Update on Flying Swordsmen 2E

Progress has been slow, but I am making progress on the game draft. 

I've got the first draft of the character generation guide. It's only two pages, so it's pretty basic. I plan to add a detailed guide to both picking a template and building a character from scratch later, once the actual rules and the combat system are nailed down a bit more.

I've got a list of about two dozen template ideas. Once I've got the rules stuff more or less complete, I plan to show what I've got to my various play groups (TS&R Jade, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu), and ask them to help me test the system for character creation. Then I can use what they create for some of the templates. It will save me some time, and prevent some of my own character preferences from biasing the sample. (Can you guess I've been more focused on academics than gaming lately?)

I have write-ups for all of the system's basic skills. It's d6 system, so a referee could easily add more skills to the game as they wish. I don't have sample difficulty numbers yet though. I'll be cross referencing Star Wars and d6 Fantasy for that. And then when I finally get around to play-testing, I'll adjust the numbers based on whether certain tasks seem too easy or too difficult. One thing that I did try to do was to make sure that there is at least one skill useful in combat under each Ability. Star Wars has a lot of situations that don't involve combat, so there is room for the know-it-alls and the fix-it-up guys and the get-you-from-here-to-there guys to shine, along with the dedicated blow-you-to-bits guys. Wuxia should have plenty of non-combat stuff, but a lot of it in the source media is more managing relationships rather than testing your learned proficiencies. So combat should probably play a bigger part, and I want room for characters to specialize in evasive or manipulative techniques in combat, not just punchy punchy Street Fighter types. So I'm pretty happy with that. 

I also have suggested Specializations for each of the skills. 

I'm in the middle of writing up the special martial arts/mystical techniques. These are all inspired by the martial arts maneuvers, spells, and special class abilities in Flying Swordsmen. Mechanically, they work somewhat like the SW Force powers, or like 3E D&D feats. Or like special ability trees in a video game. There are six Powers, and getting trained in a Power grants access to its techniques. One die in the Power grants access to the Level 1 Basic technique. Gaining a second die in the power grants access to three to five Level 2 techniques. Gaining the third die grants access to Level 3 techniques, but only those based on the Level 2 techniques you have learned. 

I've drafted text (including difficulties) for the Qinggong (light step), Neigong (body power), Dianxue (acupressure), and Suan Ming (divination) techniques. I'm working on the Wu (white magic) techniques, leaving only Ku (black magic) techniques to get this section of the rules done. 

Some techniques are automatic ("always on") while most need to be used as actions. Some have unlimited use, others with more power are limited to a number of times per day equal to the dice in the governing Power, or just once per 24 hours for some really powerful ones. And some are unlimited in use until you roll a 1 on the Wild Die while activating it, then you need to wait for the cool-down period to finish before using it again.

In addition to all that, I've got a series of questions based on the Virtues of the Xia and general goal advancement which, similar to White Wolf games I've played, would need to be answered by players at the end of a session or adventure to gain Character Points. I've got guidelines for spending CP to improve skills and Powers, and spending them to gain additional techniques and learning new Powers. And, of course, they can also be spent from time to time to improve rolls. And a few high level techniques rely on spending some CP as a balance measure to prevent their abuse. 

I've got weapon lists, but I'm still playing around with them. I need to decide how certain weapon properties will interact with the combat system, especially around making special maneuvers like flips, blocks, holds, disarms, reversals, etc. I've got a basic Combat Resolution guide draft complete, but I need to add more detail, and especially go into those special maneuvers (and their difficulty numbers). 

The Education ability has a skill called Stratagems which in addition to covering battlefield strategy and tactics, allows for special maneuvers like those mentioned above. The difficulties for using a regular combat skill (like Sword Combat) to say disarm an opponent will be higher than for using the Stratagems skill. But certain weapons, like a hook sword, may allow you to attempt disarms at the Stratagems difficulty level. But then that all has to play well with the basic difficulties to hit with certain classes of weapon and with unarmed martial arts. So I've got a lot of number crunching and experimentation in the future, once I get the draft sorted out and a bunch of sample characters made. 

And there is a lot still to write. I've got to make monsters, magical treasures, update the FS 1E campaign world (or make a generic guide for "fantasy China" or maybe both), and write up the guidelines for creating adventures, interesting NPCs and locations, and challenges. 

And once all that's done (or more likely done piecemeal while working on all of the above), I should start working on a guideline for Wuxia. Probably not as extensive as those in Brendan Davis's Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate or Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades (which are both quite impressive!) but useful to players who might approach this game expecting D&D style hack and slash gaming, only to find a game made for martial arts soap operas.

Rise from Your Grave (again)

 Hoo-boy, it's been a minute since I've posted here. Well, I've been pretty busy with non-gaming stuff the past couple of weeks, but also a bit of gaming here and there. 

The big thing is that this morning, I pulled up my design notes for a revised, second edition of Flying Swordsmen, this time powered by the Open D6 system. I read through what I'd written, and made some edits and modifications here and there. In particular, I read through the notes on the 108 Martial Arts Techniques* and made some of them a bit more distinctive. Some were more or less the same mechanical effect with just different flavor text, which is boring.

I'd also done a simple character sheet, but I wasn't happy with it. I gave it a big revision, turning it from one sheet to two, and making more space for characterization, notes on your Sifu (master/teacher) or organization, your goals, your rivals, and the like. It's not just game mechanics and a bit of fluff now. I like it much better. 

Then, I wrote the first draft of a Preface, explaining the creation of Dragon Fist, Flying Swordsmen as a retro-clone of DF, and my dissatisfaction with both games, necessitating this new edition. It needs a bit of work as I can be overly wordy. 

And I just finished with an outline for the chapters in the book, and what each chapter should cover. Of course, this is also still likely to change as I actually get into turning my notes into actual text. And I've got to decide how much to update/edit the Zhongyang Dalu setting, or else just copy/paste that. I could actually get dinged for self-plagiarism if I do the latter, so I'll probably have to rewrite it. 

Here's what I've got so far: 

Introduction

-What is this game? RPG Basics

-What is wuxia? Background and Tropes

-Recommended Wuxia Media

-Getting the Right Feel

Playing the Game

-Abilities, Skills, Powers, Techniques

-Basic Action Resolution

-The Wild Die

-Combat Basics

-The Five Virtues and Advancement

-Example of Play

Character Creation

-Think of a Concept

-Select a Template (Simple) or

-Assign Ability Dice and Powers (Advanced)

-Assign Skill Dice

-Personality, Flaw, Background, Sifu, Relationships

-Example Character Creation

Abilities and Skills

-Ability Basics: Prowess, Might, Agility, Presence, Education, Observation

-Skills and Specializations

-Improving Skills

-Skill List

Powers and Techniques

-Powers Basics: Qinggong (Lightness), Neigong (Internal Power), Dianxue (Acupressure), Suan Ming (divination), Wu (White Magic), Ku (Black Magic)

-Training New Techniques

-Techniques List

Running the Game

-Creating Challenges

-Action Resolution (detailed)

-Combat (detailed)

-Training (detailed)

-Rewards of Play

-Creating NPCs

-Creating the World

-Using NPCs and the World as Challenges

-The Stages of Campaign Development

Monsters and Magic

-Monster List

-Magic Items

-Legendary Items

The Setting

-Using Quasi-Historical China

-Using Zhongyang Dalu

-Using Your Own World

-Zhongyang Dalu Overview

Character Templates

Break Time

I've taken a break from working on the Flying Swordsmen 2E the past couple of weeks. For one thing, I'm teaching English camps as I do most summer and winter breaks. They're fun, but exhausting. Pay really well, too. So no complaints, but gaming stuff (play or prep) has mostly been on hold. One more week to go. 

