Welcome players! We’ve got two so far and while I think that could make for a perfectly workable game I wouldn’t mind a couple more so when I get back from my travels (tomorrow) I’ll put a Player Wanted add up as well.

No reason not to start working on final characters details, entanglements, bonds and the like though.

Hello, happy to be here and hello!

Hello, glad to be playing with you!

So I had an idea for an Unorthodox character, a renegade cultivator in the Jianghu trained by an unknown Daoist Peng in the Mountains. Daoist Peng is secretly a Demon, usually antagonistic to humans. Wen Yunfei is still a human, but his training blends traditions and may be considered heretical (thus Unorthodox playbook).

I also wanted to play with the idea of reincarnation too, with a past version of him having history with the current big clans, tying into the reason he's a human cultivator in this life being trained by a Demon.
@ An Yue: I just wanted to check with you, are you okay with this idea? Are you maybe interested in exploring having past lives for your character as well? I want to make sure everyone is on board before going in on it. It's not absolutely necessary for the character if other players don't want to explore this angle.

So far I had these ideas for Entanglements

Playbook: The Unorthodox
Entanglements:
I disguised myself to get close to (blank), but (blank), their lover, suspects and hates me.
-or-
I love (blank), but they have declared their hatred of 'my kind' after what happened to (blank).
[From the Fantastic Wuxia section]

My master, (Blank), has secretly trained me as part of a revenge plot against my friend, (blank).
-or-
(Blank) has given me private, secret training, but (blank) will be enraged if they learn of it. [From Courtly Wuxia]

I watch c-dramas all the time -lol- so I have no problem with any of these ideas hit me up for real.
I can include the red-string of fate into that for my own backgrounds so like Yes, I love it.
If our GM is good with it.

My Playbook is Loyal ( Swordswoman ) though I can easily change it to Aware (Master )
I am reading the system on my work breaks and I will have a more cohesive layout once I finish with that. This is the first time I have gotten to play this game.

So please bear with me <3.

And one more player makes three. I think I'm actually happy to start things off with three players and see how we get on. It certainly makes it easier to work everyone's backstory into the plot and involve key NPCs and the like - that would be much harder with 5 or 6.

I'm generally happy to incorporate any and all ideas for characters providing that they aren't wildly out there. I very much embrace the PBtA ethos that players have as much involvement in word building as the GM. Either in character creation or in play feel free to throw in facts about the world, details of things (laws, traditions etc.) or similar as you see fit - worst case is that clashes with either a key plot point or another character's backstory in which case it's only a quick edit to fix.

In game terms it would be good if all the characters have some connection (ie. entanglement or bond) with each other but isn't entirely necessary. Equally it helps if all the characters are familiar with each other (at least in passing) but isn't the end of the world if that can't be worked in.

My intention is to do something a bit sandboxy - there will be a few plot threads going on which will all be interlinked and you can pick and choose which bits to follow and how to proceed. There is no real reason for characters to all follow the same threads at the same time and I have no issue with the group splitting up and coming back together as feels appropriate. Connected to that will be my intention that each character will arrive at the game's location with a slightly different goal (as supplied by their faction and/or a key NPC) and some of those will be incompatible with each other. That isn't to create any sort of player problems but to create a little in-character friction to make things interesting (and add a whole thematically appropriate duty against feelings angle). How much you want your character to see out their appointed task will be entirely up to you in play.

Character sheets should be editable so feel free to throw up something in there (not that there are a huge amount of choices to be made) as and when all the details have been threshed out.

Also I'm now back from my holidays so should be much more able to respond moving forwards.

Welcome to the party!

