Oriental Adventures Source Material

[PaulKemp]

Hi all,

My group is starting off an OA style campaign. We've got the OA hardcover and AEG's Rokugan sourcebook, but I'm wondering if there are any other resources (whether books or internet) that others have found useful in gaming in Rokugan or OA generally.

Paul Kemp

 

[drnuncheon]

Hi all,

My group is starting off an OA style campaign. We've got the OA hardcover and AEG's Rokugan sourcebook, but I'm wondering if there are any other resources (whether books or internet) that others have found useful in gaming in Rokugan or OA generally.

If you want more of a Chinese flavor than a Japanese flavor, these novels are excellent primary sources:

Journey to the West

Outlaws of the Marsh

Three Kingdoms

Can't help too much on the neo-Japanese Rokugan stuff though.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

AEG has also produced a book Creatures of Rokugan

And they are producing two books:

Magic of Rokugan and Ways of the Samurai

But, I am unsure if the latter two books are d20.

Avalanche Press put out a book titled Jade and Steel

I believe Atlas-Games produces Feng Shui d20 (more wuxia then standard kung-fu, but I am sure it can be snatched for ideas).

Good luck!
FD

 

[Tzarevitch]

Salutations,

AEG has also produced a book Creatures of Rokugan

And they are producing two books:

Magic of Rokugan and Ways of the Samurai

But, I am unsure if the latter two books are d20.

Avalanche Press put out a book titled Jade and Steel

I believe Atlas-Games produces Feng Shui d20 (more wuxia then standard kung-fu, but I am sure it can be snatched for ideas).

Good luck!
FD

I was considering doing a Rokugan campaign myself this summer so I have been searching as well. Here are my findings.

Get the Creautres of Rokugan book. It is a must. It is also more that just a monster manual. I like the artwork (although it is grayscale) and the paper is durable.

Magic of Rokugan and Way of the Samurai are not out yet as far as I can tell. I will get them as soon as I find them. They DO contain d20 info according to AEG's website and sound like they will be pretty useful.

Jade and Seel is more of a chinese setting than japanese. It is not bad and it doesn't cost much. You can easily do without it though. It has a couple of monk prestige classes, a fighter prestige class (based on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon apparently) and a couple of cleric prestige classes. Nothing in the book is all that vital to a Rokugan setting game that I would recommend buying it though.

Do NOT buy Fend Shui d20. I cannot emphasize that enough. It wasn't even worth the little I paid for it.

I think it was Green Ronin that put out a monster manual book that was pretty good. It is called Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts. There is a lot of stuff that doesn't fit Rokugan, but there is also plenty that does, and it is only about $15.00. The artwork is also quite good.

I am also finding that it is necessary to find some of the original Legend of the Five Rings books because neither the Oriental Adventures book nor the d20 Rokugan book explain much about certain bits of the Rokugan setting (such as the Kolat and the Lying Darkness). Information on the Kolat can really only be found in the Merchant's Guide to Rokugan. The book is a misnomer. It has nothing to do with merchants and everything to do with the Kolat secret society. It is not d20 but it is easy to convert (use the rules in the back of the d20 Rokugan book to convert characters or convert them on your own) because most of the book is background about the organization, its members, tacits and its goals. It is quite useful but not as cheap as I'd like (about $20, and thin paperback) but it is a must to understand the Kolat. The book is hard to find in stores. The Way of the Shadow (I think that is its name) is the only detailed info on the Lying Darkness that I have been able to find. It costs the same as the Kolat book and is equally hard to find.

There are some other L5R books that I like and am planning to use. There is a whole sourcebook about a single small town that the PCs can be based in. It is called The Village of Mimura or something like that. The book is cool because it details nearly everyone in the village and provides farily detailed personalities of characters the PCs will interact with day to day and info on how to use them, as well as adventure possibilities depenging on what clan the PCs belong to.

The City of Lies boxed set is pretty good. It describes an entire Rokugan city. It is full of intrigue and very good character descriptions all set in a city full of vice and treachery. It also has more details on how the Emerald Magistrates work and how a large Rokugani city operates. The map of the city is only ok. The boxed set Otosan Uchi (or something like that) describes the imperial capital. I think this one is out of print and it is very hard to find. The city map is nice. Overall the set is not as useful as the City of Lies because the PCs are less likely to visit often.

That is what I have learned so far.

Tzarevitch

 

[Psion]

Salutations,

AEG has also produced a book Creatures of Rokugan

And they are producing two books:

Magic of Rokugan and Ways of the Samurai

But, I am unsure if the latter two books are d20.

