Lore sheets (template)

Hello again and sorry that this post is later than anticipated. I needed to fix some more important things as well as having to deal with some setbacks, one of which was the video card of my laptop getting fried and having to get a new one. I could've posted this yesterday, but I figured I might as well wait until Sunday as it is my usual day to make a blog post. Without further ado, lets start today's post on how I will be making my lore sheets.

I'm going to need a lot of lore sheets, and when I say a lot, I mean a freaking truckload of lore sheets. Luckily, I don't need to write them all up in the same amount of detail. Just to give you an indication of how many lore sheets I need to make; I need 30 lore sheets for all the kingdoms, I need at least a lore sheet for all the capitals (10), I need a lore sheet for all the legendary warriors for single tag weapons (9/10), I need a lore sheet for non-kingdom factions that might turn up (3/4), I need a lore sheet for the interesting places (10) and I need a lore sheet for the history of Shen Zhou (1/2). So yes, I'm looking at 63-66 lore sheets I need to make and these are only the ones that I can anticipate. If my players come up with awesome places in my world, I see no reason why they could not exist and have a lore sheet. Luckily, I can get them to write those lore sheets themselves with a bit of my help.

To structure the lore sheets, as well as make sure they all have the information I want in there, I will use a template. In the book, all the lore sheets have a template as well, which help divide between fluff and actual game stats.

I will be making templates for all the lore sheets when I need them, but for now I want to focus on creating the lore sheets for the kingdoms. Hence the template I will be creating in this post will be for the kingdom lore sheets. With some minor tweaks it can then be used for one of the other lore sheets I named above.

Before I can create a template, I will need to know what I want to have in the lore sheets. I'll start by making a list of everything that needs to be in a lore sheet, and then I will split those up in the three levels: common knowledge, classified and top secret.
The list of things I want in my lore sheets:
- Brief history of the kingdom
- Current ruler and advisers
- Special unit
- Kung fu styles taught in the kingdom
- Preferred weapon
- Legendary people
- Combat stats (traits from my previous post)
- Legendary martial arts
- Legendary weapon
- Goals
- Brief description of type of people in the kingdom
- Major secret

If you've paid attention, you will notice a lot of overlap with the checklist I made in my previous post. Things like the capital of the kingdom don't need to be mentioned in the lore sheet, as they deserve an entire separate lore sheet. I have placed the ruler and advisers there, as you may have some entanglement with them. Next I will give a colour code to each item in the list. Common knowledge will be yellow, classified will be red and top secret will be blue.
- Brief history of the kingdom
- Current ruler and advisers
- Special unit
- Kung fu styles taught in the kingdom
- Preferred weapon
- Legendary people
- Combat stats (traits from my previous post)
- Legendary martial arts
- Legendary weapon
- Goals
- Brief description of type of people in the kingdom
- Major secret

As you can see, not a lot of things are top secret or classified. The things you do learn if you unlock these tiers are very powerful though, especially if you are the enemy. If I'm going to use spies as an option, I could give access to one of the pieces of information in a classified or top secret lore sheet as a reward.

Next I need to decide on the desitny (experience) cost of these lore sheets. I have decided that I will stick with 3 destiny for a common knowledge lore sheet, 3 destiny for classified and 5 destiny for top secret. This way it is possible to access these sheets as well as get some of the bonuses in the sheets (costs are separate per sheet, so to get top secret you will spend 11 destiny). The common knowledge part will be 0 destiny if you are born and raised in that kingdom.

Now that I have all the rough information, here's what the template will look like for the common knowlegde lore sheet:

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Kingdom Name

common knowledge

Destiny cost: 3 (0 if born and raised in kingdom)

Brief description of kingdom

Brief description of people in kingdom

The people

Ruler

   - bonus/fortune/etc.

Advisers

   - bonus/fortune/etc.

Legendary people

   - bonus/fortune/etc.

The kung fu

Kung fu styles taught in the kingdom

   - bonus/fortune/etc.

Preferred weapon

   - bonus/fortune/etc.

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

The parts in italics are from the list, the rest will be filled in depending on the kingdom. When you look at it, it doesn't seem like all that much, but it will be a lot of work filling in all the different parts.

