NSWRPF Archive Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era, starting in 168 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280.

Myths from the Three Kingdoms period existed as oral traditions before any written compilations. In these popular stories, the characters typically took on exaggerated characteristics, often becoming immortals or supernatural beings with magical powers. With their focus on the history of Han Chinese, the stories grew in popularity during the reign of the foreign Mongol emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. During the succeeding Míng Dynasty, an interest in plays and novels resulted in further expansions and retelling of the stories.

The earliest attempt to combine these stories into a written work was Sanguozhi Pinghua, literally "Story of Sanguozhi", published sometime between 1321 and 1323. This version combined themes of legend, magic, and morality to appeal to the peasant class. Elements of reincarnation and karma were woven into this version of the story.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as we know it today is attributed to Luo Guanzhong, written between 1330 and 1400 (late Yuan to early Ming period). It was written in partly vernacular and partly Classical Chinese and was considered the standard text for 300 years. Luo made use of available historical records, including the Records of the Three Kingdoms compiled by Chen Shou, which covered events from the Yellow Turban Rebellion in AD 184 up to the unification of the three kingdoms under the Jin Dynasty in AD 280. Luo Guanzhong also included material from Tang Dynasty poetic works, Yuan Dynasty operas and his own personal interpretation of elements such as virtue and legitimacy. Luo combined this historical knowledge with a gift for storytelling to create a rich tapestry of personalities, and initially published it in 24 volumes. During Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Mao Zonggang significantly edited the text, fitting it into 120 chapters. Nowadays, Mao's version is the most common.

This novel reflects the Confucian values that were prominent at the time it was written. According to Confucian moral standards, loyalty to one's family, friends, and superiors are important measures for distinguishing good and bad people. In the novel, characters who were not loyal to the collapsing Han Dynasty are portrayed as bad people; on the contrary, modern mainstream ideology in Communist China would say that the deeply suffering masses were trying to overthrow the ruling feudal lords.

So this is going to be my first RPG here and I've decided to kick things off with an RPG based off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. We're going to use the plotline from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms book. If any of you are familiar with the game Dynasty Warriors and loves playing it, this should be the RPG for you. Anyways here's the rules:

1. No godmodding and powerplaying, enough said.
2. You don't have to know the entire storyline and we don't have to follow the same exact thing. For example, Lu Bu dies in 197 A.D. (or 198, forgot) but in the RPG he could live longer to say until 220 A.D.
3. You can play as two characters max for now, depending on how many people will join, I might expand that number.
4. Please use a Chinese name for your character. Don't name your character "John Wong" because I don't think that name existed back in Han Dynasty times.
5. Don't kill off other people's characters unless they give you permission.
6. You don't have to use a canon character, make an original one if you want.

Those are the basic rules for now, but I'll add more later. Now for the template:

Name: Your character's name.
Age: Your character's age at the start of the RP.
Faction: Wei, Wu, Shu, Other
Appearance: Character's general appearance. Pic is optional.
Personality: Character's persona.
Weapon of Choice: Your character's weapon.
Other Abilities: Other natural abilities that your

 

Well I'll post my characters now, forgive me for the double post:

Name: Cao Cao
Age: 29
Faction: Wei
Appearance:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/DWCaoCao.jpg
Personality: A brilliant ruler, but a cunning and deceitful man.
Weapon of Choice: Broad Sword (King of Wei)
Other Abilities: Excellent swordsman, brilliant tactician, fearless leadership
Brief Background: Cao Cao (曹操) was born in the county of Qiao (譙, present day Bozhou, Anhui) in 155. His father Cao Song (曹嵩) was a foster son of Cao Teng (曹騰), who in turn was one of the favorite eunuchs of Emperor Huan. Some historical records, including Biography of Cao Man, claim that Cao Song was originally surnamed Xiahou (thus making Cao Cao a cousin of Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, two of his most prominent generals). In the fictionalized Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao's father was originally a Xiahou and was adopted into the Cao family.

