So I envisioned something like:
There are four basic attributes
- External - governs strength, durability, agility, and general physical characteristics of the character. it is the most important attribute because even if you don't go out seeking trouble, trouble will find you, and you'll have to fight.
- Internal - governs uses of internal energy, variously known as qi, ki, prajna, pneuma, and so on. This governs power boost, healing, sensing disruptions in the environment, and so on. It's the most important attribute because inner power is what makes cultivators powerful.
- Lightness - general movement type stunts. Standing on the opponent's blade; leaping from one mountain to the other. A huge part of any wuxia and xianxia arsenal has to do with getting somewhere quickly, or in unusual ways. It's the most important attribute because no matter whether you're attacking or defending, being faster than the opponent is absolutely necessary.
- Meridians - study and usage of acupuncture points and meridians in the human body, as well as the environment and items. Causing paralysis by touch; locating the most auspicious spot to build a house; shattering an opponent's sword with a flick of your forefinger. It's the most important attribute because it allows manipulating chi, paralyzing others with a mere touch, creating seals and charms, and countering similar attacks on yourself.
You get 100 points to distribute between these four.
Power levels
- Human. Powerless. (up to 10 points average)
- Foundation building. 64 hexagrams - strengthening bones, tendons, muscles and finally blood. (up to 100 points )
- post-heaven. 8 trigrams - coming to peace with changes of environment and own body. (up to 1000 points)
- pre-heaven. 4 manifestations - realizing balance between yin and yang. (up to 10000 points)
- three treasures transformation. 2 opposing forces - eliminating desire, recovering emptiness, harmonizing the remaining contradictions within one's soul and attaining immortality. (up to 100000 points)
- immortality - the grand ultimate. Small action is better than large action. No action is better than small action. Unity with the Cosmos allows the wise man to accomplish everything (up to 1M points)
- the road of cultivation is endless, there must be something beyond immortality. Perhaps it's godhood?
Every power level is further divided into
- half-step (barely qualifies- lowest 10% of power range)
- early (20-30%)
- middle (40-60%)
- late (70-80%)
- peak (90% and above)
quote:
Sidebar: Suppression
A character with significantly more power can make a less skilled one feel pressure, and even suppress them completely if the difference in power is large enough. This usually only comes into play on conscious choice by the powerful character, but some arrogant people never withdraw their auras at all.
Each of the attributes, as well as their average ("power") can be used for this in different situations.
- x2 - clear pressure, but no obvious effect
- x5 - unease, labored breathing, heart rate up
- x10 - a suffocating feeling as if being buried alive
- x50 - forced to kneel
- x100 - unconsciousness
- x1000 - ruptured meridians and death
Cultivation is the way to gain more power. It is also the way to longevity, and, eventually, immortality. For each 10 points of power, the character gains a year of life expectancy.
The different paths to Power:
- Physical practice. Effective only at foundation building levels. After a while, the limit of hardening one's body is reached, and the only avenue left to increase one's power is practicing inner strength.
- Absorb from the surroundings. Depends on ambient chi being similar to the one you want to nurture. e.g. meditating close to a volcano for fire chi. Some magical treasures can enhance or change the surrounding aura.
- Absorb "core" from a defeated foe, usually a magical beast. Some heretical schools have methods of extracting "cores" from humans as well.
- Dual cultivation. A man and a woman can gain mutual benefit from eachother. This kind of cultivation has an evil reputation mostly due to unscrupulous males raping female practitioners to rob them of their essential yin; however there's nothing inherently evil with dual cultivation.
- Fighting. Sparring is inherently less valuable than true life-or-death combat. In any case, the less powerful fighter benefits more than the instructor.
quote:
Sidebar: Absorbing cores and pills
Creature (and cultivator) cores as well as pills (dans) come in eight "colours", each subdivided into eight "tastes". Absorbing cores of a single colour becomes less and less efficient with each next core as impurities accumulate in cultivators' bodies; typically half becomes impurity and the other half usable energy. The impurities absorb an equal amount of energy each time a core of the same color is absorbed. e.g. a 100 power cultivator wants to absorb a 100 power core (red). this makes him a 150 power cultivator with 50 points of red impurities. If he tries to absorb another 100 power red core, first 50 points get deducted to overcome impurities, then 25 points get added to his power and 25 points to impurities, leaving him a 175 point cultivator with 75 points of red impurities. A third 100 point red core would bring him to 187 power and 87 red impurities. Absorbing several cores of the same colour but of different "tastes" at once lets the cultivator treat all the cores as one for purposes of absorption. So a 150 power cultivator with 50 impurities absorbing two 100 point red cores of different tastes would treat them as one 200 point core, and end up with 225 power and 125 points of red impurities.
