L5R->3.x conversion for "Mirror, Mirror"

[Essence_of_War]

I stumbled across a really cool looking adventure from L5R called "Mirror, Mirror" and was thinking about using it, or taking elements from it for a 3.x game at some point (no timetable, just something I wanted to have in my back pocket).

Has anyone had any experience converting between these two systems or converted this adventure/module in particular?

[Grendus]

I considered it. 3.5 has mechanics that can cover most of the basics, though you would have to know more about L5R to do an actual conversion. Presumably you would want to use more oriental themed classes like the Samurai (use the OA version, or refluff the swordsage), Ninja, Wu Jen, and Shugenja. Other than that, I have no idea.

[The Big Dice]

Honestly, I don't think it can be done. Mirror, Mirror is a horror module, D&D is an action/adventure game. There's some fundamental incompatibilities that would have to be addressed. One of the biggest being simply that, a wide power gap between PC and NPC in L5R isn't the reciped for TPK that it is in D&D.

But that's for a full conversion, running the exact same thing in a different system is usually a doomed undertaking. Stealing plot elements to use in a different system is something else altogether.

The biggest problem is foreshadowing everything. The setup of a castle that's the last guardian of civilisation, literally at the edge of a realm corrupted by a massive, permanently open portal to the Abyss is something you'd have to work into your game world. The Shadowlands themselves, part radioactive waste, part alive and wanting souls, is something I haven't seen elsewhere in gaming. But where did you think the rules for Taint came from? It's a trimmed down version of the Shadowlands Taint.

But locations can be set up, NPCs can be established. The basic idea is, start with a locked room murder mystery. Then, after a bait-and-switch, put people somewhere they don't mind being, then make it somewhere they want to get out of, but there are people there who need protecting from something powerful, evil and deeply disturbed. Those ideas are universal.

Mirror, Mirror was an unpublished module that ended up getting ran at a convention. The line editor of L5R felt it was too full on, too much mature content for them to take the chance on it. Even though it was written to illustrate how to apply the ideas the writers discuss in their L5R book, Bearers of Jade. Which even now is considered to be a bit too full on. Quite a lot of the things in there are dismissed out of hand by the current L5R writing team. Especially the fictions.

So while I don't think simply taking Winter Court at Kyuden Hida, then running it in 3.X is viable, taking Mirror, Mirror as an example of how to structure a horror module is a very viable idea.

[Essence_of_War]

Thanks for the thoughts The Big Dice, I think I'll probably just keep the idea in my back pocket for a while until I have time to sort of take it apart and look at all the pieces and then to take the pieces that might be useful for an adventure/horror dnd game.

Have you ever played it in the L5R rules? Is it as crazy as it seems?

[The Big Dice]

Have you ever played it in the L5R rules? Is it as crazy as it seems?
I've run it twice, and I also ran the other two modules the same team had on their now defunct site. And all three of them were brilliant. Though for pure terror, there's a specific moment in part 2 of Mirror, mirror that was awesome.

I'd say Hindsight is possibly the easiest to convert, with it being a fairly simple time travel adventure that messes with the campaign world a little. Fortunes Lost starts out as the Big UN Peacekeeping Adventure and goes somewhere very disturbing. I would think that one would convert the best to other systems. Mirror, Mirror is the psychological horror one. It relies of fear of the known as much as it does fear of the unknown.

Because face it, gamers aren't scared of things unless they know what they are. Sure, a winged demon with a sword of flame and whip of fire is a cool image. But of the players know a shapeshifting Balor is loose in the castle, they'll be much more afraid than they would if they didn't know what it was.

[Essence_of_War]

Though for pure terror, there's a specific moment in part 2 of Mirror, mirror that was awesome.

Mind telling me which part it was for you?

I had visions of seeing the PC samurai who gets trapped in the room with the girl who turns out to be the demon thing looked pretty crazy. If properly roleplayed, this pull between the PC bushi's desire to protect the innocents and their player's genre savvy-ness of what happens to people who barricade themselves into rooms with innocents seems like it could be quite a moment.

[The Big Dice]

Mind telling me which part it was for you?

I had visions of seeing the PC samurai who gets trapped in the room with the girl who turns out to be the demon thing looked pretty crazy. If properly roleplayed, this pull between the PC bushi's desire to protect the innocents and their player's genre savvy-ness of what happens to people who barricade themselves into rooms with innocents seems like it could be quite a moment.

It's the moment in the Shadowlands when the hunting horns of the Dark Moto are heard. At which point, three very high School Rank NPCs, including a family ruler and his two personal bodyguards. All of them being trained in one of the toughest Schools in the game, simply turn and flee.

It's hard to describe the Dark Moto in D&D terms. Corrupted by Jigoku, each one almost 200 years old and sworn into the service of the Dark Lord's immortal general. In L5R, they are akutenshi. MIghty undead creatures twisted by the powers of hell and masters of the maho-bujin school. I'm not sure what that would make them in D&D.

But in 1st edition L5R, just one of them can wipe out high level parties. When they came, my players panicked. Later, in the castle it was about suspense and sustained fear. But there in the Shadowlands, it was a moment of sheer terror.

And that's a rare thing in an RPG.