[originally posted on RPGnet]
Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade is the second role-playing game made by Third Eye Games. Wu Xing takes much inspiration from anime such as Naruto and Avatar the Last Airbender and combines it with other Asian influences such as Chinese Kung-Fu. The setting’s end result turns out to feel a lot like Exalted blended with Legend of the Five Rings with a dose of Naruto thrown in.
The Book Itself
Currently, Wu Xing is only out in pdf form with the print form due out within the next few weeks. The pdf is 221 pages, and is bookmarked. The cover has a simple look with a white background behind a bamboo forest; the logo is over a splash of blood. The interior is black and white, and the artwork is of a high standard very fitting for the setting; I just wish there was more of it.
Introduction (Pages 3-7)
Wu Xing starts out with a brief synopsis of the game. Four years ago the Empire declared war on the ninja who were formerly their allies. The majority of ninja clans have banded together to form the Lotus Coalition to try to survive, stave off, or defeat the Empire in this latest war. However, even though the clans have unified for the most part against the Empire, this does not mean they are all fine with each other. Even while being hunted by the Empire the clans are still trying to gain the upper hand against each other.
Wu Xing has the usual “What is an RPG?” section that is simple and to the point. Wu Xing uses 3EG’s house system called the Dynamic Gaming System or the DGS. It is the same system used in 3EG’s first game, Apocalypse Prevention, Inc., with some minor alterations and lots of added options to fit the setting (more on the DGS later.)
Chapter One: Ninja VS. The Empire (Pages 8-36)
In Wu Xing’s history there have been 4 Great Ninja Wars (the fifth currently is taking place.) The first was known as the Orime Rebellion. During this time the Izou Empire was not yet in power and instead the Orime Dynasty was the top seat. When a large volcano erupted, causing mayhem all across the land, the people cried out to the Orime for help; the Orime laughed. The people began to ban together with seeds of rebellion growing. Eventually the people assassinated heads of government, generals in the army, and other leading noble families. They continued their hidden killings until the Orime Emperor himself was assassinated and the ninja were born into a world with new found freedom.
The Second Ninja War is also known as the Mercenary Wars. Due to the Orime Empire being fractured into several smaller nations, these nations started to grow suspicious of their neighbors and border fights began. The ninja became mercenaries for hire by powerful families and governments to protect what they considered their lands. After 10 years of this virtually all ninja were backed by a specific noble, whole clans were wiped out for not following this status quo. There is no real marker to the end of the Mercenary Wars; however, the traditions and structures created from it are still used.
The third war is the War of Withered Fangs. During this war a clan known as the Slithering Gods began to destroy and/or assimilate lots of the smaller and less powerful clans. The larger clans were arrogant and saw the smaller clans and ronin beneath them and let it happen. Before too long the Slithering Gods outnumbered all the other clans. Some of the larger clans decided to let the War be known by non-ninja and convinced many of the governments to help in the fight, to help the ninja to succeed against the Slithering Gods. Most nations helped for fear of losing the ninja (which a third of the clans were lost by war’s end) as their protectors from the unknown lands of the Five Kingdoms. The Slithering Gods did not stand a chance and conceded. The nations looked at their alliance and saw it was a wonderful thing; this was the birth of the Izou Empire.
The fourth war is known as the Expansion Wars. The Izou Empire now strong from victory set its eyes on more territory. The Empire began to expand and gain more control over lands owned by the Five Kingdoms. Using the ninja as their elite soldiers and assimilating more clans as they grew the Empire and its ninja became more prosperous than any other time in their history. But as the Empire grew, their need for ninja slackened and ninja became the target of the government and nobles. Ninja became hunted out and chi users were punished under new laws.
The fifth and current war is the Ninja Crusade. The Emperor has now called for the elimination of all ninja. The Empire has allied itself with parts of the Five Kingdoms to eliminate the ninja from the world. The ninja have formed the Lotus Coalition to fight the Empire.
I absolutely love the history here. It really sets up a great environment for play. It feels very much like Exalted to me not just in idea, but the description of the Empire and its surroundings. They both have a “bad guy” Empire surrounded by uncontrolled areas, and the main protagonists are hunted as Anathema, though they are not Godlike in Wu Xing they are powerful ninja. The book gives enough information about the locations to give a good sense of the setting, but lives lots of room for more detail from the GM or for future source books.
