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 Buidlings

The basic sect building that your sect is built around has many basic training facilities to allow cultivators to cultivate within its grounds, but there are many more buildings and improvements you can add to this basic structure. This is a list of some basic examples that have defined uses, but you can create custom ones, so long as you give a proper description of its workings in your post.

Weapon Refinery: Required to create Weapon Relics

Armour Refinery: Required to create Armor Relics

Pill Refinery: Can be used to create all sorts of cultivation pills and poisons, and refine rare herbs, giving them more potent effects.

Talisman Refinery: Required to create Talisman Relics

Library: allows heroes to store and share techniques, allowing you to duplicate a technique to another hero for a cost.

Closed Cultivation Room: Allows one Hero to upgrade for half the cost each turn.

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)
Basic Sect Facilities
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. There are some traits that do not appear on this list, because they can only be obtained in-game, through secret methods.

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).

Great Works: Your Disciples upon the founding of your sect created a great building to commemorate the occasion, the building becoming a core part of your sect in the process. Choose one of the Following: Weapon Refinery, Armour Refinery, Pill Refinery, Talisman Refinery, Closed Cultivation Room, or Library. You gain the appropriate building for no additional cost and may repair it for no cost if it ever gets damaged or destroyed.

Negative Traits

Cursed Sect(Sect Type): a curse has befallen your sect, and you cannot seem to prosper until it is lifted. You cannot change Sect types (Even if a new one would normally override this) until you remove the source of the curse. Reduce all prestige gained by half.

Lone Wanderer: While you have founded a sect, and built the necessary buildings on your own, you are still, as always, very alone. You gain half the normal Disciples from any event, and you start with no Disciples.

Character Rules

WIP

Xianxia: The Forgotten Path

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