In a similar fashion, I will also post the templates for the classified and top secret lore sheets below.

|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Kingdom Name

classified

Destiny cost: 3

Deeper description of the kingdom/a quote/some sort of fluff

The kingdom scrolls
(the kingdom traits)
Army strength: x
Strength of heir: x
Food supply: x
Strategy: x
Cunning: x
Politics: x
Loyalty: x

The specialists
Special unit and its options
   - bonus/fortune/etc.

The secret scrolls
Goals
Any minor secret I want to grant access to
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Kingdom Name

top secret

Destiny cost: 5

Deeper description of the kingdom/a quote/some sort of fluff

The hidden scrolls
Legendary kung fu
   - bonus/fortune/etc.

The sword in the stone
Legendary weapon
   - bonus/fortune/etc.

If I told you, I'd have to kill you
Major secret
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Everywhere I have '- bonus/fortune/etc.' there will be a list with options that will cost destiny to purchase. Once purchased a character will have access to either a bonus, something that will grant you access to a person or some information or something else that I have defined in the lore sheet. If you are not familiar with the system, this will sound a bit vague perhaps, but it will be clearer once I finish an actual lore sheet and show you what it looks like.

With these templates done, I have finished all the preparations I wanted to make before I actually start writing stuff. I have a lot of handles, thought about what I want to create and I have created the tools I need to get started.

So what will be next for my blog you wonder? Well, my next post won't be until next week sunday for several reasons. First of all I'm playing 2 campaigns this week, secondly I have a workshop on how to make players follow your story to prepare and give, thirdly I need to actually create a lot of content for my next post and lastly, I have at least one party I want to go to next week. You do however have something to look forward to, as I want to post the lore sheet(s) of my first kingdom next week, as well as a list of NPC's I have already thought of. The weeks following that, I will post the same material for the other kingdoms (I might do more than one in a week/post if I have the time/inspiration). If you are really interested to see the results of one of the kingdoms, be sure to leave a message and I will try and get that kingdom done sooner rather than later.

So thanks for reading, and see you next week!

How to design a kingdom

As expected, I was extremely tried yesterday and I couldn't muster the energy to write a blog post. In my previous post, I said I would talk about how I will design my kingdoms, as well as how I will set up my lore sheets for them. These are quite closely connected, but doing both in one post is a bit much, so I want to discuss how to design a kingdom first, and then post about loresheets later this week.

First things first; let's see what I already have for each kingdom. In my last post I have given each kingdom a territory. In the post before that, I gave each kingdom some traits, their strongest source of income, a combat focus and a weapon focus. That's enough for me to flesh out the ten kingdoms, so I don't need to bring in more raw materials that I can refine.

Some of the kingdoms will see less play than others. The main protagonists and antagonists will see more play than those that remain more neutral. It's also possible that my players completely ignore a kingdom. Even though this may happen, I want the less important kingdoms to have as much detail as the more important kingdoms. This is because I have no idea what my players will choose to do, or what the dice may throw my way and I don't want my players to feel they made a bad choice because I didn't design all kingdoms equally. To design the kingdoms equally, I like to have a checklist. If I can check off every point on the list, the kingdom should be finished.

As I want to focus on the legacy of my players, I think it's necessary for my kingdoms to have a solid history. Each kingdom needs to have a founder, this can be a single person, or it could be a group of people. To give the origin a bit more depth I want to write an origin story of how the kingdom was made, giving a description of its original founder.
I want all my kingdoms to have existed for at least 60 years, so they have a firm foothold in the world and are unlikely to be eradicated easily. To portray the age of the kingdom, I want to write down 3-5 major events that impacted the kingdom greatly. These may overlap with the major events that happed in Shen Zhou timeline that I still need to make.
Another part of the legacy I want to open up to my players is 1 or 2 legendary people, who have accomplished something that makes them memorable for the kingdom and beyond. For example, I have an idea in mind for the Kui (bear) kingdom, to have had a warrior named Mountain Splitter, whose strength was so great that it is said he split a mountain in two to make a river flow next to his village.

Once I have secured the past of a kingdom, I will need to look at it's future. Every kingdom has somewhere it wants to grow, or something it wants to achieve. There is an ambition or a goal that the leaders of the kingdom strive for. I will crystallise this in one long term goal that the kingdom has. I will als write down two short term goals, to give them something that can be more noticeable in play. Long term goals will probably go for the full length of the campaign or longer, and the short term goals should be achieved in 4 or 5 sessions at most. Once completed, I will make a new short term goal.

