Wuxia - How to Write a Non-Genetic Magic System - TTRPG & Worldbuilding
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Steal all of Wuxia's story writing techniques to write your own non-genetic magic system.
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⏳Timestamp⏳
0:00 Introduction
2:11 Cloudbreaker Alliance Kickstarter
3:03 Wuxia - HIGH or low fantasy
6:20 How to Make Your Character Special
7:49 Power Acquisition
10:12 Power Development
12:24 Limitations
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At first I loved immortal cultivation because anyone can do it with hardwork. But now days I found out that for immortal cultivation a person need a spatial organ named spiritual root.And there any many type of spatial body like pure yin body and pure yang body.A normal person can't become immortal how much hardwork they do.
My brother and I did think of one thing in a fantasy setting where the metaphysical limitation of magic would make a moral and social kind of rule. With transformative magic you could change one kind of material into another or one kind of living thing into another. But with you would transform a living thing into an inanimate object and change it back, all you would get is the creatures corpse. The same would be true if tried to turn a statue into a person. Magic cannot imbue life. So, transforming living people into objects would be considered murder and doing the same to animals would be taboo.
I'm loving these explorations of storytelling conventions! Great to have you posting videos again, and I'm looking forward to more content like this.
New DST?!?!?!? GREAT WAY TO START MY WEEKEND!!! Thank you CJ!
There are many things to explore in the Wuxia system. One great plot point is based the character of the practitioner. I remembered in the Legend of the Condor Heroes, two of the evil characters stole the manual from their teacher. They misunderstood the meaning of the text which said something like "strike the foremost" as "strike the head", and end up developed the very evil and hideous Skull Piercing Claws Techniques. The manual if practiced correctly, was supposed to trained up your energy, not external skills. 😅
Star Wars is often mentioned when talking about inherent vs. earned, or maybe as a combination of the two ideas, but it's interesting that in an early interview, George Lucas implied he was thinking of making Force ability attainable by all, but it would require strong devotion to the process to bring about these abilities. Jedi just happened to sequester learners in order to grow in their abilities, and it takes lifelong dedication (with the Monkey's Paw of losing your way). Arguably could still be the case but it seems like people assumed (and maybe Lucas later emphasized, I'm not sure) the talent or inborn side of things. I find the dedication idea more compelling, maybe reflecting the fallen nature of the mechanized, hardscrabble SW society that Luke grows up in that it's so hard to find people who can devote themselves, or even know that such devotion is possible since so many masters have perished.
Are there examples in traditional Wuxia of people learning an art but falling out with their faction, or learning forbidden arts that contravene taboo? A falling to the dark side if put in Star Wars terms?
Are there subversions of the general genre expectations that are still considered part of Wuxia?
Thanks for this cogent summary :) Good luck with your campaign!
There are actually plenty of stories about that. In the series, "Proud Smiling Wanderer", the hero's faction is the "orthodox" good faction, but the leaders are actually corrupt and hypocritical. The supposedly "evil" factions are not completely good, but there are decent people who are part of it because they believe in a different cause.
It is an allegory for petty political infighting and hypocrites who claim that they're trying to save everyone while all they want was to gain more power.
There aren't many truly "darks" arts, but arts belonging to "evil" factions. Then again, good and evil is subjective in plenty of wuxia stories.
There are some wuxia movies where villains use a forbidden technique that has a serious physical cost. I believe Longmen Town Inn is one of them
Great video CJ! You packed so much info into a 15 minute video, I will definitely be watching this one again in the future!
I started researching Daoism a couple weeks ago and this is a great primer on the wonderful east Asian magic systems.
Excellent video! Very enjoyable and thought provoking! Timely also as I am just preparing my first game of Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate.
Yer a waterbender, Kakarot.
Awesome video mate, really informative about the wuxia genre.
Excellent as always. Love your videos on storytelling!
Oh rad, I didn't know you were a TT dev on the side.
Big fan of your content, scoped out the other channel and I am a bigger one now.
My last prototype was literally titled "Cloudbreakers" too (fantasy airship wargame ala skygunner).
