Thread 96712762

Before I start I want to say this isn't a cultivation-themed game, fuck that.
I want to run a game set in (basically) Mythic China with all the bullshit that comes with that: Evil eunuchs, tyrannical emperors, seductive court ladies, rebellious peasants, and the party roaming the world as wandering heroes who are constantly stirring up shit.
What do I have to keep in mind to make things feel 'authentic'? I only have wuxia movies to go on, to be honest, and existing systems like Weapons of the Gods seem way too complicated to use.

The closest genre I know is Romance of The Three Kingdoms and that relied heavily on emphasizing the greatness of men and what they can achieve through force of will.

>>96712762 (OP)
There's really nothing to do but consume more media.

What made it click for me was reading stuff by Jin Yong, Gu Long, Louis Cha, and Water Margin. All highly entertaining authors and works, all unique in their own ways, with more than enough content to give you a fairly comprehensive feel for wuxia as a whole.

>>96712772
Yeah, I really want to capture that RotK vibe, if that makes sense.

>>96712762 (OP)
>Mythic China with all the bullshit that comes with that: Evil eunuchs, tyrannical emperors, seductive court ladies, rebellious peasants, and the party roaming the world as wandering heroes who are constantly stirring up shit.
Probably pick an era of Chinese history during the fall of a dynasty, they usually involve a combination of those, and learn about it for inspiration.
>>96712772
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a good example of one such era, although RotK is less wandering heroes and more of a story of great men attempting to unite China and the struggle between them. Liu Bei and his followers were basically wandering warriors that started fighting yellow turban rebels as a militiaman, and slowly became more prominent as he bounced from serving lord to lord over the years.
>>96712808
Thunderbolt Fantasy is also good inspiration, especially if you want a higher fantasy wuxia (that doesn't involve cultivation) with magic, demons, and mystical creatures. I'm still disappointed Season 5 got canned and Season 4 was rushed.

>>96712840
>Thunderbolt Fantasy is also good inspiration
It's a great show, maybe even one of the best, but it's severely lacking in chineseisms.

>>96712762 (OP)
Watching media based on the actual time period would do the trick.

Granted, I imagine everyone else has already suggested the really shit like Water Margin or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so I'm going to bite the bullet and turn in my man card by suggesting you consider watching a Chinese palace drama if you can stand it and/or find them subtitled. If you want authentic Chinese melodrama and social backstabbing in between all the gory battles and death poems, there's your prime genre of choice.

>>96712888
*really good shit, natch

Though now that I think of it, you could also catch any of the adaptations of The Legend of the Condor Heroes or Legend of the White Snake too. Those tend to be pretty good.

One thing you probably want to focus on to keep it "authentic" is to really emphasize NPCs (and ideally players) maintaining face/personal honor, especially when various oaths and loyalties intersect in ways that cannot coexist. Shit like "Your mentor and my mentor were sworn enemies, and as such we are sworn enemies, even though we both serve the same lord."

That said, I can't think of any systems that particularly model that off the top of my head.

>>96712888
Yeah pretty much, one of those concubine dramas are good.

For inspiration, the non-fiction book The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, is an excellent look at how nuts the Chinese tribute system were and treasures they valued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjNpRbNdR7E

Would you add elements of this era?

>>96712762 (OP)
Let's do it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Oq-Md4SbOs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnSsgRJmsCc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qVhOaRBSY

>>96712762 (OP)
Are you actually setting it in a historical China or just made up not!China?

>>96712843
>chineseisms

>>96725924
Probably just means some of the ridiculous slang and proverbs found in shitty cultivation novels

>>96725949
Nice meme. I mean that sincerely.

>>96725924
>>96725949
It's not about the memes, it's about what these memes stem from. You have to learn this if you want to come off authentic.

>>96712762 (OP)
Are we talking authentic for the historical setting? Or authentic as in to the Wuxia genre?

>>96712762 (OP)
You know, the Chinese FMV game 'Road to Princess' is basically exactly what you're looking for, it's about Wu Zetian.

I'm going to be the guy to say it. Exalted 3e is perfect for this kind of game.

>>96731994
no it isn't

>>96729924
That's not really a Wuxia story, it's like saying Downtown Abby is a gritty WW1 epic

>>96731994

Exalted is way too high powered for this kind of game. I've tried and it didn't really work out. You could do xianxia with Exalted, but not wuxia.

>>96712762 (OP)
>What do I have to keep in mind to make things feel 'authentic'?
Delicious long pig meat buns.

