Wuxia

this poster: is incorrect, mostly about it being recent

the core concept is that Wuxia stories follow warriors of great skill as they adventure through a setting generally referred to as the Jianghu (I may have misspelled that) which while not a strictly defined setting is a set of statements about the world (mostly based on Chinese folk myth) which are usually assumed to be true. In addition to being Kung-Fu masters Wuxia protagonists are also usually expected to be perfect Confucian gentlemen. They spend most of their time dealing with corrupt officials, bandits, evil warlords, and getting into what can best be described as kung-fu dick-measuring contests with each other

The Jiang Hu and Shan Li are interesting concepts, since they're two different worlds that coexist in the same physical space.

The Shan Li is the structured, ordinary world, where your position in society, your rank and wealth define your place and power, where you must obey your superiors and act as the order of heaven obliges you to. It's the 'real' world of ancient China, very structured and strict and rigid.

The Jiang Hu is everything outside of that. Not just the Xia, wandering warriors, but also wandering peddlers or actors and entertainers, vagrants and vagabonds. Ordinary people are meant to look down upon the Jiang Hu but it's highly romanticised, the idea of living on your own terms without being bound by the traditional structures an appealing proposition to those stuck where they are.

Xia are heroes in the more classical sense- Great and powerful, but not necessarily good. This gets extra complicated given the fact that traditional Chinese morality is also rather different to what you'd expect, where in some cases it would be considered moral and righteous to obey the command of a superior rather than to indulge in benevolence and compassion.

This is, of course, an incredibly surface level reading of the whole thing. I'm by no means an experts and this is mostly what I've gleaned from light research spurred on by enjoying Wuxia films and reading the RPG books (Although Legends of the Wulin does give a pretty solid primer on this stuff).

This is one of those "genres I love but never get to play" as it's never something that interests groups I'm in.

I even petitioned Veeky Forums's Group Finder for a group for Qin or similar for a while.

I don't even think there is much good vidya to play instead.

Ah well, back to watching shows and movies.

Please don't use the word Chinapunk, I wanna smack whoever came up with that word.

Building on this user's ideas about being a Confucian gentleman, you get a LOT of stiffs who will be your ally but turn around and attack you the moment they feel that you're not being said gentleman. There's a whole story that's just an overbloated love story where a dude isn't allowed to date his teacher despite the fact that he's OP as fuck and did so much fucking community work.

There's plenty of ancient techniques passed down only to one student, often times overdramatized, super high in power level and ALWAYS taught to the main character by the playful Master of a martial arts sect. They also bear fancy ass names that are super difficult to translate into English, like the 18 Dragon Subduing Palm technique (we just resolve it in 5 syllables so it's great to yell in a battle) or the Dog Beating Stick style. It's all very scholarly, to give you the idea that a martial artist is also learned and cultured.

Then there's Chi, whose influence varies depending on how magic you want your story to be, but goes from improving your technique performance to powering shit like hadoukens to straight up making you go insane if you practice it wrong or someone blocks your acupoints and you try to do a technique.

Fuck me now I want to watch another wu xia series. Who /jingyong/ here?

i satisfy myself on it by reading chink novels m8.

The Louis Cha stuff? Any recommendations?

I always default to Return of the Condor Heroes and Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre, those are timeless entry points and sort of sequels to each other. Then if you liked that, backtrack to Legend of the Condor Heroes which is a direct prequel to Returned.

Be warned though, if Return is Star Wars Ep 4-6, Legend is Star Wars Ep 1-3.

I know the feeling, my regular group had a few guys with conflicting schedules so we couldn't sustain a regular campaign until things evened out recently
During that time I tried to find a group online but the lake was dry and no one seemed to be up for it

What is people suggestion for best game for these? I'm a GURPS-fag and the system is easily used for wuxia. I know Qin and Legends of Wulin(?) are out there as well.

Interesting analogy.

China loves making and remaking books as shows, so have seen a few.

Classics like Water Margin and Three Kingdoms are great, but also enjoyed the first Condor Heroes, Swordsman and Book & Sword.

The difference may almost be classified as "low wuxia" and "high wuxia" as we classify high and low fantasy?

Yeah, Roll20 doesn't seem a breeding ground for Chinese style RPGs.

LotW is my personal favourite, although it's something of a niche game. The unique combination of mechanical crunch and narrative design is enough to put off a lot of people, and it doesn't help itself by having an awfully edited core book. When you get it running, though, the system is so fucking good.

>Fuck me now I want to watch another wu xia series. Who /jingyong/ here?
I've been in mood to watch some wuxia for some time now, but don't really know what and where to look for.

search "engsub drama" on the YouTubes, Veeky Forums-bro

Oh my! Thank you user.
Treat yourself with your favorite porn, you have deserved it.

