WuXia Hero

[UltraRob]

Hi All,

 

I just finished the core version of a page set up for my own WuXia (Chinese Fantasy) HERO campaign, and about Chinese WuXia gaming in general. If you're interested drop on by at:

 

http://www.geocities.com/rpatersonca/WuxiaHeroIndex.html

 

Questions and Comments are of course welcome.

 

UltraRob

[ghost-angel]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Looks good, looks like a bunch of research was done.

 

If I weren't sure that some of those I play with wouldn't destroy the entire concept in three milliseconds I'd try it out

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Looks good, looks like a bunch of research was done.

 

If I weren't sure that some of those I play with wouldn't destroy the entire concept in three milliseconds I'd try it out

 

Thank you kindly.

 

This is just the start of the page, I plan to keep expanding it and putting up articles as time allows...I really want to put up articles on Chinese culture and of course lists of Qi Techniques, Funky Weapons and Characters.

 

UltraRob

[Dust Raven]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Excellent!

 

I love Wuxia games, though I tend to play them with a slightly anime bent to them.

 

Keep us posted on updates!

[pinecone]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Looks cool...I'm guessing that you are useing hard/soft instead of internal/external? I've always included both sets of concepts as in my fevered mind they are differant. Please let us know how things are going....

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Looks cool...I'm guessing that you are useing hard/soft instead of internal/external? I've always included both sets of concepts as in my fevered mind they are differant. Please let us know how things are going....

 

Thanks, but in my own research I have found that hard/soft and external/internal seem to be used interchangably. I make no claims to be an expert, but I always thought that "hard" martial arts were focussed on outward expressions and development of Qi, whereas "soft" martial arts tended to emphasize internal focus and development of Qi. (There is even an article about my thoughts on it on my site under The WuXia Campaign.)

 

If this is incorrect, someone is welcome to correct me, I would be curious to know how they are different.

 

Rob

[Gary]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

UltraRob, are you a member of SPCnet? I love that site.

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

UltraRob' date=' are you a member of SPCnet? I love that site. [/quote']

 

My Monkey Genius friend, that is one of my most favorite sites on the Internet since I discovered it! Mollelion and the others who devote their time to translating WuXia novels for us are saints! ^__^

 

Do you read any of their translations? I read Return of the Condor Heros and The Adventures of Lu XiaoFeng.

 

Rob

[Gary]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

My Monkey Genius friend, that is one of my most favorite sites on the Internet since I discovered it! Mollelion and the others who devote their time to translating WuXia novels for us are saints! ^__^

 

Do you read any of their translations? I read Return of the Condor Heros and The Adventures of Lu XiaoFeng.

 

Rob

 

I've read pretty much all their translations. Athena has actually completely translated an entire Gu Long novel there. I'm hoping that when summer arrives, the translators will continue and finish a couple more.

 

Also, the d-addicts site has already fansubbed 28 episodes of Duke of Mount Deer. And they release these suckers pretty quickly.

 

If you like ROCH, Live Evil has released 22 episodes of the anime. It follows the story fairly closely until they hit Passion Valley. They've done a great job with it.

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

I've read pretty much all their translations. Athena has actually completely translated an entire Gu Long novel there. I'm hoping that when summer arrives, the translators will continue and finish a couple more.

 

Really? Which novel did she complete? You're not talking about the 1st Lu XiaoFeng novel, are you?

 

Also, the d-addicts site has already fansubbed 28 episodes of Duke of Mount Deer. And they release these suckers pretty quickly.

 

If you like ROCH, Live Evil has released 22 episodes of the anime. It follows the story fairly closely until they hit Passion Valley. They've done a great job with it.

 

Got all of the above. ^_-

D-Addicts isn't subbing those Duke episodes, though, they're capturing them off Singaporean TV, where Chinese shows air in Mandarin on TV with English subs. (Nice place to live! )

 

As for the ROCH anime, I have to say I like the novel a lot better...I am enjoying the anime (just watched 21+22 yesterday, in fact!) but I find it just doesn't have the same vibrant feel that the novel has. Still, it's cool to see, and not a bad way to hook people on WuXia stuff.

 

I just wish someone would finish translating Condor Heros the first series! I would have rather read them in that order instead of reading the sequel first! Although the sequel is damn cool! ^__^

 

I actually just ordered "Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountains" this afternoon from an online bookstore, one of only three Jin Yong novels available officially in English. Cost me $35, but I've never read anything he wrote that I didn't love, the man is a genius!

 

Rob

[Gary]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Really? Which novel did she complete? You're not talking about the 1st Lu XiaoFeng novel' date=' are you?[/quote']

 

She calls it the Sword and the Exquisiteness. She's currently working on the Legendary Twins.

