DwD Studios

I have a question about Mook BP. The core rule books says 5BP. I am guessing this is a typo and should read 50BP?
Thanks Kevin

NPCs come in three types, Minor/Mook, Major and Master Villains.

Minor NPCs or Mooks indeed have 5BP. These represent common people or when adversaries, disposable bad guys that the players are expected to take on by the dozen with ease.

See also Chaff Before the Wind on page 19.

I hope this is helpful.

Thank you for the quick response.I think this is an example of me overthinking the situation.
Kevin

I have a question regarding Contested Actions, Art of Wuxia, p. 55

The rules for Contested Actions read:
"Some actions, as determined by the GM, may be contested. In other words, your opponent also gets to make a skill or ability check to see if you succeed. For instance, trying to pick a pocket might be detected if your opponent makes a successful LOG check. Trying to wrestle a dagger out of someone’s grasp might be handled by contested STR checks. A chase sequence might be handled by a series of contested DEX checks around critical obstacles. In such cases, there must be a clear winner (so if you both pass your check, the contest continues, turn by turn, until someone fails)."

So if I'm reading this right, if both actions are successful, the players continue rolling off each round until there is a clear winner.

I can see where this might make sense in a grappling (combat) situation, with both characters wrestling for a weapon, or a longer chase scene, but what about a situation where the result should be noticeable in a moment, like the pickpocket example above?

As written, in the pickpocket example:
Round 1: Pickpocket succeeds in check. Crime victim succeeds in check. That means the pickpocket fails and the crime victim fails to notice the pickpocket's failure?
With no clear winner, both roll again in round 2, and then perhaps round 3, round 4, etc.

I think that feels a bit clunky in play.

Perhaps a better way to resolve that kind of contested action is:
If one player succeeds and the other fails their roll, the one who succeeded wins the action. (Obvious.)

But if both players succeed in their rolls, the one with the highest result wins the contest.

Critical successes, however, beat regular successes.

Thus, if in the example with the pickpocket, the pickpocket succeeds by rolling a 54, and the crime victim fails by rolling a 73. The pickpocket steals successfully.

But

Example 2: If the pickpocket succeeds by rolling a 35, and the crime victim succeeds with a 43, then the crime victim wins the roll, because both were successes, but 43 beats 35.

Example 3: The pickpocket succeeds with a 22 and the crime victim succeeds with a 35. The pickpocket wins, because critical successes beat regular successes.

What if both roll a crit? Whichever crit is higher wins.

Just curious how that sounds.

(Of course, you could also rule, I suppose, that in the first "as written" example with the pickpocket, if both succeed, the pickpocket gets what they were trying to steal, but the crime victim also notices the thief and can raise the alarm? So then they both succeed in their objective?)

Hi TorresRoman,

Yes you're reading it right. In the example you give, the pickpocket didn't successfully pick the pocket and if it's important enough to him, he has to keep trying. In role-playing, this means the victim moved away at the last minute, but didn't detect the thief. The thief, believing it important to get what's in that victim's pocket, navigates closer to try again. Yes, it might take a few rounds, but it shouldn't be a roll-off (which would be very uncinematic) but a roleplayed situation (which is very cinematic and tension building).

However, you're right, there are sometimes situations where it doesn't make sense to do it that way. In such a situation, yes, feel free to implement a "rolls highest but still succeeds" solution, which I've used myself on occasion!

So, I hope this is not more stupid questions.

1) I have a player creating an Alchemist. Looking at the Alchemist Kit it comes with 50tl of material. I did not see that they could purchase more materials. I have allowed that they could purchase 100tl of material as one of their equipment items. (side note: Alchemist items are expensive ie. 50tl for 1D healing.)

2) The same character with a secondary skill of Warrior chose Flying Daggers as their Kung Fu Style. This style is supposed to focus on "thrown knife techniques" As I'm reading the rule they would only be able to purchase one dagger as one of the six equipment items. Am I reading that right? I am allowing them to purchase 5 Daggers regardless, I just wanted to get clarification.

Thanks again.
Kevin

@Kevinmcc

Not stupid questions at all. You have questions? We have answers to help make your game better!

