Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Here's a list of frequently asked, seldom asked, often wondered or wish someone would ask questions and their answers. If you have a question and don't see an answer here, send me an email.

I'm offended by something on your website!

To update an old favorite comedian of mine "No matter what I say, no matter what I do, you came to this damn website to read something written by me...I didn't go to a website to read anything written by you."

I tend to speak my mind. If you don't like what I have to say go elsewhere. I wish you luck in finding what you need. Many things you shall find here are unique.

If you're offended by anything, it's likely to be one of my political stances. If that's the case then you're probably feeling instead of thinking. It's a common mistake among liberals these days that you make your judgement on an issue as a result of the way you feel about an issue instead of forming an opinion based upon the facts. If you think this accurately portrays you, don't bother emailing me. I know that you'll likely grow out of it one day and won't even respond. It's been said many times before:

A young conservative has no heart; an old liberal has no brain.

Yeah but didn't you know that the term 'oriental' is offensive to those of Asian descent?

One part of my website is dedicated to a Role-playing game call 'Oriental Adventures' it's a part of the Dungeons and Dragons game. I'll never quit referring to my website as such.

For a little more on what 'oriental' means:

Actually the term the Oriental refers simply to the rising of the sun, being derived from the Latin word 'oriens'. It is used to mean "the East".

Oriental is a vestige of British imperialism, the term, at minimum, is vague. In art, it refers to countries such as China and Japan, but not Turkey. In rugs, it refers to India and China as well as Turkey. In food, it refers to China or Japan, but not India, Vietnam or the Philippines. In the past, Oriental was used to describe fragrances with balsamic, vanilla, oakmoss and animalic notes, but more recently has been used to describe fragrances that are heavy and full-bodied.

Is someone working on converting XYZ to Third Edition?

Many conversions have already been posted to Eric Noah's Website. There's also several other conversions projects, you can find them through the Link Section.

Is there a Oriental Adventures logo that is free to use?

I made the following images myself and hereby release them into the public domain. Feel free to use them in whatever way you want.

I've created an Oriental Adventures logo in several different sizes.

What happened to the Oriental Adventures Project?

There's a short answer for this question but to really know what's going on, you need to know a little background:

The years between 1991 and 2001 were sad times for DandD players that liked to play monks, ninja or any other kinds of traditional fantasy Oriental characters. In that time only one new product was released. The D20 license and OGL were still years away. In fact, TSR sued companies for making compatible products. They weren't much more friendly to the internet communities either. We were pretty much screwed.

After some serious financial problems, TSR was sold off to Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Although Wizards still had some crazy ideas about what is subject to copyright, they were much more friendly toward the internet community. In June of 1998, I created the Oriental Adventures Project website to collect materials that were at the time spread across dozens of mailing lists, news groups and ftp sites. I also had hope that game publishers recognized that there existed an audience for new materials.

In October of 2001, Wizards of the Coast released a new version of Oriental Adventures. Now White Wolf and any other independent publishers are producing materials. In short this "Project" is no longer needed.

The content of the Oriental Adventures Project website is still here. It shall continue to be here for years to come. New content shall be added as I receive, create, or revise it.

Role-playing in general will likely continue to play a major role in this website. I'd also like to expand my potential audience. I'm working on articles that will help writers as well as role-players. The Facts for Fantasy series of articles shall assist you in making a more realistic setting. I'll also be blogging and just generally griping about things.

Where can I download copies of XYZ book?

Wizards of the Coast has been selling their old books online for quite some time. Now many others are too. Go to RPG Now and take a look at the materials. I'm aware that it's relatively easy to find just about every roleplaying book ever written distributed illegally. I will not tell you how to violate copyright law. If you're not smart enough to figure it out yourself, you're probably not smart enough to need the materials!

Who owns the copyright?

Many pages on this website were not written by me. I've listed the original author and the approximate date each article was published. Where possible, I've obtained permission from the original authors to post their material here. On the bottom of each page you will find my personal copyright notice. I'm not claiming to own all the material on this website. It's a layout copyright.

For more information on games and copyright John Perkins has put together and excellent guide to game development and copyright.

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