Kill The Buddha Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying By Joshua Kubli, Imperfekt Gammes
Kill The Buddha
Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying Joshua Kubli, Imperfekt Gammes
Cover image modified from: Contact the author: Imperfekt Gammes website: Many thanks to the Imperfekt Krue: Kevin-Lynn Kubli, Keith Schneider, Aaron Connor, and Joe Piatt.
"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! "If you meet the patriarchs or the arhats on your way, kill them too ... "Bodhidharma was an old bearded barbarian ... "Nirvana and Bodhi are dead stumps to tie your donkey to. "The sacred teachings are only lists of ghosts, sheets of paper fit for wiping the pus from your boils." -- Linji
"We really shook the pillars of Heaven, didn't we, Wang?" "No horseshit,
Jack."
-- Jack Burton and Wang Chi,
Big Trouble in Little
China.
"It's too bad she won't live! "But in the end, who does?" -- Gaff,
Blade Runner
Table of Contents Datapoint 1.0: A Disciple Reborn..........................1
Datapoint 5.0: A Disciple's Attributes.................40
A Little History Lesson........................................................1 About this Game...................................................................1 Inspirations...........................................................................2 Terminology.........................................................................2 Destiny and the Stars............................................................4 Heavenly Conjunctions........................................................5 Intepreting the Will of Heaven.............................................7 Rebirth of the Disciple.........................................................8 Random Name Tables..........................................................9 Gaining a School Rank.......................................................14 Optional: Non-Disciples.....................................................14 Transcendance....................................................................15 Sample Characters..............................................................16
Attribute Levels and Bonuses............................................40 Attributes............................................................................40 Resources...........................................................................41
Datapoint 2.0: The Journey Begins.....................18 Professions.........................................................................18 Actor...................................................................................18 Bandit.................................................................................19 Bureaucrat..........................................................................19 Cook...................................................................................19 Cop.....................................................................................19 Gambler..............................................................................20 Gangster.............................................................................20 Mercenary...........................................................................20 Mystic.................................................................................20 Physician............................................................................21 Techie.................................................................................21 Thief...................................................................................21 Trader.................................................................................21 Wanderer............................................................................22
Datapoint 6.0: The Way of the Warrior...............42 Athletics.............................................................................42 Cybernetics.........................................................................42 Education............................................................................42 Influence.............................................................................42 Medicine.............................................................................43 Meditation..........................................................................43 Melee Wushu......................................................................43 Notice.................................................................................43 Ranged Wushu...................................................................43 Stealth.................................................................................43 Tech....................................................................................44 Unarmed Wushu.................................................................44
Datapoint 7.0: Armory of Enlightenment............45 Weapons.............................................................................45 Armor.................................................................................47 Trifles.................................................................................47 Legendary Items.................................................................48
Datapoint 8.0: The War for Peace.......................49 Beginning the Fight............................................................49 Combat Actions..................................................................49 Damage and Health............................................................50 War of the Minds................................................................51 War of the Bazaar and the Courts......................................52
Datapoint 3.0: The Temple of Shen Xia..............23
Datapoint 9.0: The Demon Forces Unite.............53
School Levels.....................................................................23 The Brazen Saint, the School of Thunder..........................26 The Drunken Fool, the School of Wastrels........................26 The Ebullient Dragon, the School of Swords.....................27 The Graceful Phoenix, the School of Transition................28 The Heavenly Brazier, the School of Alchemy..................29 The Leaping Tiger, the School of Monks..........................30 The Phantom Wolf, the School of Assassins.....................31 The Resplendent Trigram, the School of Spirits................32 The Rising Wind, the School of Storms.............................33
The Folk of New Hong Kong.............................................53 Dreaded Foes......................................................................56 Creatures.............................................................................59 Creature Powers.................................................................59 Creatures of the Three Realms...........................................61
Datapoint 10.0: New Hong Kong.......................67 The City of New Hong Kong.............................................67 The Canyon of Ten Thousand Hells..................................69 The Temple of Shen Xia....................................................70
Datapoint 4.0: The Path to Enlightenment.........34
Datapoint 11.0: Encounters Along the Journey. .71
The Virtues.........................................................................34 Attachments........................................................................35 Truths.................................................................................37
The Role of Destiny...........................................................71 Creating Encounters...........................................................71 The Buddhas and Destiny..................................................73 Karma and Rebirth.............................................................73
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Datapoint 1.0: A Disciple Reborn New Hong Kong is in trouble. Demon gangs rove the streets. The corporate overlords don't care, and the police are powerless to stop them. Rebuffed and persecuted time and again, the masters of the Temple of Shen Xia have decided to do nothing, to leave this world to its karma. But you've decided to act. It's time to save the city from the scum and bring back the ways of peace and harmony. It's time to kick ass and take names. And even if the Buddha stands in the way, you're going to kill him, and save the world.
A Little History Lesson According to the tales, our ancestors traveled long to reach these lands. The Terran Hegemony, formed after the Fourth World War, turned against itself, and the bombs started flying once again. The Dawn Lotus Group funded an ark-ship, and carried its top shareholders away to find a new world. Most of the 220 colonists were in deep-freeze for most of the trip, but the command crew still fought. Old jealousies from the war surfaced, and new ones arose. Finally, one group was exiled to the barren wastes of the north, while a second voluntatily left, for a mountainous region to the east of the projected landing site. The ark-ship itself, the Kwannon, landed on a coastal region of the beautiful new world they found, and soon, the city of New Hong Kong was built. Their new home was hostile, though, and the only safe places to live were the three new colony centers. New Hong Kong was ostensibly ruled by a city council, but the DLG corporate board holds all the real power. They run the city's reactors and all the utilities, mines for resources, grows the food, and runs the clinics. Most of the city languishes in poverty, while the wealthiest live opulently in pearly skytowers, rising above the heavens. On Mount Meru, the Shen Xia Temple's renegade philosophers and historians lived a calmer, simpler life, cultivating both mind and body in pursuit of peace and enlightenment. From time to time, they sent missionaries to the city, to trade and teach them how to seek enlightenment, but time and time again, they were turned away, or captured and tortured by the corporate overlords. The ways of harmony, it was made clear, were not welcome in their dim, doomed city.
In the wastelands to the north, the exiles built a hellish, anarchic mess they called the City of Travail. The outcasts were unethical scientists, gangsters, political radicals, and madmen. In the complex of lava tunnels they called the Thousand Hells beneath their city, they found evidence of an alien presence on this world long ago. These ancient ones sought enlightenment also, but most had failed the final test, remaining behind in torment. They remained, bodiless, aware ... and hungry for the qi of the living. The demons, and the sorcerors that learned their ways, and renegade Shen Xia students, became the Crimson Gate Triad. The Crimson Gate invaded New Hong Kong's underworld, and now, the city is overrun by evil. Techno-magical horrors stalk the streets, and the idiot bureaucrats are useless to protect the people. The rich cower in their cloud-stroked towers, useless, hiring mercenaries to protect them and sacrificing the peasants to the hunger of the beasts in order to be spared. Officially, the Shen Xia Temple maintains its stance of separation and non-involvement. But many Disciples have decided it's time to return to the city, to help the common folk. The time of waiting is over. It's time to act.
About this Game Kill The Buddha is inspired by Hong Kong action movies, wuxia fantasy films, and to a lesser extent, action and fantasy films of all other varieties. It's a mashup of genres; high-flying gun-toting kung fu in a world with cyborgs and demons and stranger things. A colony far away in space where ancient traditions and modern tech struggle for control. Ultimately, though, the game is based on Taoist and Buddhist beliefs. Characters are Disciples, heroes reincarnated throughout the ages, and it is the will of Heaven that they should champion the common man, warring against evil and bringing enlightenment to a new Middle Kingdom. It's a dramatic science fantasy action game with an Asian flair. There's something here for everybody.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Inspirations
Terminology Attachments: Each Disciple has forces within their mind and body that resist following the Path of Freedom. The Disciple must overcome these Struggles in order to gain Merit and follow the Path. Attribute: One of the five signs of a valuable Disciple. The Attributes that Masters look for in a Disciple are Agility, Cunning, Power, Speed, and Spirit.
Movies A Better Tomorrow (1986) Arahan (2004) Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Blade Runner (1982) Bunraku (2010) Chinese Ghost Story I-III (1987-1991) Equilibrium (2002) Hero (2002) Kung Fu Hustle (2004) Star Wars (1977-2005) The Swordsman II (1992) Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain (2001)
TV Series Avatar: The Legend of Korra (2012)
Novels Journey to the West (Wu Cheng'en) Lord of Light (Roger Zelazny)
Roleplaying Games Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0 (R. Talsorian Games) Feng Shui (Atlas Games) Ninjas and Superspies and Mystic (Palladium Games)
China
Websites Dresden Codak (webcomic, esp. the Hob storyline) Holy Books, sections on Buddhism and Taoism Illuminated Lantern (website about Hong Kong films) Shi Long Pang (webcomic) Wuxiapedia
Bonus: A Bonus reduces the Difficulty of a roll, letting you roll a smaller die type. Conjunction: Matched dice, indicating that the Heavens have made a decision. The Mansions of the skyrule all in the Middle Kingdom. When the constellations come into conjunction, fate becomes clear. When they are not in conjunction, confusion reigns. Constellation: The dice rolled by Destiny, 1 of each side. The Disciples may choose one die from the Constellation to complete their Conjunction, and decide the fate of their action. Contest: When two Disciples face one another, it's not always clear whose destiny will prevail. A Contest is a situation in which two individuals match Attributes or Skills. Outside of a Dramatic Moment, the Disciple with the lowest die will automatically succeed. During a Dramatic Moment, both Disciples roll, and the character with the lowest Match, their destiny prevails. This doesn't mean that they succeed, necessarily, just that the Heavens make clear what their will is for the Contest. For example, Dark Lily rolls Matched 6s in a Contest with Vicious Shen, who rolled Matched 4s; she now rolled Matched 2s. Creature: An alien animal or "demon," robot, or other non-human entity found on New Hong Kong. Just as Disciples have School Levels that grant them Special Techniques, Creatures have Creature Levels that grant them Creature Powers. Destiny: The Game Master, a player who teaches the other players the rules, and works with them to tell a story about their Disciples.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Measurements: • Distance: A Disciple need only concern himself with three measurements of distance: Adjacent, Near, Far, and Very Far. An Adjacent opponent can be struck with fists, feet, and short weapons. A Near opponent can be struck with longer weapons. A Far opponent can only be struck with thrown weapons or bows, and can be reached in one Action. A Very Far opponent is at the limit of weapon range, and can only be reached with two Actions. • Die Type: A die with a specific number of sides. The standard format for die notation is "XdY," which means "roll a number of dice equal to X, each of which has a number of sides equal to Y." A ten-sided die is one die type (called a 1d10), and a six-sided die is another die type (called a 1d6). Dice of different types are commonly combined in one roll, as in "roll 2d6+1d10." If the rules tell you to roll 1d2, roll any die and count odd as 1, even as 2. Modifiers such as Bonuses or Penalties may increase or decrease the die type. Difficulty: How easy or hard a roll is. Easier rolls use lower die types, while harder rolls use larger die types. Disciple: A student at the Shen Xia Temple, that studies the ways of wisdom, peace, and the martial arts. The Disciple is a character that the player will portray in the Journey. Doctrine: Most of the Schools at the Shen Xia Temple dwell more on a few Truths than the others. These Truths are referred to as their School's Doctrine, and Disciples are more knowledgable about the Truths that are part of their Doctrine. Dramatic: An eventful Moment. Destiny declares which Moments are Dramatic and any Disciple can spend 1 Qi to declare a Dramatic Moment. Enlightenment: Enlightenment is many things, and nothing at all. When a Disciple gains enough Merit, they learn new Truths, gain Enlightenment, and approach total Transcendance. Journey: A group of Disciples embark on a Journey together, to fight evil and spread wisdom; their adventures are part of their Journey. In other games, a Journey may be called a "campaign." Kung Fu: Literally, "well done." Westerners believe "kung fu" refers only to the martial arts, but this belief is mistaken; a Disciple may be "kung fu" in any skill or ability. In the game, Disciples collect Kung Fu points for performing difficult feats of skill and daring, defending the weak and the innocent, and defeating the evil and corrupt. Merit: The Disciple's unity with the cosmos and the world around them. Disciples collect Merit points for advancing the cause of the Shen Xia Temple, spreading Enlightenment, and overcoming their Attachments.
Time: For the warrior, there is only the Battle and the Moment. Each Battle is broken up into many discrete Moments. Each Disciple may take two Actions each Moment.
Modifier: A Bonus or Penalty. Path of Freedom: Philosophies, religious beliefs, and spiritual disciplines that free one from the chains of mortality and grant them true, total Enlightenment.
Penalty: A Penalty makes a roll harder, forcing you to roll a larger die type. Qi: The invisible life's-blood of the universe; Qi underlies all that is. Disciples learn to harness Qi through their martial arts prowess to activate Special Techniques, or to use a dice from the Constellation to make a Match. Rebirth: Character creation. Roll: An action may succeed or fail; only the Heavens know for sure. Disciples roll their Attribute die, plus their Skill die, and look for matches. Siddhis: Powers granted by knowledge of Truths. Skills: The essential areas of training of the Disciple. Schools tend to focus on three Skills more than others. Special Technique: An ability gained through training and discipline. Disciples gain Special Techniques from their School and their Professions. Spirit: An intangible soul, that may or may not inhabit a body. All living beings have spirits, but the undead (like hopping vampires) don't. Transcendance: In the final stage of Enlightenment, a Disciple moves beyond space and time. The Disciple is no longer trapped in the cycle of reincarnation, and an "echo" of their former self can assist others on their Journey. Truths: Cosmic knowledge taught and embraced by the masters of the Shen Xia Temple. Enlightenment leads to Truths, which teach one siddhis, which lead to Transcendance.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Wuxia: "Wandering Knight" is one, very poor translation of this term. A traditional Chinese sort of folk here, a wuxia is a hero of the people like Robin Hood, a warrior that uses wushu in the service of justice. The Disciples of Shen Xia live like monks at Mount Meru, but the renegades that leave to protect the citizens embrace the ideals of the wuxia. Some wuxia aren't known for their sterling discipline or virtue, however!
Destiny and the Stars The Jade Emperor rules over the Celestial Bureaucracy, the vast heavenly government. It, in turn, arranges the fates of all mankind, according to their karma. The fates of all beings may be read in the alignment of the stars. Where they align, the will of Heaven is for success, and where they fail to, disaster is sure to result. In this game, players will roll dice to see if it's the Will of Heaven that they succeed or fail.
The Will of Heaven Procedure (1). Destiny will roll one die of each type at the beginning of the battle, and set them aside. This is the Constellation. (2). When a Disciple attempts something difficult, Destiny will declare an Attribute and a Skill that the Disciple needs to roll (sometimes this is two Attributes). If the Disciple is rolling a Focus Skill, they may also roll their School die as well.
Image courtesy Lavoview, Freedigitalphotos.net
(3). The Disciple rolls the indicated Attribute and Skill, and tries to find Matches.
Rare
is
a
World-Honored
ONe, Hard it is to meet him, Perfect in Infinite Merit, Able to save all. Great Teacher of Gods and Men, He has compassion for the world. --
Parable
of
the
Magic
(4). The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to pull a die from the Constellation to form Matches. That die is now gone from the Constellation for the rest of the Battle. (5). The more Matches the Disciple makes, the better they succeed. The more times the Disciple fails, the less likely they will ever succeed.
If the player can make matches among these dice, the Heavens have decided if the Disciple will succeed, and under what circumstances. If there are no matches, the Heavens do not make their will known, and the action falters. If one after another of the stars fails to align, then the Heavens have denied the Disciple's efforts, and a change in tactics is in order. Certain Special Techniques from Professions or Schools may allow them to claim dice in other ways, as well.
city, The Lotus Sutra
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
The Will of Heaven Results Roll
Result
Effects
Four Dice in Match
The Jade Emperor's Favor
Combat Benefit, plus Action cannot fail for rest of Battle
The Houses of Three Dice in Match the Heavens Align Two Dice in Match
Success, Combat Benefit
Approval of the One Time Celestial Success Bureaucracy
Three Matched Dice: The Houses of the Heavens Align Heaven grants you remarkable success. Describe an awesome action or move that your Disciple performs. Furthermore, the Disciple gains a Combat Benefit, or the enemy suffers a Combat Hindrance.
One Failure
The Stars Mis- One Time Aligned Failure
Two Failures
The Anger of the Heavens
Failure, Combat Hindrance
The Mouth of Hell Yawns Wide
Combat Hindrance, Action cannot succeed until circumstances change
Three Failures
Example: Vicious Shen rolls to punch a demon. He rolls Agility Attribute 1d8 + Unarmed Wushu Skill 1d6 + School Rank 1d12 (since this is a School Focus Skill). He rolls a 2 on each of these dice; seeing this, he also sees a 2 on one of the dice in the Constellation, so he spends a point of Qi and pulls that die into his die pool for this action. Since he has 4 Matches, it's apparent that the Heavens smile upon him. He throws a powerful punch at the demon, and in subsequent Moments, his punches continue to rain down on the vile Creature like the life-giving rains.
Heavenly Conjunctions When your roll dice and find matches, consult this section to see what the Heavens have decreed will be the result of your actions.
Four Matched Dice: Dice: The Jade Emperor's Favor
Example: Dark Lily rolls to walk across a narrow ledge to escape a Cyber-Legalist that despises Shen Xia Disciples. She rolls Agility Attribute 1d10 + Athletics Skill 1d6 + School Rank 1d12 (since this is a School Focus Skill). She rolls a 3 on each of these dice. Instead of merely walking across, the player decides that Dark Lily cartwheels across the ledge, with astonishing grace. The player also declares that the Cyber-Legalist suffers a Hindrance, and loses an Action as he goggles at her amazing feat.
Two Matched Dice: Approval of the Celestial Bureaucracy Heaven vouchsafes you success, this once. The action succeeds, but the action may not be destined to succeed again.
This action gains a Combat Benefit. Further attempts at this same action cannot fail until the end of the current Battle. In subsequent rounds, though, you may roll to perform this action to see if The Houses of the Heavens Align.
Example: Li the Mysterious silently follows a bunch of bandits as they return to an abandoned building with their stolen loot. To remain silent and unseen, he rolls Agility Attribute 1d10 + Stealth Skill 1d12. He can't gain a School Rank Die, though, since Stealth isn't a School Focus Skill for him. He rolls a
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying pair of 3s; his action is a success, and he remains undetected, but gains no special benefit from his sneakiness.
Why “The Will of Heaven”? Most games proceed from a thoroughly modern, scientific mindset. When your character tries to achieve something, there is a set chance that you'll either succeed or fail. You roll some dice on what are basically actuarial tables, and blind chance dictates the result. This is a good way to make games. But the ancients believed that everything succeeded, or failed, according to the Will of Heaven. The universe was run by an indifferent Celestial Bureaucracy, that had dominion over everything. Every action is essentially a prayer to the gods for success. You can try to propitiate the gods, but there's no guarantee that they'll be swayed. They have jobs to do, and billions of beings to look after. Wait, you might say. My Disciple is quick and agile! Doesn't that mean that the Will of Heaven is meaningless, and she or he will usually succeed because of her or his innate Attributes? Many young Disciples believe this very thing, but the ancient Masters know better; it is usually the Will of Heaven that you will succeed, and that is why you are strong, or fast, or agile, or skilled with a sword. What this means in game is that Disciples pay close attention to what works and what doesn't. Even if they embrace a more scientific view of the world, the Shen Xia Temple trains them to be adaptable and flexible, ready to change tactics and strategies at a moment's notice to seek victory. What this means in terms of the game's story is dynamic battles. Disciples constantly switch weapons, change battlefields, use words as well as weapons, and probe for an enemy's vulnerabilities. Battles become whirlwinds of action, not staid exchanges of "I roll to hit again. You hit. I miss. Roll again for initiative."
No Matches, One Failure: The Stars Mis-Aligned The Disciple's action fails. Maybe next time it'll succeed, who knows? But for now, at least things didn't go worse.
No Matches, Two Failures: The Anger of the Heavens This action fails, and the enemy gains a Combat Benefit, or the Disciple suffers a Combat Hindrance. The player to this player's right describes how the Disciple fails, and what the game mechanical results are.
No Matches, Two Failures: The Mouth of Hell Yawns Wide The Disciple suffers a Combat Hindrance; the player to this player's left describes the sad failure that results, and chooses the Hindrance. In addition, the action cannot succeed at this specific action for the rest of the Battle; to have a chance for success, the Disciple must try something else. Perhaps the Disciple should try another weapon, or maybe they need to take the fight somewhere else.
Action Difficulty, Bonuses and Penalties The Heavens love a courageous man, but aren't afraid to discipline a fool.
Action Difficulty Virtually Impossible
Action fails unless Disciple uses a Special Technique or Truth Very Difficult Reduce all dice by one type Difficult Reduce one die by one type Average No change to roll. Easy Reduce one die by one type Very Easy Increase all dice by one type Extremely Action automatically succeeds Easy with no Benefit.
Bonuses: A +X Bonus reduces the Difficulty by X Levels. For example, an Average roll with a +1 Bonus becomes Easy, and a Very Difficult roll with a +4 Bonus becomes Very Easy. Penalties: A -X Bonus increases the Difficulty by X Levels. For example, an Average roll with a -1 Penalty becomes Hard, and a Very Easy roll with a -4 Penalty becomes Very Difficult.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Bonuses and Penalties don't alter dice pulled from the Constellation, but they may change Attribute dice, Skill dice, and dice from a Legendary Item's Spirit.
Contests Sometimes, Disciples face opponents in an even competition. Instead of the back-and-forth exchange of hand-to-hand fighting, the two struggle simultaneously, as in a drinking match with an Ogre, or a gambling challenge with a bunch of gangsters. The Disciple and the opponent both make Attribute/Skill rolls. Whoever rolls the higher number of Matches wins. If the two roll the same, the character with the lower Attribute die succeeds. If they're the same, compare Skill dice; and if they're the same, this roll is a draw.
Intepreting the Will of Heaven A big part of the system is tied up with how you interpret Matches, and what exactly the Will of Heaven is. Even when you have an answer, the prophecies aren't always clear. It's really up to Destiny, and the Disciples, to decide what would be the most fun. There are a couple of important concepts to grasp when interpreting the Will of Heaven.
Action Succeeds/Fails for the Rest of the Battle An Action is a sentence with a subject, verb, and direct object. If Heaven's Will is for the Action to succeed for the rest of the Battle, then the Success refers specifically to one object. For this purpose, an unnamed type of opponent can be referred to a single subject. Good Interpretation: Dark Lily slashes at a Gangster with butterfly knives, and the Houses of the Heaven Align. She gains a Combat Benefit. In the next Moment, Lily slashes at Gangster #2 with her knives; Heaven's Will is for her continued success, so she hits him without the need for a roll. When she goes on to fight their boss, the Laughing Bandit Jin Mao, though, she'll need to roll to hit as normal.
