KungFuSocrates

This is the beginnings of a page handling another game I'm in the planning stages for:

Wuxia Mythic Greece!

Characters will be heroes of Greek history and legend. History will serve as a basis, but history is my bitch - if you want to play Achilles leading his Myrmidons in a guerilla war against the invading forces of Philip of Macedon, go for it! In fact, players are encouraged to pick characters from Greek myth or history and put their own spin on these figures to come up with an interesting PC. I encourage concepts that sound cool with the phrase "kung-fu" added in front of them. For instance, Archimedes might be a kung-fu mad scientist.

I'll be using a derivative of the first-edition Exalted ruleset with Power Combat. Notable changes are as follows:

Thematically, characters will be very similar to Solars. Castes, anima banners, and anima powers, though, are no more. I'll instead be giving players five or eight favored Abilities (probably five). Charms should function on a Terrestrial level, and to reinforce the sort of over-the-top wuxia spin, I'll be giving out, for free, either a complete Terrestrial-level martial art or a set number of free TMA Charms. These free MA Charms will be granted with no regard whatsoever for the minimum MA requirement (and I may waive Essence requisites for the TMAs granted at chargen), and will be linked instead to whatever combat Ability is highest for that character. Players who feel particularly creative are welcome to explain a reason for them to use a different Ability. MAs bought during play, though, will be linked to either the MA Ability or another combat Ability. In the latter case, I will substitute in the War Ability (though I suppose I don't have to - without Castes or Aspects, there's no need to worry about balancing one Caste against another).

The largest change will be to the Great Curse. I'll be using a ten-point scale for it, reminiscent of Limit, but it will not be tied to Virtues, nor will it be a hard roleplaying guide. Characters will, instead, accrue Hubris. Each time a character achieves a significant success, that character may gain a point of Hubris. Once the character has a full ten points of Hubris, the player has a choice to make - accept Catastrophe now, or defer it. A player may defer as many full Hubris bars as his character's Essence rating. However, once the final bar has filled, Catastrophe is inevitable.

Catastrophe is an unexpected, unavoidable misfortune. Odysseus experienced Catastrophe many, many times. Deferring full Hubris bars greatly increases the severity of the Catastrophe that befalls the character. Characters may burn off Hubris points one at a time through acts of great humility and contrition. While Catastrophe and Hubris do not have a "your character does this" effect like Limit can, I highly encourage players to roleplay out the swelling of pride in their characters as they gain Hubris.

A note on Hubris and Catastrophe: These may seem like a way for the Storyteller to penalize and control his players, and they could be used in this fashion. However, I do not intend to use them in a punitive fashion. Instead, my intent is to use these mechanics for story pacing. Remember, Catastrophe is usually not something that significantly alters the character, and only in the most extreme, rarest circumstances will its effects be irreversible (Oedipus losing his sight, for instance), and I will talk to players to determine how they feel about a potential Catastrophe before I introduce it to the story.

Comments, Questions, Concerns?

So is this an online game? Public, by chance? -- GreenLantern, who is highly interested in such, but will probably be dissappointed to find out otherwise

It'll almost certainly be run online, via IRC. A few people from #wod have expressed interest, they get first dibs, but after that it's open. By the way, though, I make absolutely no promises on how soon I'll be running this. My RL schedule is absolutely insane. - David., who loses SAN points when he looks at his calendar

I understand. I defend my dissertation in 5 weeks. -- GreenLantern, who totally understands time demands