Rob Hobart

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For the third episode of the Bushido arc, I decided we should do a Low-Rank module specifically to make the arc accessible to secondary characters and “casualty replacement” characters who would not have been able to play in the previous modules.

Claudia and I wrestled with the design and concepts for this one a lot, more than any other module in the series. It is surprisingly difficult to find something that can genuinely scare a samurai, and harder yet to find something that will scare both the samurai and the Western human playing him in a tabletop RPG. The idea I eventually floated was to find a way of confronting samurai with the prospect of _not being samurai_ -- of being made into peasants. Claudia, in turn, came up with the idea of an out-of-control magical experiment that would interact with a covert Penaggolan to create a “living nightmare” which would play on all the innermost fears of the samurai PCs – not only my idea of them becoming peasants, but also other things such as the prospect of having inadvertently engaged in cannibalism (an unimaginable spiritual pollution in Rokugan).

This module marked the HoR2 campaign’s first and only visit to the Asahina lands, and I thought we did a good job of evoking that region’s unique combination of peaceful harmony and Crane luxury. Somewhat unusually, the typical large group of NPCs did not include any “repeats” from earlier module but instead were all newly-created – which was somewhat appropriate given that this scenario was taking place in a newly-visited location at an event with a strong religious theme, things we had not seen much earlier in the campaign. However, the module did see a return appearance by the Korede Gokko theatre troupe – I added that as part of my recurring acting-rivalry campaign subplot that would eventually culminate in the module Contest of Artistry.

This was the only appearance by a pennagolan in HoR2 (and the only appearance by a _covert_ pennagolan in either campaign – the one which appeared in HoR1’s Iuchiban climax was out in the open). Amusingly, it tended to go undetected in the vast majority of tables that played through this module... so as far as most PCs are concerned, HoR2 never featured a pennagolan at all. (In retrospect, I wish I’d found an opportunity in HoR1 or HoR2 to use the classic L5R horror scenario of a group of people snowed-in at an inn… one of whom is a vinager salesman, he classic disguise for a penaggolan.)

Overall I thought this module worked quite well, especially with the PC-specific requirement for them to overcome their greatest personal fears in order to get the magical experiment back under control. This wasn’t as traumatic for the players as some of the other tough moments in the campaign, but it definitely produced its share of vivid role-playing moments. The module did, however, suffer from an inadvertent flaw of pacing; this was due to the inclusion of a competitive tournament in the first half. Plot-wise this was necessary to justify the PCs attending the Asahina festival, but – much as with the earlier Topaz Championship – the time required to pair off, roll-out, and resolve the various competitions meant the module had a pronounced tendency to run long – often going an hour or more past the normal playing time.