Kungfu and science fiction are back, thanks to a read of DC comics' The Great Ten; a ten issue spin off from 52 featuring a chinese superhero team working for the communist government. Consequently instead of trying to shoehorn ideas into specific moulds, we now have the concept of the Hsien as a catch all for a kungfu wielding galactic hero.

Hsien:
The great energy of the universe is the force sublime: Chi, born of the twin furies of yin and yang. The seed lies in a few to manipulate this power, through a combination of purpose circumstance or fate. Such people are called Hsien and are without exception the great cultural heroes of the populous region of the galaxy known as the Ten Thousand Stars.

In essence this is no different than a supers concept except it's based around martial arts, wuxia, magic, and all that good stuff. Left deliberately open so that players can fill in the blanks. Rather than try and explain Kungfu in a specific scifi way, which becomes increasingly difficult and self defeating, a character can do what he wants using Chi (more or less). At least that's the plan. More akin to something like Weapons of the Gods or Legends of the Wulin (or perhaps the characters from video games like Streetfighter), where the martial arts are basically superpowers.

This is not Exalted in space. Nor is it intended to be: 'powers' are not Charms. It might seem similar but Exalted is very different: it borrows more from Japanese/Anime and melds that with heroic literature from european/eastern epics. At least that was it's intention.

Wulin:
There are many forces that impact on the destiny of Hsien: for instance the powerful state of Imperial Iron Chin would see Hsien defiant of the Iron Doctrine of its emperor crushed, meanwhile Imperial conditioning twists others into its service. The Jianghu Consortium uses them to pursue its criminal agendas, often manipulating them through narcotics (such as Cinnabar Lotus Smoke, a by product of Element Five refinement) and bribery. The Dharmic Alliance believe in the superiority of the Hsien according to their own standards and criteria (those Hsien that do not conform are know as Demons). They couch an agenda of dominion inside a belief of unity and correctness in all things that, if ignored, promotes evil and corruption. To the Alliance, Hsien are the product of Enlightenment: dedication to the Dharma.
Unique among these agencies is the small faction called the Wulin. These are noble minded Hsien who seek not only to free themselves from the forces that seek to control them, but who are moved to use their power for the good of all. This they call the Mandate of Heaven; a doctrine created by the founders of the Wulin, a legendary cadre of Hsien known only as the Immortals. Hsien of any background can join the Wulin, but those that transgress against the Mandate of Heaven risk the wrath of the mysterious Immortals, great and terrible.

Imperial Iron Qin:
The greatest empire in the Ten Thousand Stars ruled by the Iron Emperor a being as powerful as a Hsien, but truly something else. He is the master and creator of the Iron Doctrine with which he controls his realm. Iron Emperor is uniquely served by four protégés known as the Junzi. Though like him they are not as powerful: Earth Lord, Thunder Lord, Ice Crone and Lightning King. Each is also in charge of a division of the imperial infrastructure: Earth Lord governs the Bureau of Doctrine, Thunder Lord is the chief of the Imperial Liberation Army, and Ice Crone is in charge of the Secret Police known as Magistrates, while the Lightning King controls the imperial propaganda and media machinery.
The Empire controls the greatest proportion of Element Five throughout the Ten Thousand Stars. This is its powerbase. Element Five is used in many areas of galactic life, but uniquely to the Empire, and thanks to the Emperor's science, it is used on Hsien within the Bureau. This genetic programme conditions the loyalty of those Hsien found by the agents of the Empire within (and occasionally without) its borders. The science of the Emperor has also pioneered secret methods to improve Chi Power via Element Five.

Element Five:
This unique ore is found across the Ten Thousand Stars and is unprecedented in its application (regardless of the ethics). Recently the Iron Emperor has learned that the pristine worlds of the Dragon Margin may yet contain the greatest untapped source. Imperial Iron Qin will stop at nothing to secure Element Five as its greatest consumer, and its refineries operate relentlessly, prioritising production at the exclusion of all else, which would be disaster for the Dragon Margin.

System Resolution:
Roll Yin Yang dice applying the result to the relevant Attribute score. If that at least equals the target or opposing number the hero succeeds. A roll of doubles makes the result Auspicious – for good or worse depending on the outcome.

Yin Yang dice are two d6 distinct from each other; depending on the action one result will be considered opposing while the other is matching. The matching result is always added to the attribute score concerned, and the opposing result subtracted from that for the final result. For example: an attack action is considered Yang and thus the result of the Yang die is matching, and added to the attacker’s Martial score from which the opposing, Yin, die is subtracted.

If the hero has an applicable Kungfu (an ancient word meaning hard work) and fails the roll he may spend a point of Experience to roll again. He may keep doing this, per roll, but the cost increases by one each time. Success on a roll where the hero has an applicable Kungfu earns the hero a point of Experience – unless he has already spent some in attempting to succeed.

Attributes (and associated Kungfu):
Martial (Guns, Fighting, Ordnance, Fortitude, Tactics).
Presence (Charm, Perform, Intimidate, Inspire, Empathy).
Training (Drive, Science, Tech, Medicine, Pilot).
Lore (Culture, Language, History, Hsien, Create).
Wits (Awareness, Stealth, Evade, Reflexes).

