The first RBRBWXRP thread (on the Pub)

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AsenRG

AsenRG

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In case anyone was wandering, the thing in the title means "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades: Wuxia Roleplaying" (wuxia is a compound word, like roleplaying). Authors are Brendan Davis and Jeremy Bai.
So, I'm sure those of us who have preordered this game (like me) would like to know a couple of things... and conveniently BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan is on the forum:devil:!

Do I thought I should start the first dedicated thread and ask some questions... :thumbsup:

1) Do you have any idea whether Osprey Games are going to release the e-book on the same day as the physical book? The 8th of December is awfully far:grin:!
2) This link says "combat is often resolved with one throw of the dice" (I approve, that's Gu Long for you!) What did the playtesters think about this feature:shade:?
3) How much of the book is GM advice? It's no secret that I like your Refereeing advice and would love it if more people were exposed to (more of) it.


And yes, I realize you might not be allowed to answer some or all of these. But not knowing the terms of your NDA, I figured I can at least ask!
 
AsenRG said:
Do I thought I should start the first dedicated thread and ask some questions... :thumbsup:
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Hey Asen. I will answer as best I can.

1) Do you have any idea whether Osprey Games are going to release the e-book on the same day as the physical book? The 8th of December is awfully far:grin:!
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I am not fully informed on this aspect of production. But I believe it will probably be released the same day. I know I have a habit of releasing my PDFs before my print releases, but that is just because I am impatient. Osprey, I would imagine, is going to release them at the same time (but again I don't have any confirmation on that---if I get any I will edit in a note at the bottom of this post).

I do know there will be a free PDF adventure as well. When we wrote the book it originally was going to have two adventures in it, but we didn't have enough space for the second one: Pleasures of the Harbor. I don't know if that will be released the same day or not, but it will be something that should come out around the time of release.

2) This link says "combat is often resolved with one throw of the dice" (I approve, that's Gu Long for you!) What did the playtesters think about this feature:shade:?
Click to expand...

It worked well. Keep in mind, it doesn't always end with one throw of the dice, but we did time combat and it is much faster than Ogre Gate. When we started on this project, I made a point of bringing in the lessons I had learned from WHOG, and we also wanted to get more of a Gu Long feel to our combats. Obviously dice being what they are, combat can go longer. We tried to keep combat under ten minutes on average. We did time it. But it does depend on lots of variables. What we were going for was that sense that you don't know if the combat is going to come down to a single sword stroke or a more lengthy exchange of attacks. We will let others decide if we succeeded or not.

3) How much of the book is GM advice? It's no secret that I like your Refereeing advice and would love it if more people were exposed to (more of) it.
Click to expand...

There are two chapters that deal with GM advice. The first is the game mastering chapter, which is I think 20-25 pages (at least it was the last version of the layout I saw). Then there is the chapter on culture and creating your Jianghu, which is about 14 pages (it covers things like face and naming characters).

I wrote this with Jeremy "Deathblade" Bai, so the GM advice is a blend of our ideas about running wuxia, and it is greatly helped by his knowledge of Mandarin. I think the biggest section of the book is the NPC section. We tried to keep the rules a lot leaner than Ogre Gate (and this, while based on key elements of Ogre Gate, is its own system). One major difference from Ogre Gate is this gets into Fire Deviation, and connects it with the eccentricities system (a bit like the Flaws system in Ogre Gate, but simpler and more ubiquitous). Another significant difference is this moves away from having a large number of abilities to track. We do have plenty of abilities in the game, but characters are not walking around with buckets of Kung Fu techniques. So it is easier to manage and tighter overall. Osprey also did a good job of noting page number references next to abilities in NPC entries (making them a lot easier to run).
 
Sounds awesome, looking forward to it. Osprey also produces nice quality books with good distro so I hope to get a hardcopy.
 
Voros said:
Sounds awesome, looking forward to it. Osprey also produces nice quality books with good distro so I hope to get a hardcopy.
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Just to let you know, you can already preorder it:thumbsup:!
BedrockBrendan said:
Hey Asen. I will answer as best I can.
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Thank you!

I am not fully informed on this aspect of production. But I believe it will probably be released the same day. I know I have a habit of releasing my PDFs before my print releases, but that is just because I am impatient.
Osprey, I would imagine, is going to release them at the same time (but again I don't have any confirmation on that---if I get any I will edit in a note at the bottom of this post).
Click to expand...
And thank you again! Though I was hoping you would have different information...but that is because I'm impatient, too:grin:!

