Lore and Siddhi

Finally! I spent the last week working on this, getting it updated and flexed out. The big holdup was the large-scale resource system, which is still in the shop. Ultimately, it's a bit too big of a bite to take for the PWYW, so y'all are going to have to be patient on that one (It's looking like you'll see it realized in part 3, and then again in lone wolf fists when I get around to fleshing that out).

Without further ado:

Lores start out like your typical "splat"; they give you a broad-scale overview of the in-universe thing it represents (in this case the Varja Lotus, Tripitaka's brotherhood of "I can't believe they're not Buddhists!"). I also threw in a bit afterwards giving you some reasons why you'd include the lore in your game or as part of a character, because that saves you having to read the whole damn lore if the thesis doesn't grab you.

Lores are the key to advancing in this game: they're the training manuals, wizened masters and martial brotherhoods that offer training in the fighting arts. I wanted to make certain that the advancement mechanics were rooted in the in-genre conceits of Wuxia and Shonen; if you got stronger, its because you trained, and if you learned a new move, its because someone taught you.

If you want to purchase a new Siddhi, Gupt Kala, or Skill Mastery, you've got to get it from an organization you've entangled yourself with. There's another mechanic, not present on this sheet but in the works, which directly tracks how much favor you've curried with an organization, and this determines what they're willing to teach you (as a base; individual masters are almost always eccentric weirdos, but that's for you to roleplay, not the rules to dictate)

The Lotus offer three Masteries, I suspect most organizations will offer a similar amount. Spirit is the real keystone to the martial arts and shadow arts that they teach, so if you take this Lore it's what I'd recommend for your first choice. Spirit mastery also gives you +1 rank to open a Chakra, which is crazy powerful.

Finally, you get to see some of the Siddhis in their signature martial art style. I learned when writing them that their formatting follows the formatting of charms in Exalted very closely! It wasn't intentional, but if you're familiar with that game then you'll note the similarity right away. I guess those guys knew what they were doing.

The martial arts template I devised is separated into 4 tiers: Novice (beginning techniques taught to amateurs), Expert (More powerful techniques for your "established" kung-fu badasses), Master (Which is what your wizened masters use to whup your butt), and Ultimate, which is the cherry of the asskick cake.

(David specifically requested the giant-golden-hand-of-god attack; I made it an homage to kung-fu hustle because how could I resist?)

So let's talk about Siddhi

The Name is pretty self-explanatory. In a noteable divergence from Exalted, people in the Galaxy above Heaven actually use the crazy over-the-top names and recognize that they're using their magic to cast kung-fu spells.

The Rank is worthy of mention; it's the amount your base roll is increased in increments of ten. So like, if it's rank 1, that's +10. Rank 3 is +30. This helped to keep our math as single-digit as possible, which considering how much you have to track was a major boon.

Facings deserves some explanation as well. When you roll your Effort pool (a big ol' pile of d10s), the numbers you generate are the Facings of the dice. Siddhis only generate "dice" of certain facings; in the case of say, Maitreya's Palm, this is any Facing between 6-8.

What this means is that you can boost dice sets you've rolled in your Effort pool or stored in your Focus slots, but only if they have the right Facing.

On the other hand, you can just straight-up generate an action if you want. Using a Siddhi isn't any different, rules-wise, from just rolling a set, or constructing one from your Focus dice. So if you just want to burn through your magic go-go juice, you can shoot all the eyebeams you can afford. Speaking of which....

Cost is the amount of Prana it takes to use the Siddhi. Nothing much to explain there.

Power is the meat of the Siddhi. It describes the mechanical effect and restrictions of the technique. There are some keywords, because certain rules have juuuust enough text and appear in juuuuust enough techniques that keywords are a no-brainer option. Offensive can only be used to attack, Defensive only for defense, to give an example.

Arik suggested that, in addition to the more-or-less linear power scalar that more powerful Siddhi introduce, we focus on interesting "rider effects" that broaden the scope of what can be accomplished with magical punches. I loved the idea, so there's a ton of cool stuff that Siddhi do apart from just throw Hadokens back and forth.

