IMTU Dreams of The Long Night

The Long Night's impact is still felt in policies, media, and cultural outlook of the 3rd Millenium. As much as there are still strong repercussions from the 2nd World War in the present, there is a very strong mental presence of the Long Night a thousand years after it ended. Imagine all the movies and stories one was able to take from WWII then multiply that in Trillions, that is how much media there is to be consumed about the Long Night. 

Unlike how people of the present treat the Dark Ages the advanced and enduring media technology has allowed such horrors of the Long Night be preserved at such detail and vividness that an event thousand years ago that lasted  ~2000 years is so ingrained in the psyche of the culture of the Imperium it can mentally scar those who peer into such macabre history. 

In the Imperium the amount of holo/vr movies and games that depict the long night are plenty, but none compare to the AI sensory recordings that have survived to the present. Complete sensory recordings of AI implants or AI infrastructure with their extended lifespan visualizing the human plunge into dark ages is so horrifying that no human has every consumed such study with an intact psyche. 

When the Long Night came, thousands of worlds, hundreds of Trillions of people experienced it differently and uniquely. There is in fact a Long Night Study division, part of the Psycho Historical studies in many of the major institutions of learning in the 3rd Imperium. There housed are a slowly growing library about the long night and what horrors have survived to be retold. This division works closely with the other sciences in order to prevent the economic and psychological collapse of the Imperium from happening again or at least prevent it from happening as terribly and long as it did. 

What many have done in desperation to survive are plenty, both inspiring and horrific. One of them will be discussed in more detail in an article I call, IMTU - The Transient Human Form.   

The Long Night Studies, is an economic and social movement in itself. Trying to prevent another Long Night is trying to create enough buffers and caches to protect the lives and trade of hundreds of Trillions of peoples that call the Imperium their home. Suffice to say, when economic surplus occurs, reinvesting the surplus in infra that would allow a system greater self-sustenance is a great driver in manufacturing and industry. 

The Long Night has also pushed many farther out of the empire, so strong is the influence of the long night many have chosen the life of Star Nomads (another article). Some Pioneer and Colonists have such a strong sense of trying to keep secure that they keep pushing outward, their so driven to keep moving that it has become an irrational programmed response. even if they knew its historical origins.

The Long Night may have been a bad dream a thousand years dead, but there are ghosts that have clawed its way to the surface.  The long night is the perfect set up for many many dark themes in a traveller game, and who knows, maybe the empire is slowly walking that fine edge. 

Some More Thoughts and Ideas 

• The Long Night is Coming. the dark motto of the Study Division that seeks to prevent it and prepares for the worse case scenario. 
• Some GoT in your Traveller, with messy messy human affairs amid-st an impending doom. 
• You can go Hellboy and have a division designed to fight evil creatures that have resulted from the Long Night.
• Cthuluh Mythos and the Long Night. Make that connections and BOOM! Definitely going to be part of my game, (if the players allow me lol)
• Visiting Long Night Ruins! Just visiting the graveyard of civilizations, where billions died a slow horrific death, but then something stirs. Haunted "systems" instead of Haunted houses. 
• Long Night Cults. there are those who seek to return the Long Night, those who view it as a perverse idealism. Your badguys. 
• Its basically your Mega Storage of Secrets. you want technology to be lost: Say it got lost in the Long Night. You don't want Meson Tech - it was lost in the Long Night. You don't want AI, blah blah blah Long Night. You don't want Beam Weapons blah blah blah Long night. 

there has been about 2 dark-ages that have occured in human history (to my knowledge it was Fall of the Roman Empire and simultaneous falls of Egypt/Hittite/Minoan Greek/Levantine Empires), people forgot the horrors and it takes imagination to understand how horrific those were... in the Long Night is a story that can be retold in vivid recordings and data. For the GM this is one of the BIGGEST treasure trove of stories.

Ai-yay-yay I can go on Blah Blah Blah Long Night

GURPS TDMS 2 - Special Feats

Margin of Success or Failure is a powerful tool, I only noticed GMs have run the system a long time. Any new GURPS GM can pick up this very helpful tool, but what I don't see alot is how to apply "Called Shots" or Harder Tasks with Greater reward.

In my open game system I tackled this and I believe it can apply to any other system. The basic rule is that in "Called Shots" the margin of success is penalty taken PLUS 1.5! Basically 50% greater than a normal feat.

