ZHB-verse Design bible

The ZHB-verse Bible

"Bible"?

This is going to be our design document, or "bible" as seems to be the common term used by people who write TV shows or roleplaying games, fr´ex - it´s our big reference document of stuff that we can look at so that we´ll all be on the same page when it comes to how our setting really works. By and large, we have all the IC stuff on the wiki, but this will be the "Unifying theory" on how it all ties together. Genre and theme, if you like, as well as the background workings. If this was a roleplaying game, this would be the Sage´s section.

YE ANCIENTE SAGE OF GENESIS

I´ll say this again, because it is damn important: without SG, none of this would exist. He invented the Nihao Honey-verse, and through this not-trivial act supplied us all with huge amounts of fun and is well deserving of some props. Thanks, man.

THE PRINCIPLE OF ANTIQUITY aka MANGA VERSIMILITUDE

Zhen Zhou City *looks* like a modern city, but it really isn´t – it´s the classic LotW setting filtered through a huge amount of anime/manga and other pop culture and given modern props. Most of the stuff from the LotW books is still there, in one capacity or other – though the characters themselves are long dead, others have risen to replace them. Stuff is *done* in pretty much the same way as always – so a lot of ideas on what “would happen” in a modern society goes out the window. Take a look at classical kung fu stories or manga like Tenjou Tenghe: this is how stuff goes down. Everything happens according to the laws of dramatic principle, and stuff unfolds like in your favourite anime. The cops usually don´t show up to interrupt kung fu duels in shopping malls by sniping the duelees, and so on.

Think about this for a while, because it is important - we´re preserving the dynamics of the vanilla WOTG setting while giving it a fresh coat of paint and a smashing new soundtrack. We´re not adding a modern day versimilitude - though we do borrow quite some themes from more contemporary media. See the difference? That way we can have, like, kung fu versions of West Side Story (with feet to the face instead of danceoffs, mind), bloggers writing slashfic on famous Wulin heroes and high-speed motorcycle chases while at the same time staying true to the Wuxia spirit of things.

This also means that, as a rule, guns lose out. Most of the time, they´re not even an issue. When they are, it is because someone (like, say, the Murder Sage!) has been insidious enough to develop a new form of kung fu that works with firearms. This is equivalent to the ages-old "secret style" thing, and the guns are just really a standin for whatever obscure weapon the villain has learned to use to deadly perfection. A great looking standin, of course, but still.

The same goes for tech over all. Essentially, you don´t have to worry about it. It´s window dressing.

ALL-ENCOMPASSING SHEN ZHOU CITY=

Shen Zhou City *is* Shen Zhou. It encompasses urban areas, forests, mountains and the like - it´s a sprawling megacity that features just about everything in the LotW book. Most of it is urbanized, but we also have mountains with old-style Buddhist Temples, forests and seas.

There is also no "outside" of SZ City, unless we´re talking other countries. Other countries, naturally, are as manga-sterotyped as SZ City. Russian warriors visiting the city (like Arctic Smile!) wield cold-based kung fu, wear fur caps and drink vodka. Visitors from Megatokyo might well be teenaged super-Catholic nun schoolgirls with katanas - like one Christina Kreuzritter Von Engel III.

(Note: this does not mean that everyone has to be a parody of a stereotype, but it does mean that the campaign is living pop culture rather than some sort of effort to simulate a "realistic" world.)

This means that we have space to develop pretty much everything within the context of the City.

LAW AND ORDER IN SZ CITY

The Imperial Magistrates are the “official” keepers of law and order – at least if you listen to the Emperor. The Heaven Sword Clan tends to take care of most things that involve the Wulin, while the Magistrates handle more varied cases – they´re detectives, Texas Rangers and other cool stuff rolled into one. Also, most of their work tends to be fairly boring, at least on the low levels. The ones who have advanced to the rank of “detective” are free to dress up how they want, handle missions however they please and use weird signature weapons.

Meaning, they can make for great opponents or allies, but generally they stay out of the business of the Wulin schools. That´s the job of the Heaven Swords - even if they have been hitting some rough patches lately, now that there´s a new power in town...

NIHAO HONEY: YEAR TWO

SG started up the first official LotW game as a continuation and soft reboot of the first one, and this is exactly how we are doing it. Look at the games as occupying overlapping spots in a quantum city, basically; they share lots of attributes and might refer back and forth to each other, but it is not exactly 100% the same continuity. Also, we will try our damnedest to minimize direct contact with that other game, since your own Sage despairs at doing justice to those colorful characters; it might happen or it might not, but we won´t rush straight for the crossover.

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