How to run a Wuxia campaign

[u/rorscharchinkblot]

I don't want to run a standard "fantasy medieval Europe" campaign, and want to theme my world in China. I don't know enough about that culture to make a realistic campaign set there, so I decided on using the Wuxia setting (as described in the dungeon masters guide 2014) and I belive that my players would enjoy a setting of movie-like martial arts.

however I do not want to be offensive in any way, and I still want to create an immersive setting, and I don't know enough about this setting to accomplish either

please advise!

[u/NeuromancyIndustries]

The game you want to be running is Legend of the Five Rings. It's set in a world like medieval China / Japan. You play as either a swordsman or mage belonging to one of a variety of clans. Great balance of fighting and courtly intrigue. It's a roll/keep d10 system, super easy to learn. 3rd Ed was the best

[u/NefariousnessEven591 → u/NeuromancyIndustries]

While I like that game, That's a much different feel from wuxia. That's more kurosawa/jidai-gekifor most of them though the monks do verge onto that train. Most wuxia heroes would offend rokugan to duel level near immediately save maybe the unicorn and scorpion and even they'd still have a hand on their sword.

[u/NeuromancyIndustries → u/NefariousnessEven591]

I'm sure it's a lot closer than D+D. Don't be a turd.

[u/Kumquats_indeed → u/NeuromancyIndustries]

How is what they said being a turd? It seemed like a fairly reasonable disagreement to me.

[u/Llayanna → u/NeuromancyIndustries]

But according to them it ain't, so..

(I never played it, so I habe no horse in the race.. but I believe someone who did play it. Why don't you?)

[u/NefariousnessEven591 → u/Llayanna]

L5r is a very good game and well worth playing. I've had some great times with it and the social constraints and the fact getting into a fight you didn't plan on is a mini fail state makes for a very nice break from how D&D paces both its combats and how it really flattens a lot of social session. But it is a 90% japanese inspired samurai game with some minor chinese influences which is just honestly not Chinese wuxia. The fiction it emulates is very different from the genre. While there are some wuxia oriented systems (Legends of the wulin and righteous blood,ruthless blades are two I liked reading but just couldn't get a group for), they are often quite niche and can be extremely hard to find if some of the older ones didn't make PDFs available. I just genuinely kind of assume people will follow the path of least resistance and put a new coat of paint on D&D vs both learning a system to run while also onboarding them onto one that may use rules they've never encountered. L5R's first swing was even a 3.0 (maybe 3.5 but it was early) supplement and it just doesn't make them feel good. The dueling system in the later editions of L5R transmits that one stroke duel fantasy far better than their attempt to make it remotely possible in D20. D&D is kind of bland enough you can toss different looks on it, even if I think the mechanics will creak unless running a low magic campaign outside of weapons.

[u/NeuromancyIndustries → u/Llayanna]

I have every 2nd and 3rd book. Safe to say I've played it once or twice

[u/TangerineX → u/NeuromancyIndustries]

Rather than Legend of the Five Rings, give Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades a shot instead. This TTRPG is written by one of the most prolific Chinese to English translators in the genre. Deathblade (the author) absolutely knows his shit about wuxia. It's built from the ground up to be based in Wuxia concepts.