Kung-Fu Soap Opera

Honor, Betrayal & Mantis Style

My name is Bailywolf, and I’m a WUSHU-olic.

I’m reading a very fun kung-fu novel right now called The Eleventh Son. It has betrayal, romance, twists of loyalty, and tons of weird and funky kung-fu styles. And until I can get Weapons of the Gods, I was thinking on ways to model some of the intricacies of things with my current tipple WUSHU.

WUSHU is pretty explicitly designed for action gaming, and via the detailing mechanics you can get the kind of exchanges I am currently enamored with… but I do like to monkey with mechanics, so here are some mechanical tweaks to a very basic WUSHU implementation for a Kung-Fu soap-opera filled with betrayal and vice.

Your Snake-Crane System is Fast, but my Heavenly Light Sword is Superior!

Some fighters are better than others… and some styles of fighting are better than others. If you’ve watched many films or read any of the fiction, you see this- sometimes, it doesn’t matter how badass the person is- the other guy’s kung fu just has some natural advantage over it. Assuming specifically defined Traits representing individual styles of Kung-Fu, at any point, a player may declare his character’s style to be Superior to an NPC’s style. Any enemy using this style against anyone with the Superior style suffers -1 to their Trait score. As play continues, a web of Superior and Inferior styles will evolve (perhaps with a rock-paper-scissors circularness, or perhaps not). However, there is a catch. One strong in Yin is often weak in Yang, so declaring Superiority opens you up for Inferiority, which any enemy can declare against your style. Refraining from declaring Superiority keeps your own style’s weaknesses from becoming apparent.

Your were my Sworn Brother! How could you betray me?

Weapons of the Gods has a detailed ‘morality mechanic’ tied into the warrior virtues of the Martial World, and linked to experience and advancement. A very neat system. For WUSHU, that level of detail isn’t needed- and really, as with the above mechanic, not something you really need, but…

Everyone gets a Virtue and a Vice, and 6 points to divide between them. These work like Traits, and you can use them in all kinds of interesting ways. They should be customized somewhat, so as to define your unique moral strengths… and weaknesses.

[b]Virtue[/b]

Righteousness: when engaged in social actions which call upon you to be forthright, honest, honorable, or respectable they are rolled against your Virtue. Second Wind: when reduced to less than 0 Chi, you can describe how your Virtue drives you to survive and win, and roll it against your Virtue. Success means you rise to your feet with 1 Chi (regardless of how far below 0 you had been knocked). Failure means you remain down, and at the mercy of your enemy… and you loose a point of Virtue, gaining instead a point of Vice. Your confidence in your moral strength is shaken by this failure. Mighty Stand: Your Virtue can allow you to survive terrible dangers. In a given scene, you can take a number of bonus Yin dice equal to your Virtue score- above and beyond any generated from Details. However, if you loose Chi while using these dice to defend, you loose a point of Virtue and gain a point of Vice. Seeing your righteous defenses so easily broken will shake your confidence in your moral certainty.

[b]Vice[/b]

Deception: when engaged in social actions which call upon you to be deceptive, underhanded, or backbiting they are rolled against your Vice. Last Ditch Escape: when reduced to less than 0 Chi, you can describe how your Vice drives you to flee the conflict, and make a roll against your Vice score. Successes allows you to escape the scene, with 1 Chi and no chance for pursuit. Failure means you loose a point of Vice, and gain a point of Virtue. You start to escape, then succumb to a virtuous impulse, and remain to face the consequences. Vicious Strike: Your Vice can allow you to strike with terrible ferocity and mercilessness. You can take bonus Yang dice equal to your Vice in a scene, but if in a turn you fail to inflict Chi damage (or reduce the Threat of mooks) while using these dice, you loose a point of Vice and gains a point of Virtue. You see the futility of such unworthy tactics.

If either score reaches 0, you’re in trouble… or perhaps, everyone else is.

If Virtue hits 0, you become a [b]Betrayer[/b]. In grand Wu-Xia tradition, you become the bad guy- more significantly, you can ret-con your back-story and previous adventures so you not only are the bad guy now, but you have always been. You can claim credit for any un-solved murders, schemes, plots, or plans. You can challenge the other PC’s to duels to the death. You can generally chew the scenery and cackle and be a basted cause this is the character’s last session as a PC. Once you become a Betrayer, you get either the rest of the session or the following session to play things out, reveal your convoluted “plots”, and generally be awful. If the PC survives, he becomes an NPC nemesis. If not, well… par for the course, really.

If Vice hits 0, you become a [b]Tragic Hero[/b]. You are just too virtuous to survive the flawed and corrupt world. Your Kung-Fu may be perfect, but you will be betrayed, and seeing your brothers-in-arms compromise themselves to get by… it is more than you can bear. You can play this however you like, and get the same chance to play it out as with a Betrayer, but it ain’t gonna end happy, and at the ends of the session (or the next session) the PC is gone- either becoming a morally inflexible paragon NPC, or more preferably dying in some kind of horrible betrayal, tragic love, or ironic crossing of fates and destinies. Be creative, and write your character a good death scene.

”How could this be? My sworn enemy is somehow my own long lost brother?”

Wu-Xia plots are often complex. Like… stupid-complex. Like… what the hell is going on, and who is that guy, and why the eff did that other guy betray these guys, and who is the dude in the funny hat again, and why is he trying to kill the first guy? Players can introduce 1 Convolution per session which need not make a whole lot of sense, but must complicate the current push of the game. They spend 1 point of Chi, and initiate a scene which introduces the Convolution, and after playing out the scene, they gain back 2 Chi. All rolls in this scene are made against Virtue or Vice- the higher of the two. Virtue based scenes create positive convolutions- contact with a new Master who might teach new techniques, the revelation of a hidden kinship, or the winning-over of an enemy as a friend. Those rolled against Vice are general negative- the murder of a favored retainer, the loss of social standing, betrayal, false accusations, or the revelation of a hidden (and previously un-guessed at) enemy.

RPGnet Thread

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=205211