So I'm running a Kung-fu story game for my group, specifically requested to be a pile of cliches. They just met the old hermit master of the forbidden school, and have convinced him to train them so they can become Kung fu champion and regain their lost honor.
What are some interesting training events for them to roleplay out?
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Gotta do the thing where they go on some kind of tricky drug trip/meditation/vision quest and have to face some manifestation of themselves or their greatest fears.
Ah! That's good! Thank you.
Need some more though.
Oldest, most shriveled and somewhat infirm teacher guy who can barely walk fights like a hyperactive flying monkey and kicks everything's ass. See: Yoda, Master Virtuvius
Pair of twins who fight in perfect sync. If one gets beat the other goes basically catatonic.
One guy fights like a hundred guys, defeats them with ease.
Take inspiration from actual kung fu movies user. Have the master send them through a series of training room ala 36 chambers of shaolin. Also you could have them travel up a trea herous mountain path to meet with another master to help them unlock their true potential. Fighting trials along the way.
You also need to have some sort of rival school or a powerful kung fu master looking to take control of the kung fu world.
Anyone's have that greentext for the user who went into crazy detail on wuxia fantasy stuff?
Here I go again.
Based user.
Watch Kung Pow and copy everything
That's basically the plan, yeah. I'm looking for training ideas specifically that would be fun to roleplay through. As much as I like waxing cars and carrying water uphill, its kind of a pointless challenge at tabletop while everyone eats cheetos and drinks mountain dew.
>36 chambers of shaolin
intrigued. Can you elaborate?
>mountain path... Fighting trials along the way
what sort of trials? Remember, their kung fu is weak at this point. I don't want to kill them.
Like, are you going for over the top western parody comedy shenanigans? Or are you honestly trying to imitate Asian kung fu stories? The latter is a little camp, but not nearly to the degree of western examples and honestly does take itself seriously.
If you're trying to go for a completely over the top Kung Fury kind of thing, just have them wrestle progressively more ridiculous creatures until they can suplex a train.
If you're looking for something more grounded and more authentic, I'd focus more on actually building a bond with their mentor. When you become someone's disciple in Wuxia, they basically adopt you as a son. You're supposed to show more loyalty to them than your own parents, and they're the person you ask for permission when you want to marry or whatever. So it's really important to foster a genuine relationship with the player character for the right kind of flavour.
And when it comes to the separation of martial arts schools, a lot of the time, it comes down to less technique, and more philosophy. So it's important to teach them whatever brand of philosophy and morality this particular school uses, just as much as they actually learn how to punch hard. Of course, this doesn't just have to be a dry discussion either. It can be made dynamic depending on what values the Master is trying to impart.
Like if the Master was going for a, "You must let the Chi guide your actions. An enemy can't read you if even you don't know what you're going to do next" kind of deal, then he might set forth a simple looking boring task, and then every time it's completed, say it's not done right. To see if the pupil will do something that surprises him.
It's a screen cap. You'd have to get the original user who wrote it to explain. A lot of these sources are impossible to obtain outside of Chinese sites, and a lot of them are kinda difficult to understand even for someone who speaks Chinese.
Thanks.
An add-on:
>The most famous wuxia trap is probably the House of Traps, a famous building/tower that is literally full of traps (and mostly serves as the Wuxia equivalent of Dungeon). The original one was conceptualised during Qing Dynasty/19th century and comes with a pressure activated pitfall trap full of sharp implements, a bronze-wired net that prevents the victim from climbing out of the pit (using kungfu high jump, for example), and a contingent of archers that only purpose is to rain more arrows into the pitfall, just to make sure whoever that fall into the trap is deader than dead. The idea become so popular that later and modern Wuxia writers frequently incorporate their own version of House of Traps, with increasingly elaborate and impossible traps, even outright clockpunk ones.
>From the modern Wuxia side, there's a legend about Shaolin Temple that if you joined the sect but wanted to leave later without explicit permission, you have to beat the "eighteen bronze men formation" challenge (named after the Buddhist Eighteen Arhats). Depending on the writer, these bronze men can be as mundane as eighteen particularly powerful kungfu monks, monks clad in full body bronze armours, to "fixed clockwork training dummy that punch back at you using pre-programmed kungfu", to fully mobile kungfu automata, to supernatural actual Arhats. Usually you must utilise what you learned from the Temple in a specific way to defeat the formation. All Chinese automata are clockwork/clock punk or "magic", with no apparent power source, but usually with a hidden on/off switch.
The one guy who fights a hundred is literally incapable of fighting only one opponent
Not that user, but I can help a little.
>36 chambers of shaolin
>intrigued. Can you elaborate?
