If you've been following my reviews or skimming through them in the archives of this site, you'll see that overall, I've really liked Green Ronin stuff. Good solid adventures, good handling of game mechanics -- I've had only good things to say about them. I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that more than one person working on these products (including obviously "The Man" at Green Ronin, Chris Pramas) actually work at Wizards of the Coast. That insider's perspective has clearly helped the products.

So it came as no surprise to me to see Green Ronin release a book to support Oriental Adventures. Chris knew that this product was coming for a long time, and it's just smart to try to tie something to it. It did come as a big surprise to me, however, that the product seemed rushed and, well, not great.

Unlike Legions of Hell, Green Ronin's previous monstrous offering, Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts is low on content. Surprisingly so. As in, "Did they really think we wouldn't notice this?" sort of low on content. A lot of the full-page monster entries are only a half-page long. Some of the empty white space is filled with only moderately interesting quotes in a large font, and the rest is just, well, empty white space. By my count, they probably could have put as many as eight more monsters into this book if they had tried -- and I'm not even talking about cramming monsters the way that the Monster Manual does (which I think is far too crammed). Or they could have included more information for the monsters that were there; some of the sections are really lacking, like the character classes usually used by monsters with "By Character Class" as their advancement range, for starters.

But let's concentrate on what's there, rather than what's not there.

The worst of the entries range from completely unusable, like the Monkey God, to those that are usable but make me wonder if anyone actually would use them, like the konaki jiji. The Monkey God is this practically omnipotent (sorta -- a better word would just be unplayable) trickster entity. That's fine, I suppose, but I think it was a waste of time to include combat stats for this guy. Some of the stats are reasonable, some are just silly (his rod, for instance, does 1d1000 damage -- although later it says he chooses how much damage he inflicts, so I guess you don't actually even roll), and then it all wraps up with a CR of "No hope." Well then, why give stats at all?

The konaki jiji is a monster that looks like a baby. Its power is that it can instantly become a really big baby while you're holding it, so that it crushes you with its sudden increase in size and weight.

Huh?

I realize that the konaki jiji is a creature right out of actual myth. I'm not just against Asian mythological figures and stories here. I wouldn't find, for example, stats for Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox very useful or desirable in a product either. If I didn't utilize myth as my backdrop and just created a monster that was a baby that could become a really big baby, you'd (justifiably) mock me, wouldn't you?

There are other examples of stuff I'm guessing you won't use. The shojo is a sort of lion thing that is often encountered picnicking (I'm not joking). It makes sake that might heal you or it might be poison.

There are other (smaller) problems. The bamboo elves and the tanuki (badger people) are races, but their monster entries don't use their own stated (and unbalanced for PC use, by the way) ability score modifications.

And the editing is not great. Aside from an inordinate number of typos, there are 2nd Edition terms (like "detect lie"), incorrectly used 3rd Edition terms and concepts (advancement range is particularly misunderstood), unclear explanations of powers, and just plain errors.

Not every monster in this book is bad, by any means. Some of them are just fine and add a lot of new things to the game, and others are quite good. The shiko me, a female devil with different forms, is cool. And the wasp warrior and ta-jen (really big magical giants) are also neat. But in a book that feels somewhat low on content anyway, are the good monsters enough to warrant buying the product? I don't think so.

If you're really a HUGE fan of Asian adventures, maybe you will find the good monsters worth it. Maybe you'll even like the monsters I found worthless. The art ranges from mediocre to really very good (I'm big fan of rk post). But I cannot recommend this book. Hopefully it is just a minor gaffe and Green Ronin will go back to producing the wonderful stuff like Legions of Hell. I know that, with the company's previous track record, Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts won't keep me from giving the next product a try.

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