[OSSR]Creatures of Rokugan

[Silent Wayfarer]

So only slightly less pointless than the 40k tournaments where you "alter the story" and what that apparently means is "And Chaos win this particular battle for Planet Whogivesafuckius IX, and the planet remains at war for ever!"

Is it actually possible for a company that runs tournament things to actually show some spine and go with whatever crazy results happen?

I believe the result was the Crabs allying with the Shadowlands because at that time, Crab+Shadowlands decks won.

Of course I don't know the CCG all that well. I came aboard just before 3e hit the shelves.

[tussock]

WotC is running the "you can influence the future direction of the Realms" sell with their encounters seasons. It's bullshit there too: not only is the module a typical FR railroad, but you can't all do the same cool thing and change the world, and even if you did they could ignore it. But hey, suckers loved the Pathfinder playtest, so why treat people like they're intelligent instead?

[Username17]

I believe the result was the Crabs allying with the Shadowlands because at that time, Crab+Shadowlands decks won.

The really weird part of that was: the Shadowlands cards you wanted to use for Crab actually didn't cost any honor. They didn't require you to sacrifice humans or allow demons to rape and eat your villagers. They were just Gaijin who happened to be non-humans born on the far side of the wall. Crab actually started with a fairly low base honor, so they were running a pretty narrow honor budget. You could use a few things that cost honor, but they had to be cheap like raising a force of mindless skeletons to pad your ranks or mujina to boost your cavalry presence. Crazy shit like corrupted mines, festering pits, and province devastating oni just weren't on the table. You literally could not afford to be seen with them.

So the devs responded to the fact that Crab players went all-in on honor neutral ogres and oni by... declaring that retroactively dealing with such things was totally evil and had been the whole time and now your main personalities are having their faces melting off because fuck you for actually playing in-character as pragmatists who fight alongside non-human allies and kicking everyone's asses with it.

They later did pretty much the same thing to the Phoenix. They offered them the ability to have their mages cost less in exchange for putting a token on them that labeled them Shadowlands. They didn't lower their honor or anything, just made them susceptible to Jade. Then when the players dared to actually use this ability to do well in tournaments, the devs announced that the Phoenix had turned evil and now their experienced personalities had contracted shadowlands-AIDS and go fuckyourself.

It was very weird.

Meanwhile, the first story tournament was actually won by turbo-evil Scorpion. Scorpion clan was actually considerably better than Yogo-Junzo's army of shadow, because they had nearly unbreakable provinces until their honor fell below critical threshold, at which point it didn't matter how strong their provinces were because they had an army of evil. Also, they could and did throw around honor loss effects to great effect. So what did the forces of evil get for winning the first tournament? The Crane got a bunch of anti-shadowlands stuff because they came in second in the same tournament. That's... pretty much it. The actual forces of evil won, and the people who actually allied with them to make that happen in the tournament didn't get anything or become any more corrupt, and the second place faction got sweet benefits and advanced in the storyline. WTF?

-Username17

[OgreBattle]

So only slightly less pointless than the 40k tournaments where you "alter the story" and what that apparently means is "And Chaos win this particular battle for Planet Whogivesafuckius IX, and the planet remains at war for ever!"

The Eye of Terror summer campaign's results actually changed the Dark Eldar from "we exist to kill craftworld Eldar and will ally with chaos to do so!" to "We are the craftworlder's cousins and help them fight against chaos, when we finish with that we occasionally fight one another!".

[Username17]

So only slightly less pointless than the 40k tournaments where you "alter the story" and what that apparently means is "And Chaos win this particular battle for Planet Whogivesafuckius IX, and the planet remains at war for ever!"

The Eye of Terror summer campaign's results actually changed the Dark Eldar from "we exist to kill craftworld Eldar and will ally with chaos to do so!" to "We are the craftworlder's cousins and help them fight against chaos, when we finish with that we occasionally fight one another!".

