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.

 

[Distracted DM]

Characters from Kara-tur, but it's set in Phandalin. I know Phandelver was a great starter adventure, but I feel like they need some new material.

 

[Weiley31]

Are we still talking about half-orcs? Right, gotcha.

So, how bout dem Half-Elves?

 

[Weiley31]

Im not surprised this is for the 2014 rules. For the LONGEST while, the top pen paper RPG in Japan, like how DND was on end with 5E, was CoC IIRC. I think it was last year, or the year before, WoTC bought 5E over to Japan to give it a push in their market. Even had a commercial on YouTube. I wonder how long it will take before Japan gets DND 2024/5.5E?

 

[Corinnguard]

So, how bout dem Half-Elves?

PF supposedly has an Elven subrace for its' Asia-like setting. Ergo, Asian Half-elves.

 

[Corinnguard]

From PF2's Lost Omens Character Guide, pg. 26

Some elves did not retreat to Sovyrian during Earthfall, but instead ventured into tunnels that led underground. While many of these elves pressed deeper into the earth, an elf named Jininsel received a vision that the elves could find their new home by following the routes of a silver tree. Those elves who followed Jininsel wandered for centuries below the earth, until finally discovering a thick vein of mithral that led them upward into Xian Tia. These elves adopted customs from their neighbors and founded the nation of Jinin.

It wouldn't be too hard to tweak this for the Forgotten Realms setting. Instead of winding up into Xian Tia, the first Jinin Elves found themselves in Kara Tur.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

And I think that's after-the-fact copium.

Half-elves have been in the game since 1e, and half-orcs I think the same? One or both are prominent named figures in the history of not one, but almost every single setting WOTC ever put out. At various times they ranged from major to minor differences from full elves or orcs and full humans, but always had noteworthy differences including in particular named cultural differences. They're in almost every published adventure, there are even deities of those races, and now one of them is in a new adventure which came out after 2024 had been out for quite a while now.

It's not wasted book real-estate to mention what the F is going on here and how the game is trying to address it. Even if it's just the "choose your parents" they 100% should have said that. The fact they pulled it specifically, after having written rules for it, tells me that isn't the rule anymore. It tells me they're not sure what they want the rule to be yet, and so are punting this to some future book.

And it's surely fair to point out this elephant in the room after someone just wrongly claimed they were in fact in the books and everyone is just exaggerating their absence. That is either someone who is mistaken (which is what this turned out to be), or someone trying to gaslight people.

Hey I'm all for them using space to explain their thinking on the hybrid extermination or to, I don't know, just include half-elves and half-orcs!

I just think the "Kermit and Miss Piggy's children all have the stats of either a frog or a pig" solution floated in playtest was so stupid and obvious that I'd rather get nothing than be insulted by the suggestion that I couldn't figure that one out on my own.

 

[Remathilis]

Are we still talking about half-orcs? Right, gotcha.

Listen: WotC doing some regional material tied to Japanese culture and even mentioning Kara Tur still exists isn't nearly as important as repeatedly attacking WotC for removing the two species with "half -x" in their name until they can find a better way to address them.

I hope the sarcasm leaked though the screen.

 

[Weiley31]

Since I'm more of a mutt than my dog was (god rest his soul), I propose that the new paradigm be Mutt-Elf and Mutt-Orc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Characters from Kara-tur, but it's set in Phandalin. I know Phandelver was a great starter adventure, but I feel like they need some new material.

It feels very "yes, but are we going to be able to sell more Sword Coast books?" rather than just letting this take place in a village somewhere in Kara-Tur.

(That said, if I were selling to the Asian market, I probably would want to massively revise or replace Kara-Tur with something that looked more reasonable to Asian fantasy fans.)

 

[aco175]

The part that caught my attention is how the schwa vowel in Phandalin is apparently now interchangeable. So far I've seen it spelled "Phandelin" and "Phandolin" in this comment thread alone. I personally prefer the hipster tragedeigh mom spelling: "Phandylin".

I noticed this myself and was going to comment. I heard on the radio about changing language and the death of the semicolon. With the death of formal writing and rise of texting, it's use is down 50 percent; but I hardly ever used it to begin with.

Maybe vowels are interchangeable now as well. Or, maybe English is not the first language of the writer and I can give some slack.