So I had this idea for a past life for my character. I tried to keep it open ended to give room for changing and adding details and characters to create plots like the red string of fate. I'm open to mixing things up about it too, so let me know if you have suggestions or critiques. You can probably recognize a lot of elements of c-dramas from it. XD

Wangyuan Yunfei is a name lost to history.
The Wangyuan Clan was once the leading force of the Wulin. They were one of the most powerful cultivator clans with a long history of masters and heroic deeds. These ties were burned and their clan destroyed long ago due to their fateful decision to seek out Demons, long thought to be enemies of humanity, and attempt to broker peace and coexistence. A campaign was raised against them by the other clans, burning their lands and hunting down their members for this heresy. Wangyuan Yunfei was the young scion of the clan back then, the eldest son of the sect master. He was originally seen as an elegant prince, a promising hero in the making. Instead, he went down in history as a vengeful monster, the Blade Demon, killing the enemies that came after the clan until he was finally killed in a last stand at (insert fateful location).

I'd love to hear both of your ideas as well, see if we can find some entanglements that work with each other.

Very happy to be here, also. Like Esteemed Gaming Sister Su An Yue, this is my first time playing this game and I am just starting to familiarize myself with the rules. Unlike Esteemed Sister, I have watched only a few modern c-dramas, though I have read some traditional Chinese stories and modern fiction based on them, notably Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee novels.

I posted my provisional character concept in the Character Creation thread, but since we seem to be doing most of our discussion here, I will repost it now and then add a few ideas about possible links:

I see Chung Wu-ma as a good-hearted but uncouth peasant drafted into the imperial army and assigned to a small unit commanded by the gallant captain Dai Chiao; their army commander is a weak corrupt aristocrat, Kin Xia, whose bad leadership results in all of Dai's unit being killed except Dai and Chung, who swear vengeance on Kin. However, this becomes an Entanglement, because Dai is single-mindedly focused on his revenge, even at the risk of his own life, whereas Chung is loyal to Dai, but would prefer to survive and enjoy life, including flirtations with friendly wenches when available. He might negotiate a second entanglement with a PC.

His favored playbook would be Bravo: Gallivant. His preferred weapon is halberd. He follows the Book of Wood. His martial style is Falling Forest Tree. His faction would be Brothers of the Greenwood (good Robin Hood type outlaws).
All this is very open to revision in discussion with the GM and my fellow players, since I have not played the game before.

As for possible connections, since Wen Yunfei was, if I understand rightly, originally a cultivator, which I take to mean a farmer, in this life, even though he was a prince in a past life, it might be that Wen and Chung came from the same village or neighboring villages. All Chung might know is that when the imperial press gang came to gather up lads for the army, Wen vanished into the forest, and has now reappeared with strange powers and a rebellious attitude toward conventional society, which Chung initially would sympathize with, though he might be shocked if he ever learned the true source of Wen's power. In a past life, Chung might have been a loyal follower of the ancient prince's family, who died fighting for them.

Regarding Sun, since I see Chung's NPC commander Dai Chiao as a Swordsman, it might be that Dai and Sun had been fellow-students of the same Sword Master in their youth. Dai might hope Sun would now aid him in his quest for vengeance, though it would be her choice whether to agree. If she agreed, of course Chung and Sun would be allies.  Since Chung admires women, he would probably admire Sun, but since I see her as being of a higher social class (subject to correction by her player) I presume he would only admire her respectfully from afar. It might be that in a past life (not necessarily the same one with Wen) he was her faithful servant.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:32, Sat 23 Mar.

Wow! I had to look up Judge Dee and that's very traditional literature. I've read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms myself, and a couple of English translations of short folk stories, but I've never heard of that one. I'm Chinese-American myself, so I've sort of approached my cultural heritage from an outsider's point of view as well. I can't read Mandarin or anything. :P

Cultivator in this context branches away from real life Chinese history and from the farming context of cultivating crops. I picked this up from reading modern Chinese fantasy stories and outside research, but this is my understanding of it. Of course, our GM has the final say setting wise.