Here's a peek into our take on the secret arts. Unlike Legends, the damage from such techniques isn't rolled into physical damage; they're kept separate by a mechanic called Aggravation. This lets you manipulate or create Imbalances without accidentally knocking your target unconscious.

(Actually wait, did it work like that? I've been eyeball-deep in designing this game for so long, I might be misremembering how LotW handled this)

I didn't dare try to recreate the genius which was the secret arts section of Legends of the Wulin; that part of the game is basically perfect, all I could do would be make a watered-down version. So I came at the shadow arts or Gupt Kala from a different angle, treating them more like martial arts styles instead of a set of general principles that practitioners mastered.

Treating them like this had the upswing that I didn't have to reinvent the wheel as far as learning new moves was concerned; go back to your master or seek out a new one and learn some new techniques, just the same as Siddhi.

Here's another feature of Lores (that was present in previous versions, just not as emphasized): the places, treasures and peoples of the organization.

Because LotW and WotG didn't concern themselves mechanically with locations (which Tian Shang does with battlefields, elements, the tactical infinity, and the effect chart) there wasn't much emphasis on detailing locations like strongholds or interesting features of the scenery.

This was a much bigger issue in WotG; the descriptions of places are airy and insubstantial, couched in flowering, poetic language that's just this side of worthless on a game table. Legends added some more meat to locations (I'm particularly fond of the Great Wall loresheet that let you make up interesting histories for different sections while you're fighting on them: classic!), but LotW was more concerned with the dramatic and thematic dimensions of locations, less with their actual terrain.

For Legends, this was because tactics were centered around narrative keywords, not environmental interaction mechanics. Its a perfectly viable approach; Fate uses this approach too.

But environmental interaction was a keystone of our design (the Effect chart is the central pillar of this design philosophy). The wonderful thing about the chart is that it allows us (and GMs) to create a description of an area (in the case of this Lore, the Vajra Lotus stronghold-temple) and then use the rules selectively as it is interacted with to create its tactical dimension. Just how sturdy are those gigantic walls? How much punishment can that crystal lotus take? GMs make the call on the fly, take a note, and add the tactical infinity to the area in an imminently gameable fashion. Sweet.

The actual game-effect of things like the cloning chambers and gene-therapy labs are clear and gameable, adding a new dimension to the game when they're introduced. Its my hope that, with the toolbox mechanics we've built into the system, inclusions of entries like this encourage GMs to add a gameable dimension to the things they introduce into their own games.

Finally, the leadership and membership of the organization is detailed. Because our character sheets only consist of a few dense elements, we don't have to waste a lot of word count on stat blocks (thank god). The degree of a character gives you the number of techniques they have, their action pool, focus, health, skill masteries... Nearly everything.

Also, our minion rules are a touch more robust and comprehensible than previous editions. I really want people to use minions, so they're balanced to present a challenge to "proper" characters. I was a little underwhelmed by the LotW minions (they were nearly a joke, going last and rolling so few dice, possessing a total lack of interaction with the kung-fu mechanics, etc.). These guys even get special moves (although they're just retreads of the "proper" versions of the earliest kung-fu moves. I like to think of them as the most fundamental forms that characters master on their way to achieving enlightenment)

Wrapping up, we've got the minor dharma and zui consequence list. These are a crack, so I'm going to dig into them a bit while I've got you here.

The XP-mechanism of this game is the Dharma mechanics. Characters get two varieties; greater Dharma, which is picked from a list of big-deal destinies at character creation, and minor Dharma, which are hitched up to Lores.

They both share mechanics. When you do (or choose not to do) something that resonates with your destiny, you get some XP (called Kharma). If you do something anathemic to your destiny, you still get Kharma, but get an equal amount of Zui, which is like bad kharma or a looming divine punishment.