Chapter Two: Clans (Pages 37-69)
Wu Xing gives us the 10 most powerful clans in the Lotus Coalition. They are:
Bamboo Herbalists - The brewers were the first clan to realize chi’s potential for healing. They often ignore territorial warnings to hunt for ingredients to their brews. They are thrill seekers, and don’t mind getting into a little trouble for their thrills.
Blazing Dancers - The Blazing Dancers are not from the Empire, but originally from one of the Five Kingdoms. They are entertainers who hide their ninja ways behind the mask of performance.
Grasping Shadows - The Shadows are one of the oldest clans, and at one time were the trained assassins for the Emperor. Eventually the Shadows grew tired of being the Emperor’s dogs and turned against the Empire, using their powers over darkness against the Emperor.
Hidden Strands of Fate - The Strands are also an old clan whose history is full of inner conflict. They are fierce in their court play and masters of deception. Most of the Strands despise the rest of the clans, even going so far on occasion as to help the Empire with information that could hurt or destroy another clan.
Living Chronicle - These ninja are the scholars and historians of the ninja. After centuries of information was lost in a disaster, these ninja began to use tattoos and Wushu to record history on their very person.
Pack of the Black Moon - The pack began as small backwater people in small villages whose uncanny gifts with animals helped them to survive away from larger civilization. Then when the Grasping Shadows began burning their villages, the Pack became mentally bonded with their herd dogs, and turned the tide against the Shadows.
Recoiling Serpents - The largest clan, that lives in the jungles of the southwest. They are what remains of the Serpent Gods from the War of Withered Fangs so most clans do not like the Serpents.
Virtuous Body Gardeners - The Inks are one of the youngest clans of the ninja. They have learned to use Wushu through tattoos on their bodies. They can even assimilate small items into their tattoos for concealment and later use.
Wardens of Equilibrium - The Wardens are a clan created by several merchant families to try to hold on to peace at the end of the War of Withered Fangs. They are known to be the ultimate merchants with powers of persuasion that cannot be resisted.
Will of Iron - The Sheriffs are a clan that believes in protecting the innocent and making sure justice is served. They are known to have the world’s best swordsmen and smiths.
Ronin - Technically not a clan, but the clanless. The Ronin are those who outcasts or chi users who were never born into a clan.
These clans alongside the history known so far, makes me really want to play this game. Each clan as it is presented has my brain running with ideas for characters. Do I want to play a backwoods Pack of the Black Moon, lost in the cities, but powerful with his dog companion? Do I want to be the secretive Hidden Strands of Fate ninja who has plots unknown to others? Perhaps the aged and wizened Bamboo Herbalist knowledgeable in the ways of herbs and potions? The possibilities really roll around in my head with this setting.
Chapter Three: Character Building (Pages 70-119)
As said before Wu Xing uses the DGS as its system. Characters are made using a point buy system. The first step is to choose a concept and select your PC’s Passion. Their Passion can range from having a Code of Honor or greed to love or power. Next, the player decides what his Element Soul is, Earth, Fire, Metal, Water, or Wood. This decision determines a PC’s starting Chi, or how much permanent Yin and Yang they have. To finish the first step the player chooses their Clan. Their clan besides deciding their theme, also describes what Wushu, skills, and bonuses the player will have.
Step Two is to divide 30 points amongst the six attributes, which are Power, Agility, Vigor, Intellect, Insight, and Charm. These attributes are on a scale of 1-10 with 4-5 being average. Levels 1-8 cost 1 point per level and levels 9-10 costing 2 per level.
Step three is skills. All ninja start with some basic skills then get 30+IQ (Intellect) in skill points. There are 20 basic skills and then 11 fighting styles that are bought with skill points. Any skill not a clan skill is more expensive to buy. Fighting styles give bonuses for every level that add to things such as attack, parry, and dodge.
Step four is choosing your PC’s wushu or ninja powers. In total there are 20 different paths of wushu, half of them clan specific and half general ninja wushu. A ninja starts out with 5 levels in their favored wushu, Ronin start with 4 levels in any path. Ninja can buy levels in paths that are not favored by their clan later, but it costs more than favored paths.
Step five is spending bonus points on Gifts (and other areas) and gaining BPs through Drawbacks. Ninja start with 10 BPs and Ronin 12. These can be spent on attributes, skills, wushu, and gifts. The gifts/drawbacks are a basic advantage/disadvantage list that covers most things a player could want.