According to legend/at least one famous martial arts movie, the shaolin temple has 36 chambers, each a specialized training room and test that you have to pass before moving to the next. en.wikipedia.org
The most used idea is a chamber with a lowered floor and wooden or bamboo poles sticking out of it, so that the tops of the poles are at level with the entrance and exit and you have to walk and jump from pole to pole while keeping your balance.
>mountain path... Fighting trials along the way
>what sort of trials? Remember, their kung fu is weak at this point. I don't want to kill them.
Usually on these kind of stories at midpoint of the training, the master sends the student to train with his friend a mountain hermit. This usually includes
>Meditating under a waterfall, with the hermit ramdomly distracting you and hitting you for being until you learn to ignore his distractions.
>Being thrown into a cave full of snakes, centipedes or or other small danegorus animals and told to meditate so you'll be so calm the animals will ignore you. Keep meditating as you walk out of the cave.
>Beat up a tree until you can chop down trees with your fist
>Fish with your bare hands, just grab them out of the water.
>Chase down the little monkey with different fur amidst the dozens of other monkeys. You don't eat until you bring that monkey back.
>Fighting ranmdom animals/monsters the master throws at you. If you can't take it master is there to save you. Except the one time you think it's this, but it really is a lost bear and master didn't even know you were getting mauled.
How fantasy is the setting and the forbidden school? High magic, low magic, semi-realistic?
Does the old hermit have a secret magic temple to train them in, or just the nature around the mountain?
Does the martial art favors punches, kicks, grappling, all of them? Does it have Chi/Ki/Chakra/Cosmos/etc? Can they learn special moves like shooting ki, acunputure points, or jump high?
There's a difference between Jackie Chan holding weights in horse stance with blades strapped to his arms so he won't lower them and Ranma being repeatedly insulted while making a specific kata so he can learn how to make hurricanes.
Carry a bucket of water up the mountain to the temple without spilling a drop. Meanwhile the master and possibly other students/acolytes are doing everything in their power to get you to spill water. This exercise can build strength and stamina from carrying the bucket, build dexterity from keeping it steady, and gets the students thinking on their feet on how to avoid the master.
Observe the motions and behavior of a specific wild animal, usually dangerous and usually different animals for each student. Don't let the animals notice you though. The animals around the teacher's place are unnaturally aggressive. This exercise teaches the students stealth, observation, and to connect with nature while possibly influencing their fighting styles and philosophies.
The master is holding a small item (usually a pebble, bell, or something similar) and the students are collectively challenged to get it away from the master. Whoever gets it is allowed to relax for the rest of the day while everyone else is out through an extreme workout. This exercise tests what the students can currently do. Additionally, at first it comes off as a free-for-all of who gets the item, but one-on-one they're unlikely to get it from the master. In this way this can also test their collective ability to cooperate and strategize.
Low magic. The forbidden school is the dim mak/qigong school, but still low magic even by Wuxia genre standards. Other supernatural elements are significantly limited, but I may include some Tao mysticism here and there. Maybe some sort of spiritual monster.
just go see that teen titans episode where robin goes up the mountain
If you haven't seen 36 Chambers I highly recommend you do.
The actual story is kinda whack but the journey there is classic.
If you don't want to, then at the very least make sure that if your characters want to eat they have to do so using chopsticks to eat rice whilst standing on logs floating in water.
>House of Traps, a famous building/tower that is literally full of traps
>Traps
Tee hee
Have them sit beneath a tree meditating and catch the first leaf that falls. It teaches patience in waiting up to several days or even weeks for the leaf to fall and precision and awareness in noticing it falling with your eyes closed.
Sword-surfing bump
Don't forget the duo of twin brothers martial masters, ne without arms and the other without legs.
Kill Bill, second part has this thing exactly. Kill Bill is whacky, but nice. Also ideas from some of my homebrewn shit:
Endurance:
Standing for hours in uncomfortable position.
Huge fucking stairs, going up and down to bring water or whatever.
Sitting under cold waterfall.
Self-flagellation.
Punching pot full of hot sand\ashes, not the pot itself, but sand.
Alpinism.
Sleeping on stone, then on piles of small stones, then on deck with nails.
Strength is literall chinese-themed wanky gym.
Agility\coordination:
Walking on sticks tied to legs. Then walking on only one stick. One stick is not tied, and pupil can grab it with hands, but he cant step on horizontal surfaces.
Catching flies\leaves with chopsticks.
Juggling.
Monkeying on special wall.
Dodging beatings with staves, sitting inside pit.
Pupil can't go to the standard kitchen\toilet\etc, they must go to same rooms placed in retarded location.
Catching fish with hands.
Walking on hands. For hours.
Doing shit with feet insted of hands. For days.
Pushing through tight places.
Fighting with mechanisms.
Give me time and I'll write about mental practices and styles of fighting.