A Wanderer's Romance is a rules-light system built around a setting that gives you a few key points and lets the GM do as he wishes with the rest. It started as a heavily Wuxia influenced game but has spread to become something of a mix of eastern flavours.

I usually ignore games that claim to use a variety of eastern flavour, but bear with me.

The game is based around three core parts of the system.

Characters are defined by scores in the four classical Elements that are used in combination with another Element in any task. As a result your character will have a broad range of skills they're good at straight off the bat. You're generally a skilled individual.

Anything can be a Duel. Combat is obvious and based around dozens of attacking and defensive styles. A tea ceremony can be a duel, a flower-arranging contest can be and of course we've already seen many drinking duels in our games.

Preparation is key. Duels tend to be fast and deadly and there are a number of mechanics in place to encourage you to prepare for such a contest. Location, activities leading up to the contest and your opponent are all key.

And the setting you ask? The key points are best summed up in the opening blurb.

QuoteThe world began as nothing but ocean before the Origins raised up a million colourful islands, anything larger than a few dozen miles being swallowed back down by the envious deep. The Origins who chose to take material form and live in this varied land were scorned by their kin and their city forced back beneath the ocean. Only a few survived in their new forms, eventually becoming the men and beasts of today. Our ancestors.

The Origins, now unable to influence our world directly, rely upon influencing men with words, knowledge and the promise of power. The teachings of the Origins led to our understanding of elemental balance, the formation of the thousand Legendary Styles and the universal code of combat that define our world today.

You are a great man or woman. An errant trained in both the noble art of combat and in contests of body and mind, both skillful and social. Drifting from one island to another for your own reasons, you have your own philosophy on life and the power to enforce it

And what do I want from you?

I've been sharing the running of this game with a couple of other GMs and drawing from a pool of common players, resulting in a somewhat confusing timeline that somehow works. If you want to run or play in this game stick a reply below. Even if you're curious feel free to throw any questions my way. If there's interest I'll chase up those who reply.

Be kind to the Google Doc when judgint its appearance, as always it's work in progress.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddmbxmt_12c3cb9gfk&hl=en

Edit: To clarify, these games have been based in IRC and the plan is to continue there.

...Your backstory has a large 'Where's the revenge' flaw.

Revenge where? The Origins that were scattered across the world wanting revenge against those who stayed apart from it? I should make it clearer in the setting but they're absolutely seperated now, with neither able to interact with eachother, so revenge isn't really on the cards.

I'm not sure what you mean by "a variety of Eastern flavors" but as soon as you mentioned the "four classical Elements" it started itching my nerditude. If eastern means Far East, I'd say that their symbolism usually involves five elements (earth, wood, metal, water and fire). But I guess it's a detail.

Please go on ^^

Quote from: boulet;272781If eastern means Far East, I'd say that their symbolism usually involves five elements (earth, wood, metal, water and fire). But I guess it's a detail.

You're absolutely right. This is why it just uses some Eastern flavour and isn't meant to be authentic to any eastern culture. For example, the Chinese Elements you mention are different to those used in Japan and so on, so I decided to go with the four classical elements that most players would associate strongly with.

I think you need to clarify the attitude towards the Origins, then. Because if I was somebody who's ancestors got mass-killed off by a bunch of jealous, still-living murderers, I'd be pretty pissed.

I've clarified the section on The Origins a little, but those two boxes (that one and The Ocean) are awaiting rewriting by someone who's better than me at such things

Ok, cool.

Other than that, good, original setting, from what you posted.