Broken Tiger: Tales of a Divided Throne

Lee Min-ho as a warrior of Koryo in the SBS TV series Faith.

So far, I’ve been calling my planned setting/system for a second-world Korea Choson, which was the name I was using for a previous game set during the Imjin War that I ran at Gen Con 2008. That is no longer a proper name for the game which is no longer historical.

The working title is Broken Tiger.

Koreans use the tiger often in symbology. It was even part of the crest for the “Red Devils” soccer/football team that competed in the 2002 World Cup shared by South Korea and Japan. The shape of the peninsula is often compared to that of a tiger, which is said to drive away misfortune. It’s also been said the peninsula resembles a rabbit, which is an important traditional symbol for wisdom, but lacks the coolness of a tiger.

“Siege of Haengju,” a painting in the Korean Army Museum.

The focus of the game’s setting – the kingdom which right now I am calling Goryae (in reference to the kingdom of Koryo from which we get the term Korea) is going to be the land of the Tiger Throne.

In the time period in which the game is set, Goryae is split between rival factions and an invading army from an island neighbour. The capital is in the hands of the new dynasty while the older dynasty – receiving some assistance from its imperial neighbour – is holding on in the East.

The land of the Tiger Throne is broken.

As mentioned, this is a land in the convulsions of change, as a new dynasty replaces the weak and corrupt old royal house. Part of this is to provide areas that are under the control of the centre – both the new, militaristic society and the older, bureaucratic society – some that are in the ferment of civil war, and some that are under an oppressor’s boot. As I mentioned earlier, there were many parts of Korean history I wanted to consider, and this allows me to mix and match.

Another strength of the second-world as opposed to the historical.

Welcome to the evolution of Broken Tiger: Tales of a Divided Throne.

You can find out more about Choson/Broken Tiger here.

Systemized Choson

I have many ideas for the new Choson RPG – new name forthcoming – and much of that is tied to system. Like Centurion, I’m starting this from the ground up, with no inspiration spurring me on. I have an idea for a setting, and I want the system to fit in it.

There are two things I need the system to do: mirror the divide between the military and the bureaucracy, and mechanize the hierarchical stasis of social classes.

That’s not a lot for system to do, but both of those are very abstract. Creating mechanics to illustrate societal trends has not been my strong suit, but I want to try it here. This is about a setting, yes. I want to create a setting that allows me to play with all of the historical aspects of Korea that interest me. But I don’t feel that bolting on an existing system will do that setting justice. The setting and the system can reinforce each other, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

And so the system also needs the right feel. What will PCs be doing in this second-world Choson? What heavy lifting will the system be called on to undertake.

And here lies the rub – PCs might be involved in political intrigue, they might be battling armies or bandits, they might be seeking out supernatural dangers, they might be doing any number of things.

However, this is not as great of a problem as it might seem. Nefertiti Overdrive, in my experience, has been able to handle all of those without missing a beat. Every Challenge – be it kinetic or cerebral – worked basically the same and all that changed was the narrative of how the PCs overcame the Challenge.
So the system needs to handle any kind of task under the same basic mechanic.

I also intend conflict resolution to be relatively grounded. Again, this I more like Centurion than Nefertiti Overdrive. While I cannot control the narrative people using the system will create, the Challenge or Task structure – how the odds are arrayed against the PCs – will help to reinforce the intent. If fighting three opponents is exceptionally difficult and dangerous, or deciphering an unknown script requires multiple individuals with the proper knowledge working together, or an opponent is as likely to see through your deceit as swallow the lie, that tells the PCs how the world works.

Yes, PCs will be able to improve to the point where all of these are easier, but as long as we don’t stray into superheroics/wuxia/level 100 territory, we should be fine.

All images from the movie Musa (the Warrior) which is set in the Koryo period of Korean history. You can learn more about Musa at Wikipedia and IMDB.

You can find out more about Choson (RPG) here.

Choosing Choson

I am resurrecting Choson.

Not the nation/dynasty, but the idea for an RPG. And I’m a little bit excited about it. Let’s hope the enthusiasm lasts.

