Best wuxia RPG?

[Dave55]

Ah, this is an old question.

For those who don’t know, wuxia (martial heroes) is a genre of novels, films, TV, etc mostly concerned with the adventures of martial artists in a version of medieval China that never was. These heroes fight each other, leaping from tree to tree with flashing swords, gathering in sects such as the Shaolin Temple or the Wudang clan, and having terribly complicated personal lives. The most archetypal wuxia work in modern times is probably the 2000 film version of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, though there are many other examples such as the books by Louis Cha.

Back in the day, the wuxia TTRPG to beat would undoubtedly have been Weapons of the Gods, terrible art and incomprehensible Secret Arts rules and all. There’s a rewritten version called Legends of the Wulin, which is rather over-complicated for my taste.

There are many others since, of course. There’s Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades, which does a good job with both system and setting; it’s based on Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate, which has more supernatural elements and a really solid setting, and it’s PWYW to boot. There’s Tianxia for FATE, which has the virtue of simplicity, though I’m not entirely happy with the way martial arts styles work there. There’s also Art of Wuxia, which is perfectly fine.

What have you all played, run, liked, and disliked from the above or other games?

I enjoy the setting and inspiration in Art of Wuxia, as well as the art style. I have used it for inspiration and source material in some of my other games as well. It has a good set of martial, magical, and mystic abilities... which can be used to create whatever type of hero you want. It is a d00 lite system with base abilities, and skills (the skills are like classes), and Qi, and various table to help shape the fiction of your world. I comes with its own diverse wuxia setting. And shouting out your technique name and pausing to strike an intimidating pose can actually have in game effects.