This thread is to talk about xianxia (and related genres) RPGs, novels, and comics. Elements of xianxia stories are very relevant to role playing games, especially cultivation rankings and settings.
>What is xianxia? "Xianxia (仙侠 xiānxiá) – literally means “Immortal Heroes”. Fictional stories featuring magic, demons, ghosts, immortals, and a great deal of Chinese folklore/mythology. Protagonists (usually) attempt to cultivate to Immortality, seeking eternal life and the pinnacle of strength. Heavily inspired by Daoism."
>Why should you read xianxia? These stories are literally role-playing game campaigns. The MCs are usually murderhobos, who only care about leveling up and finding better gear. If you want to see CN characters traveling through stellar settings, using martial arts and cultivation techniques (weaboo magic), fight and kill each other over pride, and encounter dangerous dungeons and monsters, then these are the stories to read. >Thread agenda For those who've read xianxia already, make a list of all the xianxia you have completed/currently reading. Then list them with these categories: god tier, great tier, good tier, ok tier, meh tier, and shit tier. I will compile everyone's suggestions to make a recommendation list for new readers.
For those new to this genre, ask any questions you need answered.
>God Tier Desolate Era, I Shall Seal the Heavens, Stellar Transformations, Coiling Dragon >Great Tier Douluo Dalu >Good Tier Swallowed Star if that counts as xianxia >Shit tier Against the Gods and similar novels that just devolve into haremshit and author wish fulfillment
Cameron Collins
>Douluo Dalu Kidding me? Desolate Era, Stellar Transformations, and Douluo Dalu are all shit tier man. I Shall Seal the Heavens and Coiling Dragon are both rad, though.
Grandmaster Strategist is pretty good, despite being Wuxia at the highest. Gate of Revelation and Terror Infinity are both kinda cool too, though not really Xianxia or Wuxia.
Justin Scott
Warlock of Magus World is pretty OK, I guess. Not a fan of the whole 'reincarnation' schtick in general.
Chase Gutierrez
You're welcome to your opinion on Douluo Dalu, but >Desolate Era, Stellar Transformations >shit tier You're courting death.
Nolan Clark
Sorry dude. They stink! Stellar Transformations is a vastly inferior Coiling Dragon. VASTLY inferior. Desolate Era is just dull. Duoluo Dalu has a boring reincarnation, and then REALLY boring curbstompy MC. Even when he loses, he wins. Every. Single. TIME. Even against the patriarch of the spirit church thing, when his bunny gf gets bunnied again he has no REAL trouble. Just really obnoxious. I thought at first it'd be secret weapons all the way through, which was pretty cool, but then it boiled down to the same shit it said it was AGAINST at the beginning: strong spirits overwhelming everyone. Him actually having only the weak-ass grass and using it cleverly with hidden weapons was pretty good.. but then he also got the FUCK YOU hammer.
Jaxon Sanchez
I guess I've never found Desolate Era dull because I love the worldbuilding and it constantly reveals more of its metaphysics system as the story goes along. Whenever Ning gets stronger, we learn more about the nature of the Dao.
John Adams
That's what I like about I Shall Seal the Heavens and Coiling Dragon, too. You read them on Wuxiaworld? Most of the stuff on there is tripe, imo, especially some of the new stuff, but they have a couple korean ones there that are neat as well. Seol Station's Necromancer and Dragen Maken War both look good so far.
Blake Cooper
OP here
>Good tier: Coiling dragon
>Meh tier: Wu Dong Qian Kun
>Shit tier: Tales of Demons and Gods
Just caught up on Wu Dong. Was wondering if anybody has a recommendation for the next novel to read? I've been reading Spirit Blade Mountain, Desolate Era, and Star Martial technique comics, so I can jump into those.
Luis Allen
If you haven't read it, you really should read I Shall Seal the Heavens. Maybe pick up A Will Eternal when it's got another hundred chapters, too. Terror Infinity and Gate of Revelation are both good as well, but neither Xianxia nor Wuxia.
Jeremiah Smith
bump
Josiah Nguyen
>Best stories:
I shall seal the heavens A will eternal The Silly Alchemist Realms in the Firmament A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality Demons Diary Warlock of the Magus World Once Upon A Time, There Was A Spirit Sword Mountain Throne of Magical Arcana.
Heavenly Jewel Change Spirit Realm Upgrade Specialist in Another World Coiling Dragon Desolate Era
>Wish-fullfilment and power fantasies with needless drama tier that don't pretend to be anything else and are thus still readable:
Against the Gods God of Slaughter Martial God Asura Great Demon King
Andrew Butler
Forgot to add
>Absolute Fun Meme tier:
Historys Strongest Founder (Reincarnator with Game System but has to deal with impossible quests with time limits, is underpowered and has to bluff his way through things)
Historys Strongest Senior Brother (Double Reincarnator MC who has to squash not only the bad guys but also the other characters who exude classic Xianxia MC vibes)
Plundering the Heavens (Bandit Shota MC)
World of Cultivation (Amnesiac Zombie faced Magic Farmer MC makes his own Civ amidst a war between Demonic Beasts, Spirits and Human Cultivators, lots of bromance going on, chick he loves is also disfiggured and the main plot is him trying to regain his memories to heal her).
>So shit it hurts tier: Dildo Dildo Child of Light Tale of Demons and Gods Cult of the Sacred Runes Battle through the Heavens
>Graveyard of VRMMO novels you won't even glance at:
Zang Long Rebirht of the Thief Ah why am i even writhing this section since nobody cares about it anyway.
