Articles · Campaign · Gaming - Genre
Chinese Lore- Weapons, Myths and Others
The one-stop Codex to peruse Chinese lore at your leisure. Eventually, this collection would include: weapons (blades, spears and bows), instruments (a particular type of string instrument known as the guqin), horses, myths (creation myths, legendary figures and folklore stories) and others (lifeforms, historical ranking systems and other topics subject to author whims and popular demand).
Codex
Codex introduction
Thinking of incorporating Oriental elements into your game? Then you've come to the right place here- a one-stop resource guide with direct links to various Chinese themed submissions that I've compiled from the web and manually translated into English.
Included in this Codex are:
- Legendary Chinese Swords:
I think the translation is pretty good but I just want to add to it by translating some of the sword names into English. I couldn't do it for all of them but I will list those that I could: No. 10- the Shadow Descendant; No. 9- Pure Might (the second character in the sword name is a measurement unit for weight); No. 8- the Fish Intestine. I should add that it's actually a dagger rather than a sword; No. 6- Seven Stars Dragon Abyss; No 4- Scarlet Heaven - Legendary Chinese Bows
- Legendary Chinese Strings (guqin): note that Strings here refer to String Instruments
- Legendary Chinese Broadswords
- Legendary Chinese Spears
- Legendary Chinese Horses
- Chinese Myths (forthcoming)
- Chinese Beauties (forthcoming)
- Chinese Ranking Compendium
I will also link my Chinse Mythical Lifeforms Codex here.
Now, as for the utility of this sub, my foremost thought is that this will be a comprehensive resource guide for GMs who want to add some Chinese elements or even create a Chinese theme campaign/quest. Even if that is not the actual plan, the content here can still function well as some meta-world information that GMs can drop into their world to spice it up with something different from the medieval Western world that has been the staple of fantasy.
Is that all, you ask? Well no. Thanks to Scras' comment, I thought hard about this aspect and I came up with the following additional uses:
- PCs could be picking up these lore in pubs or other places from NPCs. This can lead to multiple possibilities including: a lever to transition to a new quest/campaign or just a dead end to vex the players; the lore can be re-used as answers to riddles encountered in dungeons and other adventures; the lore might end up being useful when interacting with NPCs and help players to get approval from specific NPCs eg. lore/history enthusiasts, Chinese NPCs etc.
- Going further with the interaction of these lore with NPCs, there is the possibility might be also be get money for selling NPCs these lore. Or alternatively, there might be the possibility to cultivate a lore NPC as a long term contact. In particular, having such a contact might help the PCs to better able to ‘detect' the properties of the random loot they gathered from adventures.
Oh and finally, if there are topics that are not already covered here but you would really like to know, note it down in the comments and I will see whether I can accommodate the request.
Codex
Gathered submissions
This hub collects similar pieces — an “if you liked this, try these” shelf. Skim the summaries; open a title for a light reading preview, then follow through to the full piece to finish, award XP, or leave a scroll.
7 pieces
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Chinese Mythical Life forms
A collection of Chinese Mythical Lifeforms compiled from online sources -
A compendium of different Chinese ranking systems
An overview of various ranking system in ancient China (main sources used come from the Chinese version of Wiki) -
Legendary Chinese Bows
A collection of legendary Chinese bows from actual history, folklore and legend (first submission for my Chinese lore Codex) -
Legendary Chinese Strings (guqin)
A collection of legendary guqin (a specific type of Chinese string instrument) from actual history (2nd of my Chinese Lore series) -
Legendary Chinese Broadswords (Daos)
A collection of Chinse Broadswords (Daos) from history and folklore (3rd in my Chinse lore Codex) -
Legendary Chinese Horses
A collection of legendary Chinese horses from actual history and folklore (no. 4 in my Chinse lore Codex) -
Lore of Legendary Chinese Spears
A collection of lores about legendary Chinese spears (as opposed to the weapons themselves) from actual history and folklore (no. 5 in my Chinse lore Codex)
Scrolls
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Discussion
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Bonds
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Use alongside
Submissions that pair well with this one at the table.
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Harmless Chinese Mythical Lifeforms
A collection of relatively harmless Chinese Mythical Lifeforms
-
The Virednith
Behold, for I am the form of Destruction
Inscription on the Virednith
-
Tangrams (or Seven Piece Puzzles)
A shape assembly puzzle that can be inserted into any
cask/door/wall in a dungeon
-
Han Yu (Cold Jade)
An
ancient Chinese string instrument (guqin
being the actual term) adapted to a fantasy setting
-
Novel Musical Instruments
To give a world a feeling of otherworldliness, it is best to replace some standard, everyday objects by imaginitive replacements. I thought I'd turn to musical …
-
Dangerous Chinese Mythical Lifeforms
A collection of Chinese Mythical Lifeforms that can pose varying degrees of danger to adventurers and the general populace
Giving this an overall codex vote. Another great collection!! I'd rename this...Chinese Lore--Swords, Bows, and Instruments, or something similar, just so you know what is in here when browsing titles, or searching for said bows, swords, instruments, or what have you.
I get where you're coming from, Muro, but I'm iffy cos the title would then become massive i.e.
Chinese Lore- Weapons (Blades, Spears and Bows), String Instruments, Horses, Myths (creation myths, legendary figures and folklore stories) and Others
I can fully nominate such a title for a Muro award for longest submission title if it exists :P
Chewing on this, an easy solution is just to update the summary (duh, don't know why I didn't think of it sooner)
4/5 overall codex vote
Great codex! Nice stuff!