--- In wushurpg@..., "Christopher Fletcher"
<gwyddion0@y...> wrote:
> Howdy. Relatively new to Wushu, although I went ahead and got Wire

Welcome Chris. I'm also big on supporting smaller games companies...

> I posted an idea for "simple" magic on rpg.net and was universally
> told I was making things more complicated than it needed to be.
Fair
> enough, I'm willing to admit that I probably don't get Wushu at
some
> sort of fundamental level.
>
> The basic thrust behind what I posted was an attempt to keep
> something like magic from spiraling out of control. If people are
> able to cast spells as easy as they swing a sword, I have
difficulty
> expecting that you wouldn't wind up with a world of magic-as-tech.
>
These are issues that I have occasionally struggled with. Here's how
I see it, and remember that this is just my interpretation...

1. People in general aren't capable of casting spells as easily as
swinging a sword - only PCs and Nemesises are. They are the
exceptions to how the world works, not what determines it, so the
great unwashed will still use plain everyday tech, not magic.

2. The magic can't spral out of control. Players are expected to
keep to the campaigns tropes. If playing a campaign set in ancient
China, they should keep their descriptions to magic in he style of
ancient China, and not summoning up a magic machine gun. Good
players wont abuse this, and if you're players try, don't forget
that you can veto their descriptions. In my Owod Wushu conversion I
list vampire clan tropes on the character sheet to help players
create descriptions matching the trpes and flavour of the Owod,
though disciplines are just special effects.

3. The magic is just a special effect. So are swords and guns. The
rolls are simply based on traits with a dice pool set by cool
narrative. The allocation of yin and tang dice will remain the same
no matter what you do. Describing a flashy fireball, an amazing kung-
fu stunt or a major gunplay stunt will al effectively contribute to
scene resolution in the same way.

> Another example, would be the Attributes. While you can go with a
> completely made up on the fly set "flamboyant swordsman", I can't
> help but think that part of the perception that Wushu won't work
for
> campaign stuff is because it's so ad-hoc to begin with. So, what
> happens when you actually set up a group of attributes/skills. And
> just how broad/narrow should they be? Sure, it's easy to say "it
> depends on what effect you're trying to get" but it doesn't really
> help all that much. If I decided to simply rip the magic schools
from
> D&D (3E keeps the same ones as you saw in 2nd Ed I think), but not
> have any specific spells and let them narrate the spells
instead...

Take a look at how I'm aproaching the Owod conversion - Players will
be expected to narrate effects that use the listed disciplines, but
the disciplines themselves are simply used as tropes...

> that's going to mean I have to go with a more narrow definition of
> weaponry skills for fighter types, right?

I don't think so - scene resolution rather than 'to hit' or 'how
much damage' tables. This is quite deliberate - you can use any
weapon, form of magic otherwise without feeling you have to choose
the weapon with the greatest damage rating. Its not about the
reality that dierent things might do different damage -its about how
cool you look with whatever you want to use. The game doesn't
penalise you for using a letteropener instead of a battleaxe.
>
> Character advancement... while the book says you don't need it...
I
> think people are too in love with the idea to give it up. No
> character advancement might be contributing to the opinion of
short
> games or one-offs, but nothing "serious" like a campaign.
>
Yeah, well D&D starts with the asumption that you start with weak
characters that are barely competent and build into huge kickass
characters. Wushu assumes you start with kickass characters in he
best action flick sense. Characters progress by what they do in the
campaign world, what contacts they make, what reputations they
acquire and the such. Players progress by becoming more experienced
at coming up with cool descriptions.

The emphasis on Wushu is not on how good you can get. You're already
there. The emphasis is on making each game session as cool as
possible as you play. Its kinda Zen. Enjoy the character as it is in
the here and now, not because it might one day be a thirtieth level
whatever. Having said that, it is true that some players can't live
without those XPs to help them feel that they're 'winning'.

> Attribute levels. 2-5 isn't a huge range there. So if we were to
> expand Wushu to using a 2-9 range (and I guess switch over to
d10s)
> what happens. How's using d10 compare to staying with d6 and
saying
> that attributes over 5 contribute 1 success for each number over
5.
> The understanding being that if you're keeping the d6s but
expanding
> the attribute level, it's representing the characters
> being "legendary".
>
I don't think its really necessary. Keep in mind that expanding the
range simply increases granularity, which is really only useful for
experience increase systems.

Keeping the d6s and expanding the traits to get legendary isn't
really necessary either - the characters are pretty legendary to
start with.

Also keep in mind that you're dealing with traits not attributes per
se. Each character being played may have a totaly different list of
traits defining their character - it's not about direct comparisons
of attributes like strength or intelligence across characters.

I'm happy to have you chime in - that's what its here for. Don't
forget that on the group's Yahoo site there are lists of links to
other Wushu resources like the excellent Wiki. There are also some
files available for download.

OK hope Ive helped. Feel free to disagree with anything I've said,
or query anything that I haven't made clear. If I've made a mess of
the answers hopefully some of our other members will step in and
correct me.