Mason Rodriguez
Oh shit it's a fuckin xianxia thread
What do you guy's think about a xianxia game set in a sort of modern day setting?
I've been running a Wuxia game set in the modern day but I'm thinking of upping the scale. I've been dropping hints that the more overtly mystical stuff is actually real, like Immortals and Dragons and Other Realms and I'm seriously considering giving a players a real taste of it instead of leaving it in the background
In my game Xia and the Jianghu are already a hidden society of superhuman warriors that most don't really know about aside from stories so exposing them to the Jianghu's Jianghu could be interesting
Hunter Ortiz
Definetly pick up these:
>A Will Eternal (Glorious thickskinned MC)
>I Shall Seal The Heavens (MC who at one point convinces a character named Greed that he should be called Greed instead)
>Warlock of the Magus world (Hillariously Evil scientist reincarnator with Super-Computer in his brain. Goes out of his way to spout lines from Sailor Moon to gain trust from an organisation to infiltrate them)
>Historys Strongest Senior Brother (MC squashing other MCs with his double-plot armour)
All of these have some silly stuff but relativley serious plot progression none the less.
Julian Ramirez
Just write alt history taking into account Cultivation Clans and Sects.
Example:
>Pantheons are all cultivation clans.
>Roman Empire taught its best soldiers the basic ''Golden Eagle Method''
>Christian Churches (Protestant, Chatolic, Orthodox) are actually Clan alliances set up to hunt down rogue cultivators and to keep the public in the dark.
>Communism was invented to destroy or weaken the clans and cultivators of Russia.
>The United States were founded by an alliance of rogue cultivators
>Egypts cultivator clans use Corpse Cultivation methods (Turn them selves into undead).
>The Murder Cube of Kaba is a magic item set up by the Saudi clan to enslave and control the mortals who follow their religion by placing magic seals on those who touch it.
>The world is full of places with entrances to pocket dimensions.
>Old myths are allmost all true but exagarated. >The Earth was created from the remains of a massive Serpentine Dragon.
>A few exceptional individuals in history were actually cultivators. >Rasputin? A cultivator who entered the Romanov Clan as a Medical Elder. >Napoleon? A Sardinian noble who found a cultivation method within his estates basement and taught his to his loyal officers. >Marco Polo? Actually traveled to China. Learned a cultivation method from a rogue cultivator somewhere in Khazahstan. Became a guest elder in the local court. >Mayan and Aztec blood sacrifices? Blood magic cultivation.
Anthony Smith
I thought immortality and the undead, especially skeletons, were banned for make benefits most glorious peoples republic
Landon Carter
>Napoleon? A Sardinian noble Corsican. He was born in Ajaccio.
Leo Edwards
Thanks. I always confuse those two.
Easton Cook
Forgot to add:
>Finding the odd cultivation method or spell is fairly easy as long as one is willing to dig through messy archives in places like the Balkans, Italy, Spain, Central Asia, Chile etc. thus most rogue cultivators have scholarly backgrounds and know how to stay on the down low.
Jayden Butler
Easy way to tell them appart : Corsica's the northern one and it's french, like Napoleon. Sardigna's on the bottom, like Italy's always been.
Take that, Italy!
Ryan Baker
That sounds great except I already have a setting It is basically the Real World with a relatively small group of crazy strong martial artists. Think Street Fighter, The Breaker, or King of Fighters What I want to do is add in the blatant supernatural shit that until now was myth, rumor and background
They know chi and shit is real and makes you superhuman if you know what they are doing, but this would be like if they went to a tournament and found out that Immortal Sorcerers and monsters and other dimensions are all also real
Jackson Stewart
Use the setting of ''Warlock of the Magus World'' then. It has all you need.
Tyler Robinson
Okay I feel you aren't picking up what I'm putting down, I don't want a setting I don't really want any ideas about shit to do in the game though that is always welcome
What I wanted was >What do you guy's think about a xianxia game set in a sort of modern day setting? And then I gave an example of me doing just that
Xavier Adams
I think it works but needs to take into account the effect of Xianxia powerlevels etc. affecting normal society.
Power-levels need to be thought through.
You said you are introducing Sorcerry and mythical creatures later on as well?
Isaiah Hill
I'm honestly surprised how rarely Thunderbolt Fantasy gets mentioned in these threads, because it's pure Xianxia.
Nicholas Hill
Kylie Chan's Wudang and Dark Serpent series is about this. Lots of fun - but the latter books are something of a slog as the more advanced Taoist thought processes are very simplistic and difficult to write well and make interesting.
Gabriel Clark
>ou said you are introducing Sorcerry and mythical creatures later on as well Yes
I plan on having them exist mostly in separate dimensions only accessible to those who have the right level of cultivation or know the right paths. You know the classic Xianxia trope of "Oh, you're the baddest ass in your world? Well you ain't shit here". The planned intro to all this new stuff is that the Old Master they have been taking advice from is really an Immortal Cultivator and they get roped into some bullshit of his.
The players would essentially be starting from around the bottom again. I plan to take them back to their earlier stats and change what all the values of difficulty checks entail
All in all it wouldn't be entirely out of place given the tone of the setting, I once had the players fight a squad of US Soldiers trained to be Xia, essentially the kung-fu version of this youtube.com/watch?v=bAU33jYa-yE
