Last post, I mentioned two of the factors of historical Korean society that I hoped to include were I to do re-design my RPG Choson. But there are at least two other factors I want as part of the design. I can imagine anyone that has played Kiss My Axe or Nefertiti Overdrive would be able to guess.
Simplicity and impressive action.
Simplicity has been the touchstone of most of my games. I switched from D&D 3.5 over to True20 and tried Savage Worlds because I wanted simple rules. Comparatively, these were simpler rules. Then I found Jaws of the Six Serpents and Old School Hack – Jaws putting me on the road to designing simple systems and OSH giving me a target for which to strive in regards to robust minimalism.
The action has nothing to do with historical Choson, but more has to do with the kind of games I like to play and the kinds of media I like to consume. I’ve already mentioned the promise of the opening of the Korean TV series the Hero Hong Gil Dong. I want to inject cinematic action or at least open narrative skill and martial test rules.
So Choson needs to include historical Korea’s strict hierarchy and disdain for warriors in a simple system that supports free narrative in skill tests.
That’s what I would want for Choson.
You can find more information on Choson here.
You can find Jaws of the Six Serpents here.
You can find Old School Hack here.