Converting "Curse of the Crimson Throne" to L5R :>

[Akumamajin]

Hello everybody

As the title says it, I did some major converting time to not only update to some new edition but an entire different system and setting. I know that this here is the pathfinder messageboards, but I think that this story here could be interesting and illustrate how a great story (well, any AP) could be used as the framework for just any system and setting. For the record: we are also involved in a pathfinder 'legacy of fire' round.

For those not familiar with L5r (short for "Legends of the 5 rings"), it is a samurai setting, loosely tied to how the things where in Japan, but with a healthy dose of fantasy and some westernisation. The setting is not just about fancy swordmen but is also very thick in the political department.

As I introduced my regular D&D group to L5R I was looking for a plot that showed them the strong political side of L5R without overwhelming them and so the idea was born to 'just' convert this lovely AP.

So this is what I did:
the Rokugani version of Korvosa was some big, and essential the same, crane city on the coast. The King was changed to a Doji Daimyo, Queene Ileosa to his young and beautiful scorpion wife, Kavazon an ancient Oni who had been slain during the first war with Fu Leng and who was forgotten during the turmoil of that time. Vencarlo became a dashing Kakita Duelist Sensai and Sabina became Kakita Sakura, his master pupil until that fateful affair. My players really enjoyed Vencarlos alter ego, the 'Golden Fist', a hooded monklike marial artist clad in flowing, golden robes. Basically the plot stayed the same, I made some minor changes, so that a the group had to dig up some dirt about a courtier and where tipped off to the scorpion crime lord at eels end who enlisted them in some help against a non-samurai crime lord etc.

Thousand Bones was no barbarian but a ratling shamane whose apprentice was a little to cocky and got himself killed and who couldn't act openly.
Lady Andaisin became a maho cult leader who morphed into some bad ass plague oni,and Ramoska Arkminoss became a ghule lord from the burning sands.

But besides from this changes the plot of "Curse of the Crimson Throne" worked surprisingly well with the L5R setting. One one hand I need to do a lot of conversion work, naturally, but on the other hand I am rewarded with a really great story that I don't need to come up with and it is really fun to think about how the plot could be integrated into the asian setting.

I am interested in what you think about this. So thank you, paizo, for your great products.
Happy gaming.

[John Kretzer]

Sounds Cool...but I am also a fan of L5R....so there is that.

Question...how do you get samurai from differnt clans working together?

Also what are the Hell Knights in Roukgan?

[Akumamajin]

John Kretzer wrote:

Sounds Cool...but I am also a fan of L5R....so there is that.

Question...how do you get samurai from differnt clans working together?

Also what are the Hell Knights in Roukgan?

Ok this is our party:

a crab Hida Berserker Bushi with a big Tetsubo who got challenged to a Iai duel and won out of sheer dice luck :D
a dragon Agasha alchemist Shugenja with some martial training.
a unicorn Iuchi Shugenja who tries to woe a Kakita samurai ko with strange unicorne trinkets. She will end up in the guard of the Lady with a scarred face in the last adventure.
a phoenix Isawa void Shugenja who is the parties main face and court girl. Doesn't know a single combat spell
a dragon Kitsuki mad investigator with periodic flashes of insight.

The various lords of the players owed the Daimyo some favors and where send to the city as emissaries or yojimbo of said emissaries. The gift for the daimyo, an elaborated tanto, got stolen by some street urchin and this led to the plot with Gaedren Lamp (a disgraced yasuki ronin smuggler). When the street urchin elluded them they found a little oracle bone with a message -> a slightly modified Zelara plot. She stayed mostly the same but naturally with an asian twist (oracle bones instead of cards, having no feets because being a ghost). In Lamps hideout they not only found their tanto but also a small netsuke that clearly belonged to the crane nobility -> this earned them a meeting with the lady.

During this meeting she raved about the unrest in the cities lower classes and that such capable samurai as they should be honor bound to help reestablish order. This way they where enlisted as city magistrates.

