Feel free to keep your Out of Character musings, post any feedback or make any suggestions. I will adjust the rules and add content accordingly and discuss other ideas with you.

Just dropping by to say hi!
Maybe I'll even finish a character one of these years.

Nice to meet you!

Well, just sent in my character sheet, here's to hoping i actually manage to survive my first year :P

Nice to meet you folks at some undisclosed moment in the future!

Oh, no! Competition for the 'didn't survive first year' achievement!
...I'll need to hurry and get eaten by a monster ;P

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 5):

Hah! Made me remember the first time i played a "Build your own Kingdom" game. It had two randomly rolled events each "Turn" on a d100, both good and bad.

My first round ones were:
- Major Assassination Attempt
- Divine Intervention

So basically, a massive dragon flew down from a mountain to murder me and everyone in my hometown, but then God descended to kick it in the ass.

Literally the single worst and single best event that could be rolled. At the same time. Had a good laugh about that with the GM.

-------------------------------

Oh btw, in case anyone's wondering about Elemental Affinity, i did find this online when looking up information on it:


This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Wed 14 July 2021.

Changed my portrait, just noticed Wei had the same one as me.

Though that is understandable given that it was pretty much the only real oni-looking one in Female Demihuman :P

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 6):

That's how divinities scam you into building more temples in your kingdom, watch out!

Everything I know about Elemental Affinity I learned from Scroll of Taiwu! ...that's probably not something to brag about, considering the obscene amounts of times I died horribly in that game.

Well, from the sound of it, you've at least learned from your mistakes...

...Right?

I'm actually just kind of flailing at the screen and hoping neat plot comes out.  Part of the gimmick with Wei Jing is "Incredible sweetheart who may or may not be some kind of Apocalypse Maiden but also kind of pushes back against that because while she's a bit fight-happy she's not actually vicious or mean really?"

She's been fun to write for so far at least, I'm just hoping I don't derp my way all around all the cool plot and have her fade to ignomity.

Best way to do it. Trust the character, especially since you're having fun writing for her ;)

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 10):

If you dont find the Cool Plot, the Cool Plot will find you!

Reading the others' threads, it seems they're coloring or bolding key words of what they choose to do.

Want me to do it as well, or is it good as-is? If it makes it easier on Dao then i've got no problems adjusting to it.

I just usually bold for emphasis and add color to speech. But if we want to settle for a standardized style I don't mind.
When it's really important to have a clear OOC explanation of things, or add dice rolls I usually do something like...

---

Explicit OOC stuff goes here
This message was last edited by the player at 14:04, Thu 15 July 2021.

Hello everyone! New player here :)

Looking forward to some killer action scenes, with genuine drama to back it up!

Don't know when any of us will meet, so I'll save anything more until whenever that is :)

*Checks the new thread*

And a new contender joins the 'who's going to die horribly first?' contest!
...I'll need to up my game.

Careful!

If the PCs use dirty tricks, the NPCs will start using them as well, so keep the REAL nasty stuff in reserve for when the GM brings out the big guns on you :P

I'm confused, could you clarify what you mean?



Haha I hope this character lasts a little longer than one fight! That would be a huge waste!

---

Oh, also finally got a description and pfp up for this guy! It's the best I could do, lol.

Well, what it boils down to is: save the good stuff for when you really need to, because if you use a good trick too often, the enemy will come prepared for it :P



What's a pfp? Is that the portrait, the bio, or both?

Tricks are only dirty if there's witness left to complain about them

Good point! But, I guess that depends on if you're facing recurring villains or large groups with communication networks. Otherwise, your enemies will be going in as blind as you are. That is, barring any potential personal detective work either of you get up to, but in that case it would be reasonable to assume there would be hints in the text or even opportunities to catch the fellow or get caught yourself, depending on whatever this system's version of perception checks might be.

Still yeah, trump cards are for trumping :)

Though, I haven't really used anything particularly powerful yet. Frankly, my attack power with my current technique is really underwhelming, all in the single digits currently (it can scale a bit with access to more weapons and Qi) as opposed to enemy's health which could easily be high in the double digits.

Seems to be going fine, but also Lei Feng's a lover not a fighter (well, as much as you can be in a xianxia setting hahahaha)



Shorthand for profile picture. I'm not sure how to define 'bio' since it's a pretty niche field that I've only seen on RPOL (then again, I don't use any social medias, where it may be more common).

A related field I've seen is 'signatures' on a lot of different forums, but they don't have those here (probably for the better, they can take up a lot of space on a page).



LMAO I love this.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:58, Fri 16 July 2021.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 21):



Regarding this point, the system prioritizes the player's own initiative to search or examine stuff based on how the player describes his character examining a place or object. Of course, the more details you add to the search (e.g. under the table, between its joints etc) the longer it will take, and it is even possible to spend an entire month examining an object (you may add conditions for it to stop whenever you discover anything of note).

All in all, the player will be (most of the time) rewarded for creative description of detailed actions or plans of actions - since the main goal of the system is to create an interesting narrative.

Naturally, there will be various Eye Arts that will allow you to fathom hidden things, check someone's cultivation level etc, and this will be the main form of perception at higher stages.

Out of context, but...



You actually did give him an opening to his lungs ;)

*waves* I arrive! Now that I've submitted ny char sheet, I feel like I should say hello to all the other lovely players in the game~

Hello! Welcome to the game!

Hello hello!
No guarantee of loveliness, though!

I certainly can't promise that myself, so I would say we're even there *giggles*

Welcome to the game!

So, i'm guessing we'll have to see who runs into another PC first :P

Remember, it doesn't count as a meeting unless the two try to kill each other over a stupid misunderstanding at first.

I don't make the tropes.

Of course!

How else are you supposed to gain valuable insights into the motives and personality of those you meet, if not through their Kung Fu?

Indeed, I can certainly say any meeting we will probably have will not be a friendly one *giggles* until we become allies of convenience for some larger enemy outside of our control, and slowly develop a bond from there.

I too, do not make the tropes.

Naturally.

I mean, they call it forging friendships, right? And how do you forge something good? By shoving it in a fire and hitting it with a hammer repeatedly.

I rest my case.

Hahaha!



Tough love. I like it.



Fool, you just activated Lei Feng's trap card: Long term [b]romance!

Just you wait, by chapter 3000+ him and any one of you will be arguing over who should sacrifice their life for the other!



Very very tough love. The more violent the better, for this genre!

A twist in your plot!

...the long-term romance is actually between Lei Feng and the one currently gently and loving trying to hold him close!

Its quite interesting to see everyone starting to get into combat and such, and seeing the various different abilities they hold~ I look forwards to showing off my own, eventually *Giggles*

LMAOO! If this is BL, then sure XD



Menacing giggles intensify

See? I was right. Lei Feng is now clearly just trying to get him to open his heart!

I don't know what you're talking about, I assure you, I'm your ordinary, everyday, extremely friendly cultivator.

On another note, am I the only one who thinks the GM has got to be using a table/website to roll for these backgrounds? I have no idea how one person could otherwise think up so many place names and character descriptions in such a short timespan.

I mean, I guess you feasibly could, but surely it would not come out with such thematic synergy on the first try?

To be clear, I wouldn't look down on that as a method at all, I think it's an ingenious way to speed up hefty adjudications which often weigh down PbPs.

Don't look at the man behind the curtains ;D

The thing I'd have more problems with is, indeed, the naming. Id have to spend a disproportionate amount of time making sure, for example, that techniques have the right feel - or I'd have to straight-up rip them off somewhere.

The main factor is probably more familiarity with the source material (more than me, at least). While I did read some Wuxia/Xianxia (otherwise I wouldn't be here in the first place), it's several orders of magnitude less than the well I can dip into for "Generic Vaguely European Fantasy World #23". Not to mention that "Generic Vaguely European Fantasy World #23", unless played with folks I already GMd for, benefits from a slew of lore pre-made by myself I can shamelessly recycle.

I can use some juggling and some smoke and mirrors to make it look like I'm done with A LOT more work than is actually ready in such a setting. But there's no way I can pull that off while ALSO having to double-check that I'm using honorifics reasonably.

You and The Wizard of Oz are giving me very different messages right now! Who should I trust??



Absolutely. I don't speak any asian languages, so I felt almost guilty picking this name, 'cause I really have little to no knowledge about it or context for it, except that it sounds good to my western ears.

I did try and search for names that had meanings I liked, but that's kind of fruitless without an actual awareness of proper grammatical structure.



Exactly same for me. I've seen a little bit of Wuxia/Xianxia, and a crapload of generic vaguely European fantasy to the point where I can make rough sketches for whole fantasy worlds in an hour or less, and then just fill in what I need.

It won't be much special, but it's perfectly reasonable.



Don't just reveal the biggest GM secret! They are supposed to think us as Gods, not Men!

For me, I think I could pretty easily adapt to using honorifics. They are one of the easier parts of a language to learn in my opinion. Even English has them with things like "Sir, Miss, Mister, Lady, Lord" and so on.

Though, using them perfectly requires at least a good enough understanding of the culture surrounding them, or it can come off a bit weird, even if technically correct/applicable.

I mean, it's like a foreigner going around calling everyone, "Lord" because it's 'respectful'. That doesn't really happen, because that would be super awkward and someone would tell them the linguistic equivalent of "you have something on their face" pretty soon.

TBH, I get a load of enjoyment from honorifics, especially ones of affection, like the japanese '-kun' or '-chan' and the (south?) korean '-oppa, -hy[u/eo]ng' because we don't have those here and that makes me sad.

Wei Jing is a delight to write for.  She's not a bad person, but she is an Asura in every conceivable definition of the word.  Slightly bloodthirsty and with a loose grasp on morals that have been reinforced heavily by a Very Good Upbringing.

But sometimes it just leaks out from time to time and she accidentally becomes nightmare fuel.

(Seriously, her Emotion scores are so bad it's amazing.  They're all below 25 except for Sorrow, which is funnily high.  The fact she then made her first Rage check is hilarious to me.  Her alignment is also in PERFECT BALANCE which is even more comedy)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Sat 17 July 2021.

That is amazing, LMAO

I'm sure her and Lei would hit it off. Think about it; By day, they could go around protecting the weak from wicked villains, and by night they would spend all that positive karma by starting a bloody tavern brawl!

Fun fun fun :)

Yeah, I kind of ended up blowing a ridiculous amount of Talent Points on a mystery box, but Wei Jing I'm hoping is to be the Good Girl Demonic Cultivator who uses the power of friendship to rise to success as an immortal demon blacksmith of sorts.

It's a mystery as to how far it'll go, but I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Ah, yes, the lure of mystery boxes!
I couldn't resist those myself, and now I have a mystery box that requires two skills my character can't make heads or tails of.

...nothing wrong can ever come out of practicing a cultivation method you barely understand three fifths of, right? xD
This message was last edited by the player at 11:18, Sun 18 July 2021.

Hah, same boat here admittedly went for a martial arts manual and a spirit herb, and got a fire related one for both of them, only problem is... I'm lightning affinity!

Ah, come on, don't be so picky - lightning is KIND of like fire!

Not close enough :V that being said, the herb can nurture my fire spirit, so if I turn it into a pill it might work out in the end, since I built for pill refining in addition to my combat stuff.

Me too. I originally wanted Formations, but ended up with Medicine making sense - and from there the jump was easier to pills.

Got the Formations and Inscriptions combo package here, so i'll probably be enchanting gear for you all at some point in the game :P

Lei can also do Inscriptions! Looking forward to giving everything he makes incredibly over-the-top stupid names because of course this idiot would do that.

Oh yeah and check my thread if you want to see how truly stupid this idiot is :) At least when it comes to judging character haha

Just did, actually.

And yes, why shouldn't the activation chant on a particularly strong magical spell be "I like to wear pink tutus!"? Prevents abuse of the spell if you make sure people will only use it when absolutely necessary.

As for the woman though, i'd disagree. She doesn't come across as a hothead, i'd say she's more kuudere myself. Tsundere lean more towards sarcasm.

Oh man, you're totally right! I knew about that trope too but then it slipped my mind. Would've been perfect for an 'icy beauty'

Really tempted to edit, but not sure the GM policy on editing posts, especially when it's for a stupid reason like 'my joke didn't land so can i get a redo?'

Probably inconsequential either way, unless of course Lei gets stabbed hahahahaha.

Actually, it's kind of in-character for Lei to get this wrong, since he's only 'heard about this in legends' so it makes sense he got some of the details mixed up on his dere types :P

Imagine being an otaku in the, what, 13th century?

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 53):

Go ahead with edits. As long as it makes a fun narrative and doesn't change major things too much it should be fine.

Speaking of legends, i actually wanted to ask about this earlier, but apparently forgot.

Dao, what's our level of IC knowledge of the various beasts of legend we may encounter? I know the creature i ran into was a kumiho, but how likely would it be for me to know this ICly? I played it off as 'heard about it from bedtime stories' at the time, but a GM call on it would be nice.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 55):

As long as you can recognize them, you can treat it as though your characters know them, but the level of knowledge is very superficial and limited to whatever the story about it speaks of about them. Of course, stories are just stories - they are mostly greatly exaggerated and might contain information that might be false.

