WUXIA SANDBOX: PINNING IT DOWN

This is part of my Wuxia Sandbox series. You can see the previous post HERE. These are all primarily written with Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate and Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in mind but can be applied to most wuxia RPG campaign where sandbox is the focus. This series discusses a wide variety of methods and procedures I use. These should be regarded as tools, not as required steps in building a sandbox. I may use all, some or none for any given campaign. Every time I run a campaign, I take a slightly different approach based on what the needs of the current campaign are. 

The purpose of this blog series isn't to set up proscriptive procedures. It is simply to give people a better idea how I run my wuxia sandbox campaigns. 

My view on wuxia in RPGs is every GM has their own take on the genre, their own sensibilities about how to best bring it to the gaming table. This is true of any genre, but with wuxia it seems especially the case. Please do not take my advice as definitive in any way. Watch and read wuxia for yourself and form your own conclusions. What works for one GM, will completely miss the point for another. 

THE ART OF PINNING IT DOWN 

One of the reasons I like to run sandboxes, is I want player choices to matter. I don't want the illusion of choice and I don't want a campaign that feels like I might as well just hand my players my notes so they can see what is on tap for the evening. I want a game where choices matter and choices drive the direction of the campaign. I also want a world that is always expanding beyond prepared material. One very useful tool is what I call 'pinning it down'. 

This is nothing new, nor is it anything I invented. It is basic note taking. But it is important. Obviously you have things prepared for the setting prior to play but players always go beyond what you have planned. You may have a heavily mapped out city but if the players throw you a curve ball and ask if there is a poetry society in town, and one likely would exist, you will need to flesh that out. But this presents a fork in the road, especially if you decide there is more than one in town. So you need to pin down your details in your notes the moment there is any hint of this coming up then stick to that pin. 

For example they are seeking a crazed killer and famed poet named Divine Calligrapher Zhu. He has killed several of the party's acquaintances and seems to have it in for them. And so they seek a poetry society in order to find a lead. Once they mention a desire to do this, you start making Poet Societies in your notes. These don't need to be magnificent, you just need something to grab hold of. And you want to establish the key facts prior to them arising in play. 

Start by jotting down names: 

The Society of Bao, The Four Wonders Association, and the Crimson Moon Society. 

Then you decide very quickly what any of them know. Since they are poets and you aren't trying to make things difficult you have each one know something of value. So you write down: 

Society of Bao-Heard that Divine Calligrapher was staying at an inn in Mai Cun, The Four Wonders Association-Knows that Divine Calligrapher Passes the Lucky Mountain Gambling Hall for a week of drinking every fall, The Crimson Moon Society-Knows knows that Divine Calligrapher is good friends with Fox Poet Hu. 

You then need to decide who the head of the poet society is, just a name will do with some basic motives, but importantly if any of these organizations would either obstruct the party or be difficult in handing out information. So you write: 

The Society of Bao is led by Poet Wan; greedy and desperate for funds. 

So not only will he require some kind of fiscal compensation he may act like he knows more than he does to get more money from the party. You then write: 

The Four Wonders association, led by Gao Yitai. He is is a prolific poet and is always looking for inspiration

From this you can deduce he wants nothing more than to learn about the party so he may incorporate their exploits into his works. Next you scribble, trying something a little more nefarious: 

Crimson Moon Society, led by Scarlet Dart Wuqing, Qi rank 4 Martial Expert, admires the poetry of Divine Calligrapher and wicked 

To get information from him will take the use of force or some other form of coercion. And it is likely given his admiration and his wickedness, he will try to lure the party into a trap to curry favor with the poet. Also you make a note that once the players go somewhere, word may spread to the other poet associations. Ideally with time, you are putting all these kinds of details together in a single scribbled block in your notes the moment any organization like this comes up (the above are all written out for clarity but in my notes I take all kinds of short cuts to make things compact and fast). 

The value of this is it really does make players choices matter. And it matters because you are delving deeper into he world as they probe the setting more. The GM making the setting is crucial but equally important is the players exploring unmapped places. Even places on the map have unmapped areas. You may have had the region and city mapped out but no poetry societies. 

Even in a relatively small location like the above where the players are simply choosing where to go, these decisions are important because who they go to first may determine if a villain like Scarlet Dart Wuqing is alerted to the presence and able to plan a trap easily, it may also matter in the above scenario because time might be a consideration when trying to find a killer (often in these kinds of scenarios the longer it takes the party to track a murderer down the more people die). And some of this information may be more accurate or current so it can impact the success of their efforts if they follow the first lead they obtain. 

This also matters because it makes the locations concrete before the players arrive. You have given yourself handholds so you aren't just making it up as you go. You are improvising and making things up on the fly, but when the players arrive at the Crimson Moon Society, you will have a solid idea of what that actually is. And this is an important process of world expansion. It is one of the things that makes the difference between a static exploration of maps and GM notes and a world that is alive and unlimited. 

GENERATING SETTING ON THE FLY

I don't know why but writing stuff down gives me more confidence than just making it up out loud. What I mean by this is if the players go into a restaurant and say they want to find the toughest looking man there. You suddenly need to know who that is. You can just say "Yes there is a tough guy by the door, drinking Emerald Phoenix Wine". And that can work. But if you note down just a few concrete details, I find it leads to better interactions and stronger sense of the world being real. This is another use of pinning it down. 

