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The adventurers, throughout their journey, has chanced upon a merchant who dares to bring his business to dangerous and hostile regions, as long as men (nay, anyone!) willing to trade dwells there. Now the adventurers are seasoned and experience, the merchant has a proposal – the adventurers would be the captains of his caravans, charting the route, looking to the defense and finding new opportunities. In exchange, the merchant would provide a steady income, a share of the profit and a stab at high-powered politics if they become successful together. Sounds like a neat plan, no?

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A fine compound longbow craved from a silvery-white wood, cold to the touch and standing at least as tall as a full grown man. Faeries have a tale concerning this bow – Sedra of the Grove was challenged by an Imp to craft a bow that would fire volleys even at the incoming wind. Sedra accepted the challenge on his honour, and journeyed far north to the lands of ice and sunless days, working on the bow and using his mystic arts to bind a wind spirit to the weapon. Whether the wind spirit was tricked into inhabiting the weapon or was joyous at being able to unleash a gale at whims depends on the teller of the tales.

Dragon Warriors Stats:
Longbow +2 (d8+2, 8), ignore penalties for strong wind and always able to reach maximum range despite weather. At the cost of 4 MP or 4 HP, the wielder can summon a gale of howling wind to accompany the arrow – the wind is enough to cause strong men to stumble, incurring a -4 Attack and -2 Defence for one round.

Fate 3.0:
The Arrow Cuts Through the Air, Call Forth the Wind

Altered Fate
Longbow (range: far, damage: 4),
Aspects: The Arrow Cuts Through the Air +3 (Common)
Abilities: Call Forth the Wind +4 (Requires exertion, form: wind, function: use Might skill, inflicts disability)

I talked about the Ravages of Time scanalation previously, when discussing about its fresh perspective on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Its take is different from KOEI’s over-the-top action games and dry-as-history-book strategy games and other Japanese magna. But I just talked about it, and didn’t show any of it. A big mistake which I will remedy now. Here are two great scenes (without spoilers!) from the series – one dealing with action, one dealing with strategy. The ideas from the series can be adopted for Qin, Weapons of the God or a Wuxia setting of your choice. Enjoy!

The adventurers have returned from their far-flung quests, growing wiser, deadlier, richer and more powerful, only to return to their own realm torn by civil wars, banditry and feuding warlords. Their home is no more; towns they knew were razed, old friends died in battles and familiar fields trampled. What was the cause? When did it begin? Who are right and who are wrong? Those matters, because the adventurers are no mere vagabonds in search of a bounty or following rumours of a stray artefact. They have returned as figures of legends…

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When Hogshead (and Guardians of Order later) went down, so did a couple of Nobilis resources (or maybe my google-fu is too weak to locate them). So I have uploaded here (and please do tell me if I should need to take them down) for the players of my upcoming games, as well as any others who may need it.

Adventuring can be tiring over time, what with death-traps, sworn foes, monster hordes and dealing with pesky cursed artefacts. Well, here’s a chance for the adventurers to rest their feet and take a new free rein – an abandoned inn near a well-traveled crossroad. If the adventurers have been savvy enough, they should have enough gold to refurnish the place, hire a few cooks and servants and make some income while risking their limbs and legs.

Of course, as in any age, starting a business is not easy.

1. The inn is infested with more than just rats or the occasional vagabonds, but also haunted by a ghost and there are uncharted tunnels below the cellar. Clearing up the place to start a business would take considerable effort. However, the tunnels may hold some promising potential – do those led to hidden treasures? Why do they emerge? What good is it for?
2. The inn has business, and business means money, and money means the unwanted attention of tax-collectors…and brigands. The adventurers should have dealt with brigands before. How would they deal with one eying their inns? Or the passing by Kulanders? Sorcerers?
3. The location is superb for an inn, but why was the old one abandoned? Bards visiting the adventurers’ establishment venture many stories – a band of crazed adventurers have burnt it down, the old boss was murdered in the dark of the night, a band of cultists once use it as their stronghold and so on and so forth. And the inn seems to be the hot-place of strange occurrences – goblins playing tricks on shepherd boys, harpies roaming the night sky and a trader who swear that he saw a hag sleeping in the courtyard by the stables! Should the adventurers verify those rumours? Or ask others to do it?

Sometimes, getting to the treasure is not the end of the quest, but rather the start of a new set of troubles! Selling powerful magical artefacts would definitely capture the attention of some people, and in some settings, such as Warhammer Fantasy Role-playing or Dragon Warriors, you may end up with the Church behind your back. Artefacts of power also tend to lure in more open-ended challenges. How do you deal with the potential world-destroying device?

The adventurers have chanced by (after much questing, of course) the Horn of the First King, believed to be given to the first mortal ever deem fit to rule in Elleseland by one of the faerie-lord. It is said that the Horn would summon an alliance of faerie-born and the beastmen if the First King’s realm was ever taken. One of the important quest entrust to a Seletine Legion was the discovery and destruction of horn, but apparently they have failed; records are sketchy and stories run rampant about it, but the adventurers are sure they got the Horn of the First King in their hands…

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of my favourite fiction of all time, and has been adapted to countless games (mostly Chinese) and one over-the-top fighting series (Dynasty Warriors, by KOEI). I usually rolled my eyes at manga and comic adaptations of Three Kingdoms, but there’s finally one that sets the standard – the Ravages of Time, or 火凤燎原. In fact, I have been wanting to write a RPG supplement for it for a long time, but who would play it? (Hint: I am writing about it because it is available, sort of, in English. Read below)

The best stuff about it is that there is no magic, no immortals, no Zhuge Liangs throwing laser beams or nonsense like that. Nor is it a stiff and boring re-accounting from the novels. The characters from the original novels are portrayed as larger than life, but not ridiculously over the top. The characters are memorable, the stratagems are superb, the atmosphere is authentic and the fight scenes exciting without being like Dragon Balls.

Where to start? You can begin by heading over to a fan scanlation of the series (and seeing that it is a Hong Kong comic series, not Japanese, I doubt it would ever be translated to English proper). Here are some reasons why I follow the series and is such a big fan. Hopefully more people would get to know this work and perhaps even role-play in it!

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Finally, one of my dreams is coming true – I may be able to GM a game of Nobilis!

I have the Big White Book for years, but never had a chance to form a group to play it. I am excited, but at the same time, afraid. The rules are lite enough but the fluff is thick. There’s so many concepts to impart to a new player without the rules, and the game is not a ‘you stroll into the inn and the bartender tells you about a horde of Orc plaguing the area”.

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This is the second hook which gives the PCs more of a free reign of play rather than being led down a dungeon or following some ancient legends. War is a fantasy’s staple, and so is espionage, so today’s theme deals with…spies!

There is a spy in the castle, the baron is sure of it. Battle plans are leak out, hunting parties are ambushed and merchants delivering grain to the castle are robbed, even though their route is a secret. The adventurers are called in to hunt down the spy, whoever he may be. This is quite a challenge, for the castle is old and reputed to be filled with secret passages, and the enemies of the barons are many. How should the PCs get started? Who is the most likely suspect?

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