This list is tentative. Kungfu are skills, but the resolution process means that players don't have to rely on skill values to attempt actions, but get a bonus where they have some specialisation allowing them to try again. Experience can also be used, tentatively again, in the usual fashion, so there is a strategic element to play that games often overlook. Do you risk failure to store up xp to 'learn' from your mistakes quicker (ie get better stats)?

I think I like your underlying system, but the presentation seems overcomplicated.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;571165System Resolution:
Yin Yang dice are two d6 distinct from each other; depending on the action one result will be considered opposing while the other is matching. The matching result is always added to the attribute score concerned, and the opposing result subtracted from that for the final result. For example: an attack action is considered Yang and thus the result of the Yang die is matching, and added to the attacker's Martial score from which the opposing, Yin, die is subtracted.

You may have explained before, but I'm not quite sure why the "yin" and "yang" dice need yo be notated separately. If some actions and "yin" and some add "yang", but the two dice are otherwise similar (And the opposing dice is deducted) having to remember which action adds which dice just overcomplicates a dX-dX resolution system, with no actual gain in play.

QuoteExperience can also be used, tentatively again, in the usual fashion, so there is a strategic element to play that games often overlook. Do you risk failure to store up xp to 'learn' from your mistakes quicker (ie get better stats)?

So we're at "xp with both short and long term expenditure options"?

If the character spends an XP and succeeds (On his first retry), does he not gain an XP as reward (For a net expenditure of 1 XP), or gain an XP as reward (For a net expenditure of 0 XP)? Obviously, success on the first go is a net gain of 1 XP, as explained.

It's possibly a slight improvement on most similar systems, because the worst you can end up at is neutral, but again it seems like a lot of busywork (Noting down XP changes quite regularly) for not much reward (More fun, more flowing gameplay) at the table.

I'm not interested in expenditure beyond the first retest - that looks prohibitively expensive, and I can't see being used except in the direst of IC circumstances.

Costing aside, the principle is simply: if you succeed without spending xp you gain xp, if you fail or spend xp to succeed you gain nothing.

This is simply for ease: if you are spending and gaining for a net gain of zero it's a bit of a pointless rule

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;571191Costing aside, the principle is simply: if you succeed without spending xp you gain xp, if you fail or spend xp to succeed you gain nothing.

This is simply for ease: if you are spending and gaining for a net gain of zero it's a bit of a pointless rule

So the rule is, "If you pass on your first attempt, you earn 1 XP. If you do not pass on your first attempt, you can spend XP to retest."?

Because the way you had put it was ambiguous.

So, yin/yang dice.

Quote from: Ladybird;571223So the rule is, "If you pass on your first attempt, you earn 1 XP. If you do not pass on your first attempt, you can spend XP to retest."?

Because the way you had put it was ambiguous.

So, yin/yang dice.

That is the rule; and that you cannot gain xp having spent xp to successfully retry.

Yin Yang dice are essentially the rule from Feng Shui. It is a little counter intuitive, but the idea is that the GM adjudicates whether the action is Yin or Yang (it should be fairly obvious). Both dice are rolled (one is always yin and the other yang, this is decided by the players and never changes) and the result of the die that matches the action is added while the other die, the opposing result, is subtracted. That's it.

There are probably easier ways to do it, but the flavour is important, also anything else would probably be an exact duplicate of the Qin system which would be plagiarism. Also, unlike Qin, it's possible for the dice to produce a negative result (roll 4 on the matching die and 5 on the opposing and the result is your attribute minus 1). This makes the random factor more meaningful. Qin, by contrast, is only ever an integer because you always subtract the lower from the higher result (the dice are not fixed yin/yang as they are here).

It's not counter intuitve, just a little involved.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;571274That is the rule; and that you cannot gain xp having spent xp to successfully retry.

Cool. Explain it properly in your book.

QuoteYin Yang dice are essentially the rule from Feng Shui. It is a little counter intuitive, but the idea is that the GM adjudicates whether the action is Yin or Yang (it should be fairly obvious). Both dice are rolled (one is always yin and the other yang, this is decided by the players and never changes) and the result of the die that matches the action is added while the other die, the opposing result, is subtracted. That's it.

Okay, so it's almost exactly the same as Feng Shui and Fate's zero-centred system. Nothing wrong with that, it's a rule that works.

What doesn't work is the "sometimes yin, sometimes yang" divide which, at the moment, is only adding one extra step to action resolution. It's a piece of terminology for it's own sake.

What you need to do is either use the yin/yang differentiation, or drop it. Because at the moment it is doing nothing for your game. Trigger effects off it, let characters ignore one of the dice (Or force characters to ignore one of them! Sucks if you're cursed, can only roll your yin, and that's the negative for this check...), only award XP if a certain die is higher, etc. Funky dice effects strictly for flavour are not worth the time.

I have a friend who is working on a dual-dice system where the choice is between the hard, virtuous path (And dice) or the fast, corrupted path (And dice). It makes the distinction matter.

What I would like is something as colourful and simple as the Qin system (other than me plagiarising it!). I'm not sure it's accurate to say it's 'sometimes yin sometimes yang' as that makes it sound more vague than it actually is - ideally each action will only ever be one or the other. Attacking, for instance, is always Yang, while defending or dodging is always Yin. But I accept that it is a bit of a hurdle and it's the sort of thing that will invariably trip people up, so in that respect it's probably best removed. I think the experience point thing is probably equally fiddly as well. Not sure how you can achieve the same goal without xp though.