Circumstances Must Change So,what is a "circumstance?" It's a combination of the combatants, their Equipment, and their surroundings. Changing targets doesn't really change the circumstances, neither does an ally leaving or entering the Battle.
Good Interpretation: Vicious Shen slashes at a gangster with his Scholar Sword, but fails twice. He misses completely, and he senses that this battle will go poorly for him if he doesn't change his tactics. Shen sheathes his sword and boasts that, even though he's a renowned swordsman, he doesn't even need his blade to lay these ruffians low. The Heavens smile on his bravery, and the battle continues.
Combat Benefits When the Jade Emperor and the Buddhas grant their blessing to the Disciple, when they act in the dharma, their actions are particularly successful. Combat Benefits reflect unusually successful actions that the Disciple performs. There are so many possibilities here, it's hard to know where to even start, but here are some examples. Example Benefits: • Betrayed Intentions. The enemy declares what they will do next Moment; they cannot change their action, and the Disciple may plan accordingly. • Bloody Strike. The Disciple's weapon hits a vital spot, inflicting an additional point of Damage for a number of Rounds equal to the Disciple's School Rank. • Called Strike. The Disciple specifies a body part, and the target suffers a wound there. Even if the target's Protection stops all damage, the target still suffers a wound. • Lightening Fast. If the roll involved an Attack, the Disciple may immediately launch another attack on another target with no penalty. • Satori. The Disciple sees, in the enemy's faults and failings, a poignant metaphor for the universe and the Path. The Disciple may convert 1 Qi to 2 Merit, and if they have enough Merit, may purchase a Truth. • See The Soul's Scars. In a verbal duel, the Disciple gains uncanny insight into their opponent, and learns one of the enemy's Attachments. • Tendon Strike. The strike hampers the opponent, increasing their Power, Agility, or Speed by one die type for the rest of the Battle. • Training Montage. The Disciple suddenly remembers something their master taught them; the Disciple may convert 1 Qi to 2 Kung Fu, as long as they spend it immediately. • Turn the Tables. Enemy suffers a Hindrance (see below). • Unbalancing Strike. The Disciple knocks the enemy to the ground. • Weakness Confirmed. The Disciple learns the target's lowest Attribute, and when the Disciple Takes A Breath, the target suffers a Minor [1] Penalty to the initiative roll.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Describing Actions
•
When the Houses of the Heavens Align, the players get a chance to show off their Disciple's skill in battle, and come up with cool, creative moves.
• •
There's only one really important rule here: Don't be boring. Destiny doesn't accord success to boring wuxia, wuxia, if there even is such a thing. When you describe what you had for lunch yesterday, don't just say, "rice and some tea," and leave it at that. You stole some tea from the governor's palace, and sipped it with his wife while nibbling on almond cookies in his own bed! Or you went to the local tea-house and fought six ruffians, before you drank yourself into unconsciousness! You didn't eat lunch, you meditated standing on one foot on top of a tree, until you attained a measure of peace, long-sought after your entire family were slaughtered by Ravenous Demons!
suffer a -1 Penalty for the remainder of the Battle. Stunned. The Disciple falters or blacks out from pain or exertion. While Stunned, the Disciple is aware but cannot take Actions or speak. This lasts for one Moment. Trips. The Disciple must spend one Action getting back up again, on their turn. Untimely Flashback. Attacks against that Disciple gain a +1 Bonus next Moment.
Rebirth of the Disciple
The life of a Disciple is extraordinary, after all. Go crazy.
Combat Hindrances Disciples may suffer the karma of their past actions, and in failure atone for previous sins. Characters can experience Hindrances, if the persist in actions contrary to the Will of Heaven. Each temporarily penalizes the Disciple, or grants a Combat Benefit to their enemy. As with Benefits, it's impossible to codify all of the possible Hindrances, but here are a few examples. Example Hindrances: • Drops their Weapon. The Disciple must stoop to regain the weapon, and all attacks against them gain +1 Bonus next Moment. • Forgetful. The Disciple forgets an important fact that would aid their argument, suffering a penalty, suffering a Major [1] Penalty to Influence/Spirit rolls. • Gets Distracted. The Disciple loses one Action next Moment. • Own Worst Enemy. Enemy suffers a Benefit (see above). • Reveals their Hidden Intentions. All Deception rolls by that Disciple suffer a -3 Penalty for the remainder of the Battle. • Stumbles Over their Words. The Disciple looks foolish. All Influence rolls by that Disciple
To generate a Disciple: (1). Background. Describe who your character was before they came to the Shen Xia Temple. Were they a cop, an actor, or a noodle shop cook? What were their parents like? Did they have any interesting incidents in childhood? A few details are important to establish the Disciple's personality. Mechanics: Choose a Profession. All Attributes start at 1d10, and the Disciple's Profession reduces the Attribute dice. Record the Profession's Special Technique. (2). Meeting. Describe how you came to the Shen Xia Temple. Did you escape to the Temple to save your life from the Crimson Gate Triad, or did you flee because you were a bad person and wanted to make amends? Mechanics: Choose one Attachment and one of your school's two Truths. If you choose to suffer another Attachment, you may choose an additional Truth; this may be any Truth, not just a Doctrine Truth. (3). School. Describe your time at the Temple of Shen Xia. Did you take to the Mechanics: Choose a School; you start off as a Novice in that school. You gain all Focus Skills for that School at 1d12. (4). Training: Mechanics: Spend 10 Kung Fu. Attributes: 3 points to decrease by a die type. Skills: 1 point to decrease by a die. (5). Equipment. Each Disciple gains 5 Equipment Slots. Weapons and Armor cost 2 slots, and Trifles cost one.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Disciple Point Costs Reduce Attribute die type Reduce Skill die type Purchase 1d12 in new Skill Learn a new Truth
Name Format
-3 Kung Fu -1 Kung Fu -2 Kung Fu -10 Merit;
Roll 1d100 Combination of Terms in Name 01 to 11
(Chinese Word)
12 to 22
(Adjective) + (Chinese)
23 to 33
(Adjective) + (Noun)
34 to 43
(Chinese Word) + 'the' (Adjective).
44 to 53
(Noun) + (Noun)
Random Name Tables
54 to 63
(Chinese Word) + (Chinese Word)
64 to 68
(Adjective) + (Noun) + (Chinese Word)
If you can't think of a name for your Kill The Buddha Disciple, you can roll on the following tables. First, roll 1d100 the Name Format Table, to find out how the name is laid out. Then roll 1d4 to see which table you roll on for each name element. Finally, roll 1d100 to get your name element from the appropriate column on each table. To roll 1d100, pick out two ten-sided dice. Designate one the 'tens' die and roll them. Multiply the 'tens' die by ten, and add them. Treat a roll of '00' as'100.'
69 to 73
(Noun) + (Noun) + (Chinese Word)
74 to 78
(Chinese Word) + (Chinese Word) + (Chinese Word)
79 to 83
(Noun) + (Chinese Word) + (Chinese Word)
84 to 95
(Noun)
96 to 00
(Adjective) + (Chinese) (Chinese) + 'the' (Noun)
-8 Merit for a School's two Doctrine Truths
Page 9
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Random Name Terms (Roll 1 on 1d4) Roll 1d100
Chinese Word
Adjective
Noun
01 to 03
A
Pretentious
Dawn
04 to 06
An
Dreaded
Stream
07 to 09
Ba
Foolish
Valley
10 to 11
Bak
Ancient
Star
12 to 14
Bao
Bright-Eyed
Dullard
15 to 17
Bei
Drunken
Mist
18 to 20
Bo
Unrighteous
Mountain
21 to 22
Bu
Peaceful
Wind
23 to 25
Cao
Fiery
Hammer
26 to 28
Chan
Lucky
Snake
29 to 31
Chen
Obstinate
Fire
32 to 33
Chin
Worthless
Ox
34 to 36
Chu
Lazy
Storm
37 to 39
Chun
Laughing
Eye
40 to 42
Chung
Explosive
Tiger
43 to 44
Ci
Youthful
Cat
45 to 47
Da
Black
Duck
48 to 50
De
Skilled
Cook
51 to 53
Dao
Unlucky
Bear
54 to 55
Do
Pious
Orphan
56 to 58
En
Cold-Blooded
Bat
59 to 61
Er
Crimson
Fox
62 to 64
Fa
Lustful
Drunkard
65 to 66
Fan
Stone
Peasant
67 to 69
Fen
Golden
Rabbit
70 to 72
Fao
Aggressive
Rat
73 to 75
Ga
Blasphemous
Dog
76 to 77
Gai
Humble
Wolf
78 to 80
Gan
Hard-Working
Scholar
81 to 83
Gao
Poison-Tongued
Whirlwind
84 to 86
Ger
Jade
Jade
87 to 88
Hai
Beautiful/Handsome
Sun
89 to 91
Han
Marble
Autumn
92 to 94
Hei
First/Only/One
Nomad
95 to 97
Ho
Second
Sword
98 to 100
Hu
Third
Sky
Page 10
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Random Name Terms (Roll 2 on 1d4) Roll 1d100
Chinese Word
Adjective
Noun
01 to 03
Hun
Victorious
Dragon
04 to 06
Hung
Bright
Spear
07 to 09
Ja
Dark
Spring
10 to 11
Ji
Virtuous
Ax
12 to 14
Jiao
Mighty
Lion
15 to 17
Jo
Skilled
Pig
18 to 20
Jun
Sickly
Summer
21 to 22
Ka
Golden-Tongued
Winter
23 to 25
Kan
Big
Brother/Sister
26 to 28
Kao
Small
Eagle
29 to 31
Ki
Scrawny
Spirit
32 to 33
Kia
Husky
Fist
34 to 36
Kiao
Crafty
Shadow
37 to 39
King
Thieving
River
40 to 42
Kun
Wise
Snow
43 to 44
Kung
Doomed
Rain
45 to 47
Kwan
Chosen
Bison/Bull
48 to 50
La
Creative
Horse
51 to 53
Lar
Twisted
Falcon
54 to 55
Li
Flying
Goat
56 to 58
Lo
Carefree
Hawk
59 to 61
Mai
Gracious
Gem
62 to 64
Mao
Worrying
Diamond
65 to 66
Men
Flattering
Jewel
67 to 69
Mi
Silk
Poppy
70 to 72
Na
Rich
Flower
73 to 75
Nai
Ragged
Lotus
76 to 77
Ni
Tough
Lily
78 to 80
Nan
Poor
Forest
81 to 83
Nu
Thoughtful
Hummingbird
84 to 86
Oe
Cunning
Nightingale
87 to 88
On
Large
Raven
89 to 91
Ong
Tiny
Water
92 to 94
Ou
Needy
Demon
95 to 97
Po
Shining
Philosopher
98 to 100
Qen
Serene
Mouse
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Random Name Terms (Roll 3 on 1d4) Roll 1d100
Chinese Word
Adjective
Noun
01 to 03
Qi
Placid
Carp
04 to 06
Qia
Roaring
Lizard
07 to 09
Qiao
Disheveled
Pond
10 to 11
Sai
Secretive
Gambler
12 to 14
Sao
Lecherous
Qi-Lin
15 to 17
Shai
Pale
Phoenix
18 to 20
Shei
Hardy
Monkey
21 to 22
Shan
Wicked
Willow
23 to 25
Shi
Confusing
Swan
26 to 28
Shia
Befuddled
Sapphire
29 to 31
Shiao
Grieving
Warrior
32 to 33
Shin
Exalted
Sorcerer
34 to 36
Shou
Thoughtless
Priest
37 to 39
Shun
Vengeful
Vagabond
40 to 42
Si
Broken
Sand
43 to 44
Tai
Hidden
Light
45 to 47
Tei
Silver
Twilight
48 to 50
Chao
Bronze
Lantern
51 to 53
Then
Copper
Lover
54 to 55
Tia
Iron
Dancer
56 to 58
Tiao
Obsidian
Cloud
59 to 61
Tong
Mercurial
Moon
62 to 64
Tsao
Singing
Swordsman
65 to 66
Tzu
Sinister
Archer
67 to 69
Wa
Trustworthy
Arrow
70 to 72
Wang
Upright
Wall
73 to 75
Wen
Clumsy
Leopard
76 to 77
Wi
Blind
Cobra
78 to 80
Wing
Deaf
Waif
81 to 83
Wu
Mute
Champion
84 to 86
Xi
One-Arm
Shark
87 to 88
Xia
One-Hand
Silkworm
89 to 91
Xiao
One-Leg
Fish
92 to 94
Xian
One-Eye
Bird
95 to 97
Yen
Mysterious
Peacock
98 to 100
Yang
Crippled
Mongoose
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Random Name Terms (Roll 4 on 1d4) Roll 1d100
Chinese Word
Adjective
Noun
01 to 03
Yuo
Bloody
Boar
04 to 06
Yi
Dusty
Trader
07 to 09
Yia
Filthy
Haggler
10 to 11
Yiao
Good-Hearted
Pirate
12 to 14
Yin
Obsessive
Praying Mantis
15 to 17
Ying
Faithful
Bandit
18 to 20
Yun
Crazed
Pillar
21 to 22
Yung
Sweet
Prince
23 to 25
Za
Bitter
Knight
26 to 28
Zang
Lost
Frog
29 to 31
Zen
Noble
Toad
32 to 33
Zeng
Wandering
Dragonfly
34 to 36
Zi
Light-Hearted
Wasp
37 to 39
Zia
Exacting
Lake
40 to 42
Ziao
Accomplished
Bell
43 to 44
Zu
Notorious
Tower
45 to 47
Zun
Decadent
Reed
48 to 50
Zung
Flowing
Pagoda
51 to 53
Erh
Studious
Swallow
54 to 55
Te
Ferocious
Owl
56 to 58
Yu
Grim
Spider
59 to 61
Kou
Brilliant
Evening
62 to 64
Tsong
Dazzling
Night
65 to 66
Qu
Sharp-Tongued
Song
67 to 69
Ang
Burning
Scroll
70 to 72
Ao
Focused
Torch
73 to 75
Ai
Wary
Knife
76 to 77
Tha
Complaining
Beggar
78 to 80
Chuang
Golden
Outcast
81 to 83
Buo
Foreign
Artist
84 to 86
Ku
Talented
Engineer
87 to 88
La
Hellish
Smith
89 to 91
Len
Celestial
Sage
92 to 94
Lang
Kindly
Rogue
95 to 97
Gar
Cold-Hearted
Shield
98 to 100
Luo
Poisonous
Beauty
Page 13
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Rebellion Buddhism, wuxia stories, and cyberpunk might seem like a strange combination, but they have much in common. Many cyberpunk futures posit a world where Asian countries take over the world, drawing on the economic world events of the '80s when cyberpunk began, but that's not all. Cyberpunk is about a soiled, disposable future, where human augmentation is cheap, corporations rule the world, and heroes are rogues and rebels against a stifling social order. Punk demands spontaneity and honesty and calls “bullshit” on consumerism, pretension, celebrities, and fads. Wuxia stories are also about rebellion against a terrible social order. Again and again China was conquered by outsiders, or mis-ruled from within. Chinese tradition holds that the destined rulers hold the “Mandate of Heaven,” but unjust rulers cannot stand against righteous freedom fighters. It's the duty of the just to stand against the unjust. Buddhism goes even farther, rejecting materialism, ego, and physical lusts, in its quest for ultimate liberation. This rejection is often visualized as a true battle, against actual demons; in the context of this game, Disciples often battle spirits devoted to these negative emotions. So, if Buddhists are pacifists, how can they rebel? The classic film “36th Chamber of Shaolin” addresses this issue. The common people lack the spiritual advancement to withstand injustice with equanimity. Without peace and freedom, they cannot seek the Way of Enlightenment. The masters of the Temple of Shen Xia are content to meditate. They say that Disciples that rebel are no better than the egotistical Brazen Saint, or the vile and heretical Crimson Gate School. But this world sucks. sucks. And things are not getting better. better. Isn't it a failure of compassion to do just sit on our asses and do nothing? It's time to act! act!
Gaining a School Rank To gain a Rank in one's School, the Disciple must reduce one of their School Attributes by one die, reduce one of their School Skills by one die, and must learn one Truth.
Optional: NonDisciples Kill The Buddha assumes that you're playing a Disciple of the Shen Xia Temple, but that isn't necessarily the case. Disciples travel with other heroes, maybe not as skilled or virtuous, but kick-ass warriors nonetheless.
The Courageous The Courageous are ordinary women and men with no special martial arts training, but brave (or dumb) enough to follow and aid Disciples in their Journey. Many believe in Shen Xia and wish to earn a better rebirth, but some just want to set the world right, or talk the powerful Disciples into serving their own goals. (1). Background. Mechanics: Choose a Profession. Record the starting Attributes and the Profession's Special Technique. (2). Meeting. Mechanics: Choose one Attachment. The Courageous doesn't have or gain Merit for game mechanical purposes, and therefore cannot learn Truths. When the Courageous fails to serve their Attachment, they lose Kung Fu, not Merit. (3). Courage. Mechanics: Instead of a School Rank, the Courageous have a Courage Rank that serves a similar purpose. The Courageous' Courage Rank starts at 1d12. It costs 15 Kung Fu to decrease one's Courage Rank die type. In addition, choose four Personal Focus Skills; these Focus Skills gain the benefit from the Courageous' Courage Rank just like a Disciple's School Focus Skills gain a benefit from the Disciple's School Rank die, and start at 1d12. (4). Training: Mechanics: Spend 15 Kung Fu on Attributes and Skills. (5). Equipment. Each Disciple gains 7 Equipment Slots. Weapons and Armor cost 2 slots, and Trifles cost one. Be aware that their additional Attribute Levels, Skills, and Gear make the Courageous roughly as powerful as a starting Disciple. However, they lack a School's Special Techniques, and cannot learn Truths, so they will fall farther and farther behind as the Journey continues.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Creatures Creatures are nonhuman characters, who gain special powers because of their form and origin isntead of learning martial arts techniques. Creatures may be alien spirit creatures native to New Hong Kong, cybernetic constructs, or new lifeforms created by the Dawn Lotus Group's genetic engineering. Most are bad news, but some come to appreciate the Shen Xia Temple's teachings. (1). Background. Mechanics: Creatures don't choose a Profession. All Attributes start at 1d10; the Creature may divide 12 Kung Fu to decrease the die type for an Attribute. Creatures may also increase an Attribute's die type to 1d12 for +3 Kung Fu. (2). Meeting. Mechanics: Choose one Attachment. The Creature doesn't start off knowing any Truths, but may gain Merit and learn Truths later on. (3). Creature Powers. Mechanics: Instead of a School Rank, the Creature has a Creature Rank that serves a similar purpose. The Creature's Creature Rank starts at 1d12. It costs 15 Kung Fu to decrease one's Creature Rank die type. The Creature gains three Creature Powers. Each time the Creature decreases their Creature Rank Die, they learn an additional Creature Power. Robots and spirits usually have the Unliving Power. Spirits usually have the Phantom Power as well. Fox and monkey spirits occasionally join up with Disciples, and they have the Shapeshifting Power. In addition, choose four Personal Focus Skills; these Focus Skills gain the benefit from the Creature Rank just like a Disciple's School
Focus Skills gain a benefit from the Disciple's School Rank die, and start at 1d12. (4). Training: Mechanics: Spend 10 Kung Fu. Attributes: 3 points to decrease by a die type. Skills: 1 point to decrease by a die. Additional Creature Powers: 3 points. (5). Equipment. Each Creature gains 2 Equipment Slots. Weapons and Armor cost 2 slots, and Trifles cost one.
Transcendance When a Disciple learns Ten Truths, they know enough to figure out all of the others on their own. They transcend the physical plane of existence, and no longer take an active part in the Journey, for their personal Journey is complete. The Disciple's body disappears, and their soul moves beyond space and time. An echo of what the Disciple once was remains behind, and from time to time, a mirror-like image of the Disciple may appear to their former companions, urging them towards Enlightenment. If a Disciple gains Enlightenment, the Disciples that they Journeyed with all gain 1d6 Merit. The player may design a new Disciple; they begin play at School Rank 1 (unless Destiny says otherwise), but they know one additional Truth, for free.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Sample Characters Dark Lily
Li the Mysterious
Raised among the skytowers of New Hong Kong, Lily's family have ancient ties to the Phantom Wolf style. When her studies faltered, Lily was sent to learn the way of the ancient demon-hunters, to help rid the city of evil. Her manners and grace are impeccable, but she's bitter for all that she's lost.
Li the Mysterious wandered the forests outside the Shen Xia School with his brothers, communing with the spirits and learning their ways. He's learned that there's a great imbalance in the spirit world recently, and he seeks to rectify it. His brothers worry, though, over his curiosity about the secrets of dark magic, concerned that he might fall prey to the same forces that created the demons.
Dark Lily
Li the Mysterious
Profession Bureaucrat. Attachments Wealth. Truths All Minds Are One Mind. Attributes • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. • Cunning: (1d6) [+4]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d8) [+3]. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2]. Resources • Health: 5. • Kung Fu: 0. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Makeup, Short Bow with Retractable Oprtion, Sunglasses.
School Rank Novice of the Phantom Wolf (1d12). Special Techniques • Pull Strings (Bureaucrat). • Qi Sense (Shen Xia). • Shadow Strike (Phantom Wolf). Skills (+Focus) + Athletics: (1d12) [+1]. • Cybernetics: (—) [+0]. • Education: (1d12) [+1]. • Influence: (1d12) [+1]. • Medicine: (1d12) [+1]. • Meditation: (—) [+0]. • Melee Wushu: (—) [+0]. + Notice: (1d12) [+1]. + Ranged Wushu: (1d8) [+2]. + Stealth: (1d8) [+2]. • Tech: (—) [+0]. • Unarmed Wushu: (—) [+0].
Profession Mystic. Attachments Secrets. Truths Time Is An Illusion. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d8) [+3]. • Spirit: (1d4) [+5]. Resources • Health: 4. • Kung Fu: —. • Merit: —. • Qi: 7. Equipment Flashlight, Rations, Rope, Scholar Sword.
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School Rank Novice of the Resplendent Trigram (1d12). Special Techniques • Divination (Mystic). • Qi Sense (Shen Xia). • Sense Spirits (Resplendent Trigram). Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—) [+0]. • Cybernetics: (—) [+0]. + Education: (1d8) [+3]. • Influence: (—) [+0]. + Medicine: (1d8) [+3]. + Meditation: (1d8) [+3]. • Melee Wushu: (1d12) [+1]. + Notice: (1d12) [+1]. • Ranged Wushu: (—) [+0]. • Stealth: (1d12) [+1]. • Tech: (—) [+0]. • Unarmed Wushu: (—) [+0].
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Unsteady Tien Mai
Vicious Shen
Tien Mai was a bastard, raised in the slums of New Hong Kong and fending for himself from an early age. Tien Mai is a middle-aged brother of the school now, and loves wine, women, song, and a good fight far more than tales of virtue, but the extra chores he's earned with his raucous behavior have made him strong.
