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WushuPick-UpGames

Wushu Pick-Up Games

by John Marron

A "pick-up" game is played with little or no preparation. The idea is to be able to sit down with a group of folks who want to play a RPG and generate a situation and characters that everyone is psyched about and that will result in a good story that is focused on the stuff that the players want to see being generated by play. It also makes things easier for folks who don't have a lot of time to set challenges, stat NPCs, and fill mountains of paper with scrawled notes that a paranoid schizphrenic would envy.

None of these ideas are original to me. A lot of this is based on Bankuei (Chris Chinn)’s “Flag Framing” and “Conflict Web” ideas, a series of articles by Christopher Kubasik that first appeared in Inphobia magazine, a very long but useful RPGNet thread from a while back on practical tips for doing situation driven games posted by Balbinus, Kiero’s idea of breaking Wushu traits down into Combat/Social/Professional categories, and other ideas from various indie games. The 100 word paragraph character generation is from Heroquest (or The Pool, I’m not sure who did it first). Mortal Coil's "Theme Document" also shares many of these features. Good ideas get around.

Flagged, Situation-Driven Wushu!!

Version 09/01/06

Step 1, Setting: Sit down with a group of 2-4 friends that would like to play a role-playing game and talk about what kind of game you’d all like to play. Talk about settings, genre, themes, imagery, etc. Whatever you want to see in the game. Make sure that everybody is on the same page about genre expectations, tone, etc. It’s probably a good idea to produce a list of example genre elements/tropes/what people think is essential or cool about the setting to help set expectations.

Step 2, Situation: Once you have a general setting, talk about the specific situation that this game will focus on. This will be the specific focus of this game within the larger setting, and may include a specific locale, group or type of characters, a central conflict, or big event that the game will focus on. Keep going with this discussion until the group comes to a consensus on something that would be fun for everyone to play out, keeping in mind the need to compromise to accommodate everyone’s desires. Decide who might like to be the GM and facilitate the game.

Step 3, Character: Next, talk as a group about characters that everyone would like to play in this setting and tied to this situation. The characters don’t necessarily have to have strong ties to each other, but should have strong ties to the situation that you all decided on. Everyone should share in the character discussion, throwing out suggestions to each other, tweaks to make concepts even cooler, and ideas on how to tie the characters together or to the situation. Players of protagonists (PCs) should think about the goals and motivations of their characters, especially as they relate to the situation.

Step 4, System: Now, the people who will play the protagonists of the story will take their character concepts and translate them into game terms. Write a 100 word paragraph about your character (his or her name doesn’t count against this limit). The 100 word limit may seem arbitrary and too small at first, but the process of honing your description down to 100 words forces you to think about and decide on what is most important to you about this character. Trust me, it works. While writing your description, focus on the things that are important or cool about the character for YOU, the player. Try to include, or at least suggest, something about his/her personality, goals, motivations, and relationships instead of just a laundry list of what he or she is good at or what cool gear he or she carries, although including those is fine too. You can include some history or backstory for your character, but make sure that if you do, it is setting the character up for the game’s situation (i.e., that it will actually be brought up in the game and have some impact on the story that you are all going to tell together). Think about what you want the story of your character to be about (not as in “a plot I want to see played out”, but as in “issues or themes I want to deal with during the course of play”, or “what I think is cool or interesting about this character”).

Use this 100 word description as a guide to creating the following details about your character and list them below the paragraph:

Name: (Pretty straight forward.)

Concept: A short phrase/sentence summary of who and what your character is.

Goal: This is your character’s long-term, overarching goal. Pick something that can’t be resolved or achieved by overcoming one or two simple obstacles.

Description: This may involve a picture of your character, and/or a short description of his or her physical appearance, clothing, mannerisms, etc.

Flags: What you want the story of this character to be about in a thematic way or just what excites you about playing this character. List 2-3 of these in order of how important each one is to you, the player.

Traits: Choose 3-5 abilities, personality traits, possessions, relationships, etc. that you want to be able to impact the story through, and give them evocative names. Now assign ratings to your traits based on how effective you want them to be or how important they are to your concept of the character. Each trait starts with a rating of 2, and you have 6-8 points to add to them (the person acting as GM and facilitating the game will let you know how many points you have to spend on traits), with a maximum rating of 5. Ideally, you should have at least one trait related to combat, one related to social situations, and one related to a profession or skill set. You may want to write a sentence or two for each trait explaining them or expanding on what they cover, particularly if it’s not obvious from the trait’s name.

Weakness: Choose an area in which your character has a weakness, and assign a rating of 1 to it.

Quote: A catchphrase or something that your character might typically say.

With the protagonist write-ups in hand, the GM (possibly with input from the other players) should come up with a relationship map of supporting characters and antagonists that are also tied to the situation, and should think about their motivations and goals in relationship to the central conflict of the game. These supporting characters should be chosen to highlight, play off of, or oppose the protagonists’ goals and flags.

Step 5, Story: Play the game using the Wushu rules. The Flags and Goals that the players chose for their characters will tell the GM what they want the game to be about, and the situation/central conflict, along with the cast of supporting characters that the GM creates, will provide pointers on how to frame the game. The GM should keep in mind the player’s flags and goals, the web of relationships between the characters (main and supporting), and the central conflict of the game when thinking about set pieces and scenes to introduce into the game. Keep the protagonist’s and supporting cast’s goals in mind and put obstacles to achieving those goals in front of the characters. Throw people together in scenes that will result in volatile, interesting interactions and events. The actions taken and decisions made by the players in portraying their characters will alter the status quo of the situation, reveal more about who the characters are, and drive the story. Ideally, a cool, dramatic, fun story will arise from play. Most importantly, the story will focus on the protagonists and what the actual people playing want it to be about.

Here’s an example of the process:

The group gets together to discuss what their next game will be. A number of folks have just seen a new Wuxia film, and want to try a kung-fu game.

Step 1, Setting: The group throws out ideas about the setting, and agrees on an anachronistic game set in a mythical version of China. They discuss whether the game will be really over the top like the movies Storm Riders or Kung Fu Cult Master, or more subdued like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers. They discuss what the main inspirational material will be, such as Wuxia films, comics, or even Chinese Wuxia novels. In the end, they decide to go with the more subdued movies as their main inspiration, and adopt a tone that mixes melodrama with a small amount of comic relief.

Step 2, Situation: For the specific situation, a number of options are thrown out and they eventually decide that the game will focus on the members of an armed courier and escort service that is suffering a series of mysterious attacks of late. The players don’t feel the need to define the situation any further, leaving the details of who is perpetrating the attacks and why up to the GM.

Step 3, Character: The players discuss possible characters, including the head of the escort service, his headstrong daughter, a wandering Taoist sorcerer that was recently saved by an escort, and a street urchin that has been taken in by one of the couriers. They discuss as a group the motivations of these characters and why they would be involved with the service and affected by the mysterious attacks.

Step 4, System: The players make up their chosen characters using the system above. The GM goes off and produces a set of supporting characters with relationships and goals related to the central conflict (the attacks on the service), chooses traits for some Nemeses, thinks about what kind of Mooks will appear, and comes up with some set pieces and locations for cool fight scenes.

Here’s an example character from the group, written up using the system above:

Xiu Yi strives to live up to her own high standards as heir-apparent to her family’s Xiu Courier Service. Strong-willed (some might say stubborn…), Yi has a way of getting people to do what she wants. She has traveled the roads of China since before she could walk, and knows how to take care of herself. She diligently studies Dipping Swallow Style kung-fu, and her lightness kung-fu is excellent. She has even mastered the Three Direction Fist, a secret technique of her family. Yi doesn’t realize it, but she is an attractive young woman, and has a number of suitors that she considers pests.

Name: Xiu Yi
Concept: Head Strong Daughter of the Courier Service Owner
Goal: Be worthy of running the service when her father retires.
Description: Yi dresses in practical men’s travel clothing. A little short, she is attractive in a wholesome, girl-next-door way, but thinks of herself as plain. She is outspoken, and often exhibits a lack of tact.
Flags: Testing her fitness to run the service, dealing with her attractiveness, perfecting her kung-fu.
Traits: Wear Them Down With Logic 5
*Dipping Swallow Kung-Fu 4
*Well-Traveled 4
*Pretty But Doesn’t Know It 3
*Weakness: Not as Confident as She Could Be 1
Quote: “Strap those bundles on tighter, you monkey-brained idiot!”

Step 5, Story: They begin play. The GM keeps in mind everyone’s Flags and Goals (i.e., testing Yi’s fitness to lead, the Sorcerer’s desire to find new alchemical formulas, the Urchin’s need to find out about his past, etc.) and frames the protagonists into scenes with events and supporting cast that will produce drama and excitement and drive the story.