GoCorral

Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades (RBRB) tries to emulate the wuxia books and novels of the 1980’s. Wuxia is a subset of martial arts stories where the characters have progressed into supernatural abilities. Movies made by Ang Lee or Zhang Yimou are good examples of more modern wuxia films that worked in the US market. Dragon Ball and other shonen stories could also be considered wuxia stories.

There was an explosion of wuxia content in China during the 80’s with many big authors, TV shows, and movies. This was accompanied by people actually practicing wuxia techniques to improve one’s health. Millions of people practiced wuxia, with some estimates coming close to 200 million at the height of the movement’s popularity. Unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party couldn’t see a way to easily control wuxia practice and the totalitarian party can’t allow what it can’t control. Many of the larger organizations for connecting wuxia practitioners were made illegal in 1999 and the genre of fiction petered out as well.

Reading about the real life events of wuxia gave me a broader perspective on Chinese TTRPGs in general. The Western world has TTRPGs to emulate the folk tales of Europe so it would make sense if China had RPGs for the same types of stories. I looked and couldn’t find any TTRPGs published in China (at least any that are described in English). I’m now realizing that the reason China might not have TTRPGs is because the foundation mythology for those stories is in a quasi-legal territory within China. Would gaming conventions be allowed in China or would those be seen as subversive?

Back to the game review! Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades uses a d10 system for conflict resolution. Each obstacle has a target number between 2 and 10. To overcome an obstacle a character rolls their available dice. If any single die is greater than or equal to the target number then the character succeeds. Characters get between 1 and 3 d10s in each skill to represent their ability. Bonuses and penalties can apply to the number of dice rolled to increase the total number of dice all the way up to 10d10.

RBRB uses a level system without classes for character creation. Everyone starts with one signature ability for offense and one counter ability for defense. These abilities give bonuses in situations that are often easy to orchestrate. The simplest abilities give an extra d10 when using a particular type of weapon. Most archers will take the Cleaver of the Nine Suns ability which alludes to Hou Yi’s story of shooting down the nine suns. The Bitter Couple abilities mirror the types of characters like Broken Sword and Flying Snow from Hero. The theme and balance of the abilities is great.

There are many abilities that could use some work though. The GM section of the book encourages odd combinations of abilities, but the rules don’t address every case. Can a martial artist combine Demon Claw Style and Fearless Boxer Style? If they do, how exactly are they holding their hands? Other abilities are worded poorly so its unclear what they do (Inverse Stance and Moon Goddess healing being some examples).

The structure of the book is also a little odd. The skills section should’ve been earlier in the book as many of the first chapters reference skills. The three page Wealth and Social Resources “chapter” should’ve been combined with the equipment chapter. The micro structure is well done though. There’s separation of text for easy reading and a good spacing of art so your eyes don’t glaze over with a monotonous structure. A wonderful touch was to fill small bits of white space at the end of section breaks with a little blood streak. It’s also a uniquely sized RPG book, being cut on an 8″ x 5″ paper instead of the typical 12″ x 9″.

As for Chinese flavor, the book is excellent. The back half of the book is all about how to create a setting for wuxia stories with an example setting and two introductory adventures ready to go. There’s also an enormous list of reference material that people can read/watch for inspiration. The main author, Brendan Davis, also worked with an expert in the field, Jeremy Bai, to get everything right. Their collaboration really made the book feel like it was made for these types of stories instead of a different game that was modified for wuxia.

Special abilities are where the game shines with numerous ones tied to Chinese magical practices. Yin yang abilities are present in spades. Acupuncture chi-blocking was something I’d never considered, but there are plenty of options for that combat style. Wu xing elemental mastery is pretty limited. Each element only gets a few spells and there’s no real way to combine them outside of having a element focused fighting style. Like the other abilities, wu xing is evocative and fun but mechanically simple. And maybe that’s what I want? A complex magic system might be interesting to look at, but its not necessarily something my players want to engage with.

I’m intrigued by Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades. While it’s not quite the RPG system I was imagining in my head for this Chinese RPG search, it looks fun and is passes the “close enough” test. I’d like to give it a try and see if it works for the kinds of stories I want to tell. If you’re also interested after reading this you can check out Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades at Osprey Games.