Rating: 
Summary: The Gates to the East are open...
Review: Simply put, Oriental Adventures is a great companion to D&D3E. The book itself is a work of art with wonderful layouts and artwork as well as having content that doesn't require a huge learning curve. That being said, there are many high points and only a few low points.For the high points, I liked it much of the original Oriental Adventures found its way into the new edition. I like the new write-ups for the Samurai, Wu-Jen, and the Sohei. The newer classes are pretty good, ie. the Shaman and Shugenja. The prestige classes are wonderfully done and generic for the most part. The writers and playtester have done a masterful job of making Oriental Adventures feel eastern in flavor and not just an "add-on" for the very western D&D3E. Throughout the text, player are immersed into, in a generic sense, a very asian setting. Rokugan, as a campaign setting, seems appropriate to the new book. Its short writeup at the end of the book is a mere taste of what's to come. The few low points are really nitpicks. I thought the martial arts was painfully short and incomplete. A lot more could've been done in that regard. The model setting that they chose, Rokugan, seemed a little intrusive at times. But then again, the text explains how to or not incorporate elements from that setting into your own. Its Japanese slant, in some ways, seems to write itself into the rules. On the other hand, there are many Chinese, Korean, and Indian elements which balance it out. Overall, this is a great addition to the D&D3E line. I highly recommend it for those who wish to add a little bit of the East into their games.
Rating:
Summary: The Gates to the East are open...
Review: Simply put, Oriental Adventures is a great companion to D&D3E. The book itself is a work of art with wonderful layouts and artwork as well as having content that doesn't require a huge learning curve. That being said, there are many high points and only a few low points. For the high points, I liked it much of the original Oriental Adventures found its way into the new edition. I like the new write-ups for the Samurai, Wu-Jen, and the Sohei. The newer classes are pretty good, ie. the Shaman and Shugenja. The prestige classes are wonderfully done and generic for the most part. The writers and playtester have done a masterful job of making Oriental Adventures feel eastern in flavor and not just an "add-on" for the very western D&D3E. Throughout the text, player are immersed into, in a generic sense, a very asian setting. Rokugan, as a campaign setting, seems appropriate to the new book. Its short writeup at the end of the book is a mere taste of what's to come. The few low points are really nitpicks. I thought the martial arts was painfully short and incomplete. A lot more could've been done in that regard. The model setting that they chose, Rokugan, seemed a little intrusive at times. But then again, the text explains how to or not incorporate elements from that setting into your own. Its Japanese slant, in some ways, seems to write itself into the rules. On the other hand, there are many Chinese, Korean, and Indian elements which balance it out. Overall, this is a great addition to the D&D3E line. I highly recommend it for those who wish to add a little bit of the East into their games.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for great adventures but...
Review: The book is simply a piece of art
But somehow they let some smal problems pas to the Press:
- The feat "GREAT THROW" simply was ignored , there's no explication of it's use or mechanism.
- Some small graphic errors but nothing too bad
- Little background on Rokugan , sometimes we need to Take a look at L5R just to get more information on culture, habits and specially the clan's leaders and high-ups Great Book but we are waiting for the ERRATA
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: The new oriental adventures are back and here to stay.
The classes are nicely upgraded, but still I cannot fill a little disapointed. The samurai class used to have damige incrisment aplicable to any weapon (as did monks). Also, I understand that it is all about the game mechanics, but shamans class description sounded much more intriguing with ritual discription. Still the book is very good, the L5R setting is a good base campain, and there are more monsters and more spells than before. The variety of presstige classes awoy the DM to pick and choose, and the clan devision provides unusual look at the human race. Good way to introduce deeper RP at low levels, or just to spice your campain.
