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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The first Kara Tur content in decades and it's announced on naughty word linkedin my sides are in orbit

It's not their fault that Canadian new social media platform Gander is not ready for release yet!

Anyways could this be a hint at a future Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Kara Tur & Adventures in Kara Tur? Followed up by Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Zakhara and Forgotten Realms Adventures in Zakhara?

Or despite not being in Faerun, could Kara Tur be one of the 10 regions in FR: AiF?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

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

The spirit realm was already = Feywild (amd maybe the Shadowfell in 4e .

 

[Henadic Theologian]

We don't know if the entire continent is fantasy Japan or if these characters come from one of the two fantasy Japan analogues.

In addition to the gnome druid being a yamabushi, I noticed that the wizard is using a vajra as a spellcasting implement. Part of this could just be that symbols of esoteric Buddhism are generically magical in Japanese pop culture in the same way pentagrams and faux-Latin scream magic to us westerners, but I wonder if we're going to get any information on the religious practices of Kara Tur as well, even if it's as simple as "we've never heard about this strange goddess Mystra you worship here in the far west, what is this weave you speak of?"

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.

Kara Tur lives again!

 

[pukunui]

We don't know if the entire continent is fantasy Japan or if these characters come from one of the two fantasy Japan analogues.

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!

I was under the impression that Kara-Tur was a more general fantasy Far East, with fantasy analogues for China (Shou Lung, T’u Lung), Tibet (Tabot), the Stans (Hordelands), Korea (Koryo), Japan (Kozakura, Wa), and various southeast Asian countries (Malatra).

Also, the Shou are one of the FR human ethnicities detailed in the 2014 PHB, and the Tuigan were added in the SCAG, which does also have brief sections on the Hordelands and Kara-Tur. Interestingly, the SCAG says orcs are unknown in Kara-Tur!

There are also a variety of NPCs from Kara-Tur sprinkled throughout the various 5e FR adventures. They’re mainly Shou, but IIRC there’s at least one Kozakuran.

 

[Distracted DM]

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.)

Ofc I guess it depends on what the market actually wants... They might enjoy western fantasy since it's DnD past versions of "eastern" stuff hasn't been too... sensitive?

 

[jjcarver]

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.

Maybe they're trying to make Phandalin like D&D's Tatooine. An insignificant backwater, yet somehow everything important passes through there at some point.

 

[Corinnguard]

 

[kayakingpoodle]

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

I wish I would've learned more Spanish, 2 years in HS, and grew up in Texas I know just enough Spanish to get in a really good bar fight.

 

[haakon1]

The original OA is the first thing I DM’d. Glad to see a version of it coming back and in Japan first with apparently Japanese authors. Really the only way it could return.

Pet issue, but I like Kara-Tur as a standalone setting, not as it was latter force fitted into Forgotten Realms. (Changing the maps for both and placing it “where Japan fits” if Baldur’s Gate is in fantasy France.)

In the original book, there was no map, and in OA1, it was west across an ocean from a nonspecific Gaijin setting. That was more creative than replicating Eurasia, I think - Wa and Kozakura didn’t have to be the place where the Sun rises first off a supercontinent with the main setting where Europe fits.

 

[pukunui]

Changing the maps for both and placing it “where Japan fits” if Baldur’s Gate is in fantasy France.

That’s a new one for me! I’ve always equated Baldur’s Gate with London. Cormyr is more fantasy medieval France to me.