There's a list of triggers to give players and GMs an idea of what the destiny is trying to get the character to do, but each xp-action is initiated, negotiated and agreed upon by player and GM on a case-by-case basis (guidelines for this conversation are helpfully included, of course)

Minor Dharma tie into an organization's goals; you directly link your conduct to their reputation and goals when they agree to train you (or serve as am embarrassment to them if you steal their secrets).
If you're upstanding and act to further their goals, you get Kharma. If you're a jackass and screw up their plans, you get some well-deserved Zui punishment (I like to think of it as "learning the hard way")

(There's a mechanic that needs a touch longer to cook, which relates your conduct to your standing in the organization, but you probably won't see it before the second part of the quickstart)

Zui sits on your character sheet as a resource for the GM to spend. They have a shopping list handily provided to them by your Lores that they can purchase from with Zui. It contains enemies, misfortune, annoyances, and other delightful disasters to rain on your character's head for taking the easy, sinful path.

(Also, GMs are not restricted to this list to introduce challenges into the game. This isn't Dungeon World; GMs can make a lot of this stuff happen as a result of play. But THIS lets them justify it as a pure manifestation of your earned bad luck)

Note that, they don't have to spend Zui earned from a given Lore on that Lore's Zui Consequence list; they can spend it on whatever Lores you've entangled yourself with. kharma pans out in all sorts of unexpected ways!

.....

Well that's our teaser! David's sent the text off to the editor, says it should be done about mid-next month. He and Victor Andrade, our graphic designer (and many-hat-wearing co-game designer and author) are looking at different layouts this month as well. So, happy holidays to all, and we'll see you next year, when we take the kung-fu RPG world by storm!

Linking the rules to the shared mindspace: The importance of the Effect Chart

Here's my gem, the Effect Chart:

You're going to notice a lot of similarity here to this old thing:

And indeed that's the origin of the Effect Chart. The design behind both is rooted in same goal; to allow the modeling of superheroic effort in a game that otherwise cleaves closely to reality.

There are a few elements of this worth explaining in detail:

-The same mechanic for attacking and defending is used for all effort. This allows you to roll your action pool once, and have that roll express the sum total of a character's capabilities in that round. It also gives you tons more options per roll.

-Every character can perform every skill. The seven skills are Power (physical strength and leverage) Finesse (dexterity, agility, and speed) Endurance (toughness and stamina) Senses (environmental awareness and attention to detail) Intellect (skill, depth and speed of thought) Heart (charisma, social adaptability) and Spirit (psychic and spiritual awareness and control).

-The chart determines what effect a skill roll of a given rank can do. It gives both players and GMs a clear idea of the outcome of a (skill) action of (given rank). This works in two directions, both great:
1. Without needing to numericize their prep, a GM can make an on-the-spot call for the difficulty of an action "That boulder? About as heavy as a car, so that's Power Rank 4 to lift"
2. It benchmarks the effects of physical phenomena. "That boulder? About as heavy as a car, so that's a Rank 4 environmental crushing effect as it falls on you"

-Because the math behind the action pool exponentially favors multiple low-rank sets over higher ones, the path to climbing the effect chart is with roll modifiers. The system has two (broadly): Masteries, which give a flat, free +1 rank to actions of a particular skill, and Siddhis (your kung-fu techniques), which increase an action by a number of ranks for a cost in Prana. This means that higher-ranked actions (which have a bigger impact) rely indirectly on capability or magic.

-The chart is also capped from raw rolls; the highest a purely mortal roll can accomplish is Rank 6, which is about what I peg spiderman could do on a good day. Higher effects must be breached with more powerful techniques (Low-levels open rank 7, while the grand master techniques allow any result to be achieved), making the crazy DBZ-stuff an outgrowth of magic.

-It allows a GM to say "you can do what a person can reasonably do" as a shorthand for interaction with the tactical infinity, but it *also* allows them to say "You can do crazy DBZ stuff if you roll high enough", which puts pretty much any Shonen (Bleach, Naruto, DBZ...) on the table. It effectively allows this engine to work like the logic of Shonen, putting "normal person, but can become superhuman" fully on the table.