Rating:
Summary: Roleplaying in the Original Emerald Empire
Review: The original role-playing book of Legend of the Five Rings was based on the Collectible Card Game. The book offered a D10 system that is in many ways easier and more balanced than the current combat oriented D20 system. The characters' attributes were based on their attunement to the five elements which compose the Five Rings. Honor and Glory were an integrated mechanic directly tied to a character's ability to perform tasks as well as how non-player characters respect them within Rokugan society. Naga, the snake like people of L5R, are mentioned in the monster section instead of the player race section. Instead Nezumi, the ratlings of L5R, are in the player race section. This is odd since in the original game the Naga became a player race in their Second Edition, but Nezumi were always considered monster types. I might have been better to have both the Nezumi and the Naga in the player race section. Spirit Folk are a nice addition. I love their thematic concept and would readily adapt them into the original Legend of the Five Rings game. Some of the monsters in the back are great ideas and well explained. The supplemental material is a nice addition to the original game though it will have to be adapted to the d10 system. The coloring of the book is beautiful, they really did the feel of the book perfectly. The artwork is gorgeous and in color! The Layout is excellent and material for the original fantasy world of Rokugan is easily spotted by noting the elemental mon. "A samurai without honor is not a samurai at all - he is nothing more than a simple fighter with a pair of unusual masterwork swords.", Page 67 High skills verses low skills are only mentioned briefly and honor has so little weight in this game system that it really has very little point. It will be difficult to promote honorable acts unless your players are totally into the theme. I mean, how can you as a GM penalize the player from looting a corpse? The only thing you can really do is lower the characters honor which is basically an alignment change. That in it self may work but being honorable really has very few rewards in this system. "There is no game mechanic to measure or track a character's honor. Honor functions much like alignment: as a tool for developing your character's identity.", Page 68 I really enjoyed the supplemental information on the religion and history. The information is informative and well written and useful for the original L5R game. There is one thing that is totally missing! What about the Five Rings?! They based this supplement in large part on the Legend of the Five Rings. The Five Rings and their elemental associations and meanings are never really explained or used. The characters won't even know what the Five Rings are and they have no impact on character design. Unfortunately this seems to be merely a product of the d20 system being unadaptive to the original system. "A samurai without honor is not a samurai at all - he is nothing more than a simple fighter with a pair of unusual masterwork swords." Yet this is exactly what they created in this supplement, a list of combat abilities for fighting with unusual masterwork swords. Though Oriental Adventures is a beautiful book that is great at assisting players in making the ultimate warrior there is really no comparison between the original d10 system and the d20. If you want to play Legend of the Five Rings find yourself the original source book, "Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire." Legend of the Five Rings - The original publisher was Alderac Entertainment Group
Legend of the Five Rings - First Edition Rule Book by John Wick - ISBN 1887953000
Legend of the Five Rings - Second Edition Players Guide - ISBN 1887953183
Legend of the Five Rings - Second Edition Game Masters Guide - ISBN 1887953191
Rating:
Summary: Roleplaying in the Original Emerald Empire
Review: The original role-playing book of Legend of the Five Rings was based on the Collectible Card Game. The book offered a D10 system that is in many ways easier and more balanced than the current combat oriented D20 system. The characters' attributes were based on their attunement to the five elements which compose the Five Rings. Honor and Glory were an integrated mechanic directly tied to a character's ability to perform tasks as well as how non-player characters respect them within Rokugan society. Naga, the snake like people of L5R, are mentioned in the monster section instead of the player race section. Instead Nezumi, the ratlings of L5R, are in the player race section. This is odd since in the original game the Naga became a player race in their Second Edition, but Nezumi were always considered monster types. I might have been better to have both the Nezumi and the Naga in the player race section. Spirit Folk are a nice addition. I love their thematic concept and would readily adapt them into the original Legend of the Five Rings game. Some of the monsters in the back are great ideas and well explained. The supplemental material is a nice addition to the original game though it will have to be adapted to the d10 system. The coloring of the book is beautiful, they really did the feel of the book perfectly. The artwork