And you don't need much, but you at least need a name, Qi rank, basic martial arts abilities, personality and goals. Again, this doesn't have to be brilliant. The more you do it, the better the material will get. But you should just force yourself to pick things. Write some notes like this: 

Steel Fingers Yang, Qi Rank 3, Neigong 3, Waijia 1, Finger Flick, Stone Shattering Finger, Red Claw Strike (2d10 in all relevant skills, Hardiness 8); looking for his daughter Yue. In a bad mood because he learned she was kidnapped by The Ferrel Bat. 

It might seem like this would take too long to jot down but once you formulate your own shorthand for these things and once you have practice it becomes second nature and pinning these kinds of details to the page makes the encounter so much better than if you are just coming up with those details as they arise in conversation. For me, it has become rather easy to populate a restaurant with a number of noteworthy patrons like the one above (which creates a better sense of a world inhabited by real people). 

You also have everything written down so you know what to do. What I have there isn't complete character, but it is enough for me to run basic combat should that arise. I can intuit the remaining details from what I have written. Sometimes I even come up with a quick signature kung fu technique and jot that down too:

Steel Finger Strike: Stab fingers at -1d10 into chest. On success does 1d10 damage and 1 Extra wound. Cathartic: 3 Extra Wounds and drains 1 Hardiness for a week. 

Coming up with kung fu techniques on the fly is very important in a wuxia sandbox. Characters in the genre aren't just a personality. Characterization includes things like skillsets, which often are extensions of their personalities or even contrasts to their personalities. I may get more into this in a future post as it is quite crucial but developing a quick way to give an NPC a suite of techniques heightens everything. In some genres you can afford generic NPCs, and you will have to rely on them from time time, but in wuxia I think it is important to think of martial arts as a part of sketching a character. And these will often need to be unique to that NPC. 

Pinning isn't just about characters and poet societies, it also works for fleshed out places, even adventures. Pinning is really just coming up with key details on the fly and committing them to writing. Like I said, this isn't anything new. But in a sandbox, where players are going to be going off in new directions you don't expect, it is a very good reflex to develop because it honors a sandbox commitment to letting the players try anything they want, to set their own agenda. They also help you flesh out the world, because it is one thing to prepare setting material, but it doesn't really come to life until the players explore it. 

 

PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSION THREE

This is a sandbox campaign for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, operating in "Condor Heroes Mode". I used a lot of the procedures described in the wuxia sandbox posts. This is a campaign with three players. Before the campaign started we spent time establishing their family connections, rolling randomly for both their mothers and fathers (normally only one parent is randomly rolled, but in this case we wanted characters with potentially scandalous backgrounds). These characters each started play with just one Kung Fu Technique. 

CHARACTERS

XIANG GUIYING: The daughter of Jade Fist of Twin Fisted Eagle sect and Pale Fox, a notorious bandit. She is seeking pelts from Pearl Tigers. She is beautiful but wears a disguise to hide this from others. 

ZHENG BAO: Short and burly, he is the son of Zhang San of Bone Breaking Sect and of Reckless Storm. However San is married to Chen and has maintained the presence that Bao is Chen's son. Unfortunately due to crucial background information, Chen knows that Bao cannot be his son so is distant. Zheng Bao's uncle, Bone Breaker, is fond of him. He is seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower to please his uncle. 

PAN JU (MOGHA): The son of the Witch of Zhaoze Zhou and Nergui Mogha, Pan Ju grew up in the Kushen Basin but has returned to the Banyan and Hai'an, where he knows his mother resides. 

PALE FOX 

The party traveled south to the Pale Hills to see Guiying's mother. As they passed through a bamboo forest they were surprised by four people in blank porcelain masks, who approached them from either side. The people did not speak, but communicated with gestures, which the party understood to be a demand for money under threat of death. 

Guiying gave them two hundred spades but said her mother, Pale Fox, would come for the interest. They continued on, and made it to the Pale Hills in time for Pale Fox's birthday on the 13th of the Turtle Moon. 

Guiying presented her mother with the Phoenix Crown and introduced her two companions. When Zheng Bao explained that he was the nephew of Bone Breaker and seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths flower as a gift for his uncle, Pale Fox praised the venture and told Guiying to learn from Zheng Bao when choosing next year's birthday present. 

In private Pale Fox instructed her daughter to demonstrate her present master of martial arts. The results were quite poor and Pale Fox was irritated by her daughter's lack of talent with a range of weapons. She gave her a Jian and Axe and instructed her in a double strike technique for dealing with two opponents at once. She also trained her in some defenses and told her to work on her conditioning*.

Pale Fox then agreed to teach Guiying's companion some minor Kung Fu as thanks for traveling with her daughter. Pan Ju prepared a meal and Pale Fox was so impressed she insisted that he return and make meals for her regularly. 

After the meal, Pale Fox spoke with Guiying in private and said she had a task for her. She wanted her to seek a man named Hero Feng. Guiying knew who this was as it was someone who had once promised to marry her mother but abandoned her at the Singing Pavilion in an act of unbelievable cowardice. 

"I want you to find Hero Feng," Pale Fox said, "and tell him you are his daughter, he will not doubt this lie."

"Yes Mother."

"Then I want you to learn his martial arts, become his student and train. When you have mastered all of his skills and feel capable, kill him."

"Yes mother, Hero Feng is a cowardly wretch who doesn't deserve to live."

"After you kill him we will find you a real sifu, someone worthy who can teach you powerful Kung Fu."

TO QING LU 

They returned north, and hunted along the way**, finding a seven foot long giant salamander. They took the meat and brought it with them to sell along the way. Guiying fashioned a good from the skin. 

