Wushu Role Playing Game/Wire-Fu Setting

From: Daniel Bayn

Reviewed by: Ron McClung

Wire-Fu is a new Role Playing Game Rule Supplement from Daniel Bayn.

Wire-Fu is a supplement for the Wushu Open Gaming System by Daniel Bayn. Wushu is a free set of rules with “ground-breaking game mechanics” by Daniel Bayn. It can be downloaded from his web site. The central concept of Wushu is action movie role playing. This review will cover both since I have not reviewed the Wushu system and need to know it to review the supplement.

From the front cover : “A Wushu game of High-Flying Hong Kong Action!”

Wushu Role Playing Game System:

The core mechanic of Wire-Fu, Wushu focuses on movie style action (a.k.a. action devoid of realism). It relies on the character describing their action in a more ambiguous round. The Description is divided up into Details which earn you Dice for your Dice Pool. Dice are in terms of six-sides (d6) and are rolled against a single Trait that ranges from 1 to 5. You roll the dice and compare each die against a the trait. Dice rolled above the trait is a failure.

Opposed checks and combat are done through a “Yin-Yang” mechanic. The aggressor rolls his Yang dice and compares it against the defenders Yin dice. Every Yang success is negated by Yin success. If one Yang gets through, the attack is successful. The system simplifies NPCs, dividing them up into Mooks and Nemeses. Mooks have one stat while Nemeses have a little more detail.

Character Generation is even more abstract and open ended. Your character is defined by Traits and you pretty much make them up. They default to a value of 2. The GM assigns points, which will limit you to 3 or 4 Traits, but that’s basically it. Oh yea, you also get a Weakness Trait which defaults to a value if 1 to give your character a little angst. Skills, ability scores, advantages and disadvantages are all summed up in one simple system. There also are no gear or advancement rules. This is not meant to be a long term game system.

Basically, Wushu is a very abstract and ambiguous, easy to play system with strong focus on letting the player do whatever he wants to do (at the risk of a GM veto), and do it with ease and flare. It completely ignores realism and creates a very cinematic environment to play in. The key factors of this game is that things happen exactly as the players describe (the principle of Narrative Truth), it has no weapons damage, no combat initiative, and the dice don’t rule. The rules set is best described by a phrase from page 6 of the rules – “The goal isn’t to “win” against the GM, it’s to entertain each other with a few hours of creative, improvisational violence.“

Although innovative and interesting, this is not what I personally would be looking for in a game, and would lose interest in a game based on these rules pretty quickly. These rules are good for one-shots, convention games and just goofing around. Aside from running Mooks and other bad guys as well as occasionally vetoing an action, I really do not see the point of the GM in this game. I do not consider myself a competitive GM, but in general when the players are in my game, it is them against the elements of the universe and because I represent those elements, it is vs. the GM. Therefore, I do not adhere to the philosophy behind this game as much, but perhaps I just take my gaming too seriously. I have been accused of that before. This rules set is obviously for the types that just like to have fun in a hack-n-slash action oriented night of gaming.

From the website: “From an example of play: ‘The skinwalker growls and walks towards them through the tangle of plumbing and wires. Fresh blood glints off the surface of his lead pipe. Analog hits SEND and the spirits get their signal. The lights shut off with a resonate thud and all the other electronics fall silent. A transformer outside explodes as the power for an entire city block rushes into the fuse box behind her… and blasts across the apartment like cannon fire!’”

Wire-Fu:

Wire-Fuis one setting for Wushu. Its focus is Hong Kong style of martial arts film making characterized by abundant use of special effects, elaborate fight choreography, and a complete disregard for the laws of physics (which I thought was the point of Wushu in the first place). It can span genres from wuxia (martial arts heroes in Chinese) to sci-fi. Examples of these movies include Matrix, Hero, Fist of Legend, BlackMask, CrouchingTiger Hidden Dragon, The One, The Transporter, and Blade.

Wire-Fu provides a version of the Wushu rules to start with. Very little is changed in these paragraphs. Following the rules is the a section called I Know Kung-Fu, which delves into some abstract topics of Kung-fu and Wire-fu. This includes some general discussion of some basic martial arts techniques (like kinetic linking, holds and locks). From the plausible to the implausible, the next section is the next step into Wire-fu – the physics defying stuff. This includes Wire-Fu essentials like wall walking, fu-fetishism, slo-mo and special effects (SFX). This section also encourages the GM to include certain complications and supplies advice on that.

From WireFu page 12: “Every Wire-Fu character needs two things: a reason to fight and an excuse to give the laws of physics the finger!“

Wire-fu adds a few new options to the Wushu system including the Honor system and the Last Mook Standing rule. The Honor system is a mechanic to give consequences to dishonorable actions. With a game where the players can do anything, I can see the GM would want some kind of system to reign in his players. This does it in some small way.

One thing I did not expect but was somewhat refreshed by was the ten new character templates. These include the Drunk Monk, Enlightened Master, and Cyborg. I did not realize that the game would provide templates for characters. There was no mention of it in the basic rules. This book supplies the framework for several characters. This includes a general description and a list of typical traits. They range in genre from modern to sci-fi, classic kung-fu to horror. Also included is a gallery of classic kung-fu nemeses like Reality Cops, Renegade Monks, Kung-Fu Vampire and Failed Experiment. Again, a wide range of genres are represented. These provide inspirations for not only bad guys but also possible campaigns.

There is also three sample settings described. Purgatory is a kung-fu cyberpunk where the players are convicts in a virtual reality prison (a la Matrix). The next sample setting is Discord, a Taoist fantasy setting full of evil eunuchs, renegade monks, wandering swordsmen, and geomantic magic. The final setting is Bad Blood, a modern horror world where players choose between three warring gangs – a coven of drug-dealing vampires, a gang of genetically engineered fugitives, and the cyborg samurai who have been brought in to hunt them both. All these settings are about three pages of descriptions, hitting on three or four key areas of the setting. Don’t expect a lot of detail, just general points and some detail on the key aspects. They are reasonably imaginative and appropriate for the Wire-Fu style.

In conclusion, I can see this being attractive to gamers looking for a quick and easy fix. The system is reasonably imaginative and inspired but nothing draws me to want to play this game. What comes to mind is “cute.” The settings are also pretty interesting but nothing I would be driven to dedicate a night of gaming to. These days games are competing for players’ time and they have to be worth the time spent. I am not sure this one is really worth the time. It is kind of silly and appeals to power-gamers, I would imagine.

For more details on Daniel Bayn and their new Role Playing Game Rule Supplement “Wire-Fu” check them out at their website http://www.bayn.org/wushu.

Wushu Role Playing System

From: Daniel Bayn

Type of Game: Role Playing Game Rule Supplement

Written by: Daniel Bayn

Game Design by: Daniel Bayn

Developed by: Daniel Bayn

Number of Pages:12

Game Components Included: One PDF File

Retail Price:Free

Website: www.bayn.org/wushu

Wire-Fu