I need ideas for some low level content for a Kung Fu hero story. Specifically...

I need ideas for some low level content for a Kung Fu hero story. Specifically, the master giving the party training is actually running a revolution against a brutal dictatorship, and I'd like their training errands to some way contribute to the larger picture. But low level is always a desperate struggle. Ideas?

Carrying heavy bags from one village to another. It's actually a supply run and the bandits that show up are enemy soldiers.

Thats a full session there.

Not sure they can take down enemy soldiers... not without NPC assistance. They're total n00bs. Both IC and OOC.

Still, need moar like this.

Running letters
Being on look-out
Scouting

Moving resources
Building traps
Being on guard duty
Gathering information
Recruiting people

Some stories from my kung fu teacher that have been passed down over time

>master and student go to market
>gang is shaking down owner of shop
>"hey fuck you guys"
>beat those guys up

The thugs could be part of the regime somehow. Another one for fun, not really an errand so much as a story I think would be cool to incorporate:

>kung fu guy is real good, has an editorial in the paper, has a standing offer of allowing anyone to come try and spar with him
>general in the army takes him up on the offer, is a cocky asshole about everything
>they meet, the local press is there, all are watching
>kung fu guy shakes the general's hand and squeezes so hard the general almost falls over, but kung fu guy catches him with his other arm and makes it look like nothing happened
>general doesn't go through with the fight, learns humility

and another more relevant story to your topic:

>local street fighting ring
>one guy is super powerful
>a challenger approaches.webm
>fight starts
>challenger takes out a squirt gun
>sprays acid in the other dude's eyes
>kicks his ass
>lesson is: don't fight fair

I met the guy, he's a badass old chinese dude.

this one could be incorporated into your topic but is a little less related:

>my teacher's teacher, we'll call him Yi, gets really good at tai chi
>goes back to his master, Lam
>"my tai chi is way better than your kung fu"
>Lam is like "you don't think it be like it is but it do"
>doesn't even really kick his ass per se, just grabs his arm and runs his hand down it
>fucks up the guy's nerves and shit, his hand gets all messed up (these days he has almost full function in it)
>Yi goes to the doctor a few days later
>doctor tells him that Lam could have healed him and fixed it (Lam was trained as a medicine man first) but chose not to
>Yi is still into tai chi but he learned respect

Never met Lam, but he died a few years ago. He was like 102 and still did kung fu every day. Yi still has the scar.

clearly you need to watch the 36th Chamber.

The beginning portion of the movie has the soon to be San Tae as a student who's father is a fish monger and his teacher is actually a member of the Ming Rebels. His students come across him doing rebel shit and they convince him to let them in on the action and they run notes and supplies for them until the Ching enforcers catch up to them and start killing them.

>Kung Fu Master
>against a brutal dictatorship
negro what?

Escort these helpless young people to this mountain village.
Next time, on when animals attack!
They're all actually the families of the resistance fighters, getting hidden away to prevent hostages/retaliation.

Every revolution needs weapons. Time to rev up those crafting, gathering, and weapons maintenance skills!
Cue journey to the local wilderness to find wood to use for spears/arrows/staves/whateverthefuckelse.
Bonus lesson: by crafting weapons, the disciples are supposed to learn to respect weapons. ONE of them at least should then trigger an interest in crafting.

Travel with this shipment of food to this outlying village/the slums.
Charity shipment is a cover for the actual revolutionaries to meet up/discuss shit. Disciples are put in charge of food distribution/guarding the supplies. The people are super hungry. They will either try to steal the supplies or gather together to force the disciples to hand the supplies over.
CommonerMob.png
Disciples then either get a lesson in diplomacy or a mob fight. After that's all over, take the opportunity for a personal touch with a NPC to spin a yarn about how they were unjustly deprived of their livelihood and how their entire family had to follow them into poverty.
Sympathy with the rebel cause increases!
SomethingRottenInTheStateOfDenmark.gif

Local eatery/recreational location that your players go to is also visited by a group of incredibly boorish young people. Other group of young people hurt the establishment/employees, are generally dicks.
Cliche.exe
Disciple fight ensues. Police come and break it up before any permanent damage can be done to either party, thus giving you another set of mini-bosses for them to fight during the revolution. The embers from the fight then smoulder and ignite, starting the fires of revolution. Congratulations! Your party just kicked off a coup!

wut?

