Rokugan d20 Review

 

It seems that a lot of people from China are viewing my blog, based on my blog's statistics. Although, I'm no Communist -- and I'm not for dictatorships either -- it seems that I am at least ready to review the Rokugan Campaign Setting for the d20 system.  Produced by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2001, it was written by Rich Wulf, Shawn Carman, and Seth Mason.  This is a beautiful book, lavishly illustrated like the Oriental Adventures book for third edition.  I'm reviewing a PDF copy of this book, and I do own the hardcover.

 The first thing to remember is that Rokugan isn't Japan.  It's a high fantasy land based on the culture of Sengoku era Japan and Miyamoto Mushashi's Book of the Five Rings.  There are some Chinese elements in Rokugan, but it's not China either.  Like I said, it's a High Fantasy land that borrowed a lot from Japan and some from China.  I love this book, Rokugan -- next to Greyhawk -- is a place where I would set an ongoing game.  Also, I did another review of this book on RPG.net. 

So, lets go for it.

The Introduction

The introduction of Rokugan goes on to explain  to players of the d20 system all about Rokugan, the Five Rings, and explains to players that they take on the roles of noble Samurai, mysterious Shugenja, enlightened monks, shadowy ninja, and finally wily courtiers.  Whole games can revolve around one or more of these elements. 

Next, it explains how one can use this book with Oriental Adventures. Since this book, Rokugan, expands on the information explained in Oriental Adventures.  Finally, it does explain why Rokugan is based on Miyamoto's Book of the Five Rings.  The roleplaying opportunities are endless.

Character

 This section goes over the Great Clans of Rokugan, their families, and favored classes for each major family.  Like for instance, the Doji of the Crane Clan make good Courtiers.  While the Isawa family make good Shugenja.  And the Shoshuro family produce good ninja, or so they say. After this, they talk about the minor clans and their schools, along with the Naga (an Indian aspect), and the Nezumi (Rokugan's take on ratfolk).

After this part on creating your character, the various character classes from the 3rd Edition Player's Handbook are talked about.  Along with two classes from Oriental Adventures (3rd Edition).  The Samurai and the Shugenja.  After that, the monk, ninja, and courtier classes are discussed.  

After all this, the Feats are discussed.  And yes, there are a lot of Feats here that are talked about.  Each great clan gets their own feats.  From Kakita's Techique, to Way of the Crab, to Akodo's Technique, to Way of the Unicorn.  All are included.  Especially one of note is Void Use.  This feat, which you can take instead of a Ancestor Feat, grants you two points of void.  Which of course you can use to modify your die rolls.

 After the feats, you get a discussion on Rokugani equipment.  Including new weapons, and old weapons that are expanded upon, new armor types, and other considerations.  After that, Religion in the Emerald Empire is discussed.  After that, Honor is discussed, along with the alignments of the d20 system -- and how they work together.  Like for instance, if someone is Lawful Good, he's considered to have an honor rank of 5.

After that, some prestige classes are introduced.  Although none of these are needed, some are recorded.  As prestige classes are meant for NPCs originally, players would take them.

Magic

 Magic in D&D is supposed to be presented as mysterious. For Rokugan, this is no different.  There are more Samurai than Shugenja in Rokugan. Magic revolves around the Kami, the great kami as well as the lesser and minor kami.  A shugenja learns to importune the kami to produce magical effects.  This can be from a simple sleep spell to a magnificent void spell worked by the mysterious Ishiken of the Isawa family.

Each clan has their own special magical technique.  The Crane works on Tsanguri, or magic items -- for example.  The Unicorn shugenja work with meishodo.  Finally, the Isawa family of the Phoenix teach the Ishiken-do -- or magic of the void.  There are four other examples of magic of the great clans.  Other aspects of magic are also discussed.  After that, there are some new spells for Shugenja to select, learn, and cast. 

Life in Rokugan

This chapter goes over adventures in Rokugan.  It discusses what a Samurai might be and how to act.  Also, the chapter goes over Rokugan itself, and how a party of disparate Samurai and Shugenja (and possibly ninja) might operate.

The culture and layout of Rokugan are discussed.  Along with how campaigns operate in the Emerald Empire.  Also, magic and magic items, how they are viewed -- are discussed.  Also, social hierarchy is discussed.  A lot of Rokugani culture is discussed in this book. This is the most important chapter in the whole book.  If you want to role play your Samurai as authentically as you can, you must read this section.

Geography

The Geography of Rokugan is discussed in this chapter.  This is the geography of the Emerald Empire, as of the Four Winds saga. Important details of each Clan's holdings are discussed in some detail.  Along with writeups for certain NPCs as of the Four Winds saga.