In He Dong they sold the meat and learned that Hero Feng had been seen going to Qing Lu. They also noticed that most of the adult villagers had no arms and learned that one of Twin Fisted Eagles sons had gone on an appendage tearing rampage years ago. 

In Qing Lu they learned from people at The Yu Vessel Restaurant that Hero Feng was staying at a brothel called the Many Banded Krait. The women there all dressed in snake skin robes and out of a sense of propriety Guiying decided to have a message sent inside telling Hero Feng his daughter would speak with him. 

Hero Feng was initially cautious towards Guiying's upon meeting her but when she asked to learn his martial arts, he seemed pleased and acknowledged her as his daughter. He told Pan Ju and Zheng Bao that they would need to work in town to fund his daughter's training, and that he might teach them a thing or two as well for their trouble. 

*We are not using XP this campaign. If characters work towards a skill, it will go up with appropriate time and effort. Kung Fu Techniques are learned during a down time period of training. The session with Pale Fox was about two weeks or training time. 

**Instead of an abstract survival roll for hunting, I had them make an inverted Survival Roll to see if they could find game, then rolled randomly on a list of local game animals 

WUXIA SANDBOX: THE STATE OF THE PARTY

Art by Jackie Musto 

This is part of my Wuxia Sandbox series. You can see the previous post HERE. These are all primarily written with Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate and Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in mind but can be applied to most wuxia RPG campaign where sandbox is the focus. This series discusses a wide variety of methods and procedures I use. These should be regarded as tools, not as required steps in building a sandbox. I may use all, some or none for any given campaign. Every time I run a campaign, I take a slightly different approach based on what the needs of the current campaign are. 

The purpose of this blog series isn't to set up proscriptive procedures. It is simply to give people a better idea how I run my wuxia sandbox campaigns. 

My view on wuxia in RPGs is every GM has their own take on the genre, their own sensibilities about how to best bring it to the gaming table. This is true of any genre, but with wuxia it seems especially the case. Please do not take my advice as definitive in any way. Watch and read wuxia for yourself and form your own conclusions. What works for one GM, will completely miss the point for another. 

CONNECTING THE SCENARIO TO THE PARTY

In the previous post I talked about establishing the state of the martial world, with a backstory and list of characters to reflect what is going on when the players enter the campaign. I also included some elements from that which tied to directly to the party, but much of it was simply related to an ongoing scenario they may never connect with. 

I fleshed out the scenario a little more by thinking about groups connected to the party. This led me to giving the players their own entry for their immediate allies and an entry for Yu Qing Manor, an obvious trade rival. The parties entry is The Heavenly Fragrance. This is made up mostly of people from the 87 Killers, but their relationship to the PCs is very different from their relationship to Lady 87. For example they were both raised by Guan Shisu who is Lady 87's son and the Magistrate of Gan District. Putting all this into the list just gives me a better sense of the player character's social geography. These are mostly NPCs and groups with existing entries, but the purpose of this list is to organize them for the campaign at a glance. This is how the revised list looks: 

ORIOLE VILLAGE

Dancing Corpse Wan mei 

FAN BATU AND HIS MEN

Fan Batu

Oriole Orphans 

HEN-SHI SECT

The Sandstone Nun

PURPLE CAVERN SECT

Lady Plum Blossom 

Senior Disciples (3)

Junior Disciples (10)

TWIN FISTED EAGLE SECT

Ho'elen 

Yao Tu-An

Junior Disciples 5

THE HEAVENLY FRAGRANCE

Bao Long

Little Guan Hua 

Guan Nuan

Guan Shisu 

Yuhuan 

Lin Ragua 

YU QING MANOR 

Yu Qing 

Wei Xiaoping 

Since I didn't really know what the players were going to do the first session, I prepped a single tier of my campaign shake-up table. The reason I only did one tier, was it gave me a shorter list of possibilities (which was more manageable without having any activity in the campaign yet) but it also left room for me to add things informed by their actions. After the session I made the next two tiers. I filled up every slot in the three tiers of the tables. And my aim going forward is to replace the weakest entries with things related to recent events in the campaign itself. This, in combination with Grudge Tables works quite well. 

This was my first Shake-Up Table for the campaign (note because it is only a single table, a result of 10 would be a re-roll: 

CAMPAIGN SHAKE-UP TABLE I

Roll 1d10         Result

1                      Campaign NPC goes up in level (roll NPC randomly)

2                      A new NPC becomes involved in the situation 

3                      Fan Batu learns of Li Lin’s death and goes on a rampage in a random location

4                      Players have a fated encounter with one of the Factions, roll on Scenario Faction Table 

5                      Fan Batu sends his men to rob the players bath beans 

6                      Dancing Corpse learns that Bao Long is the son of Fan Batu 

7                      Spies from a rival sent to the players’ workshop 

8                      Rival attacks the players interests or tries to rob them 

9                      A random campaign NPC tries to recruit the players in their efforts 

10                    Roll on CAMPAIGN SHAKE-UP TABLE II

We had our first session, in which the players went to open up a shop Wu Zhen. I rolled on the above table and the result was 6: Dancing Corpse Learns that Bao Long is the son of Fan Batu. So I thought how Dancing Corpse would respond to this information. I decided that she would probably try to lure Bao Long and capture him so she could force him to give her information about Fan Batu or be used as bait. I rolled to see if she could find them, and then had her send them a message lying about someone in their organization planning to betray them and suggesting a late night meeting outside town. 

