A Wanderer's Romance - Wirework and Drinking Contests

[SuperSooga]

A Wanderer's Romance is a rules-light system built around a setting that gives you a few key points and lets the GM do as he wishes with the rest. It started as a heavily Wuxia influenced game but has spread to become something of a mix of eastern flavours.

I usually ignore games that claim to use a variety of eastern flavour, but bear with me.

The game is based around three core parts of the system.

Characters are defined by scores in the four classical Elements that are used in combination with another Element in any task. As a result your character will have a broad range of skills they're good at straight off the bat. You're generally a skilled individual.

Anything can be a Duel. Combat is obvious and based around dozens of attacking and defensive styles. A tea ceremony can be a duel, a flower-arranging contest can be and of course we've already seen many drinking duels in our games.

Preparation is key. Duels tend to be fast and deadly and there are a number of mechanics in place to encourage you to prepare for such a contest. Location, activities leading up to the contest and your opponent are all key.

And the setting you ask? The key points are best summed up in the opening blurb.

The world began as nothing but ocean before the Origins raised up a million colourful islands, anything larger than a few dozen miles being swallowed back down by the envious deep. The Origins who chose to take material form and live in this varied land were scorned by their kin and their city forced back beneath the ocean. Only a few survived in their new forms, eventually becoming the men and beasts of today. Our ancestors.

The Origins, now unable to influence our world directly, rely upon influencing men with words, knowledge and the promise of power. The teachings of the Origins led to our understanding of elemental balance, the formation of the thousand Legendary Styles and the universal code of combat that define our world today.

You are a great man or woman. An errant trained in both the noble art of combat and in contests of body and mind, both skillful and social. Drifting from one island to another for your own reasons, you have your own philosophy on life and the power to enforce it

And what do I want from you?

I've been sharing the running of this game with a couple of other GMs and drawing from a pool of common players, resulting in a somewhat confusing timeline that somehow works. If you want to run or play in this game stick a reply below. Even if you're curious feel free to throw any questions my way. If there's interest I'll chase up those who reply. I'll note that while this is all playtesting I like my testing to still feel like a coherant game.

Be kind to the Google Doc when judging its appearance, as always it's work in progress.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddmbxmt_12c3cb9gfk&hl=en

[SuperSooga]

To clarify, these games have been based on IRC so far and the plan is to stay there. Any off-IRC playtesting is welcome but will be out of my reach, but feedback is always appreciated.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Chris,

How has the emphasis on preparation actually worked out in play?

Best, Ron

[Vulpinoid]

From first glance, it looks like there could be some good potential in this system.

I'll have a more detailed look shortly.

V

[SuperSooga]

How has the emphasis on preparation actually worked out in play?

It's actually worked well so far. I like the fact that at first it feels like you're gaming the system a little, just wanting to carry out an activity/eat some food that will best affect your Elements in the upcoming contest/duel, but players quickly take hold of these as roleplaying opportunities. It's a neat way of giving players a clear reward for doing things that are suitable to the setting but may seem sort of pointless otherwise. The same goes for players teaching eachother Styles and helping eachother with Activities. I was concerned things like that would be waved off with a roll but players so far have been eager to use them as opportunities for interaction with eachother.

It's something I'm eager to see how other players respond to.

[Ron Edwards]

I think that's fantastic. I've been wrestling with this issue for years, and I think the problem lies in the long-standing RPG design feature that starts the player-character fully maxed-up (at least for a given quantum of effectiveness) and the conflict to come can only take them down from there. In my game Sorcerer, I tried hard to design so that a character may actually be more effective after he or she is more strongly connected and active in the fiction before a conflict, and even after he or she takes a few lumps during the conflict. But it's hard to get that across in dialogue or text, because of the whole damage-averse, pristine-character design concept which most people have learned by experience.

I remember an early playtest when a character took a certain amount of damage penalties, over a given score. I was looking forward to how my rules would demonstrate how much fun it would be now, and was shocked when the player instantly crumpled up his sheet and snarled, "Well, I guess I'm dead then." The paradigm was so deeply embedded in his head that he could not comprehend that that's when the system was supposed to get interesting, not when it hit its limit.

Anyway, although that's not quite the same as what you're talking about, the principle at work is similar: play the character, dammit, do stuff and make connections with others, and it will pay off. To begin with what's on the sheet and to say "That's as good as it gets for now, mustn't let it get scratched," is not the way to go.

Nifty!

Best, Ron

[SuperSooga]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm going for. In the same way characters only become more powerful permanently by learning new Styles, which requires them to travel around and find Students and Masters, who in turn they will have to interact with and impress. Linking character rewards with the things I actually want the characters to be doing was a real focus for me.

Thanks for the feedback, good to hear.

[Vulpinoid]

Quick question...

I've noticed with some of the styles it's possible for a combatant to automatically fall into a focused state, while other styles indicate that the opponent can't become focused.

