The original version of
Oriental Adventures published in 1985 was, to me, a sad failure. The new races and classes compared poorly to their Western counterparts, the Honor rules made little sense without adequate explaination (which wasn't provided) and Kara-Tur was a hideous mix of the major Far East cultures of the day (China, Japan, Korea). My pals and I put it away and returned to our fighters, rangers, paladins and such; we never encountered an Oriental game worth nothing.
Now comes a new version, with a new approach to the subject. I knew from reading the introduction by author James Wyatt that there would be both dramatic changes and stunning similiarities. I did not want to suffer another round of disappointment, but neither did I want to miss out on seeing what Wyatt did with this material. So I asked one of my friends to loan me his copy, and I spent some quality time with the book. While not my favorite capsystem supplement, it is worthy of note and consideration.
In the book's introduction, James Wyatt makes clear that this book is meant to present a comprehensive set of new options optimized for use in Eastern-styled D&D campaign. To this end, the book follows the lead of the Player's Handbook and presents its contents in a user-friendly style. There is a default that is, to a lesser degree than the Player's Handbook, assumed to be so unless the DM says otherwise. This allows those who want to make the effort to do as they like to do so in an informed manner, while others can play out of the box (as it were) without any playability issues. As with the core rulebooks of D&D's current edition--which you'll need to make use of this book, by the way--this is the wisest course that Wyatt and his fellows at Wizards of the Coast could take in developing this book.
The first change is that Kara-Tur is not featured in this book; the new featured setting is the most popular Eastern fantasy setting to date: Rokugan, from Legend of the Five Rings. In the footnote at the bottom of Page 5 is an explanation of the Five Rings logo; this is used to flag those elements that fit Rokugan and should be used if you play a D&D campaign set in Rokugan.
The second change is a few alterations to the character creation step list. There are a few new races, some alterations to existing ones and the removal of others. Ditto with classes. There are also some new feats, and a rule regarding the selection of initial feats for a few specific instances. All of these receive more detailed treatment later on in the book.
With that said, I will now go through the book chapter by chapter.
Chapter One: Races
By default an Oriental Adventures campaign does not allow elves, dwarves, half-elves, half-orcs, halflings or gnomes as either PCs or NPCs. Replacing them are a slate of new races derived from the myths and folklore of the East and Far East: hengeyokai (shapeshifters who switch between a common animal form and human form), nezumi (rat men of Rokugan), korobokuru (dwarf-like barbarians), spirit folk and vanara (ape men). Even the humans, who are still assumed to be the dominant race, are different in that they default to the clan-based society of Rokugan where a human's Prefered Class is dependant upon his clan.
With the entry on hengeyokai is a sidebar that explains the Effective Character Level system; this is the same system published in other D&D supplement such as the Manual of the Planes, so if you've seen this elsewhere you'll learn nothing new. For the rest of you, it's a better explanation of the monster PC level adjustment rules from the Dungeon Master's Guide complete with better terminology. The ECL adjustment accounts for the greater-than-normal power of this race.
The other races are on par with humans. While there are no outright replacements for those in the Player's Handbook, there are a few similiarities: korobokuru make good combatants, like dwarves; hengeyokai, like elves, make good spell-casters; nezumi make good rogues; spirit folk are similiar to half-elves; vanara are the odd ones in that they don't resemble anything from the Player's Handbook, and their favored class is a divine spell-caster. The races from the Player's Handbook do receive a brief overview, should a DM desire to incorporate them; for Rokugan, only the nezumi are available because the others do not exist.
So far, nothing too exciting for me. I am glad to see the old races from the previous edition return with better explanations; some of them are even interesting enough to see use in an Occidental campaign.
Chapter Two: Classes
There are no clerics, druids, bards, paladins or wizards in an Oriental Adventures campaign. Replacing these classes are samurai, shaman, shugenja, sohei and wu jen. Again, there is no one-for-one correspondance but there is some rough role substitution. Sohei and shaman replace paladins and clerics; wu jen and shugenja replace wizards.
With respect to Rokugan, only samurai and shugenja exist (save for the Kitsu school; they may have shaman). The other new classes are meant for those who want a more historically Japanese feel, a Chinese feel or something entirely different. (See below about Wyatt's enhancement for this book.) Those familiar with the previous edition will see that some of the old elements remain: wu jen still have taboos, while samurai still have their honor to monitor; the changes of note here are in the new Frenzy ability of the sohei class, the redesigns of the shaman (now a weak cleric) and the shugenja (in line with L5R's use of the term; they're divine sorcerers with an elemental specialization). The reasons? Besides to make it compatible with Rokugan, I can't say. Do I like them? I am utterly ambivalent, save the removal of the absurd sacred cow of monk multiclass restrictions (and some new weapons to use).
Multiclassing is rare in Rokugan, aside from some favored classes that certain clans promote. Class also reflects caste, with samurai PCs automatically considered better than their common counterparts. (Also true in Rokugan of shugenja.)
And so goes the classes...