>>96733041
exalted isn't high powered at all

Pretty sure Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades can help you out

>>96732053
>Downtown Abby

>>96733750
>Exalted is low powered
>The game where every PC is imbued with a small shard of divinity and the basic splat has such achievements as literally ruling the world at one point and killing the primordial gods of the setting.

I would call this bait, but that would denigrate actual bait.

>>96735470
nogame buzzwords

in actual play the only time they're "broken" is if you abuse the shitty rules in unintended ways (none of which are taken into account by the setting's lore)

>>96735481
Oh, you're one of those faggots that confuses a game's internal balance for actual power level. Yeah, sure, all the Exalts are broadly within the same power level, but that doesn't change the fact that they are literally supernatural demigods that can fight off mobs of mortals single-handedly. I guess as long as you don't use excellencies or any of your other charms, Exalted is low-powered, sure, but that's ignoring the basic premise of the game. Which I guess you would have known, if you actually played any edition of Exalted, even fucking Essence which is genuinely the closest that Exalted has ever gotten to low powered, mostly because they wrote it so that Dragonblooded can play alongside the Celestial Exalts and not be constantly mogged, and even then it's still pretty fucking high powered.

>>96733072
You eat someone's concubine, ONE TIME, and you never get to live it down. Fuck man, you're like my arm; you know that right?

>>96735525
>Oh, you're one of those faggots that confuses a game's internal balance for actual power level
nah that's you

Here's some games to look at:
Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades
Far West
If you're the guy doing a concubine thriller in the Forbidden City then I can offer the idea of watching The Last Emperor.
Pick up and read some books by Pearl S. Buck too.

>>96735535

I accept your concession, nogames

>>96735551
>>96735545

Fuck, I was an asshole at the wrong anon. You're cool, concubine cannibal guy.

>>96735525
>Exalted
White Wolf wrecked the hobby. Fuck those bastards forever.

>>96735525
>excellencies
I get to be twice as good as a normal person for a few times a day, holy FUARKKKK such power!

>geography measured in billions and trillions of miles
>heaven-defying cheat tools
>tournament arcs
>mystic realm arcs
>more tournament arcs
>auction arcs
>outcast/amnesiac with famous father/mother/clan
>x-colored, yin-yang, five-elements tribulation/divine lightning at regular intervals
>impossibly beautiful female companion/weapon/spirit/rival/wife
>blood spraying out of mouth
>tumbling backwards x distance, like a kite with its string cut
>intense sense of deadly crisis
>jade-like skin/twin peaks/peerless beauty in every city/world/realm, each somehow more peerless than the last
>x girl's primordial yin is a perfect cultivation furnace for young master y
>x incense sticks of time
>I, your father/grandfather am not someone you can afford to offend
>trash believes he can jump cultivation levels to fight esteemed young master
>I will give you this face today
>frog in a well, could not recognize mt. tai, eyes but cannot see
>you mildly inconvenienced me, so I will cripple your cultivation, kill your entire family and dig out your ancestor's graves
>MC, you are going too far
>don't know whether to laugh or cry
>time it takes a spark to fly off a piece of flint
>takes some time to describe, but happened in an instant
>x flicking his sleeve
>this cultivation ground in x world/realm is y times better than the one I just left, twice the results with half the effort
>raping cute girls to cure their incurable illnesses

>didn't know whether to laugh or cry
>wry smile
>time it takes for an incense stick to burn
>trash from the XYZ clan!
>her flawless white/jade-like skin
>have eyes but cant see mt tai
>the difference between heaven and earth
>even though it takes a while to describe something, it happened within the span of a single breath/moment
>bitter smile
>young master, you dare?
>I, your father/grandfather
>you are courting death
>how dare you not give me my face
>spits blood/coughs up blood
>arrogant young master

>>96735589

>auction arcs
>evil uncle/elder that wants to take over the clan/sect
>mother is concubine that was bullied to death by main wife and was probably from famous sect/clan
>awesome immediate family, shitty relatives
>outer/inner/core disciples
>sect contribution points
>famous powerful mentor that saves the MC at the last minute

1 - MC is eating at a restaurant when an arrogant young master arrives. Random side characters talk about how awesome the young master is, how he is one in a million, a dragon among men, yadda yadda.

2 - Young master wants MC's table to which MC refuses causing random side characters to think MC is an idiot, and he is gonna get beaten up, crippled, yadda yadda.

3 - Young master takes it as an insult, MC faceslap him, "You're courting death", random side characters talk.

