D&D 5E Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms 5E

[Cadence]

Have they said if it is OGL or CC or ... ?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess an anime-inspired D&D sourcebook is possible, but maybe with other name, for example "Isekai&Jianghu". But it is not only about designing or updating monsters, PC species and subclasses. They have to choose if they are going to add space for future classes with special game mechanics, as the psionic mystics, the martial adepts or the incarnum soulmelders.

I don't know Hasbro's experience with the Chinese market. I suspect now China is like the company you don't want to be close but very soon there will be serious troubles.

WotC worry too much about the design of the PC species, not only about specie traits but also they have to be an interesting concept. For example the shen/spiritfolk can't be only elves with almond-shaped eyes who can speak with certain animals. They need their own mark of identity. Now we don't know yet if korokuburu update would be allowed or it would be cultural apropiation.

A Japanese D&D setting is not so interesting for Japanese players. It would be like a Texan who is sick or bored with the "Spaguetti-Western" movies. The industry of speculative fiction has to offer something new always.

I don't know enough about South-Korea to give my opinion about D&D in the Korean market, but I suspect they are too jealous about their independence and fiction based in the culture of the no-very-friendly neighbours isn't wellcome. And the points of view can be different, the opinion by an Asian native about their own people, by an Asian descendent who has lived in America (USA or Hispanoamerica) or a foreign who has living in that country for years. You can search in youtube about people telling their own experience living in a country with a different culture.

DMGuild allows sourcebooks style "Oriental Adventures", and even these publishers don't worry so much about the new rules of politica correction. Technically Kara-Tur, al-Quadim and Maztica are unlocked in DMGuild because they are FR spin-off.

A possible strategy is a "Anime&Donghua" sourcebook being published not to sell more sourcebooks but to try in the market of fantasy light novel. But here self-publishing writters may not worry enoughly about the coherence with the rules (main characters becoming OP too soon, for example).

Other option can be to create "chopsuey" fictional countries, intentionally mixing different cultures to avoid possible prejudices against the analogue ones from the real life.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

I guess an anime-inspired D&D sourcebook is possible, but maybe with other name, for example "Isekai&Jianghu". But it is not only about designing or updating monsters, PC species and subclasses. They have to choose if they are going to add space for future classes with special game mechanics, as the psionic mystics, the martial adepts or the incarnum soulmelders.

I don't know Hasbro's experience with the Chinese market. I suspect now China is like the company you don't want to be close but very soon there will be serious troubles.

WotC worry too much about the design of the PC species, not only about specie traits but also they have to be an interesting concept. For example the shen/spiritfolk can't be only elves with almond-shaped eyes who can speak with certain animals. They need their own mark of identity. Now we don't know yet if korokuburu update would be allowed or it would be cultural apropiation.

A Japanese D&D setting is not so interesting for Japanese players. It would be like a Texan who is sick or bored with the "Spaguetti-Western" movies. The industry of speculative fiction has to offer something new always.

I don't know enough about South-Korea to give my opinion about D&D in the Korean market, but I suspect they are too jealous about their independence and fiction based in the culture of the no-very-friendly neighbours isn't wellcome. And the points of view can be different, the opinion by an Asian native about their own people, by an Asian descendent who has lived in America (USA or Hispanoamerica) or a foreign who has living in that country for years. You can search in youtube about people telling their own experience living in a country with a different culture.

DMGuild allows sourcebooks style "Oriental Adventures", and even these publishers don't worry so much about the new rules of politica correction. Technically Kara-Tur, al-Quadim and Maztica are unlocked in DMGuild because they are FR spin-off.

A possible strategy is a "Anime&Donghua" sourcebook being published not to sell more sourcebooks but to try in the market of fantasy light novel. But here self-publishing writters may not worry enoughly about the coherence with the rules (main characters becoming OP too soon, for example).