Shen was a cop, until the incident. His partner was killed, and Shen took it out on the wrong people. Fleeing from the city to the Temple, he's learned to control his temper a little, but at times, he still remembers seeing his friend in a pool of cooling crimson, and hasn't forgotten his vows to see that justice is served.
Unsteady Tien Mai
Vicious Shen
Profession Wanderer. Attachments Foolishness. Truths The World Always Changes. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d8) [+3]. • Power: (1d12) [+1]. • Speed: (1d8) [+3]. • Spirit: (1d8) [+3]. Resources • Health: 4. • Kung Fu: 0. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Rice Wine (5).
School Rank Novice of the Drunken Fool (1d12). Special Techniques • Jack of all Trades (Wanderer). • Qi Sense (Shen Xia). • Rolling Stance (Drunken Fool). Skills (*Focus) + Athletics: (1d6) [+4]. • Cybernetics: (—) [+0]. • Education: (—) [+0]. + Influence: (1d12) [+1]. • Medicine: (—) [+0]. • Meditation: (—) [+0]. • Melee Wushu: (1d10) [+2]. + Notice: (1d12) [+1]. • Ranged Wushu: (1d12) [+1]. • Stealth: (—) [+0]. • Tech: (—) [+0]. + Unarmed Wushu: (1d8) [+3].
Profession Cop. Attachments Vengeance. Truths Life Is Suffering. Attributes • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2]. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2]. Resources • Health: 6. • Kung Fu: 0. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 5. Equipment Handcuffs, Bulletproof Vest, Semi-Automatic Pistol.
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School Rank Novice of the Ebullient Dragon (1d12). Special Techniques • Authority (Cop). • Qi Sense (Shen Xia). • Sundering Strike (Shen Xia). Skills (*Focus) + Athletics: (1d12) [+0]. • Cybernetics: (—) [+0]. • Education: (—) [+0]. • Influence: (1d12) [+1]. • Medicine: (—) [+0]. • Meditation: (—) [+0]. + Melee Wushu: (1d12) [+1]. • Notice: (—) [+0]. + Ranged Wushu: (1d6) [+4]. • Stealth: (—) [+0]. • Tech: (1d12) [+1]. + Unarmed Wushu: (1d6) [+4].
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Datapoint 2.0: The Journey Begins Professions All Attributes start out at Average (1d10) [+2]. The Disciple's Profession provides a permanent Bonus or Penalty to two or more Attributes. New Backgrounds will mean new Special Techniques, so think carefully about what you want your new Background to do, and make sure it isn't too powerful, or too boring.
Actor You've been in a number of big budget holovids, won some awards. Your doting fans never forgot you, but as hectic as that life was, you never thought you'd be living one of your action movies!
Attributes +1Cunning, +1 Spirit.
Special Technique: Impersonation Image courtesy Freeimageslive.co.uk
Disciples come to the Temple of the Shen Xia from a variety of families and former careers. Some come to the Temple in youth, and their Background is a memory of their family profession. Some come later in life, driven by a need to retreat from the world, or to learn to fight.
Impersonation. The Disciple may treat Influence as a Focus Skill when using it to look and act like someone else. If successful with this roll, the Disciple gains +1 Qi.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Professions Profession
Attribute
Special Techniques
Actor
+1 Cunning, +1 Spirit Impersonation
Bandit
+1 Power, +1 Speed
game, and so on. But not this Disciple. You can live off of the land forever without needing to make a single roll. It's a life devoid of comfort, but it's better than the alternative.
Survival
Bureaucrat
Bureaucrat +2 Cunning
Pull Strings
Cook
+1 Agility, +1 Spirit
Nutrition
Cop
+1 Agility, +1 Power
Authority
Gambler
+1 Agility, +1 Cunning Lucky Stars
Gangster
+1 Agility, +2 Power, -1 Cunning
Tough Enough
Mercenary
+1 Agility, +2 Power, -1 Spirit
Gun Crazy
Mystic
+2 Spirit
Divination
Physician
+2 Cunning
Paramedic
Techie
+1 Agility, +2 Cunning, -1 Power
Jury Rig
Thief
+1 Agility, +1 Speed
Larceny
Trader
+2 Cunning, +1 Spirit, Best Bargain -1 Power
Wanderer
+1 Cunning, +1 Speed, +1 Spirit, -1 Power
Your family, part of the Dawn Lotus Group, helps run New Hong Kong. Now you're here in the filthy streets, away from your heavenly home among the skytowers, because of business of disgrace.
Attributes +2 die types to Cunning.
Special Technique: Pull Strings Pull Strings. The Disciple may treat Influence as a Focus Skill when using it on someone with power in the city's government. If successful with this roll, the Disciple gains +1 Qi.
Cook
Jack of All Trades
Bandit
No matter how bad things get, people still have to eat. And you hear things, cooking food for people. If no one else is going to lift a finger, then the noodle shop man will pack up his knives and go take care of things himself!
Attributes
Exiled to the lands outside New Hong Kong for trumped-up crimes, you live off the land, and steal what little you need. You steal from corporates, pilgrims, anyone that looks like they have plenty. Sometimes you give a little back to the dirty peasant farmers trapped out here for you, but some you keep for yourself. Some bandits like you develop a taste for murder and pillaging, but that's not you. At least, not anymore.
+1 die type to Agility and Spirit.
Special Technique: Nutrition Authority. You know the value of good nutrition, and the effect that certain spices can have on the flow of Qi. Once per Encounter, you can cook a meal that restores 2 Qi to all of your fellow Disciples. In addition, any cooking implement, like chopsticks or a frying pan, have a minimum Accuracy of 1d6 for you.
Attributes
Cop
+1 die type to Power and Speed.
Special Technique: Survival Survival. Most people need to make Education/Cunning rolls to know what berries and mushrooms are safe to eat, Notice/Cunning rolls to know where is safe to build a shelter, Tech/Agility rolls to builda shelter, Stealth/Agility rolls to hunt for
Once, you helped keep peace and order in New Hong Kong, but those days are long since past. The streets just keep getting uglier and dirtier; but now, you've got some extra skills and help to clean things up.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Attributes
Mercenary
+1 die type to Agility and Power.
Special Technique: Authority Authority. The Disciple may treat Influence as a Focus Skill when using it to intimidate a suspect. If successful with this roll, the Disciple gains +1 Qi.
Killing people isn't easy work, but toting a gun and making the blood flow is your trade. Despite your grim profession, you have a shred of your soul left, and the Crimson Gate Triad is too dirty and corrupt for you to ignore.
Attributes
Gambler
+1 die type to Agility, +2 die types to Power, -1 die type to Spirit.
You're fast and smart and know how to play the odds. People with power always hate someone that always wins, though, but that's okay. Your new life as a Disciple has taught you the larger game, and the greater stakes.
Attributes
Special Technique: Gun Crazy Gun Crazy. The Disciple may treat Ranged Wushu as a Focus Skill when using it to wield guns. When the Mercenary uses an Autofire weapon and makes 3 attacks in a single Moment, they get an additional Attack.
+1 die type to Agility and Cunning.
Special Technique: Lucky Stars Lucky Stars. Once per Encounter, when the Gambler spends 1 Qi to pull a die from the Constellation, the die is returned to the Constellation afterward.
Gangster The Triads and Tongs always provide well for their loyal members, but you just couldn't serve when the Crimson Gate took over. Now, they hunt you as a traitor, and you hunt them right back.
Attributes +1 die type to Agility, +2 die types to Power, -1 die type to Cunning.
Right Livelihood More than a few people come to the Temple of Shen Xia after lives of crime, sin, and death. Gamblers, mercenaries, thieves, bandits, and the like can learn to clear their minds of guilt and shame, and find peace and truth in the teachings of Shen Xia. But they still hold talents and skills from their old life. The old masters believe that it's the karma of their old lives, their regrets and failings, that cause many Disciples rebel against the masters, and leave the temple to stand against the Crimson Gate Triad. But many of these Disciples argue that for all their weaknesses, it's their compassion for the suffering of the common folk that leads them back into the world, a most noble goal.
Special Technique: Tough Enough Tough Enough. The Gangster gains an additional 3 Health. When the Gangster drops a Dreaded Foe, they gain +1 Qi.
Mystic You know the meridians of the body, the houses of the sky, and the names of the immortals. What you don't know is how the Middle Kingdom got so screwed up! But it's time to kick ass and restore balance, and you're up to the challenge.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Attributes
Techie
+2 die type to Spirit.
Special Technique: Divination Divination. You can see the future, and prepare for it ahead of time. Once per Encounter, you may spend 1 Qi and declare some preparation that the Disciple made, retroactively. For example, the Mystic may have foreseen to carry an extra cell phone, knowing that they were destined to lose one, or they may have hidden a shotgun behind a dumpster in a sleazy alley for one of their companions to use.
Shiny gadgets, computers, electronics, and machines are your province. While you embrace the wonders of the modern world, you aren't blind to its horrors, or the greatness of ancient ways, either.
Attributes +1 die type to Agility, +2 die types to Cunning, -1 die type to Power.
Special Technique: Jury Rig Jury Rig. If any machine in the Techie's presence suffers a malfunction, the Techie can restore it to working order by spending an Action and 1 Qi. Alternatively, the Techie may add +2 to a weapon's Damage, an Armor's protection, or modify a Trifle in some useful way. When the Techie is done with the item, it's broken.
Thief You're a professional burglar, and nothing is safe from you for long. You know how to get past defenses and get the valuables before anyone even knows you're present.
Image courtesy Kyauw, Photovaco.com.
Attributes
Physician
+2 die types to Agility.
It was the gunshot wounds that were the worst. Your little clinic in New Hong Kong cared for the sick and injured, but when the Crimson Gate Triad moved in, they knew one brand of persuasion. You needed a break from the bloodshed, so you went to the Temple of Shen Xia; but even now, you know your patients still need you.
Special Technique: Larceny Larceny. The Disciple may treat Tech as a School Focus Skill for the purposes of opening locks. Once per Encounter, when the Thief spends 1 Qi to pull a die from the Constellation for the Stealth Skill, the die is returned to the Constellation afterward.
Attributes
Trader
+2 die types to Cunning.
Special Technique: Paramedic Paramedic. You can roll Medicine/Cunning to restore Health in 3 Moments, instead of 1 hour. In addition, your experience with sharp medical instruments like scalpels means that once per Encounter you may spend 1 Qi to inflict +2 Precise damage with knives.
People accuse you of greed, but New Hong Kong would grind to a halt without trade. But now it's difficult to make a living, with the Crimson Gate Triad's soldiers taking whatever they want, and giving back nothing. Aya! The only answer is the sword!
Attributes +2 die types to Cunning, +1 die type to Spirit, -1 die type to Power.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Special Technique: Best Bargain
Attributes
Best Bargain. The Disciple may treat Influence as a School Focus Skill when using it to strike a deal. The Trader also gains 2 more Equipment slots.
Wanderer
+1 die type to Cunning, +1 die type to Speed and Spirit, -1 die type to Power.
Special Technique: Jack of all Trades Jack of all Trades. Once per Encounter, the Disciple may treat any non-Focus Skill as a School Focus Skill.
The grimy streets of New Hong Kong are your home, and you know how to survive under the harsh glare of neon. When the Crimson Gate Triad began taking over the city's underworld, you knew, and sought out help from the Shen Xia Temple.
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Datapoint 3.0: The Temple of Shen Xia School Levels All Disciples start off as mere Novices. To gain in School Level, the Disciple must reduce one of their Attributes by one die, reduce one of their School Focus Skills by one die, and learn one Truth.
School Special Techniques
I mage courtesy Rodrigo, Freeimageslive.co.uk
Located in the mist-shrouded mountains, the Temple of Shen Xia taught many forms of wushu, and took in refugees from every prefecture and province. People of all walks of life lived, learned, and fought here, as sisters and brothers, only leaving to wander the land, bringing peace and justice with them. Many different paths are represented at Mount Meru. The ascetic Leaping Tiger School and the warrior Ebullient Dragon School, the spiritual Resplendent Trigram School and the wine-soaked Drunken Fool School. The one thing that all the schools have in common is a commitment to a search for enlightenment. There was once another school, too; the Crimson Gate School focused on healing and control of the body. Their arts took a dark and evil turn, and they were exiled to the canyon of Ten Thousand Hells; they became the root of the Crimson Gate Triad. The attempt to save New Hong Kong from the Crimson Gate Trias is an attempt to redeem Shen Xia from its own sins.
Rank
Die
Special Technique
Grand Master
1d4
Immortality
Master
1d6
Iron Shirt
Favored Pupil
1d8
Dark Sight
Student
1d10
Leap of the Winds
Novice
1d12
Qi Sense
Grand Master (1d4) Immortality. The Disciple cannot be affected in any way by diseases, poisons, or old age. The Grand Master still needs to breathe, and can die of injuries.
Master (1d6) Iron Shirt. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to gain +3 Armor for the rest of the Battle. The benefit is reduced to +1 Armor if the Disciple wears physical Armor.
Favored Pupil (1d8) Dark Sight. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to negate all penalties from darkness or mist for the rest of the Battle.
Student (1d10) Leap of the Winds. By spending 1 Qi, the Disciple may reach a Very Far opponent with one Action, for the rest of the Battle.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Novice (1d12) Qi Sense. The Disciple can detect any use of Qi, including School Techniques, up to several li away. The Novice can sense living beings, and tell whether they're humans or animals.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Schools Profession Brazen Saint
Drunken Fool
Ebullient Dragon
Graceful Phoenix
Heavenly Brazier
Leaping Tiger
Phantom Wolf
Resplendent Trigram
Rising Wind
Doctrines
Attributes Focus Skills
Life is Suffering, Time is an Illusion
Athletics, +1 Influence, Rapid Cunning Notice, Ranged Reload and Speed Wushu
Athletics, Time is an Influence, Illusion, The +1 Agility Notice, Wheel and Speed Unarmed Always Turns Wushu
Novice
Rolling Stance
Student
Favored Pupil
Master
Grandmaster
Gun Fu
Lead Rain
Bullet Time
Blood Opera
Tipsy
Here's to Poison Clumsy your Immunity Grace Health
Fist
Athletics, All Minds are Melee Wushu, Storm of Whirlwind Blazing One Mind, +1 Power Sundering Sweeping Ranged Wushu, Arrows of DesSword Ripples in and Speed Strike Strike Unarmed Denied truction Energy the Pond Wushu Death is an +1 Agility Illusion, the and World Always Cunning Changes
Athletics, Influence, Sun In Myriad Melee Wushu, Their Eyes Rays Unarmed Wushu
UnSkies Celestial stoppable Filled with Spirit Glory Ashes Burns All
Everything is Education, +1 Spirit, the Medicine, Minor Cunning World Always Ranged Wushu, Artificer and Spirit Changes Tech
Mystic Studied PyroCraftsman mancer
Athletics, Death is an Meditation, Rapid +1 Power Illusion, Life Melee Wushu, and Spirit Strike is Suffering Unarmed Wushu
Disciplined Body
Ten Red Sand Thunders Palm Kick
Diamond Soul
Ripples in Athletics, the Pond, the +1 Agility Demon Notice, Ranged Wheel and Speed Sense Wushu, Stealth Always Turns
Shadow Strike
DemonSlaying Strike
Phantom Form
Death is an Education, Illusion, +1 Speed Medicine, Everything Is and Spirit Meditation, Spirit Notice
Exorcist's Touch
Prayer of Summon BanishSpirits ment
Spirit Gate
Dark Winds and Darker Rain
Anger of the Heavens
Spirit Sense
All Minds are Athletics, One Mind, +1 Agility Sense the Gust of Meditation, the Wheel and Power Winds Wind Notice, Stealth Always Turns
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Forge of the Gods
Unerring Accuracy
Shield of the Tempest
Golden Flower Elixir
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
The Brazen Saint, the School of Thunder About twenty years ago, a prominent Master left the Shen Xia Temple, founding his own school in New Hong Kong's Starport District. His school embraced firearms as tools of wushu, and his students helped clean up the city, for a time. Eventually, the Cyber-Legalists destroyed the temple and drove his students into hiding. A few of the Brazen Saint students went to work for local neighborhood triads brotherhoods, keeping their homes and businesses safe, while a few others fled to Shen Xia. The masters of the Temple disapprove of the style, and discourage its spread and use, but the School of Thunder claims that its founder was Enlightened. They say he achieved Nirvana in the final battle against the combat cyborgs, disappearing in a slowmotion halo of bullets as he sacrificed his life for a hostage.
Appearance The students of the Brazen Saint prefer regular, modern clothing, such as casual business wear, although they wear simpler clothing at the temple itself.
Doctrines It costs only 8 Merit for the Brazen Saints to learn that Death and Time are both Illusions.
Attribute Bonuses
addition, if doing Crushing, Fast, or Precise Damage with a firearm, the Disciple may use their Spirit Modifier instead of the normal damage Attribute Modifier. Student (1d10): Gun Fu. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to add the Dual Fire Quality to a Revolver or Semi-Automatic Pistol. When rolling to Intimidate while armed with a firearm, the Disciple may pull 2 dice from the Constellation for 1 Qi. Novice (1d12): Rapid Reload. It doesn't take an Action to reload any weapon with the Shots Quality. In addition, when armed with a firearm, the Disciple can make one free Melee attack with the firearm against any Adjacent opponent once per Moment.
Multiple Schools The wushu Schools at the Shen Xia Temple are all united in the study of Enlightenment, and allegiance to the masters of the Temple. Nonetheless, they're all distinctly different, and most Disciples never study multiple styles. That said, it does happen occasionally. It costs 15 Kung Fu to learn the first Special Technique of a new School, and each subsequent Special Technique. The Disciple's School Rank doesn't increase, though, and the Disciple can't learn more Special Techniques in their second School than they know in their first School. Each additional School costs +5 Kung Fu per Special Technique. So a third School's first Special Technique would cost 20 Kung Fu, and the fourth would cost 25 Kung Fu. If Destiny allows players to play Creatures, they may join a School by treating it as a second school, and the same goes for the Courageous.
+1 die type to Cunning and Speed.
Focus Skills Athletics, Influence, Notice, Ranged Wushu.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Blood Opera. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to add the Decapitation Quality to any firearm. In addition, the Disciple may choose to do Magic damage with Firearms, and may Block an enemy's bullets with their own. Master (1d6): Bullet Time. The Disciple may take 3 Actions in a Moment, if those Actions are to Attack, Dodge, and Shoot. When rolling to Dodge Ranged Attacks, the Disciple may pull 2 dice from the Constellation for 1 Qi. Favored Pupil (1d8): Lead Rain. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi; any firearms they currently hold don't run out of shots until the end of the battle. In
The Drunken Fool, the School of Wastrels The masters of Mount Meru, sometimes austere and single-minded, are faintly embarrassed by the Drunken Fool School. The Drunken Fool style bends all the rules of the Shen Xia Temple almost to the breaking point, but there are no Disciples more loyal to the Temple or the Journey.
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Appearance Drunken Fools are the most slovenly of all Schools. They typically wear brown, rough-spun robes, almost always stained with spilled wine.
Doctrines It costs only 8 Merit for the Drunken Fools to learn that Time Is An Illusion and that the Wheel Always Turns.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Agility and Speed.
Focus Skills Athletics, Influence, Notice, Unarmed Wushu.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Clumsy Grace. The Drunken Fool may spend 2 Qi to apply their Evade Defense against either Crushing or Precise Attacks. In addition, if the Wastrel takes a Dodge Action, they may Dodge any number of incoming attacks. Master (1d6): Poison Immunity. The Disciple cannot be harmed by poison of any kind. The Disciple also permanently gains 3 Health. Favored Pupil (1d8): Here's To Your Health. Each time the Wastrel imbibes an alcoholic drink, they gain 1d4 Health. It takes 1 Action to take a drink, and a wine bottle has 1d4+4 drinks in it (depending on how much the Wastrel spills as they gulp it down). Student (1d10): Tipsy Fist. The Wastrel never suffers any penalties due to drunkenness; instead, when inebriated their Power, Speed, and Agility are all reduced by one die type, and they inflict +2 Damage with Unarmed Wushu attacks. Novice (1d12): Rolling Stance. If the Drunken Fool has had an alcoholic drink in the last hour, and they're rendered prone, they instantly return to their feet. In addition, if the Wastrel takes a Dodge Action, they may Dodge two attacks, not just one.
Strange Ways The Temple of Shen Xia usually advocates selfcontrol and restraint. How did the Drunken Fool style come to be taught there? Most of the philosophy and wushu styles of Shen Xia have their roots in Buddhism, but the Drunken Fool is based firmly in Taoism. Most teachings of Shen Xia seek liberation from the meaningless rituals of the world, but the Drunken Fool openly mocks them. The Wastrels use wine to open the mind, and then forge the body to withstand punishment and obey, even when filled with strong drink. The other Disciples, especially the Leaping Tigers, sometimes look Schools like the Drunken Fools with self-righteous disdain. The Drunken Fools don't care. They lurch unevenly towards enlightenment in their own way, laughing raucously as they go.
The Ebullient Dragon, the School of Swords The Ebullient Dragon swordmasters are renowned for their skill and courage throughout New Hong Kong. Of all the schools at the Shen Xia Temple, the Ebullient Dragon is the most warlike, intense, and focused, but the masters are well aware that meditation, not the sword, brings peace.
Image courtesy CGTextures.com.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Appearance The Ebullient Dragons dress for war. Their robes cover their entire bodies, tightly wrapped at forearms and lower legs, and they typically fight with special soft-soled sandals. Their robes are designed to be comfortable to wear under most armor, as the Ebullient Dragons are generally considered to be Temple's first line of defense if it were ever attacked.
An
and
hesitating brings
Focus Skills
it
vigorously!
careless
pilgrim
scatters
the
his
Wushu,
only
dust
passions
A of
more
widely. -- The
Grand Master (1d4): Blazing Sword Energy. The Master may spend 2 Qi to make an Agility/Ranged Wushu Attack roll with a sword, and inflict Magic damage against every target in a line, out to Very Far Range. Master (1d6): Furious Assault. Ebullient Dragons fight with furious energy, that wears out the strongest opponents. The Ebullient Dragon may spend 1 Qi and one Action; each enemy that they attack, or that attacks them, loses 2 Qi. In addition, the Ebullient Dragon can make Fast or Precise Sweeping Strikes as well. Favored Pupil (1d8): The Storm of Arrows, Denied. The Master can spend 1 Qi and one Action; no Ranged Wushu Attack can harm the Master during that Moment. A dozen archers hold no terrors for the Ebullient Dragon Master. Student (1d10): Sweeping Strike. The Student can make one Crushing Attack roll with any Melee Wushu, that applies equally to all Adjacent enemies. Novice (1d12): Sundering Strike. When the Disciple inflicts damage on an armored opponent with a Precise Attack, they may reduce any of that Armor's Protection ratings by 1.
great
let a man do it, let him
+1 die type to Power and Speed.
