I was meaning to post this last week, but life got busy! Here's the next installment of the Legend of the Five Rings to Apocalypse World hack.
Apocalypse World is a setting of scarcity. A lot of what happens in that setting is based on the fact that resources are few and there are people competing for them. In Legend of the Five Rings, the player characters are part of the aristocracy. Want is not something that they need to worry about (with a couple of exceptions). Because of this, wealth works a little differently in my hack. Almost all characters get some wealth to play with every session, and I put together some tables for the cool things you can do with it.
Characters' uses of wealth can be found in this PDF.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
L5R to AW: Something New
Monday I covered the Basic Moves. As you saw, I added a bit to the list, but for the most part I stuck pretty close to AW's main set.
This time, I put together a little something extra, available to all samurai (not ronin, usually). These are Staff Moves. You can have several kinds of staff as a samurai:
The various effects of Staff, as well as a quickie mechanic for Favor at court, can be found in this PDF.
This time, I put together a little something extra, available to all samurai (not ronin, usually). These are Staff Moves. You can have several kinds of staff as a samurai:
- Soldiers, if you have a military rank.
- Bodyguards, for people who need assistance for defense.
- Servants, for anyone of sufficient importance.
- Aides, if you have been awarded a political position.
The various effects of Staff, as well as a quickie mechanic for Favor at court, can be found in this PDF.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Hacking Apocalypse World to Legend of the Five Rings
One of my favorite games in the last 15 years has been Legend of the Five Rings. I had a lot of fun with it when the first edition came out, and recently I started a new campaign with my regular game group. Sadly, the recent campaign ran into trouble. System trouble.
4th Edition Legend of the Five Rings really rewards system mastery. If you can figure out how to optimize your character build with skill, stats, and advantages, you can really create a powerful, or possibly overpowering, character. The makeup of my group is two players who love this part of the game, and three players who could care less about character builds. This led to a very unbalanced play group and some serious problems for my game.
After playing some Apocalypse World, I decided to hack it to L5R, because AW is right up the alley of at least one of my players. I'd like to share the hack here on the blog. This is a completely unofficial hack, I have no rights to either AW or L5R. Enjoy and share.
The first step is to convert the stats. AW has five: Cool, Hard, Hot, Sharp, and Weird. I decided to stick a bit closer to AW for this, but conveniently, there are five stats and five rings. I changed the names to fit the L5R flavor better:
The Fire ring stands for Bold. With Bold, you can defy danger and duel. Defy danger comes from Dungeon World, but I just loved that term, and it fits with Bold.
The Earth ring stands for Strong. With Strong, you can threaten violence and fight.
The Water ring stands for Elegant. With Elegant, you can seduce or manipulate or engage in a battle of words.
The Air ring stands for Sagacious. With Sagacious, you can read a person or read a situation.
Lastly, the Void ring stands for Blessed. With Blessed, you can commune with your ancestors or commune with the kami.
These actions all map pretty closely to actions in AW. I added a few, and now each ring has two actions you can undertake. I think the duel is the weakest of the new ones.
For the full Basic Move writeups, here's a PDF.
4th Edition Legend of the Five Rings really rewards system mastery. If you can figure out how to optimize your character build with skill, stats, and advantages, you can really create a powerful, or possibly overpowering, character. The makeup of my group is two players who love this part of the game, and three players who could care less about character builds. This led to a very unbalanced play group and some serious problems for my game.
After playing some Apocalypse World, I decided to hack it to L5R, because AW is right up the alley of at least one of my players. I'd like to share the hack here on the blog. This is a completely unofficial hack, I have no rights to either AW or L5R. Enjoy and share.
The first step is to convert the stats. AW has five: Cool, Hard, Hot, Sharp, and Weird. I decided to stick a bit closer to AW for this, but conveniently, there are five stats and five rings. I changed the names to fit the L5R flavor better:
The Fire ring stands for Bold. With Bold, you can defy danger and duel. Defy danger comes from Dungeon World, but I just loved that term, and it fits with Bold.
The Earth ring stands for Strong. With Strong, you can threaten violence and fight.
The Water ring stands for Elegant. With Elegant, you can seduce or manipulate or engage in a battle of words.
The Air ring stands for Sagacious. With Sagacious, you can read a person or read a situation.
Lastly, the Void ring stands for Blessed. With Blessed, you can commune with your ancestors or commune with the kami.
These actions all map pretty closely to actions in AW. I added a few, and now each ring has two actions you can undertake. I think the duel is the weakest of the new ones.
For the full Basic Move writeups, here's a PDF.
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