In the Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, most commonly in the Kara-Tur

Kara-Tur

Kara-Tur is a fantasy world created by David Cook in the Oriental Adventures rulebook for the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game in 1986. Kara-Tur's cultures and peoples are fantasy analogues of medieval China, Korea, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Tibet, and other regions of...

 sub-setting of the Forgotten Realms

Forgotten Realms

The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...

, the kappa is an evil creature based upon the kappa of Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology

Japanese mythology is a system of beliefs that embraces Shinto and Buddhist traditions as well as agriculturally based folk religion. The Shinto pantheon comprises innumerable kami...

.

Publication history

The common kappa and the vampiric kappa first appeared in the first edition in the original Oriental Adventures

Oriental Adventures

Oriental Adventures is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...

(1985). The creature was further developed in Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

#151 (November 1989).

The common kappa, the vampiric kappa, and the kappa-ti appeared in second edition for the Kara-Tur

Kara-Tur

Kara-Tur is a fantasy world created by David Cook in the Oriental Adventures rulebook for the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game in 1986. Kara-Tur's cultures and peoples are fantasy analogues of medieval China, Korea, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Tibet, and other regions of...

 setting in the Monstrous Compendium Kara-Tur Appendix (1990).

The kappa appeared in the third edition Oriental Adventures (2001).

Description

A kappa resembles an almost furless, green-skinned, beaked, fiendish monkey, with a cragged depression in its head containing water which acts as its cerebrospinal fluid

Cerebrospinal fluid

Cerebrospinal fluid , Liquor cerebrospinalis, is a clear, colorless, bodily fluid, that occupies the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain and spinal cord...

. The kappa was introduced to D&D in Oriental Adventures

Oriental Adventures

Oriental Adventures is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...

. The kappa appeared again in the Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium Appendix (MC6); appearing are the common kappa, kappa-ti and vampiric kappa.