I finally got my hands on a program to make pdfs. I spent a few days messing around with it and it's not 100% perfect, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This playbook was inspired by the Solace's Hx question "Are you a wolf of the maelstrom?"
It hasn't been playtested yet, so let me know if you use it and run into any issues with one of the moves.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9cu0IVYfHtiSFV1SldzQWRlZEk/edit

Brilliant idea! I'm about to run a one-shot myself and I think I might use this.

Random thought: What if the MC is simply referred to as the Shadow?

Alot of MC moves could be reconfigured to deal with how the Shadow interacts with ghosts, and some could even be made up from scratch to mimic the awful things that happen in Wraith.

I'm not sure they fit either - especially Defy Danger. Go Aggro, which depends on physical strength or the threat of such, would be more apt for Water too, I'd think.

One thing I will say in favor of using the elements versus the other style of stats is that- at least for what I'd like to accomplish in the Oriental Adventures-style hack I'm working on- it adds a different flavor, something more cosmic I guess.

More like, eastern philosophy.
I used to run L5R for newbies and the biggest hurdle for people unfamiliar with the system was that each ring had both a physical and a social component. Once you see that each ring has a philosophical idea behind it the uses behind the ring start to make more sense.

I assigned "Go Aggro" to Fire because Fire is the element of destruction. Thus most weapon skills in L5R are based off of Fire even though Earth measures raw strength. In L5R, Earth is used to recover from wounds but also for grappling and wrestling, and thus could easily apply to "Seize by Force"

If you sit down and read the descriptions of the rings, it's almost like the basic moves of AW write themselves into the rings. (I've got both the 1st and 4th edition rulebooks, and the descriptions are virtually identical.)

nerdwerds - if you look at Brennan's blog, you'll see he's done something similar to that on moves. I started off thinking that Earth, Air, Water etc would be good fits, but then read up on what Brennan had said when he decided on his stats (Strong, Bold, Elegant, Sagacious, Blessed) and it hit the mark with me. It's immediately obvious which stat governs which type of move, for example, and using the L5R stats themselves doesn't necessarily fit well - there's no need for initiative type stats in AW for example.

He still gives an elemental ring that matches with the stat though, so when you say Bold you might as well be saying Fire, and I don't think some of his moves line up with the rings very well. Now that I have my L5R rulebook in front of me, the rings seem like they match the basic moves perfectly thus:
AIR = read a person, seduce/manipulate
EARTH = defy danger
FIRE = go aggro, "duel"
WATER = read a situation, seize by force
VOID = meditate

There's only one stat that deals with initiative. More problematic to convert are the clan abilities that change turn order, or the Void abilities that reset initiative or adjust your initiative number. I think these are easy to ignore (or fix) as there are plenty of non-initiative uses for these rings and abilities.

Brennan is right about his duel move being kind of weak. In every game of L5R I've played in master duelists were to be avoided if you didn't know how to duel, but if you were matched with somebody of equal level it was a toss-up. I think the 'success/success with consequence' format of AW works well for this, because you could easily say that a PC who isn't normally a duelist fighting a master would have 'survival' as his 'success.'

"Meditate" could easily work just like "open your brain" but instead of asking questions the player could hold 2 or hold 1 and then spend 1-for-1 for:

• +1forward
• -1harm
• +1armor
• one-time use of a move from the character's own playbook
• one-time advance of a basic move (before it's rolled)

Pretty simple really. YMMV.

This is a great idea! Though I think the traditional playbook structure wouldn't be appropriate for character creation. Maybe each clan/school has it's own moves?

Read the blog post a little closer, the Grotesque description tells you to visit the website and follow instructions.

I haven't uploaded anything to google docs if it was already available elsewhere, I'm only supplying the links. ;)