I also finally took Tallifer's advice and ordered the POD/PDF combo of King Arthur Pendragon from DriveThru. I'm still waiting on the print book, but during some breaks at camp I've been reading through the PDF. I really like it so far, but I was a big Arthur stan as a kid, so reading all the background information, the descriptions of the sources Stafford relied on and how he used them, and all that has been fun to read. But I haven't gotten into the nuts and bolts of the game aside from the character generation bits so far. I'll likely have more to say on it the more I read. 

And yes, it has already given me a few ideas for how to make FS2E more of a social relationship game, instead of just a kung fu game. 

Everyone is also pestering me to run Star Wars again, including Flynn, who would like me to run a game online so that he can play. I asked the guys about it the other day, and they seem willing to start early on a Sunday morning so that Flynn could join us. But that's for some time after camps. 

Oh, and when I asked the guys, it was a week ago, when Justin ran a game of Mothership. Man, that was a fun game! He's thinking of maybe running a longer campaign. We were all hooked, especially the way the session ended with three of four PCs dead, and the final PC given a cut-scene of the aliens creeping up behind, just like you'd expect at the end of a sci-fi horror film or short story.

Conundrum: Motivators of Play for Cathartic Games

As I continue to work on modifying the Open d6 System for a Wuxia/Tianxia* style game as a revision of Flying Swordsmen, I'm struck by a few thoughts that make me hesitate.

One, which I know I've discussed before in relationship to my Asian-inspired fantasy games, is that of authenticity or at least getting the tone and feel right. Yeah, I'm a White dude, born and raised in the Midwest, but who has lived more than half of my life in East Asia, learning the languages, the cultures, the ways of thinking. Obviously, I don't get it as deeply as someone born and raised here. But I think I do understand it well enough to get a passable game setting. But I still have those nagging thoughts that I'm just making another version of "D&D in Funny Hats" (which was what I was blatantly doing with TS&R Jade). 

The second, which is related, is how to properly set up game systems that will motivate play for this sort of game? While there is an aspect of monster-slaying and treasure-hunting in Tianxia fiction, and a bit of that in Wuxia fiction, the typical D&D trope of slay the monsters and take their stuff, XP points accumulate just doesn't work as well for the sort of game I want to run. Flying Swordsmen has always started out great, but the games peter out pretty quickly because players flounder without simple goals like "go get the treasure." 

The action may be what draws people to the source material (especially the films/TV shows), but it's the character drama that really makes Wuxia interesting.

There's a part of me that thinks the authenticity part is not so important anyway. It's a game. Games are meant to be fun. Catharsis is fulfilling, but it's not always fun. Escapism is nearly always fun. So should I just not worry about it, and make another escapist game with Asian tropes? I could, but I've already done that (and done it well, I think). 

This time, I want to get a game that actually rewards playing not just a cool martial arts mystical warrior, but playing up the rivalries with other students or sects, difficulties with dealing with your sifu who is really good at kung fu but a shit person otherwise, or having to be torn between your duty to society (or family, or the king, or religion, etc.) and your desires for how you want to live your life.

For people equally well-acquainted (or better acquainted) with the Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHCs, as they are sometimes referred to in academics), this won't be a problem. I can present the rules, they will understand the tropes, and be able to work them in easily as they wish. For people not well-acquainted, I'm either going to have to write a cultural treatise on the subject, or else simply find a game mechanic system that will encourage this sort of thing within the rules.

I don't think I am up for the whole treatise thing. It's not my real area of academic endeavor, and it would take a long time and a lot of the people who need it would probably just ignore it, or misinterpret it anyway. So it feels to me, as I sit here today, like it will be a wasted effort. Those who wish to learn this stuff can find all sorts of resources online with just a simple Google search anyway. 

That leaves me with game mechanics. 

What I've got so far, is copying games like White Wolf or PbtA where they have a series of questions for each player to answer at the end of a game session. How did you do this? Can you provide an example of that? Show how you avoided doing this? For each question the players can give that plays to the tropes of the genre or leverages these Confucian relationships, they will get a Character Point. For each example where they break the tropes or go against the social expectations that Wuxia fiction demands.

Of course, then we get into discussions of railroading, metaplots, quantum ogres, and all that sort of thing. I'm not going to get into that right now, but I will say that from my experiences with Star Wars d6, if the players know they are in it for the immersive emulation experience (they want to experience what it's like to be a character in the SW universe), they will put up with more manipulation by the referee than they might otherwise with a more sandboxy D&D game. 

Until I can think of a better mechanic to try to encourage play that is more than just "beat up that guy, take his stuff" in a subtle fashion, I think this is the way to  go.

*Wuxia is very human-focused, Tianxia is more fantastical

I've Been Away, and d6 Flying Swordsmen Thoughts

Last week, the family took a vacation to Japan. We met up with quite a few old friends, ate a lot of great Japanese food, and brushed up on our Japanese skills. I also found out that I've come to instinctually say thanks to people in Korean, which got a few confused looks and annoyed my wife (who is Korean). 

Unfortunately, my wife caught covid while we were there, and I got it from her after we got home. It's not too bad this second time around. The first time I got it, back in 2021, I was on my ass for a day and a half or so, and it was like a bad flu. This time, it's more like a cold, and not an especially bad one, either. Which is good. Anyway, I'm feeling better today. 

While I haven't been blogging much, I have been tinkering with ideas for a second edition of Flying Swordsmen, using Open d6. I mentioned that before. So far, I think I have the Abilities, basic Skills, and special Martial Arts Powers and Techniques all listed out. I based the Powers and Techniques off of class bonuses, martial arts maneuvers, and spells from the 1st edition, but the list is pretty slimmed down. There are a few new things on the list as well. 

The Powers are modeled on the Force Skills in Star Wars d6. For each full Die in a Power, you get a Technique (or two?). So far, I've got six Powers, each granting a basic Technique with the first die. When additional dice are gained, there are several choices like feat trees that players can choose from. Some techniques are limited by how many dice you have in the power, and by prerequisite lesser Techniques. 

I've been monkeying around with weapon stats, using Star Wars and d6 Fantasy as a basis. The two games have some different assumptions, so I'll end up going my own route with them. For now, though, I'm finding it a bit hard to differentiate some of the weapons. I think I need to sit down and work out the combat system in a bit more detail.

I decided one Ability will be Prowess, which covers melee weapons combat, with skills for different weapon groups. Thrown and Missile weapons are under Agility, while Kung Fu (unarmed strikes) are under Might. There's a Stratagem skill under Intelligence that I want to use for special maneuvers and the like, but certain weapons would allow certain special maneuvers with the base combat skill. So if you want to disarm someone and you're wielding a straight sword or a halberd, you'd need to use Stratagem. But if you have a hook sword or a double-stick (nunchaku), you could use your Sword Combat or Chain Combat skill, depending on your weapon, with a slightly higher Difficulty. 

