Lurking Heroes

[Kwokinator]

It is the Yuan Dynasty, around 1300 AD, in China.  The Ming Sect has been labelled an evil cult since its conception, and the opinion is generally held by much of the world.  Its new leader, Lee Ao Kuang, lives up to his name as the leader of an evil sect.  Since his coming to power, he has waged war against the rest of the martial arts world.  The disciples of Emei has suffered heavy casualties, and the Ming Sect promised further wars against the other schools.  The Ming Sect outnumbers any one school by sheer numbers, and all its members are well-trained in specific tasks, be it the subdivision of tunneling to attack by suprise, or attacking with steady streams of acid.  

For decades, the students of Wudang, Shaolin, Emei, Kunlun, Huashan and various other schools have fought valiantly against the Ming Sect, neither side really tipping the balance of the war.  However, one never knows how many unknown heroes, anti-heroes, or heroes-in-the-making, are lurking out there in the vast world...

If you haven't guessed by now, this is a wuxia RPG.  There's no traditional fantasy elements here, no magic or whatever.  It'll be a freeform RPG.

Characters can belong to a certain school (the five listed above are the "good" schools, as opposed to evil), or they can be vagabonds who have trained on their own or under a mentor, farmboys who know martial arts, or whatever else you like.

Skills. The oh-so-important thing in wuxia.  Skills are divided into several categories.

Anqi - basically secret projectiles, sometimes hidden inside sleeves.  Ideally, you would die without ever knowing what happened if you have a anqi launched at you.  However, those really advanced in martial arts can sense it and dodge it immediately.  Sometimes tipped with poison, but that is usually reserved for "evil" people.  Skill in anqi is speed and accuracy, both speed in launching (so others don't see it coming a mile away) and the actual projectile speed.  Entirely optional skill, in fact, most characters in wuxia don't have any.

Weapons - another optional component.  With ki, basically anything can be a weapon.  In wuxia novels there are characters who use ink brushes, bamboo, abacus, a long, soft stem of a plant, or even a sewing needle.  However, mainstream weapons are the jian and the dao.  Jian is a normal Chinese sword.  Dao is also a kind of sword, except it's curved and therefore only one side is meant for attacking, the other side is blunt.  

Qinggong - this is the ability to move quickly and lightly.  The more advanced in qing gong you are the faster youc an move.  This is also responsible for the flying you see in wuxia movies, although that's exaggerated.  Gravity still comes into play, if lightly.  Characters still need to boost themselves off something.  The beginners at qinggong are basically normal people, and one is able to jump higher and farther as one progresses.  The height of qinggong is "flight over grass", where you basically move so quickly and smoothly that you're practically flying, where you are able to give yourself boosts off even something as light as grass and keep going.  Related to ki in that the more ki you have, the more advanced you can be and instead of having to boost of walls or tables, you can boost off yourself or off grass or whatever, you just can't boost off empty air.

Dianxue - pressure point attacks.  If you have studied pressure points, you can attack those points, with the result being paralysis, sleep, or even death.  The latter is rarely used, and even rarely successful because all martial arts practicioners know where the locaions are and very rarely lets an opening appear there.

Ki - the all-important element in martial arts, this affects all that you do.  The more ki you have, the more damage you can do with a physical attack, the higher the level you can obtain in qinggong, and the longer the duration the effect of dianxue would be (ie. paralysis for, say, five hours as opposed to, say, half an hour if a normal person was to hit the pressure point).  Ki can also be used either constructively or destructively.  If injured, you can rest and meditate and let your ki heal your injuries at an accelerated pace, or if a friend is too injured you can use your ki to help the friend recover.  Destructively, a rapid transfer of ki to your opponent during an attack results in much heavier damage than normal, even normal ki-enhanced strength.  There is a limit to transferring ki either constructively or destructively, however.  Think of the body as a reservoir, every use depletes the storage a little, however, it refills with time.  The storage gets larger the more training you have in ki, and it refills faster.

Despite those skills, the fighting is still primarily based on martial arts, albeit glorified due to qinggong and ki.

Characters should be relatively "weak" to start with, they shouldn't be uber. I'm aiming for about three to four people, and the game should start somewhere around mid to late-May... if I ever get enough people.

[Merc]

Well, like I told you, as long as it starts after mid-May, I'm in. So, seeing as it is... I'm in =p

[Liddo-kun]

I'll tentatively reserve a spot.  We shall see what the workload dictates though.

<_<

[Edward]

I'm interested.

[Dracos]

G'luck, Kwok.

Dracos

[Corwin]

If you think you could use an abacus specialist, one could be provided for you.  >_>

[Jeram]

Do you still have any slots open?

-J

[Kwokinator]

Well, Merc, Liddo-kun, Edward and Corwin have signed up, so you're probably out of luck, Jeram.  That is, unless one of them drops out, or unless I decide to try my luck and see if I can handle 5 players even though it's probably too much for me ^_^

But then again, some people would probably say that with me just being a GM is too much ^_^

[Edward]

Five nicely fits the Chinese five elements.  Everything in China comes in fives.

[Kwokinator]

Five nicely fits the Chinese five elements.  Everything in China comes in fives.

Then how come I never see Chinese people do high-fives? :D

[Dracos]

Give it a try Kwok, it makes it easier if someone has a sudden need to drop for real life reasons.

Dracos

[Merc]

You mean like the plushie who's 9 days behind on his work and currently unable to game? ^_^

[Kwokinator]

You mean like the plushie who's 9 days behind on his work and currently unable to game? ^_^

Yes, like him, although he said he might give it a try ^_^;;

[Edward]

I PM'd a character idea to the GM.

[Jeram]

Well, it's okay - good luck, you guys! I'll be reading a bit to see how it goes, probably.

-J