Explaining wulin poorly

[Ixacise]

Well I'll admit the book's rules are not in way written out as clearly as the could and more importantly should!


However the good thing about the game is that rules while complex in terms of the presentation and less than clear wording and other issues. Are in practice once you get them down quite simple. Which is nice because usually in theory it's simpler but in practices it's harder.


Anyway the dice is pretty simple but what you do with is somewhat complex if only because you get a lot of options to do stuff in fighting which opens the fighting as you grow in power cuz you get a bigger pool. And bigger pool = more matches.


However to begin from the very start the rolling is just you making pairs and choosing which ever you want even a single die excluding situations where you can't use that which are gonna be things involving minor actions.


The pairing system is odd but pretty simple; each die is read as a number going from 10-19 and each pair increases the ten digit by an amount equal to the pairs with book's example:

That may sound a little complicated on paper, but in

practice it’s easy. Some examples to help you along:

Two fives become 25.

Three sevens become 37.

A single six becomes 16.

So, a roll of seven dice with the following results, 2, 4, 4, 4,

9, 9, 0…

… can become 12, 34, 29, or 10.

River is very simple but jargony with its terminology for the things you can do. But all it is a storage space for rolls which can be added to you next roll or be used to activate certain abilities. Or you can just destroy the stored rolls to make room for new ones

 

[White Masquerade]

But why would you destroy a roll?? I get the digit thing, but afterwards is where it loses me. It's a little too fancy aha

 

[Ixacise]

To put in a better roll/combo


So say you had three spaces and in them you had a 9 and two 3s. Let's say your next roll you had some left over 9's you could then just trash those stored threes and have a 39 which could be then used for a bunch of stuff such as:


Buffing up some 9s, using for your main roll if you just have a poor hand, and or as an extra pair for minor actions, or the special abilities

 

[White Masquerade]

And that's where it loses me =/ I get it though. Now it just comes down to too much action off a dice roll.


You roll to do something = Cool.


You have extra rolls to do extra things = ( ")

 

[Ixacise]

Much like in backgammon, wulin is a game of opportunities. Rather than just using the dice as a method of conflict resolution with the pool size increasing your odds. The dice themselves become a resource to let you do awesome things at once.


Much in the way how doubles in backgammon really lets you get strategic with your piece movement in trying to advance while hindering your opponent.


And the thing is the extra moves is optional and a bit situational given your luck. Plus at starting levels you're really not gonna have a whole lotta stuff to do.


At the current rank you start off you get 7 dice to roll and an extra 2 from your river. And seeing as you use at least one die for an action and you need at least two matching dice for another move at most you'll get 4 extra moves.


And given the nature of the game if you manage to get a decent enough string of a repeating number. It might not be wise or useful to split it into smaller less effective actions as opposed to just doing one thing really well.

 

[White Masquerade]

Never played Backgammon =/ Maybe Wulin just isn't for me. I get the other simpler dice RP I'm in cause its only that conflict resolution. Tooo much effort for Wulin!

 

[Ixacise]

Well like I said it's optional and situational to an extent. Outside of the river dice activated abilities you need to have some pairs and again you need not use them.


Really the flow chart for the effort needed to decide on what to do goes something like this:


1: Do I have enough dice?


a: Yes, go to step 2


b: No, cool turn is over


2: Do I got something in need to be done or a cool thing that I could use?


a: Yes, use them suckers and finish your turn


b: No. End turn and maybe add some dice to your river just in case

 

[White Masquerade]

I need to watch ya'll when I have a chance do this e.e

 

[Ixacise]

Or you can try your hand here on doing some simple things with, a sort of tutorial level. After all hands on learning is best learnings.


Ok so here's the scenario:


You're walking through some area and are getting kinda hungry. Looking to see if nature might provide you some sort of sustenance. You spot a fruit hanging among many higher in the boughs of the tree which does not lend itself easily to climbing. So instead you decide to toss rocks at them to knock the fruits off the branches.


This action would be considered using the finesse skill which you have rated a +5. This 5 will be added to what you chose for your roll as the final result. Also the difficulty for this task would be moderate which is a 20. Meaning you must at least get a twenty to succeed.


So from your end I want you to roll 7 10n faced dice on the roller and post the results

 

[White Masquerade]

25! Read it and weep Ixa!


[dice]3062[/dice]


(Side-note) Nice set-up. You Role-play really nicely.


This and the +5 I get. It's after this stuff...

 

[Ixacise]

Yup so since you chose to you use the 25 your skill adds to that making it a 30 which blows that challenge out of the water. This counts as a critical success and may or may not do anything.


However you could have also used the 1 8 and the1 6 to beat the challenge and store the 25.


Now for the next step would be the concept of the extra action. Here's the the scenario


You suspect a merchant might actually be an assassin in disguise. You want to check him for hidden weapons, but you can’t just openly accuse him or lay your hands on him. You decide to walk past him and surreptitiously brush your fingertips over his clothes to feel for anything hidden. Now wanting to get caught you can use both Awareness and Stealth, both which are at +5. And use them with one as the main action and the other as the minor.


Now it doesn't matter what order you do it outside of perhaps on negotiating with what your pool gives. However it is important to note that any primary action can use just one die but all minor need at least 2 matches. Also just in case you have a poor roll you have a river filled with two 3s.


No need to worry about the difficulty rating just want you to get a feel for the concept

 

[White Masquerade]

...Where did the 2 3's come from?? And from that roll before, what's in this pool thing?.

 

[Ixacise]

I put in the 2 3's just in case you didn't roll a pair for this scenario. And they're not connected to your prior roll. Also the pool comes from the term dicepool which is to describe games where you roll a bunch of dice together.

 

[White Masquerade]

=/ Why'd you give me two dice? My one track mind is going crazy. You gave me those two out of the blue then? Like it wouldn't happen in the RP?

 

[Ixacise]

The two dice are just part of the dice storage thing I gave out in case you didn't get any pairs. It's an anti-failure measure.


However if it makes more sense to you then let's pretend you pocketed that 25 used in the last roll for the river and use it for this example. Okay?

 

[White Masquerade]

That works. Sure

 

[Ixacise]

Great now I'll be waiting for the roll. Also remember that a main action can be one die but the extra action always needs at least two.

 

[White Masquerade]

So I can roll any number of dice then each turn? Or it's that 7

 

[Ixacise]

For this you get 9 dice total. The 25 and whatever the 7 dice you roll give you. It's the same thing as the previous roll but with the extra action thing

 

[White Masquerade]

I would so demolish your game:


[dice]3074[/dice]

 

[Ixacise]

Nice roll. So what are gonna pick for the main action and the minor?


Also not that hard is it?

 

[White Masquerade]

So far, no. For the main I guess the 37 and minor, the 23?

 

[Ixacise]

Which with the skills being at +5 means it goes into a 42 and 28 as the final results. And you'd pass swimmingly.


In practice with different skill modifier levels your choice of higher or lower values will fluctuate depending on situation and if you can let the modifier do the pushing to get to the difficulty.


Or in other words if I got a +15 in something and got a roll using it but got another thing to do, I'd be just using the bare minimum to get the passing result while using the bigger number to pass especially if I had a lower skill modifier


And this concludes the rolling part for now. I believe you had some issues regarding char gen?

 

[White Masquerade]

Not really. The character part was clear. It really was the rolling that was the issue

 

[Ixacise]

Ahh


But your character incomplete and it needs to be complete so I can have something work with in terms of explaining the fighting and Secret arts.


I can help you with finishing a character so it can be done