They ended up having a meeting with Dancing Corpse Wan Mei in some wheat fields and Lin Ragua, the local sheriff was killed in the ensuing conflict. The players were abducted by Dancing Corpse but soon became her disciples after hearing her story and sympathizing with her plight (the events are described in more detail in the session log linked above). 

This gave me enough material to start expanding the Campaign Shake-up tables. Again these are still preliminary and subject to revision (as your campaign goes on, you will get a better sense of how to refine such tables). This is what I ended up with: 

CAMPAIGN SHAKE-UP TABLE II

Roll 1d10         Result

1                      Someone takes the manual from Dancing Corpse Wan Mei (roll randomly from campaign NPCS)

2                      A new NPC becomes involved 

3                      Fan Batu learns Bao Long is his real son 

4                      Random NPC battles with Dancing Corpse Wan Mei (roll for outcome) 

5                      Dancing Corpse 

6                      A great master joins the pursuit of the manual 

7                      Dancing Corpse Wan Mei seeks an alliance with a random powerful NPC 

8                      A random sect or NPC switches sides in the growing conflict 

9                      New sect conflict in the local martial world, roll randomly 

10                    Roll on Table III

 

CAMPAIGN SHAKE-UP TABLE III

Roll 1d10         Result

1                      A rival bath bean manufacturer with backing and martial experts arises in a neighboring district

2                      A rival bath bean manufacturer with powerful sect backing emerges in Mai Cun 

3                      Lin Ragua’s brother, Lin Yang, demands justice from Guan Shisu over his brother’s death 

4                      New sect alliance in the local martial world, roll randomly

5                      Enemies of Dancing Corpse Wan Mei learn that the players are her students  

6                      Bandits begin attacking the player’s shipments 

7                      Fan Batu Learns that Dancing Corpse is seeking revenge and he learns that her students are the children of Guan Shisu 

8                      A random but suitable personality in the martial world or existing NPC in the scenario (50% chance of one) wants the Five Ghost Hand Manual and befriends the PCs in order to manipulate them towards this goal

9                      Yu Qing decides hires someone to sabotage the Heavenly Fragrance 

10                    Lady 87 learns exactly how much money the players are making 

Some of these have a more specific and active style but others are intentionally more about NPCs, what they learn, etc. Having entries like this, lets me act more through the characters themselves. I like having to think about how an NPC handles information and what they try to do about it. Try is a key word here. Anything NPCs do, may not always succeed, just like PCs. They can try to ambush the party, but they might not find them, the players might learn their plans or notice them, etc. I use a variety of methods for figuring this stuff out. If I have time I will cover those methods in a later post, though I have blogged about many already. 

This all goes back to the living adventure concept where NPCs are living breathing characters. In the case of Dancing Corpse Wan Mei it was easy for me to intuit her actions. For other characters it may be harder. And because I am running this in what I call Condor Heroes Mode, I try to connect results directly to the party in some way (and if it is purely background events, then they at least hear news about it). 

One result on the above table worth noting, that is connected to the above points, is result 4: Players have a fated encounter with one of the Factions, roll on Scenario Faction Table. This is something that happens a lot in Condor Heroes and other wuxia. Happenstance encounters with greater significance for the overall story. In the context of a game, I use fate as an explanation. If the game were more narrative in nature, I might lean more on plot. But the aim in my campaigns is sandbox and drama so fate fits pretty well. 

The Scenario Faction Table is simply a table of the factions from the list above. Here is the one for this campaign: 

SCENARIO FACTION TABLE

Roll 1d10         Result

1                      Oriole Village

2-3                   Hen-Shi Sect

4-5                   Purple Cavern Sect

6-7                   Twin Fisted Eagle Sect 

8-9                   Yu Qing Manor 

10                    Fan Batu and his Men

 

Scenario Faction Table Fated encounters are not typical encounters. These often happen at a moment when the players are doing something else or attending to an important matter. And they are usually more social than combat focused, though they can easily lead to fighting. These are coincidental and a product of fate. I insert them when it feels most appropriate during the session. For example if I roll on the table and get Purple Cavern Sect and that session the party sneaks into South Wind Manor to eavesdrop on the Four Uglies, they may bump into or see Lady Plum Blossom who is visiting them to ask the whereabouts of the Five Ghost Hand Manual. It is possible they overhear her forming a plan against Dancing Corpse Wan Mei. Or perhaps they go to visit their father, Guan Shisu, and Lady Plum Blossom is visiting, but takes an interest in the PCs.  

Another way to connect things to the party is rumors. And I will discuss that next post. 

PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSION TWO

This is a sandbox campaign for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, operating in "Condor Heroes Mode". I used a lot of the procedures described in the wuxia sandbox posts. This is a campaign with three players. Before the campaign started we spent time establishing their family connections, rolling randomly for both their mothers and fathers (normally only one parent is randomly rolled, but in this case we wanted characters with potentially scandalous backgrounds). These characters each started play with just one Kung Fu Technique. 

CHARACTERS

XIANG GUIYING: The daughter of Jade Fist of Twin Fisted Eagle sect and Pale Fox, a notorious bandit. She is seeking pelts from Pearl Tigers. She is beautiful but wears a disguise to hide this from others. 

ZHENG BAO: Short and burly, he is the son of Zhang San of Bone Breaking Sect and of Reckless Storm. However San is married to Chen and has maintained the presence that Bao is Chen's son. Unfortunately due to crucial background information, Chen knows that Bao cannot be his son so is distant. Zheng Bao's uncle, Bone Breaker, is fond of him. He is seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower to please his uncle. 