Cao Cao was known for his craftiness as a young man. According to the Biography of Cao Man, Cao Cao's uncle often complained to Cao Song regarding Cao Cao's childhood indulgence in hunting and music with Yuan Shao. To counter this, Cao Cao one day feigned a fit before his uncle, who hurriedly informed Cao Song. Cao Song rushed out to see his son, who was by then back to normal. When asked, Cao Cao replied, "I have never had such illness, but I lost the love of my uncle, and therefore he had deceived you." Henceforth, Cao Song ceased to believe the words of his brother regarding Cao Cao, and thus Cao Cao became even more blatant in his wayward pursuits.

At that time, there was a man living in Runan (汝南) named Xu Shao (許劭) who was famed for his ability to evaluate one's potentials and talents. Cao Cao paid him a visit in hopes of receiving the evaluation that will earn him some reputation politically. Originally Xu Shao pondered and refused to make a statement; however, under persistent questioning, he finally said, "You would be a capable minister in peaceful times and an unscrupulous hero in chaotic times." Cao Cao took this as a compliment and was very pleased as it was recorded that he "laughs and leaves" after receiving said comment. It is worth noting that there are two other versions of the comment in other unofficial historical records: "capable minister in peaceful times, righteous hero in chaotic times" and "sinister foe in peaceful times, great hero in chaotic times."

At twenty, Cao Cao was recommended to be a district captain of Luoyang. Upon taking up the post, Cao Cao placed rows of multicolored staffs outside his office and ordered his deputies to flog those who violated the law, regardless of their status. An uncle of Jian Shuo, one of the most powerful and influential eunuchs under Emperor Ling, was once caught walking in the city beyond the evening curfew hour by Cao Cao and given his fair share of flogging. This prompted Jian Shuo and other higher authorities to "promote" Cao Cao to another position outside the imperial capital (governor of Dunqiu County) to remove his management.

When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184 Cao Cao was recalled to Luoyang and promoted to a captain of the cavalry (騎都尉) and sent to Yingchuan (潁川) to put down the rebels there.

~~~

Name: Guan Yu
Age: Unknown
Faction: Shu
Appearance:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/DWGuanYu.jpg
^ Guan Yu on top of his legendary steed, Red Hare
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c1/Liu_Bei_Art.jpg
^ Three Brothers of Oath of Shu from left to right (Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Guan Yu)
Personality: A man who places great emphasis on honor, dedication and duty.[10] He often displays respect for his enemies and fulfills debts to friend and foe alike.
Weapon of Choice: Guan Dao (Blue Moon Dragon)
Other Abilities: Excellent horsemanship (has Red Hare after Battle of Xia Pi), excellent fighter and commander
Brief Background: Guan Yu was born in the county of Xie (解, a s

 

One more thing: Concerning magical abilities, I'm restricting it to magician like characters such as Zhang Jiao, Simi Yi, and Zhuge Liang but if you have an original character like that, he can possess some magic. Magic is a way of compensating for lack of melee fighting.

 

Forgive me for quadruple posting, but forgot to include the elemental magic that I was talking about in my above post. Here's the new template that you guys should use:

Name: Your character's name.
Age: Your character's age at the start of the RP.
Faction: Wei, Wu, Shu, Other
Appearance: Character's general appearance. Pic is optional.
Personality: Character's persona.
Weapon of Choice: Your character's weapon.
Element: Fire (inflicts extra fire damage, Lightning (lightning strikes surrounding enemies), Vorpal (delivers extra damage, occasionally causing instant death to regular troops), Ice (freezes enemy, causing temporary paralysis), Blast (powerful attack that cannot be guarded against), Poison (enemy receives more damage when poison is in effect)
Other Abilities: Other natural abilities that your character has (swordsmanship, horseman, fine archer, etc.)
Brief Background. Enough said.

For me, Cao Cao will have the Vorpal Element while Guan Yu will have the Blast Element.