Looking for a Wuxia style system

[Blackhawk748]

Just got done binge watching a bunch of Kung Fu movies and now im interested in finding a system that does it well. Im aware of L5R and Exalted, and while id be ok with giving L5R a shot im not a huge fan of Exalted because of the fairly absurd powerlevel it operates on.

So, anyone know of any good Wuxia systems?

[DCraw]

Feng Shui is a lot of fun.

[Knaight]

There are a few good options, all of which do different things. A quick list: Rivers and Lakes (free), Tian Xia (FATE system), Qin: The Warring States, Legends of the Wulin.

[BWR]

L5R is a bad fit. Yes, there are magical samurai with frankly unreal abilities but the fiction and the system and the flavor doesn't really fit with the general wuxia feel. You certainly won't see them leaping from tree-top to tree-top, for instance.

[Anonymouswizard]

The ones I own are Rivers and Lakes (which is okay, although I'm not a giant fan), Qin: the Warring States, and Legends of the Wulin. I'm going to focus on the latter two, as I know them the best.

Now, I believe that Qin: the Warring States is slightly cheaper. It's also more traditional, it has 5 'Attributes' (Metal/Martial, Water/Physical, Fire/Social, Wood/Mental, and Earth/Mystical), a long list of skills, weapons with statlines, and premade spells. The corebook martial arts system is one I really like, just 'here's your list of techniques, buy a few to represent your style', and then 'Taos' let you use the mystic abilities of non spellcasters (so there's one for jumping high and far, one for balancing, one for resisting damage, one for being good at crafts...). It also has a rather nice system, roll two differently coloured dice for yin and yang (the book says white for yin and black for yang, but as long as you specify it should be fine), subtract the lower from the higher, and that's your result. High rolls on the yang dice also help in combat. It's also set in historical China (the Warring States period, ~200BC), although you can ignore that if you want. Relatively low powered, although PCs are still expected to be competent.

Legends of the Wulin is rather different, you perform actions by rolling a pool of d10s and forming sets. There's also no attributes, and only 20 skills, with the other differences between characters being provided by Kung Fu and Secret Arts (which are great, but it does mean you have to play someone good at combat, unlike Qin where you can play a courtier with no combat skills). No hit points, damage instead causes ripples which on a hit can cause chi conditions, which apply penalties (unless you describe your actions to take the condition into account). Archetypes decide which secret art increases your general chi, which is also increased by learning non-elemental styles of kung fu, and elemental styles increase elemental chi (which counts double for that style). Throw in loresheets and you've got a good, but harder to understand system. It's set in a not-China intended to be a thematic blend of several eras, rather than the specific period of Qin. Rather high power level, normal dudes can't even hurt starting characters without forming into a mob (well, okay, technically this isn't true, but the rules suggest it's best to work like this).

FWIW the character sheet for Qin: the Warring States is better, but could do with more space. I ended up making my own for both Qin and LotW, because I wanted more space for something on each of them (and also wanted them to be A4 sized with no giant borders).

EDIT: oh, I also own L5R, but it is not Wuxia. It features basically mundane samurai in fantasy japan, rather than the Kung Fu adventures of Wuxia (also normally set in not-China, but that's another story).

[Mutazoia]

So I guess I should suggest GURPS Martial Arts, and possibly Ninjas and Super Spys.

[Firest Kathon]

I find New Hong Kong Story an excellent system to replicate the feeling of some Kung Fu movies, unfortunately it is not released yet (announcement in German (http://newhongkongstory.de/home/produkte/new-hong-kong-story-rpg/)). If you are located in Germany in the Rhine/Neckar area you may meet the creator of the system on local conventions and play it there (and bug him to finally release it :smallwink:)

[mikeejimbo]

Wushu was literally made for this.

http://danielbayn.com/wushu/

Admittedly may not be your style (the mechanics are interesting but not tactical in the slightest).

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Feng Shui is a lot of fun.

What this guy said.

[Fri]

Legends of the Wulin got an ass layout for its book and very setting specific, but it got the best/most fun non grid-based combat system I've ever played.

[Blackhawk748]

I am intrigued by Legend of the Wulin so ill check that out. Can someone tell me what Feng Shui is like?

[Arbane]

I am intrigued by Legend of the Wulin so ill check that out. Can someone tell me what Feng Shui is like?

"Hong Kong Action Movies, The RPG." It's designed to let you team up a modern day gunslinging killer, a kung-fu master from the Boxer Rebellion, a ghost from ancient China, a mutant from the post-apocalyptic future, and and a very baffled guy who just wants his truck back, and have them all work reasonably well together. It's deliberately rather unrealistic (bullets don't hurt more than kung-fu punches or a big guy beating you with a pool table, and you can recover from all three with some bandages and a scene change), and encourages PCs not to use maps and let the players make up (reasonable) scenery details ('I duck behind a tapestry').

Die-rolling is pretty simple - roll a positive and negative die - positive adds to the appropriate skill, negative subtracts, both explode, compare the sum to the difficulty. (Characters use their combat skill as their attack and defense - this does lead to a problem where it becomes REALLY hard to consistently hit someone who's more than two skill-ranks higher...)

I've played the original version from 1996, and it's a fun game. The remake looks pretty good, and possibly a bit more streamlined.

[LibraryOgre]

You might also check out Ninja Crusade by 3rd Eye Games

[Blackhawk748]

"Hong Kong Action Movies, The RPG." It's designed to let you team up a modern day gunslinging killer, a kung-fu master from the Boxer Rebellion, a ghost from ancient China, a mutant from the post-apocalyptic future, and and a very baffled guy who just wants his truck back, and have them all work reasonably well together. It's deliberately rather unrealistic (bullets don't hurt more than kung-fu punches or a big guy beating you with a pool table, and you can recover from all three with some bandages and a scene change), and encourages PCs not to use maps and let the players make up (reasonable) scenery details ('I duck behind a tapestry').

Die-rolling is pretty simple - roll a positive and negative die - positive adds to the appropriate skill, negative subtracts, both explode, compare the sum to the difficulty. (Characters use their combat skill as their attack and defense - this does lead to a problem where it becomes REALLY hard to consistently hit someone who's more than two skill-ranks higher...)

I've played the original version from 1996, and it's a fun game. The remake looks pretty good, and possibly a bit more streamlined.

So what you're telling me is that its..... the greatest thing ever!!!

[xroads]

I've played the original version from 1996, and it's a fun game. The remake looks pretty good, and possibly a bit more streamlined.

Feng Shui 2 is well done and has been streamlined. Character generation has been made even simpler then it already was. And overall it is a blast. I've had the pleasure of running it at a couple game conventions.



So what you're telling me is that its..... the greatest thing ever!!!


Yep. Plus it has cyber-apes. :smallwink:

[Amphetryon]

You might also check out Ninja Crusade by 3rd Eye Games

Came here to recommend this one.