PAN JU (MOGHA): The son of the Witch of Zhaoze Zhou and Nergui Mogha, Pan Ju grew up in the Kushen Basin but has returned to the Banyan and Hai'an, where he knows his mother resides. 

TO THE IRON TEMPLE

The characters headed back to Lu Hai after Guiying and Bao awakened from their pearl tiger induced slumber. Along the way, perhaps jovial from the influence of the tiger heart, Bao convinced the others to all join as sworn brothers and sisters. However the heart also made them groggy and it was a difficult journey back. 

They passed a group of priests and nuns from Perfect Heaven Lineage sect, who nodded to them. One of them engaged the party in a greeting. When Bao told himhe was the nephew of Bone Breaker, a nun of the sect grabbed the man's arm and told him they shouldn't be dealing with such folk. The party did little as the members of Perfect Heaven Lineage left. 

Along the way they took a path lad led to a ravine and Bao fell trying to navigate the slope. Injured but alive, they returned to Lu Hai and went to a local Geomancer to trade their tiger pelt and parts. 

The Geomancer's name was Xiang Ju, and during the conversation Bao realized this was the person he had mistaken his companions for. He was the one that knew where to found the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower. 

Guiying and Bao traded the pelt, bone and other parts for a Phoenix Crown, 500 spades and the directions to the flower. They learned that it wasn't a literal flower but a powerful weapon. Xiang Ju also spoke of a disaster that occurred there some years ago*. 

Going to the temple they found the place scorched and saw several stone Raksha statues toward the entrance. The temple itself was part of a cave complex built into a hill, but the Rakshas formed a treacherous entryway upon a stone platform, reached by narrow stone steps. 

As they passed the statues, Guiying was attacked as one animated and clawed her. The statue was clearly rooted to the stone but able to reach. Ju took out tiger meat and offered it to one of the statues, which then allowed them to pass. 

When they entered the temple a woman dressed as a Yen-Li nun, staggered towards them, her flesh rotting off the bone. 

"Come with me," She said. "You will come with me."

"Where are you taking us?" Guiying asked.

"To the abbess."

They decided to follow. As they passed through the maze of stone passageways, they could hear the deep cackling of a man flowing through the halls. As they passed a pool of water the nun asked them to anoint themselves for protection, which they reluctantly did. 

Then they were brought to a long hall where they saw an ancient figure, a woman with taught leathering skin, seated and wearing the attire of an abbess. 

As she spoke to them, it was clear she was unnatural. But she was calm and purposeful.

They told her that they came for the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower. And she informed them that it had been stolen by the Sandstone Nun. 

They asked about her appearance and she said the Sandstone Nun was a nun of Hen-Shi, with a living third eye who wore the skeletal hands of Dancing Corpse Wan Mei and her two disciples around her belt.** She didn't know where the Sandstone Nun was but had heard she was roaming the southern areas. 

She wanted them to help her find the Sandstone Nun or get information about her whereabouts, but when Bao asked for the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower in return, she became angry. However he calmed her by explaining it was for his Uncle Bone Breaker, and that he was simply being honest with her about his wishes. Thinking about the matter, the Abbess said she would give him three of the Raksha Guardian statues to present to his uncle as a gift if he and they brought back Thousand Painful Deaths Flower. 

*Iron Temple is a location in the War of Swarming Beggars. For part of my twenty years back story I had The Sandstone Nun (a NPC in my other campaign) go to the temple at the behest of Jade Fist and take the flower, then hide it to protect the martial world from its powers. This was in part because the timeline was set in the year 112 of the Reign of the Glorious Emperor. I wanted to update the location for that time frame. Also because some players had been to Iron Temple in prior campaigns, I wanted it to be different this time around.

** Dancing Corpse Wan Mei is the Sifu of the characters in my other campaign (and one of the players from this game is in that one). Because that is set ten years earlier, I liked the idea of this being after a conflict with Dancing Corpse Wan Mei. I am treating these as different realities, so what happens in one campaign won't affect the other. But since one of the players is the disciple of Dancing Corpse, I thought this would be an interesting way to make the Sandstone Nun menacing. Also because of the time gap, the Sandstone Nun is much more powerful in this campaign than the other.  

PATHS FROM NOWHERE SESSION ONE

This is a sandbox campaign for Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, operating in "Condor Heroes Mode". I used a lot of the procedures described in the wuxia sandbox posts. This is a campaign with three players. Before the campaign started we spent time establishing their family connections, rolling randomly for both their mothers and fathers (normally only one parent is randomly rolled, but in this case we wanted characters with potentially scandalous backgrounds). These characters each started play with just one Kung Fu Technique. 

Note: This session was mostly figuring out background information so session itself was fairly short. 

CHARACTERS

XIANG GUIYING: The daughter of Jade Fist of Twin Fisted Eagle sect and Pale Fox, a notorious bandit. She is seeking pelts from Pearl Tigers. She is beautiful but wears a disguise to hide this from others. 

ZHENG BAO: Short and burly, he is the son of Zhang San of Bone Breaking Sect and of Reckless Storm. However San is married to Chen and has maintained the presence that Bao is Chen's son. Unfortunately due to crucial background information, Chen knows that Bao cannot be his son so is distant. Zheng Bao's uncle, Bone Breaker, is fond of him. He is seeking the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower to please his uncle. 