Other option can be to create "chopsuey" fictional countries, intentionally mixing different cultures to avoid possible prejudices against the analogue ones from the real life.

The problem is excessive focus on surface level presentation. Sure you can apply Asian "aesthetics" to classes, but the mechanics and class expectations might need to be adjusted as well.

For example, when people talk about classes they are often compared to existing fictional characters, but I am willing to bet a finger or two that a lot of the characters that are referred to in these discussion are not actually very well known in Asia. Fafhrd, Grey Mouser, Conan etc. etc.

They'd be more familiar with Sun Wukong and other mythological characters or characters from manga and anime, like Son Goku, Guts and Tanjirou.

I don't think that works in a D&D-like system because there's some class baggage that simply prevents it from happening, like the obsession with many classes being "grounded". ICON, as an example of how to do it properly, is an RPG that is clearly influenced by anime and manga, but the system itself does not do it by just applying some faux-Asian paint on top of a fighter-rogue-wizard class framework. The designer has made classes that have impact. There are no "grounded" classes. Everyone is amazing at doing what they are good at.

 

[Marandahir]

In all seriousness: I doubt we will ever see a revised Oriental Adventures for 5E (the title alone would kill the project in committee). If Wizards of the Coast ever does decide to lean in that general direction, they will borrow from the Kamigawa setting and lore from Magic: the Gathering...not from the old AD&D OA.

But they might already be thinking about it.

I mean, Theros got its own 5E D&D campaign setting, and so did Ravnica and Strixhaven. And several other M:tG card blocks got Unearthed Arcana "Plane Shift" releases that are still available for free download (I linked them for ya): Ixalan, Innistrad, Amonkhet, Kaladesh, and Zendikar. There are a lot of blocks we still haven't seen (Arabian Nights, Mirage, Invasion, Masques...) that would make excellent D&D campaign settings. And among them, I'd think that Kamigawa would be the most marketable. It's well-loved by M:tG fans, the artwork is iconic, and if recent Kickstarters are any indicator, there is plenty of interest.

And now Eldraine as of yesterday, as a tie-in to this month's launch of the second Feywild-esque Eldraine set, Wilds of Eldraine.

Note that each of the Planeshift articles and coffeetable books and D&D MtG books were tie-ins to Magic sets that were released the same year or fiscal year. So the chance to do Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was 2022, but last year was already chock full of settings what with a Critical Role adventure path, Spelljammer box set and Dragonlance adventure and board game tie-in.

I wouldn't be surprised if we revisit Kamigawa in the near future, but as we know what the next few years of Magic: The Gathering are, unless Kamigawa is the home plane of the massive-multiplayer-smash.bros-crossover event of 2026, we aren't getting it before Fiscal Year 2027. And even if it IS the home set of the War of the Spark / March of the Machine equivalent, that's still not on the slate until Spring 2026.

Believe me though -- due to the success of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, I'm 100% sure that when the D&D side of WotC decides to do an East Asian-inspired fantasy setting, they're going to choose Kamigawa, not Kara-Tur or Rokugan, and they CERTAINLY aren't going to call it Oriental Adventures.

Magic tie-ins sell, and they're IP WotC owns. Kara-Tur is too, but it's too closely tied to orientalist tropes and the dark history of Oriental Adventures as a whole. Kamigawa was pretty orientalist back in 2004-2005, but they rescued the setting from the crap-pile of history by advancing the timeline on Kamigawa by over a thousand years and creating a traditions & spirits of nature VS futurism & technology conflict at the core, and leaning far into anime tropes as opposed to leaning into obscure (though fascinating if you're someone like me) Japanese myths.

Going back to Kara-Tur would be like going to 2005 Kamigawa, and it's just not something that sells well and it's not good publicity either as they've actively denounced that sort of orientalism and said they want to make sure to engage cultural consultants and writers who actually represent the cultures they're appropriating instead.

