Legends of the Wulin is a WuxiaRole-Playing Game published by Eos Press, and a successor to the Weapons Of The Gods RPG. It is designed to showcase the larger-than-life heroes, the variety of kung fu techniques and the high power level of Wuxia - "Ranked Fighters" (AKA "Xia") can literally take down dozens of nameless mooks right out the gate, and character abilities deal with destiny, and the fate of all of China. Unlike Weapons of the Gods however, the powers of heaven and hell do not make their presence directly felt, leaving destiny in the hands of humans.
Arc Number: Four and Five. Factions are four sets of four, there are four Saint Beasts (maybe five). Four directions and the central plains, five great philosophies, five main relationships, five derivative relationships, five elements, five ranks, and five character archetypes.
Battle Couple: A possibility, even has mechanical support.
Best Her To Bed Her: Due to Daoist beliefs, it's not healthy for a woman to be stronger than her mate; it can cause sickness if her Yin is stronger than his Yang. Therefore, smart men don't bed women they can't best.
Cast From Hitpoints: Eyes of the Fiery Raptor, which boosts combat abilities at the cost of self-imposed ripples. Transformation of Dark Jade works similarly, allowing the user to surpass his own physical limits through careful application of poison.
Chef of Iron: There's a floating restaurant in Notably Picturesque run by a legendary warrior who has mixed cooking with kung fu and the Secret Arts, known only as the God of Cookery. If you seek him out, you could learn things like how to use food to influence someone's chi, or train in his kung fu style that uses kitchen utensils with deadly results.
Church Militant: The Priest archetype in general, and the Little Forest Sect and Fire Doctrine in particular.
Defeat Means Friendship: Definitely possible with the after-combat Rippling roll. In fact...
Demonstrated (and lampshaded) in the writer's comedic game Nihao Honey Year 2[1] in a fight between Blaze the Mighty and Cracked Bell. Inverted because Blaze was the one who instilled friendship in CB, even though she lost.
Elemental Powers: Divided among five main types, with three others that sit outside the system. Each type of non-normal chi counts double for its own particular style, and Corrupt and Enlightened Chi count double for ALL elements.
Wood Chi, which promotes the growth and health of the user
Fire Chi, which focuses on the Burn status effect and speed
Metal Chi, which grants the user incredible resilience and physical strength
Earth Chi, which focuses on the Shock status effect and Chi regeneration
Water Chi, which focuses on the Freeze status effect and weakening the opponent
Normal Chi, which can fuel any elemental style, along with the others, though not as well as the focused types
Corrupt Chi, which focuses on the Poison status effect and causing extra damage
Enlightened Chi, which comes only from meditation and adherence to the tenets of a religion
The Four Gods: There are heroes who name themselves after each of them, including the fifth, Golden Dragon, which is meant to be reserved for the Emperor himself!
King of the Homeless: The Beggar King, head of the Beggar Fraternity. Interestingly, this position is open to anybody who proves themself when the current one dies or retires.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Not chi, which is more or less practical magic. Other powers that might be supernatural, like a priest declaring something to be a supernatural event or the elusive Heaven Hunters are deliberately left ambiguous.
One of the secret techniques is Buddha's Palm. Yes, it's pretty much taken straight from the movie.
The Yun Clan's ancestral weapon, the Snowstorm Saber, is effectively identical to Wind's Snowy Saber.
The Heaven Sword Alliance's makeup is very similar to the Five Mountain Sword Sect Alliance from Jin Yong's "The Smiling Proud Wanderer" and it's leader, Sword Spirit, shares a name with a Storm Riders character.
The legendary warrior Lonely Devil Dugu is based entirely off of Jin Yong's Dugu Qiubai character.
To say nothing of Unstained Lotus Mastery, which kills the opponent by causing his internal organs to explode. Unstained Lotus Mastery is much less messy about it, though.
The game's focus on awesomeness and singlehandedly trashing armies is quite reminiscent of Exalted, another tabletop game.
Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: While mainstream society is just as sexist as it was historically, the Wulin is presented as an idealized society, where members are judged by their deeds, rather than their sex, ethnicity or wealth. The game recommends that for female PCs, gender prejudice should only be as much of a problem as the player wants it to be.
Super Mode: Many of the styles have some technique that can be maintained at a discount for subsequent rounds. These range from increasing your dice pool, to turning your flesh to steel, to empowering your body with purified chi, to true unity with your sword, and so on.
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