The Wonders of Qin

[The Rose Dragon]

Once, there was a game studio called Cubicle 7 Entertainment. They saw a game from the far away lands of France, called Qin. They saw it was good, and decided to share this goodness with a greater audience. And from this desire, Qin: the Warring States was born.

Unfortunately, few have heard of it even after the translation, so I'm here to set things right.

Qin, or as the core rulebook is named, Qin: the Warring States, is a low-powered wuxia game set in the Warring States era, where you take on the role of various outcasts and heroes who upset the balance of things by the virtue of their mastery of chi. The game uses a nifty little dice mechanic called Yin / Yang Dice, and while I won't comment on its balance, it certainly is very evocative (most actions benefit only from the difference between the two, but some require either Yin or Yang to be higher than the other, or it is treated as if you rolled a 0). Everyone has five basic traits (Metal, Water, Fire, Wood and Earth, standing for martial might, physical might, mental might, social might and spiritual might, respectively), skills tied to these traits and various powers of chi. I haven't exactly found an overarching goal yet, but I'm assuming it is "avoid being killed and make a name for yourself".

If you have any further questions, I can try and answer them. There are two supplements, Legends and Bestiary, translated into English, which cover high-power play and various monsters, respectively, but I don't have those yet.

[Dingle]

I played it once; it was fun.

[The Big Dice]

RPGs don't have to have an overarching goal. D&D doesn't.

Quin is a beautiful game, though. Elegant, sophisticated without being complicated and generally very sexy. The only problem is, it's very much a genre game. If your players aren't wuxia fans (think Hero, House of flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger and so on) then it can be difficult to sink your teeth into.

[The Rose Dragon]

Quin is a beautiful game, though. Elegant, sophisticated without being complicated and generally very sexy. The only problem is, it's very much a genre game. If your players aren't wuxia fans (think Hero, House of flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger and so on) then it can be difficult to sink your teeth into.

...it's legal to not be a wuxia fan?

Dammit, international legislation! You have failed me once again!

[sailor_grenoble]

Actually, the overarching goal of the game is: "playing wuxia heroes".

There is also a campaign, starting in Tiàn Xia: Xianyang and ending in Tiàn Xia: Tout sous le ciel that gives the PCs important roles in the unification of the Warring States by the Qin Kingdom.

The other supplement you didn't even know you wanted is Qin: Shaolin et Wudang, which advances the setting to around 1730, when the rivalry between the monastery of the Shaolin monks and the sacred mountain of Wudang was at its highest (the supplement also including various armed and unarmed martial arts styles)

(yes, I have everything published for Qin, except the novel)
(in French, of course)

Edit:
and if your players aren't so keen on playing wuxia heroes, the system can be used almost as is for a game in the setting of 7th Sea, for example (I speak from experience here, having been a player in such a game)

[The Rose Dragon]

(yes, I have everything published for Qin, except the novel)

You have my envy for this part.

[Knaight]

Qin is a beautiful game, though. Elegant, sophisticated without being complicated and generally very sexy. The only problem is, it's very much a genre game. If your players aren't wuxia fans (think Hero, House of flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger and so on) then it can be difficult to sink your teeth into.

Qin is absolutely incredible, and works for more than just wuxia. One can play a larger than life heroes campaign that bears more resemblance to Romance of the Three Kingdoms in feel than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. That said, it works best for Wuxia, and leaving out mechanics as brilliant as the Taos to reduce the power level just feels wrong.

[The Rose Dragon]

Also, to people who do have those books: should I buy Legends and Bestiary? Are they worth it?

[sailor_grenoble]

Also, to people who do have those books: should I buy Legends and Bestiary? Are they worth it?

definitely yes for both: Legends (which was a booklet accompanying the screen in French) gives you a shiny new toy (expended upon in Bestiary, l'Art de la Guerre, and of course Shaolin et Wudang): the Martial Arts Styles.
Basically, the character learns a fighting style consisting of

• a Base (a Stance that doesn't cost you anything to be in, and that gives you a minor benefit, such as a bonus to damage with specific weapons, or a defensive advantage in exchange for a penalty to attacks, ...)
• a number of Techniques (traditionaly 3) which have prerequisites (Tao and Skill levels) and which cost Chi to activate, but have special effects: free and automatic parry, for example, or free and automatic disarm of the opponent.

It also describes the last two levels of Taos and magic, and also legendary and celestial items ("magic items"): items that have reserves of Chi, embedded Taos, better properties (armor, damage, ...), bonuses to Skill tests, etc...

Bestiary, other than giving you a bunch of monsters, is also excellent for the fluff: it is really good to set the mood and give a bit of "local touch" to the creatures.

(Note: the comments are based on the French books, but I don't think the translation would be very different).

Oh, and you want the screen: it's just a thing a beauty.

[The Big Dice]

My biggest problem with Qin is simply that the French have come up with a masterpiece. Except I don't speak any more French than it takes for me to order food in a restaurant.

I never regretted that until I saw that there's a good chunk of Qin not in English.

[The Rose Dragon]

My biggest problem with Qin is simply that the French have come up with a masterpiece. Except I don't speak any more French than it takes for me to order food in a restaurant.

I never regretted that until I saw that there's a good chunk of Qin not in English.

...yet. I have faith in Cubicle 7 Entertainment that they are slowly but surely working on the translations (instead of, you know, more of Doctor Who RPG).

Though it is slow enough that learning French might have been a quicker alternative.

[The Big Dice]

...yet. I have faith in Cubicle 7 Entertainment that they are slowly but surely working on the translations (instead of, you know, more of Doctor Who RPG).

Though it is slow enough that learning French might have been a quicker alternative.

To be fair, the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space RPG is pretty decent. In a Doctor Who kind of way. Which is to say, it's a good read but I wouldn't want to play it.