So based on Chinese Daoism and incorporated Buddhism, there is a Dao or natural 'Path' to the universe. Sometimes this means mastery, philosophy. To master the Dao of the Sword is to reach the peak of what it means to be a swordsman. Many traditional martial arts are considered 'mystical' because they incorporate this Daoist thought in their pursuit of physical perfection. In the fictional sense, such mastery can also mean master of fire or water (like Avatar's element bending), mastery of war, aspects of animals, even time and space. Daoists in the religious sense practice mastering an aspect of the Dao, or 'cultivating' themselves to become one with the Dao in this way (hence the term 'cultivators'), and it's believed that full mastery may help them achieve immortality. The 8 Immortals, the Gods in Chinese culture, the Xian (immortals/fairies), some of them can be considered Daoist masters by followers of the tradition, having reached a level where they've ascended their mortal shell and maybe reached a higher plane, heaven/etc. Buddhists also call themselves cultivators (at least in the Chinese traditions that I know of), as they are cultivating the Buddhist Dao.

Cultivators in Chinese fantasy are like ascetic monks, and the stronger they become, they almost reach demigod status. Many cultivators reach a state where they may live centuries longer than the average human, and they only start aging when their talent reaches a bottleneck and they can't improve anymore. Otherwise, they can be in their 50s or 100s and still look 20-30. Some are like Daoist sorcerers, using talismans, seals, and formations to change the world around them, summon spirits, etc, while others seem like mystical warriors, basically all the superhuman things they do in regular martial arts movies but with the added magical effects by having spiritual aspects or powers imbued into it, or maybe they literally create energy blasts and massive palms and fly through the air standing on their swords. This is why in the GMs Wanted thread, we talked about the idea of punching holes into mountains.

In one of the c-dramas I watched, Ashes of Love, the characters are all gods in the heavenly realms, and they would be the ones that actually can punch holes into mountains. They still cultivate though, and sometimes can pass their spiritual strength to each other in the form of currency. They always say things like 'I'll give you 300 years worth of cultivation' as payment or a promise. This is just an idea of how I understand the levels and escalation of cultivation progresses. Human/mortal cultivators would dream of breaking into this higher heaven realm where they have almost infinite lifespan and be able to make trades like this.

Because of the nature of practicing to embody the Dao, constantly training like a martial artist, and living an ascetic lifestyle, cultivators in fiction don't overwhelm the human political world. When you cultivate, you are meant to let go of your mortal attachments so they don't hold you back. This includes political power, pleasures of the mortal world, money, even familial bonds and friendships. This is an ideal though and almost no fantasy character can truly let go of their attachments. It's a big trope in Chinese fantasy though, cultivators that age slower meet their mortal childhood friends who have all become old, or cultivators becoming tempted by the mortal world and losing track of their training. They may influence the mundane world by being exorcists, advisors, or monster hunters instead of as political figures.
But just because they aren't meant to meddle in mortal politics, doesn't mean they don't play politics with each other. They would compete for different things than mortals, but everyone is always after land and resources. Cultivators often compete for control of rare herbs, weapons and treasures, or veins in the earth where Qi is plentiful and cultivation could be easier. Entire clans and sects are built over these veins so masters can train a multitude of disciples all powered by the sect.

Just because these Daoists are spiritual/religious figures training to be gods, doesn't mean they are all good. Everyone has their own Dao, and they have to practice it constantly to get better. If they are embodying a righteous chivalric philosophy, that's great, but if they are training in the art of bloodthirsty war, that means they have to constantly fight and kill to get stronger. This is why in fiction, there are usually an alliance of orthodox sects, the Wulin (also used in less fantastical settings), Daoists and martial artists that believe in upholding justice and morality and practice good Dao, and unorthodox sects and rogue cultivators, practitioners of nasty things like ghost summoning or poisons or assassination Dao. There is often a moral grey area between supposed good and evil too. A lot of revenge stories have the good guys being hypocrites and the protagonist has to find refuge with the evil guys, finding out not all of them are that bad, their styles just got persecuted by the popular good guys.

