Technik4 said:
Well perhaps I wasn't as familiar with the word "wuxia" as I thought. I was mostly trying to get the feel of CTHD, in which there was no magic.
How on earth is being able to fly, no matter how it's handwaved, not magic? It's something that only extremely skilled/unique individuals can achieve; it's definitely against the laws of physics; by any sensible definition of the word (ie outside D&D-land), that's magic. There was plenty of magic in CTHD, you're just choosing to define it as "not magic" for your own ends.
There was flying, which was described as being able to lower your density, and wasn't anything like d&d flying where for a 3rd level spell (potion, magic item, armor, whatever you like really) you get 90 ft movement and perfect maneuverability.
Ring of jumping + boots of S&S or air walk == wuxia stunts all day long. There are plenty of ways to achieve enhanced mobility other than the standard fly spell.
While wuxia characters may command a great deal of "magical" power, supernatural power that can't be explained as "natural, I was trying to get at the difference between a hero from CTHD and a hero from D&D. There was all of 1 "supernatural" or "magical" weapon in the movie, along with a large variety of weapons which probably ranged from low-quality to masterwork to masterpiece (improved masterwork, from WoT) with different materials.
There was also some poison, and an interesting staff which could shoot poison needles. No one wore magical chainmail or had a cloak of magical resistance. Don't get me wrong here, I love d&d, I was just inquiring as to whether the d20 system could support such a drastic change. Characters who would not be created by looking at a wealth table.
Ah yes, the "too many magic items" story. Time to dig out the MaoR quote again....
The kami move through all things, even man-made creations such as swords, armor, and figurines. Usually these spirits are in a deep slumber, rarely taking an interest in the events of the mortal world. When they become awakened, they fill the item in which they reside with vibrant energy, and it becomes a "nemuranai". Such awakened items take on magical properties.
...
Though Rokugan is often perceived to be a setting lacking in magic items, this perception is largely due to the nature of nemuranai. Superstition is a powerful force, and the kami are very reactive to human emotion. Most Rokugani carry at least one "lucky" item to ward off evil spirits, prevent disease, increase battlefield prowess, or provide some similar blessing. If carried long enough and believed in fervently, the spirit living within an item may be awakened by the attention. A shugenja who casts detect magic on a busy street in Otosan Uchi would be surprised to discover how many lucky charms and ancestral heirlooms hold some minor measure of power (effectively becoming haori of resistance, rings of protection, stones of good luck, etc). These nemuranai are such an ingrained part of everyday life that Rokugani pay them little mind.
The magic of spontaneously enchanted nemuranai is derived from a strong kinship between item and owner. If such an item is stolen, it will cease to function as magical. Thus, such items have very little value as treasure. Nemuranai generally do not mind being transferred if the new owner is similar to its original owner in alignment, honor, family, clan, or demeanor, and the transfer of ownership was not involuntary. If the nemuranai is given freely by its former possessor, the enchantment remains in almost all cases.
-- Magic of Rokugan, pp.57-58
Now that's Rokugan, and some of the specific details won't necessarily translate to all settings, but the basic point is clear. You can easily think of magic items as being imbued in some way to hold some portion of their wearer's power, and thus becoming an intrinsic part of him. Under this paradigm, the "gold piece" values given in the DMG can be thought of more as "power points", giving some abstract measure of the potency of each individual item. Magic items can thus be turned from something external to a character, to something intrinsic.
The benefits of doing this are many:
- You don't have to spend time reinventing the wheel. The DMG already gives lots of precalculated power point values, and even gives suggested power point limits by character level. There's no need to create and balance your own system, fun though that might be for some.
- Compared to a regular D&D game, it removes much of the looting mentality that tends to be commonplace. You can play a noble, upstanding type who refuses to hoard treasure, and not feel screwed for it.
- The bad guys can also have imbued items, which won't function for the good guys. This makes moot the cardinal principle of treasure placement: never give an NPC an item you don't want the PCs to get their hands on.
I'm actually using something like this right now in my Britannia 3E campaign. It's working quite well. In fact, in the last session, the knight leapt 30 feet into the air with a ring of jumping and boots of S&S, and smacked a dragon in the head. You couldn't get a more wuxia moment, and it's not even a wuxia game.
Would it require some new mechanics? Well, it seems to me that it would.
Not that many. Personally, I'd just use one of the six million
martial artist classes floating around, along with appropriate feats, and pair it with something like the above.
In the movie, people knew of Li Mu Bai, and that his sword was The Green Destiny. Without the sword, he was still a hero. If you take away most of a d&d's characters possessions (non-spellcasters), they aren't really heroes anymore.
If you really want to simulate things to the Nth degree, you want to play something like Ninja Hero (which genuinely does look like a good product, really). If you want to play D&D with a minimal degree of mucking around with game mechanics, you shift your underlying paradigm, as given above.
Hong "stealth pimp" Ooi