Cosmology 

This chapter teaches the cosmology as seen by the Rokugani.  There are several realms, including the mortal one, that are discussed.  These realms are discussed more simply in the Fortunes and Winds supplement (to be reviewed later).  Also, the worship of the Fortunes and who they are is presented.  There are seven major Fortunes, and thousands of lesser ones. Then Rokugan's mythology is presented.  Including the creation of the world as the Rokugani understand it.

History

The history of Rokugan is presented.  Nearly complete and up to the Four Winds saga.  It's enough to fill a Rokugani DM with adventure seeds and beginnings of a good campaign.  After that, a few appendixes discuss magic items, magical creatures, and finally an index.

Hits

 The colorful aspect of the book is definitely a hit.  There are colorful illustrations throughout the book. Including pictures of Shugenja, Samurai, and even a Ninja.  The writing is concise and well edited.  DJ Trindle, the editor, did a good job of editing the book for press.  The writing is top notch, definitely different than what you get in a modern D&D book (modern D&D books are atrocious in writing, editing, and illustration).  There is more, the layout is in two columns, and uses a ten point font.

 Misses 

 There is little that's missed in this book. The metaplot of the Legend of the Five Rings card game at the time -- used as a backdrop for the campaign -- is definitely a miss.  This book is for players and DMs to get into the setting of Rokugan, and the Metaplot does restrict some aspects.  Is it something I'd change: probably.  I would have started the plot during the Pre-Scorpion Clan Coup saga, as that is the most popular era setting for L5R rpgs.  Including the fifth edition of the L5R RPG.

 The Future

Again, the future looks uncertain.  It seems that Asmodee might keep the L5R property. However, they aren't expecting that someone might come to them and buy Legend of the Five Rings from them.  Fantasy Flight bought L5R from Alderac Entertainment Group in 2017, then Asmodee bought them. However, Legend of the Five Rings is a good property, one I wanted to purchase from Wizards of the Coast when they put it up for sale.  Looks like I'll have to buy it from Asmodee.  Oh well, cheers!

Dragonlance Adventures Review

 Here we come to Dragonlance, the High Fantasy world created by Tracy Hickman for TSR.  Today, I'll be reviewing the Dragonlance Adventures book for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition.  Dragonlance is a world of war shaped by love.  At least I'm paraphrasing what Dragonlance is about. The setting of Dragonlance is the world of Krynn.  A world smaller than our Earth.  Although I wish it could have been bigger.  Dragonlance Adventures was originally written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis.  It was published in 1987 by TSR, inc.  I borrowed the book from a friend, fell in love with the setting.  Now years later, I bought my own copy of the game world (I'll be working on a review of the DLCS (3.5e) later).

 Dragonlance began as a series of modules, starting with  Dragons of Despair and ending with Dragons of Triumph.  That was forty years ago. 

 What it contains 

Dragonlance  the book is separated into chapters. The first part of it deals with the Universe of Dragonlance as the people of Ansalon see it. The dragonlance world is on three philosophic pillars: Good, Evil, and Neutrality.  There are three philosophies of these pillars are: Good Redeems its Own, or the law of Paladine, the supreme Lawful Good god; Evil Feeds Upon Itself, or the law of Takhisis the Dark Queen; and Both Good and Evil Must Exist in Contrast, which is the law of Gilean, the supreme Neutral God.  A fourth law exists that is important: The Law of Consequence: which was given by the High God himself.  A proper Dragonlance campaign is built around these four laws.  Promoting the power of truth over injustice, good over evil, and granting good consequences for good acts, and bad consequences for evil acts.

The next section talks about one's lot in life. There are three new classes in Dragonlance that are discussed: the holy orders of the stars, the knights of Solamnia, and the Wizards of High Sorcery.  A member of the Holy Orders of the Stars worship one of the eighteen true gods of Krynn. Which are manifested as constellations in the sky.  The knights of Solamnia is an order of knights dedicated to Paladine, Kiri-Jolith, and habakuk.  The Wizards of High Sorcery gain their power from one of the three moons that orbit Krynn.

Besides the dragons, which are divided into good and evil dragons; there are three races of Krynn created by the Gods to represent an ideal.  The first of these are the Elves, which are created by the good gods of Krynn.  For them, they can choose good or evil, but mostly choose good.  Ogres, which used to be the most beautiful of all the races, were created by the evil gods of krynn.  They allowed their abuse of power to warp their minds and bodies.  The last of the races to be created where the humans, created by the gods of neutrality.  They were given the right of free agency, to choose good or evil themselves.  After these races came all the others.  Gnomes, goblins, hobgoblins, dwarves, kender, and so on.  Some of these came about because of the Greygem of Gargath.  Others are offshoots of the original races. The draconians, however, are a perversion of Good dragons.  Although late in the War of the Lance, the ritual that created the evil draconians was performed on evil dragon eggs, creating good draconians instead.