So I'm a Cook in GURPS with skill-15 cook A, vs another Cook, B, with Skill-12. In a "Quick Contest",  A rolls 9 with a MoS 6, and cook seeing what A is about to do chooses to impose a -5TDM penalty by choosing to do a harder feat and reducing his chance to succeed to 7! IF B succeeds his MoS will be (5*1.5) 7 enough to beat A if not, it would probably have a high MoF which seriously disappoint the judges.

Margin of Success simplifies the system and makes the Roll Matter more.

In my GURPS game instead of rolling the "Dodge" Rules in a combat with 6 players in roll20 I asked them to make DX rolls to dodge an explosion they all could see coming. I allowed for the +3 from Dodge and Drop. The margin of success + Cover which adds an MoS of 5 divides the damage by the Margin of success.

Everyone who made the roll divided 25 burning damage by their MoS. One badguy failed by 5, so even with cover it was not enough, he took 25 burning damage straight. (Fright Checks seeing someone run around with 3 degree burns and still burning) for a couple of seconds.

Margin of Success Penalty
Sometimes we are using a very unusual skill for a particular task. Lets say I use Pyschology or Savoir Faire for Diplomacy checks, . other than the default penalty of about -5 to -6 another penalty one can impose is a shallower margin of success. You can half the margin of success if you feel that the handicap is not enough.

Reaction Modifier.
In Social Situations, typically I like using Margin of Success or Failure as a way to temporarily or permanently improve reaction score of a target. Of course there are diminishing returns for some strategy - Savoir Fair goes only as far as courtesy and thoughtfulness, while others are more effective among various characters. A simple rule of thumb is to half the MoS for the preferred "language" (the prefered social strategy) and maximise the improvement by one level.
Note that from Indiferent to positive, with enough time someone can convince another person, if it is reasonable and within their acceptable tollerances. So ideally there is not enough time OR there is other conflicting individuals who is against you, if you want a challenging social situation.

Details and Problem Solving

I'm not good with details, I'm just average. the only reason I'm considered "good" is because details are something people don't like to deal with and my mediocre work is something people are just glad to have. I've done some analysis of my methods and work and I really am in the mediocre range of the metrics I know because of BPO industry.

Unlike an accountant or a person whose training is in the details I'm really in the details because of opportunity. So I have a lot going against me... which brings me to how LOW the bar is set for details. If your counting on me for details, then the bar is so low you have to dig it out. 

But someone as crappy in details as me, and I'm still into details is kinda funny and a topic for another post. The bottom line is that details are essential for problem solving, and this is when we can't throw away the rules or where an abstract system cannot give you that nerd boner you can get from a really good mental puzzle. 

As offensive as Nerd boner can be, IME it best describes that irrational desire to unnecessarily complicate one's life. Funny that Games don't get more exciting unless the situation gets complicated, but fun stops when a system is overly complicated. The love-hate relationship of gaming and complexity is like a relationship with a crazy lover... the saying sticking your **** in crazy comes to mind when people have a relationship with a complex system (coughherocough coughgurpscough) and happen to have that complicated relationship with it. 

Its nice to know I gave up the more expensive crazy for GURPS LOL!

Sorry for being sidetracked, getting back into the topic - Details are really hard to make up on the fly, so systems with details: GURPS and HERO are awesome because the details are there and I can throw them out when I dont need them. 

In my games I've not been using GURPS combat "as is where is" and instead using simple significant action system: each character does something special and spot light deserving every turn (if my attention can juggle it at least). BUT when something interesting happens and everyone's brains get curious, we get into details that slow down everyone processing speeds, and I think that's a good thing. 

Since GURPS is pretty realistic I find myself taking expertise from the real world applying in the GURPS game. Funny how all the players were IT people, and I deal with IT in the BPO industry, so there was a lot of industry practices that was interesting in the context of spoofing an enemy's ability to trace where the players were hiding. Doing IT stuff with the freedom of all the money and the risks a PCr can take lolz! 

Anyway, details are just harder to make up. details make great Splat/Source Books. In fact they SHOULD be the content of Splat/Source Books instead of new options that test the limits of the game system and re-balance the power ecology. Details also should be disposable, and prepared in a way that if it gets in the way I can throw it out without so much reworking needed. 

Bottom Line - Details, good crunchy details are there, but when your playing and you don't have time for it you can ignore them. But they are they when you need them, and they are well made that they make good sense or follow a process that you can interpret on your own.