4 - Young master attacks, random side characters say MC will die, MC easily blocks.

5 - "That was just luck, take this", random side characters say this time MC will die, MC blocks it once again.

6 - "You have some ability, but this is the end of it. Take my ultimate attack" RSC say THIS time MC dies, MC Blocks once again.

7 - "How is this possible!?", no one can believe their eyes, "Now taste my attack."

8 - "MC may have some ability to defend, but defeating young master won't be that easy."

9 - "My god, he defeated young master then crippled him. And MC took all his items and clothes to humiliate him. And the young master has a tiny little dick."

10 - "How dare you do this to me, my uncle/father/grandfather will avenge this offense."

Repeat 4 to 10 against uncle/father/grandfather

Rinse and repeat when done, this time changing table at a restaurant for an item at an auction/an item at a shop/a rare treasure and add some heavenly beauties in between.

Also, each paragraph was a chapter that you paid SS to read.

>>96735591

Some mundane activities that are easy to do, but extremely difficult to do WELL. Can only be accomplished with insane amounts of Qi, Energy, Essence or Intents (whatever that means) and what-have-yous.

Sitting down and meditating in hostile environments (extremely hot, extremely cold, infested with ghosts).

Painting or practicing calligraphy. You think it's easy? Nope! Look at this letter "SWORD." Each stroke carries the sword intents of a warrior with thousands of years of experience! Just looking at this one character can make you level up eleventy times in sword use, and also makes you amazing in bed!

Climbing a set of stairs. The higher you climb, the higher the pressure/ heat/ blah blah blah that will test your fortitude and willpower and whatchamacallit (I shit you not: Tales of Demons and Gods had like a dozen chapters just focusing on a stair-climbing competition).

No matter how awesome or epic the description is, eventually you will sit back and realize you just watch a bunch of people doing inane shit and wonder why you wasted your time reading about them. Excellent entertainment value!

Why do they gotta explain the entire cultivation process every couple chapters? That shit is retarded. Or, chapter starts, MC starts a sword swing, explains everything about sword from forging to enchants, explain years of practice of style of swing, sword connects, chapter ends. Wouldn't be so bad, except the previous 100 chapters explained all that in detail. Explaining the cultivation process over and over again is like if an alien were trying to write a story about humans, and felt the need to explain puberty ever 5 chapters, just in case you didn't understand it the first time it was explained.

>>96735597

Your character is sitting down alone at a table, where dragons and snakes intermingle.

An arrogant young master enters the establishment. Others present, including a peerless beauty with jade-like skin and eyes like limpid autumn water, comment on how the young master is a dragon among men, who produces clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another.

After tens breaths of time, the arrogant young master bares fangs and brandishes claws. The young master, as your character's grandfather, demands that your character vacate the table, lest your character court death.

How does your character surmount these winds and waves, and overturn heaven and earth?

>>96735602

there are two problems with the majority of chink shit (I still read the ones that avoid these problems tho):
>1: cultivation is cancer.
Worse than rpg systems. I could not give a fuck if grand junior elder young master dong is one of the top youngsters of the later outer ki grand blossoming heavenly soul stage and thus would normally destroy our protag, who is only of beginning inner ki grand budding heavenly body stage
it's all fucking annoying. At least with rpg systems you get just "oh no he's level 40 and the protag is level 10" without the fucking grandiose prose.
>2: the supporting cast is almost non-existant
while reading jap light novels, the protag almost always is walking around with a friend/harem member who he can talk to, a lot of chink shit will spend 20 chapters in a row with nothing but the protag inner dialogue.
>3: chinks are monsters
too many chink protags are massive fucking assholes, and everyone who doesn't like them is portrayed as moustache-twirling villains
>4: chinese love repeating phrases
your grandaddy me is coughing blood after seeing all those maidens with jade-like skin
jap novels also have the same problem, but I'll admit I'm a hipocrite and say for some reason "it can't be helped", "he's fast" and other jap cliches aren't as annoying to me

The chink novels that aren't xianxia tend to be much better, like amber sword, which while still having flaws, doesn't really have to deal with most of these

>>96735608

I Shall Seal the Heavens has a word count of 3.3 million words.
https://twitter.com/deathbladeissth/status/882429642346450945?lang=en

For comparison, the Wheel of Time has 4,082,987 words across 15 books.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/6caja4/what_is_the_longest_fantasy_series_by_wordcount/

What are the riveting developments to be found across ISSTH's 3.3 million words?

