has there been a creatures of rokugan conversion?


Conversions

Liberty's Edge

And if not would there be any intrest in one. I was converting it as a pet project that i just started.


I know of threads to convert 2e OA monsters to 3x on the ENWorld forums, but I don't know of a specific conversion to Pathfinder (though I'm sure somebody has it somewhere, perhaps even on this board...)

That said, many (not most) of the creatures in Rokugan were invented for that setting, and never previously existed in Japanese folklore, which for me is counter to way I want to represent monsters in a PF setting. Which is why we (Rite Publishing) will eventually create our own Kaidan bestiary.

As I mentioned on the other thread, where you discussed starting this thread - all of Kaidan's monsters currently exist only as appendix entries for monsters found in each module.

Kaidan also has racial guides for kappa, henge and tengu (from The Way of ... series). While the base kappa and tengu follow the same racial modifiers and types as per existing entries in the Pathfinder Bestiaries, our Kaidan versions extend that information, adding subtypes and more clearly defining the racial description, background fluff, religious practices, dealings with other races, size/weight tables, in addition to traits, feats, archetypes and racial paragon classes.

And in every case the monsters and the monstrous races are built from scratch based on authentic folklore origins, and not based on invented powers built solely for a given setting. Kaidan's version of Japanese monsters are more authentic than anything released from OA or Rokugan in and edition or game system.

Restated, we are not converting OA and Rokugan monsters, as we don't trust those existing builds to accurating fitting their folklore origins, so all our Japanese monsters are built to closely cleave to folklore sources for powers and society - and built from the ground up as newly created monsters with otherwise familiar names.

Liberty's Edge

while it may be the case that the creatures of rokugan do not fit in closely with their mythological origins (or lack their of) this could be a fun product and it does have utility for me now since i am running an asian themed game. I will gladly pay for the Kaidan bestiary (and plan to!) when it comes out. This is kind of a in the mean while project.

Grand Lodge

I would be interested in what you come up with, Terokai.

Grand Lodge

gamer-printer wrote:
That said, many (not most) of the creatures in Rokugan were invented for that setting, and never previously existed in Japanese folklore, which for me is counter to way I want to represent monsters in a PF setting. Which is why we (Rite Publishing) will eventually create our own Kaidan bestiary.

For example, is the Obake in Creatures of Rokugan a fictional creation based on the Devil of Kimon Mushizo from the animated motion picture Ninja Scroll (1993) rather than the Obake from Japanese folklore?


Nothing against modern film representations of folklore, but all my folklore research of any culture is primarily found in books and usually published before the 20th century. For example the most recent sources used for Kaidan material are those published by Lafcadio Hearn (Kiozumi Yagumo) in 1897, otherwise it is from material only recently translated to English, but was originally written in Japanese between the 12th and 18th centuries, and some data previous to that.

Obake is an umbrella term that essentially means 'shapeshifter' and there are dozens, if not hundreds of different types of Japanese folklore beings that are also 'obake' in addition to whatever other type of monster they are. There are undead that are obake. There are objects that are considered obake. Under D&D type/subtype system obake doesn't even fit well, without shoehorning it into multiple type categories. Obake is almost a racial class feature common to many races and monstrous beings, rather than being a specific monster.

One of my favorite sites for translated Japanese folklore is hyakumonogatari.com

Grand Lodge

Thank you for the link, gamer-printer.

Grand Lodge

Books by Lafcadio Hearn on Project Gutenberg:

Hearn, Lafcadio


On my last trip to Japan, I visited Lafcadio Hearn's home in Kyoto, Japan - its a museum now.

Other sites of interest... for feudal Japan inspiration:

Old Photos Japan is a site with a collection of postcards of Japan from 1860s to 1930s, mostly scenes that no longer exist. There's some inspiring stuff, especially of the people.

The best site on Samurai culture, feudal Japanese military history, samurai minutia is Samurai Archives.

The best site on Japanese castles is Jcastle.info

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