If you've read the Classic of Mountains and Seas, you might also recognize a lot more obscure and strange creatures (that might appear in the game) and the medicinal properties of some of their organs. Of course, how true they are is questionable.

The foolproof way of knowing stuff in a reliable manner is to procure and study for a period of time books on the subject of various creatures. In which case your character may recall any detail about a creature.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:01, Mon 19 July 2021.

Well, i wouldn't exactly call myself an expert and immediately come up with a list of valuable organs to harvest for selling monster kidneys on the black market medicinal purposes, but i'd have to rely on my character for that once she starts getting the appropriate skills and lores :)

In reply to Dao Master (msg # 56):

...Don't mind me as I add Classic of Mountains and Seas to my 'potential inspiration to steal' list. It looks pretty interesting.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 58):

I can help with that:

https://archive.org/stream/ACh...%20Bestiary_djvu.txt

I might grab it in actual book format.

...fortunately I read a decent english, because getting it in my language apparently costs five times as much.
And no, chinese isn't an option xD
This message was last edited by the player at 09:50, Mon 19 July 2021.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 60):

From the article:



Out of curiosity, which is your language?

The language of pizza!
...and mustachio-ed plumbers.

New York City, then? You know, the pizza rat?

(im kidding please dont kill me)



Ah yes, Mario Mario the genocidal maniac!

So, you're from Japan.

(okay ill stop)

---

I tried to read the stuff in the link, but the formatting made me lose my last remaining brain cell, which I was really using to have thoughts or whatever.

Yeah, no kidding, if it's not English it's pretty much unavailable and out of print everywhere XD

I tried looking the Italian one up online, most places still feature a 25 euro catalogue price, but it's universally out of stock and/or unavailable.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/265218...076&toolid=10001

I did find that copy in Foggia at "only" twice the price, you'd still need postage but it's internal in Italy so that might bump down the price some.

Then again, it's Posta Italiana so you may end up receiving it somewhere in 2023.

Lei: That's because it's base text. If you click on "See other formats" there's actually a nice and shiny pdf version of it, along with multiple others ;)

Oooh exciting :)

I'm going to bed (yes at 8 am in EST because im terrible at keeping a sleep schedule zoinks) but I'll revisit that page when I wake up!

Thanks :)

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 63):

You and I... we're going to have a problem. Watch out, or you'll wake up to find garlic heads hidden in your drawers.

---

As for the book I found a softcover for 63 eurobucks on Amazon that looked like it was available - but the english version was 17.
If you're curious your link for me is 55, of which 6 postage - so we're in the same ballpark.

In the end I've been a nerd long enough that reading English and Italian is just about the same. Just don't make me speak

Heh, the opposite for me. I can speak and read it no problem, but ask me to write something and it'd have the grammar skills of a toddler.

Accents and apostrophes aren't really a thing in my country...

Oh? Can I ask which is that? I have a couple of obvious picks when it comes to no-accents-and-no-apostrophes languages (most of them also no-latin-alphabet ones), but I'm not too familiar with any.

The Netherlands.

Dutch is a language in a difficulty category of its own, i've heard, though as a native speaker i can't really comment on it, but it does have a nice lack of grammatical cases, accents, tremas, grammatical genders (masculine and feminine are both 'de', neuter is 'het') and apostrophes.

On the other hand, i suppose there are lots and lots of irregular forms, pronunciation can be tough on people trying to learn it (ch, sch, ng and nk are sounds which aren't often encountered in most other languages) and word order is extremely important to the point of it changing the enire meaning of the sentence. But hey, pros and cons, right?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:45, Mon 19 July 2021.

Careful! I hear it's hot there! Also, the new update introduced a lot of dangerous monsters...

(yes im aware im making enemies hahahah)



/rant start

Same for me, with english as my first (and sadly only) language. Growing up, I thought it all made sense, and now that I'm older and remember what it was like to study other languages briefly in school (mainly French 'cause I'm Canadian and it's mandated to be taught) I'm like "Holy crap this language is evil to foreigners" LMAO

I mean, it's probably the least internally consistent language. Sure, every tongue has it's exceptions, but English is like three quarters exceptions (and the other quarter is loan words ha ha)

Recently tried to get introduced to Japanese basocs, but my brain is too used to latin languages to be able to imprint such a drastically different one in it's folds.

Frankly, at this point I think I'm past the years where I can learn new languages. Not to mention I was never ever good at recreating sounds that English doesn't have (even though japanese miraculously only has like one or two unique sounds, I can't pronounce them)

Also, even though I got an award for prodigious french learning when graduating from elementary education, even at the time I was really only decent at reading and writing. Couldn't speak it for crap, and don't get me started on understanding it.

Unfortunately, I later learned a language is mostly useless to know in writing if you don't know it verbally, since any bilingual or multilingual careers are almost always spoken translation, and rarely written translation (though, that might be different now or I just got given the wrong information)

I really want to blame it on having CAPD, but I don't even remember if I have that diagnosis or if it was just borderline.

/rant end

I did play around with a little bit of Japanese myself in covid times. Apart from issues in wrestling with the l/r sounds, pronunciation wasn't too terrible - hell, English is probably HARDER than Japanese on that front. But yeah, I got in the low-100s of vocabulary and a smattering of basic grammar before having to return to work. Maybe I'll pick it up again on vacation time, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to find out I only remember the shapes for, I dunno.. 'Person' and 'Dog'.

Unexpected side-effect, I started actually remembering my mobile number somewhere in the middle of Kanji memorizations. I had that number for years and never managed that.

My French stops at being able to serve beers at a summer job, and my Dutch at the same - except ACTUALLY in German, mixing the two up and pissing off everyone in the process.

Also, high school Latin and Ancient Greek. Let's... just not mention my fluency in those, okay?

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 70):

English is the Borg of languages.

It doesn't just loan words, it awaits other languages in darkened alleyways and rifles their pockets for more vocabulary.

Anyhow, on Dutch, there really isn't a set of standard rules to follow. The past tense of kopen ('to buy') is kocht, but the past tense of lopen ('to walk') isn't locht, it's liep and the past tense of hopen ('to hope') is hoopte. And pronunciation wise, the only difference between them is in the first letter, and then local dialects get involved...

Grammatical genders are the same way: Chair is 'de', table is 'de', glass is 'het', and glasses is 'de' because plural is always 'de'. The word doesn't tell you anything about what's supposed to accompany it, so people can try and spend a couple of years to master it, and still end up sounding like a Neanderthal.

Genders in Italian can be just as fun for foreign learners, I assume. Stealing your example, chairs and glasses are CLEARLY manly, while chairs are pretty girly.
(however cups are feminine - glasses gotta have their waifus)
We don't really have a neuter.

I don't think English has any gender system, except for pronouns I guess?

When learning French, I didn't actually find the gender thing too difficult. It was just a lot of memorization because there is no rime nor reason to it, and even using stereotypes doesn't help because it's not seemingly based off modern culture (maybe when the language first came around, it was accurate but no more)

Since the genders are all attached to nouns, it's easy to just remember a word with it's gender as a part of it, same way many native English speakers (maybe not learners) would think of 'kill' and 'killing' almost like different words, since differentiating between tense is so automatic it seems to be a part of the very verb.

Conjugation for french wasn't too hard for me, but I never got lightning speed quick with it like I did with english.

Anyway, big shout out to all you multilingual folks. Learning new languages is super difficult, and smth I aspire to someday manage!

In a way I'm a little jealous of kids raised in families that speak more than one language, since that can prime their brain early for this sort of learning... Then again my mum sort of experienced that when she was younger (french-canadian family) and she said it was really hard to switch between the two. Though, apparently not as hard as it was to go from French School to English School which caused her to nearly fail math because she didn't understand the terms.

That's my nightmare by the way. Not getting up on stage in my underwear, but being thrown into advanced mathematics but it's all spoken in mandarin. I would die.

New post. Couldn't possibly find a way for this to not appear like psychopathy, so I tried to show inside his head.

Oh well, the GM will judge how this affects his Karma score (if at all)

Well, take it from someone that knows several, there's only one real trick in learning a new language, and that's to get yourself to think in it.

Otherwise, you'll just end up having to translate everything twice in your head which in turn keeps you from following a conversation in a relaxed and natural manner because you need to think three times as much as the person you're trying to talk to.

Absolutely spot on with the advice I've been given.

Though, to me, 'thinking in another language' is synonymous with 'fluency in that language'

But... isn't that a Catch-22? You have to be fluent before you can be fluent... It could also just be that my method of learning has always been wrong. I've always started with reading and writing because even in English I far prefer the written word over spoken word. Maybe this 'catch22' problem isn't present if you learn a language verbally, like its supposed to be done.

I guess that's why language is something you can never really say you 'have finished learning', not only because it constantly changes (though not necessarily too quickly to keep up with if you are already immersed) but because learning a second language is an endless series of discoveries.

It makes me feel kind of crappy for laughing at foreigners mispronouncing or using poor grammar, when I know now they are already miles ahead of me (or any monolingual person) in terms of linguistic ability. Though, I suppose it's okay if it's not malicious.

Regardless, it's kind of ironic to me that learning a 2nd , 3rd , 4th or whatever language is basically a 'Prestige' system where you go from Level 100 [lol] Englishman [for ex.] and then all the way down to Level 1 Frenchman... sometimes you can get Reset Rewards though , such as 'Understanding of Latin Languages' or 'African Linguist'

I play too many video games ha ha

---

By the way GM, I should probably clarify that Lei cleaned off his scythe before he returned to town. I did mention he cleaned his clothes, but got obsessed with that tidbit and forgot the murder weapon was also an equal problem. It should be easy to do, even without water because he can just wipe it on the grass or with bark or dirt or whatever.

It won't be clean, but it wasn't in the first place lol.

Hey GM, would it be possible for you to set our character sheets to public? I think it would be useful to keep track of our inventories.

I also want to put my spirit arts (I think that's what those are called, because they use Qi, right?) in there because it's inconvenient to have to refer to the PM thread every time!

LMK

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 78):

Done!

Nope, it's the other way around: People tend to only start thinking in a language once they feel they've sufficiently mastered it.

So, for example, if you're English and want to learn French, you'd have the tendency to think in English because that's where you've got the biggest vocabulary at your disposal... which is then wasted because you don't know the French equivalent of it anyway. And once they do become fluent, thinking in English and translating it has become such a habit that you keep doing it.

You don't need to actually be fluent to start thinking in a language. That's just fear of failure, even native speakers sometimes get stuck on a word.

-----

On that note of translating in your head, a small anecdote from a teacher of mine back in middle school:

He was on vacation in France, and wanted to light a cigarette, so he went over to a couple of Frenchmen and asked for a light. They both had one and offered it, and my teacher -- thinking in Dutch -- forgot to translate in his head for being distracted and said "Dank u", which is Dutch for "Thank you".

Unfortunately, in French, that phonetically sounded like "Dans cul", which means "shove it up your ass". He did manage to explain the situation, but had he thought in French, he would have said "Merci" instead.

Thanks, that actually makes a lot of sense!



What a great teacher. I hope that's a real story, because holy crap is that embarassing lmaooo

Yeah, i have no reason to doubt it. Misremembered one thing though, it wasn't in middle school, but late primary, so this was still a few years before they let kids anywhere near foreign languages.

And yeah, if i recall correctly, the teacher told us he lucked out because one of the two Frenchmen mentioned having heard something along those lines as well. It's a story that stuck with me :P
This message was last edited by the player at 23:09, Tue 20 July 2021.

Which is funny, because when kids are a lot younger, they learn new languages *much* easier.

Yep, easiest to learn a language up to age 4 (which is where people that are raised bilingual really get their advantage from), but by the time primary school kicks in they're too busy with reading, spelling, grammar, math, basic geography and history and a bunch of other general knowledge stuff they need to know about in Secondary.

I think the reason for that is that when they're very young, they can't really differentiate between languages yet, so 'car', 'macchina' and 'voiture' are all mentally treated as synonyms of the same word. Later on, those get tagged as belonging to different languages, but they'd still know the actual meaning of the word because it's been imprinted at a young age.

If you want to pick up a language really fast though, go watch cartoons. They're aimed at young kids so the words and grammar they're using aren't that hard to follow by design, and it helps a ton get the right feel for how a language is supposed to 'flow' outside of a book or classroom, which is how you'll be using it 95% of the time anyway.

Or you'll end up talking like a cartoon character.

Heard that's a problem learning japanese through 'anime', because they all end up sounding incredibly stupid. The best way that mistake has been explained to me is it would be as if a foreigner was speaking like Clint Eastwood or Bugs Bunny or some other pop culture character.

I would die from embarassment.

No, as much as i like anime, it's generally aimed at teenagers so the vocabulary tends to be more advanced. It's also a cultural thing, meaning there's a lot of stuff that would make (cultural or societal) sense to a native speaker, but not so much a relative outsider that, when copying the manner of speech, would often end up using it out of context.

Same with cartoons, some work better than others, but it would work best alongside classes in a new language so you have a better grasp on your progress.

In the end, any exposure is better than no exposure, but sooner or later you'll have to smash your head on SOME rules.

