Hey Veeky Forums! What’s your favorite martial arts rpg and why? Looking for something that can handle anything from 13 Assassins to Big Trouble in Little China to John Wick and more.
I will note that trying to read GURPS 4E anything makes my head hurt. It makes me feel stupid and I played a lot of 3E!
Feng Shui is awesome, if rather silly by default.
If only I'd gotten to play more than one session
Feng shui 2, it does every thing you want and at the same time to.
Can you tell me more about it and why you like it better than other systems? And thanks!
Legends of the Wulin is my absolute favourite martial arts RPG, but it has a lot of problems. It's unique in marrying a narrativist flair with a crunchy, granular and satisfying combat system that goes against a lot of standard assumptions, right down to reversing the order of rolling and declaration- You roll your dice first, and declare actions second, with the rather unique systemic trait of letting you make multiple distinct actions every time you roll a dicepool.
The downside is that the core book is fucking abysmally edited, with key rules left out, contradicted or otherwise obfuscated, making it a hell of a lot harder to learn and use than it really should be, on top of some balance issues with core Kung Fu styles. A fan supplement the Half Burnt Manual helps a bit, but it's still a system with a lot of problems.
Would it handle more modern action hero 80s movies stuff as well?
With a bit of refluffing, sure. I've used it for modern era martial arts games before.
I'm partial to Joints & Jivers because your hair, clothing, and sunglasses act as HP and affect your ability to fight.
>get punched
>lose sunglasses
>win fight
>take your opponent's sunglasses that were better than yours
Blood and fist, d20 modern.
Legends of the Wulin
You post this everywhere user, why haven't you tried making fixes to LotW?
But do you get combat bonuses for having your shirt torn off?
I’ve seen that recommended before. How does it improve standard D20 combat?
Not sure what else I’d use it for, but damn if this ain’t I’m Gonna Git You Sucka the RPG!
I'm working on them, but it's a long road.
I do also try not to spam it too much, I only post about it where it seems directly appropriate.
Do you have a group that works on it like the half burnt manual? Like a discord?
I've got a few friends I collaborate with, but nothing big or official like that yet. Most of us are also currently in the middle of other projects, so we can't divide our focus too much.
>I will note that trying to read GURPS 4E anything makes my head hurt
If you still want to try out GURPS, just read GURPS lite, much easier to read
Otherwise, try out either Feng Shui (Awesome light action RPG) or Joints and Jivers (Goofy kung fu movie RPG)
No offense, but sounds doomed.
Might be, but we're still taking a crack at it
I’ve tried it, and I agree that Lite is easier to look at, my problem is when I try to move on to other things in the line. The constant referencing, stat blocks, and templates all hurt my eyes and brain. Actually, the templates kill me. Maybe I didn’t put enough points in my IQ...
>Maybe I didn’t put enough points in my IQ...
Hey dude, don't be down on yourself. You're just not autistic as us GURPS fans
I love GURPS but frankly it reads like a mechanical manual, so I don't blame you for not being able to make much sense of it.
You don't really need templates, they're just there to make things easier. If you still WANT to try GURPS, hop on over to /gurpsgen/ and fire away all those questions. For the game you want to run right now however....
GURPS lite is good if you want to run a low fantasy, historic or modern game, but it you would really need Martial Arts if you want a proper Kung Fu game, and in my opinion Martials Arts is a bit of a fuckfest when it comes to formatting
Just try out FATE / Feng Shui for now, much less of a headache
>Looking for something that can handle anything from 13 Assassins to Big Trouble in Little China to John Wick and more
This may as well be written on Feng Shui 2's cover. It's a straightforward game, using only d6s, and most checks are d6 - d6 + the relevant ability score. Everyone starts powerful, but in dramatically different ways. And even if you're doing something that's not on your character sheet the 'default' bonus is 7, which is "above average".
It's way focused on cinematic action. Even your ability to act in combat is measured in camera shots, and as you spend them you describe the shots that make up what you're doing. Laying into a guy with your martial arts? You know that's three shots, so you know the level of detail you throw out there and sorts the ways you can have that interact with the environment. It's an easy-to-pickup hook to help get people talking the talk and walking the walk.
The only sorta-downside is that a lot of it's presented with a setting baked in, but that's pretty trivial to ignore. It's a pretty fun setting, it's basically the 'secret mystic war' stuff from Big Trouble in Little China, plus options for time travel and a Kung-Fu Mad Max future.
There are 36 character types, and they have a free PDF with 1/3 of them, see attached. Skim through and you'll probably see a few that you really like. John Wick is a Killer, Jack Burton is an Everyday Hero.
I want to ______ the gene freak
Wasn't some user working on a Hack or something. I think it was more indian in setting aswell as scifi, but i can't remember the name of it unfortunately.
Tian Shang, by someone going under the name Mushroom Press. It looks interesting, if a rather different beast.
Not who you are talking to but how moddable are those archetypes? I'm pondering a character I've had sitting about for quite a while now that is a hong kong police detective with magical talent. Which almost perfectly fits into the Magic cop minus the fact that I imagined them more the sort for martial arts than gunplay.
OP here. Feng Shui is looking pretty sweet. Would you recommend the 1st or 2nd edition? know the first had a lot of books available.