When I know where a kingdom wants to go, I can start filling in the current state of the kingdom. I will do this with several things. I will give a value between 1 and 5 to the following aspects of the kingdom: army strength, strength of heir, food supply, strategy, cunning, politics, loyalty.
The higher the value, the more of this they have, or the stronger this trait is for this kingdom. I will explain each aspect in a bit more detail below.
Army strength: An indication of the current total strength of the army size, skill level, and power of the elite soldiers in the kingdom (more on elite soldiers later).
Strength of heir: Every kingdom needs an heir, and the health of this heir as well as their capacity to rule the kingdom will influence this score.
Food supply: This is basically a score to tell me how easy this kingdom can keep its people fed without the need of external help.
Strategy: The relative power of the strategical advice that is given by generals/advisors as well as the ability to make strategical decisions by the ruler of the kingdom. A low score does not mean ineptitude, it just means the kingdom is behind other kingdoms in this trait.
Cunning: How good is the kingdom in infiltration, spy missions, assassinations and other covert operations that should not be made public.
Politics: The relative power of the diplomatic advisors, diplomats and the ability to make diplomatic decisions and behave appropriately by the ruler of the kingdom. A low score does not mean ineptitude, it just means the kingdom is behind other kingdoms in this trait.
Loyalty: How well can the kindom be trusted once they make a decision is made to be an ally. Will they burn together, or will the backstab you if needed to save their own skin.

Once I have these traits, I will decide the capital, age, if the kingdom gets their own legendary weapon, if they have their own legendary martial arts style, and what the ability of their elite unit is for the kingdom and what their major secret is. These elite units are stronger than normal soldiers, but weaker than player characters, or leader NPC's. Their ability could be along the lines of: can appear in a scene for the cost of 2 joss, no matter the location (these would fit well for the Bashe kingdom). They will also be harder to replace than normal soldiers.

Once I have the above, I will need to create the people who run the show. In my to do list, I have chosen to make 3-5 important NPC's. Now that I've spent more time thinking about it, I might need to increase this number. The following NPC's need to exist for each kindom:
- Leader
- Strategist/general
- Diplomat/advisor
- Sifu (master of martial arts)
Besides these, I also want to have the family of the ruler, as well as 1 or 2 important heroes that can fight alongside or against the players. This will most likely bring me to 5-7 NPC's per kingdom. As I think I really need these NPC's, I'll have to change this in my to-do list.

Once I have worked out all the above things, I can chart out which kingdoms could be allied, which people might have relationships and how I'm going to fit my players in this world, but there is quite a lot to do before I get there. Next time I will discuss how I will be making my lore sheets and what information will be available in the 3 different levels.

Thank you for reading and I'll end this post with the checklist for creating my kindoms. See you next time!

Checklist:
- Origin story of the kingdom
- Founder(s) of the kingdom, with description
- Timeline with 3-5 major events for the kingdom
- 1 or 2 legendary people from the kingdom
- 1 long term goal for the kingdom
- 2 short term goals for the kingdom
- Assign values to each trait: army strength, strength of heir, food supply, strategy, cunning, politics, loyalty
- Assign capital
- Age of the kingdom
- Legendary weapon y/n (short description if y. I can work out the details later)
- Legendary martiak arts y/n (short description if y. I can work out the details later, unless a player can start with it)
- Elite unit ability
- Major secret
- Create necessary NPC's (leader, strategist, diplomat, sifu)
- Create family of leader
- Create 1 or 2 important heroes

Shen Zhou and it's geography

As promised, my next post would be about creating the maps for my campaign. I will discuss why I made my maps, how I made my maps and what I still need to add to the maps in a later stage.

I will start with why I want these maps. In my 'To Do:' post, I already explained why I wanted some maps. The main reasons are that it really helps my players out, when trying to visualise my world in their heads as we play. It is impossible to have 5 or 6 people imagining something in exactly the same way, but with some visual aid it is a lot easier to bring them to something that is close enough.
A map will also help me when designing the kingdoms and the cities. The Gobi desert requires a different type of person and a different city structure when compared to the Himalayan mountain range or the lush farmlands of the south. A map will help me define these areas before I make my kingdoms.
It is also possible to decide what kind of area my kingdoms would be in, and then place them in a map, but that would create a world less based on reality. My preference is sticking with something realistic, to make it easier to absorb the amount of information that will be available.