I dunno if the age brackets match, but I started having English in school in primary school (years 1-5 of school), possibly on the... third? Fourth year? I have to admit my memories are kind of hazy about events back then.
Not that it helped much, I mainly learned my English over the first Adventure and RPGs games I could mess with (Monkey Island. Goddamn Monkey Island) - In general, Italy wasn't exactly known for excellent English teaching back then. Or ever.

---

On a completely unrelated note, I had math-y curiosities about the game and wanted to generate a bit of discussion. What's the expected numeric range of things?
Self rolls work best in a 1-100 range, getting up to 250-300 if we start taking into account increasingly improbable penalties.
Opposed rolls have a similar range, with the dice being progressively less important to the point of meaninglessness the higher base values go.

However in the Arts Advancement example I see numbers 'easily' getting into the high-100s - which makes absolute sense in the scale of Xianxia, but I'm not sure plays nice with the numeric groundwork.

Thoughts on the matter? Opposed rolls could work with a growing random: either a single bigger die or multiple d100s (I dunno, one extra d100 for every full 100 [numbers not final] in the skill? 200? Or maybe based on Cultivation level, showing a generic increase of overall badassery?). This would increase the gap between people who should probably have no business punching each other (1d100 + 60 has a chance versus 1d100 + 150, less so versus 2d100 + 150) but keeps drama when playing closer to the right playground (700 and 800 LOOK 'close', but if the random is 1d100, 700-guy actually has no chances)

I dunno about self rolls. Maybe more and more stuff should just become automatic and the rolls only done against fractions of the skill? It sounds like it could get needlessly complex.

I agree with your ideas about the goal, but I'm not sure what changes should be made.

The biggest I have with my main system (DND 5e) is their ideal of 'bounded accuracy' which basically means a lot of things but the thing I hate about it is that it ensures that low level entities can always actually pose threats to higher level ones.

I mean, you'd think a level 20 monk would have no problem wiping out a crowd of any number of low challenge rated enemies, but nope, because the way the dice and numbers were designed just are not like that.

AOE is an exception to this issue, but only if they are bunched together. So, useless against being attacked by a bajillion enemies at range, when you should be able to simply take the arrows and ignore them because you are supposedly strong enough to fight evenly with demigods

Besides, the class design only gives magical classes access to any aoe, and martial classes suffer from leveling up and getting more attacks, because the more dice you roll the more likely you are to roll terribly.

So yeah, for this game which has a Wuxia genre, I'm absolutely in support of there being 'unwinnable fights' from a purely mathematical perspective. Sure, cheatlike abilities can always trump statistics, but that's a totally other matter then poorly-designed combat math.

I also agree with Xiao that people on the same playing field, even if one is a fair bit above the other should still be able to be matched fairly evenly.

If Cultivators are a rare thing in this setting, they should automatically be considered a threat. Of course, a first stage cultivator would not be one to a very late stage cultivator, but a middle stage cultivator should have the opportunity to take down late stage ones, if they use their wits and get some luck.

That's my take on opposed rolls. Frankly, the quickest way to do that may to just give total resistance or straight damage reductions to things as you reach higher cultivation layers. I recall hearing that earlier versions of DND than I've played did use Damage Reduction, which is good for Wuxia because nothing is more badass than taking 0 damage from a massive hit because you outlevel your opponent so much more.

Resistances could be the ability to completely ignore nondamage techniques. It's not immersive that an ability would work the same against foes of vastly different power.

For an example, say I had limited telekinesis as a mid level technique. Then, let's say I encounter a super late stage cultivator. My telekinesis should have no effect, because it's too low level to affect them.

Basically, at certain cultivation layers, you should get absolute immunity to effects that are more inferior than a specific threshold (could be anything, from three layers to twice that or whatever)

My favorite reference for this would have to be the Overlord anime/light novel. The characters in that show are the definition of overpowered (to their environment, at least) and they literally have a video-game ability which "Protects from Effects Under Level 60" as they are all level 100s (main cast only). Something like that is basically a perfect fix for the issue of 'these goblins are really whittling me down' coming out of the mouth of an immortal heaven ascension god-slayer.

Now for self rolls, I agree that things just becoming automatic if they are low difficulty should be fine. This issue comes up in DND a lot, where a supposed 1000 year old archdruid fails a nature check to find berries for somewhere they have lived and planted forests in for the last two centuries because they roll a 1 on the d20. What?!?! That is ridiculous.

Indeed, my plan is to bestow an extra dice to your opposed rolls with each breakthrough of a stage of cultivation. Some forms of cultivation might even give you more than one dice per breakthrough which offers insane people an option of challenging others at a higher stage.

As for self rolls, they will work in the same way - with you rolling against additional dice - but only if the activity in question requires a higher stage of cultivation. e.g. a person in Golden Pill stage doesn't have to self check when he executes a Qi Gathering pill refinement technique - but will have to do it for Golden Pill/Primordial Fledging stage refinement techs. I guess I should probably categorize some abilities into their cultivation stages.

In short, if the self check or opposed check is done with the target being of a lower stage of cultivation, then no check is required, and success is automatic (exception is when opponent has a chance to roll higher than you if he enough d100s).

I originally wanted to do damage reduction, but I wanted to reduce the number crunching, so here we are lol. Just comparing numbers is already a lot for now at least from how I look at it. I wanna keep it fast paced.

And I agree that the penalties for natural 1s and fumbles are too silly. Luckily, you'll have none of that here. (And also no criticals)


----


Also - A word of advice to aspiring cultivators.

That path to breaking through often involves months to years of seclusion doing nothing but working on cultivation. Trying to do so while on the road is almost impossible.

Adventuring and getting involved in earthly affairs are often just means to obtain the necessary resources to eventually get a secluded place to do nothing but focus on refining your inner self, and should that distract you too much, you will find yourself too old before you break through to the next stage.

As a rogue cultivator wandering the lands, this is exceedingly hard, as you will often run out of funds and will have to spend years earning again before you can continue. People who join sects on the other hand will find it easier as they have the facilities to allow for members to train in seclusion for months without worrying about basic needs.

In the later stages, you will find that you will actually be going around just looking for a place where you can meditate in peace (lol), and only occasionally getting out of seclusion to find necessary tools or materials for you to break through bottlenecks in your cultivation.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:21, Wed 21 July 2021.

But the MYSTERY BOX of exploration! It shines so blindingly!
Last known words, before drowning unremembered into a nameless swamp

No, no, I swear I have a plan here! Rare herbs in the swamp! Brownie points with the Buddhists in town! Totally not just wandering about like a headless chicken! xD

Lei's just vibing rn.

I mean, he's 23 years old. He's got time. Especially if his story moves at a slow pace lol

But yeah, probably important to get biological immortality (which i assume is a late stage feature in most cultivation pathways) before a lot of ingame years pass, because you know, then you would die of natural causes and that is not very fun

Also, I've always had a secret desire to play a regular young dude who is secretly actually a thousands-year-old demigod who has walked among mortals for aeons and knows everything they wonder about, but spends his time drinking and telling jokes instead. Basically hilarious to me that a being beyond comprehension would just take things easy and live pretty much like a regular fellow.

Anyone who has read a fair bit of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere can probably guess my favorite character from that series from that paragraph alone.

generally speaking, when it comes to cultivation, although creatures never really got total immortality, they often extend their lives up to hundreds of thousands of years in later stage cultivation.

The best in world explanation I've seen is that every creature inherently has a certain amount of life essence they can hold, and you start getting old and dying as you lose that essence. As you go up in cultivation, the amount of essence you can hold goes up exponentially, leading to the lives of creatures that are essentially immortal.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 92):

Yep, and the Demonic Daos are essentially focused around absorbing other people's essences: They still lose theirs at a normal rate (unlike others, who focus around retaining it) but they 'top off' on other living beings every once so often.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 93):

Fun thing about being a demonic cultivator~ I thought I was going to be the only one when signing up, but I'm glad that someone else did too~

I'm still settling Wei Jing's starting position, it's kinda rough honestly as she's fighting a bunch of bandits who can apparently shrug off crossbow fire.

I don't know if she's just rolling really badly for damage though or if these guys are hardcore.  Or if I've technically only rolled two attacks--the game doesn't seem to have rules for larger scale fights I think?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Thu 22 July 2021.

Zi: Eh, it was fairly easy to understand :P

Wei: Well, to be fair, you're taking a character that's basically fresh out of chargen and charging her into a group of bandits large enough to take over a village. I know it's Wuxia, but still, that's some aggro you're pulling there.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 96):

yeah, the first stage isn't that far above a normal mortal, Qi gathering and higher you start to be able to do stuff like that though

While I do agree DR might slow things down a bit, i do think that cultivators of a certain level below you just shouldn't be able to damage you, or do so at a huge penalty, since in most portrayals, except for the MCs, lower realms are barely able to touch, much less damage, cultivators with only 1 realm higher, much less 2 or 3.

There's an optional "Armor as DR" rule in D&D though. What it boils down to is light armors have 1/-, mediums 2/- and heavy armors 3/-, and though i would probably try to get some stats involved, later realms of Cultivation would end up adding hundreds if not thousands of points to DR, so that might not be a good idea.

On the other hand though, given that HP is already tied to Strength, it already acts as DR of sorts since advancing to the next realm would give you such an inherent HP boost (through Strength) that the amount of damage lower realm opponents would dish out would already be laughable. I mean, i can deal an extra d4 damage, but that's not going to help much when i'm fighting someone who (to take the Arts Progression guy as an example) has 3d6 + 600 HP.

So yeah, given the numbers involved... I'd say that if you're going to put in armors, they'd probably lower damage by a percentage up to a certain maximum per hit, with heavier / magic armors having bigger numbers, against an Evasion penalty because you're still strapping a bunch of metal plates to your chest and limbs. Can't claim i know a lot about the game mechanics, but treating them as... permanent Talismans in terms of game mechanics would probably work best there. Talismans would be stronger of course, and not have the Evasion penalty, but that would be offset by armors not disintegrating on use and being able to carry Formations and Inscriptions (as gear).

My two cents.

Also, behold this gem of knowledge from a real samurai: https://cdn.discordapp.com/att...et_samurai_skill.mp4

There's also a rather amusing amount of Asuras. And horns.

At least lustful Wei can say he's in a setting with a bunch of horny women... Just not in the way he imagined.

On another note, my impression of what the various Cultivation methods would be in D&D:

True Self: Monk

Demonic: Warlock

Bewitchment: Vampire

Buddhist: Paladin

Darkness: Lich / Necromancer

Also: https://www.dummies.com/religi...dummies-cheat-sheet/
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Thu 22 July 2021.

Say hi to your Daoist name, it's going to stick!

I could totally see a Bard as a Bewitchment Cultivator. Probably depends on the alignment and subclass more than the others, though.

But an evil-aligned College of Glamour or College of Whispers bard could definitely fit the bill, since 'thrall' is just another way of saying 'simp' for them, LMAO

Just a second, killing off Lei for new superior character concept!

---

Funnily enough, I've done a lot of research lately on Buddhist Cosmology, and thought it would be damn cool to play a buddhist cultivator, but then I realized Lei would never ever give up things like 'alcohol' or 'women' so I'll probably make him a True Self cultivator instead, since demonic is too risky for me and the others weren't as interesting (i dont even remember what darkness was, so ill have to look again lol).

According to a translator i found, lustful means Lào (嫪) and Lào léi (嫪擂) means "Stupid", though Lào léi fēng (嫪擂风) means "Rude wind", apparently. Léi fēng (擂风) itself means "Blunt". Chinese can be weird, it seems ^^;

( https://www.wordhippo.com/what...5c0b822b0495487.html )

(edited: Meant Lei, not Wei)

Lei: As for Cultivation methods, the cheat sheet i linked to actually mentions two main schools:



Oriana's own Sect would follow the Orthodox Unity Taoism, whereas the Monastery she's currently living in (Nansei Southern Star Sect) follows Complete Perfection. Buddhist Cultivation specifically mentions being able to turn Drunkenness and Lechery into Qi, so it should be perfectly possible to implement that into your Cultivation.

Basically:

Complete Perfection Taoism:



You want to get drunk and laid, go Orthodox :P
This message was last edited by the player at 13:45, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 104):

I wasn't completely sold on Buddhist Cultivation myself, then I kind of rolled entirely insane Social Abilities.

*Meditates peacefully into 91 Rage and 93 Sorrow, with the other two not being far below average*

Still, I'm not preconceived on anything, so I'll just see how things develop.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 105):

Isn't that really good, because you've got a really low chance of rolling higher than it? Or would that make you a melancholic drunk that's been challenged on Drunkenness and Sorrow a lot during his early years?

Then again, i rolled Demonic 23 so it could just as well mean i have a hard time keeping myself from giving in to those urges...

As far as I can tell, higher is better for social abilities, because having a high one both means it's easier to get points (as far as I've seen the rolls in game go) and delays the moment when you're forced to act on them.

...then again, high ones might actually be a trap for Buddhist Cultivation, because you have less chances of accumulating enough to actually turn into Qi. I'd have to see how abilities that do that actually work.