I need to work out the Kung Fu skill in a bit more detail. It will combine Brawling and the Martial Arts subskill from Star Wars, so you can use it to pummel opponents, but also to try to pull reverses, throws, use your opponent's momentum against them, and all that sort of thing. I need to figure out what the standard Difficulties should be for those sorts of things, and how easy or hard it should be for the opponent to resist/counter the attacks. There's also a Stance skill (under Agility) that allows for dodging or avoiding attacks, and Stratagem could also be used to perform special attacks, as mentioned above.

It may take a bit of time to work that out, and then to test the system, but I think the flexibility of the d6 system will fit better with a martial arts combat game than the AD&D system that Flying Swordsmen 1E (and Dragon Fist before it) used. 

Oh, and I've got to work up rules for dealing with a Sifu or organization that trained you, rivals, backgrounds, missions and secrets. The real fun of wuxia fiction, which I think 1E FS didn't quite get, is in the character building and interplay. I have some ideas on how to make that a core driver of game play (because fighting monsters and collecting treasure won't work for this game), but it will need some work as well.

Projects Old and New

I've managed to finish up the semester, so I should have some free time over the next two months to get some gaming projects advanced, along with preparing my next academic research project for work. If any of y'all are thinking that teachers get to laze around all summer vacation, you're wrong. We've got stuff to get done before classes start up again in the fall. 

I've gotten some feedback on my TS&R Game Master Guidebook, but other things have been keeping me from getting to the final edit of that. I will be getting it, and the Rules Reference books for both Ruby and Jade, up on DriveThruRPG soon. 

The GMG is designed for game masters new to running games, or at least new to old school style exploration-focused gaming, including advice on running the game and creating adventures/campaigns, and optional or alternate rules. The RR books are a condensation of just the charts and rules that an experienced GM needs to run the game at the table. Other than having a few areas specific to the classes/races/spells of Ruby (traditional D&D) and Jade (Asian fantasy D&D), the RR books are nearly identical.

I also had a bit of an epiphany this evening, and started working on a framework for a 2nd edition of Flying Swordsmen, but using the Open d6 system rather than a Classic D&D system. I think it will work out better this way. The way actions in-game determine Character Points earned, and the way Character Points are used to develop Skills, will help give it that feeling of training up your martial arts. Having earning CP tied to upholding the Code of the Xia (act with courage, benevolence, loyalty, righteousness, and individuality) should help drive the emergence of wuxia style stories through game play. One problem with Flying Swordsmen 1E is that the mechanics allow for cool action scenes, but don't support the sorts of drama that set wuxia media apart from simple martial arts media. 

I think the basic mechanics are sorted out. I have my list of six Abilities, and what they govern. I need to decide on the actual lists of Skills under each Ability. I have several Powers that PCs (and NPCs!) can learn, and each will have a basic use, and Techniques that can be added as more dice are gained. Similar to the Force Skills in Star Wars d6, templates will have to put Ability Dice into Powers, but after that Powers will be improved with CP just as with Skills. New Techniques can be added with each full die gained in a Power. 

I think the Techniques will be sort of like feat trees, with prerequisites of either a certain number of dice in the Power, or certain lower level Techniques learned first. This will cover things like light step, Qi, divination, or straight up magic. I should probably get a hold of d6 Fantasy before I get too far into designing Techniques to see how they balance wizards compared to how SW balances Jedi. 

Once I've got the Skills and Techniques sorted (or at least a good first iteration of them), I'll create some templates of common wuxia archetypes and see how they look. 

I have no idea how much of this I might get done over this summer break, but I will keep you all posted! 

Operationalizing Honor

Last week, noisms of Yoon Suin fame wrote a blog post about a "single class paladin campaign" except he's not really talking about a single class paladin game, he's talking about how to operationalize honor for RPGs in a way that will facilitate and motivate a game built around honorable heroes doing honorable things. He admits that various character classes could be used in such a game, as long as the game revolves around matters of honor and correct, heroic behavior, rather than typical D&D "adventuring" or "murder-hoboing" or what have you. Instead of everyone being the Paladin class, they all are behaving by a code of conduct and in service to some greater power.

I was definitely interested in what he had to say, as it's something I've had to deal with with only limited success in Flying Swordsmen and Chanbara. Yes, FSRPG includes notes about the xia code, and what is expected of a wandering martial hero in Chinese stories/movies. But that's it. The XP system is still revolving around defeating enemies (of any type) to gain XP, and doesn't stipulate that the combats need to be won honorably. And granted, there are anti-heroes or those that skirt the line in wuxia fiction, and they don't necessarily need to be penalized. 

I think I got a step closer with Chanbara. I re-conceptualized the carousing rules from Arneson's original campaign. But instead of saying you're spending your hard earned treasure on drunken debauchery and flashy displays of wealth until you're broke and need to go adventure again, it's explained as donating that hard earned treasure to your various lords, patrons, and clan to aid them in their endeavors. That's a step up from "hey, just role play it!" but I admit it still leaves something to be desired. Collecting the treasure is still a necessary step in play. If we're really wanting to make our campaign seem like the legends of King Arthur and Charlemagne, or of honorable samurai loyal to their lords and so on, "getting the treasure" seems out of place.

So, what sorts of rewards could we offer in a game that would encourage players to play Captain America instead of The Punisher? Galahad and Percival instead of Fafhrd and the Mouser? That's not an easy question to answer. 

So what's been done before? Marvel Super Heroes, the old 4 color resolution chart game from TSR, had a huge list of dos-and-don'ts that could earn you Karma points, or take them away. The 1E OA book also had a big long list of "honorable and dishonorable" actions, which earned or reduced honor points. 

I'm not a big fan of this method. For one, it's fiddly and arbitrary. It also requires everyone to be paying attention to a level of detail in the game that can hurt immersion. Finally, it polices play, rather than encourages it. XP for gold and fighting monsters encourages play. It tells players what the goal is, but not how to go about achieving the goal. Lists of "Thou shalt not..." doesn't give you a goal, it just mediates your choices in game. And giving a goal of "be honorable" doesn't spur action the way "get gold" does. 

I don't have a lot of history with the Palladium or White Wolf systems, but from what I remember, Palladium has a lot of strictures for keeping your alignment a la the MSH Karma and OA Honor systems, but I don't remember if that had an effect on XP or not. It's been a while since I've done anything with that system. 

For White Wolf, I haven't played Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, or Changeling. I've played Trinity and Street Fighter. In both of these games, at the end of a session (and the end of an adventure that takes place over multiple sessions), certain criteria are given or questions asked, and determine how much XP each character earns. This, I think, may be a better way to handle XP for the sort of "all paladin" game noisms wants to run. 

For those that don't know, players get 1 xp just for taking part in the session, and then additional points if they can demonstrate that their character learned or matured in some way, a point for good role play, a point for sticking to the character concept well, a point for heroism (at least in Street Fighter, which I have). If I remember, for Trinity there was one criteria for using your powers to aid the mission. 

This seems like the way to go to quantify honorable behavior to me. Make a list of criteria. The Chivalric Code. Bushido. The Way of the Jiang Hu. The Cowboy Code. Klingon Batlh. Probably best to keep it to under six tenets (the Cowboy Code as often shared on the internet these days has lots of pithy sayings that basically boil down to the same few concepts). At the end of a game session, go through each tenet and ask each player how they felt they upheld that tenet. Award chunks of XP for each tenet they upheld. 