  

As we continue with going into Dragonlance Adventures, one learns that alignment has a definite effect on what is available.  A Wizard of High Sorcery, for instance, has his or her spells chosen from different schools based on his or her alignment.  A White Robe is limited to certain spells which are considered good.  A Black Robed wizard is also limited to certain spells which are considered to be evil.  A Red Robed wizard has the greatest amount of spells to choose from.  Alignment is also tracked in the game based on the players' choices.  In one dragonlance game I was in, I played Raistlin and he eventually became a good guy in the game.

The new classes are eventually discussed after races.  Each new class is renumerated.  Beginning with the Knights of Solamnia. There are three orders of knights, beginning with the Knights of the Crown, then the Knights of the Sword, and finally the Knights of the Rose.  The knights of Solamnia are three orders of knights for good on Ansalon.

The Tinker gnomes come next.  Most, if not all, Gnomes are tinkers.  They constantly love to make new contraptions.  Their technology rivals that of Victorian England; and they have never seem to advance higher.  Their contraptions also prevent the other nations of Ansalon from developing technologically past the Steel age.

After that is my favorite class on Krynn, the Wizards of High Sorcery.  Basically they are magic users, but they draw their powers from the three moons of Krynn.  The Orders of High Sorcery are also divided into three: the White Robes of Solinari, the Red Robes of Lunitari, and the Black Robes of Nuitari.  Those wizards that wear the white tend to be good, those that wear red tend to be neutral, and those that wear black make wickedly evil choices.  Of course, the Wizards of High Sorcery may choose their order, and the color of their robes, after taking the Test. After that, a few new spells are described according to the D&D game.

 After that, the Holy Orders of the Stars are discussed.  There are three orders of clerics on Ansalon.  There are the good clerics, which represent the gods of Good.  Then there are the neutral clerics, which represent the gods of Neutrality.  And finally the evil clerics, which represent the gods of Evil.  Each draw their magic from these gods of their order.

 Next, the races are given statistics.  But the races' origins are explained in this section of the book.  I have already mentioned their origins before in detail.  But there are some differences that should be noted. 

 

If the Elves were united on Krynn in the past, in the present day they are divided. The elves are divided into the Silvanesti elves (high elves), the Qualinesti (wood elves), the Kagonesti (the wild elves), and the Dargonesti and Dimernesti (or sea elves).  All of them are created to be good, by the Good gods.  However, they have been divided and not united as one race.  Which is a shame, really.  However, they are one of the few races that can go up to the Towers of High Sorcery and learn magic.

The dwarves come after the elves.  The dwarves are divided into a number of clans. But for game purposes, the dwarves are divided into Hill Dwarves, Mountain Dwarves, and Gully Dwarves.  There are evil dwarves, but they aren't included in Dragonlance Adventures as a race you can choose to play.  After this, comes the Ogres as player characters.  The ogres are divided into Irda and Minotaurs as playable races.

Character skills are discussed as a final on the Character chapter. After that we get into the unique Creatures of Ansalon.  The first of these creatures are the draconians.  Starting with the spell wielding Auraks, then the Baaz, and the rest.  Each of them a perversion of Good dragon eggs. After that, we get AD&D stats of the other creatures of Krynn.  Of course, most of these new creatures are described in more detail in later products.  Of important note are the dragons. Each of the dragons of Krynn are noted, and each are power incarnate.  After that, two of the Gods are described as dragons, Takhisis and Paladine.

 Ah, so much material packed.  We go on to the world that was.  This chapter describes the world of Krynn in the past.  There is even a map provided as Ansalon as it was during the Age of Might.  This chapter goes into detail about Huma, Magius, and Fistandantilus. It also talks about Astinus (who looks like Gilean for some reason).  After that comes a section of magical items in Krynn.  Included are potions, scrolls, medallions of faith, and other items.

Then comes the chapter on the War of the Lance. Here, the heroes of the lance are described, and along with the world of the Dragonlance Saga.  While these characters are also introduced in the Dragonlance modules (and yes, I bought them from Drivethru), their older and more powerful versions are given here.  Also given is a map of the continent of Ansalon during the War of the Lance.  After that are appendices given of what AD&D monsters are in Ansalon, a race chart, a character alignment tracking chart, and other important tables and charts.