To all that ends, I do believe we're getting Kamigawa in the next 5-10 years in D&D, and I will not be backing this kickstarter as I do not like dndshorts and do not feel confident in these writers doing proper respect to the source material.

 

[humble minion]

‘Anime-inspired’ and ‘real world Asia inspired’ are not necessarily synonymous.

Just ask Full Metal Alchemist, for instance. Or Hellsing. Ghibli’s Porco Rosso is set in a faux Mediterranean. And I came up with these examples very quickly despite really, really REALLY not being an expert on the genre.

You can have the tropes and the art style and the genre conventions without dredging up all the Oriental Adventures baggage.

 

[Corinnguard]

ICON, as an example of how to do it properly, is an RPG that is clearly influenced by anime and manga, but the system itself does not do it by just applying some faux-Asian paint on top of a fighter-rogue-wizard class framework.

Do you think it's more likely that this Kickstarter will have it where Ninja and Samurai are their own classes instead of being Rogue (Ninja) and Fighter (Samurai)? It would be neat if the classes in OA were given the 5e treatment.

 

[Corinnguard]

‘Anime-inspired’ and ‘real world Asia inspired’ are not necessarily synonymous.

Just ask Full Metal Alchemist, for instance. Or Hellsing. Ghibli’s Porco Rosso is set in a faux Mediterranean. And I came up with these examples very quickly despite really, really REALLY not being an expert on the genre.

You can have the tropes and the art style and the genre conventions without dredging up all the Oriental Adventures baggage.

Now you got me wondering about this Kickstarer and the Naruto anime.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the isekai is a popular subgenre, but lots of times more focused into comedy, or the main characters are OP.

We would need a new PC specie based in Korean folklore. I suspect WotC would rather to use names from English instead others, for examples spiritfolk instead shen, or beastshaper instead hengeyokai.

Of course it would be better with more classes, for example the "cultivator" but if there isn't yet a psionic mystic class, then others will arrive later.

How to explain it with any example? Apologies if it may sound so stereotyped but let's imagine somebody who wants to set up a franchised pizza-shop in a Japanase city. The food can be very good, but the Japanese would rather to eat okonomiyaki. Then the business to survive has to serve its own version of okonomiyaki. And if the franchise wanted to serve okonomiyaki in its locals in USA West Coast, they should change some things because American client would rather other type of tastes. Nobody is right or wrong, only people from different place have got different preferences.

But here the market adventage is the TTRPGs are selling mainly the pieces, or the ingredients, and then you choose how is going to be.

The first step should the hengeyokai as PC specie (because it is the most iconic and relatively popular), but let's remember ears in the sides of the skull, not in the top (vertical canal ears? Dogsand other animals have L-shape canal ears, that is different). A title in D&DBeyond should be enough. Other point is some 3PPs have created their own version of creatures from Asian folklore.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if the IP "Legend of the Five Rings" was acquired by Hasbro, or maybe a merger Hasbro-Embracer Group. Then a rebooted version of Rokugan would be added to D&D Multiverse. But I suspect WotC would rather to start from zero with a Japan-inspired setting like Kamigawa.

My theory is the bet will be for a setting with a look of Western culture (maybe some touchs of Russia), but with a lot of essence of Asian cultures.

Other option, and maybe the closest one to become reality, is licencing 3PP settings based in other cultures in D&DBeyond. Then if somebody was offended or like this, then it wouldn't business by WotC really but by that 3PP.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

Do you think it's more likely that this Kickstarter will have it where Ninja and Samurai are their own classes instead of being Rogue (Ninja) and Fighter (Samurai)? It would be neat if the classes in OA were given the 5e treatment.

I think there is only one new class and the rest are subclasses. At least that's the way it seems to me from the kickstarter page.

 

[overgeeked]

There was already an L5R 5E book put out last year. Adventures in Rokugan. It's definitely a heavier rules set than 5E. Lots of new systems, subsystems, magic systems, dueling, etc.