Of course, WW games use XP as a spendable currency to develop skills and abilities, rather than a measure of progress in class level, but that can be adjusted. If someone wants to keep the D&D class & level paradigm, either adjust XP values needed to level up down (divide by 100, maybe?) or tie the amount of XP awarded by the criteria to the level of the character.

Download some stuff!

Thanks to bhyeti for requesting my old Star Frontiers module The Derelict, a bunch of stuff I used to give away for free here on the blog is now back up and available for you to download. There's a new standalone page link at the top there for them. 

I had originally posted them to another blogger's hosting site (and it was so long ago, I forgot exactly who it was), but something happened and they let the site go down. And no one was clamoring for those files, so I just let them sit on my hard drive for years. 

Anyway, you can now get that SF module mentioned above, my Unique Magic Items series (weapons, armor/shields, wands/staves/rods), the compilation of my old Beast of the Week series, and some supplemental stuff for Flying Swordsmen or old school D&D games for free. Everything's hosted on my Google Drive now, so unless something happens to me and my family decides to scrub the web of my presence, they shouldn't be any more hiccups with hosting.

Finally!

Well, it took 10 years (over 20 if you count since the release of Dragon Fist), but I'm finally getting to be a player in a game of Flying Swordsmen! 

As luck would have it, I had a post on RPOL.net's GMs Wanted board asking if anyone would run a game of d6 Star Wars on there. I'm enjoying running the game for my group (our next session starts in about 40 minutes), but would like to experience it as a player. 

I went to bump that thread and saw someone else had posted asking for a GM to run Flying Swordsmen! I jumped in on the thread saying I'd like to play, too. And since my RPOL ID is Lord Gwydion, it took the OP all of about no time at all to realize I was the writer! Well, we found someone willing to run it (the Star Wars game, too!), so I've now rolled up my first Flying Swordsman player character:

Spitting Tiger Zhao, Outlaw Thief. 

The GM messaged me to sort out a few things, since he is new to the rules. I told him I'm happy to answer questions about my intent when I wrote the game, but it's his game so I'm happy to run with it the way he wants it to go.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings -- Movie Review

My family went to see Shang Chi this afternoon. I'm definitely going to have a second viewing (or more) of this, both because of the things I loved about it, but also because there were a few things I missed (the trouble with taking a 7 year old to a movie like this is he can't focus when things aren't action packed or funny, so I can't focus). There may also be a few plot holes. Pretty much, though, it's a solid movie. 

Also, mandatory warning on language (since my blog has "curse" in the title and Google directs parents here): There are quite a few minor curse words. My 7 year old loves that. Mostly from Awkwafina's character Katy. No F-bombs, but similar levels to those in Black Widow and The Falcon & the Winter Soldier. 

My initial, and spoiler free, impression of the movie is that I liked it. A LOT! If you know my RPG work, you won't be surprised. I was looking forward to a super-powered kung fu movie. I figured, since it's involving a villain mostly from Iron Man comics (although with alien tech "magic" rings), that it would be relatively grounded in the "real world" of the MCU. Nope! Don't want to spoil things, but it's more akin to Thor or Dr. Strange than Iron Man or Captain America. 

Also, the second half of the movie was very much like a game of Flying Swordsmen! So yeah, you can guess I'd dig it from that. 

It's Marvel Studios, so of course the production values were great, the action scenes well done (most of them were easy to follow, but one was a bit confusing for me -- but again that may have been because I had to constantly stop my younger son from kicking the seat in front of him or climbing on the back of his own seat). The casting was good. Nice to see Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh. Makes me want to rewatch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Jet Li's Hero. I haven't seen either of them in a while. 

Also, there are two helpings of shawarma. I was expecting one to tie in to The Eternals due to (spoiler) and because it's the next MCU movie to come out, but it didn't directly. The mid-credit scene was pretty funny, while the after-credit scene was just a short set-up for a future film. 

Are you an MCU fan like me? This one will wet your whistle. Are you a martial arts/wuxia fan like me? This one will deliver. Are you an Asian-themed fantasy buff like me? You'll be happily surprised at a few little things here and there. If you don't really like any of these things, why are you bothering to read this review?

Demi-Humans In Race-as-Class TSR East

 I'm still not 100% sure that I want to go back to demi-human classes, at least not for my main West Marches game (I and the players are pretty happy with separate race and class there), but if I ever wrap up West Marches and start East Marches (or start running it as a side campaign), I am leaning toward that, as discussed in my previous post on classes for a pseudo-combined Flying Swordsmen/Chanbara type game. 

The problem I'm having is that I need to pare down the list of demi-humans. Sticking to core rule books, not supplements, BX/BECMI has just three. AD&D has six. AD&D OA has three, but one of them is really a dozen different types, and another has three subtypes. 3E OA has an additional two or three races added on to AD&D's OA races. 5E has the AD&D races plus two more. But AD&D, both versions of OA, and 5E all have separate race and class. So the precedent is for only a few demi-humans in a race-as-class set-up. Sure, I could have more, but then if there are more demi-human classes than human only classes, will it really be a humanocentric campaign? Probably not. 

So, my options, from 1E OA, 3E OA, Chanbara, and my TSR-East rules are: 

Dokkaebi (Korean version of Japanese oni, more or less), big scary looking guys who are sometimes mischievous goblins and sometimes punishers of the wicked. 6-7' tall. Red, blue or yellow skin. Wild hair. Tusks and horns. [TSR-East]

Gumiho (Korean fox fairies, also spelled kumiho, equivalent to Japanese kitsune), tricky creatures with lots of magical powers, who most often are after human souls in the legends, but occasionally are helpful. 4' tall. Red or white fur, but able to transform into human form. Nine tails at full power (more tails = more magic in the legends, and the name is literally "nine tailed fox" as just regular fox is "yeou"). [Chanbara, TSR-East]

Hengeyokai (Japanese for transforming spirit/fairy), animal shapeshifters in OA, but in Japanese legend could be anything from a rock to an animal to a household tool! Gumiho and Tanuki would actually fall under this race if I added them in. OA has the forms they transform into as one of a dozen animal options (mammals, birds, fish), a human form, and a hybrid form. If I add them in, then I'd probably limit the number of forms to animal and hybrid only, and have fewer options for animal type. [1E OA, 3E OA, TSR-East]

Kappa (Japanese water imps), small water creatures resembling a cross between a turtle, frog, and monkey. They like wrestling, cucumbers, and sucking the souls of drowning humans from their buttholes in the legends. 3-4' tall. Green skin. Shells on their backs. The tops of their skulls are concave, and hold magical water that gives them strength in the legends. [Chanbara]

Koropokuru (Ainu fair folk), dwarves. 1E OA has them as gruff barbarians, legends have them as similar to primitive but pastoral gnomes or brownies. 3' tall. Typically tanned skin. Generally good hearted but suspicious. [1E OA, 3E OA, TSR-East]

Naga (Hindu snake-spirits), which are the same name as a monster type, but also pretty much just like yuan-ti. From 3E OA's Rokugan/L5R material, I have no desire to add these guys, but put them on the list for completeness. 10-15' long. Humanoid torso, snake the rest of the way down. [3E OA]

Nezumi (rat-men made up for Rokugan/L5R as far as I can tell), which again I don't feel the need to include these guys, but they appear in one of the sources for this list so here they are. 4' tall. Furry. Stinky. Long tails. Kinda like wererats who can't transform or infect people and not immune to normal weapons. [3E OA]

