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An Ancient Chinese Wuxia Source Book
With Dragon Tiger Ox, we are looking at a part of the world that has never got the sort of attention it deserves- ancient China.
We are drawing on a lot of sources (modern and ancient) for this one.
A lot of it centers around the Waring States->Three Kingdoms Period and wuxia fiction.
The Basics
A Closer Look
The book itself is 75 pages at the moment and we are in our editing phase. We also are getting some downright GORGEOUS art from Fantasy Illustrator Jack Holliday.
What? You don't know who Jack Holliday is? Well you WILL know who he is after you check out the kind of artwork he's done in the past:[x] [x] [x][x]
We're not saying he's fantastic or anything (ok yes we are- Jack is amazing!) but I think when we roll out some of the stuff we've already got back from him in terms of concept art, you guys will be believers too!
What We are Looking For
We know how many times you all see a topic saying, "I want $8,000 to make this book we've conceptualized". We don't roll that way here at LRGG. We've minimized the cost (without impacting the quality!) and absorbed most of the fees for development up front.
That's right- we are coming to you guys with an almost finished book that we want to get into your hands before anyone else's.
We have a fantastic product and we want to make it even better. We are going to be launching the products with only a $1,200 goal. That basically recoups the money we spent on this book and nothing else. The lower tier donations will get a full copy of the book on launch and will be substantially lower than what you would be able to buy it for in the shop once it launches. We are even giving out complementary copies of our Heroes of the East line.
We're hoping that if you guys like it enough- we will get paid for the man hours we put into writing, editing, formatting, and playtesting the heck out of this source book.
We have a history of not only delivering our kickstarters on time, but ahead of schedule and we won't leave you hanging on the updates/communication!
Stretch Goals
We have some AWESOME stretch goals lined up including mysterious guest writers, new styles we have always wanted to write, myth and legendary level support, new magic items specific to a Chinese setting, and even some quick encounters with plot hooks (and NPC stats!).
Ok, When?
We are looking at doing a 30 day kickstarter. Pending any issues, we are aiming to launch on Sept. 28th.
We are looking to release the book just a few months after that. I believe we have it scheduled for January or February depending on stretch goals.
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You had me at "Wuxia Source Book Kickstarter". I am throwing money at the screen but nothing is happening...
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COUNT ME IN. Yes those were all caps. Instead of bringing my step-kids to Comic-Con over the weekend, you should have posted this on Friday so I could have thrown you guys that money. DAMMIT!! I'm in though, for sure.
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*sigh*ok more money gone from my wallet.
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Sounds fantastic. Love the "Rattling Chain" style, "Bad Dubbing" and "Gestalt Wuxia Madness".
Oh, and master Holliday's art is beautiful. Great dragon in the second pic and the fourth "steppe raiders" pic is awesome - nice costuming/weapons and I really like the fantastic structure in the background.
The 3 Kingdoms is a pretty iconic time in China's history. While it is the most romanticized, what made you select that era? Are you drawing from the fall of the Han, the middle, or the creation of Jin?
Are you pulling from Luo's work?
As a person:
Of all history in the world, I have been studying this period for about 12 years, along with Wuxia in general. So when you mention it, my ears perk up and my heart races....
As a player:
.......... but then I hold off. I've seen some poor executions on wuxia attempts. I am super curious and very excited. The least I will put towards it is a pdf copy. The most...depends on what you have to offer. So far no cap. Do know that I am in on this!!
As a designer:
What does one have to do to get a freelance gig on this? I would love to do anything needed to help!!!
-Greg
Thanks guys, we hope to exceed all your expectations ;-)
The 3 Kingdoms is a pretty iconic time in China's history. While it is the most romanticized, what made you select that era? Are you drawing from the fall of the Han, the middle, or the creation of Jin?
Are you pulling from Luo's work?
We are drawing from Luo's work (actually, a translated version from Roberts) but keep in mind that this is fantasy Ancient China (not historical).
When I was 17 I actually had a chance to go explore China with my father and brothers with some locals who moved to America to make some money. We spent a few week hiking around (mostly north eastern and east-central areas and spent a lot of time in Chengdu) and I found myself at Liu Bei's tomb. Totally changed my life. I had some knowledge of the 3 kingdom period and I monopolized the time of one of our Chinese friends who I asked to read just about every inscription possible.
I guess that's a long winded way of saying, "We are drawing inspiration from the aesthetic presented in the historical context while fully embracing the romantic version."
(Example ROUGH Sketch).
As a person:
Of all history in the world, I have been studying this period for about 12 years, along with Wuxia in general. So when you mention it, my ears perk up and my heart races....As a player:
.......... but then I hold off. I've seen some poor executions on wuxia attempts. I am super curious and very excited. The least I will put towards it is a pdf copy. The most...depends on what you have to offer. So far no cap. Do know that I am in on this!!