But again, there wasn't any criteria for that to happen. The writers of canon looked at a bunch of tournament results and wrote some canon based on whatever features they noticed that happened to inspire them to write something. If Craftworld and Dark Eldar had teamed up more or less often during the campaign that would not have made the difference in whether the Dark Eldar had some new fluff written for them. But if one of the writers had been inspired to write about Tyranids instead of Dark Eldar, that would have.

These "story events" are essentially completely fake. It's exactly like Apocalypse World. Your team can "lose" and have that be interpreted as "barely holding onto the planet," or they can "win" and have that be interpreted as "escaping with their lives as the planet is lost." There's no standards for what victory or defeat actually mean, and the end results are essentially completely consistent with the writers drawing up the plotline in advance and just post hoc justifying it by whatever features in the games they choose to highlight.

-Username17

[Silent Wayfarer]

The really weird part of that was: the Shadowlands cards you wanted to use for Crab actually didn't cost any honor. They didn't require you to sacrifice humans or allow demons to rape and eat your villagers. They were just Gaijin who happened to be non-humans born on the far side of the wall. Crab actually started with a fairly low base honor, so they were running a pretty narrow honor budget. You could use a few things that cost honor, but they had to be cheap like raising a force of mindless skeletons to pad your ranks or mujina to boost your cavalry presence. Crazy shit like corrupted mines, festering pits, and province devastating oni just weren't on the table. You literally could not afford to be seen with them.

So the devs responded to the fact that Crab players went all-in on honor neutral ogres and oni by... declaring that retroactively dealing with such things was totally evil and had been the whole time and now your main personalities are having their faces melting off because fuck you for actually playing in-character as pragmatists who fight alongside non-human allies and kicking everyone's asses with it.

Huh, so that's the mechanical reason behind it. Good to know. It even makes sense in the RPG because the Kuni had Hida's explicit remit to study the Taint in whatever form they deemed necessary (note that most of the oni are named after Phoenix or Crab shugenja).

That said, it's the sort of thing I'd expect from isolated Taint-addled madmen, not the clan as a whole and the Clan Champion sacrificing his youngest son to make a battle standard and having his eldest give his name to an oni. So yeah, utterly retarded.

Meanwhile, the first story tournament was actually won by turbo-evil Scorpion. Scorpion clan was actually considerably better than Yogo-Junzo's army of shadow, because they had nearly unbreakable provinces until their honor fell below critical threshold, at which point it didn't matter how strong their provinces were because they had an army of evil. Also, they could and did throw around honor loss effects to great effect. So what did the forces of evil get for winning the first tournament? The Crane got a bunch of anti-shadowlands stuff because they came in second in the same tournament. That's... pretty much it. The actual forces of evil won, and the people who actually allied with them to make that happen in the tournament didn't get anything or become any more corrupt, and the second place faction got sweet benefits and advanced in the storyline. WTF?

-Username17

I heard that at one point Shawn Carman (or John Wick or whoever the Boss Writer was) had potential story prizes prepared for every Clan in case they won. He tore them up one by one as they advanced through the tournament, then tore up the last one and improvised a new development on the spot. What do you know about this?

[angelfromanotherpin]

I heard that at one point Shawn Carman (or John Wick or whoever the Boss Writer was) had potential story prizes prepared for every Clan in case they won. He tore them up one by one as they advanced through the tournament, then tore up the last one and improvised a new development on the spot. What do you know about this?

That was the first climactic storyline tourney, Second Day of Thunder. The final players were Lion and Crane and they specifically declared before they started to play that they wanted to cooperate against the Shadowlands, so Wick scrapped the two remaining endings and cobbled together an improvised joint victory version. I suspect it wasn't particularly different from any of the other versions, honestly.

Here's a report from someone who was there.

[Username17]

That was the first climactic storyline tourney, Second Day of Thunder. The final players were Lion and Crane and they specifically declared before they started to play that they wanted to cooperate against the Shadowlands, so Wick scrapped the two remaining endings and cobbled together an improvised joint victory version. I suspect it wasn't particularly different from any of the other versions, honestly.