Techniques
no
Is anything is to be done, attack
Ranged
obed-
reward.
Attribute Bonuses
Wushu,
per-
ience to discipline, all this
It costs only 8 Merit for the Ebullient Dragons to learn that All Minds Are One Mind and about the Ripples In The Pond.
carelessly
formed, a broken vow,
Doctrines
Athletics, Melee Unarmed Wushu.
act
Downward
Course,
the Dhammapada
The Graceful Phoenix, the School of Transition When the School of Shen Xia sent out missionaries among the common folk, they taught some basic fighting arts as well. One nun of the School stayed among the peasants, and developed her own fighting style, designed to help the women of farms and villages defend themselves and their communities. The Graceful Phoenix School eventually returned to Shen Xia, where they pass on their uniquely tricky style of combat. Many Phoenixes strongly support the battle against the Crimson Gate Triad, not for the sake of bloodshed, but in defense of the common people. Note: The Graceful Phoenix School only admits women. Males may learn the style, of course, but they would be unsanctioned students, taught away from the Shen Xia Temple.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Appearance The Graceful Phoenixes change their appearance on a semi-regular basis. One week, they may work with the peasants in the fields, the next, they may dress as tea shop girls, and the next, as haughty corporates. They learn what life is like for everyone, and not to judge others.
Doctrines It costs only 8 Merit for the Graceful Phoenix to learn that Death is an Illusion and the World Always Changes.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Agility and Cunning.
Focus Skills
The Heavenly Brazier, the School of Alchemy The Heavenly Brazier School teaches that the universe is constantly refining and transforming itself. Animals evolve, minerals are refined in the crucible of nature, and souls return to the universe that generated them. The Alchemists look to heavens and earth, to human bodies and inanimate chemicals, to learn how to transform themselves into Buddhas through enlightened practice. An outsider might imagine they're mad scientists, but these Alchemists are focused students of nature, who see analogies for spiritual realities everywhere in the mortal world.
Appearance
Athletics, Influence, Melee Wushu, Unarmed Wushu.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Celestial Spirit Burns All. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to transform any Improvised Weapon into a Legendary Weapon with 1d6 Spirit until the end of the Battle. Master (1d6): Skies Filled With Ashes. When an enemy rolls a successful Attack against the Disciple, the Phoenix may spend a number of Qi equal to a target's Cunning Modifier to redirect their attack so that it hits one of the attacker's allies, or something else handy. If this isn't possible, the Phoenix gains +2 to all Defenses against the attack. Favored Pupil (1d8): Unstoppable Glory. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to add any Weapon Quality to an Improvised Weapon. The Accuracy for all Kick Attacks is reduced to 1d6. Student (1d10): Myriad Rays. The Accuracy of all Improvised Weapons is reduced by one for this Disciple. Any Unarmed Attack that follows a successful Influence Attack against that same target gains +2 to all Damage Types. Novice (1d12): Sun In Their Eyes. For 1 Qi, the Phoenix may replace any die in an Unarmed Wushu attack, or in a Melee Wushu Attack with Improvised weapons, with the Disciple's Influence die. The Accuracy for Kick Attacks is improved to 1d8.
The Heavenly Braziers wear dark robes that more closely resemble a scholar's than a priest's. The main difference is the many pouches at their belt, and their tightly-bound sleeves. After all, it won't do for long sleeves to knock over vials of explosive chemicals in the lab.
Doctrines It costs only 8 Merit for the Heavenly Braziers to learn that Everything Is Spirit and that the World Always Changes.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Agility and Cunning.
Image courtesy Saw Htoo, Photovaco.com.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Focus Skills
Rare Techniques
Education, Medicine, Ranged Wushu, Tech.
Techniques Each Potion costs the Alchemist 1 Qi, which they may not regain until the potion has been consumed, used, or spilled. Grand Master (1d4): Golden Flower Elixir. The Grand Master is not only Immortal, but can permanently sacrifice 1 Qi to grant someone else Immortality as well. Nations have been lost in wars over the Golden Blossom Elixir. Master (1d6): Forge of the Gods. The Alchemist can take ordinary Items and make them into Items of Quality. The item has ten uses before the magic that powers it lapses and the item breaks; however, the Alchemist may spend 3 Qi to permanently enchant the item. One item may be enchanted per adventure. Favored Pupil (1d8): Mystic Pyromancer. The Favored Pupil formulates a potion that burns on contact with the air, doing Magic damage. The potion can be hurled at an opponent, using Agility/Ranged Wushu to hit. Student (1d10): Studied Craftsman. The Student formulates a potion that grants a -2 die type Bonus to the target's Power, at a cost of +1 die type to their Speed, for the duration of the Battle. In addition, the Disciple may Intimidation rolls against inanimate objects; roll Power/Influence, and if successful, the item either ceases to function, or a broken item begins functioning, for one Moment. Novice (1d12): Minor Artificer. The Novice can formulate a healing potion, which restores 1d6 Health to the imbiber. In addition, the Disciple may substitute Spirit for Speed when rolling initiative.
The Leaping Tiger, the School of Monks
Every School has a certain set of techniques that are commonly taught, but there are lost styles and secret moves that Disciples can learn as well. Disciples can learn Rare Techniques from ancient masters and coveted kung fu manuals. Disciples travel far and wide, facing all kinds of grueling hardships and difficult tests, to proved themselves worthy of learning a Rare Technique. Each Rare Technique has a minimum School Rank to learn, and may have other prerequisites as well. Disciples must pay 5 Kung Fu to learn a Rare Technique.
Sword Riding Method.
Requirements: 10 Kung Fu, School Rank Master, Spirit 1d6. The Disciple can spend an Action and 1 Qi to throw any melee weapon into the air, and then jump on top, riding it through the air like a surfboard. For the rest of the Battle, the Disciple can travel to any enemy out to Far Range without taking an Action. In addition, once per Battle, the Disciple can return a die to the Constellation after pulling it for a Dodge Action. To learn the Sword Riding Method, Disciples must travel to tiny Peacock Feather Village, southwest of New Hong Kong. They must appeal to Grand Master Feng Lai, a blind and surly old woman, who's very hard to impress.
Lei Kung Palm.
The oldest school at Shen Xia, the Leaping Tigers balance ascetic practices with martial arts training. The Leaping Tigers are fierce in everything they do; they meditate for days at a time, fight until they're broken, and ruthlessly exterminate delusions of the mind with riddles and debates. Half of the Grand Masters of the Temple have been Leaping Tigers, and besides the Ebullient Dragons, they are the greatest fighters the Temple has to offer.
Requirements: 10 Kung Fu, Student of the Rising Wind or Favored Pupil of any other School, Agility 1d6. The Disciple can spend 2 Qi to summon a bolt of lightening. The lightening can hit any target out to Very Far Range and inflicts Magic damage with a +2 Bonus. To learn the Lei Kung Palm, Disciples must find Master Iron Desert, currently imprisoned in the Ten Thousand Hells.
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Appearance Stern traditionalists, the Leaping Tigers wear the traditional Shaolin kung fu uniform: red-orange robes with one sleeve, with wrapped lower legs. Men and women of the school both shave their heads.
Doctrine It costs only 8 Merit for the Leaping Tigers to learn that Death Is An Illusion and that Life Is Suffering.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Power and Spirit.
Focus Skills Athletics, Meditation, Melee Wushu, Unarmed Wushu.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Diamond Soul. The Monk is impervious to mental and social attacks, including all uses of the Influence Skill. Such attempts simply fail; any rolls to influence the Disciple become Matched 12s. Master (1d6): Red Sand Palm. The Disciple sees the hidden flaws of all "solid" objects. When the Disciple strikes any object other than an Item of Legend, it is utterly destroyed. If the object is larger than the Disciple's body, they merely punch a hole in the object. The Disciple inflicts +2 Crushing damage with punches. Favored Pupil (1d8): Ten Thunders Kick. When the Disciple takes a Leap Action and then a Kick Action, they inflict an additional amount of damage equal to their Speed Modifier. Student (1d10): Disciplined Body. The Disciple can never be knocked prone against their will. Even if falling from a great height, the Disciple will land on their feet. The Disciple can sleep standing up, on tiptoe on the edge of a pole, if they wish. In addition, the Disciple inflicts an additional +2 Damage with Unarmed attacks, and an additional +1 per School Rank after this one. Novice (1d12): Rapid Strike. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to add the Autofire Quality to their Unarmed Wushu attacks.
The Phantom Wolf, the School of Assassins The Phantom Wolf School was founded shortly after the Leaping Tiger School, and is the most outward-focused School at Shen Xia. They focus on hunting down demons impersonating mortals, and ending their threat with assassination, if necessary. Some claim that the Phantom Wolves have long meddled in New Hong Kong politics, attempting to prevent anything like the current crisis, with the Crimson Gate Triad gaining power. If asked, the Phantom Wolves shrug wordlessly, for they know the power of silence is greater than the power of misheard words.
Appearance The Phantom Wolves dress simple in the Temple, in robes like those of the Leaping Tiger, but deepest black. Outside the Temple, the Phantom Wolves typically wear the clothes of peasant traders or pilgrims, the better to blend in and be forgotten.
Doctrine It costs only 8 Merit for the Phantom Wolves to learn about the Ripples In The Pond and that the Wheel Always Turns.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Agility and Speed.
Focus Skills Athletics, Notice, Ranged Wushu, Stealth.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Phantom Form. The Phantom Wolf can spend 1 Qi to gain the Phantom Form Creature Power for 1 Moment. Master (1d6): Unerring Accuracy. The Phantom Wolf can spend 1 Qi and 1 Action to take aim. Their next attack unerringly hits without the need for a roll, as if the Disciple rolled 2 dice in a Match. The only way to avoid the Attack is for the target to take a Dodge Action and roll three Matches, or for a Master or Grand Master to use The Storm of Arrows, Denied. Favored Pupil (1d8): Demon-Slaying Strike. The Phantom Wolf may add their Spirit Modifier to the Damage on any Dark Creature of the Underworld.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Student (1d10): Shadow Strike. When attacking an unaware opponent, the Phantom Wolf inflicts an additional amount of damage equal to their Cunning Modifier. The Phantom Wolf can always harm a Phantom Creature, even if they're intangible. Novice (1d12): Demon Sense. Phantom Wolves can sense when demons are nearby. Any time a demon or undead is within a few li of the Phantom Wolf, they know. The sense grows stronger with proximity, but the Wolf can't know if a specific person is possessed by a Creature, or is a shapeshifted Creature. The Phantom Wolf also inflicts +1 Damage with Precise Attacks.
The Resplendent Trigram, the School of Spirits Wandering the countryside and teaching the people, the Resplendent Trigram priests are exorcists, healers, and diviners. Beloved of the common people, the Trigram Disciples help defend the people from demons and unwelcome spirits.
Appearance The priests of the Trigram wear scholar's robes, typically festooned with dozens of amulets, wards, carved bones, and mystical symbols, any of which may be an efficacious spirit word, an enchanted reservoir for Qi, or a simple decoration to reassure superstitious, ignorant peasants.
Doctrine It costs only 8 Merit for the Resplendent Trigram to learn that Death Is An Illusion and that Everything Is Spirit.
Attribute Bonuses
A Rich Tapestry of Beliefs In the West, religious systems and philosophical systems are usually pretty distinct from one another. The practitioners of each like pointing out differences in belief systems, often taking pride in their way's distinctiveness. This is less the case in the East. Buddhism arose from Hinduism, but retained many of its terms and trappings. When Bodhidharma carried it to China, it was compared with Taoism, and the two ways shared with one another again. And Taoism is hard to separate from Confucianism, which is linked with Mohism and Legalism. Buddhism gave rise to Chan, the predecessor of Zen. Sure, each of these ways politicked against the others, called each other names, even fought. But they formed a deep, rich intertwined religious and philosophical complex. In the far future of Kill the Buddha these beliefs mutate further; much of what was past is forgotten, while what is remembered is treasured and expanded upon. What doesn't change is the role of belief systems as cultural practices, or as tools for enlightenment. As the line in the perennial classic says, ”Chinese religion is all mixed up. Look what we have to work with: Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese black magic ... we take what we want and leave the rest, just like a salad bar.”
+1 Level to Speed and Spirit.
Focus Skills Education, Medicine, Meditation, Notice.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): Spirit Gate. The Disciple can spend 1 Qi to open a gateway into the Spirit world. The Gateway is big enough to ride a cart through, and remains for 1d4 +(Spirit Modifier) Moments. The Gateway leads to any forested location the Grand Master has been before, up to several hundred li away. In addition, the Shaman may spend 1 Qi to extend Exorcist's Touch to any allies.
Master (1d6): Summon Spirits. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to summon a Nature Spirit, that appears Adjacent to them. The Nature Spirit obeys the Disciple's verbal commands, and remains until the end of the Battle. Favored Pupil (1d8): Prayer of Banishment. The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to intone a prayer to the Jade Emperor. The Disciple causes Magic damage to all spirit or undead entities in Far radius. These prayers may be inscribed on talismans, which cause 1 damage per Moment to any spiritual or undead entity in Near Range. If the talisman touches an undead creature, and its Creature Level die is higher than the Disciple's School Level die, the Creature is Stunned until the talisman is removed.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Student (1d10): Exorcist's Touch. The Shaman may spend 1 Qi to strike spirits in Phantom form with their fists and feet as if the spirits were in material form, for the duration of a Battle. When this Special Technique is active, the Shaman's touch even injures the soul of the living, inflicting an additional +2 Damage. Novice (1d12): Spirit Sense. The Disciple may sense the presence and emotional state of any invisible or intangible spirits in the area. The Disciple is instantly aware, if they focus on a person, if they're possessed or shapeshifted Creature. When fighting spirits, the Disciple may inflict Magic damage with Unarmed Wushu attacks.
The Rising Wind, the School of Storms Founded by mountain hermits, the Rising Wind School grew from their meditations on the power of sky and storm. Some say that a priest found the Emperor's ancient prayers for rain and ran away to contemplate them from the heights, but most see the wild hair and wilder eyes of the Rising Winds and cannot imagine a composed priest in their lineage.
Non-Disciple Martial Artists Lots of people other than Disciples learn the martial arts. The wushu styles of Shen Xia are closely tied to the Path of Enlightenment, but just as the Crimson Gate School left the Temple, so too brothers and sisters sometimes leave the Temple and go teach fighting styles to the lay people. These styles resemble the ways of Shen Xia, but they generally lack the incredible discipline that ascetic meditation bring the Disciples. As such, while there are civilians that may have very low Wushu Skill dice, and might even have a Courage die, they still don't have the kinds of Special Abilities that Disciples do.
Doctrine It costs only 8 Merit for the Rising Wind to learn that All Minds Are One Mind and that the Wheel Always Turns.
Attribute Bonuses +1 die type to Agility and Power.
Focus Skills Athletics, Meditation, Notice, Stealth.
Techniques Grand Master (1d4): The Anger of the Heavens. The Disciple can spend 1 Qi to inflict Magic damage on up to (Spirit Modifier) targets, Adjacent to one another, within Far Range. It takes 2 Actions to summon the Anger of the Heavens, but the storm lasts as long as the Disciple spends 1 Action per Moment to maintain it. Master (1d6): Shield of the Tempest. The Master can spend 1 Qi and one Action; no Distance Attack can harm the Master during that Moment. If the Disciple spends 2 Qi and 2 Actions, no non-Magic attack of any kind can hurt the Disciple. Favored Pupil (1d8): Dark Mists and Darker Rain. The Disciple can spend 1 Qi to cause a powerful mist to rise; all Stealth rolls suffer a -3 Penalty, and anyone attempting to run or leap must make an Agility/Athletics roll or fall down. Student (1d10): Gust of Wind. The Storm Warrior may spend 1 Qi to inflict Magic damage on an enemy at up to Far Range. Novice (1d12): Sense the Winds. The Storm Warrior can sense movements in the air. The winds will warn the Disciple of anyone approaching, and even the faintest sound will wake the Disciple from a sound sleep.
Appearance The hermits of the Rising Wind dress warmly, in padded robes with leggings. They climb the mountain peaks behind the Temple of Shen Xia, and grow their hair long, ragged, and wild.
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Datapoint 4.0: The Path to Enlightenment The Virtues The Temple of Shen Xia teaches the Way of Accumulating Merit, derived from the ancient beliefs of Buddhism and Taoism of old Terra. The Way espouses the Virtues of Compassion, Emptiness, Generosity, and Peace. Only by following the Virtues, may one may gain Merit.
Compassion The sorrow of one is the sorrow of all, the masters say, and the joy of one is the joy of all. Benefit: Gain 1 Merit when you help another person, to your own detriment. Image courtesy Public-domain-photos.com
Emptiness
Each Disciple follows the Path to Enlightenment, as chosen by their School. The Path leads one to see through the illusion of difference; all beings are the same, partake of the same essence. There is only the Self, which is No Self.
Everyone likes to feel important, more important than everyone else. But everyone enters life the same way, and everyone leaves the same. Benefit: Gain 1 Merit when you resist acclaim, letting your actions speak for themselves.
Generosity The true Disciple gives to those in need, worrying about them as much as about themselves. Benefit: Gain 1 Merit when you don't take more than you need, and strives to use less.
Peace The world is in turmoil because of ignorance. By understanding the way of things, and accepting others the way that they are, the Disciple learns not to judge. Benefit: Gain 1 Merit when you are patient, and seek a non-violent solution to problems.
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Attachments
Lost Sutras Lost sutras are scriptures of the Buddhist faith that expound on the nature of Enlightenment, and the hidden powers of the universe. Some sutras are lost because their teachings are heretical, against the standard teachings of the Shen Xia order. Some are confusing, so the Masters ordered them hidden, to avoid leading impressionable young Disciples astray. And some are written by hermits, far away from the Temple itself.
Attention
Each Lost Sutra has a die rating, from 1d4 to 1d20. Anyone that finds and reads a Lost Sutra from start to finish gains a one-time, permanent Merit bonus equal to the die rating of the sutra. Most Lost Sutras are books of wood pulp or rice paper, but they can be anything. The Sutra of the Unfolding Dream is said to be circulating New Hong Kong on a heavilyencrypted computer disk, while the Perfect Vajra Sutra is tattooed on the back of a tea shop girl in the Starport District. Sutras are highly sought after by demons and followers of the Path of Delusion, because they're a quicker, easier way to Enlightenment than meditating and practicing austerities.
The path to enlightenment is paved with strife and danger. As a Disciple walks the path, they are faced again and again with their personal failings and faults. Each Disciple has their own unique struggles. Each Struggle grants the Disciple a special bonus if they give in, but it's very hard to indulge an Attachment without losing Merit.
When people are looking at you raptly, you feel real at last. When they're looking elsewhere, talking about someone else, you feel adrift in the void, alone and helpless. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when someone recognizes you for your great deeds. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you spend lots of time and effort to seek peoples' attention.
Competition You're the strongest, the best, and all too ready to beat down anyone who doubts you. A pity you still doubt yourself. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you best an opponent in an unnecessary battle. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you challenge an unworthy opponent to competition.
Family They raised you, gave you rice cakes and cartoons and sent you to school, and you know owe them everything. Never mind that your hard work got you this far, and you must fight to be yourself. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you assist your family in an important way. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you neglect other duties to dote on your kin.
Foolishness Life is strange and silly! Let's ignore the hatred and hopelessness, and just laugh for awhile! Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you make people laugh; gain 2 Qi if you're a member of the Drunken Fool School. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you make jokes instead of helping.
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Oathbound
Romance
You swore to accomplish something or fulfill some quest, and nothing will stop you. Maybe you took an oath to serve and protect some corporate flunky, or to deliver a message to someone long lost, but your oath is lasting and binding. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you make progress on your quest. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you're unable to pursue your oath for more than 24 hours.
Order You like it when there are nice clear laws in place, and everyone follows the rules. Without rules, where would we be? Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you force others to follow the rules, even pointless ones. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when subordinates rebel against the laws you lay down or point out.
You seek the truth of your existence in the eyes of someone else. The looking is fun, but you've yet to find the one, just other lost seekers. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you find comfort in someone else's arms. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when a pointless, shallow relationship falls apart and feelings are hurt.
Secrets So many things to know, things that others hoard in the darkness. It takes time to winnow out the secrets, but sometimes there's a nugget, a gem ; all too rarely. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you discover an important secret, that aids you in your Journey. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when a secret takes great effort to find, but doesn't help you at all.
Thrills
Pedagogy They're all wrong! You'll teach them! Whether they want to learn or not! Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you impart valuable knowledge to others. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when your instruction isn't helpful to the audience.
Perfection
You love to feel the blood pumping through your veins when you pull off some daring feat! Sometimes, though, it ends up pumping out of your veins ... Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you risk your life, for any reason. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you suffer greatly for the sake of a little adrenaline.
Vanity
They say that nothing beneath the Heavens is perfect, but have they tried? They say that your obsession is ridiculous, but you'll show them. Any day now. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you strive to make something perfect; some rules, some craft, some relationship. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you fail in an obvious way to achieve perfection.
Looks aren't everything, you say, but you're a liar. You don't want to be thought of as shallow, but you can't help feeling every moment is better when you look gorgeous. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you look your best, and others notice. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when are seen at your worst, and feel shame and horror at yourself.
Vengeance
Regret Your home is in the past, among the broken loves and the hurtful words. Bitter, but you're chained to this place, and you just keep returning, to explore that old pain. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you are reminded, or remind yourself, of your failures. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when you wallow in self-pity and remorse when there are valuable things to do now.
Something broke deep inside you when you saw your loved one, lying punctured, in pieces. You'll live on until you can return the favor, but you doubt you'll ever be whole again. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you hurt someone that hurt you or a loved one. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when your attempts at vengeance fail, or when you punish the wrong person.
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Wealth
Death Is an Illusion
The wealthy rise above, to live in the skytowers, or even just to sit on makeshift thrones in the dingy warehouses below. In your idle moments, you wonder how many you've stepped on to get this far; but most of the time, you don't care. Benefit: Gain 2 Qi when you earn a large amount of money. Drawback: Lose 3 Merit when others suffer so you may prosper.
Truths As one follows the Path to Enlightenment, they collect Truths. Truths provide siddhis, spiritual powers, far beyond the power of mere fighting. Truths are tied to the hidden nature of reality. Traditions, teachings, wushu training, and the like help one survive and gain followers and teach, but they don't provide Truth. When a Disciple gains 10 Merit, they learn a new Truth. Truths offer a wide variety of benefits, and if the player can think of new uses for a Truth, Destiny is encouraged to allow it, and assign appropriate game mechanics to that use. Other Truths are possible as well, beyond the ones listed here. A master cannot lose their knowledge of Truths, even when they lose Merit. However, using Truths to commit sins is an even graver crime than just using one's hands and mind. Any loss of Merit caused by misues of Truths is doubled.