Man that is wild.
Thanks for the tips CJ!
Thank you! This is great power system and great narrative!
Hugely helpful for my webfiction, baseball magical reverse issekai, thank you for posting this
The cultivation genre is so over prevalent in web comics. I almost wouldn't mind if they used the same terms in the same order to represent power levels...
We love the 2D tuxedo-wearing CJ 🙏
Thanks for the advice
Bravo!
Nice name 😂
Nice.
i read a few wuxia stories. I admit i like the system but i kinda dislike their main character. They tend to be kind of assholes. I mean character flaws are fine, but it's usually not treated as one. Sometimes the MC is really a sociopathe who's only better than the bad guy by virtue of the bad guy being mass-murdering psychos that usually are some flavor of devilish cultivators.
Wuxias are very might makes right setting so it's not all that surprising, but i would be interested in a wuxia stories where the MC struggle to keep their moral compass in an otherwise ruthless world.
I recommend you the legend of the northern blade is a korean manga that delves in those aspects.
@@randomguy-ys1mu thank you
That sounds like you read a xianxia novel not wuxia
As someone who is currently writing Wuxia, I literally use Sanderson's law to design my kung fu system.😂
I like the idea of people using any magic system, but they have to master it to become a master.
So what are some good Wuxi’s style factions to include in a fantasy story? I know the “Shaolin” Temple is kind of a trope at this point. Others I can think of are criminal gangs, like the Triad that use martial arts in the name of criminal activity, and Military forces that might have strong martial artists as generals or elite soldiers
The same toolkit used by different individuals is such a powerful tool to build characters and highlight the dichotomy of being two sides of the same coin (or the many faces of a dice). Is there a novel or something that employs this technique to its fullest?
1:38 the name of the genre is not Wuxia when it's about immortals and demons, it's Xianxia
revenge is big impact in story
Cool history bros CJ?
Great video bro. I would to play a sort of rules light wuxia (leaning towards xianxia but not entirely) tabletop rpg.
Something that manage long campaigns from very low power to a very high level. I know there are a few wuxia systems but, i dont know Would love your take on a wuxia or xinaxia rpg.
Maybe its just me. But im not a big fan of Dragonball liks Magic System's, this is why i like Korean Murim than Full on Chinese Cultivation. What do you call these? High and Low Fantasy?
I like to think of magic, and martial arts, as being akin to music. Some people have a lot of natural talent, but some have zero talent. Most of us are somewhere in between. But anyone with any amount can learn to be proficient, and even to attain mastery. And mastery has far more to do with work ethic, emotional development, and other factors than just raw talent. A teacher helps, but isn't always necessary. However, without discipline, one will never succeed. There's no such thing as a lazy musician or a lazy sensei.
1. I wish your book was a 5e compatible book. I am going to check out the playtest materials just to check it out.
2. Thanks again for the information. This explains a lot! Never new about the Taoist and Buddhist rivalry.
3. Been looking for a good far east fantasy supplement and not happy with the ones I have seen.
4. Watting for Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms to come out.
Taoist and Buddhist.
There are 5E conversion rules for monsters. With a little effort you could make the classes fit in a 5e setting but there will probably never be a hard one to one conversion for player character options due to how flexible they are in the CBA system.
Blood lines and groups you have to be born into might lock you out of learning certain styles in Wuxia 🤔
Bruce Lee movies were great 👍
Usually, the MA practicioners would spy on those secretive orders and copy their style. But they might miss a few key secrets and mess up their own training.
👌 P r o m o s m
Bit of an overgeneralization regarding western magic as there are just as many sources where it is learned, usually from magical beings such as fairies or demons, depending on how Christianized the story is.
But WTF is Cultivation. Absolutely NOONE explains this beyond. "self imprment" and "China things." How about power activation abilites. WTF can they DO!?
Depends on the genre. In Xianxia, it's basically magic with chinese flavouring.
In Wuxia, it's martial arts mixed with some magic.
