Taking the Rogukan out of OA: Experience? Suggestions? Opinions?

[AFGNCAAP]

Hello,

The threads discussing the samurai class in the Complete Warrior, as well as my own experiences working on a homebrew setting using OA material has got me thinking about this.

Has anyone played an OA game/campaign with the Rogukan elements/influences removed from the game? It seems that those who would want to play a Rogukan-intensive d20 game would use the material put out by AEG (the ninja & courtier classes from their core book, the clan sourcebooks, "Way of the..." class sourcebooks, etc.). IIRC, the samurai classes from OA & the AEG Lo5R mainbook don't match up at all.

How are the samurai & shugenja classes changed with the clan elements removed from them? Do the clan-based feat lists merely become generic fighting style "feat trees" for the samurai class? What about the shugenja--did you remove/rename the clan schools, or just rework them to be more element-specific?

How about meshing the OA system with core D&D? Are OA spirits treated as a type of fey, or are they seperate? How does the Honor system impact the game--do only OA characters have it, do all PCs (OA or core D&D) have it, or is it completely removed from the game (esp. since OA does give AL equivalents to the different Honor "levels")?

I'm trying to integrate OA material into my homebrew campaign, but sans Rokugan flavor (if anything, maybe closer to the original OA of 1st ed., with the more "generic" Kara-Tur setting). However, I'm also concerned about how the games may mesh--OA sorcerer vs. a D&D sorcerer spell list (and if they can mix & match), the honor system (& the effects of its inclusion/abscence from the game), monster categories (i.e., does OA "spirit" = D&D "fey"?).

I'd apprecaite any comments, advice, information, opinions, etc., on the matter.

 

[glass]

Hello,

The threads discussing the samurai class in the Complete Warrior, as well as my own experiences working on a homebrew setting using OA material has got me thinking about this.

Has anyone played an OA game/campaign with the Rogukan elements/influences removed from the game? It seems that those who would want to play a Rogukan-intensive d20 game would use the material put out by AEG (the ninja & courtier classes from their core book, the clan sourcebooks, "Way of the..." class sourcebooks, etc.). IIRC, the samurai classes from OA & the AEG Lo5R mainbook don't match up at all.

<snip>

I'd apprecaite any comments, advice, information, opinions, etc., on the matter.

Never played with it to any great extend, beyond one samurai character in a recent game, but I have OA and will try to answer your questions as best I can.

Divorcing the book from the Rogukan settin should not be too difficult. In fact, there are several things in there not found in Rogukan (such as Hengyokai) and a chapter on world building for which specifically discusses using it in a non-rogukan games.

The feat lists are for the different samurai clans do represent certain fighting styles. It shouldn't be too difficult to ignore the clan description: just have player pick one of the lists and stick with it (or not).

The book has a page or two on mixing in core races and classes. Sorcerers can pick from either the Wizard/Sorcerer list or the Wu-jen/Sorcerer list but not both.

Spirit is a subtype, which can be applied to any type. There are a few fey in there, but I think the majority are outsiders.

There is a discussion of honour, but no concrete mechanics for, as far as I remember.

Hope this helps a little.

glass.

 

[Vlos]

I am currently in a campaign (not OA) and I play a Shaman. I had to talk with the GM prior to finding out how he delt with Spirits and such. We treat them a little different, more like souls. Not everything has a spirit and strong spirits can inhabit non-living things.

As such there are not as many spirits as one would encounter in a normal OA campaign, but its still a flavorful class to play.

As for the feats and such. You can use them as general feats, but some of them should be restricted in some way.

The other classes can be adapted as well, but need background most of the time. For example, someone shouldn't just be able to pick up Samurai class like a fighter class. Samurai are trained, so to become one, one would have to belong to some type of organization. Sort of like a Paladin. You just don't say I want to pick up a level of Paladin.

 

[Psion]

Has anyone played an OA game/campaign with the Rogukan elements/influences removed from the game?

I have.

IIRC, the samurai classes from OA & the AEG Lo5R mainbook don't match up at all.

That's a bit of an exagarration. The version in Rokugan is merely a tweaked version of the OA one, with a few skill tweaks and the anscestral blade ability based on XP not treasure.

How are the samurai & shugenja classes changed with the clan elements removed from them? Do the clan-based feat lists merely become generic fighting style "feat trees" for the samurai class? What about the shugenja--did you remove/rename the clan schools, or just rework them to be more element-specific?

Samurai - yes, those are merely clans and fighting schools, modestly renamed as needed.

Shugenja - I just ditched it. The idea of magic-user types being blended in alongside Bushi in a Japan-like social structure is a very Rokugan specific idea, and the Shugenja is heavily influenced by western High Fantasy magic using archetypes.

In my OA game (which draws as much from China as an archetype as japan), I used Mongoose's Shaman as an "Animist" class (which would be like a Shinto priest, or Shinsoku, but I also used for animist/shaministic figures based on Chinese archetypes), and used the OA Shaman as sort of a more Buddhist style priest of "Bonze."

