Xia: Disharmony and Righteousness

Xia: Main Page -> Xia: Additional Game Systems -> Xia: Disharmony and Righteousness

This page includes a new optional game system for GMs and players who are interested in introducing morality mechanics into their game.

"Be Most Righteous Unto One Another!" or "Damn this for a laugh!"

This game mechanic is introduce to encourage and reward Xia who act in the manner that befits their role as heroic servants of righteousness. Likewise, it punishes them for disharmonious behaviour, flinging ill fortune at them for their sins.

GMs and players who are interested in exploring this aspect of the game are encouraged to use these rules.

On the one hand, it emphasises the idea that Xia is a game of mystic China, and that Heaven and Hell are very real. Along with the core trigram and kung fu mechanics it helps define the game's "reality", with its own metaphysical laws.

On the other hand, some players resent being "straitjacketed" by rules-enforced morality. They want heroism to come from within rather than from the game system, or they want to be free to be villains if they choose. They also don't like being judged for their choice of actions, or being forced to work to anyone's system of morality other than their own.

For those recalcitrant players, it is acceptable to veto the introduction of this rule. A few points though that might persuade them:

• Righteousness and disharmony are not equal to right and wrong. The codes of morality here are enforced by the will of Heaven itself, and the code is only as correct as the Laws of Heaven are correct. Indeed, those who seek to serve Hell often do so because they consciously reject the Laws of Heaven. Xia follow these rules sometimes because they believe in them, but more often because they fear to be punished for disharmony, and hope to rewarded for righteousness. After all, their trigrams come from the gods!

• The system given here isn't designed to punish or reward players, but rather player characters. It could be argued that a player still has the choice of leading his Xia hero to damnation, and to rage against heaven. Yes, he'll be creating problems and dangers for himself by doing so, but what is the meat of drama in a game if not problems and obstacles? A player might even deliberately have his character be immoral, so as to create a more interesting story. This system isn't meant to be a straitjacket over player choice, but rather just an added layer of simulation to describe how the world of Xia works and what the in-game consequences of certain moral choices are.

Disharmony and Righteousness - Two new numbers to track!

Disharmony and Righteousness are two opposed numerical tracks that it is the GM's responsibility to monitor. The track is shared by the entire gang of Xia - because their actions and destinies are bound together, so too is Heaven's judgment of their righteousness. If they rise in heaven's estimation, they do so as a group. If they fall, they fall together.

With a moment's introspection and meditation a group will always know the exact numeric value of where they are on this track. Likewise, they should instinctively know when an action they are about to undertake is righteous or not, and always be warned as such by the GM.

The two tracks run from 1 to 100. It is impossible to have both a Disharmony score and a Righteousness score at the same time.

• If a group already has at least 1 point of Disharmony, then each point of Righteousness gain instead removes a point of Disharmony.
• If a group already has at least 1 point of Righteousness, then each point of Disharmony gain instead removes a point of Righteousness.

Fomenting Disharmony

Weakly Disharmonious Actions

A weakly Disharmonious Action offends the celestial order only slightly. These result in a gain of +1 Disharmony. Examples include:

• Drunkeness, gluttony, unbecoming behaviour, inappropriateness and more. Heaven is nothing if not demanding!
• Theft from ordinary and righteous innocents.
• Indirectly causing the death of ordinary and righteous innocents.
• Showing disrespect to your hierarchical and rightful superiors.
• Showing disrespect to your parents or your respected elders.
• Refusing an order from a rightful superior.
• Sparing or fleeing from demonic foes.

Moderately Disharmonious Actions

A Moderately Disharmonious Action offends the celestial order more greatly, as they are acts unthinkable to most rightful minds. These result in a gain of +4 Disharmony. Examples include:

• Theft from your parents, your filial elders or your parents.
• Directly murdering ordinary and righteous innocents.
• Direct physical harm or malicious disrespect to your parents or your respected elders.
• Direct physical harm or malicious disrespect to your hierarchical and rightful superiors.
• Desecrating or stealing from the righteous dead.

Strongly Disharmonious Actions

A Strongly Disharmonious Action offends the celestial order more greatly, as they are acts unthinkable to most rightful minds. These result in a gain of +8 Disharmony. Examples include:

• Killing a member of your family, or your spouse.
• Massacring and sadistically torturing ordinary and righteous innocents.
• Killing your hierarchical and rightful superiors.
• Horrifically descrating the righteous dead (for example through necromancy, or sexual means).
• Disrespecting one who has the Mandate of Heaven (such as the Emperor)

Practising Righteousness

Weakly Righteous Actions

A weakly Righteous Action pleases the celestial order only slightly. These result in a gain of +1 Righteousness. Examples include:

• Slaying a demonic foe of equal or greater strength than you.
• Creating an artwork or achievement that will stand the test of time.
• Showing respect above and beyond the norm to parents, elders, hierarchy or the dead.
• Carrying out the will of one who has the Mandate of Heaven.
• Toiling in yout appointed roll for a period of years with due diligence and lack of complaint - for example, working the fields and growing rice for 10 years.

Moderately Righteous Actions

A moderately Righteous Action pleases the celestial order more significantly. These result in a gain of +4 Righteousness. Examples include:

• Slaying a demonic foe of exceptional strength relative to you.
• Creating an artwork or achievement that is clearly a work of great magnitude, beauty and permanence.
• Gaining the attention, recognition and thanks of one who has the Mandate of Heaven.

Strongly Righteous Actions

A strongly Righteous Action pleases the celestial order greatly. These result in a gain of +10 Righteousness. Examples include:

• Slaying a demonic foe of great strength who has consistently offended and angered Heaven.
• Righteous leadership and guidance of many for many years - for example, leadership of a Heaven-fearing kingdom for 10 years.