Step six is the final step and is calculating all sub-attributes which include Health, Initiative, and Stamina, as well as figuring all your bonuses to strike, parry or grapple.
Chapter Four: Wushu (Pages 120-153)
Wushu are the chi powers of a ninja. Each power is based either in Yin or Yang energy and therefore requires the expenditure of the appropriate type of chi points to activate. Wushu require an activiation roll to succeed which uses the base mechanic of the game except instead of an attribute the roll uses a PC’s permanent Yin or Yang chi. So a normal Wushu activation roll is 1d20+Perm. Yin/Yang Chi+Skill vs. a difficulty based on the wushu power’s level. Wushu also gains bonuses or negatives based on whether it is a signature clan Gift and when elements oppose each other. A ninja throwing a water wushu power at a wall of earth is -4 in his roll because of the opposing elements. The different paths of wushu are divided into 10 general wushu paths and 10 clan specific paths. The general paths are:
Way of Beasts
Way of Earth
Way of Fire
Way of Metal
Way of Movement
Way of Survival
Way of the Unseen
Way of the Warrior
Way of Water
Way of Wood
The clan specific wushu are:
Way of Balanced Scales
Way of Caring Hands
Way of Ebony Clutches
Way of Great Serpents
Way of Heaven’s Judgement
Way of Immaculate Show
Way of Inked Skin
Way of Kept Lore
Way of Spun Threads
Way of Twin Beasts
The chapter finishes with rules for creating your own wushu moves in play. Which is simple guidelines to keeping the wushu balanced with those given in the core book.
Chapter Five: Equipment And Combat (Pages 154-181)
The beginning of this chapter is lists and descriptions for the average items, weapons and armor one would see in the Wu Xing setting. This is then followed by the rules for combat. Wu Xing and the DGS’s main mechanics are 1d20+Attribute+Skill vs a difficulty number is not opposed and vs. the opponent’s roll if opposed. The DGS uses a sort of tick system in combat. Rounds are divided into 20 counts that equal 10 seconds all together. The winner of initiative begins the round on count 1 and then opponent’s start at a later count based on how much lower they rolled compared to the winner. Each action a player may choose has a speed which tells how many counts before the PC may take another action. Some of these actions are light, full and heavy strikes each increasing in speed and damage, aiming, grappling, using a wushu, etc… Players can gain bonuses and negatives in the next round if they had an action saved or if they over shoot their next available action into the next rounds counts. This type of combat adds a lot of exciting and tactical play in real life games; however I would find it a bit tedious to try to run online. The chapter ends with an example of combat a few pages long.
Chapter Six: Antagonists (Pages 182-198)
This chapter provides write-ups for the basic people and creatures player’s may encounter in the world of Wu Xing. There are basic animals such as bears and wolves, basic town folk and guards, stats for the Emprie’s soldiers, basic ninja stats, spirits and celestial animals, summoners and anthropomorphic races, and Oni demons. It seems to be a pretty good coverage and assortment of what a player would encounter.
Chapter Seven: Storytelling (Pages 199-220)
The final sections of the book are dedicated to the GM and give the usual basic advice on mood, themes, hooks, and types of stories. It is good advice, but nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary from most other games equivalent sections.
The book finishes with a glossary of basic terms for Wu Xing both in and out of play terms. Next, is a two paged index which seems like a good listing, even though I never used it. There are charts for each fighting style and the bonuses they give each level, a combat count tracker, and character sheets. The last two pages are advertisements for Third Eye Games and for future source books for Wu Xing covering the clans and the Five Kingdoms (Yay!.)
I expected Wu Xing to be a great game due to my intense liking of Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.; however, I didn’t just get a great game, but one I think I already like even more than API. I really love the Exalted like setting with the L5R’s type of inner clan conflict. The ninja wushu powers bring out the best in Naruto style powers. The setting and clan descriptions hooked me, big time, and I find myself wanting more setting information just to read much less play or use in a game.
Style is getting a 4. What is in the book is wonderful black and white art; there just needs to be more of it. I felt like there was less in this book than in API, but that could be wrong in an actual count. If there was more art, or if this wonderful art ever got the full color treatment it would easily be a 5.
Substance is getting a 5. 3EG’s has a track record now of giving you everything you need to play and really get the GMing and RPing gears a rolling while making you hungry for more source books to flesh it out more and more.