Jiang Hu - A Wuxia RPG compatible with Worlds Without Number
A downloadable game
Jiang Hu is a role-playing game for the wuxia genre. Drawing inspiration from wuxia novels written by luminaries such as Jin Yong and Gu Long, the Feng Yun comics from Ma Rong Chen and the multitude of wuxia movies and television series, this game brings the world of dashing swordsmen, warrior monks, brawling beggars and high-flying stunts to your tabletop.
Players take on the role of Martial Artists fighting against various threats to the lands of Jiang Hu, ranging from evil sect leaders who have mastered forbidden secret martial arts techniques to megalomaniacs seeking to take over the Imperial Throne by force and the blood of countless innocents.
Jiang Hu uses the same base game mechanics as the Without Number series of games created by Kevin Crawford, which is a d20-based system with all the familiar trappings of a typical role-playing game. Each game in the Without Number series covers a specific genre - Stars Without Number for sci-fi, Worlds Without Number for fantasy, and the recently released Cities Without Number for cyberpunk. Jiang Hu continues in the same vein for wuxia.
Originally I intended to write an wuxia supplement to Worlds Without Number, but the more material I wrote and coupled with Kevin releasing the core rules of his Cities Without Number game as CC0, I decided to embark on a full wuxia rewrite instead, so that it can be played entirely without referencing material from elsewhere. As with other Without Number games, Jiang Hu skews more towards the “Old School” style of play, favouring rulings from the Game Master over hard-set rules. My goal is to have a system whereby you can create any wuxia character you envision; the options presented in this book thus draw heavy inspiration from popular wuxia media.
This v0.5.1 release is still very much a work in progress and many portions which still require playtesting and fine-tuning. Nevertheless I hope Jiang Hu manages to capture the spirit of wuxia and that you will enjoy your time playing it while I work towards refining it into a full product.
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great job! following this project! Please tell me the Flying Guillotine comes from the 1975 movie
Yes it is! Alot of elements are based on wuxia movies, comics, novels and stuff my players came up with during the campaign.
i am just getting started looking at this (i recently printed it out into a 3 ring binder) - i hope u continue the project!
do you have a website/insta/etc?
hey thats great to hear! no unfortunately i dont have a website, itch is all i have at the moment!
Hi there! I recently stumbled on this project, and I think it's incredibly cool. A mixing of fairly simple OSE-ish rules and martial arts goodness was exactly what I'm looking for, and the way it handles creating your own techniques is ingeniously simple. I've been having a fantastic time doing a solo game with this system. If you're still working on this project, I'll be happy to support it in the future!
I was curious about your intention regarding common enemy NPC's. Think your simple bandits and such. Should enemies like that have similar stats to those from Worlds Without Number, or should be they comparatively weaker than PC martial artists? Alternatively, are Martial Arts common enough that anyone expected to fight should have some amount of training in them? I've been debating which opponents to give martial arts/counters, and am curious about your take.
hi thanks for your comments and its great to hear you're having a good time playing with it in solo play! i'm glad you noticed the common enemy NPCs, it is indeed there by design.
first is that in most wuxia media there's alot of common fodder, be they bandits, town guards, rival school disciples etc, that's there to be defeated swiftly and in style by the protagonists. the most memorable things about them are what main weapons or technique they use, which is why they are given a martial arts choice.
as my players got higher level, their damage output started scaling higher and i needed more sturdy mooks to give them abit more of a challenge, which is why there's higher level "versions" of the basic enemies.
in general anyone whos had experience fighting say soldiers or towns guards, or those with alot of time on their hands such as nobles, would have martial arts training, but not farmers.