The Hell Knights I portrayed as the Iron Crane, the elite unit of daidoji guarding the noble quarters. During the chase scene with the painter (who could be perfectly portrayed as a Kakita artist) the party really feared this guys because they caused ruthless havoc in the simple folks homes.

The sable company became the 'plum guard', a cavalry units with a bright purple plum as heraldry and a unicorn trained daidoji in charge.

The Grey Maidens where the new found Maiden Guard who all wear prestine white armor and perfectly beautiful, yet unmoving, maiden faces as mempo masks. Raster unsettling, taking into account that white is the color associated with death in asian cultures.

The church of abadar was rather simple, too. The biggest temple in my city was run be monks of Daikoku, the fortune of wealth and commerce :D Naturally they where not clerics, but asian monks do have some healing powers too (prayers, incense, moxa).

During 'seven days to the grave' the little girl that got infected lived in the eta village at the fringes of the city, and even when the sympathetic unicorn shugenja healed her no one else paid attention to what was happening in there until the plague was in full charge.

Like I said, I had a lot of fun thinking in creative ways how to convert stuff over into the asian setting of L5R and most of the time it worked surprisingly well.

We made a little break after the conclusion of 7days (in our group we change GMs and systems every few month so that the last GM can play sometimes, too, and get some free time to do his new stuff) but I expect to continue that campaign, soon. My players really had had a great time and enjoyed it thoroughly.

[John Kretzer]

Sounds like fun. You seem to cover all of your bases.

[CezarJ]

As a player and Storyteller of L5R, it's a realy nice read of creativity.

Thanks for posting!

[madwilly2006]

Sounds really cool. I don't play Pathfinder but I buy the GameMastery Cards obsessively and have always been impressed with their quality. The Pathfinder Adventure Paths have always sounded pretty cool though.

Your post is particularly interesting to me because I have been running and playing L5R for the past 10 years now, and I have to say it is my favorite RPG of all time. However, coming up with new plots after all these years can be tricky. Nice to know Adventure Paths might offer some solutions.

The other thing I wish L5R had was more support product like the aforementioned GameMastery Cards. I custom made my own L5R version of the Plot Twist Cards, but something like the Item Cards would be nice (excited for Jade Regent!).

I wonder if any of the other Adventure Paths would be well suited to conversion. Thoughts?

[CezarJ]

From my expirience, creating L5R characters/NPCs is very easy, as you just take a school,place attributes, place skill points, 1-2 advantages/disadvantages and youre finished.

So the system is very good for converting something to it.

[Akumamajin]

First, I want to thank you for the positive reply :) I really appreciate that.
Oh, and happy easter ;)

madwilly2006 wrote:

I wonder if any of the other Adventure Paths would be well suited to conversion. Thoughts?

Well, than lets have a quick look at the different adventure paths, shall we?

Rise of the Runelord: Goblins in L5R? Check. Degenerated Ogers in L5R? Check. Depravity? Check. Evil Mahotsukai Overlord? Check. This one here could work really well, even if it is very dungeon crawl heavy. But you could always up the social aspects a little, after all many of the enemies could be replaced by humans who are willing to parley. But this aside it could work really well. Heck, the Runelord could even be mighty Iuchiban himself .. or an alternate Second Day of Thunder, it just depends how much you are willing to bend the canon.

Second Darkness: hmm I think that this one would be the most difficult, if not impossible, to convert. The whole cometfall thing doesn't translate very good into the setting (well, maybe a Sephirot FF VII Homage? ;D ) and the there is no darkelves equivalent. The only way I could think of would be, to give the Zokujin (coppergoblins) a much bigger role and malevolent twist. Or go the old corruption way or maybe even some big Living Darkness menace. But it would need very much editing.

Legacy of Fire: This AP could work very well. The obvious one would be to relocate the setting to the Burning Sands. Maybe one special campaign that plays during the Unicorns exodus. A more contemporary story could play everywhere in rokugan. The crab/phoenix/dragonlands must have loads of abandoned cities/villages on their borders, and the copper/iron mine there is really needed just now by your lord, with conflicts with his neighbors sweltering, so he sends you to liberate Kelmerane/Friendly Miners Town ;) The djins could be some very active elemental Kami, maybe the dark oracle of fire vs the good one of air or even some very powerful shugenja, the one representing Jahvul being thoroughly tainted.