Here's a report from someone who was there.

That's the whole problem with the black and white morality thing. By making the villains face meltingly, kitten eatingly, village slaughterly evil, there was never any motivation to not declare for the grand alliance to "fight the shadow." The whole game is about conflict between the clans, so by casting that conflict as completely trivial in the face of a much larger external menace, they trivialized the thing you're actually doing in the game.

What they needed was a whole range of villainous and non-villainous shadowlands stuff. Which of course is what they appeared to have in the first couple of sets, with like Crab Clan Onis and zero honor-loss Ogre Bushi, and losing honor for allying with Hawk Riding Gaijin and shit. But then they walked all that shit back and just painted everything "Shadowlands bad!" And that made all moral questions into non-questions and trivialized most of the in-game decisions.

-Username17

[fectin]

Or, you know, because of this:
http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#car ... printing=2

and this:
http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#car ... printing=2

and this:
http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#car ... printing=2

and this:
http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#car ... printing=2

[Username17]

fectin, you understand that the Hida Yakamo / Hida Yakamo thing is a misprint, right? Writing that shit about Oni name stealing into canon wasn't clever, it was hubris.

-Username17

[fectin]

Yes.
But the "Crab Clan Oni" part was not a misprint. Nor was actual-Yakamo's crazy crab hand. Nor was Yori's obvious evil. Nor was Sukune's flavor text.

[Ancient History]

Creatures of Rokugan Continued
Shiyokai to Zokujin


This is one of the things you get when you image search the shuten doji. Also you get cartoon porn. Because Japan.

Music:Battlecry by Nujabes.

This is the last section of A-Z monsters, but there is another bunch of pages for templates and shit, so this is the second to last portion of the review.

FrankT:

Shiyokai is a compound word that comes from “Shi,” meaning “Death” (or less likely: “the number 4,” “Mister,” or “City.”) and “yokai” (meaning “monster”). It's a pretty generic name, you could call pretty much anything a “death monster.” It doesn't even specify whether it's a monster that is of or from death (like an undead thing) or a monster that brings or causes death (like, well, pretty much any monster at all). So you really could lay down the gauntlet here and name anything a Shiyokai and no Japanese person would tell you that you were wrong.

Anyway, this particular Shiyokai is an evil spirit that haunts the land of dreams and steals peoples' dreams. Like the Baku mentioned earlier, it's CR 3. And like the Baku mentioned earlier that is like six levels earlier than characters in this ruleset can actually do anything at all with the land of dreams. The land of dreams is, in D&D terms, a high level zone. And without seriously radical changes to the abilities characters get, that's the way it's going to stay. But this book apparently thinks that players can go around having adventures in the land of dreams at 3rd level. They really, really can't.

The thing is, this creature is really based around being incorporeal and casting at-will sleep. Which means that if you did encounter it at 3rd level it would probably slam dunk the entire party. But if you encounter them at any kind of level you could remotely be expected to actually get to the places this monster lives, they'll be a complete joke. The hit die limit on their sleep spell doesn't even go up that high.

But these bad boys don't just underline how little the writers understand the gamescape of d20 Oriental Adventures, they also underline a major design problem in 3rd edition D&D rules: Undead are immune to mind magic including sleep and dream magic. I think the level you put the dream world at is pretty much arbitrary. You could have a game where the characters did dream world fighting early in their careers and then at higher levels they were fighting in volcanoes and shit. Or you could do the opposite, either one is fine. D&D rules put the dreamscape as an upper mid-level battlefield, and that makes as much sense as anything else. But I think we can all agree that “ghost who haunts your dreams” is a thing that should exist. Maybe you want it to be a 1st level obstacle, maybe you want it to be a 19th level obstacle, but you want it somewhere. And with the Undead type as written in 3rd edition Undead can't sleep or dream, and that's bullshit.