All Minds Are One Mind Each of us percieves ourselves as single, individual, unconnected to others; but if you fully embrace the Virtue of Compassion, you know that all thoughts are one substance, one drop from the same sea. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Know what the enemy wants most, or what they plan to do next, or to know when they are lying. • Reduce the Difficulty of one Influence roll by one. • Communicate with another mind, no matter how far away, until the end of the current Battle. • Become immune to the Influence Skill for the duration of the current Battle.
Death holds no terrors for the enlightened, for the body is just a tool. The Disciple understands the usefulness of the tool, and is ready to move on to their next life, but only when the duties of the current life have been fulfilled. Benefit: The Disciple may spend 3 Qi to: • Remember something helpful from a past life, reducing all Difficulties for one Skill by 1 until the end of the current Battle, or gaining access to one Profession Special Technique. • Ignore one lethal wound, or prevent one object from being destroyed. • Communicate with the spirit of a recentlydeceased, to provide counsel on their way to the next life, or to get information while they still remember their days among the living. • If the Disciple sacrifices their life for another, the next Disciple that the player creates gains another 2 points of Kung Fu per Truth that the Disciple knows.
Everything Is Spirit Everything in the universe has a spirit, all of them linked together into one great spiritual whole. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Befriend the spirit of an item, temporarilty making it a Legendary Item with 1d10 Spirit, and a Quality of the Disciple's choice, until the end of the current Battle. • The Disciple can befriend an enemy's weapon, causing all Difficulties to increase by 2 until the end of the Battle. • The Disciple can speak with the spirit of an item, plant, or creature to see what it sensed in the past, or find out what happened in a specific spot. Techies may spend 1 less Qi to use this Truth on technological items. Alchemists that know this Truth may permanently enchant a piece of Equipment by spending 3 Qi.
Life is Suffering Existence leads inexorably to pain, but the root of all existence, the causeless cause, knows only bliss. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Ignore the effects of one injury, no matter how severe, until the end of the current Battle. • Spend 3 Qi to restore (Power Modifier + Spirit Modifier) Health to yourself or another person. • Reduce one's die for Power, Agility, or Speed by one die type until the end of the Battle. This Bonus may be used multiple times, and the bonus stacks.
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until the end of the Battle, and has half the Health and Qi of the original.
Ascetic Vows Masters of the Shen Xia Temple are expected to embrace vows of celibacy, vegetarianism, and poverty. They also vow not to touch dead bodies, or to shed blood. Anyone of lesser Rank isn't required to take these vows, however, and more than a new members of the Temple leave and follow their own Journey, doing as they feel right. As long as these Disciples still follow the path of the Truths, and don't turn aside to pursue Delusions, they're still welcome to visit the Temple from time to time, and are considered lay sisters and brothers. As an optional rule, Destiny may allow Disciples to take these vows on before they're required. For each of these vows that the Disciple follows assiduously, they gain +1 to their maximum Qi. Each time the Disciple violates these vows, however, they lose 2 Qi.
• • • •
Treat one Power, Agility, or Speed Roll as if it rolled Matched 6s, with no roll needed. Restore a number of Health equal to twice the number of Truths the Disciple knows. Ignore physical needs, like air, hunger, thirst, and sleep, for a number of weeks equal to the number of Truths one knows. Gain any one Creature Power.
Ripples In The Pond A simple action in one place can have profound actions everywhere else. A single brush stroke, performed with mindfulness, can topple a mighty empire. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Substitute any Attribute/Skill combination you want for any other Attribute/Skill combination. For example, you could roll Cunning/Spirit to paint a picture that strikes at the enemy's soul, as if you shouted at them with Power/Influence. • Strike one opponent, and, if successful, deal equal damage to every opponent in Very Far range. • Strike an opponent with an Unarmed Wushu Attack, even though they may be up to Far Distance away. • Suddenly appear somewhere else, up to several li away. • Create a duplicate of oneself. The duplicate lasts
A Trader that truly grasps how their trades cause Ripples In The Pond can help both their customers and themselves better, and all their companions on their Journey gain one additional Equipment Slot.
Time Is An Illusion Cities rise and fall, wealth and power accumulate and disperse, but all this is an illusion, a swirling of mist and dust. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Temporarily gain the Mystic's ability to peer into the future, without yarrow stalks or coins. • Act before yout Initiative roll, taking your turn before someone else, or take next Moment's action now. • Freeze an object in time for one Moment. A thrown object hangs motionless in the air, a gun's trigger can't be pulled, and a falling ladder can still be climbed. • Speed an object's motion in time. A bullet speeds ahead of its mark harmlessly, a burning rope is instantly reduced to ash, or a battery discharges its voltage in an instant.
The Wheel Always Turns Good actions always return to those who perform them, and evil actions do, too. This is called the teaching of kamma, the wheel, or "what goes around, comes around." Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • When a corrupt person or Spirit harms you, spend 3 Qi to automatically score matched 6s on your next attack roll against them. • Or don't attack; back luck befalls the opponent, and they take (twice the number of Truths you know) damage from some mishap, like a heavy object falling on them. • See another's progress along the Path of Enlightenment, and instantly know their Spirit, the number of Truths they know, their current Merit, and their Attachment.
The World Always Changes The physical world is fluid, and its contents are not the solid, immutable things we imagine them to be. Enlightened Disciples know that the world is how we imagine it to be. Benefit: Spend 3 Qi to: • Find an object that you need, miraculously hidden or misplaced somewhere nearby. The object must be needed to fulfill the Virtues, and but not to serve the Disciple's Attachments. • Strike an inanimate object and destroy it
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• •
instantly, per the Rare Technique Red Sand Palm. Make an object indestructible for the duration of the current Battle. Alchemically transform an item into another item of similar mass, such as turning a chunk of scrap metal into a razor-sharp knife, or turning a half-cup of murky water into rice wine.
•
Using Multiple Truths Enlightened Disciples must sometimes expend great spiritual power to defeat foes quickly and decisively. Disciples that know multiple Truths may use them simultaneously, although each Truth still costs 3 Qi to use. For example, a Disciple that knew that The Wheel Always Turns and about the Ripples In the Pond is attacked by a Crimson Gate Triad thug. The Disciple can see five more thugs nearby, all armed. The Disciple is in a hurry to escape from the area, and so she spends 6 Qi, telling Destiny that the thug that hit her will feel kamma rebound on him, and the effect will ripple outward to affect his comrades. The lead thug fired at her, but the bullet bounces off of the Disciple's steel sword, rebounding into a fuel truck nearby. The explosion damages all of the thugs, giving the Disciple time to escape!
Limits on Truths Mortal minds, even relatively enlightened minds, are still subject to some of the limits of the created universe until they achieve Transcendence. Truths are unlimited, timeless and perfect, but limited beings can only call on them to perform wonders within certain limits. Always Cost 3 Qi: Truths always cost Qi to use. Game Mechanical Effects Possible: Truths can have any of the following game mechanical benefits: • Automatic Damage. Equal to twice (Truths known). • Automatic Protection. One attack against the Disciple automatically rolls no Matches. • Automatic Success. Some specific sort of action will score double 6s with no roll needed. • Comparative Effect. When one siddhi comes into conflict with another, the siddhi wielded by the Disciple that knows the most number of Spiritual Truths will succeed. When a siddhi comes into
•
• •
conflict with a Creature Power, compare the siddhi to the Creature's Rank; the higher of the two will succeed. Do this only when Destiny decrees that there's a chance that the siddhi will fail; sinde siddhis are based on a correct and thorough apprehension of reality, they only fail when faced with another spiritual power. Extend Action. An Action may take place up to Very Far Distance away. Non-combat effects, like mental communication, may take place at any distance Destiny desires, even infinite distance. Lasting Bonuses. One weapon or form of attack may gain +1 Bonus to hit, or +2 to all forms of Damage. Also, one piece of Armor or other form of defense may gain +2 to all Armor values. Seize Initiative. No roll needed. Temporarily Gain Power. The Disciple may gain one Special Technique or Creature Power until the end of the Battle.
Area of Effect: Each Truth affects certain overlapping aspects of the physical world. • All Minds Are One Mind. The mind, emotions, neurology, Influence, Cunning, Spirit. • Death Is An Illusion. Death, endings, the spirits of the dead, reincarnation. • Everything Is Spirit. "Inanimate" objects, the spirits of places and animals, pantheism. • Life Is Suffering. Flesh and blood, disease and healing, Power, Agility, Speed, Health, the physical form. • Ripples In The Pond. Wu wei, affecting things with sympathetic magic or on a purely symbolic basis, physical location, teleportation, affecting things within line of sight. • Time Is An Illusion. Time, "luck" based purely on timing. • The Wheel Always Turns. Karma, "luck" based on one's previous actions, enlightenment. • The World Always Changes. Transformation, alchemy, "luck" based on one's perception of surroundings and feng shui. The masters of Shen Xia, and other enlightened beings, are well aware of the limits on the awesome feats that Truths can accomplish. And the limits don't matter, ultimately, because fancy tricks aren't the point of cosmic Truths; Enlightenment is what matters, the only thing that does.
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Datapoint 5.0: A Disciple's Attributes Attribute Levels and Bonuses Certain rules will require you to know the Attribute Modifier for an Attribute Level.
Attribute Levels/Bonuses Level
Die
Bonus
Magnificent
1d4
+5
Exceptional
1d6
+4
Good
1d8
+3
Average
1d10
+2
Feeble
1d12
+1
Attributes are often written with the die in parenthesis (). When the Bonus is included, it's written in square brackets [], like so: Power (1d10) [+5].
Attributes Agility
Image courtesy Cgtextures.com
Certain physical and mental Attributes help a Master choose Disciples. Disciples are measured in Agility, Power, Cunning, Speed, and Spirit.
The Disciple flows like water around opposition, and even while in motion seeks balance, like the everchanging sea. Benefit: Roll Agility and a Wushu Skill to attack the enemy. Roll Athletics/Agility to balance, or jump unusually far. Precise damage is based on Agility.
Cunning The Disciple's mind gleams like metal, reflecting Heaven and Earth, and all of their mysteries. Benefit: Roll Cunning to figure out puzzles, to outwit opponents, or to remember complicated information. Crushing damage with firearms is based on Cunning. Disciples roll Influence/Cunning to deceive another with clever words.
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Power The Disciple is as powerful as a mountain, as unwavering as a stone column, and as unstoppable as an earthquake. Benefit: Disciples roll Influence/Power to intimidate others. Crushing damage with is based on the Disciple's Power, for all weapons but firearms.
Speed The Disciple moves with the speed of fire, destroying all opponents that dare to step before them. Benefit: Roll Speed for initiative. Disciples roll Athletics/Speed when they must run or swim extraordinarily quickly. Fast weapon damage is based on the Disciple's Speed.
Spirit Disciples learn many truths about the spirit world, and learn to meditate to harness their Qi. A Disciple's Spirit is their charisma, willpower, and inner strength. Benefit: Disciples roll Influence/Spirit to persuade others. A Disciple's Qi is based partly on their Spirit. Magic damage is based on the Disciple's Spirit.
Resources Resources are an innate part of the Disciple's person, like Attributes. But players don't make rolls with Resources; rather, they represent a pool of points that represent the Disciple's current state of being.
Health Health is a Disciple's physical well-being, and resistance to injury. Formula: (Power Modifier) +3. Benefit: Each time the Disciple's Health drops to 0, it refreshes, but they are Stunned for a Moment and suffer a Wound in a body part of the attacker's choice.
Each Wound in a body part causes all Matches to increase in value by 1 when that body part is used. When a body part suffers (Power Modifier) wounds, it's rendered useless; if the target's head or torso are useless, the target falls unconscious. If the target takes (Power Modifier) more Wounds, they die.
Kung Fu "Kung Fu" literally means "well done;" any accomplishment, not just in the warrior arts, may be "kung fu" if it shows great skill and ability. This Resource reflects the Disciple's experience, training, and capabilities, and assists them on the road to even more impressive feats. Formula: 0. Benefit: A Disciple starts each life with 10 Kung Fu. Disciples spend accumulated Kung Fu to increase Attributes and Skills.
Merit Merit is a measure of the Disciple's spiritual development and approach to Enlightenment, their "good karma." Formula: 0. Benefit: A Disciple starts each life with 0 Merit. As the Disciple accumulates Merit, they may spend it to purchase additional Truths. As the Disciple accumulates Merit, they grow closer to enlightenment.
Qi The Shen Xia Temple teaches that the energy called "qi" underlies the physical and spiritual universe. Qi itself is invisible, but it's the lifeforce of all things that exist. Qi is a Disciple's resistance to physical and mental fatigue, their muscular and nervous energy. Formula: (Power Modifier) + (Spirit Modifier). Benefit: Disciples can spend 1 Qi to pull a die from the Constellation to form a Conjunction. They can also spend 1 Qi to activate certain Special Techniques, or to use a spiritual Truth.
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Datapoint 6.0: The Way of the Warrior Athletics Athletics is one's ability to balance, climb, run, jump, or swim. Roll Agility/Athletics to perform any of those actions, when there's a chance of failure.
Cybernetics Bionic implants and attachments that provide additional capabilities. For each Level of Cybernetics, the Disciple may choose one Trifle implanted in their body, or gain one of the following Creature Powers: Armor, Bolt, Claws, Dim Sight, Fear. However, for each Level of Cybernetics, the Disciple loses 1 Qi, and takes 1 additional point of Damage from water, electricity, and electromagnetic pulses.
Education Scholarship and knowledge of the world. A Disciple with a great deal of Education knows a lot about the culture and history of New Hong Kong, and humanity as a whole. Roll Cunning/Scholarship to remember obscure facts about the world and the past.
Influence
Image courtesy Cgtextures.com
Skills reflect a Disciple's knowledge, talents, education, and training. Focus Skills are favored by a School of the Shen Xia Temple.
Interpersonal charisma and personality. Disciples with a great deal of Influence can talk others into acting the way they wish, through charm, wheedling, or threats. Roll Power/Influence to intimidate others, Cunning/Influence to deceive them, and Spirit/Influence to persuade them. Opponents must spend 1 Qi to leave, 2 Qi to ignore you, or 0 Qi to play along.
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Melee Wushu
Optional Skill: Legendary Item
Melee Wushu is one's ability to fight with close-in weapons. Roll Agility/Melee Wushu to hit an enemy with a sword, knife, spear, axe, staff, or flail. More details on each weapon are found in the Seventh Scroll.
This optional Skill gives the Disciple a Legendary Item at Rebirth. Legendary Item is a powerful Skill, and it's recommended that Destiny charge double the normal amount of Kung Fu for this Skill. The Legendary Item has a Spirit equal to the Skill's die type. The Legendary Item is part of the Disciple's Path, and if lost during an Encounter, it returns by the beginning of the next Encounter. If destroyed, the Kung Fu used to purchase it is refunded.
Image courtesy Lavoview, Freedigitalphotos.net.
Medicine Knowledge of healing and treatment of diseases and injuries. Medicine includes not only modern medical sciences, but also traditional forms of care like acupuncture, herbalism, and massage. Roll Cunning/Medicine to heal friends of their injuries and diseases. This takes 1 hour, the Disciple can do this once per day per patient, and the amount of Health they restore is equal to their Cunning Modifier. Anyone with a School Rank can restore Health to another person by spending Qi and performing jabbing their damaged meridians with fingers, stimulating the flow of energy in their body. This is often quite painful, but the target regains an amount of Health equal to the Qi spent, to a maximum of the result of the healer's School Rank Die. Pressure point therapy can only help once per patient per day, and will not help burns, broken bones, poison, or internal injuries.
Notice The Notice Skill helps Disciples pick up on clues, hidden items, and sneaky infiltrators in their environment. Roll Cunning/Notice to find clues and see details, or to hide things and remain unseen.
Ranged Wushu Ranged Wushu is the art of using a gun, bow or crossbow, or thrown weapon. Roll Agility/Ranged Wushu to strike enemies with any of those weapons.
Stealth
Meditation Meditation is one's ability to relax and focus their energy, to regain one's mental strength and stability. Roll Spirit/Meditation to regain lost Qi faster. This takes 1 hour, and the amount of Qi the Disciple restores is equal to their Spirit Modifier.
Stealth reflects one's ability to remain unnoticed and move without making noise. Roll Cunning/Stealth to get past guards and into secure places.
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Tech
Optional Skill: Talented 'Talented' is a single Skill that collects a myriad of minor areas of craft and knowledge together. These minor Skills aren't very important for Battle or the Path of Enlightenment, but illustrate the Disciple's personality and hobbies. At 1d12, the Disciple may choose one Talent. At each lower die type, the Disciple gains an additional Talent. Talents include Cooking, Dancing, Drinking, Farming, Games of Chance, Languages, Musical Instrument (choose one), Painting, Riddles, Sculpture, Singing, Streetwise, and Tailoring.
Tech is one's ability to operate and repair mechanical and electronic equipment. Roll Cunning/Tech to operate computers, pick locks, and repair broken equipment.
Unarmed Wushu Unarmed Wushu is one's ability to fight with bare fists and feet. Roll Agility/Unarmed Wushu to punch, kick, grapple, jump kick, tackle, chop, or head-butt an opponent. More details on each attack are found in the Eighth Scroll.
Where appropriate, Disciples may get a Talent for free; Cooks get Cooking for free, Wastrels get Drinking, and Gamblers get Games of Chance. Since Talented is a minor, mostly useless Skill, using it creatively to save the day or solve a mystery grants 1 point of Kung Fu.
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Datapoint 7.0: Armory of Enlightenment Weapons Weapons are tools of death. The Temple of Shen Xia has never advocated violence, but instead teaches Disciples are intended for self-defense, and for meditation and focus. However, many Disciples take up arms to defend the people of New Hong Kong against the Crimson Gate Triad. Weapons cost two Equipment slots each.
Weapon Statistics
Image courtesy Peter Griffin, Publicdomainpictures.net.
Only the most powerful and self-reliant Disciples can survive and thrive without Equipment. All Disciples start with 3 Equipment Slots worth of Weapons, Armor, and Trifles. Unless otherwise stated, Weapons and Armor cost 2 slots, and Trifles cost 1 slot.
Weapon Attributes: Damage: The Damage modifier for each attack type. Accuracy: The Accuracy die rolled with all Attack, Block, and Disarm rolls with that weapon. If Accuracy is reduced below 1d12, it becomes 1d20; Accuracy cannot be reduced below 1d20. Range: Weapons have one of four Ranges: Adjacent, Near, Far, or Very Far. It takes one Action to move one Range increment closer to an enemy. Weapon Qualities: Many weapons have special features that give them additional functionality, or restrict their usefulness. Armor Piercing: The weapon ignores any armor bonuses to Block or Withstand Protection. Autofire: Attacker can spend up to 3 Qi to make one additional attack per Qi spent. Unless otherwise stated, the target can only defend against one attack per Moment. All of the attacks are the same type (i.e. Crushing, Fast, or Precise). Awkward: This weapon requires 2 Actions to make an Attack. Bow: Anyone without a School, Creature, or Courage Rank cannot Block bolts or arrows. Decapitation: The attacker may make an attack with the Awkward Quality to try to decapitate the opponent. If the target rolls two Matches and the Heavens accord the Disciple a Combat Benefit on this attack, the target immediately suffers a number of wounds to the head equal to the weapon's Precise damage bonus plus one. The target is treated as Grappled, and the attacker may automatically inflict the same amount of damage on subsequent Moments.
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Weapon
Damage Crushing
Fast
Precise
Accuracy
Range
Qualities
Axe
+5
+2
+2
1d10
Adjacent
Two-Handed.
Butterfly Knife
+3
+2
+3
1d8
Adjacent
Skillful.
Crossbow
+4
+3
+4
1d8
Very Far
Bow, Shots [1], Two-Handed.
Club
+3
+2
+4
1d8
Adjacent
None.
Curved Sword
+3
+4
+4
1d8
Adjacent
None.
Flail
+4
+4
+2
1d10
Adjacent
Flexible.
Flying Guillotine
+3
+3
+2
1d10
Near
Decapitation, Flexible, Two-Handed.
Great Axe
+6
+2
+3
1d12
Near
Awkward, Two-Handed.
Great Sword
+6
+3
+2
1d12
Near
Awkward, Two-Handed.
Hook Sword
+3
+4
+3
1d8
Adjacent
Flexible, Skillful.
Knife
+2
+3
+4
1d6
Adjacent
Thrown [Far].
Laser Pistol
+6
+2
+5
1d12
Very Far
Armor Piercing, Firearm, Shots [10].
Long Bow
+4
+3
+3
1d8
Very Far
Bow, Shots [1], Two-Handed.
Palm Pistol
+3
+3
+4
1d10
Very Far
Firearm, Shots [3].
Pole Arm
+5
+4
+2
1d8
Near
Revolver
+5
+4
+5
1d8
Very Far
Firearm, Shots [6].
Scholar Sword
+2
+5
+5
1d6
Adjacent
Skillful.
Semi-Automatic Pistol
+5
+4
+4
1d8
Very Far
Firearm, Shots [17].
Short Bow
+5
+4
+3
1d6
Far
Bow, Shots [1], Two-Handed.
Shotgun
+5
+3
+5
1d10
Far
Dual Fire, Firearm, Shots [2].
Spear
+3
+4
+4
1d8
Near
Thrown [Far], Two-Handed.
Staff
+5
+4
+3
1d8
Near
Skillful, Two-Handed.
Submachine Gun
+5
+4
+2
1d10
Very Far
War Fan
+3
+2
+3
1d6
Near
Light, Skillful.
Whip
+1
+3
+1
1d6
Near
Flexible, Light, Skillful.
Dual Fire: The firearm may fire one or two projectiles simultaneously. If the weapon fires a second shot, the Accuracy of the attack is reduced by one die type, but the damage is increased by 2. Firearm: If attacking at range, Firearms use Agility for Crushing Attacks instead of Power. Anyone without a School, Creature, or Courage Rank cannot Block or Withstand bullets. The weapon can be used as a club to smash enemies, in which case the weapon loses the Firearm Quality and does -2 Crushing Damage. Flexible: Instead of attacking, the weapon can grapple an opponent. Roll a Contest of Power/ (appropriate Wushu Skill) against the target's Power/ (appropriate Wushu Skill). If successful, automatically normal Crushing damage. Next round, the target may roll to break free, but the target's Roll is Difficult. Light: Power is reduced by 1 die type when rolling for Crushing attacks with this weapon.
Two-Handed.
Autofire, Firearm, Shots [30], TwoHanded.
Shots [X]: Weapon can be fired X times, and then must be reloaded. Reloading a bow takes one Action, guns take 2 Actions, and crossbows take three. Skillful: All Difficulties to Disarm are reduced by one, and the wielder gains +1 to Block Defense. Thrown: This Melee Wushu weapon can also use Ranged Wushu to attack, at a maximum range listed. Two-Handed: This weapon requires two hands to use. Any weapon with Range Adjacent or Near uses Melee Wushu to attack; any weapon with Range Far or Very Far, or with the Bow or Firearm Quality, uses Ranged Wushu to attack.