Might as well ask this here, not sure where else I could.
What would.... Metal Magical things be able to do?

Right like I've only got the most basic of ideas when it comes to this element. Metal manipulation and holy weapons for combat. For the magical community a bunch of either warrior spirits and miserly rich guys.

That's where I managed to watch all of Condor Heroes

While not explicitly wuxia I've been working on a 5e setting where kitchen sink asia plays a big role in it.

Inspiration for it comes in the form of various Venom mob movies especially Kid with the Golden Arm and recently Thunderbolt Fantasy.

Just the idea of "everyone has basic kung fu skill level, then an extra package of stuff" is a solid game idea in my opinion.

I know right? I'll never understand why the monk is the only person who can punch things because the monk is shoe-horned to be the monastic shaolin monk rather than literally being any number of wuxia archetypes that exist.

DnD has always suffered from having a set of very rigid archetypes define it's classes
Fighters and other martials not having decent unarmed and movement capabilities has always bothered me

Why are Wuxia love interests so hot blooded and tomboyish?

Because there needs to be a reason for them to be Xia instead of housewives?

I agree though, while the concept doesn't bother me, when almost every major girl character in every series is like that, it gets a bit repetitive and boring.

For all'yall LotW players:

I made a new sheet for LotW, although it probably has some oversights due to my exposure to the game being limited.

>Horizontal for harmony reasons
>(Almost) All of the combat stuff on one sheet and non-combat stuff on the other
>Added totals for Entanglement and Chi cultivation
>Added a spot to put in entanglements (probably too small)
>Markers for permanent chi
>And most important of all, NO MORE MISALIGNED LINES. If there are any, sudoku awaits.

It's still quite beta, but it's the whole sheet so give critique.

I also made a 100% functional form-fillable sheet from the original. I can drop that one too.

Excuse me, there was a problem. I forgot to rename the goddamn elemental chi types.

Some of the text is also small as fuck, and everyone might not like the egregious font.

The ideal Chinese lady is obedient, shy, and quiet. Not good for being a wandering kung fu master. Of course northern chinese women are pretty damn fiery compared to southern chinese women.

That actually looks damn good, way better than the official sheet. Thank you for your work!

Thanks! The main reason for redoing the sheet was that the original was less than impressive.

Hmm, that Lake on the second page still bothers me a bit (it's not exactly in the center). Hmm... Is there anything I could fit next to it that would actually make sense to be on the second sheet?

Actually, a very important thing is missing from the sheet, the current Ripple count. Again, things I'm just baffled are missing from the original sheet.

My setting is mostly wuxia with a heavy dose of xian, boddhisattavas, shen, demons, ninja, dragons, samurai, and mecha.

If you're a Toughness/Armour heavy character? 10 ripples is nothing.

I've seen the toughness tank in a game I'm in take twenty-something rippling rolls and tank them or take only a trivial. We mathed out that it would take something like 150 ripples to OHKO them assuming no damage bonus.

Toughness might be a weaker stat than the primary defences in many ways, but it still lets you pull off some fucking awesome stuff.

Ehhem, here's a better / fixed version.

Oh, sorry, removed that post because I fixed that. Well, the ripple counter has TENS in it, so you can have up to hundred with it.

But that's fucking insane. So I guess going up to 99 is good enough, and theoretically you can just add to 10+ to tens, nothing's stopping, really.

Or would a place for just a value (like one circle coded Ripples) be better then? Because I'm thinking erasing those ripples might become pretty tedious.

the only wuxia related stuff i've exposed to was thunderbolt fantasy and red storm

Teach the wuxia good shit to this novice user if you'll be so kind

Should've screencapped that one user's explanation of how LotW works. It's really the easiest way to understand how deep yet neat that system is.

For basic details on how Wuxia works, LotW is actually a decent read anyway. Even if the rules are really hard to figure out from the awful editing, the setting primers, explanation of concepts and the list of influences in the back are actually really well put together.

