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So, how did this all begin? Well, due to my busy schedule, I had started a Play-by-post game to get my fix. One of the possible players, a certain blue-haired samurai, stepped up and then down—not enough time for a new game. However, I was informed that soon they would be running a game of “Weapon of the Gods”. Which sounded at least interesting, but I had no idea what he was talking about. I figured, if I was going to try to get into that game, I should probably have a decent idea of what it was about. What I found was the first game in nearly a decade that I was excited about, with a world that was a nice balance of open-ended and specific, mechanics that actually supported the world, and the sparks that made me not only want to run the game, but improve and expand it.
STYLE
Weapons of the gods (hence WotG) represents the second RPG book I’ve bought that’s based on a comic book that I had no idea existed. I don’t know if this makes me ungeeky, or so ungeeky that I’m now cool. Let the forums decide, I say. One of the advantages of making RPG’s out of comic books is that, basically, you’re art’s already done. Just about every page has some of the very impressive artwork from the comic, with everything from splash pages and covers to actual pages—white borders and all—of the comic in Chinese and/or English. The comic art style is a very evocative mix of east and west, a subtle blending of anime and Superman. I’m sure that, if you know the comic, this is probably a nice collection of everybody’s favorite characters, but even if you don’t the pictures tell a great story—dynamic and active pictures that get you in the mood of the game fast. A 5 for style, easily.
THE WORLD
WotG is a game set in the genre of Chinese Wuxia, or “heroic fantasy”. Basically, while the west was delving into dungeons and Cone of Frost’ing orks, the Chinese were using wire-fu effects and attacking each other with thousand-hand strikes. Basically, it’s the world of kung-fu movies and people screaming “Ki-yaaa!” at each other. As usual, there is a corrupt empire, warring clans, and an obviously evil group that is powerful but not too powerful. They're named "Hell Clan", in case you were wondering how obvious. There are also god weapons, ancient cities, secret socieities, and plenty of other good ideas in the world to play with.
The world is well developed, but hasn't been made so tight that you can't squeeze a few characters or your own ideas in. It doesn't feel like a plot, more like an overview of a wuxia world. You can add as much or as little of it as you'd like, which is always a good thing.
THE CHAPTER BY CHAPTER BLOW-BY-BLOW
The first chapter is the basics—rules & character creation. It’s probably the best chapter in the book. It’s crisp, clean, and gets you involved fast. The basic mechanics are mostly simple and easy to follow. As with all games ever made (I kid), there are Attributes and Skills. Attributes basically give you pools of chi (more on that below), while skills are the number of dice you roll (well, most of the time, but this is a review, so I’ll be brief). Basically, you roll the dice and look for multiples. Three eights give you a score of 38. Add your modifiers—boom, you have a roll. There's also a "River" that you can store dice in for later in a combat, and Joss that you can either spend for more dice to roll or less dice for your opponent to roll. No word yet on the Mal, Wash, or Jayne mechanics (rimshot). It’s very simple, and a few tries gives you the confidence and understanding to do anything.
This chapter’s full of good stuff. First, it goes into detail with the modifiers, giving you actual examples of what an “easy” difficulty is, etc. Second, the character creation’s gives you a full page of overview for each of the three character types (fighter, scholar, or courtier), including the normal kung-fu techniques used, advantages and disadvantages, and the rest. A quick photocopy, and you have a pretty good start for anybody to make a character. As well, the game gives hints on how to build a character—your attributes and the chi they provide is important, so building your character right is a must. The PC creation takes about half an hour or so if you have a specific kung-fu or concept in mind, maybe an hour if you’re just browsing.
The next chapter is combat. It really says something that a kung-fu game is able to handle all the basics of combat in such a small chapter. It includes hand to hand, ranged, melee, dodging, a variety of weapons and their specifics, breaking things, looking cool, and just about everything else you really need to worry about in (I’ll guess here) about ten pages of written word. Not bad when really, this is what the game is about. The rules are precise and simple, so again—points for them.
Suddenly, there’s another book in my book—the Lores section. You know when you watch kung fu movies, and suddenly some farmer whose never left the village and couldn't do basic algebra suddenly proclaims “Ah! You have the sword of Gui Shan Bo, the holy sword that mastered Drunken Tiger?!” Yeah—that guy bought a Lore sheet. And this is a giant chapter filled to brimming with them for you to buy.
As I said above, the nicest thing about this system is that the physics back the genre of the world. Lore sheets are an interesting mix of background story, merit/flaws in the World of Darkness sense, and plot points that you can introduce. Want your character to one day possess the Great Chopstick of the Benevolent Squid? Well, spend the points and you can do it. Lore sheets go through history, social mores, even sex (easy trigger—read below…). They do a good job of quantifying what a player wants, and gives the GM a decent way to direct his players by telling what Lores will be important. While I don’t think this is really necessary (I mean, all these issues have been dealt with for 30 years without lore sheets), it does a great job of giving a lot of power to the players, as well as reinforcing the genre.
