Whatever happened to Oriental Adventures?

Let me contextualize this question by stating the obvious: namely that I have been away from D&D for a long, long time and just returned.  When I did play, I always thought that the Oriental Adventures were kinda cool.  I mean, who doesn't want to be a samurai?  But, I understand now that the sun has set on the orient in that that rule system is no longer current.  

So what happened?  

Certainly, "oriental" is a much more problematic term than it was decades ago as the high wizard Edward Said has sensitized us to.  Or there might be other reasons why the line was dropped.  Perhaps not enough folks wanted to be samurai?

This long time fan of the samurai, and of East Asian history, wants to know and would appreciate responses here or as PMs.  

Thanks!

The Samurai is a Fighter subclass available in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.

As far as the setting of Kara-Tur, it has yet to be updated to 5e.

There is no official 5e setting but the Forgotten Realms wiki has tons of information about the setting you could use to add it to a game.

And, as Golaryn said, the Samurai subclass if available.

One of the wonderful things about 5e is that it adapts so well to any setting you decide to put it in.  If you want a campaign themed with Asian influences, you can do it quite easily!

Thanks for the replies.  

My question extends beyond the samurai though to the greater rubric of "oriental" adventures and why that line was not continued.  

Any further thoughts anyone?

You could ask the same about Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, etc. One thing you'll notice is that 5e is set up with minimal books compared to how it used to be. They wanted to streamline it. It's just recently that Eberron was updated. It's one of the only other worlds/areas from old editions so far. (And even then, it's not even "old", as I think it came out in 3e) Ravnica and Wildemount aren't updates so much as new worlds, same with the upcoming book. As has been said above, 5e is very easy to adapt to, so if you have any sourcebooks or adventures you can pretty much run it the same but with 5e rules changes. Looks like they're more inclined to adding "new" content vs just updating old sourcebooks. 

I don't think there is any mysterious reason.  Until fairly  recently, there hadn't been any Settings other than the Sword Coast that had any kind of published source book.  I think it is only a matter of time till we see areas such Kara-Tur and Al'Qadim updated.

I've dipped in to elements from that part of Faerun for my campaign that began in Telflamm. It is interesting, though there is no where near as much detail to Kara-Tur as there is Faerun due to most published novels and sourebooks covering the continent we're used to. 

Just in case you're curious what some asian people think about that setting and other issues in RPGs I highly recommend the Asians Represent podcast. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting a different perspective and hearing from RPG creators from other parts of the world. 

What's the problem with halfling ninjas? Is it really that big of a leap from korubukarai?

Well, the 3rd edition version of OA used Rokugan as the featured setting, which is from Legend of the Five Rings and owned by a different company (Fantasy Flight Games / Asmodee).

So there may be licensing issues with updating it.

A Kara-Tur Adventures Guide or something similar is more likely to happen than an "Oriental Adventures" book any way.

The most detailed regions of 5th Edition FR are the whole Sword Coast (Baldur's Gate northward to the Savage North) and the Jungles of Chult in the South. Other regions have been given decent treatments in D&D Adventure League modules -- i.e. Moonsea. I think Thay is also fairly detailed due to the updated Dead In Thay adventure.

All of the other regions of the main Faerun-Kara Tur megacontinent have been mentioned in the PHB (human variants), the Gods Appendix, Sword Coast Adventure Guide, and probably others.  Also at least two thirdy party companies have been given development rights for two regions: the Moonshae Islands (off the southern Sword Coast) and the Border Kingdoms (near the Lake of Steam in the Shining South). 

As of somebody of Asian decent, I can understand why WotC/Hasbro has be reticent to update and use Kara-Tur. This may be, as previously mentioned, tied up in rights with L5R and such. At the same time, the name Oriental Adventure is steeped in Eurocentric idealism. when Gygax first did OA way back in 1st ed, it was to incorporate some of the Asian ideologies to the main FR frame. 

Will OA ever be released as it was? Probably not. WotC/Hasbro has made many inroads to the Asian market and they don't want to piss off a huge market share.  Will we see this information released eventually as pieces? Probably. If you think about it, Shadowdancers are basically ninjas anyways and everything else can be home-styled based on personal research. There hasn't been a ton of info about the region in a while and while we may get a sourcebook (assuming everything is worked out), I don't expect it to happen soon.

As have been stated previously, Samurai are a Fighter sub-class. The Kensei (Kensai in OA) are a Monk sub-class. Ninjas are given as an example of Way of Shadow Monk sub-class.

Bushi are just Fighters.

Wu Jen are pretty close to Evocation Wizards.

There is no corollary to Shukenja or Sohei.

At the moment, you can only get martial arts if you multi-class into Monk for a couple levels (Look up multiclass - it will blow your mind).

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

As have been stated previously, Samurai are a Fighter sub-class. The Kensei (Kensai in OA) are a Monk sub-class. Ninjas are given as an example of Way of Shadow Monk sub-class.

Bushi are just Fighters.

Wu Jen are pretty close to Evocation Wizards.

There is no corollary to Shukenja or Sohei.

At the moment, you can only get martial arts if you multi-class into Monk for a couple levels (Look up multiclass - it will blow your mind).

 

 

All at best pale shadows of the 1e versions. Cheap imitations. 

 

 Do you think it’s due to a lack of understanding or rather trying to make the pieces fit into a predetermined puzzle?

Quote from EBWonder >>

 

 

 Do you think it’s due to a lack of understanding or rather trying to make the pieces fit into a predetermined puzzle?

 Somebody mentioned that new source material produced by WoC must allow all character classes. Some have 5e versions and others don't fit the environment or feel or Kara-Tur.

Even the Dragon Magazine and 3e versions mention trade, albeit rare (I assume that it follows the whole silk road mythology).

I believe the answer is simple. If you want to play an oriental adventure, you play legend of 5 rings (L5R). This is possibly because WotC knows full well they cant beat L5R (not enough resources as they focus on Faerun) or they may have a licence with that L5R company, they will not venture into it. Honestly, for Oriental players, we simply feel a bit off with whatever is going on in Kara Tur. That really doesnt help. They need to stop having a white guy perspective on Kara Tur because they can not appreciate how complex that part of the world is. I feel George Martin in GoT has done a good job describing the dynamics about house, family or clan. However, it is only scratching the surface of what a Japanese Feudal system is like. As such, the way of the samurai is not really translated into DnD. L5R is also scratching the surface in my opinion.  

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from EBWonder >>

As of somebody of Asian decent, I can understand why WotC/Hasbro has be reticent to update and use Kara-Tur. This may be, as previously mentioned, tied up in rights with L5R and such. At the same time, the name Oriental Adventure is steeped in Eurocentric idealism. when Gygax first did OA way back in 1st ed, it was to incorporate some of the Asian ideologies to the main FR frame. 

Will OA ever be released as it was? Probably not. WotC/Hasbro has made many inroads to the Asian market and they don't want to piss off a huge market share.  Will we see this information released eventually as pieces? Probably. If you think about it, Shadowdancers are basically ninjas anyways and everything else can be home-styled based on personal research. There hasn't been a ton of info about the region in a while and while we may get a sourcebook (assuming everything is worked out), I don't expect it to happen soon.

 

Other than perhaps the title, I was rather impressed with OA. I think one of the problems today might be not so much the concepts being seen as racist so much as certain governments being particularly paranoid concerned over anything that could even in the slightest way be construed as inspiring rebellion. 

 I enjoyed it as well.  I'm not seeing the racism, or anything else being problematic with the setting.  It was great content, and respectfully done.

And I fail to see the problem with the word "Oriental".  The terms "Oriental" and "Occidental" are simply synonyms for "Eastern" and "Western".

Quote from MilesMac >>

 I enjoyed it as well.  I'm not seeing the racism, or anything else being problematic with the setting.  It was great content, and respectfully done.

And I fail to see the problem with the word "Oriental".  The terms "Oriental" and "Occidental" are simply synonyms for "Eastern" and "Western".

 Possibly because you're not Asian...