WUXIA RPG: THE LEGEND OF OGRE GATE

I’ve mentioned that we will be doing a number of free PDFs with new spells called the Books of the Archon for our upcoming Sertorius roleplaying game. I’ve also mentioned these are more than just additional spells, but provide completely different ways to approach the game. The second Book of the Archon goes one step further and establishes a whole new game loosely based on the core system (the spells will still be 100% compatible with Sertorius however). Book of the Archon II: The Legend of Ogre Gate, will be our first venture into Wuxia, using the Sertorius engine. 

Before I go any further, I want to emphasize this will be a free PDF, so it will simply be our first effort toward an actual Wuxia RPG that we will release down the road. Our free PDFs will have some art, but not a lot, and won’t have many of the other bells and whistles. But they won’t cost you a dime and we will put as much effort into designing them as we do our core products. If people like The Legend of Ogre Gate, and there is enough demand, then we will re-work and expand it, hopefully releasing a print edition within a year or so. 

Making a Wuxia RPG is actually a project I’ve wanted to do for a while and it is exciting to finally have the chance to do so. I love martial arts movies, especially the classic wuxia from the 60s and 70s and the more recent stuff in the last decade or so (which just seems to have more fantasy elements). After the holidays we’ll start work on The Legend of Ogre Gate, but I can provide some tentative details here:

• Our wuxia RPG will be set in an alternate reality or dimension that connects to the core Sertorius setting via a place called Ogre Gate. We laid the groundwork for this bridge while developing Sertorius.  

• It will use the core mechanics and cosmology of Sertorius but in very different ways. For example, in Sertorius, magic is inborn, people either have it or they don’t because it is a feature of their souls. In Legend of Ogre Gate, magic (while it has the same source) came about differently, so its energies permeate everything and martial arts masters can cultivate it, using it to enhance their combat techniques and abilities.

• Ogres will also feature prominently in the setting, but their nature will be more malevolent (and again this ties into the particulars of how magic emerged).

• Characters will have more room to grow and increase their powers than in Sertorius. For example, in Sertorius there are the four emotions and these are set ranks, you cannot change them. In Legend of Ogre Gate there are four ways and these can be lowered or raised through training.

• Spells in Legend of Ogre Gate will essentially be martial arts abilities like you see in wuxia movies. Some will be supernatural such as the ability to leap great distance or slice an enemy with your sword from hundreds of feet away. Others will be mundane techniques enhanced by mystic insight.

• It will contain many new or altered mechanics, plus a partial setting (the free PDF will suggest a broader setting but that will only be explored if people really want a complete Wuxia RPG book from Bedrock). This won’t just be a book of spells, but a book with chapters on Wuxia Rules, Setting, Monsters, etc.

Really looking forward to working on this one.