As for Justice and Demonic I thought 'Higher means how likely it is for the character to follow that alignment', so 23 would make it pretty hard to give in? I dunno, I'd need to see how they're actually rolled in game - and having BOTH high would make one more than a little bipolar.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 107):

Yeah, it seems to be going for the concept of "Roll below to succeed, roll above to increase", so going by that Xiao would have a high alcohol tolerance and unlikely to get depressed as he'd be unlikely to act on it...

...Whereas Oriana is a yandere waiting to happen.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 108):

That's Rage and Sorrow he's unlikely to act on. He's still vulnerable to alcohol and pretty ladies, but not glaringly so.
Amusingly, more vulnerable to alcohol than to pretty ladies.

Ah right, mixed them up in my head.

Would be nice to hear Dao weigh in on this though, it sounds like it'd weigh in on their decision making process. I have 75 Drunkenness, so it'd be nice to know whether that means whether i can drink without trouble or need to keep myself away from it.

Ah, come on.. what's the difference between "high-functioning drunk" and "Teetotal" in the end? xD

I don't really understand the social abilities either. I assume (same as Oriana) that the higher the score, the better because you are less likely to roll over, and you also get to delay acting out when you do roll over.

Thus, a Buddhist Cultivator would want to have really low scores, so that they could get additional Qi, yes?

Lei's are all pretty average (43, 52, 52, 63) anyway, so it probably doesn't matter a ton for him either way.

---

I also wonder what is the difference between Martial Arts and Spirit Arts? I assumed Lei was using Spirit Arts because he was spending Qi, but when the DM wrote his abilities I think he listed them as Martial Arts?

Definitely seems like it should be spirit arts, because it's basically magic, and not just a fighting technique. Not sure what the distinction(s) between the two is/are.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 112):

Qi is basically Badass Points: You spend them as fuel for abilities that make you look good, regardless of whether those abilities are "I punch someone through a wall" or "I encase my opponent in a solid block of ice", with better abilities costing more Qi to activate.

If i were to compare.... Martial Arts are about hitting stuff hard, Spirit Arts are spells like fireballs, Movement Arts focus on movement (running like Sonic, jumping insanely high) and Mind Arts are psionics and illusions.

So this is using Qi for Martial Arts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkfI47Z-H4c

And this is using Qi for Spirit Arts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJx3ocwEFV4

The first one shows off some action between people of different realms too, with the large guy having a higher realm and the ones commanding the mooks a lower one, and the second is more comedic, but still shows what i mean anyway :P

Edit: This one also shows several Cultivation styles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7PVkClmZbM
This message was last edited by the player at 17:10, Thu 22 July 2021.

First video isn't available in my country :(

Second one was really fun though :)

Also, after noticing how well things are going for Oriana and even Zi Cheng, I've decided to speed up my story a little bit as well, by spending downtime.

Guess I didn't really have a chance before, since Lei was introduced in the middle of a fight (which is hilariously on-brand compared to everyone else, who was introduced in other less-immediately dangerous situations like arriving to a new town or monastery, and whatever else)

Well, most of what i do is just reacting to the situation, and Oriana (Kimari actually) has the smarts to try and get the most out of said situations, so that's what she's been doing.

It's worked out so far, but she's dancing a tightrope: Let's just say that attracting attention isn't the best long term outcome for her.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 112):

Spirit Arts are more like your elemental magics e.g. Fireballs and stuff

Martial Arts mainly involve more physical stuff with the most extreme being flying / orbiting weapons (Taiwanese puppetry example https://youtu.be/CVNzfSZXE1Q?t=127; a bit wacky but still pretty cool XDDD) and manifesting Qi of weapons (Sword Qi etc). If you still use a physical tool, it would still be considered martial arts.

Martial arts and Spirit arts all contain Qi. But most spirit arts are only available at Qi Gathering equivalent stages as they require a lot of Qi (you essentially manifest elemental powers from your body's energy)

As for social skills, the higher the better. You will go in a drunk rampage for example if you reach the maximum limit indicated by your social skill. So a person with higher Drunkenness limit is in other words more able to hold their drink.

Those who walk the path of Buddhism (and potentially some others) will expect these limits to reach insane levels and some might be able to use the points gained (since its harder to get drunk or angry for such people, the energy equivalent to getting such a saint to such level therefore is quite considerable and can be harnessed) for special moves and abilities.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:58, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 115):

As for me... to be honest I just poked my nose into the most mysterious-looking mystery box of the initial rumors he found.

The 'Here be downtime' option kind of looked like a trap. Half a year booked from dawn to dusk didn't seem like it left much time for actual cultivation.
Then again, delicious Taels.

...delicious taels without angry Hippos around.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:57, Thu 22 July 2021.

Thanks, that clears things up a lot.

I will probably stick to Martial Arts then, since they can still do cool things and I like their flavor most for Lei.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 117):

"Here be Downtime" CAN work, if you've got the right circumstances set up beforehand.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 119):

Oh, yes, I'm not against THE IDEA of downtime, just this particular occasion of it.
In fact I will probably try to grab some if I survive after I'm done here.

I do have a Martial Art JUST waiting to upgrade, just to say one thing.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 117):

well, the gm has stated that you can (and should) spend years gathering funds to prepare for cultivation, then you will often have to spend additional years just cultivating in seclusion to break through, though i imagine there are some cases of breakthroughs not in seclusion (for all your MCs out there)

also, my luck is back :V I thought I had shed this infernal bipolar streak my luck was going through, but apparently not.

Yeah, but it should be fast in the initial stages.

Case in point, i've got 8 requirements and i'm already at or near completion for 6 of them. Compare that to the guy from the Arts Progression thread:



Yeah, that's going to take a considerably longer time. Slightly less if you've got the right place, a stash of supplies to keep you going so you can focus entirely on training etc., but it's definitely something that would require years to clear the requirements of.

This pot... IT'S A COW!

Well he cleared the Persuasion, so at least the other guy will think it's a cow too...
This message was last edited by the player at 18:49, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 123):

well, to be fair, body refining and qi gathering martial arts are going to be significantly easier in terms of requirements to clear.



mine isn't all that hard to complete, although I do need to get myself skills with fire, because currently, I have exactly 0 in that regard, though that's the only skill I need in any real quantity, I'm like, 2 points off the only other requirement.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 126):

Ah, looks like you grabbed the Early Cultivator Talent. At Body Tempering, most of mine are 10s or below.

Wouldn't that make your Cultivation Layer 1?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:53, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 127):

yeah, I did, I thought it would be nice to have a headstart since I immediately kneecapped myself by giving myself broken meridians for story reasons.

and no, that's a martial art, which I've only understood to the basic level, so its still layer 0.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Thu 22 July 2021.

I have a body refining martial art which I've understood to layer 5, so i know its based on the art itself.


This message was last edited by the player at 18:55, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 126):

Yeah, I do have a couple of things to figure out from zero myself.

Like, Palms. Weird things. How do they even work?

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 130):

I need to figure out how fire works, and that took man thousands of years! how will i ever succeed *giggles*

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 131):

Just punch it until you understand it.

What could go wrong?

Ah, understandable. Similarly handicapped myself as well for story reasons, but trying to get over them should be fun.

Myself, i didn't think Early Gathering would make that much of a difference, as you've still got requirements to tackle. The initial stat boost would be nice i suppose, but by the time you get to Fire 40 everyone else would be around the same level as well. I saw it as an earlygame buff.

I've got a couple of elements (two more and i can summon Captain Planet), but Fire isn't one of them (yet) sadly, so can't help you there. :/

I didn't take Early Cultivator, so my current cultivation is only on the first layer.

Instead, I took Self Trained Art, which gives me such a complex art at such an early level:

quote:

CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: SEQUENTIAL SCYTHE
Zhi Hui - Finger Brandish
Fa Lian - Shooting Scythe
Xun Lian - Orbiting Scythe
Xiuwei: Body Tempering 1000/2000
[Next: ABL: 10/15, WIL: 12/15, Finger 55/15, Metal 34/15]

Just missing some stat increases, which is why I need to spend time in meditation, if I understand correctly?

And yeah, I removed the info for those abilities, because they are very longwinded and probably shouldn't spoil them yet (I've used two of them already though)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 134):

I have self-trained art as well, which is the Violet Shadow Sword Arts, it has quite a lot of techniques, all in all, even the basic art I took, Sword Of The Imperial Moth, has 2 arts associated at level 0, though I bet the level 1 one will be a lot better, since currently my self made art is better.


This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Thu 22 July 2021.

Alright, so Self-Trained Art is almost as common as horns.
...This time I'm guilty too xD

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 136):

hah! that's pretty funny, but self-made art was a solid talent choice, so it's no surprise, I went pretty all in on combat myself... which is really funny since my first mission is decidedly being done in a non-combat matter.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:36, Thu 22 July 2021.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 134):

Hmm... Not really sure. I haven't increased any stats yet, just skills (and Elements), though the Nansei Sect demands more Strength than i currently have so i... suppose it will happen at some point?

Nice job on Metal too though, 34. Mine's at 3/5 for my technique, so i still have one (or two unlucky) round of rolls to make for it to clear the first hurdle.

No Self-Trained Art here though, so i guess this time i'm the odd one out :P

...so far.

Yep. That Natural 100 may just trigger your fight scene :P

By the way, you haven't gotten your player description up yet, so we don't know what you look like. We need an answer to the question on everyone's minds:

Does Zi have horns?

Until proof of the contrary, she's clearly on the 'horny' list!

I had not found a picture for her yet...

But i was indeed planning her to have horns(though different kind as everyone else), though i don't know if i should anymore >~>

there, I posted the picture, since Asura are generally based on "Terrifying Beasts" I did want to go for a dragon since I love dragons, though there is a large lack of dragonkin based on Chinese dragons.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:11, Thu 22 July 2021.

Just in case you're serious, definitely don't let some banter about horns turn you away from the look you want!

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 144):

nah, i didn't, i do love me some horns asura are objectively the best race because horns

Horn-less Asuras are people too!

Ah nice, dragons are indeed nice :P

So that makes four Asura, and Lei, who is a different kind of horny. Well, that settles it: Next player joining will just have to fit the theme :D

And yeah, like Xiao said, don't worry. Just have your character look the way you imagined them, there might be some banter and ribbing involved, but it's all in good fun.

Also, horns and redheads:

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 147):

Next player unicorn deva or nothing! Gotta have some horn-variation.

My image currently, it works well enough, plus I do really like the outfit actually, it's not quite traditional Chinese I don't think, but I really like the design regardless.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 148):

Single horn, double horn, why not both?

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oY9dk

Zi: Well, if you like the design, who are we to stop you? Though if you want a recolor somewhere just ask, i can PhotoShop it well enough.

I see what you did here. Thats CLEARLY another Asura!
...I should probably go hunt for a full-size picture myself one of these years.

Lei is the only non-Asura among the PCs then? LMAO

Also, I'm a little confused on the hierarchy of abilities.

If I'm correct, the highest denomination is "Cultivator Layer", then there is "Martial/Spirit Arts" and finally "Techniques". Those latter two are kind of independent of the first, it seems?

Also, is there any layer 0, or do we all start at least on the first layer for our chosen cultivation progression (for True Self, it would be Body Tempering) while those who chose the Early Cultivator would be at the second?

If not, how do you even reach the first cultivation layer?

Oh yeah, and Xiuwei is not just for cultivation layers but also for arts/techniques, apparently?

To clarify with the DM, what is Lei Feng's Xiuwei for overall cultivation versus his xiuwei for just his self-trained art?

Also, is Lei able to modify his techniques, because he meets at least one requirement for upgrading it? If so, what are the limits for that and will it consume extra Qi?

Sorry if this is a lot of questions, but I doubt I'm as familiar with this genre as the other players, so I think it's good to ask.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 151):

Hmmm.....

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BmQGL8

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/o2kJk

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LbkPl

I'd say these three were the best that i could find. They have hats, while not completely obscuring the face and also not looking like they're 84 years old. It would depend on what you're going for.

Lei: There was also something about substages:

 

That's a surprisingly recurring problem. On the rpol portraits too.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 152):

i believe the cultivation layer is in reference to substages, since i have 0 cultivation layer as well, since I'm at the bottom of the Gathering Origin Stage (Demonic Qi Gathering stage), the cultivation layer seems to be a generic term for progress within a given stage or art.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 154):

Yeah, no kidding on the portraits.

The categorization is a mess, the portrait i currently have is from the 'male' demihuman section, despite the full pic of her definitely being female.

Funny thing is, Wei Jing has no real arts as far as I know, she just has a knack for combat and an ability to aggressively repurpose bamboo cutting skills.

She's got no money, no gear but what she found lying around, and no combat arts.  What she Does have is a three point mystery box bloodline!

... Yeah, in hindsight, I might have wanted to front-load or play more cautiously early on.  At least salvage the rest of the house, but I had a gut feeling that if I delayed too much, the closest village would be in ruins when I got there, and the presence of bandits suggests I was right.

Of course, now I have to take down a bandit gang with a cleaver, but at least most of them are drunk and injured!  I'm just hoping they don't have a lot of HP despite my peppering most of them with crossbow bolts, because if they've all got 15+ HP, this is gonna be a tough fight even if I'd be out of character to not pick it.

After all, Su Ren was Papa's supplier!  How is she going to get her start as a Demon Blacksmith without iron?

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 157):

Ah, is that a fellow Bankrupt i see?