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His eye is a meteor, Zen''s
movement
is
like
lightning. The sword that kills the man,
Ladder. Damage: (Crushing +4, Fast +0, Precise -2); Accuracy: 1d20; Range: Near, Qualities: Awkward. Rock. Damage: (Crushing +1, Fast +1, Precise +0); Accuracy: 1d10; Range: Far, Qualities: None. Scarf/Sleeves. Damage: (Crushing -2, Fast -1, Precise +0); Accuracy: 1d20; Range: Near, Qualities: Flexible, Skillful. Wine Bottle. Damage: (Crushing +1, Fast +0, Precise +1); Accuracy: 1d10; Range: Adjacent, Qualities: Light.
is the sword that saves the man.
Armor
-- Mumonkan
When an enemy scores a successful attack, the appropriate Damage type is reduced by the listed amount, to a minimum of 1. Armor costs 2 Equipment slots.
Weapon Options Weapon Options cost one Equipment slot. Armor-Piercing Ammo. Only for SemiAutomatic Pistols and Submachine Guns. Adds the Armor-Piercing Quality, but Accuracy is reduced by one die type. Flaming Arrows/Bolts. Only for weapons with the Bow Quality. Weapon gains +1 permanent Bonus to all Damage die types, but Accuracy is reduced by one die type. Retractable. Only for Swords, Spears, and Staffs. The weapon compacts itself down to just a few inches, easily hidden, and can unfold into its full size with one Action. Rings. For Melee Wushu weapons. Adds the Skillful Quality; if the item already has it, reduces Difficulties by one more. Tracer Ammo. Only for Semi-Automatic Pistols and Submachine Guns. Inflicts an additional +1 Fast and Precise Damage, and adds +1 to hit with Autofire weapons in dark conditions. However, it also reveals the Disciple's location. Vibro Blades. Only for bladed weapons like swords, knives, and spears. Adds the Armor Piercing Quality, but reduces Accuracy by one die type.
Armor
Damage
Bulk
Evade
Block
Withstand
Bulletproof Vest
-1
+1
+3
2
Cerametal Plate
-3
+3
+4
3
Lamellar Armor
-1
+3
+2
2
Leather Jacket
+0
+1
+1
1
Padded Armor
+0
+1
+0
1
Riot Gear
-2
+2
+3
2
Trifles Trifles are minor pieces of Equipment that cost one Equipment slot each.
Improvised Weapons All Improvised Weapons are treated as Melee Wushu weapons with the Thrown [Near] Quality. Chopsticks. Damage: (Crushing +0, Fast +2, Precise +2); Accuracy: 1d12; Range: Adjacent, Qualities: Light. Frying Pan. Damage: (Crushing +2, Fast +1, Precise -1); Accuracy: 1d12; Range: Near, Qualities: None.
Electronics Laptop: A small computing device that s Cell Phone: A cell phone provides instant communication within New Hong Kong. Outside the city, though, coverage is spotty to non-existent.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Gadgets
emotional events, can also awaken the spirit of an item. Places have spirits, too, and important places like the Shen Xia Temple ... or the Canyon of Ten Thousand Hells ... have impressive personalities that even non-Disciples can sense.
Handcuffs: The Lockpicks: The
Medicine
Legendary Item Qualities
First Aid Kit: The Ginseng: The
Legendary Items gain one of the following Qualities at 1d10 Spirit, and another at each lower die type: •
General Flashlight: Until they become Favored Pupils and learn the technique of Dark Sight, Disciples have problems fighting at night, or in lightless sewers or deep caves. Rations: A few packs of rice cakes, pickled vegetables, and dried fish to feed the Disciples on their journey. Each selection of Rations provides food for a week. Repair Kit: Some Disciples are talented with machines, and a few even have cybernetic enhancements. Rice Wine: Most Disciples abstain from alcohol, but there's no rule against those below the rank of Master drinking a bit now and then. Except for members of the Drunken Fool School, who imbibe all the time! Rope: The Sunglasses: The Utility Knife: The
• • • • • •
•
Any Creature Power. The Powers cost 1 Qi to activate for the duration of the Battle. Any general Shen Xia School Special Technique (Qi Sense, Leap of the Winds, Dark Sight, Iron Shirt, or Immortality. +2 to all Damage types that the item inflicts, and can harm Phantom Creatures when they turn intangible. +2 to all Protection types that the item provides. Item can speak in a voice that all may hear. Item can float through the air and fight on its own, with an Agility equal to its Spirit, and a Melee Wushu Level two die types higher. May substitute the Item's Spirit die for any other die for actions with the item. For example, a very clumsy Ebullient Dragon will find themselves much more graceful when using this weapon. An item with 1d6 or 1d4 Spirit may be indestructible (this doesn't grant an armor more Protection, but it does mean that the armor's Protection cannot be degraded).
Example Legendary Items
Legendary Items The greatest items have their own Special Techniques, their own history and legend, and their own importance to Destiny.
Item Spirits All objects have a Spirit Level, but most objects' Spirit Level is 1d20. Such an object is completely unaware of itself or its surroundings. At 1d12, the item's spirit is dimly aware of its surroundings, and can even communicate emotions to its owner. It still isn't capable of granting any particular benefits. At 1d10, an item's spirit is fully aware, and can grant its wielder benefits as it wishes. An item's Spirit Level may be as low as 1d4, for an item of significant power. Any Disciple can sense whether an item's spirit is awakened simply by touching it. How are item spirits awakened? A shaman or alchemist can awaken an item's spirit, but exposure to an extraordinary individual, or a long series of
Here is a Legendary Item that the Disciples might find (or face!) on their Journey.
Sky Shatterer.
Spirit 1d8. Sky Shatterer is a long, golden curved sword with a giant ruby in the pommel. The demon dragon Jinhuang Xiao faced the Brazen Saint in battle, and when he was slain, his golden horn was forged into this deadly sword. A fragment of the demon's consciousness remains in the horn, and it tempts anyone that holds the sword to destroy the righteous. The weapon gains +2 to all Damage types, and the wielder may roll an additional 1d8 with all Melee Wushu rolls. The wielder may fire a Bolt (per the Creature Power) of golden light with an expenditure of a few Qi.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Datapoint 8.0: The War for Peace Beginning the Fight Combatants make Iniative rolls. To do so, roll Rank/Speed, and act in order of lowest match to highest. In the case of a tie, the character with the lowest Rank die goes first, then compare Speed, then Cunning. All characters in the fight retain the same Initiative, until someone Takes A Breath.
Combat Actions Disciples may take two of the following Actions per Moment.
Disarm
Image courtesy Arvind Balaram, Freedigitalphotos.net
The life of the wuxia is one of righteous battle against evil and tyranny.
You knock the enemy's weapon out of their hands, and the advantage is now yours. Roll a Contest of Power/Melee Wushu vs. Power/Melee Wushu. If the attacker succeeds, the target is disarmed, and their weapon is knocked to the ground. An unarmed attacker can try to Disarm an armed opponent, but the unarmed attacker's roll is treated as Very Difficult.
Dodge You throw yourself out of the path of danger. Benefits: Spend your Action and then wait. When an enemy rolls a successful non-Magic attack against you, the attack is treated as one Difficulty higher; if your Agility die is 1d4, the attack is Very Difficult.
Focus You marshal your spiritual energy and prepare to repel mystical or demonic assault. Benefits: Spend your Action and then wait. When an enemy rolls a successful Magic Attack, roll Spirit/Meditation. If you succeed, you reduce the number of Matches the opponent rolls by the number of Matches that you roll. Each Focus Action lets you Focus against one attack.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Grapple You grab the enemy, enfold them in your arms or legs, and crush them with your body. Grapple. Attack Skill: Unarmed Wushu; Damage: (Crushing +1, Fast -2, Precise -2); Accuracy: 1d8; Range: Adjacent; Qualities: Flexible.
Kick You lash out with a foot and hammer the target with the blade or heel of your foot. Kick. Attack Skill: Unarmed Wushu; Damage: (Crushing +2, Fast +1, Precise+0); Accuracy: 1d10; Range: Adjacent; Qualities: None.
Leap You leap over low obstacles or across chasms. Leaping from one rooftop to another rooftop on the same block shouldn't be a problem, but to leap across the street, the Disciple should be a Difficult Agility/Athletics roll.
Punch Demonstrating your martial prowess, you smash the enemy with a mighty hand strike. Punch. Attack Skill: Unarmed Wushu; Damage: (Crushing +0, Fast+0, Precise+0); Accuracy: 1d8; Range: Adjacent; Qualities: None.
Image courtesy Lavoview, Freedigitalphotos.net.
Damage and Health
Run You propel yourself quickly across the battlefield, towards an enemy, or safety. The Disciple can reach a Far opponent with one Action, and a Very Far opponent with two Actions.
How is damage determined? (1). Attack and Defense Strategy: If the attack is successful, the attacker secretly chooses a Damage type, and the defender secretly chooses a Defense.
Shoot You attack an enemy some distance away, with a ranged weapon. Roll Agility/Ranged Wushu to make a bow, crossbow, firearm, or thrown weapon attack against the target.
Sneak You attempts to get past an enemy patrol or electronic monitoring system. Roll a Contest of Agility/Stealth against the target's Cunning/Notice. If successful, the target doesn't notice the Disciple.
Attack
Crushing (Power, or Cunning for firearms) Fast (Speed) Precise (Agility) Magic (Spirit)
Defense
vs. Evade (Speed)
vs. Block (Agility) vs. Withstand (Power) vs. Will (Spirit)
(2). Damage-Defense Match: If the Defense chosen matches the Damage Type chosen (i.e. a Crushing attack is Blocked), the target takes the following damage: Weapon Damage for chosen Damage type + appropriate Attribute Modifier for attack – target's armor Protection against that Damage type – Modifier for approriate Attribute used in defense.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Weapon’s Damage rating for that Damage type
+
Modifier for appropriate Attribute used in Attack
Armor's Protection rating for that Damage type
+
Modifier for appropriate Attribute used in Defense
Rock, Paper, Scissors Fu Perhaps the easiest way to handle the tension and tactics of the Damage system is with that ancient Western classic game of skill and chance, Rock Paper Scissors! Attacker Crushing Fast Precise Magic
If the target chose the wrong Defense type against the attack, they get Protection from their armor, but not from their Attribute modifier.
Sign Rock Paper Scissors Dragon
Defender Block Evade Withstand Will
Deadly Firearms Ordinary citizens of New Hong Kong are usually screwed when they face an experienced marksman. Anyone without a School Rank, Courage Rank, or Creature Rank cannot Block or Withstand Firearms, or Block bolts or arrows.
War of the Minds The world is full of puzzles and mysteries, but the clearest mind can shatter these like a torch dispels the darkness.
Notice
Example Ji Er rolls a successful attack against Su Lin. Ji Er is wielding a Hook Sword, and secretly chooses to do Precise Damage with it. His Power is 1d6, giving him a +5 Modifier, and the Hook Sword gives him another +2 Damage. Su Lin thinks that Ji Er will use a Fast Attack, so he decides to Evade. However, Evades are ineffective against Precise Attacks, so Su Lin takes 7 Damage. Ouch! If Su Lin had decided to Withstand, he'd reduce the incoming Damage by his Power Modifier. If his Power was 1d8, the Modifier would be +4, so he'd take only 3 Damage. Too bad.
Roll a Cunning/Notice to detect some clue in the environment, or some hidden item.
Recall Roll a Cunning/Education to remember some important fact about the world.
Repair/Modify Roll Cunning/Tech to repair a broken piece of Equipment, modify a piece of Equipment, or unlock a locked door.
Take A Breath The Disciple may perform this action once per Battle, and must spend an Action. At the end of this Moment, everyone in the fight pauses for a Moment. During this time, they may spend Qi to regain Health, to a maximum equal to the results of a School Rank Die roll. After the restful Moment, everyone must roll for Initiative once again, using School Rank die, and any Attribute of this Disciple's choice. For example, the new phase of the Battle could start with an intense glaring contest, where everyone must roll Psyche; or
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
everyone displays their most fearsome forms and looks for weaknesses in the other's styles, and so the new phase of the fight starts with Cunning. It's possible to attack while someone Takes A Breath, but it's most dishonorable; a Disciple that does so immediately loses 1d10 Merit.
War of the Bazaar and the Courts Social attacks are all about pitting your words against someone else's. It's a well-kept secret that the more enlightened a Disciple is, the more persuasive they are. Make an approptiate Influence roll against the target. On a success, the target must: (1). Spend 1 Qi to remain neutral and do nothing; (2). Withdraw from the discussion and lose 2 Qi; (3). Play along with the assertion, losing no Qi.
Argument
Intimidation Roll a Contest of Influence/Power against the target's Influence/Spirit.
Persuasion Roll a Contest of Influence/Spirit against the target's Influence/Spirit.
Pierce Argument The XX. Benefits: Spend your Action and then wait. When an enemy rolls a successful Influence Roll against the Disciple, they gain a free number of Qi to resist equal to the number of Truths that the Disciple knows. This Qi only lasts until the end of the current Battle. Characters that follow the path of Delusions cannot Pierce Arguments.
Defense
Deception (Cunning) Intimidation (Power) vs. Disbelieve (Spirit) Persuasion (Spirit)
Deception Roll a Contest of Influence/Cunning against the target's Influence/Spirit. Image courtesy Public-domain-photos.com.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Datapoint 9.0: The Demon Forces Unite New Hong Kong is an alien world, populated by alien beings now more energy than matter. The Disciples of Shen Xia know much about the structure of the universe, but
The Folk of New Hong Kong Attributes: 1d10 unless otherwise noted. School Level: None. Merit: May not accumulate or use. Qi: Only 1 point. Cybernetics: None. Creature Powers: None. Special: If a Folk takes any damage, they either flee or are knocked unconscious. Image courtesy MR LIGHTMAN, Freedigitalphotos.net
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Businessman
Police
Businessmen keep the Dawn Lotus Corporation and its subsidiaries functioning. They wear suits and ties, carry briefcases, and call people on cell phones and tell them what to do. In a fight, they're useless, but Businessmen hold the ultimate power of the temporal world.
The Police are overworked and underpaid civil servants charged with maintaining peace and order in the city of New Hong Kong, and in some outlying cities. The Police aren't all that sympathetic to the Disciples of Shen Xia, and woe to the community whose Police have been corrupted by the Crimson Gate Triad.
Typical Businessman
Typical Police
Profession Trader. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d8) [+3]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2]. Resources • Health: 5. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Briefcase, Very Important Papers.
School Rank None. Special Techniques • Best Bargain (Trader) Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). • Education: (1d8). • Influence: (1d10). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (—). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (—). • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (1d12). • Unarmed Wushu: (—).
Profession Cop. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2]. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2]. Resources • Health: 6. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 5. Equipment Handcuffs, SemiAutomatic Pistol, WalkyTalky.
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School Rank None. Special Techniques • Authority (Cop) Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (1d12). • Education: (1d8). • Influence: (1d10). • Medicine: (1d12). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d10). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (1d8). • Stealth: (1d10). • Tech: (1d12). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d10).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Shopkeepers
Workers
Shopkeepers sell food, clothing, and services, maintain inns and tea houses, and see to the economic livelihood of New Hong Kong. Shopkeepers struggle to get by, but all too often their shops are the scenes of epic kung fu battles, or their carts get destroyed in righteous battle, leaving them to pick up the pieces.
Most people in New Hong Kong and outside are Workers, that is, factory hands, peasant farmers, miners, and low-level service personnel. Workers are expected to labor for the skytower inhabitants until they die, with little hope of advancement and little security against abuses. No wonder they cry out to the Heavens for justice!
Typical Shopkeeper
Typical Worker
Profession Trader. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d8) [+4]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d8) [+3]. Resources • Health: 5. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 5. Equipment Stuff to sell, 1d10 yuan.
School Rank None. Special Techniques • Best Bargain (Trader) Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). • Education: (1d12). • Influence: (1d10). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (1d12). • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (1d12). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d12).
Profession None. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2]. Resources • Health: 5. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Regular work overalls.
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School Rank None. Special Techniques • None. Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). • Education: (—). • Influence: (1d12). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (1d12). • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (1d12). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d12).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Order of the Yama Lords
Dreaded Foes Attributes: Average (1d10) [+2] unless otherwise noted. School Level: As Disciples. Two additional Schools are available to Dreaded Foes, as listed below. Merit: Equal to School Level Modifier. Qi: As Disciples. Cybernetics: As Disciples. Creature Powers: None; Sorcerors may spend Qi to temporarily gain Creature Powers.
Crimson Gate School Once, long ago, the Crimson Gate School was one of the schools of the Shen Xia Temple. Not every thi Doctrines: None. The Crimson Gate School doesn't follow the doctrines of the Shen Xia Temple. Instead, they learn Delusions, the opposite of the Truths. Attribute Bonuses: +1 to Speed and Power. Focus Skills: Melee Wushu, Ranged Wushu, Stealth, Unarmed Wushu. Techniques: • Grand Master (1d12). Drinking In Life. A member of the Crimson Gate School can drink in another's life force, to keep themselves young and healthy. When the Crimson Gate Triad member uses Paralyzing Strike to increase an opponent's die, they reduce their own die in that same Attribute. They may instead increase their current Health or Qi by that Attribute's Modifier. • Master (1d10). Ten Venoms Palm. The Crimson Gate Triad member inflicts additional damage with all Unarmed Wushu attacks equal to half their current Qi. • Favored Pupil (1d8). Paralyzing Strike. The penalty from Closing the Meridians now stacks. If a die is increased past 1d20, the crew member is immobilized for the rest of the Battle. • Student (1d6). Closing The Meridians. When the Crimson Gate Triad member strikes an enemy with Unarmed Wushu, they may spend (6 – Spirit Modifier) Qi to increase an opponent's Power, Agility, or Speed by one die. This penalty does not stack. • Novice (1d4). Sensing The Blood. The Crimson Gate Triad member can spend 1 Qi to detect any living being within a couple of li, by sensing their living Qi.
Long ago, a group of scholars, salvaging ancient data from Old Terra, discovered techniques that allow them to manipulate the energies of the world in the same way that demons to. They advanced their unholy powers rapidly by offering service to the demons of New Hong Kong, serving them for a time ... until they rose up against their guests, and enslaved many demons. The Order of the Yama Lords is brilliant and unscrupulous. Doctrines: Any Two of choice. Attribute Bonuses: +1 to Cunning and Spirit. Focus Skills: Education, Influence, Meditation, Notice. Techniques: Each time the Yama Sorcerer gains a Technique, they learn a new spell. They must be able to speak clearly and move their hands, and see their targets if the spell is an attack. Each spell duplicates a Creature Power, and if it isn't an attack, it lasts for the duration of the current Battle. Evil Sorcerors usually come from Backgrounds as Bureaucrats or Priests.
Delusions The Shen Xia Temple teaches that ignorance is the root of all suffering, but Truth dispels ignorance. Not everyone seeks liberation, however. Some of those that leave the grounds of the Shen Xia Temple adhere to the masters' teachings. But some cast those teachings aside, seeking to achieve the pointless little tricks called siddhis while embracing mindless passion, thoughtless prejudice, and storms of emotion. Tearing themselves and others apart and reveling in the pain, they learn strange powers, but forsake inner peace altogether. The masters call the way of Shen Xia the "RightHand Path," and warn against the "Left-Hand Path" that the Crimson Gate Triad warriors, and the Order of Yama Lords, embrace. Benefits of Delusions: The Disciple may spend 4 Qi to create an illusion, duplicating the Fear, Illusions, or Temptation Creature Powers. The Crimson Gate Triad member may also inflame one of the target's Attachments; if the target doesn't act on the Attachment at the earliest available opportunity, they lose 2 Qi. Delusions always require no less than 4 points of Qi to manifest supernatural powers. Disciples must relax and focus their minds on the inner silence to unleash their power, but it's even more draining, as well as emotionally painful, to follow the Left Hand Path and use its powers.
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Crimson Gate Triad Crimelord
Crimson Gate Triad Thugs
The masterminds of the Crimson Gate Triad's push into New Hong Kong, Crimelords are smart and deadly organizers.
The low-ranked enforcers of the Crimson Gate Triad syndicate, these thugs are quick with their fists and their guns, but not too quick on the uptake.
Typical Crimson Gate Triad Crimelord (Not Done)
Typical Crimson Gate Triad Thug
Profession Gangster. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. • Cunning: (1d6) [+4]. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d6) [+4]. Resources • Health: 9. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 7. Equipment Semi-Automatic Pistol.
Profession Gangster. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d12) [+1]. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d12) [+1]. Resources • Health: 9. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Semi-Automatic Pistol.
School Rank None. Special Techniques • Tough Enough (Gangster) Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (1d10). + Education: (1d8). + Influence: (1d6). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). + Melee Wushu: (1d8). • Notice: (1d12). + Ranged Wushu: (1d6). • Stealth: (1d10). • Tech: (1d12). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d10).
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School Rank None. Special Techniques • Tough Enough (Gangster) Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). • Education: (—). • Influence: (1d12). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (1d12). • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (—). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d12).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Crimson Gate Triad Warriors Masters of wushu, the warriors learn the ancient Crimson Gate form, once one of the Schools of the Shen Xia Temple.
Order of the Yama Lords Sorceror Scholars of forbidden magical practices, the Order of the Yama Lords sorcerers are hearltess manipulators without a shred of honor.
Typical Crimson Gate Triad Warrior
Typical Order of the Yama Lords Sorceror
Profession Gangster. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2]. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. • Speed: (1d8) [+3]. • Spirit: (1d8) [+3]. Resources • Health: 9. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 4. Equipment Any two weapons.
Profession Mystic. Attachments Any one. Attributes • Agility: (1d10) [+2]. • Cunning: (1d8) [+3]. • Power: (1d10) [+2]. • Speed: (1d10) [+2]. • Spirit: (1d6) [+4]. Resources • Health: 5. • Merit: 0. • Qi: 6. Equipment Knife.
School Rank Novice of the Crimson Gate School (1d12). Special Techniques • Qi Sense (Novice) • Sensing the Blood (Crimson Gate), • Tough Enough (Gangster). Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (1d12). • Education: (1d12). • Influence: (1d8). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d8). • Notice: (1d12). • Ranged Wushu: (1d8). • Stealth: (1d10). • Tech: (—). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d8).
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School Rank Novice of the Order of the Yama Lords (1d12). Special Techniques • Qi Sense (Novice) • Divination (Mystic), • Bolt (Yama Lords). Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). + Education: (1d8). + Influence: (1d12). • Medicine: (1d12). + Meditation: (1d10). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (1d12). + Ranged Wushu: (1d8). • Stealth: (1d10). • Tech: (—). • Unarmed Wushu: (—).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Bigger
Creatures
The Creature's die for Power is reduced by one. This Power may be selected multiple times; with every second selection, though, the Creature's Speed is increased by one die type, and with every third selection, the Creature's Agility is increased by one die type.
Creatures are blah blah.
