Oriental Adventures

[grover]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

I'm not a huge "Oriental" expert or fan, but have liked the books in both
1st and 3rd editions. Lately I've been digging deeper into it as I'm
wanting to include more of it into my next campaign. I've picked up the
Legend of the Five Rings novels, which are decent storylines with mediocre
writing, but are good for increasing my understanding of an oriental
campaign.

What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA book is no
longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to find any
information (more so than usual) and there is not much there. There are few
modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this board.

Just curious.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

grover wrote:

> What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA book
is no
> longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to find
any
> information (more so than usual) and there is not much there. There
are few
> modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this
board.

I have nothing to back this up with, but my theory is that broad-based
books tend to sell better than niche books. Hardcovers like the
"Complete Splat" series combine feats, spells, and PrCs from a variety
of settings or themes all in one spot, so you can pick and choose as
you will. In a similar vein, books like "Frostburn" (and presumably,
"Sandstorm") provide material around a specific type of terrain/climate
rather than setting. You can have arctic regions in just about any
campaign world, you see.

However, when it comes to things like OA, DMs/players fall into one of
three categories: they're into OA completely, they couldn't care less,
or they just want to use a few bits here and there. Most D&D players
probably fall into the latter two categories, so spreading the OA stuff
out into broader-focused books makes more sense.

So, we see the phasing out of setting-specific books like OA and
instead see the classes and materials presented therein transferred to
broad-based books, where Wu Jen rub elbows with Red Wizards of Thay,
and so forth. Of course, some settings like FR, Dragonlance, and now
Eberron are packaged under their own headers, because (again,
presumably), there's a large audience for them.

I think this approach might serve WotC better, since many DMs (if not
most) probably use their homebrew settings exclusively anyway, so it
works much better to pick and choose what they want out of a buffet
rather than having to buy the whole OA book just so they can have rules
for ninjas.

--
Jay Knioum
The Mad Afro

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

vince garcia wrote:
> grover wrote:
> >
> > I'm not a huge "Oriental" expert or fan, but have liked the books
in both
> > 1st and 3rd editions. Lately I've been digging deeper into it as
I'm
> > wanting to include more of it into my next campaign. I've picked
up the
> > Legend of the Five Rings novels, which are decent storylines with
mediocre
> > writing, but are good for increasing my understanding of an
oriental
> > campaign.
> >
> > What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA
book is no
> > longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to
find any
> > information (more so than usual) and there is not much there.
There are few
> > modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this
board.
> >
> > Just curious.
>
> It wasn't written all that well from a standpoint of game mechanics.
> Characters were way too powerful compared to standard AD&D PCs, so it
> wouldn't integrate w/regular AD&D too well. The way martial arts were
> handled also didn't show a great deal of creativity and could have
been
> done better.
>
> So all in all, you had a lot of good things in the package, but it
was
> out of balalnce with the rest of the AD&D material that was extant at
> that time.
>
> So its popularity just wasn't there with DMs and it kinda just
> languished--especially when the DM had to try and integrate oriental
> modules into the Westerm milieu he was probably locked into

That's seems odd to me, as a lot of the feats, and some of the classes
have been incorperated into various of the complete books, especially
the "worst offenders". Franky it seems much more mild than the Book of
Exaulted Deeds.

- Justisaur

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

grover wrote:
>
> I'm not a huge "Oriental" expert or fan, but have liked the books in both
> 1st and 3rd editions. Lately I've been digging deeper into it as I'm
> wanting to include more of it into my next campaign. I've picked up the
> Legend of the Five Rings novels, which are decent storylines with mediocre
> writing, but are good for increasing my understanding of an oriental
> campaign.
>
> What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA book is no
> longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to find any
> information (more so than usual) and there is not much there. There are few
> modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this board.
>
> Just curious.

It wasn't written all that well from a standpoint of game mechanics.
Characters were way too powerful compared to standard AD&D PCs, so it
wouldn't integrate w/regular AD&D too well. The way martial arts were
handled also didn't show a great deal of creativity and could have been
done better.

