Oriental Adventures - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

The original Oriental Adventures (ISBN 0-88038-099-3) was written by Gary Gygax, David "Zeb" Cook, and François Marcela-Froideval, and published in 1985 by TSR, Inc. as a 144-page hardcover for use with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) 1st edition rules. The book was edited by Steve Winter, Mike Breault, Anne Gray, and Thad Russell. The book's cover art was by Jeff Easley, with interior illustrations by Roger Raupp, James Holloway, Easley, and Dave Sutherland.

The book provides rules for ten character classes and three races to be used in place of standard AD&D classes and races. The book presents new versions of the barbarian (here a steppe warrior or forest and jungle dweller) and monk, as well as new classes such as the ninja, kensai, wu-jen, and shukenja.

Kensai "seek to perfect their weapons technique to the exclusion of all else. They are deadly in combat, but cannot use magical weaponry because it detracts from the appreciation of their skill". Wu-jen are magic-users who must obey their personal taboos to avoid losing all spell powers, and shukenja are clerics that become penalized if they kill enemies too freely. A ninja character must take one of the other classes as well as the ninja class, as in keeping with their secret nature, ninja use their normal class as a cover identity; a ninja must be careful to keep his identity secret, as loss of honor (and sudden death) may occur if the PC is unmasked. The other classes introduced in the book are the sohei, the bushi (peasant warriors), the samurai, and the yakuza. The three new character races are the korobokuru (equivalent to dwarves, without the bad temper and greediness), the hengeyokai (intelligent animals who can shape-change into human form), and the spirit folk (humanoids whose life force is tied to a particular location). The book draws on the history of China, Korea, and Japan, and covers information on families, clans, caste, and honor.

The original Oriental Adventures introduced two major innovations to the AD&D system. Although previous TSR publications (such as Deities & Demigods) had touched on using non-European settings for the game, Oriental Adventures was the first official supplement entirely devoted to roleplaying in a non-Western setting. Oriental Adventures also introduced a new game mechanic to Dungeons & Dragons; it was the first official supplement to include rules for non-weapon proficiencies. Every character is expected to possess proficiencies in the noncombat arts, and include skills such as calligraphy, etiquette, animal handling, iaijutsu (fast draw), and bowyer. Both non-weapon proficiencies and non-European settings were explored in more detail in 2nd edition AD&D rules.

The book included an honor system, in which honor points are lost when a character fails to behave in a correct fashion or uphold the family name; eventually the character sheet is simply thrown away, if such behavior continues. Personal honor is also reflected in the honor a character's family. The character's family background is also determined by a system which generates a character's immediate family and ancestors, which determines family honor and status, and also provides characters with their birthrights.

The book includes detailed rules for karate and other martial arts styles, and allows the Dungeon Master to construct new martial arts styles and techniques by choosing from a range of menu options. All characters may study martial arts, providing they can find masters to teach them, although monks and shukenja start their adventuring lives with some martial arts training. Each character classes also has its own unique ki powers, which become more effective as characters increase in levels.

The original Oriental Adventures includes a long background section on the fantasy setting known as Kara-Tur. Kara-Tur was later made a continent of Abeir-Toril. TSR went on to produce eight adventure modules using the Oriental Adventures rules and the Kara-Tur setting.

Gary Gygax intended to incorporate the material from Oriental Adventures into revised versions of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide, but left TSR shortly after announcing the project. Oriental Adventures was TSR's biggest seller in 1985. Little if any material from Oriental Adventures was incorporated into the AD&D 2nd Edition core books, and Oriental Adventures itself was never revised for the 2nd Edition.