Chinese Cultivation rpgs

[Shades of Eternity]

I have recently started a Chinese video game called the way of the Immortal where the purpose is to become immortal using meditation and alchemy. From what understand this is known as cultivation.

Are there any tabletop RPGs that do something similar?

Bonus points if you know of any really good Chinese bestiaries? I got my old kara-tur books, and palladium mystic China as well as the two rift s China books, but have a feeling they aren't up to snuff.

 

[Blue Orange]

Immortality's usually seen as an 'evil' goal in Western Civ, possibly because the goal is supposed to be the afterlife. Look at the portrayal of liches or vampires in D&D (there are good ones but it's very rare), or the World of Darkness: Immortals supplement for the New World of Darkness where practically all the immortals had to kill to survive.

2nd and 3rd ed D&D and BECMI D&D actually did have rules for pursuing elevation to demigod status after you reached certain levels (30th for 2e, 20th for 3e, 36th for BECMI.) Usually you had to do quests for some god who would then make you a servant; BECMI actually had 'immortal' rules (that's the 'I' in 'BECMI') where you played divine politics.

Frankly given the increasing concerns over cultural appropriation I think you will have to wait a while (or perhaps learn Mandarin!) for an official set of rules.

But: If you're trying to simulate the Taoist concept of pursuing immortality through physical and mystical self-improvement, my thought would be that to fit this into D&D you would pick an appropriate character class (alchemist subclass of artificer or monk perhaps?), and then raise your CON and INT to some superhuman value like 30. Given the importance of balance between yin and yang, perhaps having to reach a certain level as alchemist and monk (reflecting the development of body and mind) is appropriate.

I believe Asian Monsters was finally released: Asian Monsters (5E) - Legendary Games | 5th Edition | DriveThruRPG.com
But I don't know of anything specifically Chinese.

This Reddit thread seems of interest:

 

[Mind of tempest]

I myself would be in the market for such an RPG supplement sadly I doubt one exists.

 

[Voadam]

Mystic China explores different Chinese cultural specific routes to immortality so I think that is worth checking out first of the ones you have.

Kindred of the East is a Vampire the Masquerade spinoff of Asian vampire-like beings that are fantasy China-ish immortals, but more souls who clawed their way out of one of the Hells than the alchemy and meditation route.

There are some Chinese themed bestiaries.

I like Evil Beagles' 5e Beasts from East bestiary series and they do have a Beasts from the East China one.

Legendary Games has a Pathfinder 1e Mythic Monsters China one.

 

[TwoSix]

Even though progression fantasy and LitRPGs (both heavily inspired by xianxia Chinese fantasy) are very popular and borrow heavily from CRPG tropes, I don't think I know of a particular TTRPG that emulates them.

Every popular series (from Cradle to Arcane Ascension to Mother of Learning) has detailed, very crunch heavy systems that would each need their own separate product to really emulate.

 

[Voadam]

There are some Chinese Wuxia fantasy specific RPGs, Tianxia comes to mind built off of Fate.

I don't know it well enough to say whether it gets into taoist alchemical immortality as part of its mysticism aspects.

 

[Voadam]

The Hero system Asian Bestiary I includes monsters from China, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

 

[Voadam]

Art of Wuxia is another one that might be worth checking out. d00 system. The product description for the PDF talks about a form for tracking cultivation points but I don't know if it is actual immortality path stuff or just used as a different name for xp.

Possibly Dragon Tiger Ox a Pathfinder Wuxia sourcebook.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

There's no immortality cultivation in the old kung fu RPG Weapons of the Gods either, except as a plot device. Immortality is for the bad guys.

That said, former D&D YouTuber CJ Leung did a good job discussing Cultivation as a magic system here:

 

[RequiemMachine]

I'm currently writing a game that is very much inspired by Chinese cultivation fiction (leaning towards Xianxia not Wuxia). Its using the Cortex Prime system. It won't be out until the Cortex Creators Studio is released, which is still being developed as well.

Here's the Cultivation mechanic I've developed for it:
I've simplified the cultivation realms for the sake of gameplay...and it is very much build on the Cortex Prime ruleset... https://www.cortexrpg.com

Characters of higher tiers are significant threats to lower tiers and within the tiers there are general any number of levels (most authors have their own versions of these). The goal with this is to represent a large advantage to the higher tiers while also giving advantages to the individual levels within each tier.

In addition, Cultivation power is also something that can be sensed by other characters, so I've implemented a way of suppressing your true Cultivation scale as well, allow you to power down to a lower tier if you wish. While powered down, other characters with the ability to sense your power will sense your powered down tier, however, you are also mechanically at that tier until you quit suppressing your power.

Cultivation Tiers/Levels
My take on the tiers is a simplified version of what is typically used in the fiction. The names and descriptions are also simplified for the ease of presentation.

Tiers
The above tiers are used to determine your Scale. Foundation Formation is has a scale of 2 Tiers over Mortals. Nascent Soul has a scale of 3 over Qi Condensation.

0 Mortal (Mortals always roll a d4 if they use Cultivation)
1 Qi Condensation (learning to harness the powers of Qi)
2 Foundation Formation (Building the foundation of Immortality with Qi)
3 Core Formation (Forming your Qi Core)
4 Nascent Soul (Birth of you Immortal Soul)
5 Immortal (Maturation of your Immortality)


Levels
Each of the above Tiers are broken up into 4 Levels that represent the character's power within the tier. I've simplified these levels for the benefit of game mechanics as well.

Early Stage - d6
Mid Stage - d8
Late Stage - d10
Peak Stage - d12

Trait
A character's Cultivation Trait is listed as the "Tier Name Level Die". A Foundation Formation stage character at the Mid Stage would be listed as Foundation Formation d8.

Using Cultivation
When using your cultivation you would compare you would add your Level die to the the pool. If your Tier is higher than your opposition, you get to add your Level die a second time and you can keep and additional die from your roll for either your Result or Effect for each Tier you are above the opposition.

Example
We have two Disciples, Meng Hao and Chen Fan.

Meng Hao
Foundation Formation d8

Chen Fan
Qi Condensation d8

Both would add a d8 to their pool when using their Cultivation and choose 2 Die for their Result as normal.
If these two were to get into a fight, they would both get their d8, however, Meng Hao would get an additional d8 due to the 1 Tier difference between them and could either choose 1 extra die for his result OR 1 extra effect die from the roll.

Lets add another example.

Master Li
Nascent Soul d10

Master Li comes across the above fight and decides to stop he and enters the conflict. He would add his Level, d10 to his pool against both Disciples. Against Meng Hao, he would get an additional 2d10 to his pool, and could get 2 extra dice for his Result OR Effect (in any combination). Against, Chen Fan it would be an extra 3d10 to his pool and 3 Extra Result/Effect dice.

The above is the early draft of a scale mod I created for Cortex Prime to model Cultivation levels for my game.