https://i-shall-seal-the-heavens.fandom.com/wiki/Meng_Hao/Cultivation

Qi Condensation First Layer — Chapter 3
Qi Condensation Second Layer — Chapter 7
Qi Condensation Third Layer — Chapter 9
Qi Condensation Fourth Layer — Chapter 14
Qi Condensation Fifth Layer — Chapter 22
Qi Condensation Sixth Layer — Chapter 25
Qi Condensation Seventh Layer — Chapter 44
Qi Condensation Eighth Layer — Chapter 55
Qi Condensation Ninth Layer — Chapter 71
Qi Condensation Tenth Layer — Chapter 86
Qi Condensation Eleventh Layer — Chapter 87
Qi Condensation Twelfth Layer — Chapter 87
Qi Condensation Thirteenth Layer — Chapter 88

First Dao Pillar — Chapter 99
Second Dao Pillar — Chapter 132
Third Dao Pillar — Chapter 132
Fourth Dao Pillar — Chapter 174
Fifth Dao Pillar — Chapter 198
Sixth Dao Pillar — Chapter 228
Seventh Dao Pillar — Chapter 263
Eighth Dao Pillar — Chapter 265
Ninth Dao Pillar — Chapter 272
Tenth Dao Pillar — Chapter 273

Early Core Formation — Chapter 304
Mid Core Formation — Chapter 338
Late Core Formation — Chapter 386
Wood - Greenwood Tree Totem — Chapter 409
Metal - Golden Crow Totem — Chapter 432
Fire - East Pill Everburning Flame Totem — Chapter 449
Earth - Frost Soil Totem — Chapter 473
Water (Life) - Blood Totem — Chapter 513
Water (Death) - Violet Sea Totem — Chapter 521

>>96735613

First Nascent Soul — Chapter 522
Second Nascent Soul — Chapter 522
Third Nascent Soul — Chapter 522
Fourth Nascent Soul — Chapter 522
Fifth Nascent Soul — Chapter 522
Sixth Nascent Soul — Chapter 523
Seventh Nascent Soul — Chapter 527
Eighth Nascent Soul — Chapter 603
Ninth Nascent Soul — Chapter 626

First Spirit Severing — Chapter 677
Second Spirit Severing — Chapter 693

I am not going to bother with the rest. There are a total of 1,614 chapters.

https://i-shall-seal-the-heavens.fandom.com/wiki/Bag_of_holding
>Bags with varying inner storage. It is a spatial storage bag that cultivators use to store pills, magical items, scriptures, spirit stones, herbal plants and other miscellaneous items related to cultivation.
>Bag of Cosmos - substantially bigger than a bag of holding; inner storage is big enough to store a mountain

Never forget that Meng Hao has something as utilitarian as a Bag of Holding.

>>96735615

For what it's worth, a lot of the more recent novels are derivative. They're the equivalent of what those awful LitRPG novels are to fantasy novels. For instance, a really old martial arts novel that was adapted into 'Secret Battles of His Majesty' had a monk who tried to learn a martial art that would let him assassinate the king. He manages to, after tremendous suffering.

It turns out that the ultimate martial art gives him a single month to live. He storms the capital, battles his master (who sided with the Emperor) to near-death, and they agree to fight together to kill the tyrant. When they burst into his room, they're both promptly killed by his (formerly unseen) bodyguard, a sexy female martial artist held back for just this eventuality. The series ends with their deaths and his ascension to the throne, whereupon he rules harshly but justly for fifty years.

>>96735616
Most modern Wuxia is shit. WTF happened. Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers, and now our modern drivel?
Sad times...

>>96712762 (OP)
>wuxia
>cultivation
Fuck's the difference

>>96735616
What the fuck, this is actually a post I made years ago. Is the bumpfag literally dredging up old posts now?

>>96735672
You didn't notice when despite the thread being about running a wuxia game all his posts are about xanxia and specifically cultivation webnovels?

>>96736000
People hear chinese and pic related flashes before their eyes.

A wise anon once pointed out that if you manage to implement the Chinese cultural concept of face (面子, miànzǐ) right, you may very well have (Western) dragons and kobolds instead of a xia and pearl-jade beauties, but the game would already feel Chinese.
You would need a willing suspension of Western manners and morals because this is the ancient Chinese (and East Asian) art of making a big deal out of the most unimportant shit. *kills you over a disrespectful glance*
>>96735664
By cultivation people mean usually mean xianxia. Protagonists in xianxia attain a way higher power level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O3xlh-P1Uc&t=2m29s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKGd5GUxQ_w&t=52s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi_ZHeb2YUE&t=43s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub1cpd2Qg90&t=2m21s
>>96736000
There's a selection of tropes and phrases that can be found in wuxia too in there, then again one would have to know what they're looking at.

