Legends Of The Wulin.

[Metahuman1]

So, long story short. Sometime back, I bought the PDF to apply to a game. The game that got started was not actually quite as advertised but I was ok with that.


I tried to learn the system. The GM ultimately felt like I wasn't picking it up quickly enough, and requested I withdraw from said game. I complied. I was rather annoyed at having dropped $40 on this game system and now having no remaining use for it really, but hey, live and learn.



That's a bit of context, but not the focus here.

The focus is that I happened to notice it in a folder while re-organizing some PDF folders on my computer recently, and in around that same time, I happened to watch the movie Forbidden Kingdom on Netflicks. And now the bug is in my brain to take a second stab at learning the system.

Does anyone have any familiarity with said system, and do they think they might be up to trying to teach a VERY, VERY, VERY Slow learner said system?

[dysike]

Well first things first could you establish which mechanics you do and don't understand, just so that any replies know what points to address and which they can skip (my own understanding of the system isn't great but depending on where your problems are I might be able to help)

[Fri]

The problem for me is more that the book is formatted REALLY badly. Various important mechanics and important things for character creations just put slapdashly across random chapters. Other than that, honestly the system isn't that complex (at least compared to friggin exalted).

But yes, you should start from where do you want to learn or having problem with. We can do it step by step.

[Metahuman1]

Character creation was an absolute nightmare trying to get through, and I wasn't even trying to do anything THAT complex according to the people I tried to play with at the time.

Combat, once initiated, also proved confusing.


I honestly didn't get past the initial tutorial combat. Which, apparently lasted longer then originally planned cause I rolled something called "Interesting Times." and it caused a fight with mooks to also feature a Mini-Boss.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, it was confusing to me to.

especially when I wasn't sure how supernatural the styles were sometimes. I still don't quite understand it.

I think some of this comes from the odd terms used for game mechanics like "river" or "lake" and whatnot, when that is completely unnecessary, and people should just y'know, refer to the mechanics as what they really are, rather than trying to integrate IC lingo with OOC lingo, and say this colorful flavorful term for it.

Personally I just use it for like, flavor source material and use Tian Xia instead. But thats just me.

I don't think the system is complex, but I don't think necessarily means that LotW is easy to understand. A lot of smaller, lighter systems have the problem where they have good mechanics and whatnot, but its so abstract, light and unknown that you don't actually know how all this interacts in a way that you can grok easily. like traditional systems, while they are technically more complex, are more intuitive on an individual level of the roll of what your trying to do for a thing.

I guess I could try another look at it, but I'm not sure how much help I'd be.

[Max_Killjoy]

The problem for me is more that the book is formatted REALLY badly. Various important mechanics and important things for character creations just put slapdashly across random chapters.

That's a problem with a lot of RPG products -- the location of various rules is scattered, and the formatting is more stylistic than functional.

[Anonymouswizard]

Okay, I'm going through this as simply as I can, I'm going to start at the very beginning to make sure.

Spoiler: basic mechanics

Show

-Roll your Lake in d10s, and create sets of identical numbers. Sets are worth [set size][number] (2 4s are 24, 6 7s are 67...)
-Assign your sets to actions: your major action needs a set of at least one die, minor actions need a set of at least two dice.
-Add your modifiers to find the total for your action, compare to difficulty/resistance.
-Beating the difficulty by 10 is a critical success.
-A set of two or more zeroes means the GM may offer you Interesting Times. You never have to take it, but you get Joss for doing so. Interesting Times on a successful roll means a complication happens (but you are still successful), on a failed roll you get a catastrophic failure. But the GM can choose not to offer it and you can choose not to except.

Note that, unless your action is contested or you get interesting times, the number on the dice shouldn't really matter, especially compared to set size.

Spoiler: River

Show

-After rolling dice but before making sets you can interact with your river in the following sequence.

1. Discard unwanted dice.
2. You can store dice in your river to use later.
3. You can take out dice to improve sets or activate abilities.

Always in that order.

Lake and River? The game has a bit of a water theme.

