Mask of the Oni: An Adventure in the Shadowlands

by Tim Cox (Design/Developer), Alexis Dykema (Design/Developer), D.G. Laderoute (Writer/Developer)

Take your players into the foreboding Shadowlands with Mask of the Oni. This adventure for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game pits heroes against the dangers of the Shadowlands and the horrors found within the crumbling walls of the Hiruma family’s fallen castle. Tokens, maps, and an adventure booklet will guide players on their journey, but will they survive with their soul intact?

Genres: Role Playing Games

32 pages

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Taddow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a horror adventure of sorts where the Player Characters (PCs) travel to the tainted and evil Shadowlands of Rokugan to stop an practitioner of maho tsukai, rescue some souls trapped in limbo and perhaps even get a chance to battle a powerful Oni. The plot of the adventure is simple enough and there is some appeal, as it is a puzzle of sorts that the PCs need to figure out in order to stop the danger they face. I did find it somewhat disappointing that there were only a couple sample encounters, and some very brief descriptive text, of what PCs might encounter during their travel through the Shadowlands. This is supposed to be the most horrific place in Rokugan and I felt that it would have been good for the Gamemaster to be provided with a few more encounters (perhaps a sampling of ten or so) that could be inserted as needed. I felt that the journey portion of this adventure was kind of glossed over and thus a missed opportunity. I understand that the exploration and battles within Daylight Castle are the main course of this adventure but (while better) the encounters in this location were still lacking in really instilling fear and tension. If I was going to run this adventure, I would prepare a variety of encounters to really showcase the twisted corruption and deadliness that is the Shadowlands.

[Peter De Kinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly standard mystery scenario which can be easily tweaked to fit into any campaign. It leaves a lot of plot hooks unanswered, giving the GM plenty of possibilities to adapt it to their and their players' needs.