GianniVacca

All, I have started a blog devoted to the Celestial Empire: http://celestialempire.blogspot.com/. There is only one entry at the moment, some extra rules for the Plain Girl (p121 of TCE).

Yes, there is heavy emphasis on Tantric Buddhism, because of its association with magic. Thank you, thank you...

I have had a look at the Professions, Part One page using Google translate (pl->en) and it wasn't that difficult to understand. The professions follow a pattern similar to the ones in the Alephtar Games supplements. Does the following link work for you? http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsmartfox.wordpress.com%2F2010%2F10%2F25%2Fbrp-conan-profesje-cz-i%2F&act=url

I thought this was a fully-fledged product, not a monograph.

Of course VIR is French for POT

If you read French, you may find the following useful: http://www.basicrps.com/bazar/bazar01.pdf

Just one "stupid" question: what are the dimensions and the weight of the book?

Well, if you read the Celestial Empire , you will notice that -- except during troubled times -- the Chinese had very little access to weapons. In the Judge Dee novels, people are usually killed with nails, stones, knives... because historically the average Chinese did not have access to swords or pole arms, only constables and soldiers did.

I'm not sure I understand your question. Do you mean "Knowing that Vincent would take advantage of being able to play again in that very same campaign to exact revenge on the other members of the party, would you allow him back?". Er, the answer would be "no" then. If, however, Vincent insisted, I'd let him play a weaponless character. That would maybe calm him down.

Welcome, mate!

The reason I ask is because I'm curious as to what fuels spells since there's no POW amongst the PC characteristics. Or is this role fulfilled by WIL?

I am so sorry, this is an example of bad copy 'n paste The section should've read as follows: From chapter Two, Characters: After all, even in an historical role-game, heroes are supposed to be different. The GM may assign each player a table to roll from once to add a special background to their characters, from among the following ones: Upbringing (p.6) – with the following modifications: item No.8 On Holy Ground gives the PC the power to detect proximity of a temple within his CON in lǐ; item No.9 Haunted gives the PC the power to detect proximity of a guǐ-monster within his POW in metres. Significant Events of Childhood (p.6) – with the following modifications: item No.7 Reliquary gives the PC access to a talisman/amulet; item No.8 Illness gives the PC the following power: having survived that particular disease, the PC is now immune to it. Significant Events of Adulthood-Normal (p.7) – with the following modifications: item No.6 Incarceration means that the PC has been sent as a conscript to a far frontier of the Celestial Empire to avoid being jailed, as a result, he has access to martial skills learnt there; item No.9 Conspiracy: the GM should secretly devise which secret society (from the 'Sects and Organisations' Chapter) the PC has become entangled with.

Wot... No Magic?

When I was in secondary school we played in a very long "shared GM" campaign set in Mitteleuropa that was much more Murder on the Orient Express meets Occult Europe than pure CoC.

Er, actually, no. But if Paolo authorises it, we could make available on Alephtar Games' web-site the bits that have been left out of the published version of the game. Or in a forthcoming issue of Uncounted Worlds.

A lǐ is the basic Chinese unit of length and is appr. half a kilometre, or a third of a mile -- see page 20 of TCE. A guǐ is a creature that exists both in the mundane world and in the spirit world. Good. Please keep us posted!

It was three years ago, so I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it was "Shanghai Village" smack in the centre of Chinatown. Red walls and great dumplings

Thanks a lot. And from Melbourne, the place of my favourite Chinese restaurant The research was based on countless books... The reason I almost only quoted Giles's was because of copyright issues.

You could have (for cultural deity) vs (against cultural deity). And maybe each time you gain 1 point in a given Allegiance, you lose 1 point in the other one.

Jason... WE WANTS DA PIKCHAAAAS!!!!

Paolo: given the kind of skills/traits/whatnot that you have in your system I think you should definitely include a rule similar to the one described by Sarah in her article "Enhancing Your Game" in issue No.2 of Uncounted Worlds.

Ditto!

I also have a BRP Mongols in the works, as a supplement to The Celestial Empire.

Shades in RuneQuest 2 did have a Fear attack IIRC.

I usually GM historical games so there's little combat. When combat does occur, I keep it simple, à la BRP quick start rules (http://www.basicrps.com/core/BRP_quick_start.pdf, page 24)