James Wyatt Interview
OK guys, so this is the surprise I have been talking about. An interview with the mastermind
behind Oriental Adventures - Ladies and Gentlemen, clap your hands for James Wyatt.
1. I found it very neat that the new OA has a
definite Wuxia factor to it. Do you like the Honk Kong Fantasy
Movie Genre? What kind of films do you enjoy in
general?
I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of wuxia, though it was a
definite goal of mine to include enough of that in the book to
make the fans happy. Dragon Fist was a big inspiration to me, of
course. Since my son was born (almost 6 years ago), my trips to the
movie theater have become few and far between, though I make it
out for things like the Lord of the Rings. Our video rentals tend
toward old movies (Cary Grant, Gene Kelly) and romantic comedies,
though when my wife's not around I sometimes rent cheesy horror
flicks.
2. What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?
Anything you can recommend?
My musical tastes are... eclectic. The gamut from baroque
to 20th-century choral (Britten, Stravinsky), selected
contemporary Christian musicians (I let myself believe that
Nichole Nordeman is a closet feminist in the Christian music
world, and I don't want to hear otherwise), and 60s-80s rock
(Beatles, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Seal). I'm totally out of the
loop on most current music. (Loop? There's a loop?)
3. Do you play any computer games? If yes, what
are you currently hooked on?
I am not really a computer game player, with the exception
of short-term flings. I had to give up Tetris for Lent in my
senior year of college so that I could get my thesis done. I
played a lot of Crystal Crazy while I was in ministry. I'm
currently hooked on a Mac OS X port of minesweeper, which I'm
playing to avoid working on a big freelance project. I think
there's a pattern here.
4. OA really manages to capture what I consider
the essence of various unarmed combat techniques. Do you
practise any martial arts yourself?
I am a master of the Recumbent Typing style, having
acquired the prerequisite feats of Balance Laptop on Paunch, Funky
Ottoman, and Type With Eyes Closed.
5. Where there any major changes/revisions during
the OA project? If yes, what ideas got
discarded?
The biggest midstream revision was organizational, really.
The original plan was to present Rokugan in all its glory in the
major part of the book, and relegate all the non-Rokugan stuff to
a separate section toward the back. It quickly became apparent
that this would mean having two races chapters, two classes
chapters, two equipment chapters, and so on. So I pushed for what
we ended up with: integrating all the material together, with the
Five Rings icon to identify material that's particularly
appropriate for Rokugan.Other changes that happened along the way: I toyed with a
redesign of the monk class that would allow more picking and
choosing of special abilities. The special abilities I was going
to add eventually got formed into the Shintao monk and the Henshin
mystic.
6. How did you design the new spells? Are they
based on old ones or did you feel there was the need for a
different "direction" in spellcasting?
They are almost entirely based on existing spells, either
drawn from the L5R game, from Dragon Fist, or from the original
OA. Spirit needle is all mine, though, based on something in
Chinese Ghost Story.
7. I really enjoyed the way the art within the
book complemented to descriptions. How much influence do you
have on the artwork (or do they influence
you)?
I wrote the art order, but never saw any of the art until
my design work was done. One of my favorite pieces is the Void
Disciple, and I remember trying to explain to the art director
what I wanted there. That's probably the one piece that most shows
my influence on the art. The rest is up to the fabulous art
director and artists.
8. Why are there no staffs in OA? Chinese Ghost
Story III had this guy with this cool staff. Of course one can
easily include them but was there a reason to leave them
out?
No particular reason.
9. I love the idea of the Bladedancer - but how
can I ever make it into that prestige class?
Nuke the alignment prerequisite; change it to "any
non-chaotic." (See the errata posted on the WotC web site.) That
should help.
10. Do you feel a shaman's unarmed combat
abilities are worthwhile without multiclassing into
monk?
They're not great, it's true. And they put a heavy burden
on the shaman to have good ability scores across the board. If I
had it to do over again, I'd probably change the way that was
implemented.
11. My players (especially the one who plays
one) feel that the wu jen is a lot weaker than a wizard, e.g.
the missing Mage Armour and spells like Fiery Wings as
opposed to fly. Do you share this opinion?
There is certainly an issue with regard to spells that
appear on the Sor/Wiz spell list but not the wu jen spell list
(also Clr versus shaman). Someday I'm going to write a DRAGON
article or something on the web on that subject. Mage armor might
fall into that category, and you might just let your player add
that to the wu jen spell list. I wouldn't do the same for fly,
frankly because I think D&D is better when flying is more the
exception than the rule. Fire wings is a much more flavorful
spell, and gives a more reasonable rate of speed.
12. Why do so many spells require a ranged attack
roll as opposed to a ranged touch attack? (I feel that the Iron
Scarf is less worthwhile than a crossbow for
example)
The scarf spells, to pick up your example, really just give
you a weapon when you might not otherwise seem to have one. They
don't do damage by touching the opponent, but by hitting it.
Spells that use touch attacks usually deliver damage in the form
of energy or negative energy, not whacking someone with a
freakishly hard scarf.
13. Why are so many weapons without any "special"
abilities classified exotic in OA (e.g. butterfly
sword)?
For the same reason that the kama, siangham, and nunchuku
are: they're not part of an ordinary warrior's training. The
butterfly sword is a monk weapon that provides an alternative to
the kama (with a better threat range) for a monk who wants to use
a slashing weapon. The tonfa is a similar alternative to the
nunchaku. The kau sin ke and three-section staff are just too
weird to be martial weapons. Most of the other exotic weapons are
double weapons or double/reach weapons.
14. OK, after all these design questions - what is
your favourite OA-based setting? What is your favourite RPG
setting?
I'm still running my lunchtime Mahasarpa game, based on the
sample campaign in Chapter 10 and the web enhancement for the
book. I really like the Indian/Southeast Asian flavor of that
campaign, and I intend to keep it going as long as my players will
stand for it.
15. What is your favourite OA monster? What non-OA
monster do you like best?
Hm... I like the penaggolan a lot. As my players will tell
you, I also use yuan-ti a LOT (particularly in this campaign).
16. What is your favourite race/class combo in
OA?
The vanara are far and away my favorite race in OA (and one
of the things in the book that's mine mine all mine, as opposed to
coming from an earlier game source). I'd like to play a vanara
monk, maybe even tattooed or a henshin mystic.
17. Which spell do you think is the coolest
ever in OA?
Snake darts. Man, when Dave Noonan's cackling eunuch
warlock Shadhbakht cast that in our game, we all just sat there
with our mouths hanging open.
18. I love OA but I do not play
Rogukan so most of AEG's products are of little use to me. Are
there any plans of releasing more OA stuff of a generic nature
(like "Katana and Fist" :-) )? Will OA some day become open game
content?
Anthony Valerra says, "It's on the list but there are at
least a few products in front of it." I don't believe Wizards has
any plans to do more OA products, but I'm sure that once it goes
into the SRD there will be a lot of third-party material
available. Green Ronin already did Jade Dragons & Hungry
Ghosts, and I just saw another Asian-themed adventure (I can't
remember the name of it or who did it, unfortunately) in my
Friendly Local Game Store the other day.
OK, many questions. Thanks a lot for your time and
willingness to put some effort into a fan-site based interview.
Thanks for the cool game and take care.
Thanks!
So that concludes the interview. Again, I would like to thank Mr. Wyatt and WoC PR Manager
Mr. Williams for their time and effort. Some answers came as a surprise to me (e.g. 1-3) and some please me (I love the Penaggolan too :-) ). Also, I am definitely looking forward to the article hinted at in 12.
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