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Player Character (Tian Bao) strides to the center of the abandoned temple courtyard. Many unconscious mercenaries lie moaning on the ground. Seven are still standing. The rest of the PCs have taken their turn and remain further back by the temple steps. Tian Bao finishes placing seven stones on the flat side of the blade of his kwandao (pole weapon). He calmly addresses the mercenaries, “Drop your swords, or I drop you.” Several mercenaries look to others for support, but several others sneer and puff up their chests. Tian Bao spins low and flicks the end of his kwandao while turning in an arc. Seven stones streak out, seven mercenaries drop to the ground moaning in pain.
Gaming table erupts with shouts, high fives and expletives.
Rules used: Improvised weapon (small thrown), Chafe Before the Wind (chi power allowing you to take down one Minor NPC for every 5BP damage you deal in a turn) & use of external kung fu style bonus damage dice.
This is how we role/roll!
GMJim
BareBones Fantasy RPG is not associated with Skaldcrow Games' Bare Bones Multiverse, despite similar names. Check out Glenn's products by clicking here.
BareBones Wuxia! Another memorable moment in last night’s play test game.
Setup
Players were fighting mercenaries in an abandoned temple courtyard at midnight on a half-moon night. Near the end of the fight, a figure dressed all in black, who had been hiding and watching the fight leapt onto the roofed wall of the temple courtyard, then up and onto a nearby roof top and over the roof line.
San Bei (Diviner PC) in the group quickly pulled out a map of Willow City. He sprinkled some sand over the map and then circled a spot. He handed the map to Yao Chuan and said, “Here is where he is now!” Yao Chuan would not have gone in that direction, but he trusted in his friend’s abilities.
[Chase Scene Begins and after a few turns Yao Chaun catches up to the mysterious figure in black.]
Turn 1
Yao Chuan (PC) dashed/floated over the tiled roof types in the light of the half moon. He perused a figure dressed all in black with a round hat. A veil concealed their features. He lashed out with Sky Splitting Lilac Sword (offensive strike) hitting the figure with a pale purple giant flying sword. He heard a feminine cry of pain. This stopped her on a nearby roof and Yao Chuan alighted onto the same roof.
Turn 2
She turned to face Yao Chuan drawing her jian (longsword). It shone in the half moon light. That was just a distraction. She crouched and let fly three darts. Yao Chuan managed to dodge them as she closed the distance.
Turn 3
He lashed out with his sword several times scoring one hit as she closed in on him. His sword slashes extending as a purple force racing through the air. By the time she closed, she was out of actions.
Turn 4
Yao Chuan used lightness to spring back along the roof edge. However, his black clad adversary floated along with him in pursuit. He slashed several times scoring one hit. She did not try to dodge. Then she struck him three times with her fingers blocking his vital chi meridians. Yao Chuan fell to the tiles, both legs and his sword arm too numb hold him up, too numb to hold his sword, too numb to keep him from sliding down the roof. He had one arm free. He could try to grab this mystery woman or, or…? He hears his sword slide along the roof tiles and ring off the flagstones on the street below. It is a two-story fall.
Turn 5
The mysterious woman throws a black silk rope over the roof, its small iron hook catching on the roof edge on the other downslope, then drops the loose end next to Yao Chuan’s good hand.
Yao Chuan grabs the rope and lowers himself off the roof with his good arm. He can feel the tingling start in his legs and sword arm.
His adversary’s light footsteps along the roofs, long since faded in the distance. He knows that he will be able to move soon, but not soon enough to unmask the spy.
Rules Used
Have a map of Willow City (Diviner skill ability Foresight (place a handy item in the world once per game session), Finding the masked spy on a map (Diviner skill ability Reading).
Leaping along the rooftops is a lightness ability usable by anyone with an internal kung fu style. It gets better the higher their level.
Press the attack – to follow opponents who break away from combat even if it is not your turn as long as they do not hit you first and that you can actually follow them. Since the woman in black had lightness she could follow Yao Chuan when he used his lightness to leap away. He did not strike her before he leapt.
Yao Chaun used the Distant Cut kung fu technique to hit the black clad woman before she closed to melee. The black clad woman used the kung fu technique Accupoint Strike getting three successes to paralyze three of his limbs.
This is how we role/roll.
GMJim
Jim,
This sounds wonderful, so much like I was envisioning when we had our discussions. Clearly your hard work has paid off. On a technical note, are you having any issues with the BB system cohesively folding into your structure?
Mark
Hello Mark,
Hmm…that is a really huge question. I’ll try to answer.
The D00Lite system has some really solid bones. Game play is easy yet nuanced. Character creation and advancement sustains long term campaigns yet I can teach the basics for a con game in 15 minutes (pregenerated characters)and be off and running with Rank 3 characters and players who have never touched the system.
That said, I couldn’t just re-skin BBF and add the martial skill from Covert Ops and call it BareBones Wuxia! Some skills fit, some didn’t and a couple of new ones were needed. Same with spells and equipment. But there were some big ones. Before every writing session I do on BBW! I review my BBW! Game Design Guidelines.
