I ran two sessions of a new scenario this past weekend at Con of the North  in Minnesota.

The scenario, Ghostly Echoes, came about after some deep discussions with Dr. Albert Dalia (scholar of medieval Chinse history and wuxia author). I wanted to return to the supernatural like I did with A Jianghu Ghost Story but I wanted to tie it into some of the deeper wuxia themes that Albert and I had been discussing.

I really wrestled with this one. I never have a problem writing adventures, characters, scenes etc. This one was difficult. Wanted to tell a story, one of respect so profound it transcended time and even death. I also had to have player agency determine the outcome. This was the part I needed to get absolutely right or I’m just there telling a story. The player actions needed to have impact.

I was pretty terrified of running the scenario. I thought it was good. I thought it was the best one I’ve written so far but it would require clever players forming a strong empathy with a villain around mysterious drives and circumstances of a significant event of the past. Would they buy it? Would they buy-in to the emotional themes and would they risk going for the deeper understanding or just cut, punch and spell their way through the adventure? I was hoping that players would take advantage of some of the other skills some of the characters had such as Detective and Scholar.

I wrote five probable endings with one being the best and some being absolutely tragic. I’m not going to give the adventure away as I hope you get a chance to play it in some form or other in the future. I got done with the first adventure concluding with a very short three sentence epilogue and then said, “The End”.

Silence

Silence for like five unbearable seconds.

Then they all started clapping, smiling, saying “wow” and “friggin’ awesome”. It worked!  It got them in the feels and they responded.  The exact same thing happened with the second group. It showed me yet again that I can ask a lot from players and they will risk if I too will risk.  Good lesson there for me I think.

I’m working up all of these convention game scenarios as one shot adventures so you could see them in your own games if AoW does well enough.

Even though I didn’t do any conventions last year I still ended up with half of the players in each session being return players from previous years with one player having played every scenario I’ve offered (all seven!) to date.

Most of all I had a fun time running a complex and what I feel is a meaningful scenario and Art of Wuxia provided a perfect vehicle for it.

I also learned a new lesson. I’ve run Art of Wuxia convention games over 2 dozen times now. I let players take their character sheets and handouts if they like. This time, in the excitement I accidently let a couple of players take my character name tents and paper minis. I didn’t expressly tell them not too and when I was packing up my first game found I was missing some. Now, this won’t break a game of course but I find these items really handy for myself and the players to keep track of the action. A copy of the document found on a friends phone and a quick stop to get files printed saved me. Note to self: bring multiple printed backups of key items.  Lesson Learned!

 

Been a while since I’ve posted but I’ve also been very very busy.  So what state is Art of Wuxia in now?

Layout is done!  Bill Logan did an amazing job and the layout is stunning.

Cover Art is Done!  Eric Quigley did a fantastic job on the cover art. Everyone who has seen it agrees it is truly a terrific piece! I’ll share more on this when I can.

Interior Art – we have a lot of interior art and this is going to take more time. Lots more time. But it will be worth it.

Mid February! Art of Wuxia at Con of the North: details here: http://explodingdice.com/wordpress/2019/07/19/art-of-wuxia-at-con-of-the-north-2020/

That is all for now.

I’m going to step through character generation to create a complete character ready for play. I’ll link a simplified character sheet at the end.

Lets begin.

I talk with my GM to get relevant info for making my character such as what kind of things we’ll be doing, do I need to have a horse and what the other players are creating. We aren’t going to do a session zero with all the players creating characters together as the GM wants to get started right away. My GM also tells me that we are using random ability score generation.

I want to play something I’ve never played before. It is my personal preference to do this every time I make a character. I like to try new things and challenge by RPG skills. I’ve decided to play a female character.

I spend a little time perusing pictures of actors and characters of Chinese drama series. I find this picture that I like: http://www.ishaohuang.com/a/201605/2928.html
This picture will be my inspiration.

Step 1 – Roll Ability Scores

I grab 5D. D equals a 10 sided die. It is the only kind die used in this game. I roll them and get the following numbers: 33, 21, 31, 16. To each I add 30 to get my final numbers and allocate them to the four abilities.

Strength 51, Dexterity 63, Logic 61, and Willpower 46

She is not too strong, pretty quick on her feet and in thinking but lacks strong willpower. I think she is someone who has some book learning and kung fu skills but gets into trouble. She is young and not very worldly.

Step 2 – Select Skills

I select Scholar as my Primary skill (+20 bonus) and Warrior as my secondary skill (+10 bonus). I also put a level in each giving both a +10 bonus. I could switch the Primary skill to Warrior but then both of my main skills will be average. I’d like to be a little better at one thing and no one else in the group is putting anything into Scholar.

