 Goto [ Index ] |
Wu Xing: The Firebrands is the first supplement for Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade by Third Eye Games. The book itself is 91 pages with a color cover and black and white interior. My review copy was a PDF, though I believe a softcover print version is forthcoming. It is the first in a series of Clanbooks dedicated to taking a deeper look at the major ninja clans of Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade. It focuses on The Blazing Dancers and The Virtuous Body Gardeners.
The Firebrands opens with a piece of intro fiction designed to set the mood for the rest of the book. It is quite good, and had me excited to see what would come next.
The first two chapters of the book Dancing in Fiery Circles and Pierced by Beautiful Needles are each devoted to their respective clan, The Blazing Dancers and The Virtuous Body Gardeners. They form the heart of the book, and each gives a detailed history of its clan, a look into their philosophies, organization and training methods, fleshed-out and detailed opinions of other clans, an overview of the clan’s lands, and introduces important personalities from the clan. These chapters do an excellent job of capturing the ethos of their respective clans as they are each told from the perspectives of members of that clan. The conversational tone and unique perspectives are quiet refreshing, and absolutely engaging to read. Each narrator has a unique voice, and as you read through the sections of the book, and it becomes readily apparent that each has a different take and focuses on different facets of their clan’s essence. It goes quite a long way in helping to form a more complete and nuanced picture of these clans, beyond the limited information given in the Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade. In my opinion these two chapters are worth the price of admission alone.
Chapter Three Building Flawless Fires adds some crunch into the book, and it is chock full of goodness. A new passion, a good number of clan-specific Blazing Dancer and Virtuous Body Gardener Gifts (as well as a single clan specific drawback), new weapons, two new martial arts styles (Fox and Scorpion), a boatload of new Wushu, a few more celestial animals for your summoning delight, and finally three brand-new minor ninja clans. If you’re looking for new ways to flesh out your character mechanically so that he reflects his clan all the more or if you’re just looking for new ways to kick butt this chapter will probably have you weeping for joy.
The final Chapter is a short adventure entitled Switching Rhythm. It involves trying to free a recently captured ninja before she is publicly executed. It has action, stealth, and its full of juicy roleplaying hooks.
Chapter-by-Chapter
Prologue: Confessions (pages 3-8)
Wu Xing: The Firebrands opens with a piece of fiction entitled Confessions. It is told from two intertwining perspectives, each of which belongs to a member of the supplement’s featured clans, The Blazing Dancers and The Virtuous Body Gardeners. The fiction is well written and evocative. It does a wonderful job of capturing what a Ninja’s life in the Izou Empire is like, while showcasing the differing approaches of each clan. It does the job of all intro-fiction perfectly--it gets you excited to read the rest of the book.
Chapter One: Dancing in Fiery Circles (pages 10-28)
This chapter focuses on the Blazing Dancers, Entertainers and Ninja, and is told as though it is a series of conversations between of members of the clan with a new initiate. As the chapter goes on and more information about the Blazing Dancers unfolds so too does the narrative of the initiate. At each stage in the initiate’s journey we meet a new narrator and they share their perspective and information with the initiate, and thus, the reader. Each Narrator receives an illustration and a sidebar explaining even more about them, as well as their context within the clan structure. I won’t go into too much detail about the personalities or the subjects discussed, as that would be a disservice to you, the chapter simply must be read to enjoy the full experience, but I will summarize below. I cannot say enough about this style of writing. It does so much to make the clan feel organic, alive, and plausible. By the time you are done reading you feel so much more connected, invested even, than you ever would have had you read the same information from a third-person point of view. The entire chapter is dripping with plot-hooks and a clever GM could easily find enough information to run a campaign.
The first subject covered is the history of the Blazing Dancers. Nozomi Hayakawa, an nearly 80 year old instructor is our first narrator. We’re treated to a longer explanation of the story given in the Corebook of the Odoriko Clan’s Exodus from the land of Exalted Flame. It also tells of the struggles of the clan once it had become part of the Empire and its history up until the Ninja Crusade.
The second narrator, Odoriko Minori, whom you may recall is the iconic Blazing Dancer from the Corebook, covers the Clan’s current state, its position within the Lotus Coalition as well as its views of its allies, and its structure and subfactions.