The first tough nut to crack was kung fu. How do you make it integral to the game, because it certainly is for the genre? How to you give players freedom to learn new styles of kung fu, learn techniques from secret manuals or rare masters? This took a while before the new Warrior of skill came about.
The second tough spot was adversaries in the D00Lite system aren’t designed to take on a group of player characters solo. I had to come up with Master Villains and Boss Monsters. They are working well in playtests and will definitely play a prominent role in any adventures that get published (way down the road thinking here).
The third issue was how to incorporate Chi. They are like Bones from the other games but are very hard baked into the system. They represent wellsprings of energy when you really need an effort to succeed. The introduction of the Heroic Pose has been a crowd pleaser both at my own table and conventions.
The next hurdle was how to keep fighting really dynamic. Press the Attack and a new way of handling weapon damage has done the trick. BareBones has a very good fighting system. The give and take, the press your luck offense vs saving actions for defense is perfect for the wuxia genre. But throwing a dagger and doing little damage did not work. Now, weapon damage is largely dependent on the skill of the wielder. There are some other factors but we don’t need to get into that here.
Then there were many genre additions to alchemy, poisons, magic items, adventure creation and a whole setting. All of that had to be added and D00Lite accommodated this nicely.
So did I have any issues with the BB system cohesively folding into my structure? Yes, but none of them were actual weaknesses in the system. They just needed kung fu training. I think of it as BBF with some Covert Ops met the wuxia master villain (my design goals), got beat up, went and found a kung fu school and then through a training montage that has lasted since the winter of 2013 is just about to leave the school and show what a bad arse it is. I view the long term playtesting we are in now as the final tests to see if the student is ready to take on the challenge of the 35 chambers. The 36th chamber is of course, the wider world. We aren’t there yet, but making good progress.
Let me know if this answered your question or if you have others. I’m happy to answer them where I can. I'm confident all of the components to BBW! are present now in the game so fire away.
That's great Jim,
Anyone that has played BBF or CO knows that one of the strengths of Bill's design is that it adapts well and allows new things to come into play specifically for the genre. This is important to us otherwise CO would JUST be BBF with guns instead of magic. Likewise Frontier Space would just be CO with aliens.
That is not what we do. Each game is unique and special with game specific adjustments and new rules and content which is for that game alone.
So in that regard what you are describing for Wuxia is entirely in line with what we do here at DwD. I know all of us here, Bill, Larry, TC, and I all felt that you had a great handle on what you wanted to create and we are very happy the D00Lite worked.
Mark
Thanks Mark!
I would say that the structure of D00Lite is so solid you can really tear into it if you need without breaking it. It is apparent that you all at DwD encourage that. That gave me the freedom to create what for me is the most fun RPG I’ve ever played. For that, I am very thankful to all of you.
Now we just have to find a way to get together so I can run all you guys through a few adventures. I’ve tried the online gaming, even attended about 8 hours of the Roll20 online convention in early June to teach myself more about it. I just don’t like it. But I’ll figure something out. My wife keeps telling me we need to get to Gen Con again. Too late for this year but maybe next.
This weekend I’ll be in Eau Claire, WI and running a couple of BBW! sessions at Clearwater Con. My next convention will be Con of the North in Minneapolis, in mid-February.
It's been awhile since I've been back to these forums but I'm planning on starting a new BBF game so I thought I'd poke around again. Imagine my surprise to see your play reports which sound great and really make me excited to see something like this.
Any chance you'll be hitting up any of the Dallas, TX or nearby gaming cons? I would love to see this in action.
David.
No, sadly I won't be down that way.
BareBones Wuxia! will have 2 sessions at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI Nov 4th -6th.
BareBones Wuxia! The Willow Blades (4 hrs)
Fri 12 PM
Role Playing Game | BareBones Wuxia! | 6 of 6 Seats Left
Newcomers Welcome | Teens and Up (13+) | $4.00
Presented By : Brian Gute
Based on the successful BareBones Fantasy and Covert Ops games from DWD Studios comes the high flying, sword swinging kung fu action of BareBones Wuxia! Be one of the first (outside of play test groups) to play in this new game setting.
In The Willow Blades, you play heroes that will try to save a town from an evil menace using your wits, fists, swords and magic.
BareBones Wuxia! The Willow Blades (4 hrs)
Sat 8 AM
Role Playing Game | BareBones Wuxia! | 4 of 6 Seats Left
Newcomers Welcome | Teens and Up (13+) | $4.00
Presented By : Brian Gute
Based on the successful BareBones Fantasy and Covert Ops games from DWD Studios comes the high flying, sword swinging kung fu action of BareBones Wuxia! Be one of the first (outside of play test groups) to play in this new game setting.
In The Willow Blades, you play heroes that will try to save a town from an evil menace using your wits, fists, swords and magic.
Additionally there will be two new scenarios for Con of the North on Feb 17-19 2017 in Minneapolis MN.
https://www.gameholecon.com/
http://www.conofthenorth.org/
Well I look forward to hearing more play reports from it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it once you are all done with it.