So my character has had lot of schooling and is really bright. That low willpower though has made her a bit lazy in her studies and she isn’t well respected by her teachers. She gets pulled into the antics of other students easily. My GM tells me we will have frequent delves into ancient tombs. Ok, my character’s scholarly interests lie in the ancient Ming Cultists and their treasures.

Since I chose a level in Warrior I have to choose a kung fu style. I want my character to wield a bian like the picture shows. Nobody uses that. I want to be different. Flying Serpent, Golden Fist, Judgment of the Dark Court, and Reveling Scholar all use the bian. Flying serpent sounds cool. Golden fist is taught to imperial troops. That isn’t my character so that is out. Judgement of the Dark court, um no. Reveling scholar, hey I’m a scholar. No, I don’t want to pretend I’m drunk.  I like the description of Flying Serpent and the techniques look pretty cool and it also teaches the whip! That could be cool. Ok, my character is a Warrior of the Flying Serpent Style. I choose Reverse Hold as the technique I get at level 1. I picture my character as being small and if others try to grab her she can turn the tables on them. These technique names are generic so I’m going to call my technique “Serpent Twisting Trap”! to fit with the Flying Serpent kung fu style.

Step 3 – Calculate Skill Scores

Some skills do not require training to use them. This means I can calculate scores for those skills in addition to the ones I already chose. I end up with the following:

Detective 31
Scholar 61
Scout 31
Thief 32
Warrior of the Flying Serpent Style 46 (melee), 52 (ranged)

The remaining skills all require that I put a level in them to use so I don’t record any score for them.

Step 4 – Specify Descriptors

Ok, I need one positive and one negative descriptor. I want to be able to use them every session and I want them to be fun. I think of my character pouring over old maps, dusty bamboo scrolls and old manuscripts. Hmm…maybe she has an overly sensitive nose. Maybe this would be helpful in some of those tombs to hopefully detect foul air, or even poisonous fumes. I write down, sensitive nose. Now for my negative descriptor I want something that isn’t beneficial to her. She is really small, with a cute impish face. Maybe she has an overreaction when she feels threatened. She must feel threatened sometimes. How about if she feels threatened she takes on the mannerisms of a tough male bruiser. Someone who thrusts their chest out and gets really loud as if spoiling for a fight. I write that down as her negative descriptor laughing at the scene in my head.

Step 5 – Moral Code

I’m getting a better idea of this character with each step. This will really help me nail down some important aspects of my new character. I see from the rules that one my moral aspects must be “totally”.

Let’s see. My character is a scholar, loves treasure hunting in old Ming tombs and acts like a tough male bruiser when she feels threatened. I go with somewhat kind, very unfocused, somewhat selfish (she likes treasure and finding secret knowledge), somewhat honorable (you can trust her if she gives her word) and totally brave. It isn’t that she is never scared; she has just overcompensated for her fears.

I use google translate and look up “irritation”. In Chinese that is the word Ciji (pronounced see-gee). She claims that she is actually named after the sound a water cricket makes.

Step 6 – Equipment and Coins

I get to pick six items that cost 100tls or less. In addition I roll 2D and have 3tls to spare in a small purse.

I choose a riding horse (including saddle, bag, tack and harness), survival pack (including bedroll, candles, flint & steel, 10 days rations, rope, torches and a water gourd), Paper (10) & Brush, bian, dagger and whip. The whip is concealed as a wrap around her waist. Her Dexterity isn’t high enough to fully use her whip so she subtracts 1D of damage when using it to attack. Did I just create a wuxia Indiana Jones?

Step 7 – Final Details

I go through the list and figure out all of these details:

Body points = 26
Initiative = 1
Damage Reduction = 0
Mov = 8 +5 Leap if have one CHI
CHI = 3
Bian = 46%, Dagger melee = 46%, thrown is 52%, Whip is 46%
Bian 2D+1 damage, Dagger 1D+1 damage, Whip 0D+1 damage
Unarmed is 46% at 1D+1 damage
Rank = 1
Cultivation Points = 0
Name = “Ciji”, “Water Cricket”, real name is Shi Gee
Going over the Background page I determine the following:

Ciji is Totally Brave because she has had to be. She is small, easily distracted by others and gets into trouble due to her low willpower. Also, she wants to make a living delving into extremely dangerous places.

She views being Resolute as the most important trait of the virtuous hero. Unfortunately while she views this as the most important trait it is her weakest. The second most important is being Just because no one deserves to be picked on. Truthful, hmm, that is important when dividing spoils up right?