Spoiler: character creation

Show

1. Choose your concept.
2. You start at 4th Rank unless the Sage specifies otherwise.
3. Pick your archetype: are you a powerful warrior, a mystical daoist priest, a charismatic courtier, a wise scholar, or a learned doctor?
4. Spend 20 destiny on skills. 2 Destiny gives a +5 bonus, 1 destiny gives a specialisation (+5 under certaincircumstances).
5. 5. Assign 25 points to your virtues. The final value of each virtue must be between 1 and 5.
6. Pick 0-2 disadvantages (entirely descriptive, but you get bonus Destiny when they hinder you).
7. Pick one External Style of Kung Fu.
8. Pick one Internal Style of Kung Fu.
9. Pick a Weapon, and gain light armour.
10. Spend 20 Destiny to upgrade your skills, Kung Fu, Secret Arts, or directly on Chi. Destiny spent on Kung Fu and your Archetype's Secret Art also goes towards gaining Chi.
11. Add final details.

If anything is still unclear please point it out, I'll cover combat at a later point.

[Metahuman1]

Alright, I think that makes sense so far.

[Anonymouswizard]

Okay, combat, now we get more complex. First, to do any combat you must understand how Kung Fu works.

Spoiler: External Kung Fu

Show

External Kung Fu is your fighting style. You can only use one style a round, so it's generally not worth investing in many styles. You can only use a style when wielding one of it's associated weapons.

Each style has several statistics, which work as follows:
-Speed increases your initiative.
-Footwork determines your movement speed and allows you to dodge attacks.
-Block determines how well you block attacks.
-Strike determines how accurate your attacks are.
-Damage increases your chance of inflicting Chi Conditions.
-Toughness reduces your chance of suffering Chi Conditions.

Each generally ranges from 0 to +15. You also add the bonuses from your weapon to your statistics.

In addition external styles have techniques, which either increase the statistics above or give other bonuses, and are active whenever you are using the style.

Finally, each style Laughs At certain combat styles or situations, and gets a bonus, and Fears other ones, receiving a penalty.

Spoiler: Internal Kung Fu

Show

Internal Kung Fu has both styles and formless techniques. Styles are collections of techniques, of which your character will learn one each of levels 1-5. There is no limit to the number of Internal Styles you can use in a turn, but each technique costs Chi equal to it's level in order to activate.

For the six elemental styles spending the right type of elemental chi counts double.

It gets a bit more complicated, but if you know that and have the descriptions of your techniques to hand you don't need to learn anything more.

Okay, now combat has a few sets of rolls.

Spoiler: Initiative rolls

Show

Roll your Lake and make as many sets as you want. Your main action here is always your initiative, but you can use additional sets to ready any action that would affect the environment, as well as move, which happens on your turn (these actions are called waves, yep more water theming).

Spoiler: Main action

Show

Here you roll your Lake and form your sets. Generally the minor actions here are Marvels, which are extra effects of your attack, or stopping people who act after you from performing their Waves (known as breaking the Wave). Your opponent will resist your attack with their own roll and sets. You can dodge or block any attack, but receive a penalty if the other is more suitable in this situation.

You can use Secret Arts in combat, if you learnt the Quick Work technique, which works like physical attacks but substituting skills for your Kung Fu statistics.

Hitting with an Attack may inflict Ripples, or force a Rippling Roll, depending on a separate roll.

Spoiler: Rippling Rolls

Show

If a Rippling is forced the attacker total's his opponent's Ripples (include those just inflicted) and rolls that number of d10s, forming sets, and his opponent must spend one point of Chi or each die he wishes to roll.

If the attacker wins the difference is compared to the defender's Chis Threshold. If it's less than the Chi Threshold a trivial Chi Condition is inflicted, if it's greater than the Chi Threshold a minor Chi Condition is inflicted. If it's greater than twice the Chi Threshold a major Chi Condition is inflicted, and if it's greater than three times the Chi Threshold the defender is taken out.

Chi Conditions are simply 'if you act this way you get this bonus/ignore this penalty'. Trivial conditions have no bonus/penalty (but can be increased with Secret Arts), minor conditions +/-5, and major conditions +/-10. Secret Arts are an entire system that plays around with them, as each condition is associate with an element and can be create, changed, inflamed, or soothed with the right art. (To change you move it to the next element on the five-phase wheel, and there are separate ways to create single and linked Chi Conditions, it's a well designed and relatively freeform system once you've got the techniques*)

Now, personally I'd probably never run the system, as I wouldn't want Kung Fu so well defined, I'd probably use Fate Accelerated for rules and pinch the setting chapter, but it's a great system anyway.