Next up is how I made my maps. The first thing I need is a baseline, so I went to google and found a semi-large blank map of china. I want this, because I want to add my own names, as well as define my own regions. Taking a map with existing borders will only make it harder for me.
In that blank map, I want to outline the borders of the ten kingdoms. However, it is strange to just randomly draw these in, as I want them to feel natural. The next thing I did was look for the physical geography of China on google. I found several images that were of no help, and some that were quite useful. With the information I found, I coloured in my blank map to have a rough idea what the different terrains will be like.

Below you will find the map I created. I also sketched in the borders I felt would naturally occur

As you may notice, I have not added any rivers in the map. I will add these in a later stage, because I might change the flow of rivers a bit to suit my needs. The borders and maps will, and can change as I progress through my preparations.

Most countries are formed using natural borders. A river, a cliff, the treeline of a forest; all these physical features are used to beacon off the end of a territory. If you look at the borders of many countries, you can see how the physical geography played a role in determining the borders. In Africa, you can see what happens when it doesn't follow these rules, but is divided using a blank slate, giving borders a straight line. Hence the borders I will create will also follow the natural flow of things, but I will influence them by allowing certain borders to have grown beyond their natural place.

The next step was to take these natural borders, place them in my blank map and enter all the kingdoms. To place each kingdom in the world, I looked at each kingdom and decided in what kind of area they should be in. Below you will find an overview of every clan with their preferred region.

Name	Animal	Preferred region
Kui	Bear	Mountains
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Mountains/plains
Mamien	Horse	Steppe
Luduan	Wolf	Forests
Tianlong	Dragon	Anywhere central in Shen Zhou
Bashe	Spider	Swamp/Mountain
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Mountain, with some fertile lands
Xiao	Monkey	Plains near ocean
Taotie	Pig	Rich farmlands
Jian	Swan	Near the ocean

To be fair, I had this list already before I started making the natural borders, so I used this to go to a working version of the borders straight away. I also knew that I wanted certain kingdoms to be larger than others, so I did not hesitate to make some area's bigger.

Below you will find my map that I will use for now, outlining the borders of each kingdom. The names are the animals I associated them with, as the Chinese names have not yet stuck in my mind. 

I feel that this map opens up many alliance options. The only one that really has an issue is the Spider kingdom, but I have special plans for them, so there is no worry there. I am thinking of moving them slightly though.

Then the last part of this post. What do I still need to do in these maps. As I mentioned before, I still need to place the rivers in there and see how this might affect my borders. I am happy with the borders as they are now, so I will need to decide whether I want the border to shift, or the river to shift. Both are an option, but I will see how this will play out in the future. The next thing I need to look at is the placement of the Spider kingdom. They are very isolated, and I think it's possible to move them up so they also border the Horse kingdom. Another important thing is to add the cities and important places in Shen Zhou, for easy reference.

The last thing I want to do is make another map, combining the maps I have in a more schematic way. It must clearly show the borders of the kingdoms and all the interesting places, but I also want them to show the physical geography using symbols perhaps, instead of colours and a legend.

I hoped this post would be less lengthy, but I guess I have too much to share to make short posts. As always, if you want to share something with me or if you would like my insight on something I have discussed, feel free to contact me.

I don't think I will have the time to make a post on sunday as I will be away for the weekend, but if I won't make it on sunday, I will try and post on monday latest. In my next post I will discuss how I will design the ten kingdoms and how I will set up my lore sheets.

The Ten Kingdoms

In my last post I've laid out all the seperate things I will need to create before I can start running my campaign. Looking at the list, I could take 2 different approaches; I could start by thinking of interesting characters I want to have in my setting, then decide where they belong and from there extrapolate how the world will look or I could start by figuring out how the world should look, then figure out why that is en which people are responsible for that. Both approaches are valid and it really comes down to personal preference. For me, this is designing the world first, then figuring out what kind of people run the show as I find it easier to create NPC's that fit in a kingdom, then find a kingdom that fits with NPC's I've created.
This does not mean that I don't already have some NPC's in mind that I want to implement.

Now that I've decided to start by creating the world first, I want to decide on which kingdoms I want to create. Do note that everything I present is still subject to change. A decision I make now could change next week, when I find some new inspiration or if I suddenly see a flaw in my design I missed before. The main thing I want to focus on when designing the kindoms, is that they are memorable, recognizable and have a specialty.

