Framing a Kung Fu Campaign

I've long been a big fan of kung fu movies, but only recently started dabbling in the core texts by reading a translation of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. This has prompted me to think about how these stories might be captured in a long-term RPG campaign. (I've written previously about the structure of kung fu movies and made observations about translating the structure into RPGs. This post continues that thread; read it first if you haven't yet.)

Here is some cool tech from other games that I think would serve as a solid basis for a kung-fu campaign. 

Loresheets in Legends of the Wulin

When you talk about kung fu games, someone usually brings up Legends of the Wulin. When you talk about Legends of the Wulin, someone usually brings up loresheets. 

What is a loresheet? Here's how the book introduces the term:

"A Loresheet ... is a focused description of one setting element including specific purchasable ways a character can be tied to it. [Characters who have a Loresheet] have knowledge and insight in to the setting element it describes, whether through study or personal experience, and that the setting element is somehow tied into her history. ... It might come with a free bonus, but the major thing is that it unlocks the ability to spend Destiny on story or character options that tie you to that setting aspect. You might find yourself suddenly (and retroactively) revealed as the last scion of a dying bloodline, marry into a war between families, and get the chance to forge a new and lasting peace. In essence, these options both tie you to the setting and allow you to exercise an amount of influence over the story."

Loresheets appeared throughout the book in dedicated pages describing factions (like on the right page) or just in boxed text (like on the left page):

Loresheets have purchasable mechanical boons. These boons can be simple ("I have a reputation with this sect. I have a +5 reaction bonus with them") or more mechanical ("I know this sect's Dragon Fist Form and can use it in combat"). Loresheets share a lot of conceptual space with playbooks in this way: a tightly-bound list of advancement options that are coupled with the setting and define the trajectory of your character's story. 

You can purchase loresheet boons using XP during character creation or during play. 

Interestingly, players can spend an XP-like resource called "deeds" to purchase loresheet boons for other players. That means if a fellow player thinks it would be interesting for your character's story to become aligned with the events described on a particular loresheet, they can spend their deed to make that happen for you.

How I might use this:

I'm firmly in the "no homework" camp when it comes players--I can't be disappointed that nobody read my 20 page homebrew setting document if there's no 20 page homebrew setting document. 

That said, do you know how to get players to read your setting material? If there are character stats embedded in it. A spoon full of sugar (character building crunch) makes the medicine (lore) go down.

I think it's vital for games with rich settings to not have generic abilities that you mix and match like GURPs or Mutants & Mastermind. If you have a level in warlock, it's because you literally have a pact with a devil--an NPC that shows up sometimes during game. If you have the Dragon Subduing Palm, it's because you met Count Seven the Beggar King who taught you the technique over three days. These abilities should be rooted in the fiction.

Also, the best lore is hidden interwoven into the book itself, into the random table entries, into the equipment lists, into the suggested names.

Myths in Mythic Bastionland

One of the touted benefits of Wulin's loresheets is they condense the setting to a manageable level. The loresheets the players select are canon; everything else isn't true (yet). That's a one way to keep the homework overhead from becoming too crazy!

Another game that presents many options but only focuses on a few is Mythic Bastionland. In that game, there are 72 knights and 72 myths. A knight and a myth shares a spread like this:

On the left you have a PC: their abilities, their mentor (the seer), their items, and a small flavorful random table. On the right you have the myth--some NPCs, a sequence of omens that happens as the myth grows in power, and the stats of the titular myth itself.

A campaign of Mythic Bastionland doesn't dump all 72 knights and myths onto a single map and say "Go." The players roam the land and begin uncovering the omens of the 1+ myths the GM introduces, playing through them in a series of scenes.

How I might use this:

I like how entire campaigns are contained in a single page of a myth. It creates a great pattern to follow.

I could never match Chris McDowall's sparsity in prose, but I feel like there could be two sides to an entry--one player facing and one GM facing. 

Player facing: Rumors about a "myth": a faction, an event, a person. Also, the boons you get if you ally with them: a new PC to put into your stable, training from an NPC in sectarian kung fu techniques, a special weapon. 

GM facing: The encounter that the players have when they travel to this location: the essential conflict of the "myth." A training manual stolen, a rebel leader hidden in the region, a secret identity to be revealed. 

Advancement in Old School Stylish 

Old School Stylish reimagines the OSE rules as a class-less system. It takes OSE class abilities, spells, and items and breaks them into atomic pieces, then lets you gain them piece by piece by learning them from mentors, reading secret scrolls, and meditating in special spaces. 

In some ways, it takes a paradigm that is familiar to players of magic-users in old-school games and turns it up to 11. Now, all abilities are scavenged and found through play instead of instantly gained on certain wealth accumulation scores.

How I might use this:

Leveling up in my ideal kung fu campaign would be linked to NPCs, factions, and travel. Combine the player rumor/GM encounter pattern from the previous entry and place them physically on a map. Instead of investing character resources (XP into loresheets), players invest game play time by traveling to locations on the map to achieve the same thing. 

The rumors feel important here. If they encounter a villain with a kung fu style they can't beat, they can read through the setting document to find a technique that would be strong against his defenses. Then, they can travel there and acquire that resource. "I've heard that on Mount Wulin, there's a swordsmaster whose blade can cut even adamant skin. Let's go there!"

Time Pressures in the Dark Crystal Adventure Game

The premise of The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is that the players have 99 days before an unspecified disaster. In that time, they need to gather the seven seeds from the seven world trees scattered around the map.

As time goes on, the disaster--the Darkening--wreaks havoc on the setting. Things get worse. Locations that were once friendly and hospitable become ruined and poisonous. 

I ran this for several weeks this year and it was an ambitious premise for a book--an entire campaign setting contained in two-page spreads. 

How I might use this:

One can imagine several framing devices for a kung fu game: two factions training a pair of boys from infancy to coming-of-age (Condor Heroes), gathering the 108 bandits for a rebellion (Water Margin), and so on. 

Define a time period--say a year--and let the players move around the sandbox during that time. The rumors give them informed choices about where they want to go, the distances and training times are the resources they're spending. Then, at the end of the time period, there's a culminating event that they've been preparing for, and they put together everything they learned over the course of the campaign. 

Could I combine these techniques together into an undefeatable style? We'll see!