Wushu and non-actionmovie style

[Mr White]

Aside from my old HeroQuest-box, I’m relatively new to tabletop RPGs. I do, however, regularly have game evenings with friends and I wanted to try my hand at a simple and fun RPG. My eye fell on Wushu because it seems so easy to learn and totally different from most games.

I have had a story in the back of my head for quite a while that I can use as a backdrop. But here comes the potential problem: Wushu seems to be designed for action-movie style gaming while I had a slower pace and a less fighting in mind (think folkstories with mischievous gnomes and the like or like Pan’s labyrinth).

So, can this work?
What should I keep in mind?
Are there examples I could read somewhere?
What are potential dangers and how should I react to them?

Thanks in advance.

[Neon Knight]

Can this work?

Sure it can. Wushu is a system light game, and more importantly, an abstract system light game. The resolution mechanic can be adapted to just about anything. I remember that one example I read adapted it to political discourse in the Roman Senate.

What should I keep in mind?

Because the system is very light, more weight lies on pretty much everything else. Character, description, plot, etc. This is somewhat true of pretty much all system light games.

Are there examples I could read somewhere?

http://wiki.saberpunk.net/Wushu/HomePage

The link above is to a pretty good Wushu resource. This page, Actual Play, has examples of actual play, like the title indicates, although you need an RPG.net account to view the majority of them.

What are potential dangers and how should I react to them?

I... can't think of too many. Wushu is really one of the simplest and light systems I've ever encountered. It really doesn't get tangled up on too much, and what it does get tangled up on isn't actually unique to it and might best be filed under general RP advice. You know, the players shouldn't be jerks to one another, everyone should enjoy the game and it's content, you shouldn't be offending anyone or making anyone uncomfortable... you know.

[mint]

What are potential dangers and how should I react to them?
Rules are control, no rules, less control, problem players harder to control.
Have faith in your narrative, hope it becomes dominant.

Oh, also, one thing that stands out for me, wushu is cooperative, transparently so. Disentangle the players from PCs, you are on the side of the story not the characters, similar but not the same. Otherwise, players feel their PCs are safe, no tension, excitement, fear. Useful storytelling elements, you want them.

If things work out but you want something with more rules that still fits the Pan's Labyrinth theme, you might like to try Changeling: The Lost.

Good luck :3

[Swordgleam]

Wushu can handle what you're trying to do, but it doesn't support it.

What I mean is this - a game can "handle" a style if you can play that style in that system without doing much tinkering with the rules. A game "supports" a style if there are built-in mechanics to encourage that style.

Wushu supports cinematic action, since the mechanics encourage that. D&D can handle pure roleplaying games, but it supports killing things and taking their stuff. Whitewolf games support intrigue. Etc. You might be better off looking for a system that supports the style of game you want. But you certainly can run a game like that in Wushu.

[Kiero]

Wushu supports any form of in-genre and appropriate description. That's it. There's no requirement that it be cinematic or action-movie style. Any discrete element of description is a Detail which can be rewarded with dice.

I wrote the Example of Play in the back of Reloaded to demonstrate exactly this (that was for a fairly standard fantasy type scenario).

Worth noting in that example (which I rolled as you would for real) that it nearly ended with a TPK, contrary to the assumption that Wushu is "players always win, all the time". Only one PC was left standing against the final Nemesis, and lucked out in writing them out first.

Are there examples I could read somewhere?

http://wiki.saberpunk.net/Wushu/HomePage

The link above is to a pretty good Wushu resource. This page, Actual Play, has examples of actual play, like the title indicates, although you need an RPG.net account to view the majority of them.

Over half of them are play-by-post games (at least four of which I ran, incidentally), which doesn't flow like face to face/tabletop does. I posted an Actual Play thread (for Wushu/Star Wars) on here a while back too.

[Mr White]

What should I keep in mind?

Because the system is very light, more weight lies on pretty much everything else. Character, description, plot, etc. This is somewhat true of pretty much all system light games.

This is what suspected. I assume the fun in the game hinges on creativity and the willingness of the players and the ability of the GM to spin a backdrop that allows that creativity and encourages the players.
(easier said than done I'm sure)

Oh, also, one thing that stands out for me, wushu is cooperative, transparently so. Disentangle the players from PCs, you are on the side of the story not the characters, similar but not the same. Otherwise, players feel their PCs are safe, no tension, excitement, fear. Useful storytelling elements, you want them.

This won't be easy. I imagine there is a fine line between being overprotective of your players and seeming to be out to kill them. Nothing much I can do but try my best.

Wushu can handle what you're trying to do, but it doesn't support it.

hat was the reason I posted this thread. I figured that a fiew people might have a few tips or could provide a campaign journal or the like in a similar setting.

Wushu supports any form of in-genre and appropriate description. That's it. There's no requirement that it be cinematic or action-movie style. Any discrete element of description is a Detail which can be rewarded with dice.

Thanks for the extra play thread and the step by step example.

[Kiero]

This won't be easy. I imagine there is a fine line between being overprotective of your players and seeming to be out to kill them. Nothing much I can do but try my best.

It's actually pretty easy to get "balanced encounters" in Wushu. Have as many elements in the scene as there are PCs and it tends to work out. That's Nemeses, mook threats, Secondary Goals and so on. Have less than there are PCs and it's a little easier. More (and possibly with Time Limits) and it's harder.

Also beware the Yin Toll a mook threat requires; more than 2 and it starts getting into the "PCs will be written out" territory.

[Kiero]

Thanks for the extra play thread and the step by step example.

There was an Republican Roman Example of Play, where two aspiring magistrates debated in front of a crowd somewhere or other, not sure where it is now. That was an intentionally non-action/combat, but still conflict type example.

[Swordgleam]

There was an Republican Roman Example of Play, where two aspiring magistrates debated in front of a crowd somewhere or other, not sure where it is now. That was an intentionally non-action/combat, but still conflict type example.

Oh man, that sounds like fun. I can definitely see applying the combat resolution mechanics to that kind of thing, just have ki represent credibility.

[Kiero]

Oh man, that sounds like fun. I can definitely see applying the combat resolution mechanics to that kind of thing, just have ki represent credibility.

It was based on Social Fu that I wrote a while back. Chi is Dignitas.

[Mr White]

I'm going more for investigations and out-of-the-box thinking for encounter resolution.

The story:
During the interbellum in a Belgian small village (the one I’m from as well as most of my friends), a young girl disappears under strange circumstances. A relative and his/her friends investigate.
The adventure will involve encounters with local folkloric figures such as nightmares (the demons who sit on your chest), shapeshifters, demons, a mourning procession of gnomes, Will-o'-the-wisps, buckriders, …
All of these creatures are in a state of panick because they fear they'll vanish when people stop believing in them. One of these creatures thinks that the child can help him escape such a fate.

This means that the main characters will have to gather information about what they (in)directly experienced and when they're confronted with certain beings they'll need to use their brains. for example, a certain story tells about how a demon was identified in his human form by fibers of a cloth thrown at him the previous night (in his demon form).

Any tips on how to encourage this short of vetoing a player everytime he wants to charge a creature?

[Kiero]

Talk to your players beforehand, and explain to them that this isn't a hack and slash game. Same as you would in any other game where that's not the MO.

What happens if a PC does try to attack one of these creatures?

Running investigations in Wushu can have several different ways of handling it. You can do the "describe your methods, GM gives results as you go along". You can do the "describe methods and results, GM just tells you when the investigation is over, noting down what was uncovered".