So all in all, you had a lot of good things in the package, but it was
out of balalnce with the rest of the AD&D material that was extant at
that time.

So its popularity just wasn't there with DMs and it kinda just
languished--especially when the DM had to try and integrate oriental
modules into the Westerm milieu he was probably locked into

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

grover wrote:

> I'm not a huge "Oriental" expert or fan, but have liked the books in both
> 1st and 3rd editions. Lately I've been digging deeper into it as I'm
> wanting to include more of it into my next campaign. I've picked up the
> Legend of the Five Rings novels, which are decent storylines with mediocre
> writing, but are good for increasing my understanding of an oriental
> campaign.
>
> What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA book is no
> longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to find any
> information (more so than usual) and there is not much there. There are few
> modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this board.

I'm told by folks whose opinion I respect that for Oriental
Adventures, Legend of the Five Rings from Alderac Entertainment
Group is the best RPG hands down, For detail, storyline,
expandilbility, ease-of-play, etc.

I haven't looked at LoFR myself, mainly on account haven't had
time to get involved in an Oriental RPG. A full-time job, a
part-time job, a wife and two children ages 2 & 4 see to it that I
have to fight for the time just to GM one regular Eberron game,
and a bi-weekly Star Wars game. Still manage to get in some other
game development and a bit of artwork as well, but that is spotty
at best these days.

To date, my personal favorite oriental adventures RPG remains
Bushido: The Heroes of Nippon, published by Phoenix Games in 1980.
Bushido has an extremely lethal combat system, and a point based
magic system. With some success it accurately models the Code of
Honor used by the samurai, and is fun to play in that how you die
when you die can be more important than how you live, plus you can
really insult other players in game. Too bad this game wasn't
expanded with additional sourcebooks for China, The South Pacific,
Southeast Asia, and India, as it would have been awesome! This
game holds an honored place in the tiny computer bookshelf at my desk.

Re,
Dirk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Time to step up the meds; I could have sworn Justisaur just said...
>
> vince garcia wrote:
> > grover wrote:
> > >
> > > I'm not a huge "Oriental" expert or fan, but have liked the books
> in both
> > > 1st and 3rd editions. Lately I've been digging deeper into it as
> I'm
> > > wanting to include more of it into my next campaign. I've picked
> up the
> > > Legend of the Five Rings novels, which are decent storylines with
> mediocre
> > > writing, but are good for increasing my understanding of an
> oriental
> > > campaign.
> > >
> > > What I'm wondering is this--Why is it not very popular? The OA
> book is no
> > > longer being printed. The WotC website makes it a challenge to
> find any
> > > information (more so than usual) and there is not much there.
> There are few
> > > modules by them or anybody else. It is rarely mentioned on this
> board.
> > >
> > > Just curious.
> >
> > It wasn't written all that well from a standpoint of game mechanics.
> > Characters were way too powerful compared to standard AD&D PCs, so it
> > wouldn't integrate w/regular AD&D too well. The way martial arts were
> > handled also didn't show a great deal of creativity and could have
> been
> > done better.
> >
> > So all in all, you had a lot of good things in the package, but it
> was
> > out of balalnce with the rest of the AD&D material that was extant at
> > that time.
> >
> > So its popularity just wasn't there with DMs and it kinda just
> > languished--especially when the DM had to try and integrate oriental
> > modules into the Westerm milieu he was probably locked into
>
> That's seems odd to me, as a lot of the feats, and some of the classes
> have been incorperated into various of the complete books, especially
> the "worst offenders". Franky it seems much more mild than the Book of
> Exaulted Deeds.

He's referring to AD&D and Oriental modules, and you're talking about
feats. Hmm, geez, think you might be referring to different editions?

Also, if you include AEG's Rokugan stuff, it *does* have the power
escalation problem, at least to my eye.