Which cultures (Chinese, Japanese, etc.) dominate the Oriental Adventures book?
How did you merge them successfully? James: Both the original Oriental Adventures and Legend of the Five Rings are pretty heavily skewed toward Japanese influences. Dragon Fist was based entirely on the Chinese fantasy tradition of martial-arts movies, and I tried to give that some extra play in the new version of Oriental Adventures. (In a year when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won four Academy Awards, it would have been foolish to ignore that strand of the tradition!) At the same time, I was trying to incorporate some of my own background and experience studying and traveling to South and Southeast Asia. Some people may take umbrage at this, but the way I merged them was to ignore the whole fact that my material was based on different cultures. My goal was not a historical RPG or even a game to let you play Chinese or Japanese campaigns. Just like the Player’s Handbook doesn’t try to distinguish between the Celtic roots of the druid and the Frankish roots of the paladin, Oriental A