Legends of Wulin sounds good and is a pretty book to look at, but the system and what I've heard of it, I'm just not sure I can get my group to buy off on actually, you know, learning something that takes effort. I'm the guy that enables them by buying the books, learning the system, and holding their hands. Sucks for me, but keeps the group alive.
And thanks for the GURPS rundown. I'll definitely have to take another look at some point and keep gurpsgen in mind. I don't know if it's not that I'm not autistic enough, just maybe not about rpgs? You should see my Hammer horror collection. Talk about autism....
Oh wow, that looks cool. It's not really a different beast from what I'm reading. It even has input from LotW's creator.
LotW has rules like a swan dance, but plays very unwell in actual play. A lot of systems can't be judged by reading the rules.
What makes it play unwell in your opinion? Usually i only hear good things about it except for book layout.
2e Feng Shui is just 1e but better, and with more content, so go with 2e
LotW is really a hit or miss, pirate it and see if you like it
> I don't know if it's not that I'm not autistic enough
Trust me buddy, it's a whole new level for GURPS
From everything posted so far, I think Feng Shui would be the best fit for you
Not the person you're responding to, but the rules are kind off in a lot of annoying little ways you can only really learn via experience. You can adjust to make it all run great, but actually learning to run the system can be a right arse.
In general, they're pretty easy to tweak without causing any problems. In your case it's as easy as swapping Guns for Martial Arts. You could still have them start with the pistol, so they have a ranged option.
It's death by a thousand cuts, especially for non-combat skills. There's a lot of things that just don't quite work right, whether probability or from meeting players expectations.
There's a reason people are always saying stuff like >it's still a system with a lot of problems
Quick question: does Feng Shui have a bestiary? Hopping vampires?
Back in the 90s I played a great mystic martial arts game using 3rd edition Champions with the "Ninja Hero" supplement.
I considered Hero. Played a wuxia style game at a con once and had a blast. They do have some pretty good splats with Ninja Hero and the Asian Bestiaries.
I’m just not sure I can do the system justice if GURPS 4E makes my head spin.
Yes, and yes.
And here's the bigger, badder one it mentions, because why not.
Also I have no idea why the same screengrab method gave me two different file types.
I like A Wanderer's Romance. It's a little more chill than your 80s Brucesploitation movie, but I like that it tackles the philosophical side of martial arts moreso than the fighting. Your stats in it are all about maintaining elemental balance within yourself and keeping yourself focused and grounded by practicing other activities during downtime--calligraphy, tea ceremonies, horsemanship, and so forth.
Fights are often decided before they even start, and things like which character has most recently learned a lesson, or where the fight takes place, play as much of a role in its resolution as the stats and fighting styles of the combatants.
Tian Shang looks like the perfect RPG world for kill six billion demons
While we're here, tell me about your kungfu tales, Veeky Forums
Wanderer's Romance also has plenty of different styles and it is quick and easy to read. Also it's free.
Speaking of Martial Arts RPGs, I'd like to recommend Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate. It's written by a wuxia film fan, so there's tons of detail in it. All of the shit you see in a martial arts film is there as a technique. It's also basically free.
Lots of good stuff here. I think with Feng Shui I may finally be able to play out my two favorite movies, Big Trouble in Little China and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires!
Oh crap, and Shang Chi Master of Kung Fu too! Look out Fu Manchu!
But which system would be best for Jackie chan adventures?
Just opened the FS2 PDF a bit ago, and the guy who created Jackie Chan Adventures wrote the forward about how much he loves Feng Shui and Feng Shui 2.
I'm not certain how I'd handle the talismans (I'm only superficially aware of the show in general). It's probably as simple as giving the wielder one or two free shticks, and maybe a +1 to certain types of actions.
Wow, that is pretty cool and not what I expected for an answer.
i'm pretty sure the Kill 6 Billion Demons RPG is the perfect RPG world for Kill 6 Billion Demons
both just happen to be the exact same inspiration pool that Exalted also drinks deep of.
The K6BD rpg is PbtA, it's definitely not as good of a system for the setting, even if the setting is pre-transferred for you.
Does Exalted have a big Indian vibe? I always saw it as more western-oriental like Avatar.
Exalted is more akin to western mythology with a sprinkling of vaguely asain stuff in there too. And a lot of trashy anime.
There is a free PDF in Atlas Games that adapt all NPCs in all supplements of 1e to 2e so you can use the books on the other edition. Even if you don't have the supplements it's a way to get a ton of NPCs to use.
thanks!
That's a good idea, I'll definitely grab that.
Substantiate this opinion. The biggest hurdle I've ever experienced running LoTW is getting other people to grasp what a Wave or a Minor Action is.
3rd Ed Champions is pretty simple, at least the actual gameplay. Character creation can be pretty dense, due to the large number of options, but a GM can pare that down considerably for the genre you're looking at.
I’d be the GM unfortunately. But I hadn’t thought of earlier editions. I do recall seeing a 2nd or 3rd recently and was shocked how thin it was compared to 5th. Is it easy to take new material, like Ninja Hero, and backport it?
Anybody have any good adventure ideas for a martial arts campaign?