Shenseng, or Spirit Born (or Spirit Folk in the OA books), which in my estimation should be based on Japanese tales of spirit foundlings like Momotaro, Kaguya-hime, and Kintaro, but are basically half-spirit/half-human "elves" in the OA books. OA has them as bamboo, river, and ocean subtypes. 5-6' tall. Human-like, but prettier. Get benefits from being in the environment of their subtype in OA. Get benefits to interaction/followers in TSR-East.  [1E OA, 3E OA, TSR-East]

Tanuki (Japanese raccoon-dog fairies), are again sometimes tricksters and sometimes protectors/benefactors to humans, depending on the story. Some legends give magical powers to their oversized scrotums, others say they can transform into human form. 3' tall. Raccoon-like fur, dog-like faces (hence the English name). [Chanbara]

Tengu (Japanese crow-men), usually depicted as wild mountain goblins and tricksters in legends, but occasionally legends tell of them training swordsmanship to humans they take a liking to. Kotengu (small tengu) have crow or kite heads and wings, while daitengu (great tengu) have humanoid heads, usually red skinned, with very long noses. 3-4' tall. Feathered bodies with wings and bird heads (or red-skinned and long nosed winged humanoids). [Chanbara, TSR-East]

Vanara (Indian humanoid monkeys), although in myths they are usually described as beast-like, not necessarily monkeys, the most famous mythical vanara is Hanuman, who is always described/depicted as a humanoid monkey. Probably also the inspiration for Son Wukong (Son Goku - yes, this name may be familiar to some of you), the Monkey King of Chinese legendary novel Journey to the West. 4-5' tall. Brown to grayish fur. Prehensile tails. Curious and friendly (at least according to 3E OA). [3E OA, TSR-East]

________________________________

So obviously 11 races in addition to humans is too many, especially when there are only 5 human classes (although with subclasses there are really 16). I already mentioned I'll not be considering the Rokugan races of Nezumi and Naga because they just don't thrill me. So that's down to 9 options unless people in the comments really convince me to keep one or both of these. Also, if I use hengeyokai, again as mentioned above, gumiho and tanuki are already included there so that takes it down to 7. If I don't use hengeyokai, 8 options remain. 

TSR-East already has the Dokkaebi, Gumiho, Koropokuru, Spirit Born, Tengu and Vanara with stats for separate race and class, so it wouldn't be hard to manipulate those into classes, but it's still a few too many options. 

At the playground with my son yesterday, I jotted down an idea to cut it down to Dokkaebi, Koropokuru, Shenseng (spirit born), and Vanara. That's easily doable, but while I don't want to overdo the demi-humans, I also feel like I'm leaving out some cool options. 

So, I'd like to ask you readers what you think. Which of the races listed above would you consider the top three "must haves" for an Asian fantasy inspired campaign? Or should I just stick to humans only, as in Flying Swordsmen or Chanbara minus the last page?

New Project?

 Right before bed last night, I had an idea. It may be a dumb one. We'll see. 

I've spent the past year or so tinkering with my Treasures, Serpents and Ruins house rules to get them to where I pretty much like them (a few tweaks still needed, as we play with them). And after a lot of effort to combine traditional Western and my preferred Eastern fantasy tropes into one simple set of classes/races, I was struck with the idea that I should make a second edition of Flying Swordsmen that is completely compatible with Chanbara. That way I'll have samurai/ninja action as well as Hong Kong style kung fu/wuxia action in one integrated rule set. 

Of course, would it be worth my time to make a completely new game, or just the player facing rules as a supplement to Chanbara? The latter is much easier and more likely to be completed. I added a lot of monsters and spells from FS already into Chanbara, so just adding some rules for martial arts classes Chanbara style might be enough.

Everybody was kung fu fighting

 Last Saturday evening, I went ahead and took the plunge. I modified my TSR class set up to include more martial arts action. Using Flying Swordsmen as a bit of a guide (plus some stuff I had done in TSR-East, and maybe a little bit of Chanbara that hadn't made it in yet), I came up with martial arts subclasses for the Cleric, Fighter, and Magic-User. The Thief already had one. 

Because of that, I got rid of the Monk as its own class. And the traditional "monk" abilities got divided up between the various subclasses. There isn't a direct analog to the typical Monk class now, but there are options to better emulate wuxia in the rules. To replace the Monk, I made a more standard Cleric/Thief hybrid which got the Darkstalker name I had previously as a subclass of Cleric. It's the Van Helsing/Simon Belmont/Vampire Hunter D class. 

For the Cleric, the subclass gets the Monk name. In addition to unarmed fighting and unarmored defense (using Dex score+BAB), the Monk gets resistance to ESP, charm, poison, disease, and so on as they gain levels. The Monk gets full clerical casting, but don't get to turn undead and don't get bonus spells for high Wisdom scores (something I'd imported from AD&D). They also use the Shaman spell list (AKA TSR-East spells, drawn from OA, FSRPG and Chanbara) instead of the normal Clerical list.

For the Fighter, the Martial Artist subclass focuses on combat, obviously. They get better unarmed damage than the other subclasses, and since their BAB goes up faster, will have better unarmored AC. They get healing (basically like Paladin lay on hands), and as they gain levels their unarmed strikes can damage creatures as if they were magical. 

The Magic-User's subclass draws on Flying Swordsmen and my old TSR-East Xia class (which was modeled on the BECMI Elf class). And it's still called the Xia. Of course they get unarmed damage and unarmored defense. The Xia has a lower Dex requirement than the other classes (11 compared to the 13 the others need), so while they get unarmored defense like the others, the possibly lower Dex and very slow BAB increases will mean they're not as well protected as the others. They gain the ability to reduce damage to the minimum value once per day per two levels. They get MU spells from the Geomancer list (again from TSR-East and its predecessors), but don't get 6th level spells. Instead, they get the Death Touch ability (for Fist of the North Star/Kill Bill fun!). Of course, the target of Death Touch can't have more than double the Xia's hit points or 15HD. And Xia use the standard d4 for HP. So I don't think it will be overpowered. One thing I may change is having it take the place of those 6th level spells, so they could use it once per day at 11th level, twice a day from 12th to 14th level, and three times a day at 15th level. Right now the rules just say once per day but I may modify this in the future. 

Oh, and if you're wondering, the Thief's Acrobat subclass has always had the unarmed damage and unarmored defense. Instead of Pick Pockets, they use those chances for Tumbling and leaping. Instead of Find/Remove Traps, they get Escape Artist at the same chances. They can also use Climb Sheer Surfaces as intended and for feats of balance. At higher level, they get to damage creatures with unarmed strikes as if magical, and at 10th level can make supernatural leaps. They don't get to read languages or cast spells from scrolls like a standard Thief, though.

Also for the Cleric, since the Darkstalker subclass was removed, I reinserted an idea I'd toyed with of a Necromancer subclass. They get the "control undead" feature instead of turn undead feature that the Master Set described for undead clerics. Otherwise they're just like normal. And yes, you can still be a normal Cleric and Chaotic. 

Also for the Fighter, I renamed the Knight subclass into the Cavalier subclass. No need to have a Knight and a Kensei (two Ks) when there's an established name in D&D lore already (and my previous TSR rules used Cavalier for the "paladin" class anyway). 