Jing-Xiang Lao is the third narrator. He serves the clan as a caravan driver. This section details the lands of the Blazing Dancers including the Wu Ji Theatre, the Monastary Town of Kokyuryu and the criminal haven of Kakou. My only complaint about this chapter and the subsequent one are that there are no maps included in the book of the lands and cities discussed. It would have been wonderful to see more in depth maps than those currently available. Still, the locations are otherwise covered in great detail.
The Chapter wraps up with the initiate herself adding her own perspective on the Blazing Dancers providing yet another point of view from which to gauge the Odoriko clan.
Chapter Two: Pierced by Beautiful Needles (pages 29-49)
This chapter focuses on the tattoo-adorned Ninja known as the Virtuous Body Gardeners. It follows the same format as the previous chapter, and my complements and critiques apply equally to this chapter as the last, so I’ll just some up some of the content you can expect to see.
The Chapter begins with Sugiyama Tomo, an Ink deep cover agent and assassin, telling the tale of the formation of the Living Chronicle and how the Virtuous Body Gardeners eventually rebelled against their strict ways and formed their own clan.
Nakajima Kayanwe the Blind Bandit, relates the Clan’s way of life through the parable of Fujiwara, a monster hunter. I found this particular section well written.
The Bridge to Battle province and some interesting locales are given by way of Tanaka (Sake) Sakura, a well-traveled Ink. Some of the more interesting locales are Hiho—the village that was the spark igniting the powderkeg in the Virtuous Body Gardeners separating from the Living Chronicle, the Fields of Endless Fray--a haunted battle-field where the spirits of the dead rise to continue their conflict, and Tengoku Spring, a hot-spring whose magical waters will cleanse wounds, but cannot be removed from the spring or they become impotent.
Sumi Rika, the iconic Ink, gives the details on the Clan’s structure and its feeling and relations with the other clans and the Empire.
Chapter Three: Building Flawless Fires (page 50-79)
If you’re looking for the crunch, this is the chapter you want, and its loaded to the brim with new goodies./
First up is a new passion, Teaching. Characters with the Teaching passion love to share and pass on knowledge and they receive a Bonus XP whenever they pass along knowledge or skills to somebody else.
Next up are new gifts and drawbacks. The new gifts are all clan specific, either for the Blazing Dancers or the Virtuous Body Gardners. They are based on information from the first two chapters, like Warrior’s Dance for the Blazing Dancers, which gives bonuses to Strike, Dodge, and Stamina based on the character’s Performance skill or Horimono for the Virtuous Body Gardeners, which is a tattoo commemorating an important moment in an Ink’s life. It allows them to choose an additional passion. These gifts are excellent and go a long way to adding a bit of roleplaying flavor to your character while adding the oomph they need to succeed in their missions.
Next up are the new weapons. Each weapon requires training in one of the existing weapons classes. The new weapons are Brush Bo (utilized by the Gracious Illustrators discussed later), tonfa, katar, kukri, rope dart, meteor hammer, and war flute (utilized by the Winds of Aion also discussed later).
Two new Fighting Styles are introduced as well, the Fox Style and the Scorpion style. The Fox style is strong in Parry, but weak in Dodge, and has the Mace weapons class. The Scorpion Style is strong in Strike, but weak in Health, and has the Chain weapons class. Each style has several techniques available to its practitioners, some new and some already available from other styles in the Corebook. The best part about this section is that not only does it have a chart of what each level in the Fighting Style gives your character, but it also has a chart that tells what bonuses you should have cumulatively with the Fighting style at a certain level, so there’s no more of the adding up all the columns to get your total bonuses, they are given to you flat out.
The Firebrands also adds a hefty amount of new Wushu. Much of it is for the clan-specific Way of the Immaculate Show and Way of Inked Skin, but there is also much for the Way of Fire including, Flame Sigil, Fiery Flight, and Dragon’s Spirit amongst others. Some of the more fun clan-specific Wushu for the Way of the Immaculate Show include Kicking the Nest, and Blending of Selves. The former allows a ninja to insight a riot while the latter allows a group of ninja to fight together seamlessly pooling their health together in a pool and preventing anyone from dying until that pool runs out. For the Way of Inked Skin Unfolding Events, and Embed Wushu looked particularly interesting. Unfolding Events allows the ninja to tell a story through the movement of their tattoos. Embed Wushu gives the ninja the ability to place a tattoo on the target empowered with a Wushu that the inscriber knows. The recipient can then activate that Wushu at any time up to a week later without having to spend their own Chi.
Three new Fire-aligned Celestial Animals are presented, the Fox, the Phoenix, and the Red Dragon. Each also has an example personality from that animal: Kaminari, The Nine-Tailed Storm (Fox), Motoko, Child of the Sun (Phoenix), Yemon, The Great Guardian (Red Dragon).
The last section of the third Chapter details three new Minor Clans. Each Minor clan has its history, lifestyle, and agenda layed out as well as its own Clan gift and drawback and specific Wushu School exactly like the Major clans were in the Wu Xing Corebook. These new clans are completely playable and seem like wonderful complements to the previously established clans.
Gracious Illustrators: The Kanboku clan. Gifted Artists who can paint the future. Their gifts makes them especially potent, but also the target of assassination attempts and the machinations of other clans. Their Wushu is called Way of 18 Strokes, and it allows them to manipulate their art, bring it to life, become art themselves, and even to bring about an event by painting it!
Grey Tigers: The Mouko clan. Ninjas bonded with Grey Tigers in much the same manner as the Pack of the Black Moon are with their dogs. They protected a pack of strange grey tigers, and when the Recoiling Serpents attacked their village the Tigers protected them, thus sealing their bond. Their Wushu is the Way of Bloody Claws, and it grants them the strength, grace, and even luck of their great cat companions.
Winds of Aion: The Gachingachin clan. Unrivaled Musicians and deadly rivals to the Burning Dancers. The foremost skilled musicians in all the world they used their gifts to shape the course of the Izou Empire, until the Odoriko came along and usurped their place. Now they will stop at nothing the destroy the Dancers and regain their rightful place. Their Wushu is called Way of Deadly Crescendos and its allows them to control sound and even other people through their music.
Adventure: Switching Rhythm (page 80-86)
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that this adventure is tied in with the intro-fiction from the prologue. What an adventure it is too. I’ll go light, so as not to spoil anyone. The adventure involves breaking into a Lord’s castle and freeing a prisoner before their impending execution. Far more than a simple dungeon-crawl, Switching Rhythm has a very good mix of social interaction, stealth, exploration, and combat. The adventure bleeds all sorts of wonderful roleplaying opportunities for the players to enjoy and a few moral quandaries for GMs to present to their players, as well as a few plot hooks for further adventures as well. It’s not overly long, it could probably be completed in one or two three-to-four-hour sessions.
Overall
I expected good things from Wu Xing: The Firebrands based upon Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade and Third Eye Games previous game Apocalypse Prevention Inc. I was not disappointed. I may go so far to say that this is the best release from Third Eye Games that I’ve read yet, surpassing even Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade in quality. The presentation of the information on the Blazing Dancers and the Virtuous Body Gardeners was top notch, and the crunchy mechanical options for the characters really fit in well in the context of each clan.
The Firebrands did have a few problems. The lack of maps of the new areas described was a bit of a bummer. I would really have liked to seen how everything fits together visually. The book did have its share of typos as well. By and large they weren’t too bad, and they didn’t affect your ability to get the meaning of the prose. Third Eye Games has struggled with a lot of typos in previous works I’ve read, and though they are much reduced in this work, they are still present here and there.
Overall, this is an excellent product, and probably the best thing I’ve read from 3EG. If you’re a fan of Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade you owe it to yourself to pick up this book.
Ratings
Style: 5/5. The book has the same layout as Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade. It is very clean with simple decorative borders and evocative, but still easy to read fonts. No strain on the eyes here. The artwork present throughout the book is top-notch, and really sets the mood for the material presented and the setting itself.
Substance: 5/5. I cannot say enough about the content of the book. The amount of information, and more importantly, the style of its presentation, makes The Firebrands an absolute delight to read, and really brought the world of Wu Xing and the Blazing Dancers and Virtuous Body Gardeners to life in a vibrant, believable, and engaging way.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