* although if it gets expanded upon in supplements it might suffer from the water-breathing mermaid problem, the version in the corebook works well.

[Knaight]

Lake and River? The game has a bit of a water theme.

It's not a water theme - the specific term "Rivers and Lakes" is jargon to refer to what is basically the secret world of martial artists that coexists with normal society in wuxia.

[Anonymouswizard]

It's not a water theme - the specific term "Rivers and Lakes" is jargon to refer to what is basically the secret world of martial artists that coexists with normal society in wuxia.

Yeah, I know, the Jianghu. However, the designers did take the term and extend it to give the game a small water theme, which actually fits, the characters are generally assumed to be travelling (like water in a river), in-combat movement is a Wave, then there's the entire Lake and River thing. It's not important, but it is a theme. There was no need to call a character's main dice pool their Lake, and while there isn't really a better term for River it adds to the theming.

[Metahuman1]

Okay, combat, now we get more complex. First, to do any combat you must understand how Kung Fu works.

Spoiler: External Kung Fu

Show

External Kung Fu is your fighting style. You can only use one style a round, so it's generally not worth investing in many styles. You can only use a style when wielding one of it's associated weapons.

Each style has several statistics, which work as follows:
-Speed increases your initiative.
-Footwork determines your movement speed and allows you to dodge attacks.
-Block determines how well you block attacks.
-Strike determines how accurate your attacks are.
-Damage increases your chance of inflicting Chi Conditions.
-Toughness reduces your chance of suffering Chi Conditions.

Each generally ranges from 0 to +15. You also add the bonuses from your weapon to your statistics.

In addition external styles have techniques, which either increase the statistics above or give other bonuses, and are active whenever you are using the style.

Finally, each style Laughs At certain combat styles or situations, and gets a bonus, and Fears other ones, receiving a penalty.

Spoiler: Internal Kung Fu

Show

Internal Kung Fu has both styles and formless techniques. Styles are collections of techniques, of which your character will learn one each of levels 1-5. There is no limit to the number of Internal Styles you can use in a turn, but each technique costs Chi equal to it's level in order to activate.

For the six elemental styles spending the right type of elemental chi counts double.

It gets a bit more complicated, but if you know that and have the descriptions of your techniques to hand you don't need to learn anything more.

Okay, now combat has a few sets of rolls.

Spoiler: Initiative rolls

Show

Roll your Lake and make as many sets as you want. Your main action here is always your initiative, but you can use additional sets to ready any action that would affect the environment, as well as move, which happens on your turn (these actions are called waves, yep more water theming).

Spoiler: Main action

Show

Here you roll your Lake and form your sets. Generally the minor actions here are Marvels, which are extra effects of your attack, or stopping people who act after you from performing their Waves (known as breaking the Wave). Your opponent will resist your attack with their own roll and sets. You can dodge or block any attack, but receive a penalty if the other is more suitable in this situation.

You can use Secret Arts in combat, if you learnt the Quick Work technique, which works like physical attacks but substituting skills for your Kung Fu statistics.

Hitting with an Attack may inflict Ripples, or force a Rippling Roll, depending on a separate roll.

Spoiler: Rippling Rolls

Show

If a Rippling is forced the attacker total's his opponent's Ripples (include those just inflicted) and rolls that number of d10s, forming sets, and his opponent must spend one point of Chi or each die he wishes to roll.

If the attacker wins the difference is compared to the defender's Chis Threshold. If it's less than the Chi Threshold a trivial Chi Condition is inflicted, if it's greater than the Chi Threshold a minor Chi Condition is inflicted. If it's greater than twice the Chi Threshold a major Chi Condition is inflicted, and if it's greater than three times the Chi Threshold the defender is taken out.

Chi Conditions are simply 'if you act this way you get this bonus/ignore this penalty'. Trivial conditions have no bonus/penalty (but can be increased with Secret Arts), minor conditions +/-5, and major conditions +/-10. Secret Arts are an entire system that plays around with them, as each condition is associate with an element and can be create, changed, inflamed, or soothed with the right art. (To change you move it to the next element on the five-phase wheel, and there are separate ways to create single and linked Chi Conditions, it's a well designed and relatively freeform system once you've got the techniques*)

Now, personally I'd probably never run the system, as I wouldn't want Kung Fu so well defined, I'd probably use Fate Accelerated for rules and pinch the setting chapter, but it's a great system anyway.