Making a Monster The low-ranked enforcers of the Crimson Gate Triad syndicate, these thugs are quick with their fists and their guns, but not too quick on the uptake. Creature Rank: All Creatures have a Creature Rank, which works like a Disciple's School Rank. Attributes: All Attributes start off at Average (1d10) [+2] unless otherwise noted. Creatures gain an additional 5 Levels to divide among Attributes at Level 1, and 2 more at each qubsequent Creature Rank. Resources: Health and Qi are calculated for Creatures the same as they are for Disciples. Merit: Creatures normally have 0 Merit, and don't accumulate Merit or learn Truths. Focus Skills: Creatures may choose any 4 Skills to be Focus Skills. As with Disciples, all Focus Skills start off at 1d12. Creature Powers: Creatures gain 25 Kung Fu at Creature Rank 1 for Attributes, Powers, Focus Skills, and Skill Levels. They gain another 20 Kung Fu at each subsequent Level.
Creature Point Costs Reduce Attribute die type Increase Attribute die type
-3 Kung Fu +3 Kung Fu
Purchase 1d12 in new Skill
-2 Kung Fu
Reduce Skill die type
-1 Kung Fu
Additional Focus Skill
-3 Kung Fu
Creature Power
-3 Kung Fu
Bolt The Creature may treat Ranged Wushu as a Focus Skill; the Creature gains the Bolt weapon, which may not be removed. Attack Skill: Ranged Wushu; Damage: (Crushing+2, Fast+0, Precise+1); Accuracy: 1d8; Range: Adjacent; Qualities: None. If Bolt is chosen a second time, all damage may be increased by 1, or Accuracy may be increased by one die type.
Claws The Creature may treat Unarmed Wushu as a Focus Skill; the Creature gains the Claws weapon, which may not be removed. Attack: Agility/Unarmed Wushu vs. Agility/Unarmed Wushu; Damage: (Crushing+1, Fast+1, Precise+1); Accuracy: 1d6; Range: Adjacent; Qualities: None. If Claws are chosen a second time, all damage may be increased by 1, or Accuracy may be increased by one die type.
Disciple non-School Special -3 Kung Fu Ability (Immortality, Iron Shirt, Dark Sight, Leap of the Clouds, or Qi Sense)
I mage courtesy Tom Curtis, Freedigitalphotos.net.
Creature Powers Creatures are unhuman things with capabilities beyond those of the ordinary thug, Disciple, or tea shop girl. Some are spirits, some are genetic aberrations or cybernetic constructs, and most are too dangerous to be trusted.
Dim Sight The Creature can see clearly in dim light; as long as there is some light source, even the stars behind the clouds, it's as good as daylight.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Fear The Creature gains a +3 Bonus to all rolls to Intimidation. The Creature may spend 1 Qi to get a free Intimidation roll against everyone in Far Range.
A Disciple gets a roll to break free at the start and end of each Battle, or whenever a Priest performs an Exorcism. Others remain possessed for as long as Destiny wants.
Phantom
Flight The Creature can move through the air with wings, gusts of wind, or through sheer spiritual power. With this ability, the Creature can reach any point on the battlefield in one Action. The Creature can hover effortlessly, but must beware of being knocked unconscious while high in the air.
Illusions The Creature may spend 1 Qi to create a convincing illusion. If anyone has reason to disbelieve, the Creature may roll Rank/Cunning against the target's Cunning/Notice to see if they figure out that it's just an illusion. The illusion is clearly visible to everyone in Very Far range, and involves all five senses, plus Qi Sense and Dim Sight.
Interface The Creature may spend 1 Qi to interface directly with any electronic device by moving to Adjacent Range. The Creature can control the device for the rest of the Battle, with only an Action. No keyboard, mouse, voice controls, trigger, or other activation mechanism is needed, and the Creature can prevent the device's normal controls from working. This can be used to open electronically locked doors, communicate directly with computers, prevent laser pistols or vibroblades from firing, or activate them at inopportune moments.
Poison The Creature may secrete a toxin at will. If the Creature has Claws, the venom coats them; if not, the Creature may coat any weapon they possess with the Poison. The Poison only takes effect if the Creature inflicts Health damage with an edged weapon like a sword or knife, or as a Benefit of an exceptional attack. If affected, the target suffers 1 point of damage per Moment, for 1d4+(Creature's Rank) Moments.
Possession
The Creature can spend 1 Qi and one Action to turn intangible; in this form, non-Quality weapons cannot harm them. The Creature may spend 1 Qi and another Action to turn invisible at will, as well.
Shapeshifting Choose one animal form, of human size or smaller. The Creature may spend one Qi to assume this form at any time. If the Creature is Grappled, they automatically break free when they Shapeshift.
Shriek The Creature can emit a terrifying scream that harms and deafens everyone that hears. The Creature spends 1 Qi; everyone in Far Range suffers (Creature Rank) Damage automatically, and suffers a -3 Penalty to
Smaller The Creature's die for Agility is reduced by one. This Power may be selected multiple times; with every second selection, though, the Creature's Power is increased by one die type, and with every third selection, the Creature's Speed is increased by one die type.
Temptation The Creature may treat Influence as a Focus Skill when rolling to Deceive anyone attracted to the Creature. For a second or third selection, the target must pay 1 or two more Qi to ignore or walk away from a Deception toll.
Tentacles The Creature may make Grapple rolls against targets that are Near, instead of those that are Adjacent. For a second selection, these rolls gain a Major [1] Bonus.
Unliving
The Creature may roll a Contest of Rank/Spirit vs. a target's Rank/Spirit; on success, the Creature may control the target's body at Near range. If the Creature is a Phantom, it inhabits the target's body.
The Creature doesn't need to eat, drink, or breathe to survive. The Creature doesn't sleep, but can be temporarily knocked unconscious. If this Creature has the Phantom Power, they turn invisible and intangible when knocked unconscious.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Creatures of the Three Realms Creatures may not take the Cybernetics Skill. They gain Creature Powers instead of School Special Techniques. Creatures don't have Professions, or generally accumulate Merit or Truths.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Baleful Ghosts
Cyber-Legalists
The masters of the Shen Xia Temple teach that all beings are reincarnated after each lifetime, unless the deceased's heart is full of anguish and sin. The worst go to the Ten Thousand Hells to be tormented, but the next worst wander the world in torment. They sometimes have the power to afflict the living, and it's these spirits that the Disciples of the Resplendent Trigram are often called on to exorcise.
The wealthiest and most powerful citizens of the skytowers, and their loyal, talented servants, achieve a form of immortality. They transfer their digitized consciousness into perfect android bodies, but the imperfect process often results in fragmented, corrupt personality programming. These mech-corporates see all of New Hong Kong as a machine filled with broken and imperfect organic forms, and advocate strict and unforgiving reforms.
Appearance: Baleful Ghosts typically look as they did in life, somewhat idealized, but pale and translucent. They float through the air, exuding bonechilling cold, and their mournful wails pierce the soul.
Appearance: Cyber-Legalists look just like normal human beings ... almost. The keen-eyed might notice a slight jerkiness to their movements, or a bit of waxiness to their flesh, or the tiny delay in their pupil focus. When damaged, their mechanical nature is obvious. The Cyber-Legalist enforcers like to dress in ancient soldier garb, with broad tasseled hats and long tunics.
Plot Ideas: Baleful Ghosts have been spotted around a spot in the wilderness, and it looks like a third shuttle left the Kannon before it touched down on New Hong Kong. Why did they leave the ship? What technology can be scavenged from the wreckage? And what does this discovery mean to Shen Xia, the Dawn Lotus Group, and the Triad?
Plot Ideas: A group of rogue Cyber-Legalists are working on the abandoned mainframe of the Kannon to create a new super-computer they call EMPEROR (Evolving Micro-Processor Employing Randomized Operating Runtimes). This new AI could take over every computer system in New Hong Kong overnight.
Typical Baleful Ghost
Typical Cyber-Legalist
Attachments Regret. Attributes {-12} • Agility: (1d8) [+3]. {-3} • Cunning: (1d10) [+1]. {+0} • Power: (1d12) [+1]. {+3} • Speed: (1d6) [+4]. {-6} • Spirit: (1d6) [+4].{-6} Resources • Health: 4. • Merit: —. • Qi: 5. Creature Powers {-21} • Dim Sight • Fear • Flight • Immortality • Phantom Form • Qi Sense • Shriek • Unliving
Creature Rank Rank 2 (1d10). Skills (+Focus) {-12} + Athletics: (1d12). • Education: (—). + Influence: (1d6).{-3} • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (—). • Notice: (1d12).{-2} • Ranged Wushu: (1d8).{4} + Stealth: (1d6). {-3} • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d12).
Attachments Order or Pedagogy. Attributes {-30} • Agility: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. • Cunning: (1d4) [+5] {-9}. • Power: (1d4) [+5] {-9}. • Speed: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2] {-0}. Resources • Health: 8. • Merit: —. • Qi: 7. Creature Powers {-9} • Dark Sight • Iron Shirt • Unliving -65
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Creature Rank Rank 3 (1d8). Skills (+Focus) {-26} • Athletics: (—). + Education: (1d6).{-3} + Influence: (1d10).{-1} • Medicine: (1d12).{-2} • Meditation: (—). + Melee Wushu: (1d12).{2} • Notice: (1d10).{-3} • Ranged Wushu: (1d6).{5} • Stealth: (1d12).{-2} + Tech: (1d6).{-3} • Unarmed Wushu: (1d6).{5}
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Dragon Sages
Goblin Spiders
The mightiest nature spirits, that have achieved a high degree of enlightenment themselves, are the dragons. Some Disciples embark on great quests to find and study with dragon sages, only to discover that dragons rarely take students, and that their wisdom makes the enigmatic riddles of Shen Xia seem pellucid.
Created through a combination of science and dark sorcery, Goblin Spiders are hideous, mutated cyborg creatures that patrol the Crimson Gate Triad's holdings. Goblin Spiders are driven by their programming, their hunger, and a perverse desire to see living things suffer.
Appearance: Dragon Sages look like a traditional Asian dragon, long and sinuous like a snake, with short clawed legs, catfish-like barbels, and forked horns. Their eyes gleam with intelligence, and they "swim" through the air as they would through water.
Appearance: Goblin Spiders appear as a spider slightly larger than a man, with green glowing eyes, fangs dripping venom, and bionic prostheses. Energy weapons on their abdomen track movement across energy spectra, and their entire body exudes a faint putrid aura of dark magic.
Plot Ideas: Dragon sages hold much wisdom about the dharma and wushu, but one of them has defected to the Ten Thousand Hells, and embraced the Way of Delusion. Perhaps he can be persuaded to turn back to the Path of Enlightenment and freedom once again.
Plot Ideas: Goblin Spiders typically patrol buildings in the Docks Disctrict that the Crimson Gate are using as bases, but they've been found around the Starport. What could draw them to the slums, and how many will suffer before they find what they're looking for?
Typical Dragon Sage
Typical Goblin Spider
Attachments Nature. Attributes {-36} • Agility: (1d6) [+3] {-6}. • Cunning: (1d4) [+5] {-9}. • Power: (1d4) [+5]. {-6} • Speed: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. • Spirit: (1d4) [+5] {-9}. Resources • Health: 8. • Merit: 30. • Qi: 10. Creature Powers {-33} • Bigger • Bolt • Claws • Dim Sight • Flight • Iron Shirt • Immortality • Phantom • Qi Sense • Shapeshifting • Unliving.
Creature Rank Rank 6 (1d2). Skills (+Focus) {-36} + Athletics: (1d8).{-2} + Education: (1d8).{-2} + Influence: (1d6).{-3} + Medicine: (1d10).{-4} + Meditation: (1d8).{-5} • Melee Wushu: (1d12).{-2} • Notice: (1d6).{-5} + Ranged Wushu: (1d10).{4} • Stealth: (1d10).{-3} • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d6).{6} Truths Unlike virtually all other Creatures, Dragons learn Truths. River Dragons know of the Ripples in the Pond, and one other Truth.
Attachments Hunger. Attributes {-9} • Agility: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Cunning: (1d12) [+1] {+3}. • Power: (1d6) [+3]. {-6} • Speed: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2] {-0}. Resources • Health: 6. • Merit: —. • Qi: 5. Creature Powers {-15} • Bolt • Claws • Dim Sight • Fear • Poison. -25
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Creature Rank Rank 2 (1d10). Skills (+Focus) {-26} + Athletics: (1d8). • Education: (—). • Influence: (—). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (—). + Notice: (1d4). + Ranged Wushu: (1d8). • Stealth: (1d8). • Tech: (1d12). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d8).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Hopping Vampires
Machine Spirits
Qi is the life force of the universe; but sometimes it turns dark, curdling into a force of living death. In places where dark Qi runs strong, unhappy spirits are sometimes drawn back to their corpses and given strength to rise again as jiang shi, or "hopping vampires."
Machines like cars, guns, and garbage trucks have spirits just like natural items, and these machine spirits have strange personalities. Obsessed with efficiently performing their duties, they often appear in the robes of an ancient government scholar, pulsing with electricity and rounded with wires.
Appearance: Hopping Vampires look just like they did when they were buried, albeit dessicated and dirty. Their joints are stiff with rigor mortis, causing them to hop after the living as they pursue the living to feed on them.
Appearance: Machine Spirits are sometimes mistaken for robots, but they can accomplish things with speed and ease than even a nanotech-enabled AI would have trouble with. They often look vaguely humanoid, with computer monitors for heads, bundles of writhing computer and power cables sprouting everywhere.
Plot Ideas: Hopping Vampires are a terrible threat, but the Dawn Lotus Group decides to loose a bunch of them in the Starport District to clear the area out so they can rebuild.
Plot Ideas: Technomagical experimentation summons machine spirits from devices. But they display emergent behavior; they form networks, and the more there are, the smarter they act. Soon, they become smart enough to summon more Machine Spirits from devices themselves, and soon all of New Hong Kong will be one massive, sentient Machine Spirit!
Typical Hopping Vampire Attachments Hunger for the flesh of the living. Attributes {-3} • Agility: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Cunning: (1d12) [+1] {+3}. • Power: (1d8) [+3]. {-3} • Speed: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Spirit: (1d12) [+1] {+3}. Resources • Health: 6. • Merit: —. • Qi: 4. Creature Powers {-15} • Claws • Dim Sight • Immortality • Qi Sense • Unliving. -25
Creature Rank Rank 1 (1d12). Skills (+Focus) {-10} + Athletics: (1d8). • Education: (—). + Influence: (1d10). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (—). • Ranged Wushu: (—). + Stealth: (1d12). • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d8).
Typical Machine Spirit Attachments Order. Attributes {-15} • Agility: (1d8) [+3].{-3} • Cunning: (1d6) [+4].{-6} • Power: (1d12) [+1]. {-3} • Speed: (1d8) [+2]. {-3} • Spirit: (1d10) [+2].{-0} Resources • Health: 6. • Merit: —. • Qi: 4. Creature Powers {-27} • Bolt • Dim Sight • Flight • Immortality • Interface • Phantom Form • Qi Sense • Tentacles • Unliving -25
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Creature Rank Rank 2 (1d10). Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). + Education: (1d12). • Influence: (—). • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). + Melee Wushu: (1d12). • Notice: (—). + Ranged Wushu: (1d12). {1} • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (1d6). {-3} • Unarmed Wushu: (—).
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Nature Spirits
Ogres
Everything has a spirit, including the rocks, plants, and trees. These spirits are usually "asleep," vaguely aware of their surroundings but unable to move or act, but sometimes a powerful natural phenomenon will develop an awakened spirit. Shamans like those of thee Resplendent Trigram School learn to commune with these spirits, and work to maintain harmony among them.
Shortly after landing, xenobiologists discovered the remains of the original natives, and re-created them with genetic engineering. These huge, shaggy humanoids were used for basic manual labor, but were badly over-worked and mistreated by their overseers from the Dawn Lotus Group. they rebelled and fled for the wilderness, and now are a major threat to the folks outside the city walls.
Appearance: Nature spirits can take on a variety of forms and appearances. The simplest just look like floating torsos composed of some element, often earth, fire, wood, water, wind, ether, or metal. Those with the most contact with humans take on the appearance of a bureaucrat, courtier, or warrior made of some elemental material.
Appearance: Ogres are big brutes, over seven feet tall, bulging with muscle. They dress in skins and furs, and carry simple weapons like clubs and spears. They love strong food and drink, and although they aren't dumb animals, they're easily tricked.
Plot Ideas: Nature spirits often act to protect the forests, rocks, trees, and rivers from needless waste, and are propitiated by ritual offerings. But sometimes they go mad with pain, and must be defeated by a Disciple.
Plot Ideas: Ogres are bad enough, but when they capture a shipment of high-tech weapons like vibroswords, the outlying regions are in trouble.
Typical Nature Spirit
Typical Ogre
Attachments Nature. Attributes {-0} • Agility: (1d10) [+2].{-0} • Cunning: (1d12) [+1]. {+3} • Power: (1d10) [+2]. {-0} • Speed: (1d8) [+3]. {-3} • Spirit: (1d10) [+2].{-0} Resources • Health: 6. • Merit: —. • Qi: 4. Creature Powers {-21} • Blast • Dim Sight • Flight • Immortality • Phantom Form • Qi Sense • Unliving.
Creature Rank Rank 1 (1d12). Skills (+Focus) • Athletics: (—). • Education: (—). + Influence: (1d10). • Medicine: (—). + Meditation: (1d10). • Melee Wushu: (—). • Notice: (—). + Ranged Wushu: (1d10). {1} • Stealth: (—). • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d10). {-1}
Attachments Revenge. Attributes {+0} • Agility: (1d10) [+2] {-0}. • Cunning: (1d12) [+1] {+3}. • Power: (1d6) [+4]. {-3; less due to Bigger} • Speed: (1d10) [+2] {+0}. • Spirit: (1d10) [+2] {+0}. Resources • Health: 7. • Merit: —. • Qi: 6. Creature Powers {-9} • Bigger • Dim Sight • Iron Shirt. -25
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Creature Rank Rank 1 (1d12). Skills (+Focus) {-16} + Athletics: (1d10).{-1} • Education: (—). • Influence: (1d10).{-3} • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). + Melee Wushu: (1d6).{-3} + Notice: (1d10).{-1} • Ranged Wushu: (1d12). {2} • Stealth: (1d10). {-3} • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d6).{3}
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Ravenous Demons
Shapeshifters
There are a dozen or more breeds among New Hong Kong's natives, and the Ravenous Demons are among the most terrifying. Over six feet tall, these evil spirits can take solid form. Their black scales ripple with power, and their long fingers are tipped with wicked claws.
Several of the alien lifeforms on New Hong Kond have natural metamorphic capabilities, and genetic researchers at the Dawn Lotus Group have tinkered with their genome extensively. The test results of one whimsical researcher escaped after taking on human and animal templates, and as a result, "humans" that can take on animal forms are sometimes encountered outside the city, or in the Starport District slums.
Appearance: Ravenous Demons have oily black scales, jagged mal-formed fangs, long wicked claws, and red glowing eyes. They're the very template for every kid's worst nightmare.
Appearance: Shapeshifters look like attractive humans. If they wish, they may transform to affect small animal features, like animal ears, slitted eyes, and claws. They can also transform into a specific form of animal, like a cat, fox, carp, raven, or other small creature.
Plot Ideas: Centuries ago, the Dark Emperor Kuei Wang ruled the demons, until the dragon sages rose up and bound him into the deepest caverns in the Ten Thousand Hells. Now, his grave has been disturbed, and he's raising up a new faction of demons to oppose the Crimson Gate Triad and the Shen Xia Temple.
Plot Ideas: Shapeshifters are curious about humanity, but their interest often turns to mischief and cruelty. Fox and cat shifters often flirt with and seduce humans, while raven and badger shifters enjoy battle. The superstitious peasants outside the city sometimes regard Shapeshifters as powerful nature spirits, often leading to disaster.
Typical Ravenous Demon Attachments Hunger. Attributes {-21} • Agility: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Cunning: (1d10) [+2] {0}. • Power: (1d6) [+4]. {-6} • Speed: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Spirit: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. Resources • Health: 7. • Merit: —. • Qi: 8. Creature Powers {-27} • Claws • Dim Sight • Fear • Immortality • Iron Shirt • Leap of the Winds • Phantom • Posession. • Qi Sense. -65
Creature Rank Rank 3 (1d8). Skills (+Focus) {-17} + Athletics: (1d6).{-3} • Education: (—). • Influence: (1d10).{-3} • Medicine: (—). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d10).{3} + Notice: (1d8).{-2} • Ranged Wushu: (—). {-} + Stealth: (1d6). {-3} • Tech: (—). + Unarmed Wushu: (1d6).{3}
Typical Fox Shapeshifter Attachments Attention, Romance, Thrills, or Vanity. Attributes {-21} • Agility: (1d8) [+3] {-3}. • Cunning: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. • Power: (1d10) [+2] {-0}. • Speed: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. • Spirit: (1d6) [+4] {-6}. Resources • Health: 5. • Merit: —. • Qi: 6. Creature Powers {-15} • Dim Sight • Illusions • Qi Sense • Shapeshifting • Temptation
Creature Rank Rank 2 (1d10). Skills (+Focus) {-20} + Athletics: (1d6). • Education: (1d10). + Influence: (1d6). • Medicine: (1d10). • Meditation: (—). • Melee Wushu: (1d12). + Notice: (1d8). • Ranged Wushu: (1d10). + Stealth: (1d6). • Tech: (—). • Unarmed Wushu: (1d12).
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Note: Every different kind of Shapeshifter will have different stats. Those listed above are typical for Fox Spirits, but other Shapeshifters may vary wildly from these.
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Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
Datapoint 10.0: Kong
New Hong
A thousand years ago, a colony ship arrived from old Terra. It carried two hundred colonists. The Kannon was was crewed by representatives from the Dawn Lotus Group. The command crew fought with one another, and in the end a faction among the ship's scholars and scientists stole several of the ship's boats and escaped into the mountains shortly after the Kannon came to its new destination. They named the world New Hong Kong, and built a city there of the same name. The rebels headed off in two directions. One contingent went to Mount Meru, and founded a temple there based on scientific, philosophical, and religious study. A contingent of exiles was sent to the Canyon of the Ten Thousand Hells, where they discovered alien ruins. The Kannon landed near the coast of a great ocean, and was cannibalized to build the great city of New Hong Kong.
The City of New Hong Kong
Image courtesy Photoeverywhere.co.uk.
The city of New Hong Kong itself is a vast, overcrowded metropolis, choked with neon and trash. Skytowers rise above the clouds, gleaming like mirrors, heavens where the rich sip wine and plan new product lines and make art, while below the people labor.
