Questions about Rogukan

[EternalNewbie]

Specifically, Magic of Rogukan. I'm running an OA campaign right now, and though I'm using a home brew, I'm considering picking up the source books for Rogukan. The reviews all seem pretty good for the main source book, but I didn't find any on Magic of Rogukan. I'd like to hear some comments on it before I shell out the cash, so if you've got it (or any of the other Rogukan source books for that matter) I'd appreciate some impromptu reviews.

EternalNewbie

- Some things are forever...

 

[Chauzu]

The only Rokugan books I have is the main book, and the creatures book. Both are good and worth the buy.

 

[hammymchamham]

I second the creatures of rokugan. the Rokugan d20 book is also a good buy

 

[Samothdm]

Magic of Rokugan is a great book. Tons of new spells for Shugenjas. My only gripe is that they rename some of the spells from the PH with setting names, and it makes it hard to figure out what a spell actually does (I look it up in Rokugan or Magic of Rokugan only to discover that it's actually a PH spell with a new name). It does have a complete Shugenja spell-list incorporating stuff from the PH, OA, Rokugan, and MoRokugan.

Check out Monte Cook's review here. He gives it 8 out of 10.

 

[Black Omega]

Personally I love the Magic of Rokugan book, but all the Rokugan books have been very good or excellent so far. A good variety of spells, some good ideas on magic items for a Rokugan game.

 

[haiiro]

I only have the main book, but it's excellent -- easily one of my favorite and most useful D&D books. There's plenty in there to get you started on a Rokugan campaign (coupled with OA), but even if you only use it for crunch to add to your non-OA game you're still likely to get a lot of use out of it. Highly recommended.

 

[blackshirt5]

I've paged through it extensively at an LGS, must say that I LOVE the Black Scrolls. Definitely gonna find a place in one of my campaigns.

 

[Tzarevitch]

I have all of the d20 Rokugan books. They are very good for the most part. You do have to beware of bad editing though in the early books. There are a lot of typos and episodes of bad math particularly in Creatures of Rokugan and Way of the Samurai. Creatures' attack and save bonuses frequently don't add up properly and there are a number of episodes of noncorporeal creatues and undead with Con scores and incorrect hit die types. As long as you make sure to redo the math for creature's hit points, saves, attack bonuses and damage the books are great. Way of the Samurai also has a very nasty cut-and-paste error under the Shiba (Phoenix) fighting school entry.

All in all though, once you get past the above problems the Alderac books are quite good. Many of them don't translate well to other settings (the clan books in particular) but Magic of Rokugan works for any OA setting. Way of the Samurai and Way of the Ninja also work well in any setting.

I don't recall any particular glaring problems with Magic of Rokugan and the background material and flavor text is excellent. It has a lot of good background on the nature of magic and the spirits.

Tzarevitch