The chart does more than all of this, but these things are extremely important. I could probably run the game with just the action pool, health, focus, and this chart. But of course, what would magical space kung-fu be without the kung-fu? Next time I'll explain some of the development of Lores and the Siddhis that call them home.

Tripitaka, the Monkey King, and the Robots

Here are those character sheets I promised!

Tripitaka

There's that wonderful Grobelski piece, plus a little splash-intro to the character. I tried to keep in punchy, but to give a definite direction to a player picking this up for the first time.

Here you're seeing what a character sheet looks like on the table. It's meant to be functional; the empty circles are places that you literally place dice after you roll them, or save then in the focus slots. You're meant to write health in the health boxes. The pools of Prana are meant to have tokens placed in them (glass beads were used in the in-house playtesting). You're also getting a peek at the advancement system as well; again, those empty spaces are meant to be filled with tokens, dice, or writing at the player's preference.

Here's our current layout for the Siddhis and Gupt Kala sheet (your special kung-fu techniques). these are tied to advancement; as you learn newer, more powerful techniques, your overall power level increases, resulting in more action dice, focus slots, and accessible chakra. The empty areas under "power" are meant to contain either the rules text of the technique, or a brief summary and page number for ease of reference.

Sun Wukong

The Robot (Sentry)

The sentry here doesn't have a character sheet, but it's still laid out in such a way as to be functional if printed and placed on a table during a game. A big part of the strategy of this game relies on players being able to see what the bad guy's resources look like (this is often referred to as "system transparency"). What it's action pool has rolled, what it's saved in focus slots, how much Prana it has and will get in future rounds, and how much damage it's taken are all big and clear, so that players can gain familiarity with the strategic elements of gameplay from the quickstart.

Excerpt and art from Tian Shang

Hello everyone! Well it's finally happening: we're gearing up for the release of the Tian Shang quickstart. Since I've busted my keister on it (and since I'm impatiently waiting for everything to finalize) I wanted to share some early draft excerpts with y'all.

The Art

Let me start with the art. This is our chapter-header for act 1. For the quickstart, you're going to see this on the cover. What I love about RPG art, beyond it's "eyecatch" quality, is that it gives a GM the ability to point to something and say "That! You're fighting that"

What you're seeing expertly depicted (by the immeasurably talented Christof Grobelski) up there is the first fight scene with the two pregens Sun Wukong and Tripitaka. Yes, that sentry is your first opponent, and yes, you can smash it with Monkey's Ruyi Jingu Bang (the huge red club: it changes shape!) or adhere one of those holographic demon-sealing strips to it.

The Quickstart

We jump right into it! Bam, you're a clone! Bam, get the monkey king! Bam, scale that mountain! Bam, fight that robot! Wait I'm skipping ahead. You can also see one of the Arik Ten Broeke's suggested additions to the text here; that little callout box for gaming on the internet.
(For those not in the know, Arik was one of the brilliant designers of Legends of the Wulin)

The core mechanics of the game start getting introduced here. I'm particularly fond of the little d10 images I made up there; they're adorable.

The core mechanics, as you'll note, have a lot in common with Legends in terms of how you roll and score dice. You roll your action pool's dice (in this case 4d10) and match them into sets of same-numbered dice. The more same-facing dice in a set, the more powerful the action.

Just like Legends, rolling more than one set allows you to take more than one action in a turn. I greatly admired this rule; it had the dual advantage of empowering players with strategic choice and empowering their characters with lightning-fast flurries of action.

A recurring theme of my work in the mechanics has been just polishing already-genius things like this and making them just a squinch more defined.

You're also seeing a taste of the Effect chart from later in the book. This thing was the core of my new contribution to the system, and I'm just aching to talk about it, but I'm going to shut up until you can see the whole thing (dammit).

Yeah baby, time for some carnage! 

One of the things I wanted to do here was demonstrate to GMs how to frame success and failure in terms of an ongoing game. In a less linear module, I would have allowed a failure state ("You don't manage to climb the rocks, and must find a new way up...") but here I'm happy to take the advice of Vincent Baker and Luke Crane and just "fail them forward". It's important to have plenty of techniques in your bag of GM tricks.