 

 

Got all of the above. ^_-

D-Addicts isn't subbing those Duke episodes, though, they're capturing them off Singaporean TV, where Chinese shows air in Mandarin on TV with English subs. (Nice place to live! )

 

That's nice to know. It explains how they're releasing these episodes so quickly.

 

As for the ROCH anime, I have to say I like the novel a lot better...I am enjoying the anime (just watched 21+22 yesterday, in fact!) but I find it just doesn't have the same vibrant feel that the novel has. Still, it's cool to see, and not a bad way to hook people on WuXia stuff.

 

I just wish someone would finish translating Condor Heros the first series! I would have rather read them in that order instead of reading the sequel first! Although the sequel is damn cool! ^__^

 

The novel is great. You catch lots of details that the anime simply can't capture. However, the anime is great eye candy. One series that you may have missed is Demigods and Semidevils. 5 episodes have been released by a group called Whe.

 

I actually just ordered "Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountains" this afternoon from an online bookstore, one of only three Jin Yong novels available officially in English. Cost me $35, but I've never read anything he wrote that I didn't love, the man is a genius!

 

Rob

 

He's awesome. I just wish my Chinese was good enough so that I didn't need a translator.

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

She calls it the Sword and the Exquisiteness. She's currently working on the Legendary Twins.

 

Thanks! On it!

 

The novel is great. You catch lots of details that the anime simply can't capture. However, the anime is great eye candy. One series that you may have missed is Demigods and Semidevils. 5 episodes have been released by a group called Whe.

 

Under the title "The Warring States of Legends", I know.

 

I showed the first 15 mins of the 1st episode of DGSD 2003 to my gaming group last session while waiting for a late player. When they realized they weren't looking at matte scenery shots, their jaws hit the floor! Then their eyes bugged out as they were watching the action scenes and I reminded them this is a 40 episode TV series.

 

As my one player put it..."We can't compete with THIS!!?!"

 

Well what do you expect when they start making action TV series in China with our movie level of quality at 1/10th the production costs and the support of the Chinese government. :-P

 

Although as it goes on, I wish they hadn't trimmed out so much story in favor of fight scenes. :-/

 

He's awesome. I just wish my Chinese was good enough so that I didn't need a translator.

 

Indeed mi amigo. Indeed.

 

I'm a year or so away from being conversational in Mandarin, but as for reading and writing...

 

Rob

[zornwil]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

I'm not a martial arts sort of guy, but I have been gradually incorporating more elements as there are certainly cool things about martial arts - and particularly wuxia stuff. I will be revisiting this wesite in the very near future for more details, I'm sure, I just did a very brief scan and I'm impressed. I have a Chinese superheroine (or supervillainess if you're anti-communist!) NPC, China Left, and this will help me refine her. It will also help as I have a woman in Fox Force Five who has Wuxia elements and she'll be coming back and this will for her, too. Thank you so much! This is really good for people like me who aren't knowledgably much on this.

 

EDIT/PS, dang, no more rep to give today. catch this one later...

[Gary]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Under the title "The Warring States of Legends", I know.

 

I showed the first 15 mins of the 1st episode of DGSD 2003 to my gaming group last session while waiting for a late player. When they realized they weren't looking at matte scenery shots, their jaws hit the floor! Then their eyes bugged out as they were watching the action scenes and I reminded them this is a 40 episode TV series.

 

As my one player put it..."We can't compete with THIS!!?!"

 

Well what do you expect when they start making action TV series in China with our movie level of quality at 1/10th the production costs and the support of the Chinese government. :-P

 

Although as it goes on, I wish they hadn't trimmed out so much story in favor of fight scenes. :-/

 

Yeah, but the women are spectacular! Great eye candy.

 

 

Indeed mi amigo. Indeed.

 

I'm a year or so away from being conversational in Mandarin, but as for reading and writing...

 

Rob

 

I can make myself understood in Mandarin, but not well enough to understand what they're saying without some help. I have about 1.5 character points spent in Mandarin. Not quite enough.

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

I'm not a martial arts sort of guy, but I have been gradually incorporating more elements as there are certainly cool things about martial arts - and particularly wuxia stuff. I will be revisiting this wesite in the very near future for more details, I'm sure, I just did a very brief scan and I'm impressed. I have a Chinese superheroine (or supervillainess if you're anti-communist!) NPC, China Left, and this will help me refine her. It will also help as I have a woman in Fox Force Five who has Wuxia elements and she'll be coming back and this will for her, too. Thank you so much! This is really good for people like me who aren't knowledgably much on this.

 

EDIT/PS, dang, no more rep to give today. catch this one later...

 

Not a problem. You actually have Fox Force Five as a villian group?

 

Rob

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Yeah, but the women are spectacular! Great eye candy.