Pill and core quality comes in different qualities. Each of the following characteristics give one higher quality: regular surface, surface pattern, medicinal aroma, emitting light, unnatural weight.
No real wuxia story is complete without Weapons.
Four basic weapons:
- spear - the King of weapons - powerful and dominating. It can pierce, smash and slam. "for an unskilled opponent, the spear can't be long enough. For a skilled opponent, the spear can't be short enough." This is a soldier's weapon.
- sword - the Gentleman of weapons - light, agile, razor sharp. Using a sword means avoiding the opponent's attack and going for his weak spots. This is a straight, double-edged sword. A refined gentleman's weapon.
- staff - the Grandfather of weapons - legend has it a soldier wanted to practice spear after becoming a monk. The spearhead was clearly a killing implement, so he removed it and was left with a staff. It shares many of the same moves with the spear.
- knife (saber) - the General of weapons - a straight or curved single-edged sword. It is a soldier's weapon, durable, made for blocking, savaging the opponent's weapon and chopping. While the sword is used like a scalpel, a knife is swung around to hew opponents in two.
Common weapons:
- big knife (horse-chopper, nine rings, serpent, halfmoon, etc...) - the result of putting various knife blades on a long handle.
- axe - sometimes used in pairs. Thrown or wielded in melee.
- bronze hammer - Short-handled, heavy and indestructible, often used in pairs, usually as practice weapons. Despite its name, these are made from all sort of materials.
- buterfly knife - Used in pairs, considered a compassionate weapon as these are less likely to kill. A compassionate wielder might leave portions of the blade unsharpened to administer crushing subdual blows against small bones. The compassion might be lost on the maimed victims, however.
- sweeper, big and little - legend has it that an emperor's favorite staff was cut almost in half during a battle. Since he was unwilling to part with it, he connected the two parts of the staff and got the sweeper. The little sweeper is more familiar as the nunchuk.
- monk spade - with one side as a fork to keep wild animals at bay and the other a spade to dig graves for unfortunates who died without burial, this is the usual traveling gear for a Buddhist monk.
- ruler/hard whip - a sturdy piece of metal long as a sword. As it doesn't have an edge it's technically not lethal. Still, it's easy for a skilled exponent to crush bones and weapons with ease using this.
- soft whip - a number of iron links connected into a whip. Usually there are up to thirteen short iron bars, with the handle being a basket. A weapon dangerous for the unskilled wielder.
- rope dart - a dagger sized stabbing and cutting blade attached to a ten foot rope. This can be thrown, stabbed with, the rope or chain can be uset to trip, tie and strangle.
- trident - a bully's weapon. this weighty tool is made for clashing against and smashing the opponent's weapon; the sharp tips help keeping an impaled enemy at bay. Associated with expelling evil spirits
Uncommon weapons
- deer horn knives
- hook sword
- fire and water wheels
- chicken claw knives
- rake
- meteor hammer
- prayer wheels
Cultivation skills are what sets practitioners apart from others. Some are signature methods taught to all members of a family or sect. Others are secret methods whose appearance means war. They have prerequisites in basic stats, time invested, and have various effects.
Foundation building stage
- tendon change Sutra
- marrow washing Sutra
- iron shirt
- Compassionate art of tiger claw
- Shadowless kicks
- Iron sand palm
- Eagle claw
- Stone piercing finger
- Pushing mountains art
- Iron arm
- Thousand catty drop
- Iron sweeping leg
- Empty hand enters thousand blades
Postheaven
- kirin watching excercise
- 108 sounds of nature
- Golden bell Cover-The Shaolin temple is famous for this
- body strengthening method
- Two finger Zen- another famous Shaolin skill
- five poisons palm
- Golden dragon palm
- Dragon subduing phoenix-a dual cultivation skill
- Bamboo Shaking Off Snow
Preheaven
- Phoenix and Dragon dance -an advanced dual cultivation method.
- Diamond finger
- 18 heavenly palms
Transformation
- Shattering Karma Classic
- Cosmos balancing finger- the most powerful commonly known finger attack skill
- Entering silence
- Path of the Raging Dragon
- Three Tortures Demonic Hell Art (Fire, Blade, Blood-spilling arts are pre-heaven)
Immortality
- Moon splitting cascade
- Immortal palm
- Smiling from the heart
- Merging with the Cosmos
- Legendary Beast Dance
(Most of these are shamelessly ripped from various sources :))
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:26, Wed 27 Apr 2022.