Another important thing kept from Legends is the "Chi Imbalance" mechanics (here simply Imbalances). Again, the framework of the mechanic is identical: you have an injury, and choose between manifesting it with a mechanical penalty or with a limitation on your character's described actions.

Where I polished this is small, but important. First, you "lock in" either of the ways of dealing with it at the start of each of your turns. This allows you flexibility over a battle, but forces you to commit to only one approach in a given turn (this set predictability makes strategy easier for both you and your foes, greatly speeding up play).

Second, the descriptive dimension is given a thorough treatment on the next few pages under "Reaching into the Tactical Infinity". This gives GMs and players a framework for using their descriptions to interact with the game world in a non-mechanical way, that doesn't intrude on or devalue the mechanics. Rather, it frames the narration as an equal partner to the mechanics. The Effect Chart helps this as well, but all in due time my pretties.

A few new mechanics are introduced here; the health track and initiative bidding.

I went back to the well of Weapons of the Gods and used their health track. This was in response to complaints that in LotW that you didn't really seem to "damage" your foe, just add an ever-increasing amount of "ripples" (dice that could generate chi imbalances). I fused both mechanics, since I liked elements of both, and created a health track that causes Imbalances as you become more wounded. This created multiple paths to defeat, which added an interesting dimension to combat strategy.

The initiative bid is a predecessor to the initiative roll of LotW. Rather than a single round of bidding, I wanted characters to have to strategize their turn from their initial roll (you only roll once per turn in this system) so I allowed them to continue upping the initiative bid as high as they want with multiple rounds of bidding. It sounds time-consuming, but it typically resolves in just a handful of seconds.

It's drawn some criticism, but I like the bid. Going before an opponent has the effect of changing their dice from offensive vectors to defensive ones, giving you greater control over the rhythm of the battle. Its a sizeable advantage, but balances nicely with saving your dice to have a greater, if slower, impact in the round.

There's that callout box. I've been a firm believer in the shared mindspace and tactical infinity since I became aware of their existence. There's another dimension to RPGs which isn't discussed here, the conversational dimension, which is wonderfully expanded on by Jenna Moran in her games, most notably in Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Engine. Its a bit effervescent, but I haven't read a game closer to the bleeding edge of modern game design.

The river returns here as Focus Slots. The principle is the same; you store dice from this round to use in later rounds. There's also a clarification of how many dice it requires to act in a round (you can do a single action with a single-die set, and you can perform "bonus actions" with sets of 2 or more).

You also get to dip your toes into Chakra, Prana, etc. this round. This is our resource system; chakras give you prana, you spend prana to do magic stuff.

Some really cool stuff here. There's a demonstration of using a Focus slot to "hold" an action between rounds (like holding your breath, lifting heavy stuff, or grapples), which is an innovation I'm really proud of. We also introduce the Gupt Kala ("Shadow Arts") which are our answer to the Secret Arts from the previous games. 

Our combat pacing mechanic gets introduced here too. You can open up more of your chakra during a fight, but it takes a set. This allows players to invest in future rounds at a cost to current ones. It also incentivizes them to open as many as they can, since Siddhis (your kung-fu techniques) "cheat" the rolling curve by allowing sets to increase over what's likely to be rolled.

This is the wrap-up of our introduction. Since I didn't want to assume the outcome of the battle, there's a sidebar in there for if the player loses. An important lesson from this introductory fight is that losing doesn't have to mean dying; there's a mechanic in the full rules for introducing death into a scene; its very explicit and transparent. This is my take on a similar rule, the "death box", from Tenra Bansho Zero.

We also introduce the second playable pregen, Sun Wukong, affectionately called Monkey by the design team.

Taking a page from my college texts, I re-introduce and examine concepts here that have been previously introduced, allowing the player and GM to become familiar with them through repetition.

That's all for now folks! Next time, I'll let you take a gander at the bad guy and the pregens, as well as the much-anticipated Effect Chart. Stay tuned!