>>96735525
>supernatural demigods that can fight off mobs of mortals single-handedly
That's literally what the Kung Fu warriors do in Wuxia stories. There are charms that let you srand atop trees or run along small wires. There's charms that will let you read by touching the ink on a parchment. That's basically the power level of a wuxia warrior.

>>96712762 (OP)
Wuxia has a lot of emphasis on interpersonal relationships. Being torn between love and duty is classic. Meeting as children, forgetting the encounter, and meeting again as rivals-turned-potential-lovers is also classic.

>>96736149
Some anon posted this guide to the jianghu and wulin a long time ago, I pass it on to you.

Also, Wandering Sword is a great wuxia vidya. Absolutely worth playing and perfectly captures the feel of the genre.

>>96736156
That's the anon I meant in >>96736100 when talking about face.

>>96735608
>all chinks are massive fucking assholes, and everyone who doesn't like them is portrayed as moustache-twirling villains

As someone who both lives in Asia and reads a lot of chinese novels, I have corrected the statement for you.

The Chinese are a nightmare, it's an entire society of brainwashed leftists who lust after capital, power and nouveau riche decadence that they claim to distain.

The Chinese have a weird mix of a superiority complex and inferiority complex - partly this comes from living in a totalitarian state, partly this is a psychology inherent to the Chinese as a culture.

The average Chinese has a distorted view of their own importance in the world and when confronted by something that opposes this view reacts like a toddler - they throw a tantrum either emotional or violent.

Also this:
>>96736100
> You would need a willing suspension of Western manners and morals because this is the Chinese (and East Asian) art of making a big deal out of the most unimportant shit. *kills you over a disrespectful glance*

The Western concept of morality is basically alien to the Chinese. The Koreans and Japanese adopted western morality and norms with Asiatic style - which is why their media is more 'normal' to western audiences. This is because the Japanese and Koreans have had a fairly long time to westernise. The Chinese resisted westernisation and then murdered everyone who was two western in the 1900s and again in the 1950s-60s.

The Chinese, particularly their business and political class have a tendency to act like the robber barons of the Victorian era/Belle Epoch - except the Astors, Vanderbilts and their ilk at least abided by contracts and had the moral shame to at least attempt acts of charity.

You should read some of their novels set in the 70s and 80s to really learn to hate them properly.

>>96736100
>>96736297
The US government apparently is trapped in a mimetic conflict with Chyna.

>>96736297
>it's an entire society of brainwashed leftists who lust after capital, power and nouveau riche decadence that they claim to distain.

What do you mean by leftist? Like they lust after wealth but are unwilling to work for it?

>>96712762 (OP)
Before D&D 3e, there was a prototype specifically made for wuxia games, posted for free by TSR, I think it was called Dragon Fist. If you can find it, it could probably give you some ideas.

>>96712762 (OP)

Try to read the biographies of kings, eunuchs, and philosphers. There's plenty of drama.

Also picrel will help.

BTW why do you dislike cultivation

>>96736863
NTA, but cultivation stories are like LitRGP and isekai shit, the genre is basically Sturgeon's Law's bitch. There's nothing inherently wrong with the idea of kung fu bossing your way to overcoming even the gods, traveling to another world unlike your own, or even mixing elements of one medium with another. But 90% of the attempts to do so are just copying what someone else did and doing it lazier or just plain worse. It's pretty easy and understandable to get tired of reading the same cliches over and over again that were artificially formed due to sloth in the first place.

>>96736863
>BTW why do you dislike cultivation
Because the powerlevels are insane. The source of conflict becomes too abstract to appreciate.
Think of a more 'grounded' fantasy series like The First Law or Game of Thrones. Sir Jamie might be the greatest swordsman in the land, but five guys are a serious threat to him, especially if they jump him.
Meanwhile in a cultivation story, none of that matters. Armies and kingdoms don't matter as much, so the scale of the conflict is completely different when each protagonist can be as powerful as their own rogue state.

>>96736928
>>96736971
Makes sense. Same thing happens with Dragon Bll or late Naruto seasons; the power scale is too high and nothing feels like a threat.