The Barracks District Located slightly inland of the city proper, the "Barracks" started off as the base for the Kannon's sef-defense force, but gradually evolved into regular residential housing. The Barracks are poor and cramped, but not as bad as the Starport. The roads wind dizzyingly up and down various hills, and it's tough for outsiders to find their way through the row upon row of apartment buildings, townhouses, parks. Some say that the military officer that laid out the Barracks was high as a satellite during the planning, while others claim the design is made to blunt an outside assault that never came. The SDF was disbanded when the colonists came to believe that New Hong Kong had no inhabitants.
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The Grand Bazaar District
The Complex District
Not far from the Tournament Square, the Bright Pearl Tea Shop is a favorite of fighters. Serving the best tea (and strong wine) are the prettiest tea-shop girls. This is the best place for Disciples to get a drink or a bite to eat, engage in a little friendly gambling, or listen for rumors. The Bright Pearl Tea Shop: Not far from the Tournament Square, the Bright Pearl Tea Shop is a favorite of fighters. Serving the best tea (and strong wine) are the prettiest tea-shop girls. This is the best place for Disciples to get a drink or a bite to eat, engage in a little friendly gambling, or listen for rumors. The Grand Bazaar: The namesake of the district, an explosion of color and noise, where food, holodisks, clothing, pets, and everything else imaginable is available for a few yuan and a lot of haggling.
Food on New Hong Kong Most food on New Hong Kong is grown in massive hydroponics gardens located under the city, but everyone with a balcony or garden grows a few vegetables of their own. In addition, there are hundreds of small farms outside the city, where peasants farmers live much as they did on old Terra for centuries.
Skytowers soar above the clouds, providing the wealthiest and most celebrated a place to separate themselves from the cares of those below. These powerful individuals are the descendents of the original Dawn Lotus Group colonial administrators. The collection of dozens of Skytowers are called the Dawn Lotus Complex, and this entire, heavilycontrolled area is called the Complex District.
The Dock District Cutter's Place: Cutter is a back-alley surgeon, who performs discount cyber-surgery, delivers babies for the wives of the dock workers, and sews up wounds when the fishermen get into drunken brawls. He's an ancient, shriveled, greedy old sot, but occasionally charged nothing to those in desperate need. The Rat's Nest: The stronghold of the Crimson Gate Triad are the rat's nest of run-down warehouses along the seaside. Disgruntled dock workers and outof-work fishermen protect the gangsters and shield them from the law.
The Farmer's District
Food tends to be simple, making heavy use of rice, pasta, sorghum, and vegetables like watercress and cabbage. Most people get meat of some kind with one meal a day, either beef, pork, chicken, or goat. Deep-fried foods, like we associate with “Chinese restaurants,” are reserved for festivals, or the rich folks of the skytowers. The most common drink is strong tea, but rice wine is fairly common fare for adults. In the city proper, soda isn't too uncommon, but is a little expensive. Cooks, and a few Western colonists, carried a taste with them for sandwiches and beer, but these are rare delicacies.
The Tournament Square: Each year New Hong Kong hosts a massive tournament, just before the New Year festival. Fighters from across the city, and outlying communities, flock to the city to fight for a massive purse of yuan. The winner for the last five years has been Grinning Ogre Jiao.
The Farmer's District is actually beneath the city, where hundreds of hydroponics farms grow most of the food the city consumes. Endless long rooms filled with lamps and white walls, lots of robot farm hands and roboticists and irrigation experts. The miles of pipes and tunnels that supply water are great places to hide, or to hide a body.
The Starport District After the Kannon landed, the crew expected periodic supply vessels from the Dawn Lotus Group on Terra. The colonists built the starport, and waited for visitors to arrive with presents. When no one showed up, the DLG executives built a few ships to explore the solar system for valuable resources. In the end, they decided that the journey was too difficult, and abandoned the starport altogether. Now, the rundown starport is one of the grimiest slums of New Hong Kong. Abandoned dreams live here alongside hatred and apathy. Deadeye Jin's Gun Shop: Sometimes Disciples need equipment, and Deadeye Jin can get anyone any tool for killing, for a price. Based in an old military bunker, Jin has a massive arsenal of weaponry left over from before the Kannon's original expedition. Filthy Meng's Emporium: Meng styles himself a respectable businessman, but everyone calls him "Filthy Meng" because of his personal hygiene. The Emporium is the base for the Crimson Gate Triad in the Starport District, and it's a combination restaurant, booze joint, and whorehouse.
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The Ruined Shen Xia Mission: Once, the Shen Xia Temple kept a mission in New Hong Kong, where they taught the people the ways of enlightenment and peace. The teachings caught on, but they were linked with rebel groups, and the Temple was shut down on trumped-up charges.
The lifestyles of the poor and ignored In the city of New Hong Kong, most people work in factories or the food processing plants. They pay massive taxes on their meager incomes to the Dawn Lotus Group, and are taught from an early age that civil rights are a naïve, impractical notion from Old Terra. Most live in tiny apartments in squalor with their entire family. Visiting different districts in the city requires passing multiple police checkpoints. The safe areas are patrolled by Cyber-Legalists, but the filthy slums are lousy with gangs and cutthroats. Outside the city's tall, heavy steel walls and railgun turret defense towers lay untold stretches of uncharted wilderness, dotted with tiny villages and farms. Lucky exiles might have a few amenities, like a holo-recorder or a few guns, while basic amenities like running water might be problematic. Bandits and demons are a constant threat. The lucky peasants live close to Shen Xia, and trade food for protection, while the unlucky live within the influence of the Ten Thousand Hells, and live in fear of offending their greedy, merciless neighbors.
The Canyon of Ten Thousand Hells To the north of the City of New Hong Kong, is a deep canyon, in the middle of a tackless desert. A group of malcontents and rebels, war criminals and unethical researchers, landed here and created a place for themselves. The founders discovered traces of another, ancient civilization on New Hong Kong, a race of nonphysical beings that few on the colonists' fear and suffering. At first, the demons won; the Hell-dwellers call this the Time of Travail, when they were ruled by a "Demon Emperor," a human possessed by the strongest of the demons. Eventually, the humans found mental and spiritual techniques to allow them to harm the spirits in turn, and the practitioners of this way called themselves the Order of the Yama Lords. For decades, the sorcerous Yama Lords ruled over the Ten Thousand Hells. Influenced by the greedy and hateful demons, the citizens of the City of of Travail were renowned for their strength, cunning, and mercilessness. When renegades from the Temple of Shen Xia brought Crimson Gate wushu to the Thousand Hells, chaos reigned once again, until the Yama Lords and the Crimson Gate renegades reached an uneasy truce. That "peace" steadily declined, and the Triad of demons, renegade Disciples, and sorcerors knew that without new lands to conquer, the three would soon be at one another's throats. Thousands of peasants lived throughout New Hong Kong, people that could be enslaved. The city of New Hong Kong lay to the south, vulnerable to corruption. And eventually, the Temple of Shen Xia itself made a tempting target, with its pious, self-righteous, indignant mouthings about spirit and peace and suchlike offal. Such tempting targets, the newly-forged Crimson Gate Triad couldn't possibly resist.
Any given inhabitant of New Hong Kong might look on the Disciples of Shen Xia with admiration, distrust, fascination, resentment, the desire to manipulate and control, or the interest of the devoutly spiritual. The one thing that Disciples rarely experience is the boredom and obscurity of an ordinary life.
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The Disciples use little technology in their daily lives. Most food is grown and prepared by hand, for example. They aren't technophobes, though; computers store databases with information on the disciples, and holographic displays are used in lectures on the Doctrines. It isn't perfect. The masters sometimes disagree on the Doctrines, and Disciples have the same jealousies and petty disagreements that others do. But the Shen Xia Temple is a community founded on the hope for peace, and liberation from suffering, and in that goal all of the sisters and brothers are united in peace and joy.
The Ugliest Thing The Dawn Lotus Group was based on the island of Hong Kong on old Terra, and its employees were mostly Han Chinese, but included many other Asian and Western races. The bridge crew and colonists were drawn from these employees, and evenly mixed between male and female.
Image courtesy Freeimages.co.uk.
The Temple of Shen Xia Far to the east of New Hong Kong, high atop Mount Meru, is the Temple of Shen Xia. Massive and ancient, the temple is build of enduring marble and jade. In the temple proper, beautiful carvings of buddhas, adorned with silk and leafed with gold, form the only costly ornamentation. The Disciples live here simply, and hard work, long hours of practice, and long hours of prayer and meditation, occupy their time. This might sound boring, but the Disciples here lead rich lives. Aside from their mystical and wushu training, they create art, defend the villagers in the areas surrounding the mountain, and even host visitors from the city. The Drunken Fool School holds raucous parties from time to time, while the Ebullient Dragon trains in mock battles to prepare not just for fighting, but if necessary for war. The Phantom Wolf and Resplendent Trigram Disciples patrols for demons and the undead, while the Heavenly Brazier Disciples conduct alchemical, scientific, and technological experiments.
In space, everyone has to work together to survive. Nothing matters more than brains and skill. The bridge crew of the Kannon formed the eventual leadership of the New Hong Kong colony, the Shen Xia Temple, and the Ten Thousand Hells. And among the bridge crew, skin color, sex organs, and sexual preferences were non-issues. And as for belief systems, the Temple of Shen Xia has always strongly encouraged tolerance, all over this new world. There are always reasons to hate, to feel ashamed, to condescend, to feel rage over differences large and small. Class warfare is alive and well on New Hong Kong, as well. Except for pockets of stupid retrogressive behavior, however, many forms of prejudice are a thing of a terrible dark past.
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Datapoint 11.0: Encounters Along the Journey The players' Disciples leave the Temple of Shen Xia and travel New Hong Kong, to defend the helpless and defeat the world's evil. But ... how does that work? What actually happens at each step along the Journey? How do you decide what challenges the Disciples face?
The Role of Destiny Destiny's role in Kill The Buddha is simple: to help interpret the rules, and to make sure that everyone has fun. That's it. How does Destiny do this? By narrating the actions of the Bystanders and the Adversaries, and reinforcing the themes in the Inspirations that they and the players choose for every Encounter. In other games, Destiny is called the Game Master. They're in charge, and make all of the decisions. In Kill The Buddha, though, there's a subtle difference. Instead of "mastering" or controlling everything that happens in the game, Destiny is more a "Guardian of Themes" and "Gal/Guy that Moves the Story Forward." Kill The Buddha asks players to narrate the results of their actions, and has a system to help the players create their own Encounters. This simplifies Destiny's job immensely, and lets everyone in on the fun of running as well as playing the game!
Creating Encounters This section will help Destiny and the players create an exciting Encounter for their Disciples. There are five important parts to every Encounter along the Journey: Bystanders, Adversaries, Location, and Goals. Kill The Buddha is like any roleplaying game, in that it draws from outside inspiration. Using this system, you'll draw on the vast wealth of cyberpunk and kung fu movies, novels, animation, and comics out there to create your story together.
Step 1: Everyone Chooses an Inspiration Everyone chooses a cyberpunk film or book, or a wuxia film or book. The Inspirations list is a perfect place to start, but there are many more sources of appropriate Encounter elements. Does everyone have an Inspiration? Good. Move on to Step 2. Example: Jennifer, Tom, Sarah, Mike, and Rob are playing Kill the Buddha, and Tom is Destiny. He tells Jenn, Tom, Sarah, and Mike to each secretly choose an Inspiration. Jenn chooses the cyberpunk anime Bubblegum Crisis. Tom chooses the Western-produced Asian fantasy film Forbidden Kingdom. Sarah really likes the classic kung fu film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and Mike really likes the classic Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
Step 2: Location Randomly choose one player. The group should list the locations in the media they chose, and choose at least one that they like. This is where the Encounter will take place. Example: Tom has everyone roll a twenty-sided die, and Mike rolls the highest. He says that he chose Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, and everyone agrees that they liked the sets for Nirvana Village. Kind of fitting, in fact, for a game about cyberpunk wuxia! So the Encounter begins when the Disciples visit a memory vacation center like Nirvana Village.
Step 3: Bystanders Bystanders are ordinary folks that can help the Disciples, or that need their help. Sometimes they have important lessons to teach the Disciples, and sometimes they have to learn important lessons from the Disciples' doctrines. Either way, Bystanders need help from the fighters from Shen Xia against the Adversaries they Encounter. Example: Sarah got the next highest roll, and she tells the others that her film is The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The plot is about a Shaolin monk who leaves the temple to teach the commoners kung fu so they can rise up against the Manchu invaders. The group decides that the Encounter should include a couple of
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ordinary folks that want to learn wushu from the Disciples, and can help in the fight if the Disciples have (and take) the time to teach them.
Step 4: Adversaries Adversaries are the Disciples' opponents. They needn't be true villains; sometimes it's a mere misunderstanding that turns them against the Path of Enlightenment, and sometimes they're true heroes, serving a despicable master, or honoring a rash oath. Sometimes the "enemy" are the Disciples' own teachers, too devoted to study and meditation to see the suffering of the people of New Hong Kong, and the Disciples must weigh duty and loyalty against the price of rebellion. Example: The next highest roll is Tom. He's the only one that's seen Forbidden Kingdom, but he really liked the white-haired villainess, Ni-Chang. She was beautiful but cold, and an incredibly talented warrior. The group decides that maybe a powerful Crimson Gate warrior lady invaded the memory vacation center. She's leading a group of Crimson Gate warriors, and they're looking for ... a Goal.
Step 5: Goals
Encounters along the Journey So what kinds of problems do the Disciples face, as they journey across New Hong Kong together?
Demons.
Demons from ancient times still dwell this land. The Shen Xia Temple has always helped defend the people against these creatures. Even the most jaded skytower citizen knows that the Shen Xia Disciples help keep these vicious spirits in check.
Justice.
The Disciples of Shen Xia are renowned among the common folk, particularly the peasant farmers outside the city, for their wisdom and impartiality. They're often called on to arbitrate disputes, settle bets, or judge crimes.
Wisdom.
In every Encounter, the Disciples need to accomplish something, or prevent the Adversaries from accomplishing something. Example: Jenn rolled the lowest, and she tells everyone that she chose the classic cyberpunk anime Bubblegum Crisis as her media. In the series, the heroes want to defeat a group of rogue robots, that rise up against their human creators. The group decides that maybe a secret corporate experiment is siphoning memories from the vacationers to implant in robots, making the robots more sentient and unpredictable. The Crimson Gate warriors want to capture the powerful combat robots for their own use, and the Disciples need to stop them, with the help of the Bystanders, if they can!
Step 6: Playing the Game
The Disciples of Shen Xia seek spiritual knowledge above all else. Interesting mystical instruction, books of philosophical practices, or tales of hermits on remote mountains (or deep in the sewers) might all attract their interest.
Fighting.
Pride is a sin; and yet, many Disciples take great pride in their martial arts skills. They're taught not to show off for personal gain, but many Disciples find excuses to enter fighting championships. And in some cases, there are stories of a new fighting art that might be of interest to the Temple
The Crimson Gate Triad.
From here, Destiny will begin the Encounter, describing to the Disciples how they came to this place, and what challenges they face.
The Crimson Gate Triad are the greatest threat that Disciples must face. Using wushu, dark sorcery, demon powers, cyberneticallyenhanced thugs, and very form of vice and perversion, the Triad spreads through New Hong Kong's underworld, taking the reins of power. They rule through power and preach fear and Delusion. They will not listen to Truth or reason. Sadly, the only way to stop them seems to be force … isn't it?
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Step 7: Concluding the Encounter: Triumph and Tragedy Wuxia stories rarely have a "happy ending." But they're seldom truly tragic, either; the Disciples must sometimes make a steep sacrifice to protect the dharma and the innocent. Destiny and the players may keep this in mind, when running a game of Kill The Buddha.
Caveats No system is perfect, and this ad-lib Encounter system is no different. The system inarguably works best if the players are already big fans of cyberpunk or kung fu media. Arguments can arise whether some film or book actually "fits the criteria." Some players may be uncomfortable making suggestions, or try to talk over others' suggestions. Most problems in a game can be solved by the wisdom, graciousness, and insight of Destiny. It can't be repeated often enough: make sure that everyone's contributions are solicited and respected equally, and that everyone has fun.
The Buddhas and Destiny There are many Buddhas, each in charge of one or another portion of the fate of the Middle Kingdom. In like wise, the role of Destiny can be broken up into multiple roles, so several players can work together to present the Encounter to the other players.
Bodhidharma, the Missionary Bodhidharma is the missionary that brought the people of old Terra's China the word of Buddha from India. He was wise and fierce, and saw everything the world had to offer. The player that takes the role of Bodhidharma describes locations, and decides on the words and actions of Bystanders (outside of social conflicts). As the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism, he was an incredibly enlightened man.
Budai, the Laughing Buddha When many people think of Buddha, they think of a laughing, fat man, sitting cross-legged. They're thinking of Budai, the Buddha of contentment and prosperity. The player taking on the role of Budai narrates social situations. When the Disciples plead with a corporate governor to repeal an evil law, or
intimidates a merchant to open up his food stores to a famished village, Budai decides what the players need to roll, and what the Bonuses and Penalties will be. Since Budai is the Buddha of plenty, the player taking this role awards Qi when the Disciples act according to their Attachments.
Kwan Yin, the Compassionate Buddha Throughout old Asia, Kwan Yin was revered as the mother of compassion and mercy. Mothers prayed to her for healthy deliveries, and the elderly prayed for comfort with their aches and pains. Life is full of pain and sorrow, and the player that takes the role of Kwan Yin decides on issues regarding health, healing, disease, poison, and wounds. When Disciples heal from injuries, whether by performing first aid, by natural healing, or by Taking A Breath, Kwan Yin decides how much health is restored if there's ever a question.
Wei Tuo, the Wrathful Buddha All of the Buddhas are kind and just, but some are renowned for defending the faith, and destroying illusions wherever they're found. Wei Tuo, also known as Skanda, is the chief of the guardian deities, the protectors of the faith. Although dedicated to peace, sometimes Disciples must fight to defend the Path of Enlightenment, and the player taking the role of Yama plays the Encounter's Adversaries, levies bonuses and penalties for attack rolls, and decides how to interpret the combat rules. When combat ends, or when the Disciples achieve great things, Wi Tuo accords them Kung Fu for their great deeds.
Karma and Rebirth The players should be rewarded when they helped the entire group to have fun. Awesome Idea: If the player has an awesome suggestion for Destiny, that Disciple earns 1 Kung Fu. This might be something that a Bystander or Adversary can do, an interesting detail about a Location, or an interesting idea for the Encounter's back story. Demonstration of Skill: If the Disciple makes a roll, and the Houses of the Heavens Align, or the Disciple earns the Jade Emperor's Favor, they gain 1 Kung Fu. Enabling the Game: Any player that does something extra to make the game more fun earns 1 Kung Fu. Making food, or pitching in to buy food, providing a place to play, all of these things count as Enabling the Game.
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Moment of Humor: If the Disciple does something that causes the other players to laugh, they gain 1 Kung Fu. Moments of Wisdom: The first time the Disciple sacrifices their own interests, and instead embodies the teachings of Compassion, Emptiness, Generosity, or Peace, the Disciple gains 1 point of Merit. Each subsequent time, the Disciple gains 1 Kung Fu. If anyone is playing a Courageous, the character just gains Kung Fu, not Merit.
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Shen Xia Disciple Datafile Name
Profession
School Rank Die
Attachment Truths
1 d [_____]
Attributes Die
Modifier
Die
Modifier
Agility
1 d [_____] +
Cunning
1 d [_____]
+
Power
1 d [_____] +
Speed
1 d [_____]
+
Spirit
1 d [_____] +
+
Resources Health Qi
Kung Fu Merit
Skills Die
Athletics Cybernetics Education Influence Medicine Meditation
Focus?
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
Die
Melee Wushu Notice Ranged Wushu Stealth Tech Unarmed Wushu
Focus?
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
1 d [_____]
Y
N
Special Techniques Special Technique
Source
Special Technique
Source
Equipment Weapon
Crushing
Fast
(Power/Cunning)
Precise
(Speed)
(Agility)
Accuracy
+
+
+
1 d [_____]
+
+
+
1 d [_____]
Armor
Block
Evade
(Agility)
+
(Speed)
+
Withstand (Power)
+
Equipment
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Bulk
Range
Qualities
Qualities
Kill The Buddha – Dystopian Kung Fu Roleplaying
The Will of Heaven Procedure (1). Destiny will roll one die of each type at the beginning of the battle, and set them aside. This is the Constellation. (2). When a Disciple attempts something difficult, Destiny will declare an Attribute and a Skill that the Disciple needs to roll (sometimes this is two Attributes). If the Disciple is rolling a Focus Skill, they may also roll their School die as well. (3). The Disciple rolls the indicated Attribute and Skill, and tries to find Matches. (4). The Disciple may spend 1 Qi to pull a die from the Constellation to form Matches. That die is now gone from the Constellation for the rest of the Battle. (5). The more Matches the Disciple makes, the better they succeed. The more times the Disciple fails, the less likely they will ever succeed.
Action Difficulty Virtually Impossible
Very Difficult Difficult Average Easy Very Easy Extremely Easy
Action fails unless Disciple uses a Special Technique or Truth Reduce all dice by one type Reduce one die by one type No change to roll. Reduce one die by one type Increase all dice by one type Action automatically succeeds with no Benefit.
Die
Bonus
Magnificent
1d4
+5
Exceptional
1d6
+4
Good
1d8
+3
Average
1d10
+2
Feeble
1d12
+1
Attack Crushing (Power, or Cunning for firearms) Fast (Speed) Precise (Agility) vs. Magic (Spirit)
Roll
Result
Combat Benefit, plus Four Dice The Jade Action cannot fail for rest in Match Emperor's Favor of Battle Three Dice The Houses of the Heavens in Match Align
vs. Block (Agility) Withstand (Power) vs. Will (Spirit)
Success, Combat Benefit
in Match
Approval of the Celestial One Time Success Bureaucracy
One Failure
The Stars MisAligned
Two Failures
The Anger of the Failure, Combat Hindrance Heavens
Three Failures
Combat Hindrance, Action The Mouth of cannot succeed until Hell Yawns Wide circumstances change
Two Dice
Reduce Attribute die type Reduce Skill die type Purchase 1d12 in new Skill Learn a new Truth
One Time Failure
-3 Kung Fu -1 Kung Fu -2 Kung Fu -10 Merit;
-8 Merit for a School's two Doctrine Truths
Creature Point Costs Reduce Attribute die type Increase Attribute die type
-3 Kung Fu +3 Kung Fu
Purchase 1d12 in new Skill
-2 Kung Fu
Reduce Skill die type
-1 Kung Fu
Additional Focus Skill
-3 Kung Fu
Creature Power
-3 Kung Fu
Disciple non-School Special -3 Kung Fu Ability (Immortality, Iron Shirt, Dark Sight, Leap of the Clouds, or Qi Sense)
Defense vs. Evade (Speed)
Effects
Disciple Point Costs
Attribute Levels/Bonuses Level
The Will of Heaven Results
Argument
Deception (Cunning) Intimidation (Power) Persuasion (Spirit)
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Defense vs. Disbelieve (Spirit)