Originally when I started with designing the kingdoms, I had decided that I wanted 3 kingdoms as protagonists, 3 kingdoms as antagonists and 3 neutral kingdoms that could be recruited as allies for either side. When creating the map, I found that having a tenth kingdom actually fit a lot better than only having nine. I might cut out one kingdom if I can't make it feel unique enough, but I don't think that will be an issue.

The first thing I wanted to do, was to decide on how to name my kingdoms. A name is very important and I want the right names that fit well in the setting. Seeing as I want to play in China, I want to use Chinese names for the kingdoms, that sound and look different enough for us westerners to remember. Most of my NPC's will have names in English or Dutch (most likely English) because I fear that having too many Chinese names will confuse my players.

In most games I've ran in the wuxia genre, I often use animals in names, because they give certain associations with traits. For example, Red Dragon and the Mantis Minister are sitting opposite each other at a feast. To me (and probably a lot of people), Red Dragon looks as a strong, noble and powerful person. The Mantis Minister is more subtle, probably lean and dangerous when you don't expect it. I have not given any descriptions at all about these characters, but just using animal names, I can evoke what kind of people they are. (I will use this when designing my NPC's as well). For that reason, I want to associate each kingdom with an animal.
The ten animals I chose: Bear, Wolf, Spider, Horse, Swan, Dragon, Eagle, Pig, Bird of Paradise and Monkey.

For each kingdom, I decided to write down some keywords that describe the kingdom, as well as the most important source of income for the kingdom. The reason I want to source of income is to get a view of the economy of each kingdom and the entire region of Shen Zhou. I won't be doing much with the economy in my game, if anything at all, but knowing where the money flows will impact how alliances form naturally as well as how certain military decisions will be made, but more on this in later blog posts.

Below you will find a table with the name, animal, traits and source of income of every kingdom.

Name	Animal	Traits	Source of income
Kui	Bear	Hardy and sturdy fighters, mountaineers	Blacksmithing
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Just, fierce, impulsive	Carpentry
Mamien	Horse	Traders, hard workers, messengers	Leatherworking
Luduan	Wolf	Tactical geniuses, great at small unit fighting	Trade of game
Tianlong	Dragon	[Emperor], noble, wise, traditional rulers	Tailoring
Bashe	Spider	Stealthy, assassin-like, masters of poison	Mercenaries
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Mystical, magic/rituals, protectors	Rituals/Magic
Xiao	Monkey	Entertainers, brewers, fireworks experts	Fireworks/Alcohol
Taotie	Pig	Extremely rich, bureaucrats, advisors, fertile lands	Farm produce
Jian	Swan	Sailors, trade with the west, largest produce of tea	Western trade

As martial arts are a big part of the game, I find it important that each kingdom has their own focus in which aspect of combat is most important as well as which weapons are preferred by each kingdom for their kung fu. I will go in further detail in either a post about the kingdom, or when discussing the martial arts. For now it is enough to know the focus and weapons, so it makes it easier when I go into more detail.

Below you will find a table with the combat and weapon focus for each kingdom.

Name	Animal	Combat focus	Weapon focus
Kui	Bear	Strength and grapples	Unarmed and big weapons
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Speed	Unarmed/claws
Mamien	Horse	Endurance and mounted	Unarmed (kicks)
Luduan	Wolf	Tactics/strike	Sabers
Tianlong	Dragon	Power	Armour and classical weapons
Bashe	Spider	Stealth	Daggers/needles
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Magic and mobility	Spear
Xiao	Monkey	Dodge	Staff
Taotie	Pig	Toughness	Swords
Jian	Swan	Elegance	Flexible* and fans

*flexible weapons are weapons that have a rope or chain to make their movements unpredictable, such as a whip.

The information in the tables above is subject to change. I might find that a certain clan should have more focus on a different weapon, I will not hesitate to change this. I am also lacking some weapon types, which I might add to the clans. I can imagine the Sanzuwu kingdom to also focus on archery for example. I might even give the Peng kingdom the bow as a weapon focus, and add the spear to the Mamien kingdom.

As always, if you have any questions or you would like to discuss one of my choices, be free to leave a message or contact me. In my next post I will discuss the making of a map for the ten kingdoms and I expect to post this halfway through the week as these maps are done with the material I have so far. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you're excited as I am to see these kingdoms fleshed out.