Family and Friends

I pick three items to develop out from the Family and Friends background options.

Ciji’s family is known for running a noodle shop. Her mom’s recipes are pretty good and her father and two older brothers are hard workers. One of her brothers is really good with numbers and since he has taken over the shop’s accounting her family has been able to have a few items like occasional new cloths or meat served in home meals several times a week. Oh, and sending Ciji to school.

Ciji’s real name is Shi Gee. Family name is Shi. Mother is Shi Na, father Shi Wei, and brothers Shi Ching and Shi Niu (the numbers brother).

She has a childhood friend (fellow player character), and is a cousin to one of the other player characters.

Plot Hooks

I pick the following three:

List something that you think is true but you will learn is not.
Ciji believes that the Ming were actually misunderstood. They were powerful sorcerers but only some were tainted by evil. Most of the stories of their evil powers are likely exaggerations made up by historians trying to proclaim their expertise.

Who and why does someone want revenge on you or your family?
There is a young man, Hai Chu, in my school who I’ve shamed a few times because of my over eagerness to share what I’ve learned. What I don’t know is he comes from a family line descended from the Ming sorcerers. He secretly wishes to crush me. To do so, he will study the ways of the Ming Sorcerers and eventually turn his powers on me.

List something from your past that may come back to haunt you.
I found a Ming artifact, a small bauble anyway in the market at a curio shop. It has a symbol on it that refers to the Hai family. It looks very old. I’m sure it isn’t anything significant. I can’t wait to see what other artifacts I can find!

Simplified Complete Character Sheet

I was going to make a post today about how to create a character in Art of Wuxia. Then this got posted on DWD Studios MeWe page.

Everybody was kung fu fighting…yes, true but there’s more!

If you are familiar with fantasy or other action adventure based games you’ll find much the same things to occupy your heroes such as in-your-face-villains, scheming bureaucrats, ancient sleeping evils, dungeons and more.

And wuxia as a genre supports groups of heroes working together. And everyone will be kung fu fighting! Every beginning character starts with two skills at level 1 so they can always add kung fu to their character concept. They don’t have too. They can, and probably should because this is wuxia after all. Though I have seen very successful characters shun the martial arts for their own style of approaching action.

The GM gets plenty of help too with expanded adventure and dungeon generation tables complete with genre tropes, plots and more. Everyone is scheming. Just get a few NPCs in the story and you’ll have plenty of trouble, er…content to give your players.

I mentioned villains. We have lots of villains and they are perfectly made for escalating power levels, from lowly mooks, major NPCs and Master Villains all waiting to face off with your group. We’ve also made it easy to create the villains and give them some flavor so they’ll stand out while not wearing out your GM spending hours on stat blocks. We save the complex character development for the player characters. After all, they’ll be the stars of your stories and who wants to spend that much time on statistics for villains that are created just to be destroyed by the dozens, hundreds, or more? Probably not all at once, but still…they are easy to create and fun to run in combats.

But wait, there’s more! Besides adventure and dungeon generators, we’ve also provided several campaign starter seeds complete with ideas of how to use them over an entire story arc. We have several different styles of campaign starters. Choose one that best fits what your group wants to play, or mix ideas from two or more campaign starters. We just provide the initial push the rest will come about through play.

I mentioned dungeons earlier. Dungeons? In a wuxia game? What is this? There are plenty of dungeons in martial arts TV series and movies. Treasure Venture, House of Traps, Lord Bat, Judge Dee (the both new and old), Forbidden Kingdom. Seriously, you can’t watch wuxia movies and TV series without seeing dungeons in them. But don’t take my word for it. Take it from a wuxia expert (even though he would say he isn’t, he really is) and wuxia RPG game designer Brendan Davis: Video Dungeons in Wuxia Campaigns.

Still strapped for ideas? Here is Hint #1. Watch wuxia movies and TV series. The movies will teach you how to cook up really great villains, weapons and plots for your game. The TV series will show you how to make your adventures work with groups of characters. Players, you can find really good examples of character arcs in the TV series.

GMs – watch Lord Bat, Web of Death and House of traps for some wicked dungeon ideas.

Players – watch Strange Hero Yi Zhi Mei and The Four, (both TV series) for terrific character examples and how to work as a group yet still maintain distinctive individual heroes.

Still need more? Here is Hint #2. Westerns. Yep. Watch Wild West movies and TV shows and you then reskin them for wuxia. The sheriff becomes a magistrate. The saloon becomes a tea house, swap six-guns for kung fu, a gunfight at high noon becomes a duel to the death in a fancy courtyard. Easy!