Council of Thieves: I didn't read very much into this AP, butI think that city adventures are really easy to convert. And a place like chelix is just as poisonous as any major scorpion city. And tainted/mahowielding daimyos are common enough, so go figure :D Might be interesting to locate that to Shiro Asako with their crazy doomsayers.

King Makers: The whole unchartered land thing plagued by bandits/ronin might work very well ... and, why, even the kingdom/province building isn't that a far cry if you think it through. The fey invasion in the final could be some breaching of the spiritual barriers to the realm of the animals (chukuchido) and some Mononokehime style giant tainted warthogs or the realm of trickers (Sakkaku) and accompanying mujina, tengu, kappa and other legendary spirits flooding.

Serpents Skull: MANTIS ISLANDS AND NAGA! No really, the characters shipwreck on one of the many unchartered isles in Amatarasu Umi and find clued about the whereabouts of one of the fabled naga cities on the Isles of Silk and Spice. Of course it could refer to the shinomen mori, but that is too heavily used in the past and the mantis homelands are tropical jungles and much underused in my adventures. The naga would be the main antagonist ... and now the question is: why? Just missunderstanding? Did their antitaint thingi somehow falter and they became heavily tainted? Maybe shadow tainted and spawns of the lying darkness? Or maybe its the lost city of the chuda (snake clan), but that would be a far stretch :D

Carrion Crown: Didn't read into that one yet, need to finish Serpents Skull first, but necromancy and ghoststories play a big part in rokugans folklore, too, so I think that this AP where could give you some very good inspirations for some very interesting and spiritual stories.

Jade Regent: Frankly, even if this AP plays in an asian setting, I think it would be not that easy to work out, because it has this "Gaijins in Japan" storyline. But we haven't seen this one yet, so lets just wait and see, shall we? :)

So, and now I need some ideas for my ongoing Crimson Throne campaign. The third part of the adventure is quite clear, the arconas will be mantis lords who became replaced by rakshasa during one of their trading and exploration trips to india. But what should I do with the forth one? The barbarian tribes concept is a very alien one to the asian mindset, especially since I have located the city in the crane heart lands and not the unicorn oder dragon borderlands. So any ideas to deal with this? Just cut it? Let them explore one or two forgotten/lost temples and let it be done? Or do an extensive ratling arc where the players must gain the thrust of the ratling tribe who inhabited the lands around the city before the humans came in order to learn their oral history about the events and the location of the lion shiro lost during the first war against Fu Leng, where the legendary Katana is still hidden, that can wound the wicked oni?

Actually I am leaning a bit to the last one, but still want to brainstorm some good ideas ... and of course I am always open to anything different if it sounds fun and is interesting. To help things a bit, my version of thousand bones WAS a ratling rememberer who asked his Hiruma contacts to help him get back the memory stick of his aprentice, who got killed during the riots.

Thanks in advance :)

[John Kretzer]

Akumamajin wrote:

Jade Regent: Frankly, even if this AP plays in an asian setting, I think it would be not that easy to work out, because it has this "Gaijins in Japan" storyline. But we haven't seen this one yet, so lets just wait and see, shall we? :)

Ah...but you could easily convert it to 7th Sea.

[Akumamajin]

John Kretzer wrote:

Akumamajin wrote:

Jade Regent: Frankly, even if this AP plays in an asian setting, I think it would be not that easy to work out, because it has this "Gaijins in Japan" storyline. But we haven't seen this one yet, so lets just wait and see, shall we? :)

Ah...but you could easily convert it to 7th Sea.

Well, yes, but that you could do with any of the adventure path ;) Since our classical fantasy is modeled after european medieval times, the jump to swashbuckeling action isn't that severe then to entirely change the cultural background.

But of course, a Jade Regent 7th Sea campaign could be much fun, especially because you could explore rokugan from one most unusual point of view.