AncientH:

I'm at odds as to whether the fundamental disconnect is between the D&D worlds and Rokugan (i.e. the setting is a bad fit to the format), or just a fundemental disconnect between how L5R is supposed to work and how it actually works. You have to remember that for at least a large chunk of the game it's ostensibly set in "magical ancient mythical Japan" which has a sort of faerie-tale-esque quality to it because it never fucking happened. People really do forget that bushido is a modern invention, and before the introduction of firearms the primary Japanese samurai weapon was the bow and arrow; swords were last-ditch hand-to-hand weapons and real samurai liked to kill their peasants from a safe distance.

Which is a long way to say, in L5R you are supposed to sort of be able to more or less walk between the different realms in the cosmology; planar travel magic exists but it's not supposed to be this big high-level thing. Spirits from the other realms tend to come to Erf Ningen-do all the fucking time. Hell, most of the monsters in this book are really spirits of some realm or other.


Sodatsu no Oni is listed as a Huge aberration, but according to the art and description it's really a magic-absorbing ooze that hits you with its pseudopods and, for reasons not adequately explained, has Craft (trapmaking) +5.

Actually, let's look at that for a moment. It's a CR 9 critter with 8 HD and Int 10, and its two highest skills are Listen +8 and Spot +8. That puts it about even with a 1st or 2nd level human Rogue; any ninja worth their salt should be able to waltz past this guy in a neon kimono. What the fuck is the point of giving this critter skills at all if they're not equivalent to those any PC it might face has?

Another piece of bullshit, the Shield (Ex) power.

Shield (Ex): A Sodatsu no Oni is capable of creating a shield on one side, using stolen magical energy. As a partial action, Sodatsu no Oni can prevent attacks on one side of its body for the next two rounds. During this time, all attacks on that side automatically fail. Only one shield can exist at a time, and the oni must wait a round after the shield lowers before raising it again.

I hope somebody gets this reference.

This is a terrible ability. It's just a Mister-Cavern-Fuck-With-You ability. It's Exceptional, even though it uses magic, so it isn't subject to dispelling or antimagic. It's impenetrable, which isn't how shields work and is just annoying. It also doesn't specify what counts as a "side," so while most people would think "left and right," there's nothing to say it couldn't by "front and back." I honestly can't tell if this shit happened because the writers were genuinely fucking with people or truly ignorant of how the rules work.

FrankT:

The Spirit Hound is the ghost of a brave and loyal wardog slain in battle. It's listed as a Magical Beast. You'd think that it would be an Undead, but it's not. This is the problem with 3e types, right here. A bunch of baggage
got put on the Undead and then you have fucking ghosts that don't get the Undead type because you don't want them to be laden down with all that bullshit baggage.

In other news, despite being the souls of brave and loyal war dogs with an honor of 1, spirit hounds look like wolves and are neutral evil killers who only listen to commands from beings who live in the realm of slaughter. I... don't know. Really seems like there were a couple of different ideas that people were working with and you ended up with a schizophrenic entry.

AncientH:

Swamp goblins are one of the type of goblins in this book. I should say "Goblin with a capital G" because this is Oriental Adventures and these things are distinctly not goblinoids like the Goblin, Blue, or Hobgoblin, but a completely different OA thing, because when they were translating Japanese myth back in the Victorian Era they seized on the faerie term "Goblin" for some of the monsters.

I should also note that despite the name, like Mountain Goblins, Swamp Goblins aren't actually Goblins Goblins. The Real, True Goblins are called Bakemono; Swamp Goblins look like gremlins from the movie Gremlin.





That shit is uncanny.

Anyway, swamp goblins are CR 1/2 benign swamp-dwelling small humanoids that have to keep their gills wet; despite not being actual goblins the flavor text explains that "Swamp goblins are smarter than normal goblins."