I do know there will be a free PDF adventure as well. When we wrote the book it originally was going to have two adventures in it, but we didn't have enough space for the second one: Pleasures of the Harbor. I don't know if that will be released the same day or not, but it will be something that should come out around the time of release.
Click to expand...
OK, that's interesting. Speaking of adventures...how easy would it be to adapt adventures from SToS or WHOG, like The Tournament of Daolu (which a guy is running for me over at RPG Crossings:devil:)?

It worked well. Keep in mind, it doesn't always end with one throw of the dice, but we did time combat and it is much faster than Ogre Gate. When we started on this project, I made a point of bringing in the lessons I had learned from WHOG, and we also wanted to get more of a Gu Long feel to our combats. Obviously dice being what they are, combat can go longer. We tried to keep combat under ten minutes on average. We did time it. But it does depend on lots of variables. What we were going for was that sense that you don't know if the combat is going to come down to a single sword stroke or a more lengthy exchange of attacks. We will let others decide if we succeeded or not.
Click to expand...

Sounds great! The speed was something I liked when running wuxia with ORE, but I didn't like the almost complete lack of longer battles.

There are two chapters that deal with GM advice. The first is the game mastering chapter, which is I think 20-25 pages (at least it was the last version of the layout I saw). Then there is the chapter on culture and creating your Jianghu, which is about 14 pages (it covers things like face and naming characters).
Click to expand...
Again, sounds good. Let's hope that the PDF would become available before I become officially older by an year (which is close to the release date:shade:)!

I wrote this with Jeremy "Deathblade" Bai, so the GM advice is a blend of our ideas about running wuxia, and it is greatly helped by his knowledge of Mandarin. I think the biggest section of the book is the NPC section. We tried to keep the rules a lot leaner than Ogre Gate (and this, while based on key elements of Ogre Gate, is its own system). One major difference from Ogre Gate is this gets into Fire Deviation, and connects it with the eccentricities system (a bit like the Flaws system in Ogre Gate, but simpler and more ubiquitous). Another significant difference is this moves away from having a large number of abilities to track. We do have plenty of abilities in the game, but characters are not walking around with buckets of Kung Fu techniques. So it is easier to manage and tighter overall. Osprey also did a good job of noting page number references next to abilities in NPC entries (making them a lot easier to run).
Click to expand...
Well, I think I know your ideas about running games from WHOG, Terror is Network, Crime Network, Servants of Gaius and Sertorius. So it will be fun to deduct e which part is written by whom:tongue:!
 
AsenRG said:
OK, that's interesting. Speaking of adventures...how easy would it be to adapt adventures from SToS or WHOG, like The Tournament of Daolu (which a guy is running for me over at RPG Crossings:devil:)?
Click to expand...

That I am not sure about. Strange Tales of Songling would probably be easier to port into RBRB (because the systems are similarly paired down and the defenses match better). But I think it would be manageable. Still there are major differences. Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades has characters that go from levels 1-9 and each of those steps means something different in terms of abilities, health, etc than in Ogre Gate (and to a lesser extent, Strange Tales).



Well, I think I know your ideas about running games from WHOG, Terror is Network, Crime Network, Servants of Gaius and Sertorius. So it will be fun to deduct e which part is written by whom:tongue:!
Click to expand...

Thank you. I appreciate that.
 
AsenRG said:
In case anyone was wandering, the thing in the title means "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades: Wuxia Roleplaying"
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At first I misread that as "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Babes." I guess I have been watching too many low-budget '80s action movies!
 
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BedrockBrendan said:
That I am not sure about. Strange Tales of Songling would probably be easier to port into RBRB (because the systems are similarly paired down and the defenses match better). But I think it would be manageable. Still there are major differences. Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades has characters that go from levels 1-9 and each of those steps means something different in terms of abilities, health, etc than in Ogre Gate (and to a lesser extent, Strange Tales).
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OK. I guess we're going to see it come December!
But I'd like to note that I don't need the stats to match, I can adjust those - it's more about the tone:smile:.
At the end of the day, I can probably adjust a CoC adventure for wuxia...:wink:




Thank you. I appreciate that.
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You're certainly welcome:thumbsup:! Though I don't feel like me planning to derive additional fun time from the book is really worth much praise, but it's your call in the end.

E-Rocker said:
At first I misread that as "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Babes." I guess I have been watching too many low-budget '80s action movies!
Click to expand...
Aaaand I think we have an unofficial title, now:tongue:! Or how about "Righteous Brawls, Ruthless Babes?"

But Osprey probably wouldn't have approved either on the front cover:shade:.

Also, there can never be too many 80ies low-budget action movies, especially given the crap that they're producing these days:grin:!
 
