Easy thematic rules, great layout, and a great product by publisher that regularly produces under-advertised, under-rated products that are worth twice the price!

Jim Alcala created the Art of Wuxia (pronounced roughly woo- sha) and is a d00Lite system game that is complete with cinematic kung fu action and play kung fu heroes in classic adventures ranging from defending their martial arts sects to traveling the lands as wandering kung fu fighting evil sorcerers, mad emperors, and more.

There is an amazing forward describing the understanding of Wuxia and heroic cinema and kung fu. If you have seen a ShawBrothers film (Wuxia) film you understand it.

This system and the way it lays out is quick and perfect for that feeling that is needed to feel like you are doing Kung Fu! Fast and stratigic! you don't have to be a insaine GM to play it! its quick and fun and creates a lot of imaginative play.

6 ranks of whatever skill you choose (Alchemist, Detective, Diviner, Leader, Mystic, Scholar, Scout, Sorcerer, Thief, and of course Warrior the classic kung fu skill that every has to a point trained or untrained) all of which you can have skills in as you advance. But there is more awesomesness. the game has a lot of ability to be flexable too.

Note: if you have questions DwD studios website is awesome for errata and questions. prefer a walkthrough? check out YouTube as there is some great interviews that can reveal how it can be played out! I personally would love to see a streaming show on this!

QI which is used to do heroic things such as float with a lightness, or use trained kung fu techniques.

Alchemy - there is a whole section on Alchemy for potions and antidoes. a trope in Wuxia is the posioning and explosives and medicines.

Spells - for the scorcerer.

Kung fu and its styles, training with QI and internal and external styles! don't see the type of kung fu you want to do? it includes how to make your own style.

want to do Spinning hat attack like Kung lao from Mortal Kombat? well, you can create that here. Like Big Trouble little China? or maybe Jackie Chan's Drunken master? crouching tiger, hidden dragon? all possible with this system.

“Terrific, a six-demon bag. Sensational. What’s in it, Egg?” yeah you can create a magic item with the system here and it comes witih premade magic items too. yes even the 6 demon bag!

Random generators - Technique name generator, adventure idea generator, random dungeon generation, traps and treasure generators, rewards generator, villian description generator, common names in Longzhi (campiegn setting)

NPCs - There are three levels of categories. Minor, Major, and Master villians. the tropes of the minor (mooks) who are gangs of attackers and the major whom is like the gang leader. think Double Dragon and the end of the scene where the big Abobo attacks at the end of the scene, that is the Major NPC. Minor NPC's don't have kung fu skills but as a unit under a boss they may have formations (tiger claw formation) that adds one. the Major NPC has skill and some more HP and of course has a look. as for the Master NPC that is a campiegn ending killer like the 'invincible asia' from the Swordsman II movie. Maybe not THAT powerful but you can create an amazing amount of powerful NPCS and PC's over time with Tiered 1-3 special abilities.

monsters? - you can add in the monsters if you want some fantacy in your Wuxia game. its there as well. with creatures to pick from as well.

there are a few pregeneratored Characters and NPC's as well.

So you want to learn Kung fu? get a Sifu (master or teacher). they can teach you a style. form there you can branch out and get other styles from manuals found or finding other teachers to teach different techniques so you can be a unique kung fu fighter/warrior.

Chun Wu 'thunder fist' of the Ascending Dragon Fist style yells his technique 'Red Iron Fist' (power attack) and hits like a hammer in his attack to " Major villian Tong Law the "Dancing shadow" who fails to block the powerful hit and staggers him. (camera zooms in) "you will not leave this fight alive Chun Wu!"

this is worth every penny! have fun with it!

Excellent product for running a Wuxia game, whether or not you use the included ruleset.

This product can be thought of as consisting of two parts: a thorough presentation of Wuxia genre, flavor, setting, and tropes, along with a lightweight system for running a game in this genre. I bought this product to add Wuxia flavor to an existing Dungeon World game, but it absolutely delivers as a system-neutral resource for those wanting run a game with Wuxia flavor.

I appreciate the author's tight presentation, clarity of vision, and good editing. Everything in here deepens the Wuxia flavor, anything else is thankfully left out. Even game-mechanical elements such as Qi Techniques (like martial arts moves) are infused with so much flavor that you can still use them even outside of the intended game system.

Particularly noteworthy is a section on the Wuxia genre and advice for the GM on how to infuse Wuxia into their game. This kind of specific, concrete advice on running a game is gold, valuable even for the experienced GM.

The included bestiary is excellent. It is specific, evocative, and includes more monster illustrations than I would expect in a product like this. This is probably where most of the art budget went and that's fine by me -- of all the art in an RPG book, the monster art has the biggest chance of being used at the table, in the game.

In conclusion, some of you may be in the same position as I was, wondering if this purchase price is worth it even if you're not planning on using the rules. I say it's absolutely worth it! Get it and thank me later :-)

Great little supplement. Really captures the Wuxia genre, with good well flavoured character options, in a nice easy to play ruleset. Plenty of options for martial arts and magic. Scant but very evocative artwork.

That's a great wuxia game! And I do not say that lightly...I have more than a few of those. Due to being light, it's almost infinitely customizable. And the system is light enough that the players and the Referee can focus on what's actually going on in the game instead of on managing their own characters/NPCs. And creating NPCs on the fly is a breeze! As an aside: that, I believe, is the greatest failing of some other games aiming at the same genre, even games that I otherwise like a lot...

In the last month, I think my group is averaging over 2 sessions of Age of Wuxia per week. That should be enough of a recommendation, I believe!

This is a nice rpg for playing oriental adventures in a fantastic world. The art is amazing and very and very illustrative of this fantastic atmosphere. You have non crunchy rules for martial artists and classical magic spellusers. Ideal for dungeoning in an ancient oriental atmosphere.

I love the game so far. They've done some fantastic things to bring the genre alive, and mimic those high-flying Kung-fu movies we love.

For example the Qi power: "Heroic Pose" is almost screaming for my players to stand-up at the table and say something cocky (but poorly dubbed in English so their lips don't match the words...hahahaha).

Also, I love the rules for "Improvised Weapons" (again, another standard of the genre) with damage output that doesn't make it a poor choice.

The 'Cinematic Sliders' is fantastic, and so simple, that other rpgs should have this for an easy 'heroic' mode.

The simple 'one-line' of stats for minor NPCs is perfect. I don't want to wade through lines of stat-blocks for mooks who are going to drop like flies.

An excellent iteration of wuxia! The ruleset is direct and simple to use but contains enough detail to make advancing a character fun and interesting over time. Skills cover dozens of different kung fu styles that feel different from each other, numerous spells for sorcerers, alchemies, and many others. Well worth your attention.

I have searched for a self-contained ruleset for wuxia for a long time, one that did not require extensive home-brewing to my group's tastes and my ideals.

This ticked all the right boxes for me:

1. A straightforward system for capturing the tone of a wuxia game - I mainly skimmed it and it wasn't hard to grok
2. It is classless and mainly skills-based (derived off your relevant ability score + skill level), allowing you to mix and match concepts
3. It is capable of representing a diverse many in-genre abilities through these skills, including but not restricted to:
   • alchemy [poisons, medicines, antidotes, etc]
   • detective
   • diviner [can be traded for 'strategist' if you want a less magical setting]
   • sorcerer [which seems simple enough to remove if you want a straight-up non-magic game],
   • thief

In addition, the usual tropes are there:

• Different kung fu styles, their effects and how to create them
• Different spells and their effects
• Sample weapons of ingenious design (hidden weapons mostly)
• Sample magic weapons

I, for one, am happy with my purchase.