Also CR 1/2 but substantially more difficult to kill are Swamp Spirits, which are thematically weak corrupted nature spirits and game-standpoint three-hit-kill will-o'-the-wisp substitutes. They should probably be rated as CR 1, since they have spell like abilities, 9 hit points and AC 18, but you can actually hit them. I'm guessing they're considered CR .5 because their main attack is a weak (+1, 1d2 damage) slam, but they also do 1d4 points of fire damage on contact with a chance of setting you on fire. Amazingly, it notes that they can't ignite dead or inorganic material, so I don't even.

FrankT:

The Takesasu is a small plant that stings people. Seriously. It's evil, but it's also mindless. It's an environmental hazard more than a creature, and probably shouldn't have a creature writeup at all.

But the Tanuki are much more interesting. First of all, what Tanuki actually are in Japanese myth is magical raccoon dogs that have the ability to shape shift their nut sacks into all kinds of amazing shapes and do magical things with their nut sacks.


I didn't make that up.


Miyazaki made a children's cartoon about the Tanuki and their amazing nut sacks. Seriously. That is a thing that happened.

Now, writing for a western audience, you can imagine why they might not want to go to print with a magical beast whose primary power is the ability to play Plastic Man with their scrotum. I don't think that would have gone over super well with North Americans. But what they ended up going with was to announce that Tanuki were... badger spirits. You know, like the Mujina actually are in stories. But in L5R land, the Mujina are called Tanuki and the Tanuki are called “not appearing in this game.”

The actual mechanics here are not all that interesting. They are one hit die fey, and the book reminds us that this is before 3.5 got rid of the Shapechanger type. This is also before Level Adjustment, so these guys make for a pretty decent characters. Special bonus points for the book apparently thinking that badgers are canines. I don't even know what to say to that.

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[/img]
This is the “Tanuki” in Creatures of Rokugan. It is a picture of a Mujina and not a picture of a Tanuki.

AncientH:

There are a lot of undead in this game, and there are a lot of critters that are spirits of the departed that went to one of the spirit realms when they died and is now a different sort of critter that is more or less explicitly not undead, although in the west we might call that splitting hairs. Anyway, all the proper undead in L5R have a connection to the Shadowlands/Jigoku, just like proper undead in D&D have a connection to the Negative Energy/Material Plane. Well, mostly; some are tied to the Plane of Slaughter or whatever.

The long story short is that a lot of these critters fall somewhere between D&D outsiders and D&D undead, and nowhere is this more obvious than with the Toshigoku Spirit. These CR5 guys are incorporeal undead spirits with outsider traits. They're not bad monsters, just sort of needlessly complicated in a way spectral samurai shouldn't be.


Really, I just want Ninja Spawn.

FrankT:

Remember how back when we were in the “Ms” we talked a bit about the “Marsh Troll?” Well, now that we are in the “Ts” we are discussing the “Troll, Rokugani.”

Trolls are large, flabby, green-skinned humanoids that live deep in the swamps and seas of the Shadowlands.

Earlier in this review I said something to the effect that the number of authors they had on this project was manageable. But while I stand by that statement, it's important to note that it was not, in fact managed. Information in this book is repeated and contradicted several times. It's a small enough anthology that I genuinely don't understand why it was unclear who was writing about trolls or who was writing about the First Oni or any of that shit. It's like the writers were just sending in monster entries as they thought of and finished them rather than writing out a monster list and then assigning writing duties to the different writers. I... have no idea why you'd do it like that.

AncientH:

Trolls were one of the Five Races (Trolls, Kenku, Ningyu, Zukijin, and Kitsu) who basically set shit up so humanity could live on earth. This is different from the Nezumi, Naga, and Ashalon who also predated the arrival of humanity, and the Ogres came along and wrecked shit...y'know, it doesn't matter. Trolls were retconned into the five race alliance because a fifth race was needed; they were supposed to have an affinity for fire magic, because the Copper Goblins already had the Earth affinity and Kenku were birds so of course they got Air and the Ningyu were mer-people so they got water, and then the Kitsu...uh...were lion-people who got Void. Yeah, I dunno either. So the Trolls were supposed to be a great race of fire-wielding badasses back in the day, but then Fu Leng came and wrecked their shit and they turned into inbred hillbilly versions of themselves.