Hey everyone, Jeremy Bai here. A bit late to the table, just wanted to point out I have quite a bit of info about the game on my website, including a comprehensive list of all the recommended movies and books related to the game, blog content with behind the scenes details, etc. Hope it helps.
 
AsenRG said:
Aaaand I think we have an unofficial title, now:tongue:! Or how about "Righteous Brawls, Ruthless Babes?
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Funnily enough I misread the earlier unofficial title as starting "Righteous Babes..." and then I saw the clip.

My recommendation "Righteous Babes, Ruthless Bloodletting: Wuxia Roleplaying"
 
Deathblade said:
Hey everyone, Jeremy Bai here. A bit late to the table, just wanted to point out I have quite a bit of info about the game on my website, including a comprehensive list of all the recommended movies and books related to the game, blog content with behind the scenes details, etc. Hope it helps.
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Welcome to the site!

Also, in my dreams, the game would be pairing your rating in Waigong/Neigong/Qinggong and adding it to your skills to get a freeform effect that's "priced" according to a set of guidelines. Kinda like the magic in some editions of Talsilanta, yes:smile:.
I guess I should learn the truth circa the end of the year or a bit later, depending on the speed of shipping:wink:.
 
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AsenRG said:
Welcome to the site!

Also, in my dreams, the game would be pairing your rating in Waigong/Neigong/Qinggong and adding it to your skills to get a freeform effect that's "priced" according to a set of guidelines. Kinda like the magic in some editions of Talsilanta, yes:smile:.
I guess I should learn the truth circa the end of the year or a bit later, depending on the speed of shipping:wink:.
Click to expand...

One of the big differences between Ogre Gate and Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades, is you don't have those ratings. Instead Lightness Martial Arts, Internal Martial Arts and External Martial Arts are skills (so you simply roll External Martial Arts to attack with an external martial arts ability).
 
BedrockBrendan said:
One of the big differences between Ogre Gate and Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades, is you don't have those ratings. Instead Lightness Martial Arts, Internal Martial Arts and External Martial Arts are skills (so you simply roll External Martial Arts to attack with an external martial arts ability).
Click to expand...
There's a skill group I plan to max out in chargen:shade:!
 
BedrockBrendan said:
We considered this :smile:. You only have 4 points to distribute among these three skills. So you can max out 1 with a point left to put in another, or you can put 2 ranks in two of them; leaving zero in the third.
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Outrageous:shock:!


I totally approve:thumbsup:.
 
Deathblade said:
Don't worry, there are still plenty of amazing combinations to find. :grin:
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I'm not exactly worried. I'm sure it's going to be fun either way:thumbsup:.
The cpmbinations are 2-1-1, 2-2-0 & 3-1-0, exactly 12 in number, at least when it comes to this decision. But I am quite sure it's not the only decision to make in chargen, and regardless, I'm fine with it as long as it allows me to express the characters I can clme up with it:shade:!
 
Just popping in here to mention that, if all goes well, the game will be released with a free Naming Guide (pdf) that I penned. It can be used to generate thousands of unique and authentic Chinese names. It will definitely be a big asset during character creation for people who are interested in that aspect!

We're close to a month from the release date, so if you haven't already, pre-order now!!!! :grin:
 
Deathblade said:
Just popping in here to mention that, if all goes well, the game will be released with a free Naming Guide (pdf) that I penned. It can be used to generate thousands of unique and authentic Chinese names. It will definitely be a big asset during character creation for people who are interested in that aspect!

We're close to a month from the release date, so if you haven't already, pre-order now!!!! :grin:
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How do we get the Naming Guide if we've preordered the physical book (I did that months ago)? Would it be on Osprey's site?
 
Yes, they'll have it on their site along with a full bonus adventure. I think it will be available as soon as the game is live, but I don't know for sure.
 
Deathblade said:
Yes, they'll have it on their site along with a full bonus adventure. I think it will be available as soon as the game is live, but I don't know for sure.
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That's great! I'm running Age of Wuxia right now, but I'm sure such materials can be used in any wuxia campaign.
 
OK, just read a notification from Amazon that I no longer have an estimated delivery date. That sucks, especially if they deliver it after the middle of December...which might become "delivering my book to the wrong address":sad:.
 
AsenRG said:
OK, just read a notification from Amazon that I no longer have an estimated delivery date. That sucks, especially if they deliver it after the middle of December...which might become "delivering my book to the wrong address":sad:.
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Which version of Amazon did you order it from? I was just informed that the american release was pushed up to January due to an issue (I believe with the printer or distribution----but I don't have any details beyond that), but the European release should still be set for December 10th (unless there is a change I don't know about). If you go on the us version of Amazon the release date is different from the UK version of amazon.
 
