Xia

Objective

A role-playing game of virtue-driven kung-fu superheroes.

Things To Do

A combat system that's intricate enough to be gamed, but not so complex as to become truly clumsy.

Build a simplish conflict resolution system that can be expanded on and applied to the important conflicts in the game.

The Game

Character Generation

Character generation is point based. These points can be spent on Skills, Virtues or Character Traits. Character traits are where the character is mechanically defined insomuch as this is where his Attributes would be listed such as how strong, how dexterous the character is and so forth. The focus for the characters is primarily on his Virtues and Skills, which seems slightly different than say D&D.

Virtues

Xia functions around a set of Virtues - traits that represent the character's moral code, his way of interacting with the world, his overall outlook on life. In Xia, characters affect and are affected by the world around them through their Virtues. In both cases, kung-fu serves as a lens through which to focus this force of self.

In Xia, the martial arts are a way to turn a character's personality and morals towards amazing feats of martial prowess; accordingly, characters with differing personalities and moralities use kung-fu in different ways.

While Virtues are a rough representation of the character's personality, they do not define or limit the character's personality. As the character grows and changes, his morals, methods, and outlook can change, too. When this occurs, Virtues can be rearranged to a degree, or improved through the expenditure of experience points. In other words, the character defines the Virtue scores, rather than Virtue scores defining the character. If your character was once a great font of caring and generosity, but grows more cynical as the story progresses, you can rearrange your character's Virtues to properly represent that, which in turn can alter how he uses his kung-fu.

Virtues are rated 0-5, and opposing Virtues sit at opposite ends of a ten-point scale. For example:

Callousness - Compassion
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The aforementioned character with a powerful sense of caring and generosity has Callousness 0 and Compassion 5. As he changes, though, growing more cynical, his sense of love for mankind is slowly replaced by his cynicism.

Callousness - Compassion
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The character's individual Virtue ratings have changed - now he possesses Callousness 1 and Compassion 4. The five points already on this scale have really just moved down one spot. This doesn't cost experience points, it's just a way to mechanically represent the effect that this shift in outlook would have on the character's kung-fu and how he deals with the world.

Regaining virtue points are done through roleplay. One must exemplify that particular virtue in behavior to regain a point. However the higher the virtue rating the more extreme the behaviour has to be to qualify for regaining that point.

Die Mechanic and Combat

Currently the theorized way that the die pools work is using a pool of D6s with an unmodified cap of 8 for maximum normal skill (modified by kungfu and what not). There will be a fixed target number (say 4) while rolling pairs will lead towards either combat effects or the gain of combat chi. Of note, triples do not count as anything other than a pair, while a quadruple counts as two pairs and so forth.

For example, the Red Dragon Hong Long is attacking the Blue Emperor. His die pool happens to be 7 (6 + 1 for his magic sword). He rolls a 6, 1, 1, 2, 5, 4, 4. In this roll Hong Long has 4 successes (6, 4, 4, 5) and 2 pairs (1 1, 4 4) The pairs can be used to generate battle effects or momentum, while the successes count for passing the passive defensive threshold.

By the exchange of attacks and the rolling of multiples, a person builds up his resevoir of energy with which to unleash combat techniques. This method should allow for the emulation of the cinematics in wuxia movies. Momentum can be exchanged for AP or Virtue points at a very bad rate of some sort. There also is a cap on how much momentum that a character can generate.

Each character in a round has a certain amount of AP, 3 for now that allow them to do actions during the round.

Initiative is a derived stat and is non-rolled though it can be modified by styles. Only in the case where initiative is contested is it rolled. To contest initiative, one character must spend 1 AP to move ahead of someone while that particular someone may spend 1 AP to counter it, and thus the rolling.

A character can spend a Virtue point to add that particular Virtue's rating to his die pool.

Damage is calculated by rolling 1d6, adding the weapon's damage rating and the user's strength rating and any other applicable bonuses from kungfu or magic. (Armor works as a flat subtractor to damage and thusly in certain cases some people in armor cannot be harmed by a weapon unless the user is using kungfu, magic or is supernaturally strong.)?

Sample Styles

Compassion's Edge

Buy in Cost: 5
Linked Virtue: Compassion, Callousness

Initial Ability: Heart Torn Asunder: You may spend Compassion points to add static damage to a successful attack.

Form 1: Overflowing Heart: When using this form the value of Compassion used is doubled.