* although if it gets expanded upon in supplements it might suffer from the water-breathing mermaid problem, the version in the corebook works well.

Um, ok, I think I kinda understood External/Internal Kung Fu, but you lost me after that.

[Fri]

Okay, I'll explain.

Basically, for your every roll, you can have a major action, and one or more minor action (you get more minor action by using specific techniques or styles or whatnot).

For example, you roll initiative. You get 6667821.You use one dice of 8 (18) plus relevant skill for initiative as your "major action" and you use three dice of six (36) plus relevant skill for "noticing hidden trap" as "minor action." Why do you use the bigger number for minor action? It's actually up to you, but one rule is that you can use one die for major action, but you have to use multiple dice for minor action.

That's it basically. So for example, in combat, you can do "punching enemy" as major action and "trying to figure out his style" as minor action. Or "tripping enemy" as major action and "running away" and "talk your pursuer down" as minor action. I couldn't remember what count as major and what count as minor action, it's been a while, but think one of them as your action for the round and the other as your maneuver.

Wave is just name for action that will actuall end at the start of next round, and other people can potentially stop it, which is called "breaking the wave." For example, someone's trying to run to the opposite side of the street. Technically it will be finished at the start of next round, so someone might potentially trip him.

You can dodge or block any attack (they're separate stat). It's dm/attacker's call (depending on gming style I think) to say this attack should be easier to dodge or block, and you get penalty if you attempt to use inappropriate defense, but you can do that.

Then how do you damage enemy? Now this is less straightforward than hp damage.

Basically, if your attack connects (your attack roll is bigger than your either your opponent's block or dodge), you create a ripple. Ripple is not necessarily a tangible thing, this is a representation of being pressured by the enemy.

By itself, ripple don't do anything.

But if you connect with big difference between the attack and the defense roll, your opponent will roll a rippling roll. You roll as many dice as the current ripple your enemy have plus the ripple you just inflicted. Your opponent can roll opposing defense on the rippling roll, but he has to spend chi, which is his stamina/mp that he also need to use techniques and whatnot. And chi will slowly deplete in battle.

Now you compare the result of your rippling roll to his static chi threshold. Chi threshold is part of your stat created in your character creation. (finally all the small ripples in your opponent's pond of soul join together to create a big splash! or whatever poetic word you can use to make you understand this in your mind). If there's small difference, you create trivial chi condition. If there's bigger difference, there'll be minor or major chi condition. And you can combine multiple smaller condition into bigger one. For example your opponent have trivial chi condition, which actually don't do anything. Then you hit slightly, which should give him another trivial, or you can combine it with the previous trivial condition into minor wound. and so on.

You can see how the battle is supposed to go. You do minor wounds at first, that will slowly become bigger wounds, since it's harder and harder for your opponent to ignore it (since he got more ripples, less chi to defend, and injuries that give him penalties).

It might seem slow, but remember that in LotW, you're discouraged to fight to drop. People should make concession all the times, when it feels like he's already losing, or the battle is getting too long going nowhere. There's specific mechanics for concession, you're supposed to use it.

There's my explanation on the basic of combat system on LotW. Feel free to ask if you have more question, or we can continue to what you'd like to know next.

[Anonymouswizard]

Major Action: the one big thing you are doing with your roll. Uses a set of one or more dice.

Minor Action: secondary actions. Generally lesser in scope than major actions, and require a set of 2 or more dice.

So if my 3rd rank character rolls 1,2,2,3,3,3,4 I could use the 3s for my major action at 33 and the 2s for a minor action at 22, or I could use the 4s for my major action at 14 and the 2s and 3s for two minor actions at 33 and 22.

A Wave is simply any minor action that is declared with your initiative roll but performed on your turn, not as Fri says at the start of your next round (p.176). It generally involves changing the environment or moving, but any action that does not harm or heal another person is allowed (an example in the rulebook is throwing a bottle). This means you can only disrupt the waves of people who act after you (mooks always act last, and lesser legends always act after main characters).

A Marvel is any minor action on your attack roll that affects your target. Think of them as combat techniques, they might be applying a status through an Internal technique, stunning your opponent, moving your opponent, hitting your opponent again, or for the truly dishonourable disarming your opponent, and this is not an exhaustive list.

