Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s not every day a new product borrows from so much yet creates something entirely new.  Portland gamemaker 1985 Games’ roleplaying game Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass (available now here at Amazon) bridges many ideas and yet you haven’t seen anything like it before.  Funded in a Kickstarter with more than $2 million by more than 20,000 donors, the RPG is a hefty, hardcover, licensed Dungeons & Dragons 5E-based game that establishes a world steeped in Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki environments and yet every new setting and character is new.

Unlike most D&D licensed games, Obojima doesn’t hide from what it’s doing, instead fully embracing Obojima as a new D&D campaign–not just a separate game relying on its mechanics.  The result feels a lot like you’re in the realm of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, or Suzume, a game environment incorporating old technology and new that pushes violence and evil aside for visits with spirits and magical elders.

The design and layout makes this campaign book one of the best you’ve ever seen.  German artist Varguy (see his work here) and Australian artist Scott Higginbotham (see his work here) completely understand and embrace the Ghibli, Adventure Time and Zelda influences, providing a surreal and positive visual setting through evocative imagery peppered nicely throughout the book.  The influences are certainly obvious, and yet these images aren’t knockoffs.

Look forward to a hefty 368-page campaign setting for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5E, so you’ll need all those core books.  Throughout the book designers Adam Lee, Ari Levitch, and Jeremiah Crofton have eliminated D&D components that don’t fit the world of the island of the fictional Obojima, and supplement the 5E rules with oh so many new creatures, potions, spells, and environments.  Obojima is the fairy tale world derived from Japan… yet it’s not.  A giant pull-out map is tucked in the back.  It includes convenient technologies you’d find in anime over the past 50 years, like cassette recorders, instamatic cameras, a gameboy, a Rubik’s cube, and VCRs, plus magic soda cans, pinwheels, and bicycles.  This is the stuff of lighthearted, good natured fun.

Let’s run through the campaign book.

First, players will be introduced to the world of Obojima, where you’ll learn the types of spirits you’ll encounter, creatures called the Dara, and basics of the history which aren’t overly detailed but set up room for all the good stuff.  That includes a travelogue of places a GM could put into a campaign for players to encounter (someone online should track each environment to a counterpart in a movie or series–some will be obvious).  NPCs and adventure hooks are provided to flesh out each location.  Teahouses, hot springs, glider aeronauts, grasslands called the Gale Fields, a post-tsunami beach, an airfield, ramen shops and food marts, set the scene.  For those who want some battle in their game, there are four Sword Schools, where you can rise and challenge the masters.  My favorite component is the Wandering Line, a three-car train with an unknown past that can take you to worlds outside the mundane.

More than 40 pages are devoted to creating your character.  These supplement D&D 5E character types like dwarves, halflings, and orcs.  But here you meet the friendly Sheep Dragon Shepherds, the Oni Kin, and the Origami Mages.  Since this is a supplement to the offerings of D&D, you get new weapons that fit the setting like an iron tea kettle, a dandelion spear, a bellow flute, and a butterfly staff.  Spells include an Origami Bird Swarm, a Bubble Lift, a Pacify Monster, Summon Jack-o-Lantern, and a Butterfly Storm.

The campaign book includes three adventures: The Curious World Within (for 2-4 second level characters), Below the Shallows (for 2-4 fourth level characters), and Lost Within the Crawling Canopy (for 2-4 fifth level characters).  These are relatively simple advantures that could be played in a single setting or stretched out–or used to expand into further adventures.  The key to this campaign world is the whimsy and pastoral nature of anime and an exploration of mystery.

The best fantasy can be found in 50 pages of potions.  You’ll have the option of tapping a giant list of ingredients by region.  An extensive table of 69 common ingredients with pictures and backgrounds provides Combat, Utility, and Whimsy attributes.  An additional 45 uncommon ingredients correspond with greater dangers, with 21 rare ingredients–like bubble gum (!), bottled lightning, or a Ronin Neku action figure–will be more difficult to find in your journey.  You will be cooking up some recipes with your adventures in Obojima.  Sixty potions will determine the nature of your campaign.

Consistent with the rewards found in many fantasy tales, the GM can incorporate “Hero Boons,” or rewards to document success for players.  These are characteristics that attach to your character as they move ahead.  One chapter offers options for companions (what anime journey have you seen that doesn’t have a magical cat or floating spirit?).

Finally, more than 70 pages of creature stat blocks introduce the fun you’ll have, like a Cat of Prodigious Size, a Cuddle Bug, the aforementioned Sheep Dragon, Giant Koi, a variety of Slimes, and the skeletal Sky King featured on the book’s cover.

Note: The book highlights segments that can be read by all players and other off-limits sections reserved for Gamemasters.

Will you explore the coast and delve below the water’s surface to uncover the cause of this dark affliction?  Play as an eclectic College of Masks bard and craft versatile theater masks to help you in any situation?  Breathe life into paper constructs and control the battlefield as an Origami Mage?  Harness the potent magic that has slowly begun to infect Obojima as the Corrupted Ranger? 

Even the most diehard D&D players will include Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass along with their bookshelf of standard D&D books.  It’s a professional, detailed, imaginative expansion for anyone wanting to lean into this niche of fantasy fun and play.  Highly recommended for gamers new to RPGs, too, Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass is available now here at Amazon.  A Festival Celebration bundle and more is available at the Obojima website here.  Find a sneak peek at the next incarnation of Obojima at Kickstarter here.