>X-COM Capt. Haddock
>got booze as the secondary item
kek

It seems to me that wuxia threads are a great place to go if you want long pontifications, too.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

It's famous for a reason

Be sure to include

>Evil martial arts school who teaches a deadly forbidden technique
>Tragic dramatic villain deaths
>Villain who is the evil equivalent of a shounen hero
>Badass girl fighters who inexplicably become helpless damsels if they A: are love interest of the MC and B: get grabbed by the villain
>Evil pupil of the BBEG stabs him in the back and takes his place as BBEG
>Girl fighters falling for guy fighters after a sparring match or vice versa
>Devoted Confucian brotherly love
>Picking fights over disrespect
>Bystanders narrating whatever techniques are being used
>Special moves which tap into chi
>Pussy magnet MC who attracts everything from farm girls to princesses
>Girls somehow deal damage with slaps
>Confucian loyalty tested: expect suicide or choosing a third option for a happy ending
>Bad girl who leaves the villains after getting defeated/rescued by our noble MC then set on the path of Xia
>People who screw over their families, friends, and especially master are worse than scum
>Villain is often jealous of the MC (be it fame, earning respect of a great sifu, or their beautiful girlfriend)
>Eunuchs are evil scheming weirdos
>The Emperor is the big good of the story and he just isn't aware of what the villains are up to at the time
>Your Sifu has a best friend who turned evil or became a grumpy hermit
>Heroes and villains tend to get obsessed with each other, like Nardo & Saucegay obsessed
>Common villain goal is immortality
>Modern wuxia characters can dodge and curve bullets because fuck you
>happily married couples get tragically ripped apart by bloodthirsty villains unless they're both martial artists
>cutting your hair means some real ass shit just happened
>chopsticks, paintbrushes, chairs, instruments, and fans can make surprisingly good weapons
>sword fighting while running up or down a sheer mountain face is just part of Wuxia life
>Old masters good or evil are often motivated by boredom

>One Wuxia hero > Hundreds of armed normal soldiers
>Magical steroids cause magical roid rage
>Girls often dress as boys to travel with them, when the heroes have to infiltrate a group of women she'll be absolutely stunning
>Idealism, mountains and oceans of positive idealism
>Tsundere love interests everywhere
>If you're a peasant farmer, run. Your land is probably sitting on shitloads of spiritual power buried somewhere. Expect villains to kill you and seize it.
>Be nice to teahouse girls, they're probably the reincarnation of some glorious heroine or goddess. Expect them to be kidnapped by dark forces.
>Parents actually exist unlike anime and are happy to offer support (it would be nice if you became doctah tho)
>Masochistic MC hurts himself to get stronger

Well, my current LOTW character is such but well...she's Yun Clan. She's a Mongolian Martial Artist. Graceful and obedient was not really in the cards for her.

Don't forget the various archetypes of wuxia characters:

>The lovers who fight together
>The lone swordsman
>The idealist hero
>The bitter and jaded warrior
>The Drunken fool
>The wise teacher
>The firebrand female
>The Austere female warrior
>The Gentleman bandit
>The Kid
>The cripple
>The commander
>The comedy relief

Also, magic and fighting go hand in hand so kung fu wizards are definetly a thing, Nothing like casting spells while boxing against a fellow wizard.

You forgot the missile/dart specialist who invariably dies before the end. Seriously, use melee weapons if you want to live.

youtube.com/watch?v=8N9RRzhFSv8

You sure about that?

Because wuxia is about DRAMA even more than it's about FIGHTING. Yes both of those things need to be capitalized.

After watching some old-school wuxia movies, I was surprised at how different they can be from more modern, arguably more heroic wuxia. I never really got D&D attempts to do the orient, but after seeing some King Hu movies I think an OSR game might be perfect for the tone. The penultimate battle in A Touch of Zen is all about using traps and surprise to slaughter an army.

The world used to be more brutal

And stories reflected that

When you start watching more you can kind of start to associate certain characters with classes which is one of the things I like about 5th because Paladins no longer have to be religious in nature.

For example, the hero in Bat without Wings would be a paladin in my opinion who has a holy Avenger called the Pearl Blade which was able to withstand the Bat Blades which could cut swords asunder.

Yeah, the dart guy fucking died. I bet the beard guy bit it too, just because he threw that die.

Stories of mundane heroes using martial arts to do near-impossible things.
Think of early dragonball without beam attacks and other supernatural magic shit.

Low Wuxia is just regular Wuxia...
High Wuxia is just Xuanhuan since you already are in magic teritorry.
And if you add the pursuit of becoming an immortal you get Xianxia out of that.

youtube.com/watch?v=obnTAj8PFWQ

Is there a version with normal latin fonts?
These are just slightly hard to read.

So Xuanhuan?

THE LAND IS CLOAKED IN DEEPEST BLUE
Is there any other Wuxia stuff like Thunderbolt Fantasy?

What are your guys thoughts on Hip-hop mix with Kung-fu?

I see it fitting the same way you have Metal/Rock doing epic songs about fucking Vikings and Conan -esque warriors.

youtube.com/watch?v=oqgkCIKObIM

It's a perfect fit IMO.
I might be biased though as my formative years involved a lot of Bruce Lee, Wu-Tang, and comic books.