For example, I might be attacking my opponent and luckily roll 4,4,4,5,5,6,6,6 and decide that I'm going to use the 3 6s for my main attack, the 3 4s to apply a burn status to my opponents, and the 2 5s to throw my opponent off the building we're fighting on! He can defend against any of these with one or more dice from his defence roll.

Also, when a rippling roll is forced you can spend Chi to reduce it. You just get one die per Chi spent and reduce the rippling roll by the result.

For what it's worth, your standard unit of guards is a bunch of minions with a lesser legend or two (to force rippling rolls).

[1of3]

OK. Let's cut down on the jargon a little bit.

Initiative is rolled every round.

On your turn, you can attack or attempt something other big. Against your attack, they will roll to defend.

Damage is not automatically rolled on every hit, like in D&D. Your succesful attack only makes them stumble or something like that. Such an effect is called a Ripple. You may think of them as exhaustion, being out of balance etc. Ripples add up.

When you score a very good hit, your opponents will roll all Ripples he or she accumulated. That may result in injuries or other conditions. Ripples are not reset by that.

At the end of combat, every one rolls their accumulated Ripples again. So it might be a good idea, to leave before you acquire too much.


That's the basics. Certain things like moving or changing the environment, you do not announce on your turn. You announce them on your Initiative roll, so others have time to interfere. These things are called Waves. You have to use a Minor Action for each one and that is the roll others have to beat, to prevent you from moving, building or whatever.

If no opponent manages to break your Wave roll before your turn comes up, the Wave goes thorugh.

[Fri]

A Wave is simply any minor action that is declared with your initiative roll but performed on your turn, not as Fri says at the start of your next round (p.176).

Yeah, sorry for the confusion (if there's any). It's been a while since I play this

[Metahuman1]

Alright. I think I follow for combat. I'll have to try it out at some point to actually test that, but I think I get the thrust of it. Pun not intended.

[Fri]

I guess next part is character creation? Which part stumbles you?

Once again, I don't blame you, because important parts of character creation are spread all over the book.

To sum, here's how you create character.

You get 20 destinies (this is your exp)

1. Pick Concept.
I believe you won't have any problem with this.

2. Decide starting rank
Basically what level you're starting. Don't mind too much, default starting character is Rank 4.

3. Pick Archetype.
Your class. There are 5 classes. Warriors, Priests, Courtiers, Scholars, Doctors. Basically the difference is which secret art they start with (you can buy new secret art, but it's expensive. Secret art is your class' special ability basically), and what skill do they "breathe" with. Breathe is how you recover Chi each turn.

As you might notice from previous posts, your chi deplete quickly, from either rolling defense, or using your skills. You can slowly regain Chi by doing "breathe" action, IIRC it's minor action, and the skill you use for it differs for each class. For example, Warriors breathe using Hardiness skill, Courtier breathe using Confidence skill, etc.

Secret art is what define your archetype. For example, warriors can use "approaches," which is basically visible tactics on how they fight. Scholars can do "prediction," which is using your Joss (fate point) to make prediction and getting bonus or giving people penalties according to your prediction. Doctors can heal people or give them buffs. And so on.

4.Buy skills.
Spend 20 extra destinies only on skills. You don't buy one skill per rank though. Basically, you buy 5 rank per 2 destinies. In other word, you can buy 10 skills. Why the weird cost? You buy skills per 5 rank, because the dice system used in this game (it makes sense if you play, you can check the previous summaries if you forgot), and you can buy a specialties with 1 destiny. Specialties is your... specialties, basically making your skill count 5 rank higher only for that specific thing. For example, instead of 10 rank of Politics, you can buy 5 rank of Politics and 1 specialties of "high nobility." So your normal Politics skill is 5, but if you use the skill for dealing with high nobilities, it count as rank 10.

5.Pick Virtues.
You have 15 points to spread on 10 virtues. What's the virtues for? Mostly, it give you bonuses (mainly destiny and joss I think?) if you act according to the virtue, and the amount of bonus depend on your virtue, so you're encouraged to act with it. Say, you have 5 rank in Benevolence. When you do something that someone agree showcase benevolence, at the end of the session they could mention it, and you'll get 5 joss next session. You maybe showcasing Individualism, and you have 2 rank in individualism, so next session you get 2 extra joss.

