Orietnal Adventures

[Deth Muncher]

Right, so I picked this up the other day, looking through it for character ideas. I soon, realized, that many of the things in that book pertain...well, only to Oriental Adventures. Silly me for thinking otherwise. The question here is, though, is there ANYTHING in there which could be applied to other campaigns? As in, non-Oriental?

[UserClone]

Well, the races, for one thing, are pretty easy to use in pretty much anything. If you wanted to, you could finagle the fluff of the OA samurai a bit to be a sort of Knight errant beholden to a lord who prays to his ancestor knights. Use your imagination, and you can use pretty much anything from any book, in any campaign, provided the DM is cool with it.

[EvilElitest]

I was able to use everything but the honor system actually. Even then if you make just one country in your world oriental that could work to.

My question is why we don't have any more Middle Eastern games
from
EE

[Rutee]

If I recall correctly, the Shugenja was made according to western elemental assumptions (Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water), so it should be easy to port to any other setting. You could in fact just call them Elementalists, and replace the stock divine focus with something different.

[Aquillion]

My question is why we don't have any more Middle Eastern games

There was Al-Qadim, at one point. Why was it cancelled?

[EvilElitest]

There was Al-Qadim, at one point. Why was it cancelled?

I own it, i think it had great potienal . Most likely it was too much effort but it was a very cool game
form
EE

[Peregrinus]

If I recall correctly, the Shugenja was made according to western elemental assumptions (Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water), so it should be easy to port to any other setting. You could in fact just call them Elementalists, and replace the stock divine focus with something different.

Actually, Shugenja are based on the traditional Japanese elements, which are Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Void. The Void element is represented in a couple of their specific schools, and the Void Disciple later in both OA and Complete Divine. That being said, calling them Elementalists and filing off the serial numbers might work, but in that case you may need to declare them Arcane spellcasters rather than divine spellcasters.

OA is quite usable outside of an OA setting, many of the weapons that are not already reskins could be used (War fans, for instance), some of the magic items make sense outside of the setting (and in fact have made it out in other supplements, just by other names.)

[Tsotha-lanti]

Everything.

The Samurai class can be altered by changing the weapons they get. Why couldn't a Western / completely-without-real-world-parallel culture pass longswords or sets of rapier and dagger down through the generations, gathering magical power from their use in honorable combat or dire deeds?

The Iaijutsu Master class could be adapted for any dueling tradition where combatants begin with their weapons sheathed, and a single blow is supposed to end combat.

The Maho-Tsukai and the corrupt warrior are easy to use in other contexts - in fact, I'd say both could be used to represent Tamrielic Ash Vampires from Morrowind. (The parallels between the Shadowlands of Rokugan and Dagoth Ur's realm in Morrowind are pretty thick on the ground, too.)

Really, just by changing the name, the fluff, and details like what weapon is used, you can adapt everything for anything.


And yeah, I'd like to see Al Qadim back. Wasn't it located on Toril (i.e. Forgotten Realms), south of Faerûn?

[Fenix_of_Doom]

Actually, Shugenja are based on the traditional Japanese elements, which are Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Void. The Void element is represented in a couple of their specific schools, and the Void Disciple later in both OA and Complete Divine. That being said, calling them Elementalists and filing off the serial numbers might work, but in that case you may need to declare them Arcane spellcasters rather than divine spellcasters.

No you don't, you could say they worship the elements just like druids worship nature, it does break the elementalist stereotype, but who cares about stereotypes anyway?

[EvilElitest]

And yeah, I'd like to see Al Qadim back. Wasn't it located on Toril (i.e. Forgotten Realms), south of Faerûn?

South east i believe. It was a very well done setting, i liked the whole Arabian knights feel
from
EE