1) Yes, the alchemist kit comes with some starter materials. The rest can be abstract purchases at an alchemy or medicine shop. Nothing wrong with saying the player could get 100tl worth of materials as one of their equipment items. An assassin that is into alchemy. Dangerous!

2) Page 11. Step 6 Equipment and Money -

Choose any 6 items from the equipment lists
beginning on page 42: weapons (including ammo),
armor, animals (including a saddle, bag, tack, and
harness), and equipment. You may not select any
item whose value is more than 100 taels (tl). In
addition, you begin play with a coin purse
containing 2D tl.

So, any six. If they take a bow, they get the arrows too. It is pretty generous and is designed to get players what they need and playing quickly.

Totally fine to take those 5 daggers. No problem there at all.

The character did take the Flying Daggers Style so either they are a member of the White Lotus Assassins or they will be hunted by them. Never let them forget that. :)

Possible errata:

Page 31 under Technique Collector, it states that the cost is 10 CP to learn a technique outside your style (plus a teacher and maybe a favor, or training manual)

Page 46 under Kung Fu, it states the cost to learn a technique not in your style is 5 CP (plus a teacher or secret manual)

Page 46 is correct. Our edit fu was not able to overcome the mistake on page 31.

Also note in the example on page 10 where Jack chooses the Wodan style because it has the vivacity technique. Jack was confused. Jack meant to choose the Ten Styles of Life Taking Swift Sword style.

We played through a short scenario last night involving Hopping Corpses and a Hopping Vampire. We noticed that the HV has a Fear Aura (10 spaces, resist -20 WIL), but we couldn't find anything about the effect of failing.

We decided it meant that you couldn't approach within the Fear aura range (i.e. 10 spaces) in this case (so you could stay 10 spaces away and use missiles). Is there anything explicit about it (searching for Fear in the pdf didn't turn anything up), but we could have missed it!

That is a good way of handling fear aura of the HV. If anyone critically failed their WIL resistance you might pile on one or more conditions such as Dazed, Immobilized, Paralyzed, or even weakened. Dazed and Weakened could even be used as a condition of entering the fear aura without a successful WIL resistance.

Ok, a few more questions after tonight's session:

- Leader/Battle Commander/Inspire : do the inspired allies need to be next to me in the Initiative phase or in the action taking phase? (We thought the Initiative phase). Do the to hit/damage bonuses apply to missiles and spells?

- Leader/Warlord/Tactical Strike : This applies to every attack - if more than 2:1 does it apply to more people or just one? Can it apply to me and another, etc?

- More than one Kung Fu style (p32) : how do multiple styles work with differing weapons? I can use my highest Warrior skill and mix and match techniques, but how does the minimum kung fu damage work if the styles have different weapons?

- Sorceror/Low Sorcery : Create 5 space globe of light - is that 5 space radius or diameter (sounds like diameter). Does it have to be near the sorceror or can it be further away? Does it move?

Leader/Battle Commander/Inspire: The adjacency is needed when you make the skill roll before initiative is rolled. The to hit/damage bonus applies to any kind of attack.

Leader/Warlord/Tactical Strike: the Leader is coordinating with one ally. So either the leader or the ally gets the benefit.

More than one Kung Fu style: use all benefits together at best effect. If you run into a situation where you must only use one kung fu style, then resort to only that style, it's weapons, weapon damage, level of effects and techniques etc. Otherwise, reap the benefits of your diversity.

5 Space globe of light: we've treated it as radius centered on the sorcerer (bright globe above the sorcerer's head or in their hand). As a GM I allow the player to describe their particular use of it and how it looks. The specifics are really left up to how groups want to manage it. I could easily see it as diameter but then allowing it to be moved around but stay with a certain range of the sorcerer if that works for you. Say it can move 5 spaces per turn but the sorcerer must maintain concentration on it and keep it within sight or it will move back to hover near them. Something like that sounds fun and completely reasonable.

Hope this helps.

Thanks once again!

I have two questions about any of Diseases on Page 78

1. Does the Alchemist make a group check or individual check for Duration?
2. Does the Alchemist make a group check or individual check for Diagnose?

