Too Much Headspace

The Dark Mirror appears to be an ornate hand mirror made of ivory, polished hardwood, and precious gems. This evil artifact is actually the product of ongoing rituals by the Spider Clan, a physical manifestation of their stated mission to hold a dark mirror up to Rokugan's culture. A person that looks into the mirror runs the risk of being possessed by the powerful Kensen inhabiting it. This possession is total; the victim's mind and soul are gone, irrevocably. At this date, it is unknown if their spirit is released into the afterlife, trapped within the mirror, or destroyed completely.

The Dark Mirror has a primal, malicious intelligence; it might choose not to possess a specific viewer, waiting for a more powerful victim to come along. Likewise, it will take the opportunity to jump to a higher status victim, but generally prefers to stay with a single host as long as it can, building a home and letting its plots mature.

The person possessed by the mirror becomes a twisted version of their previous self; the virtues they once exemplified are used to evil ends, and  their vices are magnified. A samurai once known for generosity and compassion might start giving away more than he can afford, crippling not just his own effectiveness but his lord's as well. One known for skill in battle might become bloodthirsty, while a skilled courtier uses etiquette and bureaucracy to become a bully. Whatever the specific manifestation, the ultimate goal is to pervert and undermine the principles of Bushido.

If you kill it, you become it
When the host is killed by another samurai, the Mirror immediately attempts to possess the killer; this is the most frequent way it takes a new host, often provoking a murder when it finds a promising victim. The new host may not show an immediate change in personality, as the Mirror lies low and completes its takeover.

For this reason, the Mirror does not fear "defeat"; its driving goal is the subversion of Bushido, so it cares little if a specific plot, or a useful host, is destroyed. It will gladly move onto the next host, and use that body to continue the previous plan, if possible, or "uncover" the plot to gain status and glory which help it in the next plot.

The Mirror can possess any human, but will usually not condescend to take a peasant or other non-samurai unless they have a useful position (such as head of a Ninja clan) or access to someone more powerful. If the host is killed by a non-human, it may choose to use the creature's body to reach another human, or just return to the mirror and wait.

It is unknown what would happen if its host was killed by a powerful Oni, but even the most wicked Spider shugenja are reluctant to find out.

Mechanics
Anyone that touches or looks into the mirror must succeed at a Void roll (TN 30) or become possessed. Once possessed, the mirror disappears, and reforms as an amulet around the host's neck. The amulet looks like the mirror's frame, with the victim's Clan mon where the glass should be (for an unaligned host, it forms the kanji for whichever of the Bushido virtues that host best represents).

The Mirror has full access to all the host's abilities, including Traits, Rings, Void points, Spells, Techniques, Skills, Advantages, Disadvantages, and other special abilities.

The host will usually gain a new Disadvantage, for which it receives no additional character points. The GM should select a thematically appropriate disadvantage that perverts the host's previous sense of Bushido and Honor. Other characters that knew the host's disadvantages previously do not automatically learn of this new one.

While possessed, the host does not loose any Honor for committing dishonorable acts. It still suffers Honor loss brought on by opponents' Techniques and spells, and may choose to loose Honor for acts committed in front of witnesses to maintain its cover.

When the host is killed, the killer must immediately make a Void roll (TN 30) as above or become the new host.

The only way to defeat the Mirror is to defeat it in a duel it without violating any tenants of Bushido. This does not need to be an Iaijutsu duel; Courtier, Artisan, or other contests work as well (even something as simple as a test of wills may be sufficient). If the challenger is successful, the amulet falls to the ground and returns to its original appearance; the host's body simply vanishes (it is just a reflection, after all). Anyone touching the mirror at this point risks artifact possession, as described above.

Learned this at a Cub Scout camp I used to run; I heard one of the leaders singing it with his Pack, and thought it was really cool! Found my copy of the lyrics while doing some cleaning today, and figured I should share. It's a great song for Cub Scouts or similar groups, because there are a variable number of small group breakouts. I'll get around posting the audio someday (really!); meanwhile, any basic chantey-sounding tune will work.

Chorus:
Ohhhhhh the ocean waves may roll, may roll
and the stormy winds may blow, may blow
But we great pirates go skipping o'er the top
while the land lubbers lie down below, below, below
while the land lubbers lie down below, below!