To do:

I know it's been only a few days since I posted my first post, but since there is a lot of things I can talk about with the material I've already produced, I'd like to share this post with you already. In my first post, I told you about what I want to do, the system and what I hope to get out of running this campaign. Now it is time to actually get to work and find out where I need to start writing or fleshing out my campaign. Besides this, I will need certain things to accomplish my goals, and the best way to do this is to make a list of things I need to produce. The points on the to do list will still be vague, but clear enough for me to know what to do when I start working on it.

To make this list, I will write down my train of thought on things I'll need, things I think I need and things that might be useful. I will post the actual to do list on the bottom of this page.

Seeing as my campaign is going to be about a war in china between different alliances, consisiting of seperate kingdoms, there will be some obvious things I can put down on my list. Firstly, I will need the 10 kingdoms, which I might refer to as the major clans at some point. I feel all these kingdoms should be unique enough so that they can be easily distinguished. Each has their own important NPC's, martial arts, culture, history, goals and secrets. To make these accessible to the players, I will have to compile these into lore sheets. To give my players a feeling of actually growing into these factions, I will make 3 levels within each lore sheet, which can be unlocked during play. Level 1 will be common knowledge if you read about or study a kingdom. Level 2 will contain some classified information and can be bought once you are a member with some status, or if you have managed to befriend a kingdom well enough. Level 3 will be secret knowledge and only accessible to a select group of people within a kingdom.

So to sum up:

- 10 kingdoms (major clans)

- 3 levels of lore sheets per kingdom

If I have 10 kingdoms split into alliances (see my first post) I need to make a chart of natural allies. Which kingdoms share similar views, how are they positioned geographically and how will this influence them. To achieve this, I'll need to know the views of the kingdoms, which I will have once I've designed them. That is already on the list, so no point in writing it down again. The geography is something different. I like having visuals and it will help the players understand where they are and where they can go. So, I will make a map showing the borders between all kingdoms, as well as a map with the physical geography. I want the latter map, because that will give me an indication of how the kingdom could work.

So to sum up this part:

- Map showing the borders of the 10 kingdoms

- Map showing the physical geography of China.

Next up is NPC's. I will need a lot of these, but not all need as much details. I want to have about 3-5 important NPC's per kingdom. This does also tie in with designing the kingdoms, but is such a daunting task, I want to make this a seperate task. With these important NPC's, I can make a relationship chart. This will help clarify rivals, love interests, family or outright enemies. I can then use these relationships to introduce possible allies, or open up story hooks by introducing these NPC's. Besides the NPC's from the kingdoms, I'll also need some filler NPC's. Most of these don't need much of a background, but they can serve a higher purpose when needed. These will mostly be unafiliated with the major factions, but could represent a small group. I think I'll want about 20 of these.

Note that these numbers may change as I actually start working. I might find that I need a lot less than I am planning on needing

So to sum up this part about NPC's:

- 3-5 important NPC's per kingdom

- Relationship chart between all important NPC's (include players when possible)

- about 20 NPC's not affiliated with a kingdom.

Once I have my factions, the maps and the NPC's worked out, most of the history will be in place. However, I think it is important to have a (short) history of what happened in Shen Zhou and how it came to be in the situation it now is. I'd like to make a timeline with all important events (wars, unifications, divisions, etc.). I'd also like to write a short story about the recent events, which triggered the war the players find themselves in. I can use this as an information package for the players, or just for myself.

Once again a summary of these points:

- Timeline of all major events in relevant history for Shen Zhou

- Short story (2 pages) of the recent events leading up to the war

The last part I need for my setting design, is some places. I need to know which places are important to the kingdoms, which strategic areas are there, which places hold significant value to some people as well as which major cities are there. Now I can make up a thousand villages and cities, or I can just make up those that matter. I will choose the latter, as I know I won't stick with making much more than I'll need. I think that having 2 cities and 3 villages in every kingdom should suffice for now. My players may want to come up with more, but that can be added later on. I also want to come up with 10 significant places other than cities or villages. I'm thinking along the lines of a shrine where you could commune with the gods, or the unending desert, where all those that tried to cross it, never returned. These will help bringing my world to life for my players.