Last thing I'll say, Demons (Yaoguai) are almost like animal spirits in Chinese fiction. The famous nine-tailed fox is considered a fox demon, the Monkey King is a monkey demon. There are tiger demons, pig demons, even sometimes tree spirits (like ents) that can be demons. Basically, if anything, usually an animal, gains enough spiritual power and understands the Dao themselves, they can gain sentience and become a demon. They often become a human/animal hybrid or just take a human form because cultivation is said to be easiest as a human. They are often at odds with humans, just like in real life if a human met a tiger. They may not understand the human way of thinking, which is why they are often depicted as evil villains in all the folk tales. They may see nothing wrong with killing others to gain more power for themselves or always resort to violence to settle disputes. Or some may be good demons like to Monkey King protecting the Buddhist monk on his journey.


So I know this is a lot and I don't want to step on any toes or make myself out to be some expert. This doesn't have to be the setting we play in exactly, but this is my understanding of the Xianxia/Xuanhuan genre of Chinese fantasy.
Please let me know of your thoughts and suggestions, and of course GM, I'll leave it to you to be the final arbiter of how these ideas impact the setting.

Here are a couple videos of my inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0I0nf2eoK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo6Ei4GuH8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxlw5QuyOf0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvWBKeNPxvI
(One more video showcasing demons because I love this series)

This is an informational video about the cultivation trope in Chinese media, comparing it with Brandon Sanderson's Magic System breakdown. It's 25 minutes, sorta long, but very good! It's where I learned a lot of this stuff myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T8jaSOqPo4


EDIT: Also I totally missed the Character Creation thread, so I will also migrate my character information there too. Oops.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:49, Sat 23 Mar.

Wow, that's a considerably more thorough answer to the 'what is a cultivator' than anything I could have produced (and a very interesting read)! More than happy to proceed with those themes for the game.

Don't worry too much about the separate Character Creation thread. Especially with just three I don't much mind if things are there or here.

Sun AnYue the illustrious daughter of Lord Sun of the House of Sun. Martial Artist and Swordswoman. Known for her skill, her beauty and her disinterest in marriage. It is widely believed that the young AnYue will inherit her father's position one day as his son Sun Wingsu is only four and of a weak constitution, and Lord Sun fears stressing his son.

( My father doesn't want Wingsu taught but I am secretly teaching him )

AnYue has no such issue and has been teaching her little brother some small things in secret and private, hoping that if he can manage a golden core it will help his constitution grow. Sun AnYue is her father's second wife's child. The children from his first wife, Ming Tong, died in a war that Ming Tong considered senseless and she holds a grudge against her husband for it. AnYue has only seen this side show on her children's birthday, when she is the most bitter.

(I love first mother but she hates me )

AnYue does not trust her first mother.

( First mother has never shown that face to me but I still can't trust her after the poisoning incident. )

Her own mother Wen Tinshin is a general's daughter and the place she learned the fundamental's of swordsmanship, her father in an unorthodox move continued her training. She has higher ideals as to what she see's the world as.

Tian Xing is a person she met while she was handling some bandits outside of the City where she was traveling with her first mother ( who hired them to hurt her and kill Anyu it was thwarted by her soulmate.). She went to handle the situation and encountered Tian Xing, the person who was honorable, noble and kind. Who was outstanding in his craft, and as gifted as she was. The two fight well together, and there is a natural affection there, if Anyue ever considered marriage he would be her choice. Tian Xing and she met regularly to right wrongs, when they can escape. He is the hero that she has always strived to be.

By all purposes he is her soul-mate and they have a red-ribbon of fate. (The two people connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break. )

I had no idea you were going to use the name Wen. Yunfei maybe we are cousins as my mother is also a Wen.