Chapter Three: Prestige Classes
Some of these are expected. With Rokugan taking more and more of the space in the book, I'd be surprised if most of the prestige classes weren't from Rokugan. There are three monk-like classes, all of which are from Rokugan: the Henshin Mystic (much better than the L5R RPG version), the Shintao Monk and the Tattooed Monk (ditto). Others include the Battle Maiden (The old Utaku school), the Kishi Charger (Shinjo school), Shadow Scout (Hiruma), Singh Rager (Matsu School), Void Disciple (Isawa) and Witch Hunter (Kuni school). Those not necessarily of Rokugan include: Yakuza (Why not in Rokugan? You'd think that the Kolat would go for this one.), Weapon Master (It's an improved version of the Sword & Fist version), Shapeshifter, Ninja Spy, Iaijutsu Master, Eunuch Warlock, Blade Dancer and Bear Warrior.
Save for the monk classes, all of the prestige classes can work well outside of Rokugan's context. Some of them even work outside of an Oriental context, but I cannot help but to believe that those from elsewhere will receive short shrift from most who use this book; at this point, I see less that's useful in general (unlike the Player's Handbook) to an Oriental campaign and more that's just for Rokugan; that's AEG's job, not WotC's. It doesn't help that some classes are a bit off; the Void Disciple, for some reason, has 13 class levels. (Outside of Rokugani classes, the Eunuch Warlock is a wasted class as no spell-caster would dare to interrupt their spell progression for what the Warlock provides.)
I am not impressed here.
Chapter Four: Skills and Feats
The skills section is a scant two pages, much of which deals with new uses for old skills and new areas covered by skills such as Craft and Knowledge. The only new skill is Iaijutsu Focus, which is damned powerful when used correctly; it confers extra damage akin to a Sneak Attack, but only under very specific and exacting circumstances (i.e., a duel, and then only on the first draw). That works for me.
The feats section is large, with some reprints from other books, and the establishment of Ancestor feats. All human Rokugani PCs must take an Ancestor feat at first level if their PC is from one of the Great Clans; otherwise, their PC is born from either a Minor Clan or (worse) a commoner. The new item creation feats are totally Rokugani; there is no call for them outside of an L5R campaign. The other feats are hit-and-miss; with some creative renaming, the Ancestor feats are just fine in some other context and the feats related to unarmed combat are a fine and necessary addition to the nascient unarmed martial arts of Dungeons & Dragons's current edition.
There's plenty to mine here, unlike the past two chapters, and while Rokugan's still the pink elephant in the middle of the room it's not so hard to ignore.
Chapter Five: Description and Equipment
If you're looking for the Honor rules of L5R, you won't get them; the best you'll get is a descriptor guide and a sidebar on what benefits to give honorable characters. Alignment is still assumed--thank the Dice Gods--but the primary conflict is Law vs. Chaos in the form of honor, not Good vs. Evil as it is in most Occidental campaigns. This is reflected in the role of religion, which is a far cry from the use of gods and priesthoods; an animist paradigm is assumed, even when a true god or more is present and real.
The rest of the description system is the same as it is elsewhere, with the determination of age, height and weight before choosing the finishing touches (such as a name) and going to outfit your character.
Most weapons are renamed from their Occidental counterparts; aside from look and feel, they are the same. The new weapons in the book, for the most part, are truly new; the exceptions are those reprinted from the Dungeon Master's Guide: katana, wakizashi, etc. If a note is required, it's present; such is the case with the dai-kyu.
Armor is also addressed, with some new armors introduced that could well be used in Occidental campaigns as well. (The Chahar-aina and Dastana, under different names, are good examples.) These reflect the lack--compared to the West--of metal use in armor construction, so they are often light or medium armors. Finishing the equipment end of this brief chapter are some new or alternate items and the few bits of truly new equipment (such as the eggshell grenades).
So far, this is the best chapter.
Chapter Six: Martial Arts
If you remember the old book, then you probably also remember the old rules for martial arts. Toss them; the new system is easy to use and design for, as it consists of a collection of skill ranks and feats that (when acquired) confer an additional Mastery benefit. There can be multiple levels of Mastery, each confering greater benefits. This is how it ought to be in D&D: simple, easy to use, easy to design and easy to integrate because it's consistent with the rest of the rules. Of everything in Oriental Adventures, this is the section I like most and will use when I get the chance.
The rules for Iaijutsu duels and psychic duels are also simple; for the former, it's oppossed skill checks followed by strike rolls while the latter it's who blows a Will save first. Again, I like this bit and I will use it at the first opportunity.
I was wrong; this was the best chapter in the book.
Chapter Seven: Magic and Spells
It's the spell list chapter. There's not a whole lot of surprises here. Shaman get the cleric/druid-like spells and Domains. Shugenja gets School spells that work like Domains, albeit without any powers granted to them. Wu Jen spells are a lot like Chinese-flavor wizard spells, with some elemental divisions. Sohei get some paladin-like spells. There's a lot of Oriental variants on common spells, such as Protection From Taint; more than that is not necessary to describe.