Another summary:

- 2 cities, 3 villages per kingdom

- 10 significant places other than cities or villages

All of the above points are for creating my setting. So if you are looking for setting design, doing something similar to what I've done, will net you a well-rounded setting. For full immersion, it is important that your setting lives and breathes. To do this, you will need your villagers to gossip, stories of legends being told in the teahouses or people being concerned about nothing, because they heard ogres were rolling down the mountains. This is something I don't need to have, to have a working campaign, but will help with immersion. If I have time (and enough drive to make this) I will make 5 myths, 5 stories about heroes/villains and 20 pieces of gossip. Once the game starts, I will use my players actions as input for future gossip and songs that bards can sing. I can also use my players backgroung as a source of gossip.

A few more points:

I have placed a * before these points, as they are optional

*- 5 myths

*- 5 stories about hearoes/villains

*- 20 pieces of gossip

Besides my setting, I also have a system with certain mechanics. When I played it, I felt like some parts of the system were unbalanced and the choices in kung fu were a bit lacking. To fix these, I have made up some possible solutions. I don't know if these are actual fixes, but I want to try them out. If it doesn't work, I can always revert to my vanilla game. I will inform my players of this, so they know the system might change slightly if I feel it needs to be changed.

One thing you need to know, is that I am a bit of a power gamer. When I make a character, I want it to be able to do what I want it to do, and do it well. If that means that I can get an extra bonus somewhere for a small investment, I'm quite likely to make that choice. I know there are more people like me, so I want to give them options to counter-act this type of character building.

The first thing I'd like to change, is single weapon tags. In LotW, it is possible to have 2 weapon tags on a weapon. This lets you use both tags, should your kung fu allow this. For those a bit unfamiliar with the system, a kwan dao could get the weapon tags: staff and saber, giving a pretty significant bonus, over someone who just uses a staff. As I don't want people to just take 2 weapon tags for the mechanical benefit, I want to design legendary people they can descend from, which will boost the useability of their single tag weapons. I can imagine someone wielding a staff being a descendant of the monkey king Sun Wukong. They can then unlock the bonus of a weapon tag (e.g. ranged for Sun Wukong's staff) as well as being able to learn how to use their weapon in all kung fu styles and truly become a master of their weapon.

To be fair to those choosing to take 2 weapon tags, they can also learn to master their weapon for any kung fu, but will need to make an investment in-game to unlock this technique. I will need to look closely at balancing both sides when I design them, but this can fix this issue for me.

The second thing I want to change is elemental chi. Right now, I feel that having elemental chi provides an unfair advantage to those who are without elemental chi. Elemental chi can be spent as normal chi, or as 2 chi when used for it's element. When you breathe chi, you can get 2 normal, as well as 1 point of each element (assuming 4th rank). This means that if I cultivate 2 different elements, I could generate 4 points of chi, which could then be spent as 6 points of chi if I used the right moves. The kung fu moves using elemental chi are just as powerful as the normal moves, so you can get quite a large advantage using elements. The only drawback is the chi deviations you get. I'm going to experiment with getting 2 chi back automatically in any combination you want. This will maintain the power of elemental chi, but not let you fight much longer before needing to breathe. Again, if this turns out not to be fair I will go back to the rules as written.

The last thing I want to address is the variety in martial arts styles. There are 14 external styles, and 11 internal styles available, yet it still feels limited to me. The way to remedy this, is to create my own martial arts styles. I'm not sure if I want to do this, but I am willing to change some of the existing styles to match the kingdoms they can be learned in. If I come across a kingdom that needs a martial arts style that I cannot adapt form the existing ones, I will make my own styles. I will not let my players design their own styles, as that could interfere with my setting. I will allow them to come up with their own style in game, should they choose to develop one of their own.

To sum up this part about the system:

- Write a lore sheet for each weapon tag with a legendary hero

- Balance the written loresheets so they are of equal power

- Introduce rule to automatically regain x chi total (x depends on rank)

- Change/write martial arts styles as needed for differnt kingdoms

This has been quite a long post, and I'm sure that not all my posts will be this lengthy, so if you're still reading here, good job! The compiled to do list will be below and I've grouped the ones related to each other. If I change any of my choices I have made so far, or if I think of something to add, I'll add it to the list, in either a new post, or in this one. Should you have any questions on why I put things on the to do list or think I forgot to add something, don't hesitate to comment!

The To Do list:

- 10 kingdoms (major clans)

- 3 levels of lore sheets per kingdom

- 3-5 important NPC's per kingdom

- Relationship chart between all important NPC's (include players when possible)

- about 20 NPC's not affiliated with a kingdom.