Magic of Rokugan is D20 (I really need to post a review). Pretty neat, especially the idea of nemuranai... a nice substitute for the typical method of handling treasure in D&D.

Avalanche Press put out a book titled Jade and Steel

Very good PrC's and a good adventure, though pricey for the size. Might be good source material if you want a three-kingdoms China inspired region of your setting.

I believe Atlas-Games produces Feng Shui d20 (more wuxia then standard kung-fu, but I am sure it can be snatched for ideas).

I'll second the recommendation to stay away from this one. The special rules don't add anything and the adventure is uninspired.

 

[Tsyr]

And what's more, they released the majority of the rules as a PDF download

 

[Nikchick]

I think it was Green Ronin that put out a monster manual book that was pretty good. It is called Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts. There is a lot of stuff that doesn't fit Rokugan, but there is also plenty that does, and it is only about $15.00. The artwork is also quite good.

Yes, Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts is a Green Ronin book.
http://www.greenronin.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?prodid=1009

There's also a new review of the book at www.d20zine.com linked from the GR frontpage, in addition to the reviews at d20reviews.com and deathseeker.com (among others).

I hope that helps a little,
Nicole

 

[mmadsen]

Magic of Rokugan is D20 (I really need to post a review). Pretty neat, especially the idea of nemuranai... a nice substitute for the typical method of handling treasure in D&D.

Nemuranai? Could you expand on this a bit?

 

[yongi]

more sources

I have been working on building a non-Rokugan setting for a couple of months now. I am much more inspired by Chinese history/mythology/wuxia than by Japanese things, so most of what I list here will reflect that.

Good group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaproject/

Related to above, focusing on updating 1st ed OA stuff:
http://www.geocities.com/phillipriley/

Complete "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Text online:
http://www.threekingdoms.com/

Pretty cool site that talks about Wuxia as the source for Hong Kong movies. Good general info on the films and such. Also has a section on RPGs.
http://www.heroic-cinema.com/articles/wuxia.htm

First three chapters of Louis Cha's "Book and Sword" - one of the classics of Wuxia literature.
http://earnshaw.com/b&s/b&s.cfm?id=2

Dragon Magazine 289 had some interesting OA stuff (some prestige classes, a little intro to Wuxia movies by Robin D. Laws, a random Martial Arts Style name generator [also available online at: http://asmor.homeip.net/martial/martial.html]

The "Dynasty Warriors" series of Playstation/PS2 games are set in the Three Kingdoms and are good for fun if not for solid source material.

All three books listed by drnuncheon are the true classics and are well worth the read if you're interested in Chinese history/myth literature. I've heard 3 Kingdoms refered to as the Odyssey/Illiad of Chinese lit (and I got the four volume set for Xmas, though I've barely had a chance to crack open the first book).

Outlaws of the Marsh (also Outlaws of the Water Margin) appears to be somewhat Robin Hood-esque, while Journey To The West (also known as Monkey or The Monkey King) may well be to wuxia what LoTR is to western fantasy).

Wuxia movies are really one of your best bets. Check out the list in Dragon or what's listed at the Heroic Cinema site I mentioned above.

Final notes:

*Feng Shui doesn't actually suck, but it has a (to me) needless cyber punk/dark future bit that hurts it.

* Guardians of Order (www.guardiansorder.com) are putting out a revised Hong Kong Action Theatre rpg and a new wuxia/Crouching Tiger supplement is due in march.

* Burning Shaolin (a D20/Feng Shui crossover adventure) has a couple of interesting bits for d20 wuxia style games.

* Jade Dragons, Hungry Ghosts (as mentioned above) has some interesting stuff. But some of it is just plain useless, too.

* Jade & Steel serves as a really good primer on Three Kingdoms China and has some good weapon info and the like.

* TSR/WoTC's Dragonfist free game (2nd ed "based") is probably invaluable: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DF_Welcome.asp

* Once I finally finish my "world" I'll get it online, in the DM Stuff form if nothing else.

Sorry for the randomness of this post. I now return you to your regularly scheduled forum...

-y-

 

[mmadsen]

Re: more sources

Complete "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" Text online:
http://www.threekingdoms.com/
...
First three chapters of Louis Cha's "Book and Sword" - one of the classics of Wuxia literature.
http://earnshaw.com/b&s/b&s.cfm?id=2

Ooh, excellent. Thank you, yongi!