Close
Close
Advanced Search

OA5 Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw (1e)Click to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/193622.xml&w=500&h=324
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/193622-sample.pdf

OA5 Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw (1e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >
Selected Option:

Kara-Tur The Eastern Realms

The followers of the many gods of Kara-Tur have always fought, to prove the superiority of their martial discipline and the greater wisdom of their deities. The strict hierarchy of the gods is now threatened by the sudden prominence of the followers of the Dragon Claw, a new and deadly school of martial arts that threatens to destroy all other schools. The players, recruited by a mysterious old monk with a bizarre fighting style, must find out what's behind the emergence of the Dragon claw and put a stop to it.

Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw will take the players across the entire country of T'u Lung, from the mouth of the great river Fenghsintzu to its headwaters, where they must deal with the legendary Cult of the Black Leopard-all in the name of the Mad Monkey.

Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw is a scenario for the ORIENTAL ADVENTURES supplememnt for the AD&D game. It is set in KARA-TUR, the oriental world in the Forgotten Realms.

Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw is designed for five to eight characters of Levels 6-9.

Product History

OA5: "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" (1988), by Jeff Grubb, is the fifth expansion for the Oriental Adventures (1985) hardcover, but also the first expansion for Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988); it was released in December 1988.

About the Title. As with many TSR adventures of the time, "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" started with Jeff Grubb being handed a title and told to write on it. Unfortunately, Grubb had no idea what that title meant, so he "campaigned to change it". Jim Ward, his boss, refused, and then told management that Grubb "really wanted that title and would resign if they changed it"!

So "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" it was.

Origins (I): Expanding Oriental Adventures. It had been a year and a half since the publication of OA4: "Blood of the Yakuza" (1987), the previous adventure in the "OA" series, but there was a good reason for that delay. TSR had been busily preparing Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988) as the third major, boxed set for their new campaign world of the Forgotten Realms. With that in hand, they could now continue to develop their "Oriental Adventures" setting while also expanding the Realms.

Despite those changes, "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" is still a direct continuation of the "OA" series to date. In fact, Grubb carries over Ko Ho San and the Ko clan from his previous adventure, OA3: "Ochimo the Spirit Warrior" (1987).

Origins (II): Use the Source, Jeff. Grubb felt like he was the wrong person to write "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw"; nonetheless, when given the assignment he dove headfirst into it, borrowing many old martial arts films from Zeb Cook and "watching a lot of 'Kung Fu Theatre' late in the evenings". He cites the films of Run Run Shaw (1907-2014) as a particular influence, and says he felt "able to throw in some more of the outrageous nature of the genre without fear".

Adventure Tropes. "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" demonstrates the adventure tropes that would become very common in the '90s: event-driven episodes. The adventure is laid out in chapters of events that occur in a specific order, with just a little ability to explore further. The biggest innovation is probably the "training montage" midway through the book, where the players learn "Mad Monkey style".

Expanding D&D. The training on Mad Monkey Island is actually quite unique in D&D. It awards players experience points just for training in a skill, and eventually grants them that martial art skill as well.

Exploring Kara-Tur. "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" once more takes the players to another country within Kara-Tur. This time it's T'u Lung, Kara-Tur's other China. The adventure includes a timeline of T'u Lung as well as a large-scale map of the Wai and Ausa provinces.

Future History. "Mad Monkey vs. the Dragon Claw" was the last adventure for AD&D 1e's Oriental Adventures — and for that matter, one of the last adventures for AD&D 1e (1977-1989). The series would return with OA6: "Ronin Challenge" (1990), when the Empires event (1990) brought a brief resurgence of interest in the Eastern Realms.

The fighting styles of the Mad Monkey and the Dragon Claw would return years later in Dragon #404 (October 2011) in an article by Logan Bonner and Derek Guder called "The Seven Styles".

About the Creators. this was Jeff Grubb's second Oriental Adventures adventure, following OA3: "Ochimo the Spirit Warrior" (1987). He would soon be moving on to other projects such as Spelljammer (1989) and Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (1992).

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (0)
Discussions (8)
Customer avatar
Sascha W January 19, 2023 9:29 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Did anyone else get an illegible PDF?
Except for a handful of pages I cannot read anything in this booklet?!
I never had such a problem here before, all the other PDFs I purchased were fine, including other OA adventures.

Customer avatar
Garrett K March 03, 2020 5:17 pm UTC
Who cares about getting 1E Oriental Adventures in print? OA5 Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw is what we need for POD!



(sarcasm, BTW...)
Reply
Customer avatar
Kenneth Ian V June 06, 2023 12:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
3 years on from your comment and still no Oriental Adventures POD...
On the plus side the POD for Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw is excellent; the printing is crisp and clear.
Customer avatar
Steven S February 26, 2020 4:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm happy to report that the 2020-02-19 update includes both pages 37 and 55.
Customer avatar
Craig G February 26, 2020 2:56 pm UTC
I'm planning on getting this with my refund, but I just wanted to throw out that I love these little bits of history that are being added to the summaries!
Customer avatar
Steven S December 04, 2018 1:58 am UTC
PURCHASER
The 2018-12-03 update now includes page 37, but it's still missing page 55.
Customer avatar
Steven S September 24, 2018 2:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
As I write this, it's been almost two years since the missing pages were reported. For those purchasers who want a scan of the missing pages, 37 and 55, the official download originally published by WoTC has been archived: https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090603210846/http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/tsr9242.zip
Customer avatar
Zia M September 30, 2016 7:09 am UTC
PURCHASER
Page 55 is also missing. Sent an email to support.
Customer avatar
Douglas B September 20, 2016 10:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Page 37 is missing.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!















Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
67
File Size:
62.66 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
February 19, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on September 20, 2016.