Reopening Recruitment- Magistrates of the Warring States (Legends of the Wulin)

[Dietaku]

Hello! I'm reopening my forum roleplay, Magistrates of the Warring States, for those who are interested. MotWS is a Legends of the Wulin game where the Wulin are a group of Magistrates sent out to search for the missing Emperor all the while dealing with the fallout of the Empire as it slowly collapses. The game hasn't progressed far, and we're all still fairly new to the system, so if you're new, too, feel free to try it out, and we can learn together!


You can read what has transpired here. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post them here or pm me. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you!

 

[Random Word]

This system looks fascinating. I was disappointed the Exalted in LotW game didn't take off, and I'd like to give this a try.


I think I'd play an orphaned peasant girl masquerading as favoured son of a once great martial school. The son in question, chafing under his father's ultra-strict discipline and impossible standards, decided to flee. Having often escaped his training to play with the serving girls, he convinced my character their uncanny resemblance would let her achieve her dream of being a peerless paragon of virtue in the Jiang Hu. One of the older serving staff helped her conceal her secret, and her distant 'father' only noticed his son was suddenly far more dutiful about his training than he could ever have hoped, and far more gifted as well. Overjoyed, he looked no further than he had to. Her training was rigorous, her virtue unquestionable, but her extremely sheltered life means she knows next to nothing about the realities of the world.


She's terrified of the disappointment of her adopted father should he find out she had been deceiving him, and the great embarrassment her adopted family would suffer. She wants to restore her adoptive family to their former greatness through her fairytale perfection and be the son her father never had.


Her family swordsmanship style focuses on remaining immaculate, using the absolute minimum of motion to end conflict, slaying enemies without so much as a drop of blood reaching her clothing or a hair becoming out of place. Against weak opponents her sword has often returned to its scabbard before onlookers realize the fight has begun. Against stronger opponents it relies on lightning counterattacks and the precise control of the flow of Qi through the practitioner and battlefield.


Probably Laughs At: Direct Attacks, Overwhelming Force, Impurity of the Opposition


Fears: Chaotic Qi, Deception, Exhaustion, Impurity of the Self

 

[Ixacise]

Did you house rule Burn and Fire Sutra?


Because it's objectively the worst status effect and elemental internal

 

[Dietaku]

@Random Word Glad to have you on. It seems like you have a custom fighting style in mind. Do you have more to go off, or is this a combination of in-book fighting styles?


@Ixacise I wasn't aware of that. Do you have something in mind?

 

[Ixacise]

Well my issue with burn is like with many others in that the effect is garbage because the toughness penalty is pretty garbage since if you're already slinging energy attacks it doesn't really matter since energy attacks already ignore toughness, which itself is one of the weaker stats along with damage


What I did in my homebrew wulin game is make it act like freeze but for action penalties instead of breath.


As for Fire sutra that's kinda your own choice on how to do it but its problem is that it has less stuff to do outside of the aforementioned weak burn effect and kinda shutting down other elemental styles with breath of buddha

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

And yet elemental chi is still stronger than non. And the group is not really full of people hammering on canon material for marginal gains. @Ixacise is correct, but I'm not convinced that it'll be important in a campaign that's already accepting a bunch of high-fantasy custom material. Burn status could use a touch-up, though. Maybe an extra ripple after any IRR as the flesh cooks.


Hi, @Random Word. This campaign is actually why I started working on that conversion. Come play with me. There's a necromancer and a paladin so far.

 

[Dietaku]

I'll have to think about it. I'll take your words on it, though and consider what to do with Burn. I'm really not sure about whole-sale changing Fire Sutra, though, as like I said before, I'm still learning the system, and I'm not really confident on making such drastic rewrites, not yet, anyways.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Actually, what @Random Word described is really easily pegged to Flowing Red Silk and Unstained Lotus Mastery. Very much as described in the book.

 

[Dietaku]

Ah, I figured as much. I just didn't want to shut him down if he was aiming for a custom set of fighting arts, is all.

 

[Ixacise]

I'll have to think about it. I'll take your words on it, though and consider what to do with Burn. I'm really not sure about whole-sale changing Fire Sutra, though, as like I said before, I'm still learning the system, and I'm not really confident on making such drastic rewrites, not yet, anyways.

It's cool but it's just a heads up on of the few deficiencies in the system.


Also I like how you can totally use kinda a massive sword in flowing red silk

 

[Random Word]

@Random Word[/URL] described is really easily pegged to Flowing Red Silk and Unstained Lotus Mastery. Very much as described in the book.

Perfect. I suspected any Wuxia system would have to include something very much like that. I'll look those up. I'll try to build everything I want out of pieces of existing styles to avoid making anything unbalanced, and to save work for both myself and the GM. If I can just take those straight out of the book that will be fantastic.

 

[Dietaku]

How would you all feel if Burn would use both suggested changes. Fire Sutra needs a buff, and if it revolves around tossing out energy attacks and Burn, so it seems fair.


What do you all think?

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

I'm fine with fire being the hyper-aggressive One Trick Pony element. It fits with a lot of fictional cosmology. It's really, really irrelevant to my character, though, so I'm at peace with wherever it lands.


Though my fighting style does Fear it...