What happens when these two rulings conflict?

It's just one of those pet peeves that I've encountered in plenty of other systems, so I was just wondering if you'd encountered it yet?...and what happened?

V

[SuperSooga]

For conflicting rules like that there's actually a short paragraph right at the top of the document.

Immovable Objects vs Unstoppable Forces

In cases such as both combatants having "always acts first in combat" as an ability where there is an unstoppable force/immovable object problem the tie is broken by rolling a single die against eachother to see which rule takes priority. This result will stand for the duration of the duel or contest.

Not an ideal solution by any means but it's something I've accounted for a little. It's unlikely there'll ever be more than one rule conflict in place at once, so remembering which one is currently taking priority shouldn't be too difficult.

[Vulpinoid]

Sorry...must've missed that.

You're right, not optimal, but at least you've admitted that situations such as these can arise.

Cool.

V

[SuperSooga]

For any that might be interested in the campaign I'm planning using this, which is a form of testing for both the system and somewhat nonstandard campaign structure, check out the link below.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddmbxmt_522n9s4zq4&hl=en

It basically sums up the "charter" for the campaign as follows.

All welcome, no pressure. There's no pressure for any player to use their character with any degree of frequency. If you play one session a week, great. If you play once over six months, great. Similarily, GMing is open to all but compulsary for noone.

Players initiate sessions. A session is organised by one or more players deciding on a time and ensuring that a GM will be present. The GM must agree to the time, giving a little time to prepare some content.

We Share. GMs will share preparation by contributing to a shared resource document containing islands, NPCs and plot hooks. Whenever a GM runs a game they must contribute to this document, even if they are not using the new content. In addition a record of very brief session summaries will be kept and made available to all.

Keep yourself available. Even if your session ends on a cliffhanger, to be continued another time, you must find a means to be available for another session if the story cannot be continued. This could be explained through the next session being a flashback or by using their second character for the bank. Of course, the ideal solution is to have sessions with clear endings.

Think about your aims. Each session should serve to expand and detail the world, characters and their relationships. A simple session could involve the characters carrying out little in the way of action and still achieve these three aims.

The world is persistant and dynamic. Locations should be revisited and characters should reappear.

[SuperSooga]

Have been testing this in the campaign, of which we had our third session earlier this week. Details to follow!

Session 3: The trouble with Pirates(Djones GM)

Chapters 1 and 2 - Lector Kuze, Xuan Zhong, Katsume, Lian Ni and Ark the Monkey sailed towards Kinkade when their vessel was attacked by a pirate named Azruth. After half the crew, including the captain and first mate are blown away the heroes managed to take charge and escape, unfortunately they couldn't keep the ship from sinking and had to swim the last half a mile to shore. Upon arriving Xuan Zhong struck a deal with a gentleman who was also a passanger and they arrived at the fortress city of Kinkade.

Invited to the governors palace as heroes, all but ark the monkey attended a state dinner where a poison assination attempt on the governor was foiled by Lian Ni in a fashion most miraculous that can be found at the bottom of this scroll. Afterwards gifts were given and a pleasant evening was had by all. Particularly Ark the monkey whom, neglecting to attend the dinner roamed the rooftops of the poorest quarters of the city, healing the weak, frail and ill with his magic and feeding the poor. Eventually coming across an old battle wounded master of the immaculate strike who, in return for being cured of a partial paralysis and blindness taught ark the monkey the first steps of this style.

In the following morning Lector Kuze and Xuan Zhone set out to contacts they had made in regards to teachers of the martial arts. Kuze brutally destroyed a student of the style of the burrowing shark but failed to master even the basic steps of ths skill. Xuan however had better luck and an account of his battle can be found at the bottom of this document.

This duel was a fun one indeed! Adapted from the IRC logs we have the writeup here:

The sun had barely risen when Xuan Zhong ate a partial breakfast and headed out to meet with Xing Terith, a wealthy man who owed him a favour. Having lied for him at the governors table placing a false heroism upon the man it was time to pay up. He arrived quickly and was promptly shown in and offered some tea. Tea is nice but the gold buttons and fabric lucky charm were much more important, similarly the offer of training within the families dojo was an offer too good to pass up. once the gifts were bestowed upon him Xuan Zhong made simple pleasantries until the time to visit the dojo arrived.

He entered confidantly, his gamble paying off so far to enter a large square room,  an old man sitting at the far end of the room.

Xuan Zhong walks forward and sits down crossing his legs, setting his tile set and hat off to one side. He then looks toward the old man and smiles. "Would you be the master here?"

The man nods slowly, his eyes fixated on you, "and you are the man who bought his way into my presense", "so, you seek to test yourself, so that you might...better yourself?"

Xuan Zhone replies "It is always better to work towards a winning hand isn't it? and I merely satisfied another's greed in getting here, the chance to get here was well worth it"

The old man tilts his hand and looks at you for a few moments before standing, "very well. Test yourself."

