While there are elements very central to almost every cultivation/wuxia/xianxia∆ LN I've read that would very much help with running 5e, I don't expect wotc to be willing to stop thinking about what power creep they can give PCs long enough to even begin conceptualizing those kinds of things. In no particular order
Bottlenecks: pretty much a concept where a cultivator might encounter some difficulty or hurdle that must be cleared before they can progress further. Sometimes this is a common thing faced by all cultivators like going from qi gathering to core ignition§, other times it's. Personal problem due to impure/poor spirit roots§ heart demons§ past transgressions against the heavens/karma§ or literally anything useful to the author/gm. The key is that the character can not easily overcome the bottleneck without some external adventure/heavens§ [m] sourced excuse and it's completely normal that sometimes it won't ever be possible or could be fatal.
Different currencies: cultivators regularly go from desperately cherishing even a single spirit shard§ to carrying thousands upon thousands of them around as if they are worthless now that they have progressed to a higher cultivation realm. One of the ways this genre gets around that without creating logic problems where economics doesn't even pass d&d campaign economics levels is to simply switch to a different currency at higher tiers of cultivation or different regions/planes... Maybe instead of spirit shards it's mana cards soul gems [energy type] gem/crystal/shard/etc or whatever §>
. The important part is that the old currency has whatever value (or lack of) that the author/gm seems it to have and the new one is something the character may never have even seen or heard of.
Heavens wrath and tribulations: "lightning strikes you die" elevated to a setting trope so common that it's acknowledged as just the way that the universe works even between characters. A tribulation is pretty commonly the character needs to endure lightning strikes from heaven§ and hope to survive until the heavens§ give up/vent their wrath or enough energy is somehow gained to progress to the next stage of cultivation. Heaven's wrath§ however is straight up "you've angered the heavens with your actions, expect consequences" to the point that a mere rumble of thunder is often enough to cause fear and a change in what characters were about to discuss or do.
Not sure a name but it's common that if there are enough steps difference in cultivation between two opponents that the weaker one can not even scratch the higher one, the higher one would avoid flaunting that at large without justification like being attracked because of the last point
I'm probably leaving some out but it's notable how the genre has so many big standard tropes that are indistinguishable from blatantly overt gm tools
∆all three are basically the same thing with different language origins
§ mystical treknobabble. There's no specific tiering or system but those are all fairly common ones[/gm]
I have no idea what I did to make part of this post teal
Edit:apparently gm in [] did it, I changed a g to a d
Bottlenecks: pretty much a concept where a cultivator might encounter some difficulty or hurdle that must be cleared before they can progress further. Sometimes this is a common thing faced by all cultivators like going from qi gathering to core ignition§, other times it's. Personal problem due to impure/poor spirit roots§ heart demons§ past transgressions against the heavens/karma§ or literally anything useful to the author/gm. The key is that the character can not easily overcome the bottleneck without some external adventure/heavens§ [m] sourced excuse and it's completely normal that sometimes it won't ever be possible or could be fatal.
Different currencies: cultivators regularly go from desperately cherishing even a single spirit shard§ to carrying thousands upon thousands of them around as if they are worthless now that they have progressed to a higher cultivation realm. One of the ways this genre gets around that without creating logic problems where economics doesn't even pass d&d campaign economics levels is to simply switch to a different currency at higher tiers of cultivation or different regions/planes... Maybe instead of spirit shards it's mana cards soul gems [energy type] gem/crystal/shard/etc or whatever §>
. The important part is that the old currency has whatever value (or lack of) that the author/gm seems it to have and the new one is something the character may never have even seen or heard of.
Heavens wrath and tribulations: "lightning strikes you die" elevated to a setting trope so common that it's acknowledged as just the way that the universe works even between characters. A tribulation is pretty commonly the character needs to endure lightning strikes from heaven§ and hope to survive until the heavens§ give up/vent their wrath or enough energy is somehow gained to progress to the next stage of cultivation. Heaven's wrath§ however is straight up "you've angered the heavens with your actions, expect consequences" to the point that a mere rumble of thunder is often enough to cause fear and a change in what characters were about to discuss or do.
Not sure a name but it's common that if there are enough steps difference in cultivation between two opponents that the weaker one can not even scratch the higher one, the higher one would avoid flaunting that at large without justification like being attracked because of the last point
I'm probably leaving some out but it's notable how the genre has so many big standard tropes that are indistinguishable from blatantly overt gm tools
∆all three are basically the same thing with different language origins
§ mystical treknobabble. There's no specific tiering or system but those are all fairly common ones[/gm]
I have no idea what I did to make part of this post teal
Edit:apparently gm in [] did it, I changed a g to a d
Last edited:
