Penned by Gygax himself Oriental Adventures brought “Martial Arts” to AD&D, and each style had associated special maneuvers not unlike the powers of 4e. There was always something about making up characters in 4e, especially picking powers, that I found strangely familiar. It wasn’t until I flipped open my old copy of Oriental Adventures that it came flooding back to me of the first time I flipped this book open. We spent many months steeped in the mythos of the far east, making martial arts characters (and monsters!) and having wild kung fu action around the table.
Martial Arts special maneuvers have all the hallmark of modern powers. Most take the place of a standard weapon attack, or replace a “melee basic” in 4e terms. There are some great ones, like Flying Kick and Choke Hold, and no one could ever forget dreaded Eagle Claw. These attack powers were full of great flavor, and most did something exceptional, besides damaging the opponent. Some attacks stunned or knocked an opponent prone, or lowered their defenses. The effects in most cases are identical to 4e effects.
Not all the special maneuvers were only for combat. Levitation and meditation, for example. There was a centralized pool of special maneuvers, which fell into broad categories, like kicks, punches, movement, etc, and each “style” would take a few from each category. Very simple and elegant, and it allowed for endless combination of martial arts styles, which it provided rules for creating. I know this because one of my best friends Chris Stevens immediately began converting every known martial arts style into AD&D, then began creating his own. For all I know he resides in a dojo now, but it all started here on page 101 of Oriental Adventures…
Advanced Dm of Doom has spoken
(Incidentally, this book was edited by the inestimable Steve Winter, who still worked on D&D up until a few months ago!)
Gygax repeatedly said that he was very dissatisfied with the way that Oriental Adventures turned out. It was essentially written by Zeb Cook while Gygax was otherwise occupied, having Gygax’s name on the cover for marketing purposes only. He said he would much have preferred the approach penned by François Marcela-Froideval, whose manuscript did survive but which has somehow never surfaced in the intervening years.
Just from a historiographical perspective, I wouldn’t use that particular work in defense of a Gygaxian system of feats in 1E.
Didn’t Gygax rewrote some stuff of Zeb Cooks material, mixing things from his long time buddy François Marcela-Froideval with what Zeb created.
At least I read more then one post claiming that Oriental Adventures was one of the things Gary did that put something different then a shining light upon his person.
@Greyhawk– documentation for the assertions you just made, please?
Fellahs, thanks for the comments. GG, it was your site that first introduced me to the OSR years ago, while googling something. Hooked ever since. I just grin and bear it when 4e comes up and no I don’t want to hear another told ya so! I find the back-story fascinating, and sometimes sad, but the truth is in 1986 when I was 14 yrs old WE ATE THIS SHIT UP and to us, it came from the mouth of the master. Also, I was always a fan of Zebulon Cook, especially his Star Frontiers stuff, might have colored my impression.
Action Point, thanks for your great services to the country – such as teaching them soldiers how to game! Love the blog. Dragonsfoot forums have vast resources of forum interviews with Gygax, I would start there! I seem to remember he said similar things about Queen of the Demonweb Pits and Temple of Elemental Evil, as well. It must be hard to look back upon the greatness you have achieved, and not see the minute cracks and fissures and want them fixed. Good or bad, law or chaos, OA is AD&D canon.
Do you mean the “assertion” that Gygax preferred Froideval’s material to Cooks?
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=19381&start=285
“IMO his Oriental Adventures material was far superior to what David Cook ended up ramrodding through in the published work.”
Or the “assertion” that he had little to no input on the actual manuscript because he was too busy?
http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive-threads/171753-gary-gygax-q-part-xii-37.html
“Indeed I was up to my a** in alligators at the time OA was being written, for TSR was in deep financial tropuble then. I assigned Froideval and Cook to the project, and Zeb dumped what I thought was superior material done by Francois in favor of his own work.”
Do you really think I’d just make this stuff up?