As for the actual act of cultivating, It's simply absorbing the energies of the universe or world, and making it your own. What makes this different from western magic systems, is that you can't just gain a high amount of Qi and become super-powerful, you need insight (Basically, becoming enlightened) in order for your abilities and techniques to do anything.
A good example in Xianxia are the Dao, example sword dao. You can have 2 swordsmen of equal skills, but if one is more enlightened on the sword dao, he will win.
In Xianxia, you meditate in various ways to absorb Qi, and in Wuxia, you do taichi-like movements to aborsb the Qi.
I hope this answers your questions.
Xianxia! Or xuanhuan. Wuxia have no magic
Wu Xia has nothing to do with magic whatsoever!
Brother, you're talking about Xianxia, not Wuxia. 😂
I really hate that cheap, lazy "animation" style so many youtubers have become enamored of.
Ignorant take. Most magic in most western fantasies is NOT genetic... & certainly not in D&D. Point of fact 1 of the complaints grognards had with 3E was the inclusion of the sorcerer alongside wizard, for exactly the reason they didn't like the genetically magical angle... & excluding the sorcerer pretty much EVERY current core class either learns their magic, or are granted to it by other factors. A factor reflected in most of the fantasy stories which were the direct literary influence on D&D, before it became itself the primary fantasy influence.
I suppose it might seem that western fantasy is dominated by genetic magic systems... IF you think western fantasy consists entirely of Star Wars & Harry Potter. No, that's not being conciliatory. Yes, you might want to look that word up.
Untwist your knickers, mate. Read and watch more. Jim Butcher's Dresden File, Lord of the Ring with the maiar wizards, Dune and its various genetic related "sciences"(magic), there are just too many examples of genetic magic being used in fantasy storytelling.
This includes Avatar the last airbender because it still tell a very conventional western story despite the eastern exterior.
Thoroughly rude, unpleasant and classless post. Well done. And overall not even particularly accurate either. Is all Western magic genetic? Of course not, it is a vast genre. But generally speaking, his point is correct. And thought provoking (which is the point). Whereas your point seems to be that you want to show that you are an obnoxious dick.
@@DontStopThinking Yea, really the only Fantasy settings I know of without genetic Magic are TTRPGs actually, Usually for written stories, the paths are either Just Genetic, like you're either born strong or not (which honestly always felt wrong?) or Genetics just unlock the magic and from there you learn it, which I think is more common. I've not really seen many western properties where Learning the magic is the main way to get it, especially not ones where people who are Warriors have their own "Magic" like Wuxia. Most of the time, even when the Magic is purely study based, Warriors are left with strength equivalent of Real Life, I think honestly more western media, especially games should take notes out of Wuxia because of that disparity. Like, it seems weird that some learning can make you breathe fire, but learning with your body doesn't let you crack a mountain like you're cosplaying Sun Wukong
There are certainly settings like D&D and Pathfinder where there is learned magic through wizardry, and even monks who learn through meditation and martial arts to manipulate ki that everyone has access to. But there are also a lot of genetic systems where not everyone can. DTS already provided several examples, but there are plenty of others in western fantasy. The LIghtbringer series has Kip for example and he and his whole family have generally won the special powers lottery as another example. The Mistborn trilogy has Vin etc. Harry Potter is an interesting case because while he's the 'chosen one' he's not really an especially powerful wizard like Dumbledore and what makes him special is mostly the circumstances around his childhood rather than his innate power. Some settings that have wizard type casters that learn through study also have varying degrees of natural talent, like Warcraft with its mages too.
There are examples of western fantasy, like D&D and related settings like Pathfinder, that do have non 'genetic' magic. But even these systems ALSO include genetic magic a lot of the time. The point of the video isn't that every single western fantasy exclusively has genetic magic, and on the flip side I'm sure there are individual eastern stories that do have it. The video was more about overall trends, not making declarative statements about every single piece of fantasy media in east vs west. There are so many stories that there are bound to be exceptions regardless of the 'rule' in any region.
1921 is only 103 and not over a 1000 years. If you stopped totally overblowing everything, people would start to take you much more serious.
You must be very popular....