And the three point bloodline would be... Heir, unless i'm mistaken?

No, it's literally a "Sekrit Innate Power" trait where I told the GM to 'Go nuts'

honestly didnt realize you were allowed to do custom traits :V would have done that rather than my current build, lol, guess i didn't read the thing closely enough when i just took the basics.

Yeah, the current set of Traits are basically suggestions, and that's how Wei ended up with the Sharingan.

Happy with the ones i picked though.

I stuck to mostly standard stuff myself.

Just grabbed an un-listed subcategory of a listed weapon for my secondary weapon.
That I didn't have the money left to buy anyway.
And that I don't even have techniques for.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 162):

Same here. I got a detailed weapon category and one general one, but i have the weapons and techniques for neither.

I'll get them sooner or later. It's not like i keyed the skill to dual wielding mythical artifact weapons anyway. It's why i picked up Formations.

I have an unarmed and a weapon skill.

Fingers, Chain Whips and Metal alignment - not that different from our Lustful Lei, apparently xD

Unlike everyone else I'm not doing anything fancy :V swords and fists, plan to maybe pick up some other unarmed skills like palms, kicks and such at some point, but nothing fancy.

The almighty RNG said I was an Asura with scorpion traits, so I wanted either piercing or whippping strikes. xD

I might branch into holds and spears later on.

I got Axes, my specialized one is "dual dragon sabers", unarmed in my own Sect's teachings and i've got staves in the Nansei Sect routine so i'm turning into quite the balanced individual.

...maybe I SHOULD have picked the 'boring manual work' option xD
My mystery box contained more mystery boxes.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 168):

That's the best kind honestly.

Also, since you're a Scorpion Asura, how's this as a fighting style?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE4Cb9F4ZZQ

I mean, sure, from what i can follow the guy in black seems to be the bad guy, but still...

Haha, maybe after I figure out how to use my legs!

Oh man you guys are really deciding for that name to stick all on your own, huh?

Well, at least it's accurate!

And yeah, we have pretty similar skills, but instead of the assuredly-useful weapon of Chain Whips, I chose 'Breath' as a weapon.

Hopefully this means Lei will eventually breathe fire or something, and not just stun people with his halitosis LMAO.

Actually, my ultimate goal for Lei was to give him Elemental Affinity with Time, but I didn't really love the pathway to get there, so I took Scale of the Elements so I could start with Metal as my alignment.

I tell you this, because I really love the idea of him eventually getting an attack called "Breath of Reversal" which would basically work like this (0:20 to 0:32): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IphURP8EE

Well, if you get Time, you could also resurrect yourself. Imagine the battles you could have:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE_RELgt-os

We'll see what happens!
I mean, you can always try to earn something like 'Gluttonous Lei' if you insist? ;D

Hmm... well that kinda fucked my plan, should I just drop subtly and try to make something out of the situation(I.E extorting him for money to square my debts), or should I keep going with the subtle plan...

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 174):

Well, i could tell you what Oriana would do in that situation, but what does Zi want to do?

You're the one that has the best grasp of her backstory and personality and all the things that make her a person. Just... close your eyes, try to imagine her standing in front of you, and ask her.

If you've found something that feels right, even if it's an option you'd never have considered, you've got your answer.

What went wrong? Was it that his pottery got stolen? Was it that he seems to like you? Is it the presence of the third party?

I don't know what Zi Cheng was planning, but from my perspective there still looks like a lot of opportunities to kill this poor bastard. Doesn't look at all like an impossible situation!

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 176):

I want to poison him and not be a suspect, so the fact the pot was stolen and things are going to go on much higher alert in the area makes it annoying

There exists a simple solution that will advance your goals and net you a decent additional sum on the side.

According to your OOC post, you're already close to finding out what it is.

Think ;)

Ain't no high alert coming cuz ain't no witnesses cuz ain't not avoiding murder



That sounds hard. I advocate for the simpler solution of immediate violence!

Everyone knows Occam's Razor is actually a legendary blade

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 179):

Okay, so here's what Oriana would have done, if she had skill in poisons:

She would offer to chase down the thief and recover the pot. That way, the merchant would pay her, she'd gain his trust (which would make it easier to poison him), the alert would be a non-issue since she wouldn't be seen as an enemy and you'd have completed your mission.

Hell, you could even try and take the pot with you after you're done and sell it to a fence (or the guys who ordered it stolen in the first place) for even MORE money, and an in with a criminal organization that hires people for specific high-paying jobs to boot. You're selling yourself short if you're just doing it to clear a debt here, you could potentially be swimming in taels if you're smart about this.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Sat 24 July 2021.

You're asking the impossible. Choose between money and killing people!? Nobody can know the answer to that!

But really, since Zi Cheng's motivations seem to be a debt, money is obviously the way to go so she can pay that off. But, I disagree about joining a criminal organization. Sounds like a terrible lot of trouble, which is basically the worst thing for a cultivator.

Also, befriending the merchant will be worthwhile if he's a good employer (like Gao Li from Lei's thread) but if he is turned off by you're deeds, then you lose both pathways to deal wit him.

Lei Feng just wants to live a quiet life.

IMO, the ideal scenario is:

1. Chase after assassin
2. Defeat assassin (kill them, don't just chase them away, they will report to their superiors) and recover pottery
3. Hide pottery in your cool magic inventory
4. Tell the merchant the assassin escaped.
5. Continue your plan to kill him; succeed.
6. Return to your debtor but also sell off that pot for a quick bonus.

Basically, I think if you get greedy, it goes bad. Then again, even if you kill the assassin, he may still go on high alert...

I think there's risks involved no matter how you take it. Perhaps, your best bet is to take the most flexible pathway (which would involve having the most options, but the least responsibilities). Dunno what that would be tho

Almost.

1. Chase after robber.
2. Defeat robber and recover pottery.
3. Return pottery and get reward money from merchant.
3½. (Optional) Get the merchant to hire you, and try and learn combat skills from the 5 other "expert bodyguards".
4. Poison merchant, pin it on the robbers you tracked down that wanted retribution for being thwarted.
5. Put the pottery in your cool magic inventory and leave.
6. Sell the pottery to the robber's client and get paid what the robber would have been paid.
7. Return to your debtor and have your debt cleared free of charge, while keeping all those delicious taels for yourself.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 152):

Just to clear up some things regarding the concept of cultivation. Will probably update the rules with this info soon when I think of how to organize it properly. Thanks again for letting me know this will greatly help me improve the rulebook!

There are 3 things you can cultivate - 1st is your Main Cultivation Arts. 2nd is any Martial Art OR Spirit Art

Each Cultivation Art, Martial Art and Spirit Art have various Stages, and each Stage has various substages called Layers.
You may progress by 1 Layer of understanding when you meet the necessary attribute/skill requirements AND the necessary Xiuwei (obtained by meditating for long periods of time, pair cultivation OR consuming very rare medicines/pills. There are other methods, but its SPOILER). Sometimes you will reach a Bottleneck in cultivation, which can only be Broken Through using special medicines or unique medical techniques (often happens between stages).

Stages of Cultivation are uniquely named. E.g. Qi Gathering > Foundation > Unsealing Light > Golden Pill etc
Layers of Cultivation Stages are numerically named. E.g. Layer 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (Mortals starts at 0 when to talent)

1. Your Main Cultivation art is the way you cultivate your internal alchemy so unlock the powers of hidden inside your dantian (solar plexius).
A person can adopt multiple cultivation arts, and can progress them simultaneously, but one can often only breakthrough to the next stage using ONE Cultivation Art. There are exceptions to this rule, but are SPOILER.

2. Martial Art and Spirit Art is the way you make use of the energy gained by your internal Dantian, to develop internal circuits capable of executing special techniques and moves. Martial Arts often involve concepts relating to the use of physical weapons and body parts, while Spirit Arts involve manifesting elemental powers.


To answer your question Lei Feng, your Xiuwei for overall cultivation is 1000/2000
Modifying techniques is possible since you meet one requirement. You can continuously modify them, and the cost is only time (there will be other costs for more complicated techniques in later stages of cultivation). When you meet all requirements, you may meditate and cultivate your art again, which might unlock new moves or add a bonus to one of your existing techniques.

Whether the move consumes extra Qi depends on how you describe and visualize your modification process - e.g. focusing on efficient distribution of Qi. Other than that, some rolls will be done on my side to determine the outcome of your modification. The more well described the more likely it will end up the way you wish it, though there is also the element of luck at play.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:44, Sat 24 July 2021.

So... What would happen to that Art itself if you modify an Art?

Let's take Zi's for example:



Since she doesn't have Fire, would she be able to modify the Art to not use Fire, thus removing it as a requirement? And what would happen to Sword of Imperial Moth if she did that, compared to what it is now (assuming average success rolls)?



Would i be able to replace the 10 Str requirement for Hyougan Shuushinpou with the 15 Str requirement from Nansei Southern Star? Does my Body Cultivation become better under 15 Str than it would have under 10 Str once i advance to the next layer, since i've made the requirements harder? Or can i only swap Str for, say, Will, or Arm for Foot and the numbers would remain the same?

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 184):

You cant modify that part of it I don't think, the arts themselves (aka the different types of attacks and such you can do with it) are what you modify using the rules as they are.

Thank for all the info!

My last questions are to clarify that I understand the following correctly:

1. Lei has 0/1000 Xiuwei in his overall True Self Cultivation. Does that mean he is at or below the first stage of Body Tempering? If below, does he need just 1 or more Xiuwei or all 1000 Xiuwei to reach Body Tempering?

2. Lei has 1000/2000 Xiuwei in Cultivation Technique Sequential Scythe and meets two of four requirements. What layer is he on for this, and how is that calculated?

3. Lei has three Martial Arts associated with his cultivation technique, any of which can be modified.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 184):

You cannot modify the requirements required to progress to the next layer.
Just imagine that you have a manual that has states that you need to do particular exercises that train your Fire abilities - and if you do not reach a particular proficiency with that ability, you will be unable to execute the techniques specified by the manual.

A real life example is the famous Bajiquan Eight Extremities Fist technique, which demands you to have an extremely lower body/strong leg/thigh muscles. If you do not have the necessary leg strength that the technique demands, trying to execute it will hurt your joints (I know because I tried to learn it but hurt my hips XDDD)

However! You can use what you learned from the manual to devise your own set of techniques borrowing what you learned from it - but it requires a few decades to create (unless if you have the Martial Genius talent). The only time that such a thing would be conceivable is if you decide that you character doesn't have much time left and maybe wants to pass down what he learns to his next generation or sect members.

The only thing you can modify is the Qi consumption, damage values, number of targets affected, additional properties borrowed from other techniques in the same manual, and possible counters to the techniques themselves/against other techniques.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:43, Sat 24 July 2021.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 186):


1 & 2. Made a mistake earlier. Your Cultivation Technique is the Sequential Scythe (Cultivation of True Self type), which is on the middle of the 1st layer.
The calculate the layer, you just take the number of thousands of the xiuwei limit and deduct it by 1.
E.g. 2000 -> 2 thousands -> 2-1 = Layer 1.
Stage on the other hand will be announced by me after you make the breakthrough. Sometimes your manual might tell you which layer is at the stage breakthrough level.
Every mortal begins at Early Body Tempering stage unless they take a special talent.

You Cultivation technique is special as it only can bring you to the peak of Body Tempering (focused mainly on physical martial arts). You will need to find another manual (that contains basic Spirit Arts) for you to breakthrough to Qi Gathering stage - unless you're lucky during your meditation while cultivating the Sequential Scythe and somehow have some divine inspiration.

Hint: such divine inspirations are more likely to happen in places charged with spiritual energy that is of an element related to your art. Of course how to check this spiritual energy is another problem altogether...

3. As long as you meet the attribute requirements required to advance to the next layer or stage, you may modify it at the cost of time (you also wont be able to gain much Xiuwei too as you are focused on modifying your technique)
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:45, Sat 24 July 2021.

Stupid 'limited time' thing, spoiling all the fun things! xD
...now, about going to get that Elemental Affinity for Time...

That's not on the talent list :V otherwise I would have taken it, since I was going for the prodigy martial artist vibe (you should see it in my backstory) kinda wanna ask to be able to respec a few points into it now...

Or more accurately, ask for my crippled cultivation I took as a story thing without getting points to be taken as a flaw, and use those points.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:41, Sat 24 July 2021.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 191):

Sure, thing go ahead and add it. I haven't exactly worked out what bonuses to add for Martial Genius, thats why I haven't put it in the table yet. Sorry for the inconvenience!

You can treat Damaged Meridians as giving 3 points, and Martial Genius as taking 3. For now, it reduces time required to create, modify martial arts, and increases chances for martial inspiration.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:42, Sat 24 July 2021.

:clap clap: Downtime dance!
:clap clap clap: Downtime dance!
Lei loves the downtime dance!
:clap clap clap clap clap clap clap:

In reply to Dao Master (msg # 192):

thank you <3 sorry for the trouble! Martial Genius was just really what my concept wanted!

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 194):

Note to self: Zi Cheng can empty your HP pool twice in a turn. With damage to spare.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 195):

haha, yeah, that particular Art is very powerful, but it also costs me 50% of my Qi pool, since I didn't get any Qi pool expansion on breakthrough because of my broken meridians.