PAN JU (MOGHA): The son of the Witch of Zhaoze Zhou and Nergui Mogha, Pan Ju grew up in the Kushen Basin but has returned to the Banyan and Hai'an, where he knows his mother resides. 

THE GOLDEN DUCK 

Zheng Bao came to the Lucky Duck in Lu Hai, having heard that men named Xiang and Ju knew the location of the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower. This information was incorrect as he had actually been given the name Xiang Ju and mistook it for two people. However he was told that there was a Xiang and Ju at the Lucky Duck. 

He saw two twins seated in the restaurant and approached asking if they were Xiang and Ju. They were cautious at first but eventually admitted they were. Pleased, Zheng Bao sat down to talk business, but when he explained he had no money they waved their hands and walked away**. He tried following them out of the inn but two others called him over. It turned out these  were Xiang Guiyang and Pan Ju.

They would consider helping him find the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower but first wanted his aid capturing pearl tiger pelts. Zheng Bao agreed and they set out to track tigers. 

The party traveled east over the hills and searched for the widely feared creatures*. On the second day they spotted one by a river and attacked. 

The fight was hard and they had great difficulty subduing the beast initially. At one point, the tiger sank its teeth into Zheng Bao's shoulder. However they eventually wore it down with attacks like Kick of the Golden Elephant, Heart Smashing Palm and Spear of the Infinite Emperor (these three were the only techniques they knew). 

Xiang Guiying skinned the pelt, treated it and began harvesting bone, organs, whiskers and hair. Xiang Guiying and Zheng Bao decided to both eat the heart. After consuming it, they quickly sank into a deep slumber. Pan Ju shook his head as he watched them succumb to the creatures special properties. 

*I used an inverted encounter roll for this. 

**These two are the Luo Twins, who planned on robbing Zheng Bao by pretending to show him the way to the Thousand Painful Deaths Flower so they could lure him to a remote area. When they found out he had no money, they felt he wasn't worth their time. 

HEAVENLY FRAGRANCE SESSION ONE

This was the first session of my Heavenly Fragrance Campaign, a living adventure prepared using tools and procedures discussed in the Wuxia Sandbox blog posts. This campaign is intended to play as a sandbox but with more dramatic elements. It is a two player campaign where run in what I call "Condor Heroes Mode", where characters begin with only one Kung Fu technique, their family background established and connected to the setting, and using a level advancement system based on encounters with higher level masters who train them. It also makes use of a campaign Shake-Up table, rolled once each session, to manage an unfolding background situation (see STATE OF THE MARTIAL WORLD). I will include footnotes to explain what procedures were invoked during play. The campaign is set in Fan Xu, largely using the Sons of Lady 87 book. 

CHARACTERS

Bao Long: An orphaned street urchin who was adopted by Lady Eighty-Seven's son, Guan Shisu after he came to the aid of Guan Shisu's daughter, Little Guan Hua. All he knows about his background is that his mother died when he was young. Bao Long has been taught some martial arts by Lady Eighty-Four, Yuhuan. Bao Long is a bit dim-witted but tough. 

Little Guan Hua: The daughter of Guan Shisu and the disciple of Guan Nuan. Little Guan Hua is cowardly and feeble, but intelligent. 

SET-UP

Using the wealth and connections of their family, and Little Guan Hua's business savvy, the PCs have established a bath bean manufacturing business in Mai Cun. They have three levels of quality bean they sell, and have figured out a way to grow wealth through a network of shops in the region. At the beginning of the first session, they will have a manufacturing facility, guards, etc. They are going to spend the early adventures setting up shops in different towns, which will open up sources of revenue. The name of their venture is the Heavenly Fragrance Association. 

TO WU ZHEN 

Art by Jackie Musto 

Little Guan Hua went to the market and bought three jade combs for her Sifu, Guan Nuan. These were very expensive and in the likeness of a fox, an owl and a bear. Guan Nuan was pleased with the gift but concerned about her martial talents, saying she needed to train more. Little Guan Hua promised to do so.  

Having established a facility for the production of bath beans in Mai Cun, the party planned a venture to expand. Little Guan Hua and Bao Long, went with a crate of bath bean to Wu Zhen, where their father, Guan Shisu, was the magistrate. There they hoped to open a shop for the bath beans, using his political connections. They arrived safely, traveling by carriage with their body guard Chang Rong. Once there they met with Guan Shisu, he told them he would get any property they wished for their business in the city. They picked a spot and stayed the evening at their father's manor. 

During the night a servant brought a gourd with a message to 'Little Guan Hua'. She didn't see who sent it, but it was addressed to the magistrate's daughter. Opening the message it read: 

Mr. Bao Long and Miss Guan Hua. I have news of an impending attack on your production facility. Meet me south of Wu Zhen in the southern wheat fields. You have enemies in your ranks. 

Concerned they went to their father, who said he could send men to investigate the matter. However Little Guan Hua felt she needed to prove herself to her sifu and opted to go with Bao Long on their own. They chose not to take Chang Rong with them, but Guan Shisu assigned  sheriff Lin Ragua and ten constables to go as protection.

Approaching the fields they saw a figure in the distance and Little Guan Hua called out to them only to be met with silence. 

As she was about to speak again, a woman with wild hair and an ugly, disfigured face leapt from behind stalks of wheat and landed with a clutching hand on Sheriff Lin Ragua's head. A blaze of energy flowed from him into her body and he dropped dead to the ground*. 

