Bailywolfs Wushu Review-Remix

WUSHU is almost pure 'FUN NOW' gaming- very little overhead for the GM, very little chargen time for the players, and immediately, from the first five minutes of play, something cool can start happening. It is dramatically empowering as well- few games are as explicit about handing creative power to the players, with only a very basic “don’t be a dick” caveat on it. The game runs with an efficiency and intensity which is as close to ‘real time’ as I’ve seen- you get something like 2.5 hours of fun squeezed into 3 hours, rather than 20 minutes. In WUSHU you can play exactly the character you want to play, and that character performs exactly as you imagine him performing- no longer will your concept be let down by sucky rolls. Everyone gets to be cool- even if that cool has little impact towards reaching scene resolution.

WUSHU is easy to grok at first as an action game- action scenes are visually complex, and most of us geeks have seen enough cool movies, anime, and whatnot to have a wide pallet of possible details to bring to bear. However, WUSHU can do pretty much anything if you can find a way to describe it- a battle of wits, a forensic investigation, a grand ball, a quest for a cancer cure- whatever you find exciting, you can WUSHU. The game isn’t “about” anything except what the players bring to the table.

Staggering the detailing is a good way to get players to interweave their details- doing around the table a few times before hitting the die-cap, and getting to the rolling. Cross-riffing is also very neat, as players suggest things for others, or ways to converge their actions. Seeing players hit these harmonies is effing awesome as a GM. It doesn’t get old. More than once, I got that “Oh so so effing cool” shiver (like the first time I saw the lobby fight in The Matrix) from things others described, and had to work it in as a foundation to my own narration. I can’t think of another game I’ve run or played over the last seventeen years that has produced so many of those moments per unit of time.

WUSHU demands a lot from players and GM’s- focus, understanding and agreement, lack of dickery, creative cooperation, some ego-tabling… and it doesn’t provide the mechanical toys or crutches of most other games. But if you play it with some friends who’re excited about their characters, it will kick the ass out of an evening.

If you want something to play fast, in a limited timeframe, with some friends who all grok the kind of game you’re looking to run- if you want fast play, with as much (or as little) character depth and exploration as you want. WUSHU might be for you.

The biggest downside to WUSHU is how hard it is to re-transition back to ‘normal’ RPG’s after playing or running it for awhile.

It really ruined D&D and EXALTED for me.

-B

BailywolfsWushuReview-Remix

Bailywolfs Wushu Review-Remix