My enthusiasm for wuxia as an art/entertainment form is large enough that most folks don’t ask me this question. Because I seem to enjoy it so much it must be good! Right? But still, it is a very qood question.

First, I think wuxia makes an excellent base for role-playing games. Wuxia books, TV series and movies are filled with perfect examples of heroes fighting villains, of adventuring bands foiling insurmountable evil and dramatic character arcs alongside outstanding action. Watching a single Shaw Brothers movie will give you a metric ton of gaming ideas, from devious plots, overt character examples, ingenious weapons, wicked traps, three dimensional battle sets and awesomely cool action.

As a GM I’ve got plenty of material to draw upon when developing adventures for my players. This works for players too. Simply watch a few movies from the genre and you’ll have a huge number of example character motivations and characteristics to draw upon.

Second, so much of the genre is already familiar to players of fantasy games. Yes, there is much that is different but I can get players to try Art of Wuxia by asking them if they like fantasy RPGs and if they would like to see what it is like with high flying kung fu action mixed in. They smile, join my table and have a darn good time. The genre is much deeper than this, of course, but getting people in the door is not as hard as other genres. At least that is what I find.

Just look at the commonalities of traditional fantasy with the wuxia genre: party of adventurers (check), delving into ancient tombs (check), fighting bad guys (check). If your wuxia has magic and monsters (and many examples do), you can see how similar it is. There are many differences and nuances but that can wait until after you have player characters swinging swords and facing master villains.

Third, the D00Lite rules used by BareBones Fantasy and Covert Ops by DwD Studios is an easy to learn game system with much more interesting combat and character development than you would think of games this size. I can teach the basics of how to play Art of Wuxia in two minutes or less. Yet my veteran players continue to amaze me with their interesting character builds and creative exploits when the action is on. It is a subtle system that I think really shines the more you play it.

Fourth, campaign play is very important to me. I simply must have a game that supports long-term play so that my players and their characters can really come together as a team and they can sink their teeth in a world rich with adventure possibilities. Art of Wuxia supports long term character growth and has many tools for the GM to build adventures, villains, monsters, treasure, traps, magic, poisons and more. It also has a setting laid out in broad terms to be developed as play continues. The setting can also be ignored for one entirely of the GM’s making. It doesn’t matter.

Fifth and final reason is that the game rules support cinematic wuxia action very very well. Player characters can wade through unimportant NPCs and have amazing battles with other kung fu experts and face off against master villains with fists, swords and spells! The game uses a press-your-luck system where defense is an action. The more offensive you take things the less you’ll have for defense. This aligns perfectly with wuxia action.

So why Art of Wuxia!? It is a game that has many good adventure sources to draw upon, ease of entry to those familiar with fantasy RPGs, a rules system that is easy to learn supports campaign play, and the action is simply beautiful!

We are currently well into testing all aspects of campaign play and the game is shaping up very nicely.