Finally, to balance out the Thief, which already had the Acrobat subclass, I reinserted the Yakuza from TSR-East. They're a standard Thief in most respects, but get magical tattoos at certain levels. They don't get to read languages or cast from scrolls, though. The tattoos give things like bonuses to Thief Skills or saving throws, resistance to energy damage, and a few other special abilities. 

So now the class structure of TSR (2021 revision) looks like this:  

Basic Classes [Subclasses]

Cleric [Druid (Yamabushi), Monk, Necromancer, Shaman]

Fighter [Cavalier (Samurai), Kensei, Martial Artist, Ranger]

Magic-User [Geomancer (Wu Jen), Illusionist, Wild Mage, Xia]

Thief [Acrobat, Ninja, Outlaw, Yakuza]

Advanced Classes

Assassin (Fighter/Thief hybrid)

Bard (Cleric/MU hybrid)

Darkstalker (Cleric/Thief hybrid)

Lark (Fighter/MU hybrid)

Paladin (Cleric/Fighter hybrid)

Warlock (MU/Thief hybrid)

I did almost all of that on Saturday. On Sunday and Monday I did a bit of tinkering and editing. Part of that included switching around which races can be which classes, and the max levels they can attain. That may be something for another post, however.

Outed Myself

 In an AD&D 1E play-by-post game I've been in for years now, the DM started up an Oriental Adventures game section, and I joined in. He also (knowing I was the author) decided to use some elements of Flying Swordsmen in his game. Mostly he's using martial arts maneuvers and monsters. 

Anyway, it had been our secret all along that one of the players in the game was the author of the supplemental rules to the game we're playing (it's still 1E OA, just we get a few extra martial arts powers bolted onto our classes -- I've got a kensai PC in the game). 

Some people have commented on how much they like the martial arts maneuvers, but I'd never let them know it was my work until today. Not sure why, but a new player had joined the game and had no idea what Flying Swordsmen was. Another fairly new player was complementing the game, so I fessed up and gave the new player the link to download the rules. 

And immediately, I got questions about interpreting the rules. I deferred to the DM, of course, since it's his game and his place to decide how to mesh the base OA rules with FS. 

It's been a little while since I've done much with either Flying Swordsmen or with Chanbara. I think I should probably promote them a bit more. My sons have both tried their hands at YouTubing (yes, even my 6-year-old) so tonight my wife suggested I make some videos to promote my games. 

I think I will. Expect a link to a video on the blog some time in the near future.

Should I tinker with Thief skills again?

Thieves. I love them. Love to play them, love to have players play them. It's the whole 'brains over brawn' thing that makes me enjoy them.

But, like many people, I sometimes get annoyed at how they've been presented, and how their skills work. Usually I don't mind the percentage based skills, but the chances of success are pretty low to start. But I've always considered other ways to do it.

In Flying Swordsmen, I copied how they were done in Dragon Fist, which is mostly how they were done in 2E except converted to a d20 roll instead of a percent. The bonuses I gave to the skills were to represent the basic percent chances of a starting thief, and players were allowed to distribute bonuses to the skills when they leveled up like in 2E. That works fairly well, but does lead to some confusion (like the +13 to Climb Sheer Surfaces being thought of as a typo since other starting bonuses are low single digits).

In Chanbara, I use the Ninpo system which is based on 2d6 rolls similar to the Cleric's turn undead chances. I thought it was pretty clever when I came up with it, giving fairly reliable odds of success due to the bell curve, but in practice having to decide the TN for the roll for each situation slows things down at the table unless I've anticipated ninpo being used and included TNs in my adventure notes.

In Treasures, Serpents and Ruins (TSR) I'm currently using the classic d% skills, but using the most favorable progressions.

In TSR-East, however, the ninja was based on the Halfling class in BX/BECMI, so it has hiding 1-9/d10 outdoors, hiding 1-3/d6 indoors (slight variation on the Halfling's 1-2/d6 indoors), 1-3/d6 to move silently (1-2/d6 if wearing brigandine or heavier armor). I also gave them detect traps 1-3/d6 (but not remove traps), detect secret doors/sliding passages 1-2/d6, and hear faint noises 1-2/d6.

The yakuza class can locate traps 1-4/d6 and disarm them 1-2/d6. Also, depending on which mystical yakuza tattoos they select, they could also possibly: detect secret doors 1-3/d6, hide/move silently 1-3/d6, hear noise 1-3/d6, escape shackles or bonds 1-2/d6, climb sheer surfaces 1-9/d10.

Jeff is playing a yakuza in West Marches just to try it out, and it's been going pretty well. He took the spider tattoo so he can climb sheer surfaces, and he's been using it to good advantage. But he's only level 3 so I don't know if dissatisfaction will come into play at higher levels when the scores don't improve.

So now I'm wondering if I should edit my TSR-West rules (the standard D&D classes) to match the x/d6 or x/d10 demi-human class abilities. TSR-East characters start better, but don't improve on their chances as they level, just as demi-humans in BX/BECMI. The whole point of the Thief class is to get that delayed gratification (like with the Magic-User) of surviving to high levels when your skills become more reliable.

So I've got four choices:
1. Leave things as they are and just let the Thief (and subclasses) continue to use d% skills.
2. Flatten the curve, so thieves use d% but start with higher chances but improve more slowly
3. Go with flat x/d6 or x/d10 chances for the character's whole career
4. Go with x/d6 or x/d10 chances that improve at certain stages in the character's career (like when attack bonus and saves improve)

TSR-East Classes: Xia

The xia is the class I most want to try out (if I were a player) in this rule set. I mean, I want to try them all. I'd love to have someone else DM with these rules. And I'd probably be playing one PC for a bit, then getting them killed or retiring them so I could try another class and work through them all. But this would be my first choice.

The xia can be simply stated as: All of Flying Swordsmen boiled down to one character class.

Based on wuxia movie heroes and villains like FSRPG and Dragon Fist before it, this is the class to play if you want to be like Jet Li's Swordsman or anyone in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or...you know the rest. I based them on the Elf class in BX/BECMI, since they're a little bit fighter, a little bit magic-user. I did make a few changes. First of all, the spell list is very limited. There are only four levels, and six spells per level. The spells I picked were (taking the idea from my player Nate's idea for a muscle-wizard) ones that either boost melee ability (offense or defense) or provide mobility (for those jumps and fighting on bamboo branches and flips and whatnot). There are only two or three other types of spells, and all ones that seem appropriate (Remove Fear, and the reverse Cause Fear, for example).

I also plan to include a sidebar encouraging players and DMs to customize a Xia's spell list. For example, switch out some spells of your choice with the needle spells from Flying Swordsmen for a needle-themed xia. Or if you wanted to emulate the ninja powers of the Eight Demons of Kimon from Ninja Scroll, switch out some spells to give them those themes.

Besides spells, the Elf powers (find secret doors, immunity to ghoul paralysis, infravision) are out. Unarmed martial arts damage is in. They're also limited to light armor only. And they've got that expensive level advancement of the Elf class, too. But they're not limited to level 10.

I may still make a few modifications. I might go ahead and give them 5th level spells, since the Elf gets them. I'd need to decide what 5th level spells are appropriate to the theme, though. It gets harder as you go up in level. I might up the hit dice to compensate for the reduced armor. Just ideas right now, I'm actually pretty happy with how this class looks on paper.