Now, the heart of the game—Kung Fu. Kung Fu is another big hefty chapter with a bunch of simple, easy to read breakdowns of styles. There are commons to rare styles, with each style having normally five ranks of powers. You spend your chi (normally a specific “color”, or attribute’s) to power these babies up, and each style is pretty straight forward. All the staples are here, from swords and kicks to woodwinds, silken cords and yes—spatulas. You can make whatever kind of kung-fu god you want, and can feel relieved to know you can kill men however and whenever you’d like to.
But wait, there’s more! Foolish westerner, did you assume that kung-fu meant only kicking people in the head?! No, it can be much more, for in the same section we get the Secret Arts (cue lightening). Secret Arts are for the two “not fighter” types, courtiers and scholars. They include magic, healing, divination, a wicked social system, summoning spirits, and of course slapping pieces of paper with Chinese scribbled on them. The rules for both magic and the social fu are really good, again blending the genre and the need for mechanics—however, you do need to read through it a couple times as it’s not only a lot of stuff to master, but poorly laid out with in-character/out of character a bit too close. However, the system allows for you to actually be effective with your powers, which is a nice trick compared to some other systems.
Finally, we have the “Behind the scenes” chapter, which is GM help, a conflict making mechanic, a section describing the Weapons of the Gods, including how to make your own, a few pages on comic character stats (which, had I known there was a comic, would have been nice), and a map. It’s again full of what you need to play, and while there’s a lot of this chapter I don’t know if I’d use, it’s nice to have. Oh, and we of course have our dark side—Demon chi, and even worse, Void chi. Those are bad, mmmkay? I said they're bad--get them out of your mouth!
THE GOOD This is a very strong book. The system is simple but powerful, the world is developed but not so structured as to make it impossible to game, the art is astounding and dramatic, and the layout is for the most part easy to use.
But what’s the best part? Quite simply, the fact that all of this combines to reinforce the genre you’re playing in. Every rule seems to have been put in place to make the game you’re playing feel like the wuxia genre. Everything from the backgrounds and history to the River and Joss systems to “puppet of the gods” bringing back your awesome villain your PC’s just decapitated in one blow—it all makes you feel like you’re in Mythic Freakin’ China. Sex, medical physics, psychology—all of it is in line with ancient Chinese thinking, so forget about HIV—worry more about if your love is too powerful or not powerful enough for you!
THE NOT-SO-GOOD First, this is a big, heavy, meaty book. You need to read a lot to get going here, so don’t think you’re gonna plop down and rock into action. There’s no Index, which is a pain—although, this is slightly made up by the awesome and well-planned table of contents and the fact that normally throughout the book they reference the page number of something they’re talking about.
Second, there’s a few points where things get…cludgy. The writing is mostly pretty straightforward, but there’s a few sections where information seems to be missing (such as breaking weapons, even though a lot of kung fu styles have ways to avoid it). The Secret Arts section delves greatly into the metaphysics of what you’re doing, including letting you know which organs control which chi, but after reading all of that you realize it’s not vital to know that to actually use the secret arts. This is fine and all, and adds to the good—but it’s also makes them a bit trickier to understand.
Finally, like many modern systems this has been built to make killer PC’s, but I wonder about make NPC’s. There’s a lot to fiddle with, and I fear that making your boss villain might take some time and effort. This isn’t a big problem, just a pattern I’m finding in many new games.
THE END Weapons of the Gods is Exalted for the rest of us. It’s got the Asian influence, the bad ass combat, the fast pace, the social powers, the epic feel…all without a bucket of dice, and I think a chapter or two less of textbook. The game is fast, simple, and once you get the hang of it a blast to roll and play with. I’ve already thought of two other games based on it—the blaxploitation and the cyberpunk genres could both use this system easily, or really any heavy combat and special effects system.
While there’s a few problems with the game, they’re rarely noticed. Truthfully, this is probably one of the best games I’ve picked up in a long time, and is the first time in a few years that I’ve thought “damn, now I need to get the supplements.” It truly shines in its ability to make a world that is available but open to the players and the GM. It’s a game where you don’t need to know about the comic, but gives you enough to feel up to speed with it. It’s a game with a lot of potential and a lot of fun. It’s a game where everyone you spend time talking to will probably have some wire-fu effects.
In short, I love this game and I’m not even a fan of wuxia. At least, I wasn’t.
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