Tsuchimon are so close to being a regular D&D critter I almost wonder if they didn't wander in from another product. They're large aberrations that live underground and eat gold like cats eat catnip, and to about the same effect. They're probably the most steal-able critters in the entire book.


The tsuminagi or "blood eel" also looks like it came in from another product...but one from AD&D. It's a classic trap monster; a tiny aberration that hides in the trees and drops on unsuspecting adventurers who didn't think to wander around the forest tapping things with 10-foot poles. It latches onto your dick and starts sucking blood like a leech, so I don't know why they call it an eel.


Few horror movies can approach the level of real, visceral horror that comes from using live leeches on set.

FrankT:

The Tsuno are... well... no one ever gave a damn about the Tsuno. They were like water buffalo minotaurs that ran around in the Shadowlands cutting shit up with big edged weapons. Which means that they were pretty much exactly minotaurs that happened to look a little bit Asian. They get a writeup in the Oriental Adventures book, but no one actually cares because, well, no one actually cares about the Tsuno. Then... shit got weird. Like, really weird.

The Tsuno got retconned and retconed again to have a more complicated backstory. Despite the fact that they are shadowlands cards that will only attach to shadowlands personalities and are thus the most shadowlandy shadowlanders who ever shadowlanded in the shadowlands, we are told that they are in fact not shadowlands creatures. Which is a major departure from their cards and the writeup in the Oriental Adventures core book. In the retrocontinuity, they are an ancient race who got the shaft from the lion furries in the ancient past and lived in some spirit world or another and now really hate the Lion Clan because they found out that some of them may have fucked some cats with racist facial hair at the dawn of time.

None of this makes any sense. It's way too fucking complicated, and I can't take these assholes seriously as major villains, no matter how much they look like Uncle Deadly. There is a separate monster entry for the elite soldiers and the shugenja. The elite soldiers have a favored class of samurai and the shugenja have a favored class of shugenja. That makes very little sense on a bunch of levels.



A Tsuno Soultwister, which is what they call their spellcasters.

AncientH:

It gets worse: according to the retrocontinuity, the Tsuno are members of the Kitsu who fucked everything up for the five-race alliance and now pay for it by looking like Lady Gaga had clone-babies with Lon Chaney, Jr.

The Ubeme or "Mourning Ghost" is exactly what it says on the tin. Most cultures have some stereotypical "ghost of a woman who was mourning," and this is exactly that. Some get specific like La Llorna, but the Ubeme is a catch-all. Unlike most of the rest of the undead in this book, this one has no Shadowlands connection. That feels like an oversight.

FrankT:

The Uragiri is literally a unique dude, named Uragiri. He doesn't have stats. “Uragiri” means “Betrayal” in Japanese, because our villains are not terribly originally named. I think it's important to note that before he betrayed everyone and ran off into the Shadowlands to become a tentacle monster, he was already named Kitsu Uragiri. That is possibly supposed to be some kind of in-joke, but it's basically like rolling up to an AD&D game with an assassin named “Party Betrayal Character.”


Sadly, the actual Uragiri's face is less interesting.

You don't get to fight the original Uragiri because he doesn't have stats. And he doesn't have stats because despite the fact that Rokugan is basically a pretty low level setting, the writers really get pissed off when they think that player characters might actually accomplish something against any of the named characters in the setting. What you do get to face is the youma he makes because he is a Sailor Moon mid-season-boss. These things are called “Uragirimono,” which basically means “Betrayal Thing” and is thus they way you say “Betrayer” (as in: someone who betrays, rather than the betrayal itself). They are tentacles that burrow into corpses and then walk them around until it's time to explode into tentacles. So... basically they are the monsters from the grosser part of the tentacle hentai genre.

