Xianxia: The Forgotten Path

By the advent of the 16th century, cannons had become commonplace in China, and European handheld guns had started to hit the Chinese market. As a result, martial artists and cultivators, once the pinnacle of strength within Chinese society, had begun to fall out of favour. Guns were able to fell a cultivator in a single shot, so why become one? This, along with the dwindling Qi upon the world’s surface, has led to a severe decline in the number of cultivators; old dreams of immortals and ascension are long forgotten. However, all is not lost as a new wave of Celestial Qi has swept across the world, a gift from the upper realms, and Cultivation is once more starting to take root as Spiritual Herbs and Heavenly Beasts once long thought extinct are blooming upon the world once again.

The date is 1656, and the Qing Dynasty has just started establishing itself after a massive resurgence in the powers of heaven, allowing cultivators to reach heights not seen since ancient times. They once again raid old tombs and lofty peaks in search of treasures and techniques of their ancestors.

Reference

Basic Resources

Describes the basic resources for the game, there will be more magical items, but they will be exceptional cases rather than standard resources.

Money: Whatever the form, mortal money is an essential resource to any sect, whether it be in the form of Copper Coins or Silver Taels; Money can be traded for most mundane Items and services a sect might need, and in sufficient amounts might even be able to be exchanged for some more magical items if the owner is willing to part with it for simply money. When money is too mundane to buy an item, many cultivators use spirit stones as a currency or swap with other treasures.

Disciples: Disciples are your sects manpower; these disciples are in various realms of lower cultivation, averaging around what level your sect is. Used for any applications that need available manpower, rather than exceptional personal skill, and are your pool for growing heroes.

Prestige: As important as any other currency, keeping face is very important for any cultivator. While it doesn’t have any physical value and cannot be traded, high prestige and low prestige both have unique challenges and benefits. Can go into the negatives.

Heavenly Materials

List of all the basic heavenly resources and what they’re generally used for, usually these resources can only be found or traded for spirit stones. Not exhaustive of the upper-level resources, but those are rare treasures in their own right. Celestial Bronze(Weapon Refining), Meteoric Iron(Armor Refining), Spirit Stones(Recovery), Spirit Herbs(Pill Refining), Beast Cores(Hero Refining), Heavenly Jade(Talisman Refining).

Sect Rules

As the first cultivators in the rebirth of Qi, you are one of the first to establish yourself as a sect in this new era. Some ancient Sects may be on the same playing field as you, but most Sects within this era do not have a storied history, as they have mostly died out in the waning years of martial arts before the rebirth.

Each Sect has the following to start:

• 1 Hero(Sect Leader)
• 2 Positive Traits(take 1 Negative Trait to gain a Third)
• 500 Money
• 50 Disciples
• 10 Spirit Stones
• 5 Prestige

Traits

Traits are the various upgrades that you apply to your sect, you may only have up to 2(3 if you take a negative trait). Most traits are taken on game start, but some can be gained after. You may only have 1 Trait tagged Sect type, and if you would ever gain another, you lose your old one.

Positive Traits

• Ancient Sect(Sect Type): Start the game with a Mid-Grade relic; you can choose the type, it can be either a Weapon, Armor, Talisman, or Furniture relic, but the GM decides the exact effect. If your sect type ever changes, lose this relic.

• Hidden Sect(Sect Type): Your sect was founded in secrecy and remains in secrecy, not many Disciples find their way into your ranks, but those that do are extremely talented. You gain half the normal Disciples from any event(including the starting amount) but are twice as likely to generate a Hero each turn.

• Demonic Sect(Sect type): Demonic Sects have a much harder time engaging in diplomacy, and are more likely to have NPCs attack them if they are nearby. Demonic sects treat negative prestige differently, rather than being disregarded or looked down upon, as Demonic Sects build negative prestige, they become more infamous, gaining additional bonuses above what a sect of equivalent positive Prestige would have.

• Herb Gardens: Your sect has vast fields of herbs for use by their disciples, and even has managed to succeed in cultivating some rare spirit herbs, providing the elders with a consistent supply. Each turn you get 1 Spirit Herb, in addition, your Heros recover from injuries twice as fast thanks to the abundance of herbs.

• Mines: Your sect was founded on a mine containing Heavenly Materials, Choose Celestial Bronze, Meteoric Iron, Spirit Stones or Heavenly Jade, you gain 1 of that selected material type per turn(3 if you selected Spirit Stones).

Negative Traits

WIP

Character Rules

WIP