Joss is basically the special token that's used similar to fate point in Fate:Core, or to power scholar's special ability.

6.Take disadvantage
Optional, you can pick up to two. If your disadvantage cause you trouble in session, you earn 1 extra destiny.

7.Pick kungfu.
This might be the part that confuses you?

Basically you pick one starting External Kungfu, and one Internal Kungfu.

External Kungfu is your physical stance, your way of fighting, the thing that give you advantage and disadvantage in battle. Each External stance have description, stats, something they laugh at (very effective against), and Fears (weak against). It also decide what weapon you're proficient with, other than giving you a skill chain. You can buy other stances later.

Example:

Blossom Harvest is the most honest and straightforward fighting style. It laughs at overly complicated skills or being outnumbered, but fears reactive fighters and supernatural things.

It's proficient with Massive weapons, Staffs, and Unarmed.

It give you +5 Speed, +0 Footwork, +5 Strike, +10 damage, +5 block, +10 toughness.

It got some skills in a tree that you can buy. Example, for 4 destinies you can buy Heart-Fire Temper, passive which give you 15 damage when you're physically wounded. For 2 destinies you can buy No Vermin In The World, which make your attack count as area attack against minions.

Internal Kungfu is your... supernatural kungfu I guess. You can easily change your stance, but Internal Kungfu is harder to change. This is the thing where you shoot lightning from your hand or breathe fire, using Chi.

Example: Fire Sutra, which let you breathe fire.

You immediately gain the basic technique in the internal kungfu of your choice, and you can spend destinies to buy more techniques. BUT defaultly you can buy only one technique in each rank of the internal kungfu, basically this is how you customize it.

For example, the basic technique of Fire Sutra is Thought of Flame, which let you do burn attack as minor action with +5 attack bonus.

There are 4 second rank technique, but you can only pick one of them! So rather than buying the Verse of Fire technique which let you do burn attack with +10 bonus, you pick, Fire to Heaven Ascension, which give you +15 footwork for jumping.

Whenever you use internal technique, you use chi as much as the rank. So to use Thought of Flame you use 1 chi, to use Verse of Fire or Fire to Heaven Ascension you use 2 chi, and so on.

Important Caveat

This is not mentioned as part of character creation step, but you could, and should, use your starting destiny to buy loresheet. In fact, you should decide what loresheet you want to buy as part of your character concept.

What's loresheet? Basically you actually can use destiny not only to buy skills, but also membership of organizations or relationship with other people. And the loresheets provided as part of the setting give you various effects. This is the part where LotW's crunch is highly tied with its fluff.

For example, you can "buy" membership at Little Forest Sect for 3 destinies, which is an organization of Warrior Monks that roam the land, helping the needy, while striving for enlightement.

What you get from this membership? Well, you're now part of this sect, and you get passive bonuses and can buy more things from this loresheet. For example, for 3 destiny you can gain status. For 8 destiny you can buy their secret technique, Buddha's Palm.

But it also give you some "passive" bonus. For example, as member of this sect, you get one time -2 destiny discount when buying either Blossom Harvest, Eight Legends, or Destiny Cloud Fist, as your second external kungfu (after the default free first one).

You can also buy all Iron Body internal kungfu styles. Basically, rather than the limitation of "one technique per rank", you can buy all of them if you have the destiny to pay.


And... that's it for character creation basically. Do you remember part that stump you most?

[Fri]

I realize it might be easier for you to understand with example characters, so I'm going to post my last wulin character as example, and explain each parts one by one. He's a 4th rank, but not a fresh one (this is updated sheet after some adventures)

Genteel Drake
Rank 4 Warrior

Concept: A well-dressed gentleman warrior who travel the land and fight injustice.

Lake: 7
River: 2
Joss: 2
Chi Aura: 2

Spoiler: explanations

Show

Lake is how many dice I throw defaultly. So I throw 7 dice for my usual rolls
River is my dice repository. So I can keep 2 dice as backup. So I can store 2 dice from my rolls, and when I need them I can use them to round up a set or something
Joss is basically equivalent of my fate point in fate core. I defaultly start with 2 joss

Normal Chi: 11
Earth Chi: 3
Chi Threshold: 13, 26, 39 / 18, 36, 54 (light armor)
Chivalrous Joss: 10
Corrupt Joss: 1


Disadvantages: He always try to keep himself immaculately dressed.
Chi Deviations: His hairs are constantly trying to stand, and he has a compulsive need to comb them.