There are a number of classic kung fu films that the RZA preserved out of his massive Weeaboo hard on. I can't remember the name but it was a troupe of 4 brothers that made a bunch of these fantastic, beard stroking revenge tales. Plenty of low-level characters sneaking around by being crafty rather than being particularly god-tier at their kung fu

This is excellent. Thanks. Moar?

You want to help the people but you quickly realize all you can do is pretty much calisthenics/folk dancing and useless in a fight and die wishing your people didn't forget the true martial arts from a few centuries before

>if only I had some full plate. Then I'd be invincible.
Fucking Euroboo

>full plate
>invincibility

I didn't mention anything related to Europe.

How high are you needing to level them before the revolution happens?

You can gradually escalate things before the revolutions takes place. There's not a single coup I can think of throughout human history that just came out of nowhere. There's always an escalation period.

Government starts putting pressure on perceived dissidents. Censorship. False accusations and property seizure. Each of those can be at least one session as tensions start to rise and Charles in charge starts to get a bit more antsy.

Things gradually get more heated. Dojos are starting to be attacked as they're accused of being "private armies," or something else that's an obvious facade. Maybe a different martial arts school gets hit, one with your parties friends in it. While they can't stop the crushing of the dojo, they just might be able to find somewhere to shelter the families of the students and teachers before they're rounded up. Cue manhunt and hiding sequence.

This leads into a conflict with informant parties a-la thieves' guild like entity. Those aren't military men, but they aren't your Average Joe, either. Not all thieves' guild people will be coming at them for a low-level reward for what equates to nobodies in the eyes of the government, but a few will want to turn them in for profit, and don't forget the moles as well. In fact, it's unlikely that most of the thieves' guild will be interested in turning in anyone the government wants detained unless their balls are in a vice.

Boom! Plot hook to help the thieves' guild clean house and make a contact for the players within that as well, before the big revolution. Might also be an opportunity to recruit at least some form of help to the rebels' side (map of the sewers for infiltration purposes/troop movements. Diversions. Any number of other, indirect means of aiding the revolution) from the guild itself.

There's piles of stuff you can do off of the ideas I've given. Expand on them.

Cool stuff.

Around mid-level I was going to have their revolutionary army get crushed, master killed, and disciples exiled. Then they have to rebuild the movement from the ground up. They become the leaders, rather than the students.

The game Legends of the Wulin has quite a good system for randomly generating these sorts of scenarios. You roll to determine the archtype, motivation, and primary emotion for a number of antagonists equal to the number of PCs. One of these is the leader and is slightly stronger than the PCs, the others are secondary villains and are made to be equally as strong as the PCs.

The problem with failing a revolution completely, is that pretty much all the people that wanted to revolt in the first place are dead. Raising another one from the ashes of a failed revolution is hard, especially when there's a previous example of what happens when you fail. You've already lost the bravest people that would have joined you.

Instead of a full failure, perhaps the leadership gets assassinated? Instead of building it up again from scratch, they now have to take control of the movement and direct the revolt into something more than petty banditry. Much harder than recruiting from scratch, as well. This way you can plausibly maintain the revolution without sacrificing the limelight for your party at the appropriate time. Or just do your own thing, your players might not even care. Mine are all assholes so I have to think of these things, since they'll argue about it.

Followers of the revolutionary secret society plan to amass in the capital one year from today and attack the palace. There are thousands of your fellows across the realm, but it will take months to cross the breadth of the kingdom. To keep a low profile and keep from starving on the way, the disciples will perform as itinerant acrobats and strongmen. By the time the government realizes itinerant boxers have been converging upon the capital, it will be too late.