Thought about running a Jade Empire game, but I haven't gotten around to stating the Styles from the game

Don't think along the lines of manipulation. Think more: empowered by and having the effects of. Metal is associated with fall, grief, separation, rigidity.

Wuxia is just a monk 1 fighter 19 build

>Arthouse
Hero
House of Flying Daggers
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

>Oldschool
Venom mob movies
Come Drink with Me

>newer school
Once Upon a Time in China series
Tai Chi Master
Drunken Master
Iron Monkey
(These are less Wuxia and more Wushu, but they are good)

>Newest school
The Man with the Iron Fists

Not yet, but making one takes only a while.

The only difficulty is to find fonts that are roughly the same size.

This better? The font might be a little offputting, I'll try to see if I find a better one.

Here's another version with a more "setting-friendly" font.

Couldn't fit that hyperactivity / weakness perfectly though.

Those don't transition well into either a style of combat or magical stuff.

>he doesn't know how to draw power from grief

LotW's Secret Arts section might actually help here. Impenetrable rules, surprisingly good fluff/metaphysics primers.

How common in Wuxia is it to be completely willing to throw one's life away for a cause, no regrets? Also, how common is it for one to be not upset in the slightest about someone killing them or their friends because the believed in or respected the killer's cause?

I was reading Fist of the Blue Sky the other day and there was a scenario where all of the above came into play. There's this one guy who was protecting a small Jewish girl who had a list of locations of several important Hebrew treasures (this was set in the late 1930s, so of course there were Nazis trying to hunt her down). He was supposed to turn her over to a Jewish Officer in the French army in Hong Kong (it's a long story) for long term protection, he but was like "Nah, I feel a fatherly sort of affection for this little girl, I can't entrust her to anyone less capable than myself, so I'll get in a fight to death with this French Jew. If I die, then clearly he is stronger than I am and thus I am okay with him being her guardian. If he dies, then I'll have to keep looking for someone stronger than myself that actually has good moral character." The French Jew loses, but he isn't even upset and in fact he's just happy that the girl is safe and in capable hands. He presses a few pressure points on himself and is like "Okay, so I've got this friend, The Protagonist, he's way stronger than I am and I'd trust him with anything so he's totally the guy you're looking for. I just extended my lifespan by a few minutes, that should give me enough time to find The Protagonist so you can have your little death battle with him." And the protagonist doesn't even bear any ill will to the guy after this; hell, he even makes a point of sparing his life and directing him into a less murder-filled walk of life.

The whole thing was surreal, and yet I didn't have any trouble accepting it.

It's a key theme of Wuxia stories. Loyalty and honour being more valuable than your life is incredibly common.

For those interested in the delegations from abroad I'll present some of them them in the simplest terms possible with their basic concept and style, Not!Japan is the most fleshed out so far as they are the first ones to arrive and the players have actually encountered them

>Not!Japan
Yakuza Karateman - Think Hanayama and Doppo from Baki rolled into one he is scarred to fuck and nigh impossible to kill
Young Bishi Samurai - Most of his destiny is wrapped up in a Magic Katana that makes up for his lack of experience
Old Ninja Master - fights using a lot of secret arts and subterfuge he is a mystery for now
Aikido Chick - Aikido/Jujutsu user think Mikumo Kushinada from Histories Strongest Disciple Kenichi

>Not!America
RZA - Saber master and chill badass personality reminiscent of Afro Samurai's Ninja Ninja
HHH - Wrastller in a world where wrestling is viable, he is the current head of the UWF
Terry Bogard - Terry Bogard from KOF/Fatal Fury albeit with a different name
McCree/Erron Black - Shoot Bangs all around, he is basically my chance to show that Not!America has adapted guns into their martial arts

>Not!The E.U.
RDJ Sherlock Holmes - Bartitsu Cane Fighter and British Aristocrat has ties to one of the PCs via his family's history in Shanghai
Jean Claude Van Damme - Savatuer and parkour master
Italian Zorro - Taking fencing to an art form he is what he sounds like
Glasgow McPunchface - Brawling and general roughhousing are a way of life to this hooligan

That kind of thing happens all the time in wuxia

Read the analects bruh

Loyalty is one of the ultimate virtues

You can disagree with your superior, you can scold your superior, you can try to argue with your superior, but you NEVER abandon or betray them

Inferiors devote themselves to superiors (think Samwise Gamgee to Frodo). But in turn superiors must cherish and care for their inferiors.