 

Oh heck yeah! Best looking girls of any Chinese TV series, ever! Actually, I heard one of them, I think it's Duan Yu's sister, is actually Chinese-American, California born and raised. Love to meet her on the street!

 

I can make myself understood in Mandarin, but not well enough to understand what they're saying without some help. I have about 1.5 character points spent in Mandarin. Not quite enough.

 

Heh. I have about 1pt spent in my myself, but I keep trying! Sounds like I'm a little bit behind you, enough to get myself into trouble, but not understand a word of the consequences!

 

Rob

[zornwil]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Not a problem. You actually have Fox Force Five as a villian group?

 

Rob

Oh I thought everyone was bored with that story already! Yup!

 

In fact, without all the details, they've been the one group that I think really got under the Justice Squad's skin. Only the martial artist is really at all a super-being (and I'm just calling her "hyper-hyper-trained"), the rest are normal humans. But with lots and lots of skills and a bevy of lower-powered NPC supers they can call on. They're neither villain nor hero; they're a mercenary group that specializes (but doesn't only do) information gathering. For a time they worked for the Kingpin against the Justice Squad - for which they actually have apologized now as his reign of terror was beyond their stomach. More recently they did a little more work (and this gets REALLY convoluted, so this will sound weird as a plot thread) for Maddy Hayes of Blue Moon Detective Agency (yes, that one and yes she looks like Cybil Sheperd ) and actively tampered with/damaged Laughton Agency's (Laughton is one of the Justice Squad members) business.

 

They, along with several low-powered supers, fought the Justice Squad in actual battle only once - to a draw. They are one of the few opponents to just walk away from the JS in battle, having stalemated them through a hostage (DNPC) situation.

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Oh I thought everyone was bored with that story already! Yup!

 

They, along with several low-powered supers, fought the Justice Squad in actual battle only once - to a draw. They are one of the few opponents to just walk away from the JS in battle, having stalemated them through a hostage (DNPC) situation.

 

Nifty! I love it when Supers get bested or equalled by normals...shows them that powers aren't everything!

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Rob

[zornwil]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Nifty! I love it when Supers get bested or equalled by normals...shows them that powers aren't everything!

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Rob

To be fair, in direct combat FF5 really needs some extra supers, though they can be lower-powered than otherwise.

[Plucky]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Interestingly, ever since Fred came out, I've been kicking around WuXia Hero in my mind. Twice before, I started typing things out but then figured I'd actually read Ninja Hero first to see what was covered. Eventually I got distracted and the thing went nowhere.

 

As someone who's actually read way too many of these novels (and tv series) since a kid, I had a hard time trying to combine everything I've seen into one semi-coherent structure.

 

I hashed out the basics again a few weeks ago. But seeing as you beat me to posting yours, I don't know if I'd bother.

 

However, I will say that, from what I've seen, gong fu goes along 2 axis.

 

One axis is internal/external. Internal is qi (chi, ki, whatever) and external is the outer physical kung fu moves/reflex.

 

The other axis is Hard and Soft. The philosophy of the Hard style tend to be a huge burst of power to overwhelm the enemy - like lightning striking a tree. The philosophy of the Soft style is to redirect and erode the enemy's force - much like yielding water creating a valley over time. Typically, Shaolin tends to be associated with Harder arts while Wu-Tan is associated with Softer arts (that's not always a fair accessment though).

 

Internal can be further separated into Yang (heat) and Ying (cold). Amongst other things, this really means heat and cold effects. The 'qi veins' in the human body are separated into yang and ying. Depending on how the person practices qi, it is possible to build up yang qi or ying qi only. This is not necessarily harmful, by the way. Dragon Girl can be considered a mistress of Ying internal style. (The ultimate style practiced by Guo Jing/Yang Guo/Dragon Girl formally translates into the Scripture of Nine Ying while that practiced by Cheung Wu Zee translates to the Scripture of Nine Yang.)

 

Frequently, the most powerful gong fu is a balanced blend of internal/external, hard/soft, and ying/yang. However, there are also some really powerful ones that are more focused along one axis or another.

 

Here are some examples.

(Since I don't know what the 'formal' translated names of the styles, I'll make up my own.)

Tai-chi is both internal and external but primarily soft style.

The "Sunflower scroll" practiced by Asia the Invincible is ying internal with hard external.

"18 Palms of Dragon Slaying" practiced by Guo Jing (as taught to him by the North Beggar) is hard internal and hard external

"Iron Shirt" is hard external

In Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber, Cheung Wu Zee (the main character) learned, from a scroll, gong fu that allows him to redirect forces and use the enemys' attack against them. In the novel, there were no "moves" associated with this gong fu so this is soft internal art.

"Scripture of Nine Yang" would be yang, hard internal.