Spoiler: explanations

Show

Normal Chi is well... the non-elemental, standard chi that I can use for defensive rolls, special techniques, and such.

Earth Chi is Earth elemental chi I have because my internal kungfu is Heaven's Lightning, a lightning-themed earth elemental kungfu. Elemental kungfu give you elemental chi, and each elemental chi count as 2 normal chi for the purpose of using earth elemental kungfu.

Chi Threshold is used for rippling roll, to check my damage. I noted 3 of them to make it easier to check if the rippling roll give me trivial, minor, or major damage. (So if the rippling roll is above 26 but under 39, it's minor damage. If it's above 39, it's major damage). And there's two part because Drake wear light armor that gives him +5 chi threshold, the left side is unarmored threshold, the right side is armored threshold.

Chivalrous Joss is Joss I got from my chivalrous virtues, I can use it to give myself bonuses basically.
Corrupt Joss is Joss I got from my selfish virtues. I mostly can use it to give my opponents penalties.

Chi Deviations is an elemental themed quirk I got because I have Earth Element Internal Kungfu. It have to be obvious basically and come in play basically. I honestly think his Chi Deviation is not strong enough.

Combat stats
Speed +10 (+5 style +5 unarmed)
Footwork +15 (+10 style +5 unarmed)
Strike +10
Damage +0/10 (+10 superficial)
Block +5
Toughness +10

Ranged stats:
Speed +5
Footwork +10
Strike +15 (+10 style, +5 ranged)
Damage +0/10 (+10 superficial)
Block +5
Toughness +10

Spoiler: explanations

Show

Drake's external kungfu is "Subtle Force." These are the stats given by the kungfu, basically your kungfu give you your combat stats.
Subtle Force is proficient with ranged weapon and unarmed, which give you different bonuses. Drake is traveling around with ranged weapon (and unarmed), so I note two stats to make it easier to check the stats when he uses either weapons.

Skills
Awareness +5
Confidence +10
Crafting +0
Finesse +5
Hardiness +10 (focus on breath)
Inspire +0 (idealistic change)
Learning +5
Medicine +0
Might +0
Perform +0
Politics +5
Ride +0
Stealth +0
Survival +0
Tactics +10
Wu Wei +0

Spoiler: explanations

Show

I think this is clear enough. Drake has 0 inspire, but specialization on "idealistic change" so when he's inspiring people for idealistic change, his skill count as +5

Virtues

Honor 2

1 Revenge

Benevolence 5

2 Individualism

Righteousness 5

1 Obsession

Loyalty 1

1 Ruthlessness

Force 3

3 Ferocity

Spoiler: explanations

Show

I think this is clear enough

External Kung Fu

Subtle Force
7: Correct Approach (+10 superficial damage)
5: Patience Toward Conflict (+5 toughness)

Laughs at: none
Fears: none

Spoiler: explanations

Show

As mentioned, Drake has Subtle Force as his external kungfu. I bought correct approach for 7 destiny, and patience toward conflict fo 5 destiny, from the external kungfu's technique lists. I can buy more later

Internal Kung Fu
Heaven's Lightning
1: Yin and Yang Rotation (Able to use +5 shock attack as minor action.)
2: Yin and Yang Separation (Able to use +10 shock attack as minor action.)
2: Yellow Emperor's Hand (+10 bonus to knockback and disorient)
3: Holding Yin and Yang (+5 strike, damage, shock, boostable)
4: Dragon Chi (Round long, holdable, focus on breath increase earth chi, can transfer any shock technique bonus into speed, strike, footwork, damage, block, toughness)
5: Earth Chi Rejection (Able to use +25 shock attack as minor action, if it forces immediate rippling +15 bonus, if the shock hits, enemy got -10 against shock for the rest of the fight)

Formless
Golden Saint Palm

Spoiler: explanations

Show

As mentioned, Drake has Heaven's Lightning as his internal kungfu. Because he's member of falling leaves society, he can buy all techniques instead of limited at one per rank. As explained, each rank is the chi cost to use the technique. So to use Earth Chi Rejection I must pay 5 chi

Formless technique is technique not part of any kungfu skill tree. Golden Saint Palm is a formless technique I can get because I'm a member of Falling Leaves Society.