Now that I think about it "subordinate" is a better word

If you really care, here's probably the best article I've ever read on the subject matter

kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=31707

>But that's long!

Then fuck off

Wuxia would be gestalt, everyone getting levels in monk.

That's the thing, though. Superior/subordinate never entered the picture here, and while there's definitely elements of honor and loyalty at play, what has me taken aback is the complete lack of underlying ill will. Having honor and loyalty and whatnot doesn't mean you can't have bad blood with someone for killing your friend, it just means that you put that bad blood aside when it's the right thing to do.

Also, how often does the more specific scenario of "getting into fights to the death because I have something that can only be entrusted to someone stronger than myself" come up?

How do you kill someone using the conceptual power of Autumn?

Well, first you start with the knowledge that Autumn is the time when things tend to wither and die and that Autumn is also the herald of Winter, which has even more to do with death, and then you work your way from there.

>As an ethnic Chinese that's also interested in Fantasy RPGs (and fantasy in general), that's exactly the thing that bugs me to no end as well. Every time there is a East (China)-meet-West fantasy setting, there's always the clichéd kungfu masters, staff-totting monkeys, pandas, temple dogs, Celestial Dragons/Emperors, Ying-Yang stuffs, and the damned repeating crossbow. Oh, and shugenja (which is actually Japanese) and spellcasting Wu Zen class (Wu Zen means "martial monk", which means it should be the name for baseline kungfu monk, not exotic spellcaster) as well. Many of these things hardly ever show up in actual Chinese fantasy works, even in high-magic setting.

A chinese fa/tg/uy told me a personal, in-depth perview of chinese fantasy/mythology, divided into layers that are more like power levels than genres.

Should I post them?

>staff-totting monkeys
To be fair, there was 1 staff-toting monkey that everybody knows about, so it's kind of like bitching that a Chinese film about the Roman empire depicted all the northern barbarians as Cimmerians.

So what do you think about Palladium's Mystic China?

Yes you should

The answer is always yes.
Unless it is no.

Nah, it's like bitching that all dwarfs are based on Gimli.

Okay. Note that these aren't mutually exclusive, and can be thought of as the kind of adventures one has as he ups his class.

>Note that I will mostly use D&D-influenced terms, as that is the system I am most familiar with.

>I tend to classify the typical "Chinese setting" into several "Worlds" or you can say "Layers" (I am sure there's a better word for it, but I can't think of one right now), which can be used as a framework to expand into a detailed setting.

>The first layer is what I called:

>1) "Base world" or "Overworld"
This is the layer/setting that is closest to its "standard medieval fantasy" equivalent, and the setting where you can throw in most non-magic Chinese cultural element(s) without worrying too much. If there's a conflict happening somewhere, it is mostly because of a war with foreign powers, or a civil war etc. This is the stage where a "Fighter Class" can shine most brightly. If there is a "East meet West" setting, this is also the easiest setting to use.

>Stuffs like rockets, repeating crossbows, heavy armours, shields, bows & arrows, fancy Chinese firearms/bombs/cannons, mundane emperor, imperial civil servants and mandarins etc belong in this layer.

>Classes like fighter, warlord (and/or strategist) also belong here. Base world tend to be no/low magic. Spellcasters, if they exist at all, are mostly limited to divination/adivsor role.

>You will also notice that I do not mention "Kung fu" and "martial arts" in this layer, because they don't (normally) belong here. Fighters in this layer act like...well, fighters, i.e. they whack at each others with the weapons they are good at, without shouting "iron heart surge" or whatnot.

>2) "Jianghu (江湖)" or what I called "Low Wuxia" or "Underworld"
>This is the entry gate to the world of Wuxia, where you will start to find all sorts of martial arts stuffs. However at this layer it is still very much grounded in reality. Most factions that operate at this layer are the ancient Chinese equivalent of gangsters and mafias and triads. Wealth and vengeance, as well as the underworld's code of honour, is the prime motivation of conflict at this layer. Gang fights happen about as often as personal duels.

>Stuffs that belong to this layer: Wealthy river merchants (essentially "river mafia"), mountain bandits, rebels, salt peddlers, horse merchant alliance (again, essentially "horse trading mafia" of sort), caravan bodyguards (鏢局), martial arts throwing weapons, taverns. etc. Due to the prevalence of river merchants, underwater combat happens quite a lot.

>Classes that belong to this layer: Rogue. As long as you step into the territory of Wuxia, you will be dealing with rogues, rogue variants, and more rogues.

>Stuffs that do NOT belong to this layer: Heavy armours and shields, bows, crossbows and arrows, fighter class, firearms*. Low Wuxia also tend not to have legendary swords and somesuch.

