Exhales. Ok. Magic. Chinese magic is weird. It’s mixed up so much with the religion(s), regions, and other systems of supernatural influence. Honestly, it’s a mess and capturing the exact feel has been rather difficult. And that’s not even getting into Japanese magic which is more animistic then anything else. So where did I start. […]
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Carpe Blogiem: The Middle Kingdom Primer – Chi Powers
Chi powers will be the “main attraction” of the Middle Kingdom. I decided early on that I wouldn’t be using the typical chi skills available in GURPS. I did this intentionally. I wanted more powers than there were skills and I wanted unique powers for each player (if they wanted them). To get the latter I needed to […]
Continue readingGamemaster’s Guidepost: Narrative Focusing
So this post is going to be about how I go about preparing narrative/plots for a story arc. This is different from my writing process or how I take notes, or how I do game prep. But they are related to all of those. I call this process “narrative focusing”. Essentially, narrative focusing is an outline […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: The Middle Kingdom Primer – Setting History II
Here are the Wū of the setting. The Wū Characters with martial arts powers can either declare for a Wū (or House) or choose to become houseless. Being houseless means you don’t have to be ordered about or must commit to the cause of a given Wū, but it also means you don’t have the […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: The Middle Kingdom Primer – Setting History I
Here we go – a concise setting history. This one won’t be near as long as some of the others as those have had time to “mature” while this new campaign is just that. New. I’ll likely add more to this as the campaign progresses. The History of the Middle Kingdom The world of The Middle Kingdom […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: The Middle Kingdom Primer – Setting Assumptions
As I have discussed before the first thing I do when I start to build a campaign setting is decide what the setting assumptions are. That is, what is true, what is false (if needed), and what is thought to be true. This is an intensely important part of campaign building and I can take weeks just […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: The Middle Kingdom Primer – Introduction
I previously did a primer series on my Chronicles of Ceteri and Aeon campaign setting (both of which are currently unfinished – I will finish this one damn it) and it was so well received I decided to make it a “thing” on my blog. So, here’s the intro for my newly minted wuxia wainscot […]
Continue readingCarpe Blogiem: Ruminations on a Wuxia Campaign V
Like[TBA] my previous posts this one is kind of an “outloud thinking” post. I’ve discussed doing research on Chinese history and folklore, the general thrust of the campaign, how I was approaching character creation, and what cinematic/optional rules I would be putting into play. This post is going to talk about all of that and […]
Continue readingThe Middle Kingdom – B-Team – Season 1, Session 1
Dramatis Personae Eiji Kurokaze, Taijutsu Stylist (402 points) (played by Merlin A.): TBA. Tagline: “TBA” Huoshan Shao, Wudong Stylist (491 points) (played by Chris G.): Half-fox spirit, all sass. Petter dabbler of the dark arts and practitioner of the ancient Wudong tradition. Tagline: “Before I become a star, I will leave my mark on this […]
Continue readingTriple Threat: Piranha Locust
Piranha locusts are large, cat-sized insects that outwardly locust-appearing except they are colored charcoal grey with hues of black and red and have scorpion tails with stingers. Sometimes called “Revelation’s Roaches” piranha locusts are big, mean, prone to swarming, and possess a unique set of jaws that allow them to rotate and pull their teeth […]
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