Xuan Zhong stands and tilts his head. "Perhaps I will regret this, but the game has already started now"

The two circled quietly for a moment or two, eyes locked, legs strong arms ready, until Xuan Zhong moves forward opening both his palms and making his fingers rigid. He moves quickly and fluidly toward the old man before striking with each hand in the distinctive strike of twin snake. The old man slipped to the side as Xuan strikes find nought but air.

"Che" slips through seething teeth as Xuan Zhong turns to meet the old man as his own fists spring into action, emulating the old man, Xuan slips to the side as well, spinning to end up behind the old man and from in front the sound "Che" can be heard.

Xuan Zhong smiles and moves forward again, deciding to try again with the twin snake style, he attacks with both hands, though one with an upward motion and the other downward. Fists strike against each other, Xuan attacking, the old master defending, the blow parried but only just and Xuan Zhong pushed again, reversing his stance, unbalancing his opponent and hitting hte solor plexus with the outsretched fangs of his hands.

Xuan Zhong takes his chance and attacks again this time with one straight punch and a curved blow with an open palm but rigid fingers. The strikes hit true and the man flials backwards a step dropping to one knee, staggered and weakened by the blow Xuan Zhong moves around and attacks again, with a fist and a kick to finish it. The blows sweep in firm, strongly, almost no way the old man can parry these blows and as victory gleams in Xuan's eyes a smile flits across the masters face, with mere millimetres to spare the man leaps up rotating away from the punch and rolling over the kick adding his full body weight into an arcing fist that smashes into xuans face, sending him sprawling to the floor, unconscious, defeated in a single blow. The master sags, wounded yet defiant.

Time passed and the old man tended to his wounds whilst the unconscious Xuan lay still on the floor. Eventually with the aid of some water the challenger is awoken to the image of a smiling toothless old man, "So...ready to learn boy?"

The barely coherent Xuan scratches a reply, ""Looks like i've got a long way to go to improving my hand, so who am I to say no? yes I am"

The old master hauls Xuan to his feet, despite the cracked rib he seemed to have and for the next few hours drills him mercilessly in the ways of the elephants fist. Eventually he asks you to follow a series of complicated moves ending in a strike through a thick 3inch block of wood.

Xuan follows but in the final moments looses form and manages to only crack the wood, yet not split it in half as necessary to learn the basics. The master however is sufficiently impressed he takes Xuan aside for a ceremony of tea, the preperation of which is quite eclectic involving a significant number of spices and alcohol. Upon being offered the tea Xuan remarks "Perhaps it is like fighting against the wind, I do not have the grounding nor passion for this" and then looks at the drink and smiles. "Is there a point in taking the tile when it doesn't pair up with the others in my hand?"

The old man replies "The future is unwritten, and there is no gamble in that which is known", "adding another card to your hand can never lessen your position"...

Xuan Zhong laughs and drinks the tea. "You have a way with words", and the old man smiles and decrees "now...again, focus on the second movement", so Xuan stands and executes the moves again and as the wood splinters and snaps and Xuans fist strikes true, the old man smiles and sips his drink as Xuan bows, and leaves the Dojo, his training complete.

And for reference, here are the characters.

Ark the Monkey  (Adrian)
Air: 1
Earth: 3
Fire: 1
Water: 1
Balance: 3
Specialities: Athletics, Acrobatics
Philosophy: A life without fun is a life fitting for a stone
Weapon: Staff
Armour: 0
Styles: Earth Magic Student, Immaculate Strike Initiate

Xuan Zhong the Gambler (Plastik)
Air: 2
Earth: 1
Fire: 1
Water: 2
Balance: 2
Specialities: Perception, Deception
Philosophy: Greed is the drive behind all actions.
Weapon: None
Armour: 0
Styles: Twin Snake Initiate, Open Claw Initiate, Elephant Fist Initiate

Lian Ni, The Shepherd (Corvus)
Air: 0
Earth: 3
Fire: 0
Water: 3
Balance: 2
Specialities: Resisting Toxins, Perception.
Philosophy: Guidance must be gentle.
Weapon: Staff
Armour: 0
Styles: Willow Branch Student

Katsume the Blade Sharpener (SuperSooga)
Air: 2
Earth : 1
Fire : 3
Water : 0
Balance : 1
Specialities: Persuasion, Metalworking
Philosophy: Better to move the pieces than become a pawn yourself.
Weapon: Curved Sword
Armour: 0
Styles: Fire Magic Initiate, Flock of Doves Initiate

Lector Kuze (Axiomatic)
Air: 1
Earth: 2
Fire: 0
Water: 3
Balance: 1
Specialities: Gardening, Tea Ceremony.
Philosophy: Perfect Order is the only true path to harmony.
Weapons: Curved Sword.
Armour: 0
Styles: Jade Lobster Student.

Remember, I'm always after more people to play, so if you want to play in one of my games or run your own, just get in touch!