Little Guan Hua ran away as the woman lashed out with a fly whisk, killing all the constables in a single motion. Fearful that her brother would be killed Little Guan Hua turned and asked the woman who she was and what she wanted. 

"I am Wan Mei. Come with me and I will let you live."**

"Why do you want us to come with you?"

She pointed to Bao Long. "I must find his father."

"Sure you can seek an audience with our father without all this," Little Guan Hua said. 

"Not Guan Shisu," Said Wan Mei. "His birth father, Fan Batu. He will help me find Fan Batu. Enough talk!"

Fearing the woman would strike them dead, they went with her, north to an abandoned temple. There she put them in a crude cell with a water basin and food. They asked what she knew about Bao Long's father. 

"He is a very bad man," She said. "He killed my husband and murdered my children. I can show you proof of his crimes if you travel south two days with me in the morning."

They both expressed sympathy for her loss and this softened her disposition. Little Guan Hua told Wan Mei they would happily go with her to see the evidence against Fan Batu. 

In the morning they set out and travelled two days. Along the way they passed a merchant caravan and sent word back to their father that they were safe and would return. Wan Mei made sure they included a note that the Sheriff and his constables died due to their own foolishness. Little Guan Hua was careful to explain in the message that according to the judgement of Wan Mei, the Sheriff and the constables own actions led to their deaths. 

She brought them to a ruined settlement called Oriole Village and showed them a tablet in the center of town that read: 

On this spot Fan Batu defeated Fu Fanfei and his wretched wife and fathomed the wisdom of the Yao Yun Sea. Beneath this spot Fu Fanfei and his wretched wife are buried. 

Wan Mei explained that she was buried with her husband Fu Fanfei and crawled from the grave. Fan Batu must have mistaken her for dead. But she wanted to use Bao Long to lure out Fan Batu. 

Seeing that his father was truly cruel and wicked, Bao Long agreed to help Wan Mei. Little Guan Hua also agreed. 

"I am not yet powerful enough to face Fan Batu on my own, if I teach you will you help me to defeat him?"

They both agreed and formally kowtowed to Wan Mei as their new teacher. 

She then began their training and assessed their skills. Over the course of the next month she would teach each one a new technique. She also began to work on Little Guan Hua's physical conditioning, which was pitiful in her estimation. 

*This was a surprise round. They failed their detect to see her in the wheat fields. The figure in the distance was just a crude model of a person made from metal and cloth. 

** At the start of the session I had the players roll a d10 on the Campaign Shake-up table. The result was: Dancing Corpse learns that Bao Long is the son of Fan Batu. Dancing Corpse is Wan Mei's martial nickname. I figured she would stalk the players until she found a way to intimidate them into helping her find Fan Batu. She is very powerful but it didn't seem to be a big issue as she was interested in killing Fan Batu, not harming his son. If anything turning the son against the father would please her. I didn't expect the PCs to be sympathetic to her, and was expecting they would make efforts to escape. But they believed her version of events and felt she was justified in seeking revenge. Obviously the death of Lin Ragua and his constables isn't a small matter and could become important down the road. 

WUXIA SANDBOX: THE STATE OF THE MARTIAL WORLD

This is part of my Wuxia Sandbox series. You can see the previous post HERE. These are all primarily written with Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate and Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades in mind but can be applied to most wuxia RPG campaign where sandbox is the focus. This series discusses a wide variety of methods and procedures I use. These should be regarded as tools, not as required steps in building a sandbox. Every time I run a campaign, I take a slightly different approach based on what the needs of the current campaign are. 

THE STATE OF THE MARTIAL WORLD

What is presented in the rulebook or your campaign notes, in terms of sects and NPCs is merely a snap shot. Every time I run a new campaign, especially once I have an idea of where the players will be starting and what they are likely to be pursuing, I sift through my sects and NPCs and think of a way to assemble a current state of the martial world in that area and who the players are. This is often connected to my twenty year back story, which I discussed in the last post. This is a bit like assembling a list of sects and major NPCs with relevant notes on recent activities and alliances, a kind of map of the martial players. Here I will talk about creating a state of the martial world that is connected to the twenty year backstory.

For my current campaign, I wanted to take inspiration from Mei Chaofeng of The Legend of Condor Heroes and have a threat that felt like her, as well as a situation surrounding something similar to the Nine Yin Manual. At first I was going to make a new manual and make a new character, but I decided to flip through Sons of Lady 87 and see if anything there fit the bill as a starting point. I realized Jia Jia the Laughing Freak could easily become someone like Mei Chaofeng. I also remembered that the Five Ghost Hand manual was inspired by Nine Yin Manual, so I would have her end up with it and become a menace similar to Mei Chaofeng. Also this would work because Mei Chaofeng is a widow in Condor Heroes and Jia Jia the Laughing Freak was intended to mirror One Armed Fiery Demon from the original WHOG rulebook. Creating a "twenty year" backstory where she became a widow and acquired the manual seemed like a good direction. 

Art by Jackie Musto

When I sat down to make the twenty year backstory I already had some player information, and I knew this would need to be primarily a five year backstory, which was fine (though some details would be earlier than that). One player character, Bao Long, had been raised by Guan Shisu of the 87 Killers, and was an orphan. His mother was a seamstress named Li Lin. The player knew nothing more about her. I had rolled on a personality of the martial world table to find out who the father was and the result was Fan Batu (a very powerful NPC in the Sons of Lady 87 book). I decided to make Fan Batu the cause of Jia Jia the Laughing Freak's personal tragedy. 