"Scripture of Nine Ying" incorporates manuvers with qi practice so it's ying internal (with both hard and soft elements) and hard external.

 

Anyway, it's late and I really should go to sleep. Hopefully, I make sense.

 

Plucky

[devlin1]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Very cool. I just started a wuxia game myself, and have been lamenting the lack of campaign support material on the web for it. I'll be referencing your site frequently. Thanks!

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Very cool. I just started a wuxia game myself' date=' and have been lamenting the lack of campaign support material on the web for it. I'll be referencing your site frequently. Thanks![/quote']

 

Not a problem, that's why it's there.

 

Is your game set in Old China or someplace else?

 

Rob

[pinecone]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Hmmm...Hard vs Soft, and Internal vs External....well a Hard artist lifts weights and smacks his fist into unyeilding syfaces to make his fists etc more weapon like, soft styles use redirection and circular movements to turn an oponites strength against themselves. So to use japanese arts Karate is mostly hard and jiujitsu is mostly soft. Internal styles emphasize Chi or Ki of whateverr term you like ,the ultimate internal stylist has no "form" at all...his or her fist flys like it does off of a hot stove, effortless, swift and spontanious, the power of the move comes from Ki, not technique or working out. External stylists work out and run and take vitamins ,they overpower opponites because they are physicly overpowering. Most "modern" forms mix both hard and soft , most americans are totally external, internal stuff being a little to mystical for modern tastes. Elsewhere it can vary , but most modern practitioners will mix body, mind, and spirit freely. I also am not sure about the North is external, South internal thing. Hung gar is pretty darn external in my mind and thats a southern style....I've always divided North/South as northern styles using the kick by preferance and southern styles prefering hand techniques, but that is also not really accurate ....that dosn't mean that "Wuxia world" dosent work that way though...

[devlin1]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Not a problem, that's why it's there.

 

Is your game set in Old China or someplace else?

 

Rob

Early Qin Dynasty China, yeah. The PCs are Han, and the perennial enemies are the Manchu. In the absence of any real wuxia-specific stuff, I ended up doing about five pages of campaign guidelines myself, using Ninja Hero, UMA, and good wuxia/kung fu films for power construct ideas and general guidance.

 

One thing I particularly like in my game is the Ch'i[/] Reserve. All "wacky powers" feed off of an END Reserve that can be no greater than the character's END; it has a REC of 5, with the Limitation "Only Recovers While Meditating." Thus, they may have some nifty little wuxia-style tricks they can do, but they can't do them constantly or they'll quickly run out of ch'i. It's working well so far.

 

We had a suitably high-powered combat the other night, in which our resident swordsman sliced off an evil Shaolin monk's foot (12 BODY to Left Foot... ouch), and Old Fox, practitioner of Sleeping Fist style, plucked a rope dart from his shoulder and threw it at a mook for a disabling shot to the vitals. Good stuff!

[UltraRob]

Re: WuXia Hero

 

Early Qin Dynasty China' date=' yeah. The PCs are Han, and the perennial enemies are the Manchu. In the absence of any real wuxia-specific stuff, I ended up doing about five pages of campaign guidelines myself, using Ninja Hero, UMA, and good wuxia/kung fu films for power construct ideas and general guidance.[/quote']

 

If you need ideas, and I can't recommend it enough, go to my page's resources section and click on the link to the online novel "The Book and the Sword" (aka "Romance of Book and Sword", which will be officially published here in North America next month as well, by co-incidence...), it was the first full WuXia novel I read and is about secret WuXia societies during the Qing dynasty battling it out with the Manchus. Amazing stuff, and inspired my first WuXia campaign in a major way.

 

It's ironic, the Manchu actually FIXED the Empire a Ming dynasty had thoroughly trashed, but because they weren't "real Chinese" nobody really respected them. Yeah some of them were right B*stards, but overall they were pretty good rulers in reality.

 

One thing I particularly like in my game is the Ch'i[/] Reserve. All "wacky powers" feed off of an END Reserve that can be no greater than the character's END; it has a REC of 5, with the Limitation "Only Recovers While Meditating." Thus, they may have some nifty little wuxia-style tricks they can do, but they can't do them constantly or they'll quickly run out of ch'i. It's working well so far.

 

Excellent move, that's why I plan to use that idea in my next WuXia campaign too. The first time I tried WuXia I let their Qi powers runoff normal END, and boy was that a mistake!

How many points are your characters based on?

 

We had a suitably high-powered combat the other night, in which our resident swordsman sliced off an evil Shaolin monk's foot (12 BODY to Left Foot... ouch), and Old Fox, practitioner of Sleeping Fist style, plucked a rope dart from his shoulder and threw it at a mook for a disabling shot to the vitals. Good stuff!

 

Sounds good! Nothing like a rolicking good martial arts fight!

 

Rob