- Map showing the borders of the 10 kingdoms

- Map showing the physical geography of China

- 2 cities, 3 villages per kingdom

- 10 significant places other than cities or villages

- Timeline of all major events in relevant history for Shen Zhou

- Short story (2 pages) of the recent events leading up to the war

*- 5 myths

*- 5 stories about hearoes/villains

*- 20 pieces of gossip

- Write a lore sheet for each weapon tag with a legendary hero

- Balance the written loresheets so they are of equal power

- Introduce rule to automatically regain x chi total (x depends on rank)

- Change/write martial arts styles as needed for differnt kingdoms

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!

I'm Slitharein and I'm writing this blog for a roleplay campaign I want to start. I have no set date on which I want to start, but I'm setting a goal for myself to make a weekly blog post about what I've been working on and maybe showcase some of my material. I'll try and explain design choices I make, as well as my reasoning why I'm working on certain parts first. I hope that those who are interested in starting a roleplay campaign can use my blog as a guideline to start their own, or help those who are already playing with some insigths on what they can improve on. Besides this, I hope my posts will be an interesting read.

Disclaimer: I might use gaming terms or system specific terms in my posts. If you do not understand them, send me a message and I'll try to explain them.

To start things off, I'd like to present the system I will be running in, Legends of the Wulin (eos-sama.com/legends-of-the-wulin-rpg/). The reason why I chose this system, is because I was a fan of Weapons of the Gods since I first played it, and this is basically a second edition of the system. It is a system used to run Wuxia (martial arts) and has a lot of interesting mechanics that I just adore. I've dabbeled in GURPS a bit after my last Weapons of the Gods campaign, but I really want to make an epic in this system.

Secondly, it's important to clarify what I want to get out of this campaign. These are:

- Awesome action scenes (fights)

- Political intrige

- Personal drama

- Leaving and finding your legacy

I'll explain these points in a bit more detail.

Awesome action scenes

If you watch any martial arts film, they are filled with action scenes where the hero fights of several mooks, or where he has a very close duel with one of equal skill. It's these kind of scenes I'd like to reproduce in my game. If I manage some memorable fights, I will have achieved this goal

Political intrige

As much as I like action scenes, I find it important that they serve a higher purpose. The possibility that a courtier can make a legendary persuasion roll to completely change the Emperor's mind on whether to start a war or not is something I want to be able to facilitate. I have not yet defined when I will have been successful for this goal, as I'm confident this will be achieved (more on this later this post)

Personal drama

Drama is what drives players to make meaningful and fun game decisions. Without drama there would be just a sequence of fights and some chattering about current affairs. My aim is to get my players attached to NPC's as well as give them difficult but meaningful choices. These choices tie in with my next point. I will have achieved my goal when my players hate me for something I did to an NPC or if I can make them emotional at the gaming table.

Leaving/finding your legacy

Your history as well as the name you leave behind is an integral part of the system, and is something I would like to explore. I think it's important for my players to keep in mind the sort of impression they leave behind. I aim to do this by letting rumours of their actions spread across the kingdoms, as well as making sure they get chances to find out their own legacy. My goal is that each player ends up with a partner and a child, or with a disciple, that can carry on their legacy.

Third and last part of this post, I want to tell you what the premise of this campaign will be. This ties in with the setting I will be creating, and will follow in other blog posts.

I'm going to run a war scenario, inspired by the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and grabbing inspiration from a campaign I played in, called Cherry Blossom Rain. The idea is that the kingdoms of Shen Zhou are ruled by the Emperor, who conquered his throne some 30 years ago. There are 10 kingdoms, or major clans, who each have their own territory and sworn fealty to the Emperor. Three of the major clans have decided that this new world order is not how things should be and have taken up an active rebellion. Three kingdoms side with the emperor, and the other four have not declared for either side. This is the time where the future of Shen Zhou will be decided. Will the clans be united under the rule of the Emperor, or will the kingdoms be sovereign once again? It is up to the players to decide the future of Shen Zhou.

I still have a lot of work left to do, and a lot of choices to make and you can follow by progress by looking at this blog every now and then. I will probably post more in the early stages, as I already have some material as well as some narrowing down to do. As soon as I need to produce more material (say the lore sheets for every clan), my blog posts might slow down. I'll try to post at least once a week, but I plan on writing another post in the next few days. If you have any questions or remarks, feel free to leave a note or contact me, and I hope you enjoyde this first post.