Two more questions

If a character is possessed by a hungry ghost and the rest of the party attack it, does the damage apply to the ghost (so when it gets to zero BP, it is expelled from its host) or the host (so the host BP get reduced, and when it gets to zero, that body collapse and the ghost can try and possess someone else?

If a ghost is reduced to 0 BP, what happens to it?

The GM makes the roll to determine the duration of a disease. Successful treatment by an alchemist could lesson or even end the duration depending on the disease.

An alchemist makes a roll to diagnose the disease. If this is obviously a disease that is affecting a bunch of people in say a small village it would make sense they all have the same disease.

I hope this helps.

The key to adjudicating the possession by a hungry ghost is to look at the dominion spell for guidance. Damage applied to a possessed person damages that person, not the ghost. Note that making the person do things against their morals can allow them another chance to fight the possession. Spells such as Purify and Dispel can be helpful. Tying the person up forcing the ghost to release the person all all viable methods for dealing with this dangerous power.

As for what happens to a ghost when it reaches 0BP, by the RAW the ghost would be destroyed. But if there is more to the story, such as why the ghost is so hungry, why it is so consumed with a need to cause terror, perhaps it will return if that cause is not dealt with. This is your wuxia and you can make it what you like.

For example if I created a creepy abandoned village where hungry ghosts come out at night and attack the PCs perhaps, those ghosts will come back (every night or every month) until the evil local magistrate that starved his people is brought to justice etc. I'd see that as a totally viable way to make this an ongoing "curse" until finally resolved.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the response. I think you have answered all my questions. I am playing the ghosts as being tied to a source and reducing them to 0BP just stops that manifestation for a while, but they will return.

Sounds great! Sounds like something for the players to figure out for it will certainly lead to more adventures. And we want that!

Use this d00Lite ruleset to bend the game to what your and your players want. It was designed with that in mind. You'll know when you break it because that will be the point where someone isn't having fun. And you can always fix that.

Hope this helps!

Hi, a question about techniques and weapons. I think I may have not understood this properly previously!

p31 : If I learn a technique from my style, can I ONLY apply that technique to weapons from that style, or can it apply to any weapons? For example, Fiery Dragon warrior has two weapon fighting. If they pick up 2 Jians (not an FD weapon) can they use two-weapon fighting? Other techniques e.g. Defender, One Against All etc obviously work all the time.

Originally I thought that the only criterion for Style Weapons was whether you get Kung Fu damage with them or not. Then I was thinking about 5 CP to add a weapon to your Style which made me wonder if that purely allowed Kung Fu damage or applied to Style techniques as well. Otherwise 5 CP seems a lot when you could pick up another style including (say Jian) at Level 1 for 3 CP.

Hope that makes sense!

If they haven't added the weapons to their style they don't get the kung fu damage and it makes sense that they aren't using techniques that require weapons from that style with those weapons. A GM could clearly make exceptions or rule that the techniques are fair game but the kung fu damage is not. If they add those weapons to their style then everything works as normal.

Yes, they could add another style for less CP but then you run into the very real issue and difficulties of having more than one shifu/teacher. If you can navigate that and keep both your teachers happy then you can freely mix and match style techniques and weapons within the styles you've learned. Also, it is harder to incorporate a weapon you are learning on your own into a style than to get training in a weapon taught by another style and adapt what you have learned.

All of that changes, of course, if you face an opponent that knows a secret weakness of one of your styles. When that happens you have to switch to the other style and only use techniques and weapons and warrior skill level for that style. Hope the opponent doesn't know a secret weakness to that style too!

And since you've been asking so many great questions here is something for you:

New Master Villain Ability
My Kung Fu is Better Than Yours – Lo Bak

Tier 1 Special Ability

Kung Fu Savant
The master villain has academically studied more kung fu styles than most have heard of. While the master villain only practices the techniques they have learned, they know the secret weaknesses of all other known kung fu styles. If the master villain is attacked three times by the same opponent, they can identify the style of kung fu being used against them and recall its secret weakness. The opponent now suffers a hard penalty (-20) on all defense rolls vs the master villain’s kung fu attacks. If the opponent calls out the name of their technique the master villain can identify the kung fu style immediately.