>*As this layer is more grounded in reality, many stories set in early 20th century (Republican/Japanese occupation period) utilise this layer, and thus firearm are (sometimes) quite prevalent.

>3) "Wulin (武林)" or what I called "High Wuxia"
>De facto Wuxia world. Borderline supernature martial arts such as jumping really high, short range ki blasts, internal energies and punch through metal doors etc are quite common here. Various martial art sects and religious organisations (instead of lowly criminal gangs like the Low Wuxia) pop up at this layer. Fame, romance and sex, legendary weapons, martial pursuits and secret manuals become the prime motivator of conflict. Otherwise some evil ominous cult wanted to dominate the Wulin world, causing all sort of mayhem.

>Personal duels, assassinations, and martial arts tournaments are much more common at this layer, although war between sects or against aforementioned evil cult are also common.

>Stuffs that belong to this layer: High powered martial arts, secret manuals, lost treasures, legendary (but usually not supernature) weapons, tournaments, "Wulin alliance", code of honour, religious organisations, evil cults, impossible but non-magical gadgets and traps ("Rapid fire thousand needle launcher" or "automaton wooden dummy", or something like that), weird poison and medicine ("it will kill you during the first day of next Chinese new year!" kind of poison), weird animals ("the toad that blood can cure all poison").

>Classes that belong to this layer: Rogue, assassin, and possibly swashbuckler, some sort of martial art-herbalist class. Some of the more exotic Wuxia archetypes, such as the crazy zitherist that cause you to go insane or mind control you with her music, or cult leader that control swarms of poisonous snakes, might fit into bard and druid class, albeit imperfectly. Also monk.

>Stuffs that do NOT belong to this layer: Most stuffs that do no fit in Low Wuxia also do not belong here. Which means no heavy armour and shield whatsoever, barring rare exceptions. No firearms and generally no magic (which mostly limited to Base World at the moment).

The site of the guy which gave me this info: greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com

>As you can see, the worlds of Chinese fiction are generally distinct - a military general (fighter class), armoured to the teeth and wield a heavy war axe, will not generally show up and compete in a Wuxia tournament (remember Wuxia is mostly rogue class), and you won't generally see river merchant gangfights in a novel about massive civil war.

>Yet these layers also superimpose over each other. They can and do exist in the same setting/universe, as well as interact with each other. A military general might also be good at martial arts and influential in the Wulin world, Imperial government maintain a secret service agency that specifically deal with martial art sects, martial artist request the aid of river merchants (or more likely, just kick their arse and force them) to acquire a legendary sword sunken in a lake, strategist employing martial artist to assassinate political enemy, etc.

>These instances are actually quite common, although character without background in multiple layers (multiclass?) usually end up in a fish-out-of-water situation.

>4) Xianxia (仙俠), or "Immortal Heroes"
>This is the layer where immortal swordsages flying around, aero-skateboarding with sword (yes, this is really, really common), fighting with remote-controlled swords, swinging swords that turn into dragons or frikkin' laser beams, etc.

>You will notice that I mention sword repeatedly (specially, Chinese double-edged straight sword, the Jian). Well because Taoist religion, which most of these fictions are based on, is really really fond of Jian, and thus most if not all characters in this layer will wield a Jian or two...or thousands.

>This is the high fantasy version of Chinese fiction, and most of the characters in this layer are immortals, immortals-in-training, or at the very least, larger-than-life magical heroes. Sects still exist in this layer, although they generally become full-on religious (typically Buddhist and Taoist, plus the evil cult). Prime motivators for conflict are usually due to the awakening of some ancient, Morgoth-level evil beings, disruption of the balance of light and darkness/Ying and Yang, etc.

>Magical beasts and plants, while they started to pop up in this layer, tend to be rare, and usually are simply magic version of real-life animals. These beasts do sometimes shapeshift into a more human form after enough training.

>Sometimes a particularly talented yound lad is chosen to become the protege of a immortal wiseman, or evil cult sacrificed entire village/city/kingdom/continent for their evil rituals, etc. However, once a character from previous three layers stepped into Xianxia layer, there's usually no turning back.

>Stuffs that belong to this layer: Immortals, magic swords, more magic swords, intelligent weapon (usually sword), magical evil cults, curse and cursed weapons (again, usually sword), supernatural poisons, magic, magical beast (such as giant magic snake etc), Chinese alchemy.

>Classes that belong to this layer: Swordsage, wizards, highly enlightened monks.

>5) Chinese mythology
>At this layer, we deal with stuff like "Journey to the West", gods, buddhas, demons and monsters. Celestial emperors, heavenly court, divine champions, mythical beasts, and so on.