GURPS Traveller Lite Episode 02

They entered the Whangga System by its farthest gravity well, its 4th Gass giant. They attempted jumped pretty close hoping to save time and energy, they got more than what they expected as they soon found themselves in an Ice-field, moments as they exited jump.

The Rizzoli had several kilos of Ice hit its civilian hull, its old and faulty inertial dampers stressing at impacts. It took a few seconds for the entire system to show up in its sensors, all the data overlapping with the jump tape's most recent data coordinates in the 3d display of the main screen. It seems that the Stern Metal Horizon heat and density signatures seems to have increased in plurality, but it will be some time before light of the Rizzoli's arrival would reach and be processed by the ships in system.

Another unexpected sight is that of a station sized facility, orbiting the gass giant. The station was more in-system and difficult to detect except for the gravitic lensing that indirectly betrayed its presence. The Rizzoli was about 120 diameters from the gass giant and facility when a powerful electro magnetic burst from the station hit the ship and sensors warned of a possible lock.

Anthony, reacted quickly. Activating a Drone protocol quickly, and coordinating a evasive maneuver with Captain Vicky, they narrowly evaded the second surprise: A beam fire pattern targeting their previous approach. The drone bought valuable seconds and mili-seconds for the ship as the drive changed direction and the utility gravitics warped and absorbed the innertia that would have crushed the frail humans inside the ship.

The beams were invisible to the human eye, but to the ship's eye it was a deadly and beautiful brilliance of colors beyond the range of differentiation for un-augmented human senses. The evasion pattern Capt. Vicky next input through kinesthetic action and emotional response put the ship away from the stations line of sight and fire, driving deeper into the ice field where precious mili-seconds of signal sorting made the difference between life and death.

Byrnden and Vulgaris were both sorting through the data while holding on to dear life when the inertial systems stretched its limits. Vulgaris used his keen power of observation making sense of information detected while Byrnden tried to reached out across what was about 4 light seconds away.

Vulgaris came up with several points - low heat signatures for what should be an active station and minimal activity. Byrnden's senses cannot detect sentience or possibly cannot push his senses that far.

Anthony, was barely recovering from the jostling when the inner system signatures have begun moving at 6Gs at their vector.

++++++++++++++++

Isbel Tascioni, Director of Marketing and Sales of CGE appeared before Countess Regina Perez. The countess did notice her enter, she was busy giving her secured approval for several documents until Isbel cleared her throat.

"  My Lady." She let out as Regina looked up.
" I'm sorry Isbel, just give me one more second... and that's done.... How can I help you." 
"  My Lady, the Rizzoli I've given them your thanks."
"...and how did they take it?" Regina peered over her glass HUD, while keeping her head over the hard copies she was imprinting.
" Quite well, they were so busy fussing over it they almost forgot about everything else."
" I'm just glad for they were there at the right time and place."
" That is wonderful my lady." Isbel would smile with her mouth, but can't bring her eyes to light up.
" I sense 'But' there Isbel." Regina stood up from her desk and walked over to view the ocean from her office. Not looking at Isbel, as she hid her own thoughts."
" I don't want to speak out of turn... "
" Isbel, I wouldn't be where I am if I had an aversion to truths my trusted officers had to impart." 
"... well, my Lady. Didn't you find it odd they were at the right time and place? Are you not awfully suspicious who they are or if they had any motives?"
"Paranoia comes with the seat at the head of the table. It did spring to mind that the circumstance is more that how it seemed. As much as I am a victim of circumstance, I can very well see that they were as well."
" Still, my Lady, 2 million gift voucher at our port facilities is a very generous gift."
" How much would you have  put a price for the life of a Countess, Isbel?"
" I don't mean that, but the MOU and exclusivity were both already very generous offers."
" I don't think I would negotiate what it means to impart good faith Isbell. Anyway, this is how I felt after they saved my life... I felt like being generous. "
" Quite a rare feeling, my lady. Us being in the business that we are in."
" I will allow myself to feel grateful once in a while, especially when it seems they were people who were merely passing by."
The door behind Isbel lit up, and asked in a polite tone: "Sir Jed Greene, to see you my lady"
"Send him in."
Isbel continued, it seems "Jed is back"
"My Lady. Isbel! good you're here too."
Jed gestures, swiping information towards the smart wall.
"I've done background checks with the Rizzoli and there were some 'yellow-flags' that lit up, but they are not so bad. Their credentials are ok for a C-D class merchant company, many gray areas to consider but not enough to fail them for the Roupe Expansion project."
Isbel cringed a bit "I still object to giving them 70M worth of equipment and 5M worth of androids to deliver". I know its Roup but I would rather have an A-Class merchant hauling the shipment, then I wouldn't feel bad paying them A-Class rates."
"You can save your 'I told you so' when they screw up Isbel, not before. They saved my life, I will give them that much benefit of the doubt. Sometimes all anyone needs is a chance."    
"Well now?" Jed stated to allow them to focus on the more pressing matter. "On the matter of the fire fight, it seems we have bigger problems than a C-D class merchant company with a hundred million in equipment..." Jed motions and a new image appears on the smart wall.