Secret Arts

Secret Art of Battle:
Combat Conditions
Extraordinary Warrior Techniques

Condition
Combat Approach: Gentleman's Lesson. Minor Earth Combat Condition. Drake points out enemies' strength and/or weakness out loud as he battles and uses them to his advantage.

Spoiler: explanations

Show

Secret Art of Battle is the thing I got for free because Drake is a Warrior Archetype. Actually other archetype can buy them, but for 10 destiny. It consists of two things: Combat conditions and Extraordinary warrior techniques.

Combat conditions is fighting style I can use to give me minor bonuses. They have elemental affinity as well, that might be strong or weak against other approaches (Earthy combat approach is formal and tactical, Fire combat approach is spontaneous and wild, Water combat approach is subtle and full of tricks, etc).

For example Drake has Minor Earth Affinity Combat Approach: Gentleman's Lesson. When he fight, his style is that he point out enemies' strength and/or weakness out loud. It gives him minor bonus if he do that. I made this myself with the GM's approval.

Another example would be, Drunken Boxing. It's most likely a fire combat approach, when you act undpredictable and drunk in combat, you may gain certain minor bonuses. But basically, discuss this with GM first.

Extraordinary Warrior Techniques are special techniques you can buy if you have Secret Art of Battle. I haven't got the chance to buy them. Example would be, Controlling Inner Force: You can flood (throw away) dice from your river (dice repository) to increase penalty from your disorienting to +10 (usually it's +5)

Equipment
Small marbles (ranged weapon)

Lore
Falling Leaves Society
3 Status: Member of the Falling Leaves Society
0 Bonus: One time -2 discount to buy Eight Legends, Divine Pattern Long Strokes, Graceful Crane.
0 Technique: Can learn all Heaven's Lightning technique
0 Bonus: -2 discount to buy confucianism loresheet.

2 Status: Member of the Blue Flame Branch
0 bonus: May choose crafting speciality: invention, or inspire specialty: idealistic change, for free.
0 bonus: -2 discount to buy Mohism loresheet.

2 Technique: Golden Saint Palm technique (If fighting unarmed, any chivalrous joss spent also affect rippling rolls)

Mohism
2 Status: His deeds brings recognition and goodwill of common people, and possibly hatred of the wealthy and the affluent.

2 Friend: Exuberant Meadow is a beggar society member who travels the land fighting injustice like Drake. They've known each other from when Drake was still a delinquent.

Spoiler: explanations

Show

As mentioned in previous post, you can use your destiny to buy things other than physical stuff or techniques. I used some destinies to buy loresheet.

I used 3 destiny to buy status as member of Falling Leaves Society, a society of gentlemen scholars. It gives me some extras, as mentioned above.

I used 2 destiny to buy status as member of the Blue Flame Branch of the Falling Leaves Society, a branch who feels like the society don't do enough to better the world, and want more hand on action.

I used 2 destiny to buy status as a Mohist, a philosophical school in ancient china who basically teach universal love.

I also bought 2 status to buy entanglement, a friend. The GM might use Exuberant Meadow as plot hook, or I might try to call her as contact when I need help.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything.

[Metahuman1]

Ok, I actually think this more or less makes sense. And yes, the example character does help solidify it for me. Thank you.


If anyone can think of anything else that's tricky with the system, feel free to contribute. Otherwise, I'll ask when/as questions pop up.

[Zilzmaer]

Normal Chi: 11
Earth Chi: 3
Chi Threshold: 13, 26, 39 / 18, 36, 54

If you have 11 normal and 3 Earth Chi, shouldn't your threshold be 14, rather than 13?

Also, either I'm mistaken, or your virtues add up to 24, when they should be 25.

Sorry if there're reasons for these, it just seems like you aren't getting as much out of your numbers as you should. Overall, the character looks good.

[Fri]

It's been a while, I might just've miscalculated. I'm bad at math :p.

Also, I think here's how you're supposed to read the wulin book.

Read all whole friggin pages of it. No exception. The reason is so you can have vague knowledge of this mechanic exists in fifth chapter or this mechanic got explained in third chapter. So when you're making character, you can remember "oh, I think I remember this thing existing somewhere" instead of getting confused and can look for the rough area where you remember reading about it.

So yeah, it's a pretty inefficient way to learn a system. I'm lucky that I got friends helping me.