It's dry reading unless you're playing a character with levels in one of these classes; I admit that I skimmed over this chapter as I am not a fan of spell-casters as such, but I will note that some of these are suitable in Occidental campaigns. The Terra Cotta spells are those I have in mind, but there are others (the Scarf spells, for example).
Chapter Eight: Magic Items
More dry reading; suffice it to say that there's some new qualities for weapons and armor (Tainted, honorable, etc.) that are too much a part of Rokugan and others that are not. Most of them are actually quite useable in Occidental games without worry of compatibility. The new specific weapons are another story, as they are all quite tied to the Orient in general or to Rokugan in particular. Outside of that, it is little more than ensuring that one need not use the Dungeon Master's Guide when rolling new treasures; the new items are not that impressive to me, even those from Rokugan.
Chapter Nine: Monsters
In this chapter, I choked on the Rokugan-specific information. Many of the monsters are Rokugani, most of the notes for creatures from the Monster Manual are so specific, and the reason for this is due to the need for rules regarding the Shadowlands and its Taint. (The Taint comes in a later chapter.) While there are some representative monsters from other sources, which did include all of the new dragons (as they are Chinese), the best one is the Hopping Vampire- which is not Rokugani in the least. As a long-time fan of Chinese action films, I appreciate this entry above the rest.
Chapter Ten: Campaign Design
Some chapter; six pages doesn't cut it, even if you do include the default cosmology of the Spirit World. The sample maps are nice, the ECLs of the common monsters are neat, the alternate names for the classes and gear are appreciated and so are the bits on recasting Rokugan using the standard races (which, BTW, goes a long way towards explaining the absurdity of Rokugan). What it's not is a chapter on building an Oriental campaign. Issues of what culture to emulate, how to do it and to what degree must be addressed; the charts and pictures gloss over this, which is quite disappointing. What's here is a good start, but nowhere near enough; something near to what's in the Dungeon Master's Guide would be better.
Chapter Eleven: The Empire of Rokugan
Here's the rest of what you need to know to play D20 L5R. History? It's here in sufficient quantity, as is the geography and the rest of Rokugan's known prestige classes (schools). The setting is just after the death of Toturi I, which is near the current CCG storyline, so you can rope in those CCG players if you want to try.
*ahem*
I have issues with Rokugan, issues which I will not address here. I will go so far in this review as to state that I find it rather absurd as it snaps my disbelief suspenders in several places, from small details to rather large and important ones. With that said, I now state that my complaints with Rokugan as they pertain to this book is not that Rokugan is here or that it's silly and absurd. I agree that using Rokugan is the best option. My problem is that, after drowning the rest of the book with all sorts of various and sundry references to what is and is not in Rokugan, there's actually a seperate chapter devoted to it?
Excuse me, for I must attempt to kill myself by poking myself in the head with my index finger; if that sounds stupid and pointless, then so does setting aside a chapter for the purpose of exhibiting the D20 conversion of the best-selling Oriental fantasy adventure setting when the reader's already choked to death on it up to this point (and he's not done yet).
All of those L5R references in the preceeding and following chapters? They should've gone here, in one big ol' chapter that goes into the hows and whys and wherefores of Rokugan as if the old boys from the early days were actually design L5R as a D&D campaign. Why shugenja instead of wizards? Why samurai instead of paladins? All that and so much more should've been confined to this chapter, not spread across the book. Yes, the chapter would've been big; that's the damned idea! Keep the example setting together, where the reader can example it as a sample from which he may use as it is or take inspiration to make his own.
And that ends my big complaint. Let's finish this.
Chapter Twelve: The Shadowlands
Aside from the fact that this should've been rolled with the previous chapter (or left out entirely so AEG could do it), what's notable here is that this chapter is all about the Taint and how to make use of it. We've got your maho-tsukai, maho-bujin (prestige classes, both), akutsukai and akutenshi (templates). We've got your mahoi spell list and a few additional spell descriptions. Thankfully, that's all that there is; it's a brief final chapter.
The Rest
The first appendix is for spells, in alphabetical order. The second is a monster index, ranked by type, subtype and Challenge Rating. The third is a pronunciation guide for all of the terms used in the book; there are definiations as well. The index is, well, sufficiently useful for my purposes.
The End
There's far too much Rokugan information in all of the wrong places for my preferences, but I agree that Rokugan was the right choice for the featured setting. The actual rules information was well worth my time in reading, and I did enjoy certain subsystems immensely. For all of my problems with Rokugan--both as a setting and as it was presented--I did enjoy the book. The artwork was competant and I did not hurt my eyes reading what I saw.
About that web enhancement: Wyatt's campaign is an Indian recasting of L5R, in effect, and is a far better example of campaign building than anything exhibited in the book proper. I wish that it was in the book; it would've gone a long way towards improving my opinion of it.
For the L5R fans, it's well worth the cash. For the rest, I say wait until you either really need it or you can get it cheap or free (say, as a gift). It's meaty and stylish, but the utility is hampered by the omnipresence of Rokugan.
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