Players present
Anthony Palmer  +Justin Sandock
Byrnden Animal Handler +Mateusz Sierzant
Vulgaris Security Expert  +Garry Profaci
GMT+8 Wed 6pm every other week. next session is next week.

[Warning Mature Content] GURPS Modern Fantasy Session 03 Update

From the Point of view of Petier

Warning Mature Content, please skip this if your easily offended.
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The Jackals

       The Slums were oddly quiet, except for the grunts of a beating.
       "If you werr nutt 'reedy zoo daaaamn ugl'e, We rape yo' ass" said by one of the Jackal men. Their necks and the side of their faces had ritual scarring, that of a tribe she knew was long dead and forgotten.
       They worked her for over an hour, but for her it would have been an eternity. Walta prayed, through cracked and shattered teeth. These men didn't really want information, she could tell because they had not asked for any, they just enjoyed ruining her and cutting pieces of her up. They enjoyed seeing her humiliated by sticking things in her.  She prayed that she would go unconscious, she prayed that they grow bored and tired, and she prayed for the very sweet end.
       The angel of death did not come, who came instead brought with him the scent of a corpses bloated under a hot sun and pestilent with flies and rot. The sound of flies buzzing filled the room, and landed around her wounds and open legs. Walta had a wandering eye, but you could not tell from the swelling that disfigured her face. That eye could see things she could not explain, things that were there but no one else can see. What she now saw, she hoped was just a dream, a very bad dream.
       "I see, you softened her up for me...
       ...you didn't need to do that."
       The voice was grating like gravel against gravel, his teeth were sharpened, but bright and clean. She could not see his eyes beneath the jackal mask, but the dead eyes of the creature he wore was suffice enough to freeze her blood and numb her. She tried to cast a spell, but what remained of her tongue made her realize who she was dealing with.
       He chuckled in a way that made the walls and her bones shudder.
       "You will tell me everything... "
       "I don...." she said through a mumble.
       "You'll know..." He smiled and the poor creature he used as a head piece fidgeted as he put it down and showed her his face.
       "Ha' appa'tment...find da Gals tings. Ha' 'ed eh! " "She's famous, you can find out whe' she lives" "She's wid da white you' looking fo."

The King Maker

       Khaho'oor was as big as a bus, with maws that can crush a small car. It dragged the body of the bony demon along the smooth marbled surface of the palace. There was no one there save for a gentleman in a business suit, holding his wine glass and sipping it quietly. Its seven eyes watched the man very cautiously, never betraying the caution and that possibility that it was more afraid of him.
       "Your Djinn violated my territory, lives of my charge, and veil! He was made to pay, and his creatures too, but I spared his corporeal form!" his voice reverberated within the sound of a fierce echoing growl. "This should serve as justice."
       "Does it!" the gentleman replied so graciously. "Well then... it seems you have your justice..."
       "This is justice! His fire killed many of my charge, many of yours have answered for that... THERE WILL BE NO MORE KILLING!" Khaho'oor seems to grow larger and has it steps closer to the gentleman.
       "This is not justice, something of mine has been taken from me and you have aided these thieves. Your people are to pay." He said is a flat tone.
       Khaho'oor lunges at the man only to be wrestled down by the beaten Djinn. The darkness around them suddenly begin to fill with many dark eyes and shambling forms begin to swarm the massive bus-sized rotting dog.
       "I will be taking you with me..." 
       "And what, who will protect your people? I have bought your land just a moment ago and signed up contracts for a development to take place over the sacred ground. You will have wasted your form, and I will have a new development with no more pesky ancestral guardian to bother me."
       Desperation grew with hopelessness, Khaho'oor was ready to face the end but not to fail his charge so easily.
       "I have a perfect place for your people, a new decommission mega freighter I can use as slum ship. Your people will be living there when I'm done, the whole tribe of Khaha'li will die a death for generations working for me... never ever touching their sacred land again"
       "The more reason for me to take you with me..."
       "Or you can help me regain my property, undue your mistake and I will promise not to lay claim to your land." The creature paused to consider, "Oh you know my word is good, my words have power." The shambling things and the darkness that grasped the Dog creature eased as it slowly poised itself to submit.
       "Now then, lets see how much of a Dog spirit you are, sniff out my Lilim"
       