>This layer is to the Base World what Xianxia is to Wuxia. In a sense you can say the immortals and swordsages from the previous layer are civilians/underworld, while this layer is the government and the boss.

>The power level gap between this layer and the other layers is so vast that the death of one minor god can be the equivalent to edition change from D&D 3.5 to D&D 4. An escaped pet dog from heaven can be the very same prime evil that require the effort of entire Xianxia world (layer 4) to put down. Due to this power level gap, this layer tend to sit around doing very little, only occassionally sending divine aid to some mortals and stuffs.

>As it is quite similar to base world, only more magic (Celestial court can be as corrupt as its mundane counterpart, as this is the case in real Chinese mythology), it tend to interact with the base world layer moreso than other layers.

>The analogue to level progression is at least partly intentional, although I have more of a "3.5e class tier list" in mind when I wrote that, althoug swordsage obviously isn't tier 1 or 2 in D&D setting (I forget to make it clear that the swordsage I was talking about isn't the same as3.5e swordsage in D&D).

>Making it a "low level beginner > mid level adventurer > high level heroes" progression can in fact work quite nicely. Despite what my previous email might indicates, there's actually no significant power gap between the "Base world" and the "Wuxia world". Only when you move up to magic stuffs does the power gap emerge. Good thing that "training really hard" and "killing enemy really hard" is indeed some of the many ways for a mundane to move into Xianxia layer or higher.

>While it might be shocking to some that a battle-hardened military general (i.e. fighter class) might be taken out by a Wuxia kungfu guy (i.e. a rogue class) in a head-on, 1v1 duel (in fictional world anyway), in reality they are merely good at different things. Throw a bunch of Kungfu guys to the battlefield, and they will be shot to pieces in no time (due to having no armour) or trampled by massive cavalry charge.

>(Note that High Wuxia is significantly more powerful than Low Wuxia.Many Wuxia novels do not make clear distinction between the two, although the difference is there)

>3.5) Xiuzhen (修真) or "Cultivator" stories
>This is not a "layer" per se (and I don't like the name "cultivator", which I think is a faulty English translation), but rather a modern sub-genre of Xianxia novel, most commonly found in web-novels, light novels, and comics.

>To put it simply, it is basically a "level grinding story". The main character is more often than not a Base World layer nobody. By training, study, killing stuffs, sexing real hard, eating exotic stuffs, unearthing artefacts, and inheriting wisdoms and inner energies and life essense or whatever, the main character gradually move up the ladder/layer, eventually becoming an true immortal, god, or some sort of multiversal Supreme being.

>Cultivating, or forcibly extending one's lifespan, is obviously against natural law, so every cultivator must at some point face his own "Heaven's calamity" (basically a single target rock-fall-everyone-die event. In some cases, this is the result of Layer 5 gods actively trying to f**k with every single poor guy at layer 4). This can come in the forms of divine retribution, divine labours, training-gone-wrong, accidents, bad lucks, enemies, own inner demon emerging etc. If one managed to survive, he or she "level up", ascending into next level of power, otherwise he will perish. Depending on the writer, one might have to survive five to twenty calamities (or more!) to achieve full immortality.

>I think it is too influenced by modern MMORPGs and most of these works are trashes. However it does present an interesting and somewhat creative merge of modern RPG elements and classical Chinese fantasy fiction. Plus it gives a good excuse for the DMs to throw progressively powerful stuffs at the players.

>Due to the nature of this type of novels, the MC will spend a long time as an Immortal-in-training. Extremely powerful, but not quite there yet. Which is perfect if you don't want something too overpowered.

>???) Chinese ghost(busting) stories
>Again not a layer, and not even a solid genre on its own. I just feel this is too good a material to pass up. At lower layer (Base World), we have the wandering Taoist exorcists trying to stop the Jiangshi (hopping corpse) menance, or a monk exposing a magic snake that shapeshift into a lady and try to seduce young man (Legend of the White Snake). At high layer, we have a minor god (Zhong Kui 鍾馗, look it up) catching demons that escaped hell.

>A good place to look for low-level mythical beasts to throw at the players in China-themed rpgs.

>Chinese ghost stories share many similarities with the gothic horror genre (vampire, werewolf, headless horsemen etc). Sometimes the monster/ghost is portrayed in a sympathetic light, while the hunter become bad guy, but otherwise (in RPG sense) they are not that different. Oh, the Taoist monster hunter tend to suck the monster into a container (usually a magic pouch, or gourd bottle) and then seal it inside, rather than (or in addition of) straight out impale its heart or cut off its head.

