And once again... I've entered a strange land of confusion. I see Tales of the Far West on Drive-Thru - is this the complete game?

Quote from: tenbones;955823And once again... I've entered a strange land of confusion. I see Tales of the Far West on Drive-Thru - is this the complete game?

No its not. Thats the joke. Kind of ruins the joke saying it though, eh?

Wait?  So you were recommending a game that is exactly what I want (-minus the steampunk part) but doesn't exist?

Thats not a very nice thing todo.

Quote from: Headless;955839Wait?  So you were recommending a game that is exactly what I want (-minus the steampunk part) but doesn't exist?

Thats not a very nice thing todo.

Welcome to theRPGsite. You might want to get a helmet.

You should get the El Rey Network. Every Thursday they show 3-4 Shaw Brothers movies

Anyway, as to games, Joseph Bloch released Golden Scrolls of Justice, a wuxia supplement for his retro clone (which is basically just slightly house ruled 1e AD&D). Don't have it, but he does competent work.

Quote from: Headless;955839Wait?  So you were recommending a game that is exactly what I want (-minus the steampunk part) but doesn't exist?

Thats not a very nice thing todo.

Gareth Michael Skarka has confirmed on many occasions that the book exists.

Quote from: Ronin;955829No its not. Thats the joke. Kind of ruins the joke saying it though, eh?

HAHAHAHAH!!! Nothing is better than getting Rick-rolled by one's self.

The joke got even better!!!

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;955748Also I think that Kevin Crawford has posted a massive list somewhere of historical resources on Imperial China.

I've got my research library catalog up here, which is sort of an awkward bibliography of possible books on premodern China. The downside is that most of those books are Extremely Expensive to get if you don't have easy access to a top-tier research library. In terms of material on China's Warring States period of 475 BC-221 BC... well, things get bumpy. Here are some resources you can get.

First, you may want to look at the more recent translation of Sima Qian's pre-Han history. His "Grand Scribe's Records" set the pattern for the next two thousand years of Chinese historiography, and this edition has a lot of explanatory footnotes to help make clear what exactly is going on.

For a parallel look, you'll want the Spring and Autumn Annals, one of the fundamental classics of Chinese civilization. The problem is that it is extremely gnomic. What you really need are the commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals, which explain what each entry "really" means and adds flavor. There are three major commentaries on the Annals, but two of them aren't terribly helpful for your purpose. The one you want is the Zuo Zhuan, the "Tradition of Mr. Zuo", which is full of treachery, bloody murder, divine vengeance, and the kind of snappy stories that get referenced for the next two thousand years. The problem is that the only really good English translation, which came out last year, runs $240. There's a $100 edition of it, the "Zuo Tradition" on Amazon coming out this summer, but if you want it free, you'll need to use the very old and somewhat awkward Legge translation "The Ch'un ts'ew, with the Tso chuen", which you can scrape off archive.org.

Those are the most accessible source texts of pre-Han China, if you want to read what the Chinese considered the Important Stuff. Anything by Michael Loewe is a good bet for Han China, which is the period after the very brief Qin period, which is the period after the Warring States. A lot of Han material is still applicable to how things were during the Warring States.

If I were a GM interested in premodern China and could only get one book, however, I'd make it Endymion Wilkinson's Chinese History: A New Manual, Fourth Edition. It's a massive, relatively-cheap paperback with tiny text and it contains a huge amount of direct, practical information about every aspect of premodern China, neatly divided into dynasties. Food, money, religion, rulers, geography, warfare, nobles, the whole nine yards. For a working GM, it's got everything they need to either answer their questions or let them fake it convincingly.

If you want stories involving wandering heroes and supernatural encounters and such, you'll want to have recourse to Feng Menglong's trilogy of short stories, first published in 1620. His first one is the best- Stories Old and New. It's positively dripping with playable details, though its stories take place over different dynasties. There are a number of stories in there that honestly sound like D&D adventures, including sinister mechanical traps and asshole thieves.

You can also always grab The Water Margin as a romantic look at wandering knight-errants and their crusade for great justice. One caveat, however, is that the Water Margin plays up the "haoren" character stereotype, and the haoren is not entirely the same as the classic knight-errant. Black Lightning from the Jade Empire game by Bioware was lifted from this tradition- he's a haoren, in that he really doesn't care what cause he fights for so long as there's a good fight involved. He's loyal to the death to his companions, but he really doesn't care if his companions are assholes or not, so long as they're loyal to him as well. He wants women, fame, money, and success, and while he'll never betray his sworn brothers to get it, he'll do all kinds of deeply nasty things to bystanders on the way. He respects courage, loyalty, and skill, and those who have none of these things are useful only insofar as they provide entertainment or point him at some great deed that will earn him suitable fame.

Quote from: Skywalker;955849Gareth Michael Skarka has confirmed on many occasions that the book exists.

Yeah, yet hes never released a draft let alone a beta copy to backers after how many years? Like four or better. Every 3 to 6 months gives an update that after (fill in the blank of current project) in finished that he going to buckle down and get it finished. Or he working on chapter what ever. Yet never has anything at all to show for it. Google up Tenkar's Tavern. He usually has the lowdown on the latest excuse from GMS.

Quote from: Skywalker;955821I got mine on December 2011, exactly when it was estimated to be delivered.

Time does fly when you wait for the Best RPG to be ever stopped by 2 floods in a row, doesn't it?

Quote from: Ronin;955872Yeah, yet hes never released a draft let alone a beta copy to backers after how many years? Like four or better. Every 3 to 6 months gives an update that after (fill in the blank of current project) in finished that he going to buckle down and get it finished. Or he working on chapter what ever. Yet never has anything at all to show for it. Google up Tenkar's Tavern. He usually has the lowdown on the latest excuse from GMS.

4 years? I remember when it was 4 years. Those were good times.

For the record we are currently at 5.5 years.

Quote from: Skywalker;9558744 years? I remember when it was 4 years. Those were good times.

For the record we are currently at 5.5 years.

Did you try for a refund? If not but are interested, he's apparently giving them out.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;955876Did you try for a refund? If not but are interested, he's apparently giving them out.

No. As I see it KS is about buyer beware. Looking for a refund just makes it more likely other backers won't get the stuff they want. I won't ever back GMS again or anything he has his hand in though.

Quote from: Skywalker;955881No. As I see it KS is about buyer beware. Looking for a refund just makes it more likely other backers won't get the stuff they want. I won't ever back GMS again or anything he has his hand in though.

It helps to look at it as in investment in a start-up, not a store. Some companies dont make it off the ground, so the money is lost. In other cases, you stand to get a lot more for your dollar than on the retail market. If you want to play it safe, stick with KS by companies with established records. If you don't mind a gamble, then try out the new guys on the block with a cool idea.

Yep. Agree.