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.

 

[Corinnguard]

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.

This is definitely true in Level Up. You can create any mixed heritage in this RPG simply by picking a heritage and another heritage's heritage gift.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

This is definitely true in Level Up. You can create any mixed heritage in this RPG simply by picking a heritage and another heritage's heritage gift.

My race gives me thieves tool proficiency!

 

[Corinnguard]

My race gives me thieves tool proficiency!

That more of a cultural thing in Level Up.

 

[Weiley31]

I wouldn't mind a Kara-Tur setting book at some point

Currently right now if I need to do something Japan/Asian themed 5E stuff then I have Adventures in Rokugan+Kamon+Ryoko's Guide to Yokai Realms to cover that all that.

 

[Charlaquin]

What you just described never made it into the books. When you say it's explicitly allowed, I believe you're referencing something they had in a UA, which got scraped for the 2024 books. As far as I am aware, it's not explicit nor implied. They don't mention the topic at all.

My mistake there, then. I would guess either page count, the complaints that having to pick one species to gain the mechanical traits of also being problematic, or both scared them off of including that sidebar. I would still say that the PHB lacking stats for half-orcs is not reason to assume characters can’t have half-orc and half-human heritage if the player (or DM creating the NPC) so desire.

 

[Charlaquin]

I mean, they haven't been exaggerated at all.

It was literally removed and not even replaced with a section on how mixed-species PCs would work if I understand correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been repeatedly told literally no official 5E 2024 source has any description whatsoever of how to handle mixed-species PCs. Which directly hard-contradicts what you're claiming. So either you're outright wrong or everyone who I've spoken to about this was.


But is that true? That's precisely opposed to what I've been told by multiple people.

Explicit has a meaning. It means:

"stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt."

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the opposite of what you say is the case. That absolutely nothing is explicit re: mixed heritage in official 5E 2024 books, and there is no suggestion that you even can have mixed heritage. I could see making a weak case for "implicit", not "explicit", because "explicit" is straightforwardly wrong.

To be clear, I don't have the 5E 2024 books, so I can't check, but I've asked people about this directly both when the PHB came out and when the DMG came out, and the answer I got was that no, there is no actual discussion of mixed-species characters at all, not even a paragraph or sidebar, nothing explicit. But if I haven't been lied to by several people (which is not impossible!), you must be, at best, confusing UA rules that never went in with the actual 2024 rules.

On the main topic of the thread - This looks really good, though it's very strange to me that they set in Phandelin. And it's interesting that Kara-Tur is sort of reconfirmed as FR Japan, it always was but it'd been a while. Also the illustrations are great!

Apparently I was mistaken, the explicit sidebar about it that appeared in the species UA isn’t in the PHB. I still think it’s a bit silly to assume that because there are no half-orc stats, mixed human and orc heritage can’t be a thing.

 

[Sacrosanct]

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

Same, only I only remember to tell someone I'm reading a newspaper. In hindsight, I really screwed up by being all over the place. I took 2 years of Spanish in jr high, then Japanese in High school because it was super cool and an available class. Then I joined the army and lived in Korea for 4 years and took Korean. Then got deployed to Germany. If I spent all that time on one language instead of all of them, I might be proficient in at least one. As is now, I can barely speak any of them (Spanish is the best), but I subconsciously will insert words of a different language into a sentence if I don't remember the one I'm trying to speak or flip languages sentence to sentence.

"Anyo Odashi, igot pisanheyo. Donde esta el quatro de bano?"

It causes a lot of confusion lol

 

[SkidAce]

I wouldn't mind a Kara-Tur setting book at some point

....Ryoko's Guide to Yokai Realms to cover that all that.

Is there a pdf available for non-backers yet?

 

[Corinnguard]

Is there a pdf available for non-backers yet?

Not yet. I just checked Drive Thru RPG to see if they had PDFs for Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms. No such luck. I have the PDF, but I am still waiting to get the physical copy.

 

[Weiley31]

Is there a pdf available for non-backers yet?

I think you can go to the Kickstarter link and still access the pre order page. Should be able to add/purchase the PDF I think.