>Larger/High power version of these sealing container is the Zhen Yao Ta (鎮妖塔), or monster-sealing pagoda, basically the magic version of Arkham Asylum. Another function of Xianxia sects is to guard the pagoda...and yes, sometimes prison break does happen...

>Wuxia code of conduct
> The concept of Wuxia code of conduct generally only apply to High Wuxia, as characters from Low Wuxia tend to be more pragmatic/down to earth. This code of conduct may vary from writer to writer, so I can only put up a general guideline:

>If A and B entered a duel, and there's no personal feud involved (yet), the older/more experienced party, or party with higher Wulin social standing (let's say A) will generally offer to let the other side (let's say B) attack him for 3~10 "moves" without retaliation. An offer in reverse/counter offer will be seen as great humiliation. An offer in absurd number ("I will let you attack me 10000s time") is also intentionally humiliating.

>In the above situation, A is supposed to let B attack him for 3~10 attacks (depending on his offer). He can evade and/or parry (depending on the writer, sometimes he cannot even parry) as long as he stand his ground.

>If A is forced to retaliate, getting hit by B, or forced to dodge/tumble away from the place he was originally standing before the quota runs up, he is considered humiliated or "losing face".

>Hidden weapon and poison are considered dishonourable/underhanded in a duel. Same goes for throwing sands in someone’s eye etc. In some settings, magic get the same treatment.

>Not that anyone will believe you, but “opps I slipped” is still a good excuse if you want to kill someone during a duel that’s supposedly not to the death. Doing this for too many times will cause someone to use the same excuse on you though.

>After a duel, the WINNING side is supposed to find excuse for the losing side to explain away his lose, in order to "save his face". Even if both parties and all bystanders know the real reason why someone is losing. Bragging around or humiliating the losing side is seen as stepping over the line.

>On the other hand, the losing side is supposed to praise the martial prowess of the winner, EVEN if he used underhanded tactics to win (and every bystander know that). Finding excuses for youself or angrily accusing the winner of cheating is a good way to "lose face".

>Intentionally pickpocketing your rival during a duel, or using weapon to cut away his head/dress assessories without harming him during a duel, will be considered very offensive by the receiving party (who wouldn't?) as it means you are toying with him. Sometimes a "pickpocketing duel" might occur.

>Cutting off someone's hair/beard is considered equally offensive as cutting off someone's head (hair is SERIOUS BUSINESS!). Throwing weapon is generally immune to this rule, for some reason.

>The above two points can be done honourably in some cases, i.e. A has all the rights to kill B to enact vengeance or something, but choose to spare B instead, only cutting off some of B's hair as symbolism.

>If there is a fight between different sexes, female chest is off-limit to empty handed attack. Period. Even in a duel-to-the-death situation. Doubly offensive if one party is using something like "Eagle claw" martial arts to target the female chest, or anything that looks like he is trying to grope her. Likewise, intentionally slash apart female dress (without harming her) is a big no-no. ACTUALLY groping her is a surefire way to turn a friendly duel into a fight to the death, and invites bigger fishes to intervere/gank up on you.

>If there's no one looking, then there's no rule. If there's no one alive, then there's no one looking. (Good character will upheld rule regardless)

>Mad people follow no rules, and no rules apply to you when you are dealing with such people.

>Killing one's own master is one of the most serious offenses in the Wuxia world. But the master has all the right to kill his own student without reason. If one such student is your sworn brother/adventuring party member etc and his master come and try to kill him...no, you are not supposed to intervere, UNLESS you have good reason to, or at least something that pass as an excuse ("he's gone mad!" Is a good one, since no rule applies to a mad man). You must convince other onlookers with your excuse though.

>Masters are not supposed to intervere a duel between students. IF they intervere, they usually just save their own student without attacking the other student.

>Students CAN intervere a duel between masters in some extreme cases, even attacking enemy master, although this tend to end badly for them.

>An open invite for eveyone at the scene to attack oneself can mean (a) he consider everyone at the scene so beneath him that they are not worth his trouble, or (b) he is cornered to the point that he's prepared to go all out. If (b) is the case, all Wuxia rules no longer apply to him (and everyone else fighting him).

>If you are adventuring, and you entered a town/city that is under the protection/care/territory of a certain sect, you are supposed to pay them a friendly visit, or at least notify them of your stay. Most sects will build some sort of reception hall (if not their HQ) in their territories. Failure to do so will be seen as an attempt to cause trouble. Religious sects and beggar sect tend not to hold any territory though, and they freely enter and leave the territories of other sects (well, because monks and beggars don't usually seek lodging in a tavern, which is THE brewing place of all sort of trouble).