They don't really have stats either, but they do have abilities? They crawl into corpses and turn the corpses into fast zombies, and they ride around inside being mostly protected from harm.


This is the card in question, but it seems to refer to the tentacle-face dude as “Uragirimono” rather than “Uragiri.” Also he's clearly a samurai, while the book claims he's a shugenja. You know what? Fuck it. Next monster.

AncientH:

Wondrous Netsuke are basically Figurines of Wondrous Power with stats. The L5R people like to talk about magical items (nemuranai, but very rarely like to actually have players use or handle them. They kinda feel like that yeah, technically smiths should be able to turn out magic katanas and shugenja can make weird magical fans and trinkets and stuff, but they get really uptight when PCs deign to want to build their own instead of getting a gift from the gods or something. In this respect, I think d20 was a good thing for L5R, because it got them to loosen up on it a little; sure they might not like PCs making magic items, but they're ingrained in the system and they got to make a bunch of stupid feats about it, and as a consequence of this making magic items in subsequent L5R RPGs became (slightly) easier.

Anyway, these guys require shugenja to spend 7000 koku (gold coin equivalent to a year's worth of rice) and 600 XP, and you need both the Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Talisman feats, because...um...y'know, I don't know. Talismans were these little one-shot fire-and-forget magic items that were like potions except you could make them at 1st level. They're maybe the one /good/ thing about OA, because they were some of the simplest and cheapest magic items to make. Check this shit out. A one-shot cantrip costs 25 koku and 1 XP. That's cheap enough to actually be useful.

FrankT:

The original set allowed you to hire barbarians who rode exotic flying beasts. This cost you honor. Because they were barbarians, not because they were evil. One of the creatures was the “wyrms” which were tiny flying dragons that mountain barbarians rode around on. The wyrms get a writeup in this book and they have gotten “all weird.” Now they are nearly mindless, full of elemental magic, and controlled by special amulets. Honestly, I have no idea why any of that happens. They were just mini-Gyrados, I don't understand why you would try to write them to be more or less than that.

AncientH:

It gets weirder, because it's now been decided that wyrms are captured ryu spirits. Ryu means dragon. So basically, there are little elemental dragon spirits wandering around that you can't see, and the barbarians figured out how to tie them into amulets and make ride-able versions that eat people. How have these assholes not conquered Rokugan yet? I want to ride the wyrm!

Yokai is, as we said, a generic Japanese word for "monster." The Rokugani even use it in that sense, but it's also a specific type of undead monster. Except when I say "undead," the person that created them is still alive. It's like when Dante stuck his mortal enemies in hell so that they could start their suffering early even as they were walking around and talking. You're supposed to hire an exorcist to get rid of them when they possess people, but there's literally three different ways given to do that, like somebody started writing this, went away for a couple beers, then came back like they forgot what the hell they had just written.

FrankT:

The Zashiki Warashi are the Kodama from Princess Mononoke.


Kodamas in the wild.

The actual sound which is legendarily associated with ghosts living in trees is made by a beetle. But actually, that's just the art, which is in no way actually associated with the Zashiki Warashi, which in both mythology and this book is an undead child that causes mischief. There's no specific reason for a Kodama to be shown here, and even less reason for it to be labeled “Zashiki Warashi” like it is in this book. I assume that someone screwed up the art labeling and it just went to print like that because “fuck it.”

AncientH:

Zemmensonsou are Shadowlands-corrupted siege weapons, because Alderac couldn't let Games Workshop have all the fun.


Legend of the Five Rings is the only card game I know of to get a cease-and-desist from the Olympics, because they hold an eternal right to all images of five interlinking rings. Because the Olympics are terrible.

They give these things Japanese names, which is weird because nobody knows what the fuck they are and so they have to give them the English equivalent names too. It's not that Asian nations lack specific names for their war engines, it's just that most gaijin/gweilo don't know what they mean by "Skybridge" and "Turtle Ship." The only thing they don't bother giving a foreign language title to is the Monstrous War Machine of Fu Leng.