In reply to Wen Yunfei (msg # 9):

Thank you for your thorough explanation of the term "cultivator" as used in modern c-drama, of which (as I confessed) I am largely ignorant. That pretty well eliminates my suggestion that Wen and Chung were originally peasants from the same village or nearby villages, but I think it still might be possible that Chung's family were originally members of the domain of Wen's princely ancestor and died fighting for him. Chung might have grown up being told tales of the prince, or if you prefer that the prince be completely forgotten, we could say Chung only discovers his ancestral connection after meeting Wen.
Incidentally, I read C.H. Brewitt-Taylor's old complete translation of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1925, repr. 1959) in 1987, and I have also read (and am just beginning to reread) the short form of Moss Roberts' more recent version (1999, 2014). I have not read Roberts' complete version.
When I read the B-T version, I was teaching English in S. Korea, and the lady who is now my wife was serving there in the US Navy. Neither of us has a drop of Asian blood, but we were and are interested in traditional East Asian cultures, so as a date we went on a tour of a Korean temple to Lord Guan Yu, the hero of the Three Kingdoms, with a side temple to Kungming, the great strategist. Since I had just read the book, I was able to tell her all about it, and she was very impressed. Nowadays, my memory of the story is much vaguer, but I hope to refresh it.

In reply to Sun AnYue (msg # 11):

I see I was correct in thinking that the illustrious Lady Sun AnYue is of much higher rank than Chung. However, I still hope we might work out a connection between Lady Sun and Chung's former captain Dai Chiao, is also a Swordsman of good family, though perhaps not as good as hers.

I would be happy to still have a connection there !
I could see his as a martial brother, a uncle or a sword brother/sworn brother. Since they are quiet similar in nature.

Very good! Shall we say that before joining the army, Dai Chiao was a swordbrother to Lady Sun, or perhaps to Tian Xing or both?

That sounds like a great idea! I was thinking that the name of Wen has incorporated the stragglers of the old Wangyuan family, but since the old traditions have been lost, they have no idea. Cousins sound like the perfect fit.

We would still have a Prince and Pauper thing going on, as Lady Sun seems to be a princess while in this life, Yunfei is just some vagabond. :P



I'd be a fan of that! I'd love for old stories to propagate within families and legends in forgotten places in the world, so I'm okay with that. I mainly imagined that the powers that be, the big clans and cultivators in the Alliance, still look at them unfavorably, so it might have to be a very private family legend.

I don't remember the translation I read. I'm sure it was more recent than the classical one you mentioned. One thing I distinctly remembered was Zhuge Liang/Kungming being some sort of Daoist priest as well as advisor. I think he moved rocks around to create an illusion for the enemy one time and built a tower for some ritual to control the weather (I don't remember exactly myself). Sort of an early fantasy element in a more grounded historically based fiction which I was fascinated by.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:26, Mon 25 Mar.

I've thrown up a few key NPCs, as well as a faction and the main location for the game in the 'The World' thread. Feel free to work any of them into any backstories or entanglements if you want (and I have a few ideas as well). I'll add some more NPCs over the next day or so and if anyone really wants something worked in like a captain of the guard, tavern keeper etc. let me know and I'll make sure to do that.

In reply to Wen Yunfei (msg # 17):

Very good, we will say Chung's family once fought for the lost prince, and in Chung's childhood at night around the family hearth his elders still whispered tales about the legendary champion, so he grew up cherishing a secret admiration for him.

In reply to Wen Yunfei (msg # 17):

My guess would be you probably read the Moss Roberts' translation, since (as far as I know) that is the most available nowadays, unless there is a newer one I have missed..

In reply to The GM (msg # 18):

I would be grateful if you could create a tavern-keeper, since I see a tavern as Chung's natural habitat, when not out in the green wood.

No problem, have chucked one in - basically a walking barman stereotype but sometimes that's just what you need!

In reply to The GM (msg # 22):

Thank you.

I will be working on my character I had family show up suddenly, and I was just -__- can't get anything done. So please bear with me I am still here!

No worries from me. I've been a bit busy this weekend myself.

I think I've been able to finish my sheet though and I'll have some more background info to post soon. Mr. Chung, I think we may have a potential connection if you're an outlaw. Yunfei is an unaffiliated vagabond, so he just does things because he thinks it's the right thing to do, so he'd be a natural ally to any Robin Hood band he encounters. He still has secret connections with Demons too, so he could be sort of like a black market supplier to people that live on the fringe of society.

In reply to Wen Yunfei (msg # 25):

I have been thinking the same way. Outlaws would have a natural affinity for a vagabond.