So here's the class:

Xiá (Gallant) Yusha, Yongbyeong

Requirement: Int 9

Prime Requisite: Str and Int [13 +5%, 16 +10%]

Hit Die: d6 to 9^th level, +2/level after

Arms: all weapons, light armor

Special Abilities: spells, unarmed damage, multiple attacks

Xia Advancement
Level	XP	BAB	Abilities	1	2	3	4
1	0	+1	Unarmed d6	1	–	–	–
2	4000	+1		2	–	–	–
3	8000	+1		2	1	–	–
4	16,000	+3		2	2	–	–
5	32,000	+3	Unarmed d8	2	2	1	–
6	64,000	+3		3	2	2	–
7	120,000	+5		3	3	2	1
8	240,000	+5	2 Attacks	3	3	3	2
9	360,000	+5		4	4	3	2
10	480,000	+7	Unarmed d10	4	4	3	3
11	600,000	+7		4	4	4	3
12	720,000	+7	3 Attacks	5	5	4	3
13	840,000	+9		5	5	5	3
14	960,000	+9		6	5	5	3
15	1,080,000	+9	Unarmed d12	6	5	5	4

Spells: A xia can cast a number of spells of the levels shown on the Xia Advancement chart each day. The xia must prepare their spells in advance, but may select from any spells of appropriate level from the xia spell list.

Unarmed Damage: A xia fighting with their unarmed strikes or with improvised weapons deals 1d6 damage with the attack. The damage increases at 5^th, 10^th, and 15^th levels as shown on the Xia Advancement chart.

Multiple Attacks: A xia may attack twice per round at 8^th level, and three times per round at 12^th level. 

	Xia
Save Level:	1-3	4-6	7-9	10-12	13-15
Death Ray/Poison	12	10	8	6	4
Magic Wand	14	12	10	8	6
Paralysis/Turn to Stone	14	12	10	8	6
Dragon Breath	15	13	11	9	7
Rod/Staff/Spell	15	12	11	9	7

Xia Spells

 

Level 1

1. Protection from Evil

2. Quinggong

3. Remove Fear

4. Restore Ki

5. Shield

6. Strength

Level 2

1. Bless*

2. Detect Invisible

3. Kusanagi

4. Levitate

5. Mirror Image

6. Resist Fire

Level 3

1. Dispel Magic

2. Elemental Ward

3. Fly

4. Haste*

5. Striking

6. Wind Dragon

Level 4

1. Demon Weapon

2. Dimension Door

3. Elemental Form

4. Fury of Battle

5. Polymorph Self

6. Protection from Magic

Asian-Inspired Melting Pot Settings

I'm best known in the OSR as the creator of Flying Swordsmen and Chanbara. Or, I should say, people know FS and Chanbara, whether or not they know me. The DM of the PbP AD&D game I'm in was a contributor to Chanbara (he helped edit). He sent me a message the other day that he started working part time in a FLGS and met a guy who has Chanbara. Not sure how the game came up in conversation, but when the dude found out that my DM's name was in the book, he came back and asked the DM to sign it!

Now, that got me thinking of two other projects I've had on my mind for a while. One is revising Flying Swordsmen to be less like Dragon Fist and more like Chanbara. Not sure I'll actually tackle a second edition of FS any time soon, though. Another was an idea to make an Oriental Adventures style supplement for Labyrinth Lord AEC. But I wouldn't want to just clone 1E OA. There were some game design choices I think that would be best avoided there, and it's a bit too heavily Japan-centric.

Which leads me to this. Yesterday (or maybe it was Friday when I started thinking about it) I was considering what sorts of classes would work well for an Asian fantasy-inspired setting. Not "fantasy China" like FS, or "fantasy Japan" like Chanbara. A game that, like normal D&D does for European/Near Eastern fantasy, mixes the best elements for a game together in an "unholy goulash" as James Mal once said.

Today (well, this morning I spent most of the time playing Gauntlet II emulated on my computer until I got bored/controller thumb and quit around level 44) I wrote up eight classes for such a game. I still need to write up the spell lists for the casters, but I've got the classes all lined up from levels 1-15 (to match my current house rules of D&D). I haven't thought of what races to include, but it will probably be a mismash of the original OA, 3E OA, and the optional races in Chanbara.

The classes, and a brief summary of each, are as follows:

Hwarang (Knight): Fantasy Korea needs some love! Historically, hwarang were knights of the Silla kingdom. In this game, they are basically BX/BECMI Dwarves (any weapons, any armor, good saves), but I also gave them the ability to maximize their damage a number of times per day equal to their level (which is from the 1E OA Kensai class). Oh, and a d10 hit die since I use AD&D hit dice for characters in my homebrew. They don't get the dwarf's infravision or detection abilities, of course.

Mudang (Shaman): Again went with the Korean for the name. These guys are based on the Cleric class, but with a few alterations. Their prime requisite is Charisma (since they draw power from spirits/The Spirit Realm). Like Labyrinth Lord, they get spells from level 1. They can use blunt weapons, but only light armor and shields. I tried to simplify the Turn Undead ability, but explaining it makes it sound more complicated. First of all, it also affects evils spirits and demons.
HD less than 1/2 the mudang level: 2d6HD destroyed automatically
HD less than mudang level: 2d6HD flee automatically
HD equal to mudang level: roll 7 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee
HD greater to mudang level: roll 9 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee
HD greater than double mudang level: roll 11 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee

Not sure if this will work out well, since the high level mudang will be able to automatically turn a lot of undead, but then so could the Cleric so we'll see. I may change the 11 to mudang level +4 hit dice.

Ninja (Spy): Instead of basing these guys on the Thief class, I based them on the BX Halfling class. That makes them better in combat, and better at hiding (Halfling hiding is good!), but not able to do all the other thiefy stuff. I took away the Halfling combat bonuses and gave them backstab instead. Along with good noise detection, I threw in detect secret doors, sliding walls, traps, etc. from the BX Dwarf and Elf classes (slightly better odds to detect traps, 1-3/d6). They can use any weapon, but are limited to light and medium armors.

Ronin (Wave Man): Because samurai should be serving their lord, but ronin can go out adventuring any time they like. Based on the Fighter, but I stuck to the BX/BECMI d8 hit die for them. They can use any weapon or armor, but not shields. They get to pick a fighting style that grants +1 damage with a weapon group (swords, spears, bows, axes, bludgeons, chains), with a second style at higher levels, and at even higher levels getting to bump one style up to +2 damage.

Sohei (Warrior-Monk): Again based on the Cleric class, but more martial than the Mudang with a d8 hit die, and slightly slower advancement (1750xp to level 2). They can use any weapon, but only light or medium armor, plus shields. And spells are their only special ability. Their spell list will be a bit more aggressive than the standard Cleric/OA Shukenja spell list.

Wushi (Wizard): Like the Wu Jen of 1E OA, but the name means "magical learned gentleman" where wu jen just means "magic person." Oh, and no wu jen taboos, just the Magic-User with a slightly different spell list. Spellbooks and all.

Xia (Gallant): My take on the wandering do-gooder martial artist type, based on the BX/BECMI Elf class. They can fight (all weapons, light armor only, no shield, and d6 hit dice), and get unarmed damage like a Monk/Mystic. Plus they can cast spells (max at 4th level though). I intend to make the spell list using ideas from the player in my West Marches game who was playing a Muscle Wizard -- spells that would make him better in melee combat. And since it's the wuxia-themed class, flying around on wires and dancing on bamboo branches type spells too.

