1KM1KT Free RPG Community

After watching a marathon of movies (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, An Empress and the Warriors, Red Cliff) I've been on a bit of a Chinese Wuxia binge, and I was wondering if anyone had played or heard about a good game which represents that sort of play style.

I've been eyeballing a game called Qin, which seems to fit the bill. In particular I like the dice mechanic (Yin/Yang dice that focus on balancing as opposed to rolling high) and a character creation that rewards players who avoid min/maxing. Also their use of "Taos" to perform more of the crazy stunts found in Wuxia films are varied and include things like balancing on the tip of a spear (ala Pai Mei), a flurry of sword blows to deter hundreds of arrows, etc.

Anyone got a say/favorite pick? Anyone try Qin?

I admit that I'm not particularly familiar with Qin or Wuxia, but I can think of a few games that might qualify.

First of all, labels itself as the "Wuxia RPG". Characters are based around the five elements and their harmonies along with aspects and the Chinese zodiac.

is also a good candidate. Chose an archetype, a style, a form, a name, and your character is done. Hence "the grizzled soldier that practices Stone Cobra" is a nearly complete character. The game is rather rules light - whether you can accomplish a task is mostly based on if its in character rather than on any set skill/attribute rating. 12 forms and 12 styles mans you could arguably have 144 different schools of marital arts present, though that might be a little excessive.

is meant to replicate the action of arcade fighting games like Tekken, Guilty Gear, Soul Caliber etc. Once again, the game offers a plethora of styles, combined with the ability to form your own katas, ki attacks, rage meters for super abilities, and the like.

appears to be another martial arts focused game, and is explicitly made for over the top action, often in kung-fu style.

I apologize if a number of the links above (all but Thrash and Wu-shu) are direct to files - that is how they're listed on J.H, Kim's " in his free RPG list. There might be a few more good ideas listed there as well.

Of course, without leaving 1km1kt.net, there are the games: , and (Martial Arts Card Engine) which get the fighting down and which has nomic cards to adjust fight locations and theme music related power ups for the characters.

The game Feng Shui is inspired by Hong Kong action movies and has three settings (Historical China, Modern Day and Future). It uses "archetypes" to create the kinds of characters common to the genre and "schticks" to represent the special abilities and stunts that characters can perform. I must admit not playing the "Historical" setting much, but the modern setting has schticks like never needing to reload your guns. All the wire-fu cliches are there. It is published by .

Wushu is a free set of rules, released under Creative Commons and supported by a bunch of fan stuff. I really like this game but it takes some getting your head around because the rules reward you for trying more difficult feats. The basic concept is that for every piece of description you add to your action you get a bonus dice to roll - so "I kick Master Foo in the head" would get you a basic roll, but "I take a running leap up the wall, cartwheel over and behind Master Foo, making a comment about his poor sense of dress before I execute a Whirlwind Kick of the Beatle to his head!" would get you a bunch of bonus dice! It is a "rules light" game that focuses on cool, dramatic description.

I hope this helps.

- Nathan

I've been loving Weapons of the Gods, by Eos Press. There's a bit of a steep entry learning curve (not helped by the lack of index), but the starting adventure makes that climb easier and the payoff, well, let's just say that WotG raised my standards for what I expected from a combat-focused game. Which is too bad for most other RPGs, because pretty much none of them measure up. Even if you plan to use a different set of rules, make sure you read WotG first, just to find ideas to steal.

After much fiddling, I settled on making one modification, removing the base to-hit bonuses from regular weapons, but not the extra to-hit bonuses given to some god weapons.

While it may be tempting to adapt some generic game, like GURPS or HERO system, let me tell you I've played such adaptations, and rolling a skill of 16 does not capture the feel of blocking someone's Waves-Like-Water-style Sliding Strike using your Golden-Temple-Bells-style Hardness of the Bell technique. Nor does gaining 5 experience points match committing 10 great deeds exemplifying the xia virtues to rise in heaven's ranking. But, if you like your whiskey de-alcoholized, I suggest HERO System with a 10-point cap per technique/power. Raise the cap point-by-point for more advanced techniques.