Here’s the thing, I have never really created a setting for publication. Well, that’s not true. I created Albenistan for our Spec Ops line of products, and I created a bunch of settings for Arcane Kingdoms. What I haven’t done is created a setting tied to mechanics and then published those. The closest I got was Immortals of Bronze, and that barely got off the drawing board.

My desire to create an RPG set in Korea ran into a few problems. I would need to choose a period. The one period I considered as viable and interesting was the period of the Imjin Wars – when Shogunate Japan invaded Korea as a route to hit China. This was the period in which my favourite Korean historical figure emerged – Yi Sun Sin.

Right now, it looks like there will be another RPG coming out soon-ish set in the same time period. I know nothing about it, other than someone whose taste I respect liked it on playtest.

There is certainly room for more than one RPG set during the Imjin Wars, but there were also problems with that period from my point of view. One of the aspects of Korean history I really found interesting was the inflexible hierarchy of Korea’s bureaucracy, even though it was based on the more open model from China. During the Imjin Wars, anarchy reigned, and power was diffused from the court. Peasant generals and Buddhist monk guerillas emerged, something unheard of at other times.

So while the Imjin Wars would have been an amazing time to set an RPG, I’m happy to look elsewhere.

There’s also the question of appropriation. I ran into this when I wrote Nefertiti Overdrive, and the game’s characters and characteristics changed as I began to recognize that I was guilty of disassociating Egypt from Africa in my conviction that it was a Mediterranean culture. While I am happy with the compromise I felt I reached, I don’t think it assuaged all the concerns that were raised, and I in no way want to discount those concerns.

I didn’t want the same thing to happen with Choson. I am far more conversant with the history and culture of Korea than I am with Ancient Egypt, but even then, I remain cognisant that I am an outsider. I feel there is a level of disconnect when it comes to history, or else only those within a culture could write its history. I feel that an outsider can bring a level of objectivity that one within a culture, especially one so heavily aware of its own history as Korea, would have difficulty mustering. That said, everyone brings their own biases.

So now I am now thinking of creating a system and second world setting (not the real world) heavily influenced by three major states of historical Korea – Silla, Koryo, and Choson. As a second world setting, it will allow the inclusion of all the elements of those three periods into a single one, disassociate it somewhat from the actual culture, and avoid duplicating an existing effort.

Are you as excited as I am?

You can find the Albenistan adventures here.

You can find Arcane Kingdoms here.

A couple of articles on Immortals of Bronze are here.

You can find other discussions of Choson here and here.

You can read about the Imjin Wars period at Wikipedia as a starting point.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird . . . Overdrive

 

Sorry I’ve been so quiet. I am actually getting work done – both coursework and a little RPG work which I’ll share shortly.

For now, I just want to remind you that the Good, the Bad, the Weird was an amazing movie, and you could probably run it using Nefertiti Overdrive (sure you could)

Take the character of Park Do-won (the Good). Let’s stat him out.

Concept d6/d10 Bounty Hunter; Reluctant Paladin
Elements d6/d8 Lever-action Rifle; Fearless
Traits d6/d8 Physical; Social
Drivers d6/d8 Empowered by the hunt; Justice and profit

Pivots
Find the Finger Chopper and bring him to justice
Oppose the Japanese when I can

Although Park is a bounty hunter and he is interested in both profit and the chance to discover treasure, he can’t help but protect the weak when he sees injustice. He is definitely a reluctant hero, but if you consider that the institutions of law in Manchuria at the time were controlled by the Japanese, who were as bad as any other colonial masters, it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want to be a sheriff or other sort of law enforcement official. And while he has the good sense to know when the odds are stacked too high against him, threats to life and limb don’t seem to slow him down at all, and he’ll run through a hail of bullets or swing one-handed high above every one else, firing with his rifle as he does, in his pursuit of his quarry.

Ease of Face Punchin’ in Choson

From the movie the Shadowless Sword (Muyeonggeom) directed by Kim Young-jun

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.

From the movie the Huntresses (Joseonminyeo Samchongsa) directed by Park Jae-hyun

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.