How about meshing the OA system with core D&D? Are OA spirits treated as a type of fey, or are they seperate?

I treat many Asian "spirit" concepts as fey, though many are properly undead or outsiders as well.

How does the Honor system impact the game--do only OA characters have it, do all PCs (OA or core D&D) have it, or is it completely removed from the game (esp. since OA does give AL equivalents to the different Honor "levels")?

It's never come up, but I think I would take a lead from L5R materials and have certain creatures and cultures have "nil" honor, not defined by the honor system and not dishonorable.

I'm trying to integrate OA material into my homebrew campaign, but sans Rokugan flavor (if anything, maybe closer to the original OA of 1st ed., with the more "generic" Kara-Tur setting). However, I'm also concerned about how the games may mesh--OA sorcerer vs. a D&D sorcerer spell list (and if they can mix & match), the honor system (& the effects of its inclusion/abscence from the game), monster categories (i.e., does OA "spirit" = D&D "fey"?).

It's generally agreed that the Wu Jen/Sorcerer spell list is weaker than the core one, but once again, this never became an issue for me.

Edit:
As you are going for something more like Kara-Tur, you might take a gander at this thread in the plots & places forum in which I discuss the creation of my OA setting:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5501

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

We used the OA material in a Kara-Tur campaign, but I can´t tell you much about what our DM changed - it actually didn´t seem he had to do this at all.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[tetsujin28]

Well, since I think Rokugan's a load of hooey, I'd say go for it (don't get me started on things like misuse of the word 'shugenja'...or the fact that hangeyokai are missing, but there're stupid rat-men...or that they insist on tengu being spelled incorrectly, or...). OA might make a nice cross with Green Ronin's Mindshadows setting.

 

[ForceUser]

It's easy to run a non-Rokugan OA game if you don't mind doing some research. I ran a Vietnamese-based OA campaign for about a year, and even wrote a story hour based on it. You just have to know your setting and then make some cuts.

As a general rule of thumb I threw anything labeled "Rokugan-specific" in the book right out. I then threw out anything that seemed Japanese to me, since I was running a game based in southeast Asia. For classes I dispensed with the samurai and shugenja - I believe I used the barbarian, bard, fighter, monk, ranger (dang-ki), rogue, shaman, sohei (no-sheng), sorcerer (yao ren) and wizard (wu jen). I removed the hengeyokai, spirit folk and shapeshifters, but left in the nezumi under a different name and made good use of the varana (also under a different name). I removed the Iajitsu Focus skill and all related feats, and using the handy chart in the OA book as well as some internet resources I used the non-Japanese names of the various OA weapons (for instance, the naginata became the kama-do). None of the various Shadowlands and Taint stuff was used, either.

I downloaded and printed a lot of source material courtesy of Google and got familiar with Vietnamese culture, legends and such. All told, I put about two weeks of research into it before designing the campaign, and it had a modest run before players decided they wanted to go back to regular (re: boring, plain, whitebread ) D&D.

But I'm not bitter.

 

[glass]

Hello,

The threads discussing the samurai class in the Complete Warrior, as well as my own experiences working on a homebrew setting using OA material has got me thinking about this.

Has anyone played an OA game/campaign with the Rogukan elements/influences removed from the game? It seems that those who would want to play a Rogukan-intensive d20 game would use the material put out by AEG (the ninja & courtier classes from their core book, the clan sourcebooks, "Way of the..." class sourcebooks, etc.). IIRC, the samurai classes from OA & the AEG Lo5R mainbook don't match up at all.

<snip>

I'd apprecaite any comments, advice, information, opinions, etc., on the matter.

Never played with it to any great extend, beyond one samurai character in a recent game, but I have OA and will try to answer your questions as best I can.

Divorcing the book from the Rogukan settin should not be too difficult. In fact, there are several things in there not found in Rogukan (such as Hengyokai) and a chapter on world building for which specifically discusses using it in a non-rogukan games.

The feat lists are for the different samurai clans do represent certain fighting styles. It shouldn't be too difficult to ignore the clan description: just have player pick one of the lists and stick with it (or not).

The book has a page or two on mixing in core races and classes. Sorcerers can pick from either the Wizard/Sorcerer list or the Wu-jen/Sorcerer list but not both.

Spirit is a subtype, which can be applied to any type. There are a few fey in there, but I think the majority are outsiders.

There is a discussion of honour, but no concrete mechanics for, as far as I remember.

Hope this helps a little.

glass.

 

[Voadam]

We allowed wu-jen spells to be learned as wizard ones, but only if encountered in game (Only PH/srd spells and certain specific sourcebooks for the free spells at leveling). Which has worked fine so far, although my Eldritch Knight has found magnetism a lot better than telekinesis for yanking weapons.

 

[Desdichado]

Other than the Shugenja, Nezumi and the clan feats, what's Rokugan specific about the mechanics anyway? There's a lot of stuff in OA that's specifically not appropriate for Rokugan for that matter, including several of the races and new core classes.