Dungeon magazine has been doing a series of adventures, one of which focuses on the Isle of Dread, part of the old Mystara setting (though it ports the Isle to Greyhawk).  

Now, in the original Isle of Dread, one of the creatures you run into are the Rakastas, a race of anthropomorphic catmen that ended up being pretty significant in Mystara (there's a country full of them in the Savage Coast who have a Sun-king-era French culture; and there's also a vast nation of them on one of Mystara's moons, that have a Japanese Samurai culture).

Yet in the dungeon adventure they had to wipe out the Rakastas because, apparently, some kind of editorial decision on the part of Wizards prohibits the us of Rakastas in D&D 3.5...

What the fuck?!

Why?

RPGPundit

Maybe it's because they're too similar to the Rakshasas and those blasted Seaside Sorcerors didn't want the more easily-befuddled customers to confuse Rakastas with Rakshasas. Other than that, I got nothing.

The situation is discussed a bit in the "Dungeon 143" thread at ENWorld.

James Jacobs (Dungeon EIC) explains that it's not that they're completely extinct:

"As for the rakastas, yeah. The Isle of Dread tibes are gone, but as the adventure states, some of them escaped to the mainland. They're still out there somewhere. The reason I didn't want to keep them around on the Isle is simple; they didnt' really fit the theme, in my opinion (the lowlands of the isle being more Mesozoic in theme), but more to the point, there were too many intelligent races on the isle. It was too crowded. By getting rid of a few of the intelligent races (the rakasta and the ogres, for one, who were in the first X1 version), the island feels more primal and wild."

From post 46 of this thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=183343

There's a lot more discussion of the history and direction of rakastas in the thread, though.

Last I recall they got moved to the "Thunder Rift" setting and were given a culture of some variant of ancient Japan (Rakasta Ninja and Samurai and honor) --whoops you said that DOH.


But likely because the Rakasta (mundane cat-people race) vs Rakashasha (supernatural cat-and boar-headed demons) caused confusion.

Remember 3.5 is also a end line of AD&D (Rakashasha)--not end line of D&D (Rakasta) in spite of them converting Mystara to AD&D--it remains the world attached mostly to D&D

A extinct race of cat people? What's not to like! Freakin' furries...

Quote from: BobalooThe situation is discussed a bit in the "Dungeon 143" thread at ENWorld.

James Jacobs (Dungeon EIC) explains that it's not that they're completely extinct:

"As for the rakastas, yeah. The Isle of Dread tibes are gone, but as the adventure states, some of them escaped to the mainland. They're still out there somewhere. The reason I didn't want to keep them around on the Isle is simple; they didnt' really fit the theme, in my opinion (the lowlands of the isle being more Mesozoic in theme), but more to the point, there were too many intelligent races on the isle. It was too crowded. By getting rid of a few of the intelligent races (the rakasta and the ogres, for one, who were in the first X1 version), the island feels more primal and wild."

From post 46 of this thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=183343

There's a lot more discussion of the history and direction of rakastas in the thread, though.

The implication of the discussion going on in the Mystara board is that this decision was not one of "practicality"; but was mandated by Wizards.  What the guy says above might also be true, but he was told directly he couldn't have Rakastas.

RPGPundit

Quote from: SosthenesA extinct race of cat people? What's not to like! Freakin' furries...

Well you know, you say this in jest but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a hint of truth in that. Could it be that Wizards doesn't just have a "no Rakastas" policy, but an entire "No furries" policy?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditWell you know, you say this in jest but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a hint of truth in that. Could it be that Wizards doesn't just have a "no Rakastas" policy, but an entire "No furries" policy?

They did introduce cat people, and they're actually quite effective, too. They would work as a replacement for the Rakasta without changing too much.

But yes, I think they try to avoid too many anthropomorphic races, at least for players (so the Loxo and Gnolls are okay). The "Red Steel" setting had lots of animal men swashbucklers. I thought that's a bit too odd even back in the days, but currently you'd just be compared with Anime all the time. And strangely enough, that's not the way WotC seem to be headed. Argue about dungeonpunk whatever you will, but japanimation cliches aren't that common (most who do exist probably got in the game through the obvious video game inspirations)...

Quote from: SosthenesThey did introduce cat people, and they're actually quite effective, too. They would work as a replacement for the Rakasta without changing too much.

And Rakasta weren't the only cat-people. There were Tabaxi. Perhaps catfolk were meant to replace both.

That said, Lupins resurfaced in Dragon #325 (and Dragon Compendium).

Quote from: SosthenesThey did introduce cat people, and they're actually quite effective, too. They would work as a replacement for the Rakasta without changing too much.

Where did they introduce cat people?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditWhere did they introduce cat people?

There were Catfolk in Races of the Wild.

The cat folk are in the Miniatures Handbook (3.0) and in Races of the Wild (3.5).

And do these vary significantly from the Rakastas in any way?

RPGPundit

Both sources have nothing more than a basic Monster Manual entry about them, so there's not much info available about them. They're mainly plains dwellers, not the jungle cats of the Isle of Dread. Mechanically, they're pretty usable. ECL +1, nice attribute modifiers, high speed, able to buy a feat that allowes 'em to pounce...

Curiouser and Curiouser... so its a naming issue, mostly.

RPGPundit