We hope to make a great product that you can be proud of. We'll do our best to meet the high bar you've set, but please keep in mind that this kind of source material means a lot of different things to different people. We are defiantly embracing the wuxia/fiction/romanticized version the period more than the historical one. A lot of it has to do with martial artists and the like.
We actually have a pretty funny KS video I can't wait to show you guys. Pays a bit of homage to the bad 70's kung fu flicks ;-)
As a designer:
What does one have to do to get a freelance gig on this? I would love to do anything needed to help!!!
-Greg
At some point we may open up playtesting/editing gigs. Shoot me an email at ScottGladstein@LittleRedGoblinGames.com
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As long as you make it that I can have adventures like either Kid with the Golden Arm OR House of Flying Daggers OR EVEN War of the Arrows I will be OK.
I think house of flying daggers is on our list of source material cites early on in the book :-) Red Cliff too!
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I think house of flying daggers is on our list of source material cites early on in the book :-) Red Cliff too!
If Five Deadly Venoms AND Kid with the Golden Arm are not on this list, somebody should be fired. ON THE SPOT! I mean HELLO!?!?!?!?!?!
For sure. We will have to make sure to add them.
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If Bladed Dash is a new Qinggong power, then I'm in with all my shoes
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Color me extremely curious!
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Sounds like this might be an instabuy for me. I'll certainly back it at some level.
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Is the Kick Starter a go?
Yep. We are just waiting to make sure all our ducks are in the row for our banking stuff. We will probably be making an announcement about a week before it goes up :-)
~Red
dot
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This could be the one book that truly captures the feel of the Three Kingdoms. Restore the glory of the Han dynasty with Liu Bei!
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I just want to be Lu Bu.
For sure. Just make sure you pick your brothers as well as he did ;-)
(Totally an adventuring party by the way...)
While I KNOW that you got a lot of stuff in the works I can't freakin wait for this.
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Yeah, but we have a pretty rigid development schedule.
We are currently working on:
Final submissions from the team ended on the 28th for us, now it's just reviews and editing. Art is in the painting stages and looking AMAZING.
We are doing our final editing passes/playtest on the Welshen source book. Just finished up with art and formatting will be underway this coming week. We're also in various stages on: Ewgee source book, Advanced Players Guide, and the adventure path. And as always, we are doing system touch ups and corrections.
Our "Flex Slot" is filled by a book about swords and people who are good at using them. We're doing a fencer cavalier alternate class that uses order and challenge (etc) while still being very unique (companion weapons anyone?), a meister fighter alternate (it has a lot of new uses depending on what kind of weapon you are using), a lot of new weapons/feats, and the like.
I'm a historical rapier fencer so I've been dying to write this for a while.
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I just want to be Lu Bu.
Try to roll higher for Int than he did :)
Lu Bu's choices led to an unheroic death despite his unmatched prowess on the battlefield. It would be interesting to imagine how the Three Kingdoms era might have turned out if he had remained loyal when allied with Liu Bei.
This Chinese TV series (with subtitles) tells the entire epic in all its detail (95 episodes!)
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This sounds interesting.
I just want to be Lu Bu.Try to roll higher for Int than he did :)
Lu Bu's choices led to an unheroic death despite his unmatched prowess on the battlefield. It would be interesting to imagine how the Three Kingdoms era might have turned out if he had remained loyal when allied with Liu Bei.
This Chinese TV series (with subtitles) tells the entire epic in all its detail (95 episodes!)
Always found that to be very poetic :-)
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Always found that to be very poetic :-)I just want to be Lu Bu.Try to roll higher for Int than he did :)
Lu Bu's choices led to an unheroic death despite his unmatched prowess on the battlefield. It would be interesting to imagine how the Three Kingdoms era might have turned out if he had remained loyal when allied with Liu Bei.
This Chinese TV series (with subtitles) tells the entire epic in all its detail (95 episodes!)
The series was great. Every other year I do a week marathon.
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I can think of worse things to spend a week doing (Like editing 80 pages of materials for spelling and grammar mistakes).
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First it was Wrestling, now Wuxia.
Somehow you have found my wish list of interests that I want to play out in RPGs. I don't know how you are doing it but keep doing whatever it is ...
I can imagine the "research" for this book would be just as fun as that for King of the Ring. I could spend a whole weekend lining up a dozen of my favorite Wuxia movies to re-watch: The Iron Monkey, The Swordsman series, Red Cliff, Once Upon A Time series, Hero, Wuxia
This is relevant to my interests.
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Just a heads up guys, we are probably going to launch it this weekend. We are just waiting on final KS approval.
So the DTO kickstarter will be launching tomorrow! (We just got approved)
So the DTO kickstarter will be launching tomorrow! (We just got approved)
Well, where is the preview link so we can look at it and comment BEFORE you release it and it goes live. I mean what is the worst that can happen if you don't...
So the DTO kickstarter will be launching tomorrow! (We just got approved)
*waves his toast in the air, like he just don't care*