Though i am a full Cultivation stage up from you guys, since I took early cultivator, and that's the capstone of my self-made art, so it's not entirely unexpected that it does a lot of damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:13, Sat 24 July 2021.

In reply to Dao Master (msg # 188):



So if i understood correctly, the difference between a 'slower' and a 'faster' progression is that the slower one has more levels (and thus, more requirements) per stage?

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 197):

It can either have more stages, or have lower chances of Xiuwei being gained because of how hard it is to cultivate.

Some very unorthodox arts (especially those involving forming a Golden Pill / Primordial Fledgling) even require you to dissipate your cultivation and demand you to gain the Xiuwei for one stage over and over multiple times.

Of course, the harder it is to cultivate the more likely its going to lead to greater abilities gained on breakthrough (there are some exceptions though if you are really really unlucky to encounter them)

Would it be possible for me to also change a few of my stats now that we've started and I understand how things work?

I originally thought that Lei's techniques were 'Spirit Arts' and not Martial Arts, so I would like to change the skill Metal Spirit Arts to the more appropriate Metal Martial Arts.

Also, since his original technique didn't involve scythes so literally, I'm considering dropping either 'Finger' or 'Breath' for 'Scythe' since he would be most likely to fight with a scythe if/when his Qi runs out.

Lastly, I did some research on Inscriptions, and it says they only work on 'Dao Equipment'?

Lei cannot produce Dao Equipment, because he lacks Forging skills, so he would have to buy them to make his Inscriptions useful, correct? That's fine if it's the case, but I'm just making sure it's the case instead of possibly wasting money when my mundane tools could just as easily be enchanted.

By the way, there was no response to Lei's previous attempt to search for inscription knowledge... If I'm going about this wrong, just tell me. I don't really know what an 'inscription' is, and so I assumed I sort of had to learn them before I could use them, like how martial arts and such work.

If I can just try for desired effects while 'inscribing' rather than researching specific inscriptions beforehand, LMK. Oh, and is there any equipment necessary for inscribing? Is that equipment also required to even practice inscribing? That could get pretty expensive, but it's not a deal breaker or anything. There are lots of examples IRL of ppl using different tools for practice then for real work. For a thematic example, IIRC they used to use 'slates' to teach apprentices to write, before they moved on to become scribes and ever actually touched any paper, which was highly expensive.

And there goes a full third of my Qi!
Not like I needed it or anything xD

Unironically agree. Resource management isn't that difficult when you can take fights at your own pace.

Question for the GM: Does Lei's 6 drunkenness vanish, since it's been a month? Alcohol doesn't stay in the body that long, but perhaps the climbing total is a measure of smth else?

Does his Qi regenerate automatically, or only during meditation? Either way, it should be back by now?

Oh yeah, and where does that new Xiuwei go into exactly?

hmm... admittedly, basic attacks feel kinda... too weak? like I know that techniques do add to the damage when you use it and that's intended as part of the scaling, but at the same time, I feel like our strength should play into it at least in part since if I'm stabbing someone and I'm very strong, just doing the base damage of the weapon feels weird since your strength should certainly play into the damage of the weapon.

Agree for sure, but not right now.

Maybe it's different for Zi Cheng in the 2nd stage of cultivation, but I don't really mind that a first stage cultivator should still need to use qi to kill a normal person.

In the same way I'm okay that they can't split a mountain with a simple kick until 10th stage, but could use an ultimate attack to do it much earlier.

Things should become effortless as you progress, but at the beginning of the game I don't think our characters should scoff at armies. Sure, one regular man will pose us no issue, but thirty of them should still be a danger.

Eventually they will be a hassle but not a danger, then a nuisance but not much work to be rid of, and finally a mere eyesore in our path.

But yeah, at these early stages massacres shouldn't be easy feats. If it progresses based off of the STR stat, that would be most simple, but may even be too quick.

My thought is that at 1st stage, regular people should be easy to defeat. At 2nd stage, armored soldiers can be soloed. Beyond that, it probably goes crazy.

These are just my two cents, it may be totally different, since I'm not uber familiar with Wuxia, but am aware it's generally high-power compared to other genres.

In my main system of DND, you aren't really 'above the law' until at least level 10, because at level 1-5 you may have trouble fighting a group of soldiers, and from 5-10 you are still vulnerable to assassinations or frontal assaults.

I'm aware it's different here, but I've been playing it safe since I don't know how many individuals are keeping the balance, so to speak.

I mean, with how developed so much of the world's culture is, either Cultivators don't really cause a lot of chaos unlike Adventurers, or there are hugely powerful groups that protect the world.

Lei has been presuming the latter, because with so many branches of cultivation, there is no way all of them will preach 'moral purity' and so it's not hard to believe that most people who develop great power will try to lord it over others. That's sadly human nature, at least for a significant number of people.

So yeah, even if it's decided an early cultivator can snap the necks of trained knights like  they are dry twigs, that wouldn't necessarily mean it is safe to do. Because, sects that train peacekeepers and such goody-two-shoes are likely to be sent after you, or come on their own volition.

In my head, that's not a dirty trick for a GM to pull. Rather, if you go around murder-hoboing, it's reasonable that your actions would have consequences on the world around you and attract unwanted, perhaps overwhelming attention. That's not unfair, it's just how things would go down in an immersive world.

I'm aware I sort of diverged into two different points here, from you're question of "Shouldn't we be stronger?" to me basically saying, "Probably not, for worldbuilding reasons",

Again, I don't know the power scale for cultivators. But, whatever it is, I expect the world to represent that.

If every cultivator is a demigod from the get-go, either the world should be chaotic as hell or a police state (it might be, and it's just hidden from our eyes for the moment).

With such developed locations so far, I presume it must be the latter.

I agree.

First stage cultivators are still very much reliant on the gear they fight with in order to deal damage. A rusty cleaver won't do as much damage as a freshly sharpened steel sword, and while this remains true for all cultivation levels, the higher ones begin to primarily use Qi to deal damage.

Basic attacks are just that: Basic. Try as you might, you'll never split a mountain using just a basic attack, but you should be able to using Qi. Adding strength to that would just have it get crazy lethal for low level cultivators as a single hit from a mook would already easily deal 12+ damage. That's not sustainable as a starting point.

Furthermore, since Health = 3d6 + Strength, if we also added Strength = Damage a single hit from a practitioner with comparable stats would reduce people into or near the single digits at any point of cultivation, it's just that imbalanced.

And yes, Kenmei in my own thread is researching the demonic Dao techniques of the woman i ran into. It is not unreasonable to believe that other higher level cultivators see it as their duty to hunt down the practitioners of Evil-themed Cultivators as well, and that it would be asked of the PCs at some point during their development also. Especially given that the opposite would also be true: The stronger we get, the more attractive we are as a target for them.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:05, Sun 25 July 2021.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 204):

I wasn't suggesting we add straight strength to the rolls, i do agree with our values its too much, but i was suggesting that maybe Strength/10 or something of the sort should be added, just to actually have your damage scale with your strength rather than weapons always just be the base damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:46, Sun 25 July 2021.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 205):

Yeah, but with stats heading into the hundreds or thousands fairly soon into our path to immortality, any equation involving Strength would not be a matter of 'if', but 'when' it would get out of hand.

Currently, you can say a single strong hit deals twice the damage of a 2-hit combo so it all evens out at the same. But since there's no damage mitigation system aside from a contested Dodge roll, that also means i could add Strength/10 or /100 or whatnot twice, and maybe modify that technique to add a third hit that would ALSO add Strength/X simply for connecting.

At that point, i could simply keep expanding my basic combo, and end up with 6 hits dealing d4+60 each. The combo itself would deal little damage, but that's 360 points of basic damage alone, which would be over half your HP if you happened to have 600 Strength as well. And because they're individual hits, the chance of at least a couple of hits connecting is much larger than with a single high layer concentrated attack dealing, say, 2d50+60 for a maximum of 160, below half what i could potentially dish out with an expanded Layer 0 attack.

I understand what you're trying to say, but each time we go up a layer the stats increase multiplicative, which means everything tied to those stats multiplies as well. It makes it really hard to set a scale that doesn't break the game in multiple places, and having separate techniques within every layer working with base damage alone is pretty much the only way it can be done.

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 201):

There are no "Metal Martial Arts". I guess I should probably change the name to just "Metal" to avoid confusion.
This "Metal" skill is more like your ability to mold your Qi to adopt properties of an element, which can both be channeled through spirit arts or martial arts. E.g. for metal, its martial arts can harden your skin and bones etc to take the conceptual composition of metal, while its associate spirit arts can manifest metallic needles that fly at an enemy etc.

Also sure, you can change Breath to Scythe. Finger will still be required for the telekinetic stuff unfortunately.
You requirements for the next layer of Sequential Scythe will be: [ABL 15, WIL 15, Finger 15, Scythe 15, Metal 15]

The Xiuwei you gained goes into the cultivation tech you praticed - i.e. Sequential Scythe (1000/2000) currently before adding.

As for inscriptions, they Dao Equipment is essentially just Equipment that Taoists use - so you can technically inscribe on anything. I will change the description to make it more clear, thanks for telling me.

Also as for the search, I somehow missed it out while putting it in. I actually wrote it but somehow didnt paste the text in lol, sorry about it.

For inscriptions, you have to use either your Qi or a special magical tool to inscribe special symbols upon an item to invoke special effects. This item can be anything.
You can of course try to try to create an effect based on your knowledge, but the chance of success is extremely low. The inscription that most people who first begin to learn the skill will be a simple "Undead Banishment" inscription which can just be carved with normal chisels etc.
Also yes, there are tools required for inscribing. In the mortal realm, only a chisel is required. For higher level inscriptions, not only can they be inscribed on items with particular material, but they also sometimes demand the use of Qi and some special equipment.

Also yes, you will automatically become sober from mortal wines after a good night's rest if you get drunk (though some special wines can potentially last up to a few months).

Qi Regenerates only when you meditate, and only if the surrounding area is has some Qi you can absorb. Sometimes the area is extremely dead and has no Qi, and no matter how you meditate you won't be able to regenerate. You can also recover it through some medicines.

The idea behind the basic attack is that harnessing your strength too much will end up causing the weapon to break very fast should you use all your strength (something like Morrowind lol)
I'm still testing out the idea, but I think for now you will get an extra die for your attack roll with each reaching of a target in Strength / Cultivation stage i.e. instead of 1d4 (weapon only) your damage will be 2d4 when using the same weapon.

But as I want to reduce the number of table referencing and number crunching, I think I will test the current game with increasing damage dice no. with each cultivation stage.
i.e. you can expect to have 13 dice for your damage at the last stage of cultivation, though some forms of cultivation may offer you even more or less depending on its focus.

This problem is essentially covered by one of your passive martial arts with regards to using fists. Which is one of the ways I tried to solve the problem - having a character train particular martial arts to properly channel their strength without breaking their weapon/body part.


As for mortals and immortals, there is a working relationship between high ranking mortals such as emperors of various states and immortal sects through which they trade basic necessities for protection from other sects. Having a nearby mortal civ being terrorized or wrecked can be devastating for sects as they themselves do not produce food and are too small in number to conduct agriculture or set up basic amenities (cultivation takes up a lot of time after all!). Of course, this doesn't stop some followers of the Devilish Dao - in which case they are often opposed by the adherents of the Righteous Dao. Conducting an act that provokes the mortal realm will often lead to a cascade of alliances to trigger and cause troublesome stuff to happen - as such most mortal killings / shenanigans are done in stealth (this is actually discussed in a Xianxia novel called Mortal's Journey to Immortality, which I am heavily influenced by lol).

You can murder hobo all you want - and there are actually a few murder hobo NPCs out in the wild who do it for a good reason. Let's just say that Corpse Refinement and Soul Refinement is a thing in this world... lol. The world is chaotic as hell, but most of it is done behind closed doors and in extreme stealth. The world is also ultra huge.

All understood, thank you!

Wei:

*upon entering the room with Su Ren and Su Bing*

Su Bing - "Ah, good to see you. There was some trouble with bandits, but we've managed to hire some guards to protect us from them. You must have seen them standing guard outside, right?"

HAHAHA yesss

By the way, I remember reading that translation of Shan Hai Jing, but was disappointed because it seemed to be mostly commentary on the original work, and not the actual original work (unless I got confused, which can happen to me with E-books).

I think I've found an actual copy of the writings itself. I'll post it here: https://www.gutenberg.org/cach...b/25288/pg25288.html

Unfortunately, you gotta use your web browser to translate it, which is kind of hard to follow.

...and that's how one 'earns' a post as replacement town guard!

Out of curiosity, what did everyone choose for their constellation?

I chose Azure Dragon Heart for Lei Feng :)

I've shown off mine a few times already actually, I have Vermillion Bird, Wings, though i think that Azure Dragon, Heart might have been a better idea for her concept of a prodigy cultivator, lol,
This message was last edited by the player at 22:07, Mon 26 July 2021.

And add another one for Azure Dragon, Heart.
Vermillion Bird, Extended Net also looks interesting for a martial arts genius character.

