

Waniguma (?熊)
The first kanji has me beaten. Second kanji is "bear". I'm fairly confident that the "wani" part is meant to evoke "crocodile". But crocodile is written with different kanji than those used in this name.

Kugetsu (吼月)
Roar + moon. Pretty cool character design too. I'm a fan.

Hakurokubou (白鹿防)
White deer + protector. Druid appropriate name. Also fan of the design.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Interestingly, Hakurokubou is dressed like a contemporary Yamabushi, which are also related to the religion of Shugendo and immortalized as a D&D class in Oriental Adventures as a Shugenja, a kind of elemental cleric with martial arts powers. It could be that they are now identifying the shugenja of earlier editions with druids.

 

[pukunui]

I believe Charlaquin is referencing some stuff that was in the UA but never made it to live.

Yeah, all I can find in the new PHB is the sidebar about using species from older books, which would include the half-orc.

The inclusion of the half-orc and backgrounds like Outlander says to me that these characters were made using the OG 5e rules.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now I start to worry, will the korobokuru rewritten/retconected like a dwarf subrace?

I don't want spiritfolk to become an elf subrace but something like elves' cousins, like eladrins and shadar-kai

Other point is the spirit-realm like an echo-plain. I mean this needs its own style and not to be only a clone of the Feywild. My suggestion is to add bizarre yokai and kami style backroom and creepypasta mythology.

WotC published Kamiwaga and they have got some experience in Japanese culture. They tried something about China but I am afraid it didn't work too well.

Other idea to recover the martial techniques from 3.5 Tome of Battle is to add a new type of spell. This could be used by all the classes. When the spell is casted the "user" can use "martial techniques" until the end of the encounter, but the reload needs some special action. This should allow the martial techniques were interesting or useful for all the players