Yakuza (Gangster): Based on the Thief class, but again moving away from d% specialized skills and instead x/d6 skills. I gave them a find traps 1-4/d6 and a combined disarm traps/open locks of 1-2/d6. They can backstab just like the Thief (and ninja), and at every even level they get a tattoo. I have 20 tattoos that grant various magical effects like bonuses to saving throws, magical resistance, or a 1st level spell effect once per day.

Using this, you could have an East Marches sandbox type game of wandering heroes, or a megadungeon, or whatever. Killing monsters and taking their stuff, Slaughter-Vagabond style, if you like. Or of course getting into the fun politics and urban intrigue/competing martial arts schools, all that jazz.

1E OA has a surprising amount of character options

I am making plans to continue my paper miniatures line with characters for Oriental Adventures.

I made lists of all the race and class combinations. And man, the way the Hengeyokai work, I'm going to have to create a LOT of minis to cover every option!

There are 12 or so animals that are the base form of a hengeyokai, and they have normal human, hybrid and animal forms. I figure for marking their position on a battle mat, the hybrid or animal forms are enough.

There are four classes that Hengeyokai can choose, luckily. Only four. And a few animal types must be evil so can't be Shukenja, and a few must be chaotic, so can't be kensei. None must be lawful, so any Hengeyokai can be a Wu Jen. And Bushi have no alignment restrictions.

I usually do male and female versions of each (the animal form will just get one and you can hand wave any sexual dimorphism in the species). So that's 12 regular animals.

Hybrid forms, however, will require:

24 Bushi (12 male, 12 female)
20 Kensei (10 male, 10 female)
18 Shukenja (9 male, 9 female)
24 Wu Jen (12 male, 12 female)

That's an awful lot of hengeyokai. Especially since for many of them I will need to modify a picture of a human with an animal's head to make it work. There are some public domain pictures of Japanese anthropomorphic animals, but not enough.  Even if I only did one hybrid form of each class for each animal type, it's still 55 total pictures including the animal forms.

And for humans, I was planning to have two of each sex for each of the ten classes. One of each sex for Korobokuru for each of their five classes. And Spirit Folk - luckily I don't think there's that much difference between the three types visually, so just one of each sex for each of their four classes. If I did one for each type of Spirit Folk, that would triple that number.

So if I went whole hog (1 male and female of each class for Hengeyokai hybrids plus animal forms, 2 male and female of each class for Humans, 1 male and female of each class for Korobokuru, and 1 male and female of each class for each type of Spirit Folk), this book would have 172 miniatures in it.

That's a bit of work there. Might take a while. Even if I limit the Hengyeyokai and Spirit Folk, and only provide one male and female each of the human classes, it's still 93 miniature images I need to create.

In the mean time, I listed out the class options of Flying Swordsmen and Chanbara. That's easier to do since everyone's human. A lot of these can do double duty when I get around to the OA set, although I may mix it up a bit to give people more value for their money spent if they buy both. Especially for classes like the samurai where I have tons of pictures that work. Spell-casters and martial artists may get recycled out of necessity, however. We'll see.

I've got all the pictures selected for the Chanbara set. Some are pictures I used in the book, but not all of the book pictures make for a good miniature image. There are two male and two female images for each class/profile in Chanbara. So I should be able to get this book out soon. And I should be looking at the monster lists, too...

Creating original cultural features in OA settings

A semi-random thought hit me earlier today. Thinking about my original Zhongyang Dalu setting, I was considering ways to merge elements of various Asian cultures (and sometimes non-Asian cultural elements) into original cultures. That's basically what Gygax and Arneson did in their campaigns, just with mostly European historical cultures as the basis of their ideas.

In simpler terms, using discrete cultural elements as LEGO bricks and using them to construct a fantasy culture.

Then, something I'd thought about last year came back to me. In 1E OA (and in the 3E book's setting of Rokugan), social status is defined by the Japanese cultural caste system. Originally Confucian in origin (and possibly being influenced by the Indian caste system despite its differences), you get what I used in Chanbara. Nobles at the top, the "buke" (samurai caste) of warriors next, then commoners (in theory anyway), artisans, merchants (money for nothing [interest/mark-ups on goods] makes them rich but gets them no respect), and untouchables at the very bottom.

But in Korea, while there was a hereditary aristocracy, the Yangban, the real movers and shakers were people who could pass the Civil Service exam (in some eras of Chinese history this is also the case). Bureaucrats, functionaries, auditors, inspectors, governors, tax collectors, historians -- these were the influential members of society in Joseon Korea. Well, them along with the Military Service, which was also exam based.

It didn't matter how low-born you were (again, in theory), if you could pass the Civil or Military Service exam, you were made into an agent of the crown. In practice, low-born members like the Korean hero Yi Sun-shin, the admiral who helped defeat the Japanese invasions in the 16th century, faced discrimination and plotting by officials of aristocratic birth. But social mobility was possible.

I think this sort of social structure might be more conducive to an RPG setting than one where you're pretty much set in your social status at birth. Granted, in Japan's Warring States period, commoners who fought well could be granted samurai status. And in the same era and later in the Edo period after the wars were over, merchants with enough cash could purchase samurai status for themselves or more often for their children.

But in Korea, if you studied hard enough, you could rise easily through the ranks.

So, one thing to think about when designing fantasy OA cultures is to consider the social hierarchies and how people moved (or were prevented from moving) within them. The Mongolians had a more egalitarian society. Anyone who was a good warrior and leader could become khan, and you only remained khan as long as you were militarily successful or politically savvy. I'd need to study up a bit more on Philippine and SE Asian cultures, but I would bet the Thais, Burmese, and others may have had different structures as well.

Of course, in addition to politics and social structure, religion is important. And synchretism is the order of the day. There were many native animist practices in most regions of East Asia. There were Hinduism and Buddhism influences from India. There are Taoism and Confucianism (not originally religions, more just belief systems but made religious over time) from China. There is Bushido (again not really a religion but sometimes treated as one de facto) from Japan and Legalism from China. And in practice, they all blend together to some degree or other.

The Chinese conception of Buddhist Heaven isn't Nirvana, it's basically the Taoist conception of the realm of spirits and immortals, just with Buddha added in as the top boss. Shinto (animism) blends with Buddhism and Confucianism in Japan. In Korea, Buddhism was seen as an unwanted foreign influence by the government, who pushed a version of Neo-Confucianism as the primary philosophy for the people. Christian and Muslim missionaries were in China during the 8th or 9th century, maybe earlier.

Take elements from the above (and other belief systems, or made up elements that don't feel off) in various amounts, mix and match, and voila!

With the social/political system and religion of each culture spelled out, it's just a matter of adding some small, unique touches. And since this is fantasy, with magic and monsters and non-human people, adding in some unique touches helps make them feel different than humans. This is something I tried to do in the old 3E OA Zhongyang Dalu setting of mine, before I started retro-cloning Dragon Fist and needed a world with primarily Chinese influences.

As I said before, in most D&D settings, sometimes there are cultures that are very obviously drawn from one primary real world source -- the Known World setting has a lot of these, but other times the cultures don't handily map to a real world culture. And that 's a great thing for a game.