Song Leader:
When up jumped the CAPTAINS of our mighty ship -
and a mighty fine CAPTAIN were these! -
They said...

Small Group:
We care more for me GOLD and me JEWELS
Than we do for the bottom of the sea

Full Group:
[Shouted] Of the sea!

• First mates
• Deck hands
• Cooks
• Crew
• Cabin boys
• Castaways
• Swashbucklers
• Bucaneers
• Swabbies 
• Admirals

Despite being a huge L5R fan, I completely missed the release for the L5R RPG 4th Edition this summer. I just picked up a copy - my first digital-only book purchase! - and at first glance it's pretty good! There's something a little off about the style, but everything seems to hold together.

It got me thinking. The changes from 3rd Ed are fairly small or inconsequential; that is to say, there are few major core rule changes. Most of the alterations are details or simplifications. Which means it will be very easy for 3rd Ed players to change to the new rules.

More importantly to me, it means I can still tell the same stories and use the same (kinds of) characters. Sure, Mirumoto Bushi now get their second attack at Rank 3 instead of Rank 2 (Blasphemy!), but the personality, story, and role of the character is the same. Going the other direction, I can still take characters from the movies and books that inspired the style and translate them into game characters.

Contrast this with Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. The new edition introduced major changes to almost every area of the game, including some of the core, fundamental concepts that defined the style. Some of these changes were good; others...not so much. Most egregiously, you can't import classic fantasy characters into the game. Because the inspiration for the game is no longer classic fantasy; it's World of Warcraft. Don't believe me? Go stat out King Arthur, Robin Hood, or Frodo using 4th Ed rules.

Nintendo Power once asked - of the Street Fighter 2 games - at what point does a "new edition" become a "new game"? In that spirit, I thought it would be interesting to compare starting level 3rd Ed characters to their 4th Ed versions in each system. (Please forgive the crappy formatting; this is my first attempt to post from a Google Doc to the blog)

L5R:

I heard the "Greatest Generation" meme one time too many today. I'm so sick of it. Overlooking the blatant nostalgia aspect, this is an idea propagated by members of the generation in question, plus members of the following generation who grew up idolizing them. So a little bit of bias.

And what did they do that was so "great" other than fight one of the bloodiest, nastiest, ugliest wars in history, and set the stage for the next one? Look at how many of the institutions directly responsible for the current economic and military mess are headed by, owned by, or advised by "Gen Great".

That's not even my biggest problem with it. The ultimate standard of evaluation for any generation is did they leave a better world for their children? If this generation truly was the greatest, it means they raised a generation of children, and another of grandchildren, that are less great than they were.

In other words, they failed.

At the podcast "A Gobbet o' Pus" there's a great bit about the origins of capsicum as a means of resisting infectious mold: #34: Thai Food Wimp.

Apparantly the key to spicier chillies is increased parasite activity; capsicum makes the chilies more resistant, so I guess that means spicier food is more likely to be safe to eat! Don't feel like transcribing it right now, so go listen.

Red Sex, Blue Sex from the New Yorker. Interesting perspective on how sex is taught & dealt with on opposite sides of the political aisle.

Found the article on Blue Gal's blog (couple months ago; just re-found the link and decided to post it). She also has some interesting things to say about "Sex, class, and our debt to society".

Found something I liked in MovieBob's review of Orphan:

"Spooky Kid" movies, of course, belong to the subgenre of exploitation movies I've occasionally liked to call "projection monster" films - wherein the "monster" is a generalized version of a certain type of person or identity that most of us never get to "confront" the way we secretly want to; usually for purposes of social correctness (see: "Evil dad" movies, "evil cop" movies, etc.) The ultimate expression of this is the Zombie Movie, wherein the form of the monster allows for the good guys to lay indiscriminate waste to humanity itself. That's why "spooky kids" are always prim and smug, as though they're fully aware of how much you HATE bratty kids sometimes. Don't lie. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Ill-trained little rugrats running around causing chaos, screaming infants inexplicably brought into movie theaters... there are times you just fuckin' HATE children, and "spooky kid" movies are an outlet for that - particularly seeing them take the innevitable beatdown at the end (in fact, one of the few marks in "Orphan's" favor is that it has seemingly no qualms about inflicting physical harm on it's population of obnoxious tots).