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<blockquote data-quote="Ron" data-source="post: 2008505" data-attributes="member: 1020"><p>The new Oriental Adventures is a welcome upgrade from its previous edition. The presentation is excellent, in fact superior to the other core books. The cover is pleasant and evocative of oriental style. The internal layout really shines, being clear and better looking than other WotC's D&D selections. Sadly, the campaign map does not keep the same standards. Although the landscape cartography is good, the markers, such as cities, castles, and roads, as well as the fonts are too much western to a product of this kind.</p><p></p><p>The book is structured in 12 chapters plus three appendixes, supposedly providing enough material to a wide range of oriental oriented adventures. Unlike its predecessor, Oriental Adventures tries to be both a generic supplement and a sourcebook to Rogukan, the setting used by Legends of Five Rings CCG and RPG. All races from the first edition are back as well as a new one from Rogukan. There are 11 main classes plus 25 prestige classes, although many of the former are exclusive to the Rogukan setting. This hefty number of classes covers a remarkable diversity of roles in an oriental society and should suffice to most gamers.</p><p></p><p>A few new feats are introduced, most of them directly associated with the Rogukan setting, although they might be adapted to other settings with minor tweaking. Surprising, the martial arts chapter is rather small, limiting to explain which combination of feats and skills are characteristic to which school of martial arts.</p><p></p><p>The equipment chapter is equivalent to its counterpart in the PHB, although it appears to be mainly based in the Japanese culture, in detriment to others. The chapter of magic is also slim, but provides enough information to manage magic in the campaign as well as some new spells.</p><p></p><p>The remaining chapters are for the DM. An extensive monster chapter updates the previous edition bestiary as well as includes information about Rogukan's critters. A rather small chapter discusses the many possibilities of using Oriental Adventures as guide to different settings. Although being well written, this chapter fails to provide a complete tool kit to customize the rules and, therefore, I consider it the weakest of the book.</p><p></p><p>The two final chapters detail the Rogukan. This was my first exposure to this setting. Although I found it enjoyable, I did not found it very interesting. Mahasarpa, the Indian inspired setting provided in the web enhancement was more of my taste. Despite this, the Rogukan chapters are very detailed and sufficient to most gamers. Alderac, who have the rights for Rogukan will soon be publishing a more complete supplement to d20 players.</p><p></p><p>Final comments</p><p></p><p>The new Oriental Adventures is one of the best products available of the d20 line, especially to those willing to play in the Rogukan setting. However, as a tool kit to homebrew campaigns with oriental flavor, it is still lacking in a few points. The chapter on campaign design informs us the equivalent to Oriental Adventures classes in several eastern cultures such as Japanese, Chinese, and Indian. We are informed that Samurai has no equivalent in China and might be represented as Brahmin in India. But what does a Brahmin is different from a samurai? This is not covered. Also, katanas are very important to samurais. What are their equivalents to Brahmin? I have no idea. The book also lacks information on which races or monsters are appropriated to which cultures. Also, some important cultures from Southeastern Asia are not even mentioned. Obviously, a book of this size cannot possibly cover all Asians culture. However, I would rather take a few pages from Rogukan to improve the world building chapter or at least improve this latter chapter in a web enhancement.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ron, post: 2008505, member: 1020"] The new Oriental Adventures is a welcome upgrade from its previous edition. The presentation is excellent, in fact superior to the other core books. The cover is pleasant and evocative of oriental style. The internal layout really shines, being clear and better looking than other WotC's D&D selections. Sadly, the campaign map does not keep the same standards. Although the landscape cartography is good, the markers, such as cities, castles, and roads, as well as the fonts are too much western to a product of this kind. The book is structured in 12 chapters plus three appendixes, supposedly providing enough material to a wide range of oriental oriented adventures. Unlike its predecessor, Oriental Adventures tries to be both a generic supplement and a sourcebook to Rogukan, the setting used by Legends of Five Rings CCG and RPG. All races from the first edition are back as well as a new one from Rogukan. There are 11 main classes plus 25 prestige classes, although many of the former are exclusive to the Rogukan setting. This hefty number of classes covers a remarkable diversity of roles in an oriental society and should suffice to most gamers. A few new feats are introduced, most of them directly associated with the Rogukan setting, although they might be adapted to other settings with minor tweaking. Surprising, the martial arts chapter is rather small, limiting to explain which combination of feats and skills are characteristic to which school of martial arts. The equipment chapter is equivalent to its counterpart in the PHB, although it appears to be mainly based in the Japanese culture, in detriment to others. The chapter of magic is also slim, but provides enough information to manage magic in the campaign as well as some new spells. The remaining chapters are for the DM. An extensive monster chapter updates the previous edition bestiary as well as includes information about Rogukan's critters. A rather small chapter discusses the many possibilities of using Oriental Adventures as guide to different settings. Although being well written, this chapter fails to provide a complete tool kit to customize the rules and, therefore, I consider it the weakest of the book. The two final chapters detail the Rogukan. This was my first exposure to this setting. Although I found it enjoyable, I did not found it very interesting. Mahasarpa, the Indian inspired setting provided in the web enhancement was more of my taste. Despite this, the Rogukan chapters are very detailed and sufficient to most gamers. Alderac, who have the rights for Rogukan will soon be publishing a more complete supplement to d20 players. Final comments The new Oriental Adventures is one of the best products available of the d20 line, especially to those willing to play in the Rogukan setting. However, as a tool kit to homebrew campaigns with oriental flavor, it is still lacking in a few points. The chapter on campaign design informs us the equivalent to Oriental Adventures classes in several eastern cultures such as Japanese, Chinese, and Indian. We are informed that Samurai has no equivalent in China and might be represented as Brahmin in India. But what does a Brahmin is different from a samurai? This is not covered. Also, katanas are very important to samurais. What are their equivalents to Brahmin? I have no idea. The book also lacks information on which races or monsters are appropriated to which cultures. Also, some important cultures from Southeastern Asia are not even mentioned. Obviously, a book of this size cannot possibly cover all Asians culture. However, I would rather take a few pages from Rogukan to improve the world building chapter or at least improve this latter chapter in a web enhancement. [/QUOTE]
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