Effects of Disharmony and Righteousness

Mandate of Heaven: 100 Righteousness

Like the Emperor, everything you do now has the Mandate of Heaven. Others will recognise your greatness, and righteous men will obey you without question.

Achieving this level of Righteousness cannot be achieved simply by small righteous acts. You must perform at least one Strongly Righteous Action, and Heaven must be willing to offer you the Mandate.

Once you have the Mandate of Heaven, any weakly or moderately disharmonious actions you undertake are ignored by heaven - as their favoured child you are allowed some leeway, and so great is your righteousness that such acts are probably for the greater good anyway. However any Strongly Disharmonious Action immediately drops you to 0 Righteousness. You must start again from scratch to redeem yourself!

Paragon: 75-99 Righteousness

You are a paragon of good behaviour, looked up to by many as a shining example of how one should act. Ghosts (even malicious ones) will not dare to approach or even look at you, and demons will fear your very presence. Righteous men will respect you and your heroic dedication to what is correct. Reputation of your righteousness will likely give you authority far beyond what your rank would suggest.

Concordant: 50-74 Righteousness

You behave as you should, and are on a par with the most dedicated of Imperial servants. Where you are, good fortune follows, and you should expect wealth, achievement and preferrment to flow towards you in the Middle Kingdom.

Conformist: <49 Righteousness

You are on the road to being something more, and are a good citizen of the Middle Kingdom, recognising the Imperial Authority.

Blank Slate: 0 Righteousness, 0 Disharmony

You are blank, neither righteous or disharmonious. The player character gang starts the game at this level.

Rebel: <49 Disharmony

You are discordant in what you do, thumbing your nose at the heavenly order. Ill fortune will follow you in small ways, proportionate to your power. If a farmer, you may find that your crops do not thrive. If a Xia you will find your life plagued by hardship, and will find that ghosts and demons seem to delight in tormenting you.

Discordant: 50-74 Disharmony

You are well known for your unrighteous ways, and likely will be shunned by good folk wherever you go. They might fear you, but they will never like or respect you. This is a hard time for you in your career of damnation, as heaven throws ill fortune at you. Nothing you create will seem to last, your family will loathe you, your wife will be barren and your servants disrespectful. Its as if you carry bad fortune with you like a burden!

Damned: 75-99 Disharmony

Heaven's disfavour falls upon you like a landslide. People will spit when they hear your name, and society will reject you entirely. You'll never be able to hold down a job, not earn any respect, nor even wander into civilisation without being hounded as a foul criminal. Even if you are trying to act righteously, society will give you no due. Its a long way up from here.

On the other hand, the benefits of damnation are starting to show as Hell shows its favour. You will be blessed with fearsomeness - yes, a peasant spit at your name but he also will shudder and glance over his shoulder. Demons will no longer attack you on sight, and may be willing to stop and parley with you, or even ally. Though you cannot grow crops successfully, nor raise herds, you will find yourself able to eat raw flesh without baulking. Your Shen will harden, and you will no longer be slowed by compassion or morality. While you might know what righteousness is, the pangs of conscience will no longer weaken or stay your blade hand.

Mandate of Hell: 100 Disharmony

Like demons themselves, you are now fully aligned with Hell. Demons will see you as one of their own, and where Heaven's favour has disappeared it will be replaced by the blessings of Hell.

Achieving this level of Disharmony cannot be achieved simply by small disharmonious acts. You must perform at least one Strongly Disharmonious Action, and must willingly embrace your damnation.

Once you have the Mandate of Hell, you replace all your Trigrams with Hell Trigrams of equal value, and lose all Yang Chi and Yin Chi, instead gaining Demon Chi equal to 75% of their total. All your Kung Fu secrets are lost, but you gain back their XP value and are granted demon powers - check the Foes and Adversaries section for examples of these. Each demon power costs 1-4 XP, depending on its power. Note though, that this granting of powers is decided by the Infernal Demon Emperors of Hell, not by the fallen Xia himself.

Once you have the Mandate of Hell, there is no way back. Even if you try to perform righteous action, events will always conspire and twist so that all you do is offensive to Heaven. You're on the dark side now and the light is forever lost to you.

GM Options for Hell's Mandate: I ain't running this damned game!

The Xia game system isn't entirely set up to deal with player characters who are demons. By all means, the option to keep playing is there when heroes hit the Mandate of Hell, but ultimately the players and the GMs have to decide whether this game is something they want.

Options at this stage might include:

• "Retire" the hell-mandated Xia, and start a new campaign where those damned Xia are now the adversaries.
• Keep playing, and revel in the catharsis of being truly nasty for a while. Check everyone is comfortable with this.
• Offer the gang an epic quest of redemption. But then, if they wanted this, why would they opt to accept the Mandate of Hell in the first place?
• Play another rpg, and call the point of damnation the end of an epic story. Wicked!

GM Options for Heaven's Mandate: I ain't running this blessed game!

The Xia game system isn't entirely set up to deal with player characters who are emperors either! Yep, keep playing if you like, but here's some other ideas:

Options at this stage might include:

• "Retire" the heaven-mandated Xia, and start a new campaign, perhaps a hundred years later, where those enlightened Xia are now the righteous rulers of the Middle Kingdom.
• Keep playing, and revel in the joy of being rulers of all you survey for a while.
• Break the mandate of heaven by performing a strongly disharmonious act. But then, this cheapens the achievement.
• Play another rpg, and call the point of enlightenment the end of an epic story. Most excellent!

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This page created by Asklepios.