>>96737075
>>96736971
Same, its just, as the other anon so sucintly put it, too abstract.
I think the only one than I liked, than set Power levels and maintained them well, was Reverend Insanity. I kind of like the grind aspect of some cultivation stories, but when they reach the reals of using celestial obejcts as munitions, it kind of just too far.
I really would prefere a Wuxia style in a low powered Xianxia setting desu.

>>96735591
>each paragraph was a chapter that you paid SS to read
This is the most important piece of information in all these posts and also an explanation for half the problems of wuxia/xianxia slop.

>>96712762 (OP)
>wuxia
>cultivation
Fuck's the difference

>>96738219
One is china sword and sorcery, the other is china DBZ

>>96735672
Interesting how he stopped after that post.

>>96738219
Cultivation is Star Wars, The Force unleashed, Wuxia is Dark Forces: Jedi Knight.

>>96735664
Cinematic martial arts in alt history China vs Taoist immortal wizard fantasy. Its like asking the difference between 5e D&D Forgotten Realms and The Three Musketeers.

They're very different.

>>96712762 (OP)
Wandering Heroes of Dragon Gate or Righteous Blood; Ruthless Blades.

>>96712772
Should you just read the books or are one of the many televised adaptations decent?

>>96738598
Star wars is wuxia, Dragon Ball Z is Xianxia. Star Wars have katana-wielding monks with chi powers, Dragon Ball has people who can fly, destroy planets, fight gods, be immortal, supernatural creatures

>>96740834
It's based on it yes.

>>96740834
>Dragon Ball has people who can fly, destroy planets, fight gods, be immortal, supernatural creatures
Yes, the extended Universe of Star Wars has those.

>>96740834
>>96743233
Star Wars is Chambara slashed with war movies, more like it.

>>96743328

Who?

>>96735608
>>96736297
I've heard that Japan's first modern media franchise, the 19th century Satomi Hakkenden (The Tale of Eight Dogs) was basically a Water Margin fanfic that decided "what if instead of 108 Chinese sociopaths we had 8 selflessly heroic samurai who loved each other as brothers"

Also it was insanely influential, to the point where anything from Japan with a group of 5-8 people or orbs in it is probably referencing Hakkenden in some way

>>96712762 (OP)
>What do I have to keep in mind to make things feel 'authentic'?
If you need to ask this question - for any given setting, not just wuxia China - then you shouldn't be running that setting.
And I mean it.
Think about it: you want to run to a specific aesthetic and theme that you are clueless about and your players are potentially clueless about, too. What fucking outcome you expect here to happen, other than fail? There are literally three ways any themed game/campaign can go:
>People are into this stuff and familiar with it, so it's carried on their desire to have it and maintained by their execution
>People THINK they want this stuff, but are clueless, and once the initial, 1-5 session exoticism runs out, it turns into just a colorful paper wrapping
>People realise mid-session that they don't actually want this and it fizzles out after that single session
And like I've said, this covers for any themed game or campaign. If you need to ask, you aren't into this, and thus you are wasting your own time running this

Women in wuxia should fight in Tang Dynasty clothing with cleavage

>>96745971
Also probably the only Chinese dynasty where the women are empowered politically and financially.

Do you think the chinks regret burning down all of the history they once had and abandoning all the many ancient Buddhist temples after the Red Revolution?

All I see chinks doing now as propaganda to awe foreigners is making agrarian village life videos like it's Ancient China.

>>96748779
I'm sure they regret being oppressed, yes

>>96748779
No. They figured out that having a past is politically inconvenient back during the bronze age already.

>>96749591
They really aren't, that's the thing. CR is a perfect safety gauge - "oh, at least it's not as bad as back then". And it's genuinely nowhere near as bad, since oppression takes the form of rather standard censorship and criminal penalties for wrongthink - neither a new concept in China, being an integral part of their culture since at the very least late Zhou dynasty, circa 500 BC

>>96748779
No.
Most of them has no idea, and the handful that do know, genuinely don't care. And keep in mind that at least the revolution is admitted as a failure even by the Party and allowed to be talked about (as opposed to, say, Great Leap Forward)
And what >>96749687 said. This is nothing new in China. Every time any dynasty was solidifying its power base, they did something like that - and if said dynasty lasted longer than a generation, it just became accepted event. The only new part of the Culture Revolution was the fact they did this outside core Han regions, too, but ironically failed to use it for sinicizing them in the aftermath.

Now, remind me, what your blatant baiting has to do with the subject of wuxia games? Other than a really stupid attempt to keep this thread afloat via off-topic, "political" (nobody cares) discussion, of course.