Game Design - TDMS

As much as I like TDMs and actually look for examples of various TDMs in a skill, who has time to do that? I just ran a game in roll20 and remember how hard it is to Track the TDMs, and realize it may be something of a player element - if the player details why the activity is easier or harder.

I wrote about Acrobatics a while back, and pointed out there are key differences in how an acrobatics work. There are "rolls" and there "arials" and there are hand-assisted maneuvers. There are clearly TDMs becuase there are some that are way easy, that even a non-skilled acrobat has a good chance to do, while there are the feats we have come to "expect" from acrobats.

Soldier
Roll soldier when performing EASY (+4 an above tasks) Task related to soldier profession in Combat Engineering, Electronics Comm, Navigation, Armoury, Etc... Now the major problem I have with this systems is that GMs Identifying what is Easy (+4 tasks) is something that not a lot of GURPS GMs can do - for one is that who has time to learn all the TDMS of every skill. Ex. Can you list down all the +4 TDM tasks for Navigation, Combat Engineering, Armoury, Etc...

I find this problem affects all other "Professional Skills" that are similar to soldier, a collection of various skill that have their own specialization.

Why not just allow Soldier to Default at -4 to perform these skills at their Challenging level and disallow soldiers to perform such tasks that are worse than unfavorable (-1 to -2)?

Imagine how typically a GM would go about both processes:
Original System -
Player - "I'm a soldier-12 (8cp) I want to do X regarding navigation"
GM - (GM has to consider if it is an "Easy" task;

• if it its not easy then disallow it, 
• if it is an easy task allow it at the soldier skill level (12) 
• Consider now other than the GMs who played GURPS for 10years + years, how many GURPS GMs can name situations where it would be an "Easy" task?

Recommended System -
Player - I'm a soldier-12 (8cp) I want to do X regarding navigation.
GM - Roll -4 on Soldier, and apply any relevant modifiers.

Consider applying it to Professional Skill - Butler (after watching downton abbey). Buttler can do house keeping, some merchant, savoir fair, sewing, sometimes gardening, and some animal handling. Imagine having to be able to track all the tasks that are at "+4 TDMS" of all those skills or having to just use -4 to Professional Skill?

Abuse of such a system - It can be abused, but the rule of thumb that anything that requires a "Professional X" can be reflected by disallowing task that would impose a Hard Penalty for the skill. If a person who has the specialized does this task at -4 the Professional who knows enough to get by cannot do such.

Example.
Soldier-20 Veteran. About 40cp in soldier accumulated through years of campaigning. The soldier can perform Strategy and Tactics at Skill-14! This reflects the execution of standard practices and doctrine. But when it comes to Special "Called Shots" or Feats of Strategy the Soldier cannot go there, unless he himself has those skills.

Qin The Warring States Systems Overview

Here is my Qin TWS notes. It will speed up understanding and consuming the system.

Basic Rules p.55

Ying Yang Dice (YyD)
2d10s, one Yin and another Yang (the dice have to be different so you can track). Roll both, Higher minus the lower. In some situations

Aspect (Basic Stat) + Skill + YyD vs > Success Threshold aka Difficulty (a target number)

Success Threshold 
This is a Target Number, where 5 is average and 9 is very hard and 1 is very easy.

Critical Success

• Rolling Doubles (instead of Greater - Lesser, just take the double result; two 3s is a critical succes IF 3+aspect+skill beats the ST. 
• Roll Double 0 is crit failure. 

Accumulated Margin of Success
For Long activities. There will be an ST, MoS Quota, and Interval per roll.

Other Rules.
Reputation

• This is a % score beginning with highest skill + deeds + witnesses
• divided by location /1 (city) to /5 wilderness.
• Ex. Kings have a 500 reptuation, Governors 100-200, etc..