I went a different route and picked up White Tiger, Stomach. Given my backstory it made the most sense, though it was a close race between that and Azure Dragon, Neck.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Mon 26 July 2021.

True, I do kinda regret my choice since it seems like I chose a pretty, well, static one since it won't be useful later once we start getting actual interspacial items, even if it's quite useful now, no use crying about it though, lol.

"Who needs to refine pills when you can just eat all the ingredients raw?"

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 218):

Hey, gotta make good use of Tea Ceremony being my second highest skill after Sneak, right? :P

Time to start figuring out how to incorporate a natural interspatial inventory into your martial arts!



Well, now you can eat those tasty cups too ;D
This message was last edited by the player at 22:31, Mon 26 July 2021.

Hmm... that's actually not a half-bad idea, especially since I do have the whole martial genius thing now, so I'm better at that.

Time for literal rivers of poison xD
...and fancy pots.

lol~ given the fact that its only a small one, i will likely just be using it to store a bunch of different weapons, and switching them on the fly to do different attacks as part of a strange combination style.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 223):

- "I block my opponent's punch by opening my interspatial inventory in front of his oncoming fist... and close it around his wrist."

A little creativity can go a long way here :P

Xiao:

- "Poison of this level is not enough to affect me." *swims in poison river*

Hey, I saw that movie!
Also, I was actually vaguely tempted to go poison, but not tempted enough for Scale of the Elements - so it ended in a cointoss between Wood and Metal xD

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 225):

Didn't go poison, but as an Heir, resistance against poison made sense :P

Also, lucked out on the first roll and got a 2, so i got Metal and Earth, and Water came with the Cultivation Technique so my elements are coming along nicely. One more advancement roll and i'll clear the final element (1 point remaining) so i'll be down to 2 requirements remaining... And Xiuwei, of course.

I will reach my downtime too! Just you wait!
*Shakes fist at Hippo*
Or die trying.

It would be really awesome if instead of fighting the hippo, Xiao Kang went full buddhist and removed the thorn from it's paw so to speak, and then tamed it as a mount with tummy rubs and tasty treats.

Imagine the reactions on peoples faces when you come striding into their town on a domesticated Swamp Hippo.

from following your thread, my theory is the hippo is only rampaging because he has a sore foot. i mean, it's probably not that, but I would feel terrible for killing it if it turned out to just be in a frenzy from an injury.

Yes, that's the idea. But I doubt the hippo will let me anywhere near his foot while wounded &  angry, so I'm vaguely hoping the mystery gem does something useful (in the 'hypnosis' sort of useful and not the 'soul-burning' sort of useful), because otherwise I'll have to wrassle it into compliance.

And I don't like my chances of that.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:10, Tue 27 July 2021.

Might miss posting tomorrow, it's my last day of work before I head home for two weeks.  I'll try to get one in when I wake up, but no promises as I also need to pack.

In reply to Wei Jing (msg # 230):

Have a safe trip either way!

Behold, the one-turn wonder!
Have a safe trip, I'm on vacation myself since the start of this week.

Back from work!

And yeah, here's hoping I can get a lot of stuff done then!  Helping a peasant village fend off a wicked bandit warlord sounds like a great early story arc!

Especially since Wei Jing kind of badly hurt two of the recruited bandits on the way in and wounded most of the rest, oops?  At least nobody's going to say she isn't a terrifying person to have in charge.


EDIT:  In case anyone cares, I also took the liberty of introducing Wei Jing's actual written description, huzzah!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:58, Wed 28 July 2021.

Woohoo descriptions!

Yeah, all the story arcs are looking pretty interesting so far. Time to rebuild the bandits on your side faster, stronger, better!

How hard can it be?

To be fair, i'd pick that over "lol, let's have the novice yolo a soul-eating demon dog cultivator" :P

But hey, we'll see how that goes.

Yeah, I'll admit I'm running a more aggressive posture than my instincts usually like, but again, Wei Jing is a powderkeg of strong emotions under a moeblob exterior, she's one of those "high Int, low Wis" characters if you will.

Thematically, she's going to wear a lot of heavy gear over time and the like rather than the more typical "Refine a billion flying swords and a formation and defeat your opponent that way" routine.  She's a close combat cultivator and will behave as such.  Even if her starting Strength is poor, she's got the constellation based constant drip coming in and her other stats are good to great.

The problem, of course, is no starting Cultivation technique and having not been taught any spirit arts yet.

Demonic Cultivation seemed like the one that fits with the aesthetic and mechanics I'm looking for, though I wouldn't mind going full perky reaper slayer cultivator either.

Black Tortois, Emptiness starting to look good now, eh? xD
Demon dog cultivators just want headpats, everyone knows that.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:28, Wed 28 July 2021.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 237):

While i DO have Seductive Aura, this is not that kind of game...

You can convince me to agree, but only because she is



Anyway, I'm SURE our Dao Master dearest won't actively be trying to kill us in the intro, so things will definitely somehow work out for the best!
...no chances of feeding Nice Lady Tokusei to the doggo, right? ;P

I think Lady Tokusei is sus.

"Hey you, random monk girl. Yes, you. Come here; I need your help to fight this big scary dog that consumes souls"

Sounds like something a big scary dog that consumes souls would say NGL

Lei's intro is going great. He's legit just vibing in everything he does, all of the time.

Yeah, my mention of



was basically a thinly veiled "Look, maybe i can beat this thing, but it's not going to be the way you want, with me at Staff 6 and zero Nansei techniques."

*Giggles* I guess its time for the small monk girl to do some very un-monkly things to that puppy :P

Also, that was a tough fight, I was on 2 Qi during that last-ditch poison thing, lol.

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 242):

Yeah, my guess is i shall have to unleash my hidden trump card, the legendary Prison Shank Technique.

On the bright side, it IS a zero Qi technique...

In reply to Zi Cheng (msg # 242):

Heh, I do have enough fuel for exactly one round and half of combat at full violence myself, so I feel that pain.

Also, don't complain, now you get to loot everything that isn't nailed down and on fire!

Haha love it.

IDK much about mythos, but this creature seems totally out of our league (same with this 'immortal cultivator warlord' from wei jing's thread) and I get the sense they may be the sort of enemy we're not meant to fight yet, if that makes sense.

Honestly, could be better for Oriana to ditch this town and spend some time on the road, rather than letting some bossy monk lady tell her to throw her life away.

The lady seems really powerful, but has a bad attitude. To me, it just reeks of either bad intentions or poor judgement, neither of which you want in a combat partner.

Not trying to influence your decision, just sharing my thought process :)

Though, I thought the same thing about the Swamp Hippo, and it turned out to be half-dead narratively, so maybe this will work out in a similar vein (which I don't hold against the GM, it's a strong strategy for intros)



That's scary!

Funny thing is, Lei has been in one fight so far and while I think it wasn't even close, that is not because Lei's too strong or the enemy was too weak, but because he had an ally who got focused, leaving him taking 0 damage.

Though, IIRC he dealt like single digit damage anyway, so it wasn't an impressive showing lol.

I'm not sure how the DM generated Lei's moveset, but they do poop for damage. If he has access to a load of blades, then it evens out maybe?

Worst part is the range is low too. Oh well, I can always modify them. Thanks too AD:H I'm also really close to reaching the xiuwei limit (still need some stat points tho) so that will be a confidence-increasing boost.

Funny enough, I noticed that Xiao's damage reduction ability would completely negate Lei's attacks. That's something to keep in mind on my end, because it's a huge counter to 'barrage of paper-thin wafers' as opposed to 'single star-destroying strike' haha

True enough, my first thought at seeing you decide to poison the guy was "Well, GG, looks like our first casualty when he attacks you next round", but you lucked out there.

As for me, i COULD leave, but that would severely discredit Kenmei and Takusei would likely make sure i never set foot in a Nansei Sect building again. Also, the opportunity to become a direct disciple of a Senior Instructor (who most likely is several Layers above me) is nothing to scoff at: From what i understand, she was Kenmei's teacher.

Yeah, I expected the hippo weakened but not THAT half-dead, or I probably would have gone less all-out.
Then again, I also rolled absolutely bonkers on the damage rolls (max damage and 1 less than max damage).
Now time to find out what to do with the absolutely-not-ominous green-glowing mystery box doodad!

As for Tokusei, I do agree that the potential benefits outweigh the risks.
Unless Lei is right and she actually wants you dead, but I don't know if you actually have ANY ways out from that, so it's hardly worth considering xD

Worst case scenario she'll intervene to save your butt and then be an insufferable douche about Kenmei not getting you properly ready in a whole of three months.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 246):

Well to be fair, I knew he was probably relatively low, and that the poison might at least be able to incapacitate him, so although it was certainly a gamble, it was a measured gamble, plus, I did know at the very least that it would ruin his vision because of the porcelain shards if nothing else.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 247):

Going from the interaction between Kenmei and Takusei, if Takusei wanted the entire Monastery dead there would be nothing there that could stop her. Kenmei was the strongest person there and she talks to her like one would to an apprentice.

So yeah, as Xiao says, i'm guessing she'll step in if things get too bad, and from what i can tell the demon dog needs its victims alive to drain their souls, which requires a Formation. So i probably won't die even if i lose, given the evidence, but... yeah. Odds are i'm the distraction to give Takusei her opening to attack.

But yeah, odds are Kenmei's going to get roasted either way, given that my only way to win seems to be going full Gutter Rat Style and killing it in a way that has NOTHING to do with Buddhism in general, let alone the Nansei Sect.

I did at least warn her though.

Double-or-nothing technique.

Just rush on your own at night and either bring back a corpse too maimed to prove you DIDN'T use Nansei techniques to win or die trying.

Disclaimer: following Xiao's ideas might lead to maiming, death or hippos.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:02, Wed 28 July 2021.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 250):

Weeeeelll.....



Now to look for a version that will work on females...

Ah yes, these three all belong together!

Just like my favorite television game show with Alex Trebek, "Genocide, War Crimes or Peanut Butter?"

---

ALSO LMAO ''MONKEY STEALS THE PEACH'' what a name hahaha

gruesome af but ripping off the genitals is pretty efficient for winning a fight, at least.



i hate all of this but using a hidden wristblade will work pretty well.

we can call this one "HUMMINGBIRD LICKS THE FLOWER" and no that's not being dirty (it is innuendo) because hummingbirds actually get nectar from flowers with their tongue, not their beak. earth is weird.

And suddenly, I feel the need for more defensive techniques.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 253):

Oh, there's a TON of tricks in this book...



...Apparently, projectile vomiting is a defensive technique to blind an opponent in order to escape.

And THAT's early-cultivation-levels Breath techniques!

Yep, it's even called Acid Breath.

Seriously though, this is an instance where i'd rather not metagame knowing these techniques, some of them just go way beyond 'dirty tricks' it's hilarious.

And remember kids:


This message was last edited by the player at 21:49, Wed 28 July 2021.

Ooh, to sect or not to sect? The seductive temptation of training!

Truth be told, you just (in their eyes) beat a monster that took out an entire village and came back without a scratch on you. You could potentially negotiate a higher starting position than 'new apprentice' ;)

Also, be sure to ask how BIG the Noble Flame Sect is, just in case it's not just the three of them.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:43, Thu 29 July 2021.

Nonsense, it's not 'Three of them'.
It clearly is 'Three including me'! xD

Even other men are swooning over Lei Feng now!

WATCH OUT WORLD, GODS GIFT TO WOMEN IS HERE

Edit: Also, out of curiosity, what are all these empires that keeping coming up?

Namely, I've heard about Empire of Yoh, and Empire of Lan so far. Are these both based in Dingzhou? If so, which other empires would Lei know of due to his background?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:09, Thu 29 July 2021.

That's the effect having a big, fat, heavy... bag of coin has.

Edit:
"Do you want to join our sect?"
"Before that, you should know that people might be trying to arrest me. Also, I might have pissed another sect just yesterday."
Xiao Kang, MASTER of negotiation for a higher starting rank!
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Thu 29 July 2021.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 261):

Don't forget, a big bag of coin can double as a weighted bludgeoning weapon.

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 262):

I don't know if your cultivation level is high enough for the ancient secret technique 'Hit them with a bag of rocks coins while they're in the bathroom'

True.

After all the Great Ascension Buddhist Martial Art Zhidao Tingzhi Yidong "Hit it Until it Stops Moving" is a truly formidable one!

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 264):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laT7xex-0dM

Ah, SAO Abridged. Unironically better than the original in many aspects.

On that there is no doubt.

It's also a not exceedingly impressive bar in general to pass xD

Yet, I can still name at least a half dozen shows I've seen that fall lower.

Trash television is a plague in basically every country, it seems.

Are we including stuff like the murderous telekinetic tire movie here?
Because past a certain level of terrible, I love that stuff.

Speaking of, a recent trend i'm noticing is that Anime names have been getting longer:

Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!

Drug Store in Another World - The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist

I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job

-----

As an aside, Bofuri is pretty funny, My Next Life is a pretty smooth watch and "killing slimes" and "couldn't become a Hero" are supposedly good, though i have yet to watch them.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:50, Thu 29 July 2021.

Nah, just stuff that's so bad it's bad.