In Sons of Lady 87, Jia Jia the Laughing Freak resides in Oriole Village with her husband, Fu Fanfei and their adopted children. Fu Fanfei also possesses the Dawn Sabre of the Yao Yun Sea, something I decided Fan Batu would covet. 

I then the campaign five years ahead of the official starting point in the rules, in the 102nd year of the Glorious Emperor's reign. With that in mind this was the preliminary backstory I made: 

TWENTY YEAR BACKSTORY 

Nearly twenty years ago, Fan Batu came to Fan Xu to study under Divine Astrologer. When his master inexplicably cast him out, he wandered in search of purpose and fortune. Before his master abandoned him he met a woman named Li Lin, and fell briefly in love. When his master left, he forgot about Li Lin and went on his way, not knowing she was pregnant with his child. He also did not know that she later died and the child ended up in the house of Guan Shisu as a ward. 

 

Five years ago, Fan Batu went to Oriole Village after hearing a master there named Fu Fanfei, possessed the Dawn Sabre of the Yao Yun Sea. It seemed a worthy blade and he desired it for himself. He battled with Fu Fanfei and prolonged the fight so he could observe his enemy’s techniques and learn the Unfathomable Sabre strike. Then he delivered a killing blow to Fu Fanfei. He also struck Fu Fanfei’s wife, Jia Jia the Laughing Freak, believing it was a lethal strike, but she was only knocked out. He buried them both, erected a tablet commemorating their deaths and his victory. Then seeing their orphan children were living in squalor, took them and raised them in better conditions in an abandoned temple north of the Swallow’s Nest Inn. 

 

Jia Jia crawled from her shallow grave and believed her husband and children had been killed. She vowed to kill Fan Batu when she was powerful enough and set out to find the Five Ghost Hand Manual. She succeeded in two years, and used its techniques on any who crossed her path, venting her grief in the process. Since then she has become a menace, and grown in power considerably under the assumed name Dancing Corpse Wan Mei. 

 

Jia Jia’s activity and rumors of the Five Ghost Hand manual have attracted other masters to the area such as Lady Plum Blossom, Ho’elen of Twin Fisted Eagle Sect, and Sandstone Nun. Some seek the manual for themselves, some seek to stop Dancing Corpse.  

This is tentative but it gets the ball rolling. It also gives me some characters to work with and map out. I decided that an interesting addition here would be Sandstone Nun, a new NPC I would make from the Hen-Shi Sect found in Strange Land of Li Fan and the Ogre Gate Inn. I wanted someone who could pose a threat to any character who possesses the manual, even a PC, but also could serve as a possible ally in the right situation. I imagined her like the Blind Lama in Master of the Flying Guillotine (she wouldn't be blind like the Lama or Mei Chaofeng but she would have a terminator-like quality in her pursuit). 

For this campaign, because I really wanted to lean into Condor Heroes as an inspiration, I would also make a point of having some NPCs level. In a few cases this would be based on personalty. I knew Sandstone Nun should be able to level over time, starting at Qi Rank 5 and progressing slowly into the profound levels, because she was essentially on an adventure after having been isolated at Hen-Shi sect headquarters. Others would be randomized to make things interesting, so I would create a campaign shake up table with leveling as a feature. The Campaign Shake-Up table is simply a group of d10 tables I roll on periodically to see if anything relevant to the campaign happens. It includes results like the aforementioned leveling, as well as new NPCs becoming involved, sects going after the player's interests, etc. 

Once I have this I need my listing of sects and NPCs. All of this information is material I keep in an ongoing word document. So I just create a section for NPCs grouped in relevant clusters. Some will be completely new characters. Others will be updated versions of existing NPCs. While many of these may be found elsewhere in my notes or in the sourcebooks, I find it very helpful to have separate listed entries with new information for the specific campaign. 

So what I have might look something like this (obviously stat blocks and body text is present, disciple entries will also include individual names and some personality traits): 

ORIOLE VILLAGE

Dancing Corpse Wan mei 

FAN BATU AND HIS MEN

Fan Batu

Oriole Orphans 

HEN-SHI SECT

The Sandstone Nun

PURPLE CAVERN SECT

Lady Plum Blossom 

Senior Disciples (3)

Junior Disciples (10)

TWIN FISTED EAGLE SECT

Ho'elen 

Yao Tu-An

Junior Disciples 5

This structure works well because it gives me an easy overview of the groups involved. As said, many exist already in the rulebook or other supplements, but these entires will be the updated versions for the present campaign. 

I usually do this all in a word document now (using my binder more for location maps, notes and other more map related elements). When doing so I have learned to use a table of contents with hyperlinks. This just makes the process of navigating the document that much faster. 

Then I go back to my campaign shake up tables. Again these are usually two to four 1d10 tables with entries for NPCs gaining levels, aggressive actions towards the player characters and their interests, new alliances and developments, etc. I try to have some entries that intersect with the PCs in some way but most are just to track this unfolding background scenario. It is also important to restate, the players need not become involved in this at all. There are things that likely could come up. For example one entry on my shake up table is Fan Batu learning that Bao Long, a PC, is his son. Obviously that probably lead to them interacting. But there is no end game or goal. It could be something they become embroiled in, something they are peripherally involved in, or merely a backdrop. 

Next I am going to talk about how I refined the above scenario and list by working out happenings that only directly relate to the PCs. This way I have a backdrop that is vaguely connected to them, but other elements hashed out that are more a part of their immediate environment.