Counter: Very rare kung fu styles practiced only by a handful of masters or found in long lost secret training manuals might be immune to this master villain ability. Otherwise, only by attacking the master villain with multiple styles of kung fu can one hope to avoid falling prey to their superior kung fu knowledge.

Great stuff, thanks. Appreciate the Villain ability too!

Ok, another picky question!

Two Weapon fighting says "fighting with one-handed melee weapon in each hand". Would this work with unarmed (unsure but by the wording I guess not). How about Iron Wrist Rings? They add to unarmed damage but are effectively weapons (so I would tend to think that would work). Fiery Dragon has them as style weapons so it must work with that style.

Interestingly as you always get kung fu damage with Unarmed, it seems that Iron Wrist Rings will always be usable with that (even if they are not included in your style) as they only add to Unarmed damage (?).

Two Weapon fight - is with weapons. Just weapons.

Iron wrist rings are weapons. If they are not part of your kung fu style, then you cannot use them with your kung fu damage nor kung fu techniques.

Background: iron wrist rings are more of a training tool(wrist weights etc.) but it is fun to add them to the heavier strength styles as a weapon as you see in movies. Kung Fu Hustle for example has a character with a ridiculous number of them on their arms. Bottom line, if your players face an opponent with iron wrist rings, they know this is one strong character (STR 70 required!).

Ok, thanks, I wasn't sure as Wrist Rings are unarmed+3. Funnily enough I just watched that scene from Kung Fu Hustle the other day!

But! More questions!

- Two Weapon Fighting (you can tell we have a PC with this!) : You can use 2 1H weapons. If they are different types/damage ratings, which do you use for the damage roll? The highest, the lowest, or something else?

- TWF again. If you have one Spirit Sword and one ordinary weapon, is your damage vs Demons full, or halved, or something else?

- Mystic Spirit Sword says it does full damage vs Demons and Ghosts as if a Magic Weapon. But Ghosts only take damage from unarmed or spells - so does the Spirit Sword count as a spell for this purpose? Normally Ghosts are unaffected by weapons. (I assume that the Spirit Sword description takes precedence here and it does do full damage to Ghosts).

(Sorry, we were brainstorming a bit this morning!)

And another: Offensive Strike.

- If you put this on a weapon, do you get 1D/2 levels or the extra 1D as if cast on a single target?

- Also vs Mooks, we thought it would add to the damage before Chaff Before the Wind kicks in, just for the cinematic value!

Two-Weapon Fighting is much easier than that. +10 to melee attack rolls and +10 to physical resistance rolls when fighting with two one-handed weapons. That is all the technique implies. When a character that has that technique has two one-handed weapons and is using them in combat they get the benefits listed above.

The character decides what weapon in hand they are using on any attack roll. Nothing changes other than the above benefits and of course the fact the character must have two one-handed weapons in hand and won't be able to use a shield or scabbard of the fray magic item. What ever weapon they are not using to attack is helping with their resistance roll if you'd like to think of it like that.

Spirit swords - yes they should have been written a little clearer such as:

Spirit Sword – By spending one qi you may “charge” a spirit sword you are touching. A
spirit sword is a wooden sword (jian) adorned with mystic symbols. At Mystic level 1 you can
construct spirit swords for free. With a charged spirit sword, anyone may attack demons (as if they had a magic weapon and ghosts (full damage as jian). The spirit sword stays charged for one day.

Hope that helps!

Offensive Strike

I've always used it as a single target as the weapon can only hit one foe at a time. But there isn't anything in the rules that prevent a burst effect. This can be really cool!

If you do want it to do the 3 space burst I'd use the range of the weapon since you cast Offensive strike, on say an arrow, then depending on the type of bow, the range is figured.

Something else to consider: you charge a kwandao with lightning and bring it down on a mook who takes damage from the kwandao and the lightning charge and hits everyone but the wielder. If you go this route you'll need to decide if the wielder is immune to the effect or not. Personally this sounds really cool and the character does have to use an action to apply the spell, then make an attack roll and the victims still get a resistance roll. In this case the targeted person must fail their resistance roll or the charge is not unleashed.

And lastly, the original designers of the d00Lite system have said that Offensive Strike should be cast only when an encounter has started. Otherwise you have folks charging up 400 arrows in advance which is outside the scope of the rules.