Character Creation
Choose Background p.37
Aspects = Basic Ability scores p.39
Metal is Combat Ability (body) Score (Str, Dex, Con, ... when it relates to combat)
Water is Physical Stats (body) (Str, Dex, Con, Dodge and Movement in yrds)
Fire is Social and Artistic ability (mind) (Cha and Wis)
Wood is Intelligence (mind) (Int and Wis)
Earth is Spiritual or Mystical ability (Wis and Supernatural Ability).
Starting points is 14, Stat Ranges 1-5, average is 2.
Improving costs 5xp*new score


Gifts and Weaknesses
basically advantage disadvantages, exchanged 1:1.


Skills (the same with other systems) p.44
15 points to spend
1-3 in starting points.
Skills are prerequisities for Combat Techniques, Magic, and Taos
Highest Skill Multiplies Qi4 and is base reputation.
Skill-1 (Apprentice) cost 1point or 4xp
Skill-2 (Competent) costs 4 points (+1, +3)points or 4xp+8xp
Skill-3 (Expert) costs 10 points (+1, +3, +6) points or 4xp+8xp+12xp
Skill-4 (Master) costs 10 points (or 24xp) plus 16xp
Skill-5...

Combat Techniques, Magic, and Taos p
Start with 15 points for all of these.
Cost as much as skills to improve, dependent on skills (cannot be higher than its skill).
They are special abilities, feats, and spells. Some (especially spells) consume Qi4

Secondary Aspects
Just like Secondary Abilities (like AC, Defense)
Importance Concept: Balance = this is mind vs body (higher - lower) aspect. 0 is best, meaning the character achieves balance see p.50.
Passive Defense (like AC) = Wood+Water+2 (plus various modifiers)
Qi4 p.49

• Qi4 = Balance * Earth * Highest skill 
• Spending Qi4 (pronounced Chee) adds Earth to a Roll. 
• Roll Meditation vs ST7 to recover all chi. one successful recovery per day, one hour per attempt. p.75
• Gain Qi4 equal critical success score.

Resistance (Fort Save) = Metal + Earth
Breath of Life (basically hitpoints p.50) = Balance & Resistance

Combat Rules

• Initiative is YyD + Water (in ties > water wins)  
• Round = 2-3 seconds
• # of Actions per round is equal to Skill+1 (1-7)
• Each Action is resolved as an "Exchange" everyone has one action per exchange
• Movement is an Action, Move = Water in yrds. 

Attack
Metal + Skill + YyD vs Passive Defense

Damage
Weapon + Metal + Yang (if yang is > ying) - Armor of the opponent.

Active Defense
-if you have not acted or have acted but have an action left, you may take an active defense. it is a simple test (Parry/Block uses Metal+skill or Dodge Water+Dodge)

Breath of Life p.50

• 5 wound conditions, this HP can be found in p.50. 
• greater the wounds the greater the penalty to all actions = 0/0/+1/+3/+5 ST penalty. 
• Worse Wound conditions, harder to heal (ST 3/5/7/9/11).

Healing 

• First Aid only heals 1pt. 
• Healing 1pt per restfull night, 0.5 on light activity, or 1/7 strenuous activity like work or practice. 

Money 
this was hard to find, p.217.
1 ounce silver = 1000coins

Experience Points (Ep, but I call it Xp since its more approachable)
Like points, buys skills and abilities.


Review 
Critiques

No Fatigue System :(
But Qi4 gives foundation
Travel Time is very optimisitic at about 2mph per hour for 10 hours to 4mph for 10 hours. I house ruled it by giving a ST to travel and MoF is cost in Qi4. Note that negative Qi4 deals damage. if you run, this reflects the microfracturing that can lead to a broken foot, shin or ankle if not properly conditioned.

Information Overload for Players :((
the prep is too heavy. It should be 1-2 pages and pretty rail-roady. I don't know anyone, even those studying Chinese who would be able to follow. I can barely follow and I'm a Zhong1guo2 history geek what more normal gamers.

No Index :((
this means I'm dependent on my search function to comb through the book. :(

Some wrong Grammar and poorly structured translation :(
I'm a munchkin, there are holes that are easily exploited like the Qi4 rules.

Very Nice presentation and Layout. :)
Good art, Good layout,

Very Original and Relevant Subject Matter. :)))
The east is a mystery, and its a great way to understand it much better. As a person who learns through games, this is really a good way to introduce Chinese and Eastern culture. Its also awesome that the amount or recovered artifacts from this period is really amazing as well. The world is getting smaller and I think its about time to visit some other places.

Simple System :)
overall it is a very simple system, my overview should be enough for anyone to jump in.