Totally agree though, I can enjoy 'stack overflow badness' flicks, but only with friends to laugh at it together with. Otherwise, I'd be too tempted to spend my time watching something I actually like, ha ha

---

I think that's coming from the source material (light novels), actually. IIRC, a lot of the releases from the late 2010s had really long titles, dunno why.

I do know that releases form the early 2010s make some of my favorite animes (Overlord, Tensura, Re:Zero to name a few)



Besides the last one, I've seen the others. Bofuri was decently good, but a little generic and I felt that it stole some ideas from Tensura, though I don't know which came first admittedly. I couldn't give it a great rating, because it was one of the rare 'video game animes' with legitimately no stakes. SAO may not be great, but at least (for the couple seasons I've watched) it has the potential of narrative consequences. I have the same issue with a few south korean manhwa, actually. I want to enjoy them, but there is no reason for any of the events to hold weight.

I had a similar issue with Full Dive, but I actually didn't finish this one. The protagonist's entire reason for participating in all that horrible death game crap was 'I'm simping for the FMC' and just felt totally weak. I also don't like shows where all the characters are pieces of crap, that just unsettles me.

I only watched one episode of drugstore and I wanted to like it because it had Kazuma's VA, but it just felt so low energy that I lost interest halfway through the first episode and could barely finish it. The animation quality was also pretty weak. Anyway, slice of life isn't my preference (some I do like), so it's probably fine I didn't enjoy this one at all.

I watched a couple episodes of the slime anime 'cause I heard it was good, but I don't like slice of life, and I found it especially lame that they put an OPMC into the lead role for one, since it's totally redundant. The side characters were also pretty generic.

HameFura wasn't bad by any means, but I haven't finished it even with only one episode left to go. Honestly, I hate this new genre of 'otome games IRL' because I don't like Otome games (which makes sense, 'cause they are generally for shoujo audiences) and I don't enjoy an isekai just because it's an isekai. Still, this one wasn't a poor watch, and it even had some decently emotional moments.

Another upcoming anime with a long name is The World's Finest Assassin gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. It's apparently from the same maker as "Redo of Healer" (probably the worst anime I've ever watched, and arguably not even an anime with all the explicit content. It's one of those on my 'worse than SAO' list) so I have low hopes for it.

You're just lucky that

'Though Young People Recoil From Entering The Black Magic Industry, I Found Its Treatment Of Employees Quite Good When I Entered It, And The President And Familiar Are Cute Too So Everything Is Awesome'

didn't get an anime adaptation yet. That'll teach you to complain about long titles!

*shivers*

Yeah, HameFura isn't really an anime you watch for the ending (anyone with half a brain could figure that out from the tone and mood less than three eps in), but one you watch to enjoy the journey, if that makes sense.

Ah yeah, forgot about World's Finest Assassin. Apparently, he's reincarnated into a world where he still gets to be an assassin, and a member of some aristocratic assassination order. Trailer features magic, melee weapons and the MC with a sniper rifle, so yeahhh... I'm half expecting mecha to show up before episode 6 there.

As for Redo of Healer, agreed. That show existed entirely to ride the hateboners of its audience, and the fact they had to use frequent flashbacks to remind everyone just why they were supposed to root for the MC told me the animators knew this as well. It's basically a hentai pretending its an anime. Fun Fact: It seems it's more popular with women than men, so i blame the "50 Shades of Grey" crowd.

And yeah. I watched FullDive recently, and the show just exists to shit on its MC as much as (in)humanly possible.

One small correction though, "Couldn't become a hero" is an older anime, and i mixed it up with the title i had actually been looking for, "Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside". Another slice of life most probably, but there it is.

Also, Franken Fran needs an anime, but that's probably not going to happen ever. Sadface :(
This message was last edited by the player at 19:31, Thu 29 July 2021.

Yeah, Redo of Healer just felt really gross to watch, idk. Like, if it marketed itself as pornography, it would be a different experience, but without that it has no real plausible deniability for all that stuff.

I don't really hate 'shit on the MC' shows, but I'm very picky with them. Re:Zero tortures Subaru an ungodly amount, but I still really love that show. I probably wouldn't rewatch it, since after hearing about how slow some people said it was in some places and how useless the MC felt, I realize expectations matter a lot. I went in expecting suffering, and that's what I got. If I were watching for a MC who abuses his cheat power to get OP, I would hate it, because he never does that.

I read a manhwa called I Will Die Soon. It had a similar-ish idea behind it. I watched the whole thing, and honestly I don't know if I like it or not. I felt that the whole thing was just painful, in every sense of the word. More so than Re:Zero even (but with better character work, re:zero had a stronger impact). Then again, it was pretty good quality and had some neat stuff, but I still dunno.

Basically, shows or comics like that have to make me feel emotions without being unsettling. I nearly dropped Mirai Nikki in the first half, because I was super unsettled by the nature of Yuno, and didn't understand her deal. Later, once it was revealed, I was relieved. Keep in mind, it wasn't that she was redeemed by her backstory, but the truth wasn't what I had feared. She's still a major yandere, which is a turnoff but her intentions were kinda good? idk

Probably my favorite manhwa ever is called SSS-Suicide Hero. It's amazing and I felt so many things. Really awesome power system too. Basically the opposite direction Re:Zero could have taken, while still being good.

As for manga I want to get an anime, I can only think of one in particular, and it's actually getting an adaptation. It's called The Eminence in Shadow and I found it after hearing about it's upcoming adaptation. I'm caught up now cause its pretty short, but it's definitely pretty great. Let's see if the adaptation lives up to the hype. If not, I'll drop the anime and stick to the manga, which is more than enough for me by itself.

Oh yeah, Re:Zero is absolutely great. And sure, Subaru gets tortured a lot, but he's also got issues he needs to work out, and by the end of the first season he's well underway to actively working to get over his issues. It's primarily a show focusing on character development, so he never gets fast tracked to power, so to people expecting lolOP Harem Lord wish fulfillment the pace is painfully slow.

And yeah, i understand your reasoning on Mirai Nikki. There's a couple of things that seem weird as you're watching the show, but those end up woven into the plot nicely with the reveals later on.

Personally, i'm waiting for Overlord Season 4, Saga of Tanya the Evil season 2 and the two new Rising of the Shield Hero seasons, along with maybe a new KonoSuba season as well.

I'll have plenty to watch either way :P

Let's see, let's see... I don't actually watch much anime, but I did read the related mangas to a few of those.

Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.
I'm actually keeping up with the scanlations of that - it's not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but all in all I've read worse. Lazy and wholesome entertainment.
Plus, adorable pets.

Redo of Healer
Was... well, just kind of pretty meh. I read a bit of that then dropped it a dozen chapters in.

Drug Store in Another World - The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist
I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
And just about every Isekai around - honestly, I'm starting to get pretty tired of the genre, especially when it ends up having exactly zero relevance to the plot. I admit I enjoyed Shield Hero back then and I occasionally binge to keep up with the manga, but in general they're all kind of... melding together. Re:Monster wins the 'when will this asshole actually get his comeuppance, oh, no wait, we're ACTUALLY supposed to cheer for this MC!?' award for terrible protagonists, while I'm somewhat enjoying Kumo desu ga, nani ka?
Possibly because it reminds me of a fairly good quest on 4chan.

Mirai Nikki
I remember reading that. I remember actually enjoying that, even if it wasn't exactly a light read. Yanderes are very much not my thing, so I wouldn't read it again and I don't remember the details, but I'd call it decent quality wise.

SSS-Suicide Hero
Hey, I'm actually reading that!

Now, to bring the conversation on a topic a bit closer to this game, any suggestions for Wuxia or Xianxia? Of the listed under 'inspiration' I dropped Tales of Demons and Gods, while I'm actually following Cultivation Chat Room. I wouldn't call it serious by any stretch of the imagination, but I find it highly entertaining.

Other than that my drug of choice is Spirit Blade Mountain - with one of the few protagonists that manages to be an insufferable, overpowered know-it-all without me wanting to bash his head into a wall. I think it had a Netflix live action adaptation.

On a significantly lower power tier I'm greatly enjoying Tale of a Scribe Who Retires to the Countryside. You know it's Wuxia because it's like 80% prologue so far.

SSS-Suicide Hero wins the award for the stupidest method of going back in time, but its pretty alright asside from that

Yeah, i admittedly like the Isekai genre (though with non-OP MCs) but after Re:Zero and a few other Isekai that ended up exploding into popularity there's been a flood of them the past couple of years of mangas and animes hopping on the bandwagon. Though it's somewhat interesting to see a knockoff of an anime you've seen before i suppose.

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 278):

I highly recommend a Wuxia glove puppetry series called Thunderbolt Fantasy produced for a Japanese Audience. There is currently 3 seasons and 2 movies for the series. Not only is it insanely well written (penned by the holy Urobuchi Gen of Madoka Magica fame), the effects and puppet action produced by Pili from Taiwan are extremely epic. You could say I am very inspired by the drama from there with regards to the flow of events in the game.

Another Xianxia series I recommend is The Demon Emperor Houskeeper (Mohuang Da Guanjia) iirc translated as "Demon Emperor" or "Magic Emperor" in some comic translations. The amount of scumbaggery by the main character is simply epic and while there are moments where the character appears overpowered, he is caught in life threatening situations and sometimes loses due to unforseen circumstances - so there's a lot of tension and excitement to be experienced XD

And ah yes Cultivation Chat Room. I really enjoyed its starting chapters, but when I began to read the scenario where cultivators were literally playing Mario Kart with Tractors - I could hardly take it seriously anymore XDDD

I started reading Magic Emperor, but dropped it because the scanlations were unbelievably bad (not that I can complain, since I'm getting them for free). Other than that, I was really enjoying it but couldn't deal with the nonsensical dialogue.

In reply to Dao Master (msg # 281):

People keep suggesting me Thunderbolt Fantasy, I'll have to actually watch it one of these days.

If you stopped at the tractors bit in Cultivation Chat Room, then you missed the bouncing back and forth from space. No, it doesn't get serious later on. xD

Lei:

That's how Lei feels right now!

Also, toilet cat isn't real and can't hurt you...

Toilet cat:

Well, I mean - better while training than while... 'hiding money' in the chamberpot!

In reply to Xiao Kang (msg # 286):

People often forget that coins are rinseable.

Not to mention, there comes a point that you need money as well, so wouldn't YOU be the one reaching in?

In reply to Oriana Kimari (msg # 287):

Wheew, I can just feel the gratitude towards the helpfulness of Tokusei all the way here in a different province!

Speaking of provinces...

@Dao Master; Would it be possible to get a map, or just a written description of the layout of the known world? I can guess how the regions relate to one another, considering their names quite literally state their cardinal directionality, but as Lei supposedly has 'great knowledge of Dingzhou' it's hard to run him as knowledgeable when I don't know the basic political structure of empires or towns or whatever settlements, let alone even which regions exist in the province.

I am MASTER OF GEOGRAPHY.
I know that Dingzhou is to the south of where I am!
...and that's basically it xD

In reply to Lei Feng (msg # 289):

Hmm... I did find something:

http://www.chinatouristmaps.co...Song-Dynasty-Map.jpg

That's the historical map of the time. If you look at P'o-hai (a bay in the north), and from the westernmost spot you head west a little bit until you see Pei-P'ing (Peking) on the red line close to Pao.

From there, follow the red line southwest and there should be Chên-ting. Dingzhou is still small in those times so it's not on that map, but it should be a little to the northeast of that.

https://collections.lib.uwm.ed.../agdm/id/27761/rec/2

This is a more contemporary map (though still quite old, made 1913), and much larger, but from Peking follow the railroad to the southwest until you hit Tingchou. That should be Dingzhou. In modern day it falls under the province administration of Baoding (Paotingfu on the second map, unlisted on the first unless it used to be called Chung-shan) so that should be the province.

In case you're wondering, the capital at the time was K'aifêng, just keep following the red line south (on the first map), or the Yellow River from the Gulf of Chihli (on the second map) to find it, though the first map lists the Southern Song capital (Lin-an, on the Eastern Sea) as the capital at the time (150 years after the start of the RP). We're currently in the Northern Song Dynasty.

From historical references, that's what i could find.

Wow, you're knowledgeable!

I didn't even realize we were playing in (historic) China, lmao.

Now that I think about it though, from the research I've been doing into this genre lately, do Xanxia novels ever have their setting in fantasy realms outside of China? From what I've seen (mostly on wikipedia), they use a lot of real-world locales in their worldbuilding?

Funnily enough, wouldn't that make Xanxia a type of historic fantasy? I suppose it could even be contemporary fantasy, if when the source material is first printed is similar to the era it is set in...?

Out of curiosity, how did you figure all this out? I'm especially curious how you knew what dynasty we were playing in? Did I miss something in the RTJ/Rules?

Yeah, that's mostly because of this:



See how there's a bunch of varied Holy Mountains around the Taiyuan area? It made Hebei and Shanxi provinces a pretty popular spot for Xanxia novels, kind of like how medieval fantasy seems to mostly take place in England because of King Arthur. Haven't read much Xanxia though, but it seems to mention those places a lot.

That said, i am of course not Dao and i do not know whether we are indeed on this map of the Northern Song era. It was an educated guess, nothing more. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Fri 30 July 2021.