Pyramid Review
Oriental Adventures (for D&D)
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by James Wyatt
256 color pages; $34.95
Okay, I have a special confession to make: Oriental Adventures was the first roleplaying book I ever purchased. I'm speaking, naturally, of the first edition of the book published back in the day for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I was only twelve years old and had just been exposed to this cool new game that an old friend had showed me. At the time I didn't have any of the core books or even anyone to play with. But the book set my imagination alive nonetheless. I would page through it every day, memorizing stats and creating characters that I played only in my mind.
A while later I got to actually play the game, and I learned to appreciate what a great book it really was . . . and what a wise purchase I'd made that day. So now, years later, after Dungeons & Dragons had just seen its third incarnation, I was quite interested when it was announced that Oriental Adventures would be re-released for 3rd Edition. Needless to say, the game shop was my first destination on my way home from work a short while ago when the book it the shelves. And paging through this new edition, only one question is running through my mind: will this new book set my imagination on fire as its predecessor did so many years ago?
Well, there are a lot of differences this time. The book has gone from a 144-page black and white text to one that's 256 pages and full color. A lot . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 23, 2001
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