It's basically a medieval tank that drains life.

Next up are templates and general rumination on the place of this book in the grand scheme of things.

[Silent Wayfarer]

The Zemmensensou sounds like zenmen sensou or roughly, "total war". Kind of works because it's a war machine but it just feeds into the whole "Japanese name that sounds cool to nonspeakers but is actually kind of silly when you know the meaning" theme that a lot of L5R stuff has. The Tsuno have horns. Tsuno means... horn.

And they seem to be a product of the post-Scorpion Clan Coup era, where everything's made up and history doesn't matter.

[Prak]

We may be looking at different printings of the book, but Uragiri(/mono) totally has stats. Page 76.

[tussock]

#Silent. Japanese spoken words mean what they say. The only reason English words don't do exactly the same thing is because we've lost the connection to root words through vowel shifts, consonant addition and deletion, high-brow spelling, and agglomeration from everyone who moved in.

"Cow" is just what happens when you translate "Moo" across several languages over thousands of years. So is "Bovine" and "Beef". "Calf" is a terrible corruption of a word that meant "Horn" in it's original time and place, and still does in some languages. "Bull" either came from "puffed up" or "roaring", which went through a phase of being the same thing so it's hard to tell.

But that's all mundane, you say. "Chimera" means "year-old she-goat". Because older words were more specific, and that one's really old. Yes, the original story was probably just him killing a goat.


Fun: Jesus means God's Savior in Aramaic. Christ means the Savior in ancient Greek. Messiah means smeared in old Hebrew, symbolically referring to anointing, where the anointed one was God's Savior.

So "Jesus Christ the Messiah is our Savior", means God's Savior the Savior the Savior from God is our Savior. So what things "mean" as a word is really quite different to what they mean as a modern construct, and are usually pretty stupid when you get down to it.

[Blasted]

Just because I've spent too many years studying ancient languages to let it past: christos means anointed in classic greek. And I believe Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, but my Hebrew is minimal.

[momothefiddler]

christos means anointed in classic greek.

Just like with Messiah. In fact, "Christ" and "Messiah" are generally considered valid translations of each other. tussock skipped that step, though.

And I believe Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, but my Hebrew is minimal.

Jesus is a (poor) transliteration of Yeshua, which was a shortening of Yehoshua (itself transliterated as Joshua). Yehoshua is a combination of Yah (a name of god) and Hoshea (salvation).

What I'm saying is, you're both right.

[Avoraciopoctules]

I actually have a copy of this book even though I never saw a L5R card in my life. My favorite monsters were Pekkle no Oni (shapeshifting spies who can mind-control people who drink their blood), Mokumokuren (guardian ghost bound to a tablet, appears as a swarm of glowing eyes with sorta-gaze attacks), and, uh... it looks like the big burly oni with 4 flaming tongues might have been in a different book.

It was an alright deal for 5 bucks, I've used a few ideas from it. Certainly wouldn't have paid full price though.
EDIT: Akuma no Oni actually had 3 tongues, looks like.

[Prak]

One of the things i love in monster books for the sheer absurdity of it is when the picture shows a completely different creature than three text describes. So the tsuchimon is amazing for how much of a discrepancy it shows.

[Schleiermacher]

EDIT: Akuma no Oni actually had 3 tongues, looks like.

Akuma no Oni? "Demon of demon"?

[Silent Wayfarer]

EDIT: Akuma no Oni actually had 3 tongues, looks like.

Akuma no Oni? "Demon of demon"?

Summoned and named by Isawa Akuma. L5R oni gain power by taking a name.

#Silent. Japanese spoken words mean what they say. The only reason English words don't do exactly the same thing is because we've lost the connection to root words through vowel shifts, consonant addition and deletion, high-brow spelling, and agglomeration from everyone who moved in.

Well, the point I was trying to make is that a lot of L5R's naming is made of bad Japanese puns with poor grammar. Like how a WFRP module can call its main villain "betrayer" in German. Or something.