is gorgeous and in color! The Layout is excellent and material for the original fantasy world of Rokugan is easily spotted by noting the elemental mon. "A samurai without honor is not a samurai at all - he is nothing more than a simple fighter with a pair of unusual masterwork swords.", Page 67 High skills verses low skills are only mentioned briefly and honor has so little weight in this game system that it really has very little point. It will be difficult to promote honorable acts unless your players are totally into the theme. I mean, how can you as a GM penalize the player from looting a corpse? The only thing you can really do is lower the characters honor which is basically an alignment change. That in it self may work but being honorable really has very few rewards in this system. "There is no game mechanic to measure or track a character's honor. Honor functions much like alignment: as a tool for developing your character's identity.", Page 68 I really enjoyed the supplemental information on the religion and history. The information is informative and well written and useful for the original L5R game. There is one thing that is totally missing! What about the Five Rings?! They based this supplement in large part on the Legend of the Five Rings. The Five Rings and their elemental associations and meanings are never really explained or used. The characters won't even know what the Five Rings are and they have no impact on character design. Unfortunately this seems to be merely a product of the d20 system being unadaptive to the original system. "A samurai without honor is not a samurai at all - he is nothing more than a simple fighter with a pair of unusual masterwork swords." Yet this is exactly what they created in this supplement, a list of combat abilities for fighting with unusual masterwork swords. Though Oriental Adventures is a beautiful book that is great at assisting players in making the ultimate warrior there is really no comparison between the original d10 system and the d20. If you want to play Legend of the Five Rings find yourself the original source book, "Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire." Legend of the Five Rings - The original publisher was Alderac Entertainment Group
Legend of the Five Rings - First Edition Rule Book by John Wick - ISBN 1887953000
Legend of the Five Rings - Second Edition Players Guide - ISBN 1887953183
Legend of the Five Rings - Second Edition Game Masters Guide - ISBN 1887953191
Rating:
Summary: One of the best 3E products to date
Review: This book contains not only new rules (races, prestige classes, spells, feats, etc.) but also a new direction for the game. Even though I am not an avid fan of LO5R, the content in this book is presented in such a way that it can easily be adapted for any campaign world. Aside from the content, the presentation of the book is marvelous, easily rivaling the FRCS. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking to play a campaign based in an Asian-themed fantasy setting.
Rating: 
Summary: Not What I Was Expecting
Review: This book is kind of neat. Unfortunately, I was never able to see the first edition Oriental Adventures, but if this is what it was like, I didn't miss out on much. First of all, I hate the fact that it is based on the Legend of the 5 Rings setting. I utterly despise that. I thought it was only going to be an appendix, but mostly the entire book describes this setting. A lot of the new martial art feats are merely reprints of the exact feats in Sword and Fist. The religious aspect and martial arts entries are very vague. I love running my monk and was hoping for information to expand my character, but there is very little for that. The good from the book are the oriental monsters at the end and a very few prestige classes. I hope they plan to remedy this book in some way by making it in Kara-Tur. Till then, I'll stay in Forgotten Realms...which is a must have by the way.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful addition to the AD&D Universe
Review: This book really is amazing - it's not just a listing of different types of characters, magic and monters like the older version of the book. It's has all of that and more. The book, much like Forgotten Realms, is an entire world with a fairly compelete history, culture and intrigue. The book is divided into sections and as DM there's a huge amount of information to go thru and decide whether or not to add to your campaign. I love some of the monsters and the new spin on some of the character classes is fantastic. I have always been intrigued by the idea of non-human characters and they're in this book in detail. As a player I love the idea that I could play a character similar to a Chinese Fox Fairy (a favorite character from a childhood book). Anyone one who wants to put a truly different spin on his game or character should break down and purchase this book. It really is worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but no FR
Review: This is a good campaign setting. Great monsters, classes and prestige classes. They should have had more about places like FR. Luke doesn't seem to ralize that this is a game, not a history book. It is not supposed to be Japan.
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