The cinematic violence of Wandering Blades

Prolific game designer and co-host of the Asians Represent! podcast, Daniel Kwan, recently launched the crowdfunding campaign for his latest project: Wandering Blades. An RPG in the Chinese narrative tradition of wuxia and xuanhuan — genres which have roots going back nearly 2000 years — the game has players act as highly trained martial artists who travel through the countryside fighting for justice and liberation of people against oppressive forces.

Based on the review copy zine Rascal received at Pax Unplugged last year, the game’s core principles like Danger is Everywhere, Old School Principles, and Strategy Over Luck give a clear sense of what experience this game is looking to offer players. In all they evoke the thematic elements of its wuxia inspirations (fast paced, hyper-stylized, highly lethal fight sequences) with a play experience that intends to balance OSR mechanics with narrative-forward dramatic storytelling. Mechanics such as Qi points and fillable clocks seemingly borrow inspiration from the mechanized spirituality of the monks class in Dungeons & Dragons and progressive narrative tension of games like Blades in the Dark — though Kwan’s noted inspiration interestingly comes from a cardboard-based lineage, rather than a pen and paper one. 

In an email interview, Rascal chatted with Daniel Kwan about Wandering Blades’ inspirations, blending multiple gaming traditions to bring that narrative lineage to the table, and the precarity of crowdfunding during this moment.