In Conclusion

In one hundred twenty-eight pages we get the whole lands of Krynn and everything you need to run a game for AD&D.  And both Tracy and Margaret has packed a lot of information about the world of Krynn and how to run it for the AD&D game.  However, the material in this book is, rather, dated.  Of course, the DM's Guild supports the world of Krynn for D&D 5th Edition.  And people have been putting out works for Dragonlance for D&D 5th.  However, with the new direction Wizards has going for 5th Edition onwards, Dragonlance seems dated and packaged for a different audience.

So, what about Dragonlance in the future?  Well the future is uncertain.  It really seems that Wizards isn't taking care of their brands very well.  They are probably changing them for their new vision of D&D.  One thing is for sure, Dragonlance classics, as this book, are available on Drivethru for print and digital.  I suggest buying a copy of both.   After all, Wizards won't change the old books (including the DLCS, which will be reviewed later.)

Oriental Adventures (1e) Review

 Oriental Adventures, for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1e) is one of the best books for AD&D.  I wanted this book since it came out, and I managed to lay my hands on a copy during the late nineties.  My copy shows it's age, but it's my favorite AD&D book.  For it talks about the Orient in a gaming context.  It was because of this book that I wanted to learn all I can about culture in Japan, and it's the main reason why I picked up the Sengoku RPG in the early 2000's.  Oriental Adventures is credited to Gary Gygax, but David "Zeb"Cook did the writing.  It was this book that helped inspire the game Legend of the Five Rings. Without this book coming in the market during 1985, I don't think Legend of the Five Rings would have been possible.  This book is available on Drivethru.

Overview

by Hokusai

The book, Oriental Adventures (OA) allows several players to create characters in an Oriental context.  You first generate your scores, then you choose your race, and then your class.  It introduces some new races including:

• Korobokuru: an oriental dwarf.
• Hengeyokai: shape changing animals who can take human form, of which there are several types.
  
• Spirit Folk: the oriental equivalent of elves, of which there are three kinds.
   

The book also introduces a few classes.  Including the Samurai, which is a type of the Cavalier; the Shukenja, an Oriental Cleric; Sohei, a type of monk; Kensai, a person devoted to perfection of their weapon.  Bushi, a fighter variant in oriental worlds; Barbarian, a foriegner taught in the ways of weapons; Wu Jen, a magic user based on Chinese mythology; Monk, a martial artist class; Ninja, a class for spies and assassins; and Yakuza, a class for organized crime.

Of the new classes, the Samurai and Ninja was what was shown on the cover.  Plus, the whole book is nuanced for Japanese culture except for the wu jen, which was from Chinese mythology.  The idea of the book was for AD&D players could explore the realms of the Orient in their worlds.  The book includes caste and family rules, along with rules for honor, and money and equipment.  Weapons are talked about, including proficiencies -- which are skills.

After that, the spells are discussed.  Starting with shukenja spells -- which are divine spells.  And then wu jen spells, which are arcane spells. After that, they discuss combat rules and martial arts.  Then they discuss a number of monsters that exist in the orient.  Then Kara-Tur, a setting for  Oriental Adventures, is introduced.

By Yoshitoshi

 

Hits

This book was a revolution for AD&D.  It expanded the realms of AD&D from the Occidental to the Oriental.  The mysteries of the East was revealed for fantasy roleplaying and players could visit the East.  Although the book was designed with Japanese culture in mind, especially the Warring States Period (Sengoku) of Japan, the book has a few Chinese influences.  A first for the Roleplaying games, eventually after this book is published, Steve Jackson Games would come out with GURPS China,  and GURPS Japan, both of which would have Sengoku by Gold Rush Games following in their footsteps.  As for Legend of the Five Rings, which is now owned by Fantasy Flight Games -- I think OA inspired the legends of Rokugan in the first place.  OA was a revolutionary book in that it would inspire books that came after it.

Misses

I wasn't too impressed with the Martial Arts rules in the book.  This is because I'm a martial artist myself and I felt that the book didn't capture the martial arts.  I felt more could have been done with the Martial Arts rules in the book.  Especially with designing your own martial arts (which was followed in The Complete Ninja Handbook).  Also, I felt that Chinese mythology could have been represented more in the book.  Although all the monsters came from several oriental sources, the book is certainly lacking in several aspects.

Conclusion

Several of the classes could have been worked on more.  The Ninja class, for instance, didn't work until you had a disguise (multi-classed).  The Samurai class was good, but they could have done more with it.  Of course, when Oriental Adventures came out for 3rd edition, we would see an update to the original OA in several respects.  Done for the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons, we would see a better treatment for Oriental Adventures as well as a new setting: Rokugan.