What Has Choson Ever Done For Us?

From the TV series the Hero Hong Gil Dong on KBS2

Revisiting and working through Choson – a role-playing game set in historical Korea – is a more likely outcome than working on Pandora Excess (needs new name) – a tabletop RPG inspired by Borderlands – because Choson would be closer in philosophy to Centurion and Nefertiti Overdrive. Choson could be a streamlined, simple system rather than a robust, complex system, which a Borderlands tabletop would need to be were to one replicate the many facets of that game.

But were I to embark on this – and this very post seems to indicate that I am doing exactly that, at least as an exercise – I would need to zero in on what I want the game to be about. What makes Choson Korea different than Ming or Qing China? Well, that’s not actually the question I need to answer. I need to answer why would I want to game in Korea? It may be the same or different than China, but I am making a game about Korea, so I’m going to focus on that.

Dirty commoner! From the movie Kundo: Age of the Rampant

The elements of historical Korea that I want to include in Choson are the extreme stratification of society and the disdain of the ruling class for all things martial.

The stratification of society for me works great because I believe it mirrors the situation in North America (and elsewhere) right now. We have a huge wealth gap and limited social mobility (though that’s not the image we want to project). That gives the game a bit of social relevance, something I haven’t really included in other games.

This also sets Choson Korea apart from Ming China, which still claimed to believe that a man (and, unfortunately, it was always a man) of ability could rise to the very pinnacle of government (though not to the ruling class). While Choson Korea was very Confucian, this was a part of the philosophy the ruling class rejected. One did not rise. One did not threaten the hold on power of the elite.

From the TV series Iljimae by Chorokbaem Media

The disdain for all things martial pretty much guarantees the PCs will be outsiders. They might be literal outsiders – though foreigners generally fared much poorer in Choson than they did in Shogunate Japan – but as mercenaries, adventurers, trouble-shooters, whatever, they will be considered unpalatable if necessary elements. To me, stories of outsiders are always more interesting than stories of those within the status quo or ruling apparatus.

So, moving forward, I want Choson to include some mechanical representation of the extreme stratification of society and the outsider status of the PCs.

But there is more. There are elements I want to include that are not a part of historical Choson. And I think you probably know what those elements are.

You can read more about Choson here.

Wikipedia’s got you covered for a primer on society in the Choson period.

Remembering Choson

Back in 2008, I made a game called Choson to run for the crew from Fist Full of Comics and Games. It was set, as might be guessed by the title, in Choson era Korea. Looking at it now, I am not impressed. It’s not that I think it was a horrible design, it was just that there is too much to it that does not follow directly from the purpose or philosophy of the game. Some of it did, but not all of it. It has a lot of excess baggage.

I have considered reviving Choson before, and it came to mind again because I am re-reading some Korean history. I tend to do historical games (Kiss My Axe, Centurion, and Nefertiti Overdrive), so Choson would make sense. However, I don’t think I’d want to do a straight-up historical game like Centurion – or, to a lesser extent, Kiss My Axe – rather I think I’d do something closer to Nefertiti Overdrive.

There was a Korean drama series that I watched with my wife called the Hero Hong Gil Dong. Hong Gil Dong is a Korean version of Robin Hood, the 2008 series started out blending wire-fu, anachronism and humour with the story. I was sold. Unfortunately, all those elements soon disappeared, and while the opening of the pilot made promises, the series as a whole didn’t deliver.

The promise of those early episodes is what I would aim for would I do another historical RPG set in Korea. For wirefu and fun, I probably would set it in the Choson era, probably in the 17th or 18th century. Other periods of Korean history work better, in my mind, for more swords and sorcery action, and for a straight-up adventure, I would probably choose the Koryo era, maybe during the 10th and 11th century wars with the Khitan nomads.

You can find Fist Full of Comics and Games here.

You can find some information on an adventure I wrote for Savage Worlds based in Choson here.

You can find more information on the Hero Hong Gil Dong here.

You can watch the pilot here. The first eight minutes or so are the best part.

Wikipedia can give you some quick information on Choson, Koryo, and the war with the Khitan.