BedrockBrendan said:
Which version of Amazon did you order it from? I was just informed that the american release was pushed up to January due to an issue (I believe with the printer or distribution----but I don't have any details beyond that), but the European release should still be set for December 10th (unless there is a change I don't know about). If you go on the us version of Amazon the release date is different from the UK version of amazon.
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I ordered it from the UK version with the idea of getting it before the trade restrictions get imposed and screw up my cheap shipping option. So it seems the UK amazon doesn't have a date for RBRBWXRP.
 
AsenRG said:
I ordered it from the UK version with the idea of getting it before the trade restrictions get imposed and screw up my cheap shipping option. So it seems the UK amazon doesn't have a date for RBRBWXRP.
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Let me see if I can find out what is going on
 
AsenRG said:
I ordered it from the UK version with the idea of getting it before the trade restrictions get imposed and screw up my cheap shipping option. So it seems the UK amazon doesn't have a date for RBRBWXRP.
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Hey Asen. I checked in with Osprey about this. They are not aware of any issues and said Amazon appears to be sticking to the official release dates. How that translates into delivery estimates, though, is something on which only Amazon can say for sure. If you are moving though you might not want to chance it. Let me know if this is a problem going forward. I will do what I can to help on my end. I am getting some copies, if yours is sent to the wrong address, let me know and I will send you one of mine (shipping from the US to Europe though, with everything that is going on might take some time-----I just tried mailing a book within the US and it arrived very late.
 
This weekend Jeremy and I will be doing a Q&A on our podcast about Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades. Feel free to post questions here or send them to me via PM (and let me know if you want us to mention your name or screen name in our response) and we will field it on the next Righteous Blood Podcast.
 
BedrockBrendan said:
This weekend Jeremy and I will be doing a Q&A on our podcast about Righteous Blood Ruthless Blades. Feel free to post questions here or send them to me via PM (and let me know if you want us to mention your name or screen name in our response) and we will field it on the next Righteous Blood Podcast.
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"Does the game include some system for freeform martial arts stunts":smile:?

BedrockBrendan said:
Hey Asen. I checked in with Osprey about this. They are not aware of any issues and said Amazon appears to be sticking to the official release dates. How that translates into delivery estimates, though, is something on which only Amazon can say for sure. If you are moving though you might not want to chance it. Let me know if this is a problem going forward. I will do what I can to help on my end. I am getting some copies, if yours is sent to the wrong address, let me know and I will send you one of mine (shipping from the US to Europe though, with everything that is going on might take some time-----I just tried mailing a book within the US and it arrived very late.
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Thank you, that sounds reassuring:wink:! I guess we'd know after tomorrow...:wink:

Also, of course I won't accept this offer! If my book gets lost due to the spedition center stopping work post-Brexit, well, that's between me and Amazon! It's not up to you to fix it just because it has your name on the cover.
Besides, you already did what you could by checking the info:thumbsup:!
 
I snagged the PDF as soon as it was available, since my physical copy won't be here until January, and it is great! RBRB or Strange Tales will probably be the next thing I run.
 
johnmarron said:
I snagged the PDF as soon as it was available, since my physical copy won't be here until January, and it is great! RBRB or Strange Tales will probably be the next thing I run.
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Thanks John! I really wish the books came out in the states this month like planned, but I am glad people are at least able to get the PDF.
 
I put together a fillable version of the condensed character sheet so that I could do up my first character (Jade Blossom, the Hell Courtesan). Happy to share if people could use it, but I don't know if it will work if you only have Acrobat Reader.
 
johnmarron said:
I put together a fillable version of the condensed character sheet so that I could do up my first character (Jade Blossom, the Hell Courtesan). Happy to share if people could use it, but I don't know if it will work if you only have Acrobat Reader.
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You can put it up in the gaming resources sub-forum if you like.
 
It's at #6 now, but I'll get it tonight, and spread the word in the meantime:thumbsup:!

Then it's chargen time:shade:!

Also, the book should arrive in the distribution center I'm using at 16-17th December, which should be fine. But who said I want to wait, I'm a roleplayer:grin:!
 
RBRBWXRP is now only on #7. The game deserves more!

And it seems my copy shall arrive in January when the distribution center in the UK might have closed due to Brexit.
Ah well, I'll see whether it's going to close, first...:evil:

OTOH, now I'm curious about two more Osprey RPGs, Those Dark Places and Paleomythic.

And of course, I'm curious whether Osprey intends to support RBRBWXRP. For some reason, "support" seems to be mandatory these days if you want a thriving roleplaying line:shade:!
 
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