>>96748535
The Yuan dynasty as well, maybe.

>>96750224
No, not really. Han women were twice as oppressed as usually because they had to "protect" them, whereas Mongol women were so separated from the life on any level, their personal freedom was meaningless in the grander context (not to mention Mongols having like 1:100 population disadvantage). Culturally, it was a shitshow. It's a wonder that for all their conservatism, when Ming took over, they became so sexually open (for Chink standards) and not just the sour prudes in tune of later Qing (but Jurchen people were ultra-prude even as nomads, so fucking figure)

>>96736408
I mean that their society espouses Maoism and all the revolutionary struggle nonsense that comes with it. University educated Millennials (the so called Little Pinks) are particularly obnoxious in this regard.

However the same people professing love for People, Party and Red Flag are also obsessed with flashy new money signs of wealth such as luxury cars, fast fashion and the like.

>>96749883
>And what >>96749687 (You) said.
It's a joke. They also had a historic school since the bronze age. Confucianism is literally trying to re-enact a past dynasty and they have on-off practiced systematic archeology as part of that - the longer Confucianism lasted, the less its scholars understood what the fuck that old bastard was talking about, leading to digs and systematic classification of finds in order to maybe figure out what object some old ass chicken scratch on an oracle bone fragment was referring to.

>>96751395
Would you say they're similar to the Western idea of the "champagne socialist"?

>>96758034
No, I don't think they're comparable. A champagne socialist enjoys the wealth of the Western Educated and Landowning classes but through naivety or idealism believes that their (or more accurately your) wealth should be shared with the lesser classes. It's a perversion of the concept of noblesse oblige/aristocratic paternalism with more than a little bit of white saviour syndrome added in.

In champagne socialism there is at least a little bit of a fragment of care for their fellow human beings.

The Chinese have no concept of the greater care for humanity beyond themselves (and maybe their family and clan).

The Little Pinks are closer to those political groups that manipulate the good will of the champagne socialists in order to enrich themselves and buy mansions and fast cars.

China's greatest problem (and the reason the empire keeps falling apart and reforming) is that their culture is an entire culture of manipulation and corruption to get ahead.

>>96751544
Exept it's not really a joke if you know how it played out historically.
Qin did it.
Han did it THREE times
Shu did it
Sui inherited "burned archive" and instantly burned it second time, just to make sure
Tang did that TWICE
Song did that once, and then Southern Song did it again
Ming pretty much went on a hunt for first 80 or so years of the dynasty, to curate the version of history that suited them most.
Ironically the only major dynasty that didn't do this was Yuan and Qing - which were foreigners.

>>96758804
>Ironically the only major dynasty that didn't do this was Yuan and Qing - which were foreigners.
I wonder why that is.

>>96750370
>when Ming took over, they became so sexually open (for Chink standards
Can you elaborate on this? What's the difference between pre-Ming standards and Ming standards?

>>96735585
>A few times a day

This could be leveled at early 1e, but by the time Blade of the Battle Maiden was written in, everything escalated. So in 2e, Exalted got a Charm to reduce the cost of Excellencies, with Solars getting one that could reduce it such that they threw a full one with every roll in the scene at an Essence rating attainable at chargen.

3e is somewhat more subdued about this, but in combat, there's a standard recovery of 5 motes per turn, and there are Charms that provide circumstantial discounts to Excellency effects, so you'll definitely be using it way more than just a few times per day.

>>96712762 (OP)
what separates xianxia from wuxia? How much overlap is there?

Is the former just about powerlevels with a vaguely taoist aesthetic?

>>96735616
>For instance, a really old martial arts novel that was adapted into 'Secret Battles of His Majesty' had a monk who tried to learn a martial art that would let him assassinate the king. He manages to, after tremendous suffering.
>It turns out that the ultimate martial art gives him a single month to live. He storms the capital, battles his master (who sided with the Emperor) to near-death, and they agree to fight together to kill the tyrant. When they burst into his room, they're both promptly killed by his (formerly unseen) bodyguard, a sexy female martial artist held back for just this eventuality. The series ends with their deaths and his ascension to the throne, whereupon he rules harshly but justly for fifty years.

Was the king the protagonist? Or was the monk the protagonist?
If it was the latter, that almost sounds like a shaggy dog ending. But it does kinda remind me of the how in hero there is the ending where the protagonist lets himself die to a bunch of archers and lets the king live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_(2002_film)

>>96771636
Wuxia is a essentially historical fiction and the protagonist is simply a well trained human.
Xianxia is all about martial artist becoming Goku wizards and dealing with all the supernatural Chinese mythological creatures.
It's basically the difference between Robin Hood and Lord of the Rings.

