Legacy of the Ten Kingdoms: 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: