[Jocelyn Robitaille]

Originally Posted by C.W.Richeson

Do you see any major difficulty in using Wuxia for other existing settings?

Yes. Although I understand that Studio Mammouth uses the Persona system as their flagship mechanics for all their other RPGs (including Hex, about which I'll be writing a review in a week or two), the system as presented in Wuxia is completely geared towards emulating the chinese martial arts movie genre. In short, that means that could use it for another setting (say regular fantasy), but you'd have to throw away a lot of the system (including almost all of the powers). You'd then have to come up with new powers and manoeuvres and somesuch to fit what you're aiming for. It might be fun for someone who enjoys homeruling heavily, but otherwise I'm guessing you're better off buying a game more tailored to your needs.

Then again, Hex might prove me wrong. We'll just have to see.

Does Wuxia have any rules for magic? I see mention of magic items that can be picked up during character creation, but what about magic using martial artists?

Magic is covered by the powers listed for the "Sorcerer" character type, plus a few listed in the "Monk" character type. If you're wondering what sort of magic you can expect, think A Chinese Ghost Story and its sequels. Examples of most powers provided in the book can be found in those three films, either on the side of good or evil.

Given that you already have other martial arts games, how would you compare Wuxia to them?

I'll go with the two chinese-themed martial arts games I've pursued : Weapons of the Gods and Feng Shui.

It's very different in scope and feel from Weapons of the Gods. Wuxia can emulate movies like Iron Monkey, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or A Chinese Ghost Story quite well. What is doesn't do well is the kind of
movies WotG does best : highly "magical" wuxia flicks like Zu Warriors or Stormriders. Also, there's a whole non-combat side to Weapons of the Gods that is basically absent from Wuxia. In that regard, it is much more combat-focussed than WotG.

It's much closer to Feng Shui, actually. Although Feng Shui tackles the chinese martial arts movie genre differently - and emulates a bunch of other genres all the whille - but aim for genre emulation more than anything else. This said, I think Wuxia equips you much better to emulate the chinese martial arts movie genre than Feng Shui does. Moreover, the powers, manoeuvres and fighting styles presented in Wuxia feel more directly lifted from the movies then Feng Shui's - something I consider a strenght. Apart from that, however, both games have the same tight focus on combat.