>>96771682
>It's basically the difference between Robin Hood and Lord of the Rings.
The protagonists in both of those aren't really superhumans

>>96771422
>This could be leveled at early 1e, but by the time Blade of the Battle Maiden was written in, everything escalated. So in 2e, Exalted got a Charm to reduce the cost of Excellencies, with Solars getting one that could reduce it such that they threw a full one with every roll in the scene at an Essence rating attainable at chargen.
>3e is somewhat more subdued about this, but in combat, there's a standard recovery of 5 motes per turn, and there are Charms that provide circumstantial discounts to Excellency effects, so you'll definitely be using it way more than just a few times per day.

In 2e you could just recover all your motes by stunting.

>>96735672
>What the fuck, this is actually a post I made years ago. Is the bumpfag literally dredging up old posts now?
It's been resposted many times:
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/text/Secret%20Battles%20of%20His%20Majesty/

>>96771422
>>96771759
>I get to be twice as good as a normal person for a few times a day, and maybe more if I abuse the shitty mechanics!

>>96771759
But you didn't really need to in this particular context if you had Infinite Ability Mastery on at full blast.

>>96771974
>...um, being good is abuse

Pick a fucking side, mugwump.

>>96740126
China is pretty good with their 3 Kingdoms tv shows

Who keeps bumping this thread? Why? At this point all possible discussion has already been explored, just let it die.

>>96773249
>Expecting reason from bumpfag
Thread like this exists to pretend /tg/ is alive.
It never occured to mods in their unfathomable wisdom that having a dead thread with blatant life support going for weeks is the surest sign of a dead board.

>>96771665
Man that shit propaganda ending fucking KILLED the movie. Before that it had lots going for it.

>>96774461
Hero had a lot of propaganda in it but Ying Zheng not dying in it I don't think counts. He historically survived (and became Qin Shi Huang Di).

The authority of will vs freedom of man stuff is meant to evoke the conflict between Legalism and Confucianism rather than be a directive - though it does of course like all Chinese films stray into propaganda.

>>96771636
>what separates xianxia from wuxia?
Usually the kind of powers (spells, auras etc), power levels and how fantastical the worlds are, though it's not always the case. (there's wuxia with very high-powered stuff it's just framed differently)
Xianxia and Xuanhuan usually has more of a bent towards involving chinese myth and journey to the west (they're not the same thing) or western fantasy stuff but again not always.
>How much overlap is there?
Way more than people who say "hurr I hate xianxia I love wuxia" who've never read much wuxia think there is.
If you only stick to say Jin Yong, Gu Long and their contemporaries then Wuxia is more down to earth though still clearly alt history and made-up stuff that give a whiff of ancient china of X Y Z dynasty without actually being the real deal.
For everything else the overlap is all over the place and just about as much as the author wants.
Some of the wuxia-only types unironically wouldn't like real wuxia and just want military alt history with generals half the time, which is also a semipopular webnovel genre among the chinese.

DECISIVE TANG VICTORY

天生萬物以養人
人無一善以報天
殺殺殺殺殺殺殺

It's not wuxia but the manga Kingdom is pretty based

>Thread completely and utterly dead for past 6 days
>B-bump!
>P-please elaborate!
>Random meme posts
Yeah, I'm very convinced that /tg/ is alive and well and this thread is discussing anything at all.

>>96780608
anything else?

>>96780785
Yeah, one thing:
What you're getting out of it?
Like I don't know, does it actually entertain you? Or is fun for you? Or are you just very bored and thus passing time?
I never understood what would make people behave like this, because it's just fucking bizarre.
Of course you are not going to answer that and the only reply I'm going to get is a bump post 2-3 days later, but hey, that's just post-2019 /tg/ for you, I guess

>>96780865
Bumpfag has a dependent personality disorder. The goal of his inane posts are to fish helpful replies from people. He plans to do absolutely nothing with any information you give to him, he only cares if you're helping him. He'll even ask you questions he already knows the answer to or can be inferred from the posts he's replying to. He also has panic attacks when his pet threads fall off the catalogue.

He might have a passing interest in the topics he ritualistically posts about (magic systems, worldbuilding, pantheons, elements), but it's secondary to satisfying his disorder. Keep in mind he's also a retard in a state of arrested development, so you can't reason with him or convince him to stop.

Bumpity Bump.

>>96787204
based