Wushu stuff

[Lxndr]

What about when you're fighting a Boss (to use the video game term) or battling another player, in absence of mooks?

Edit: Never mind, Feng posted the answer and I didn't see it

[Jared A. Sorensen]

The exact number of mooks in a scene isn't ever specified, so as long as their threat rating is above zero, there are always more to smash.

Okay, key piece of info there. Thanks, I get it now. Although I think using this mechanic to also represent the "big boss with the red energy bar of health" is kind of a weird way to do things.

[Blake Hutchins]

I dunno.  Doesn't work well for me when y'all can cut off the boss's head and then get to fight his headless body.  Depends on the setting, but it looks like breaking genre/verisimilitude to me.  Sure, the group members can restrain themselves with their narration, but you could say something like, "I spin kick him far out into the abyss."  Then it starts looking ridiculous to have him come flitting back.

I like the hell out of a lot of Wushu, but I'm not sold on the outcome mechanics.  Mooks are one thing, named characters seem broken.

Best,

Blake

[John Harper]

Broken? I disagree. If you don't want something "unbelievable" to happen, don't narrate it. Seems pretty simple to me. The GM has this power of narration rights in lots of games. Wushu just gives the same rights (and responsibilities) to all the players as a group.

In Wushu, if you narrate that you kick the Big Bad off the cliff into the bottomless pit, you're telling the GM "Go ahead... I want something really crazy to happen here." I'm not sure what you mean when you say "group members can restrain themselves." It's not about restraint. It's about choosing a genre, setting, and "reality dial" and then cooperating as a group to play to those conventions. Yes, you could narrate anything at all (I fly to the sun!) but why would you want to? When someone GMs a standard RPG, she could suddenly say, "A mountain falls out of the clear blue sky and crushes everyone into paste." There are no rules in traditional games to keep such a thing from happening, but it never does. Why? Social contract. Group cooperation and enjoyment. The same elements are present in Wushu... they're just not on one side of the table, so to speak.

[Blake Hutchins]

Hello.

Point taken.  It's like every roll is an MoV out of The Pool.

Best,

Blake

[Blake Hutchins]

Hello.

Point taken.  It's like every roll is an MoV out of The Pool.

Best,

Blake

[John Harper]

Ah! Yes, that's it, Blake. Well said. The Pool puts the die roll somewhere in the middle, and Wushu puts it firmly last. "Fortune at the end" I suppose.

[Blake Hutchins]

Right.  Pool die rolls determine success or failure, but Wushu rolls assume success and then measure the ultimate impact of that success on the outcome.

Best,

Blake

[Blake Hutchins]

OK, but here's my problem....  Aside from losing Chi, how does one fail in Wushu?  I mean, some of my best RP as either player or GM emerges from riffing off failure.  My players in The Pool have loved the MoD rule, for example.  Is outright failure purely voluntary?

Best,

Blake

[Shreyas Sampat]

That's the impression I get.  I don't see that there's any problem with that - it seems to emulate the genre quite elegantly.

Perhaps there could be a separation between named conflict and mook conflict - named conflict uses FitM, and thus allows for failure, while mook conflict uses FitE, which gets you that side-scrolling popcorn nijas feeling.

That said, I think it's perfectly alright that failure is wholly optional.

Edit: typo

[John Harper]

The players can narrate stuff after the die roll, as well. There's no rule that forbids it, anyway. If a player gets thrashed by the die rolls, but no thrashing was narrated before, I'd narrate some additional action to create a visual for how the PC gets banged up.

[Blake Hutchins]

Fair enough.  Thanks!

Best,

Blake

[Jay Turner]

The thought occurred to me that someone kicking the boss' head off in one hit but the dice not letting that end it is just asking for a "Now, face my TRUE FORM!" moment, like that in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or like when the killer gets back up and attacks after being hit by a car. There's also the chance of more mooks coming in and attacking as a response to their boss being killed--the incoming mooks take on the remaining Threat level of the dead boss.

Thanks for the videogame analogy. I was lurking in this thread and it wasn't making much sense, up until that point.

[Dr. Velocity]

Wushu really sounds neat, and fairly simple - I like the 'more is more' aspect to it. =) Great concept!

[Bryant]

Just posted about our experiment with Wushu last night, over on Actual Play. I talked some about how the descriptive style worked out in actual play.