Kindred of the East update project
Wan Xian is a fan-made rules update to Kindred of the East (K.o.t.E.). These rules are meant to bring the game systems into line with the fourth edition "V20" release of Vampire: the Masquerade (VtM) without overwriting everything with the new VtM character sheet. This was necessary because the I.P. holder changed hands several times, with part of the World of Darkness' original Kuei-jin edition going through the hands of some good ol' boys from Stone Mountain, Georgia. Today that portion of the game line's releases are seen as culturally insensitive, so the later I.P.-holders were uncomfortable with the idea of updating the Kuei-jin. Storytellers/players can choose how accurate to be, how sensitive to be, or how much to leave on the cutting room floor. The story backdrop for VtM has always been dependent upon the idea that the Antideluvian elder vampire Saulot predated at least the rise of Christianity, having returned even before then from a quest to "the East," where he'd uncovered insights that had a lasting effect on the Kindred of VtM. There have also been story implications in the histories of other game systems' shared fictional setting. (White Wolf was trying to publish a shared universe for stories of each sort, but originally failed to keep game mechanics consistent.) That makes the existence of this second archetype of creature an important part of the storyline, which needs to be available in some form for the fans' games to suitably include. Making those story components available is the goal of this project. When this project is completed the core rules will be useful as a stand-alone game system but will also be able to be run at the same table as a fourth edition VtM character. Yes, the sheets are different, but the rules are directly compatible. We expect the final version to be over 270 bookmarked pages in a single file-size-reduced .PDF with searchability. Until then, each completed chapter is available as a stand-alone .PDF without any file-reduction work yet applied. These files don't have bookmarks. However, the authors also like Requiem's changes to simplify things in certain ways, so we've also included a few of those. Overall, the biggest changes are the choices to update the game mechanics involving the character sheet traits. In particular, one of the most confusing parts of the game's core mechanics were the Hun/P'o/Black Chi/Red Chi system. Some of those traits can apply temporary or permanent Merits or Flaws, some are rolled as dice in some rules but not in others, sometimes the player was punished by rolling twice and comparing them, etc. We've also decided to streamline things by updating the old World of Darkness "Flaws" system with the new system for Flaws seen in Requiam. Instead of different point ratings, our version awards a +1 bonus X.P. at the end of the game session for roleplaying Flaws then being hindered by them during play. We've also harmonized the Backgrounds/Merits into one Background-like system as Requiem did. The biggest change from the original publication is that we've extensively cleaned up the mundane Abilities list. Although we've put together a copyright and credits page using the original book's info, we've also realized we may not have properly credited a few of the artists where work was re-used from White Wolf Publishing's art in the original book. If you find uncredited artwork anywhere in this project please contact our team so we can speak to the artist. We'd like to either pay/credit the artist or we will replace the unattributed work.
Here are some other files that players may find useful if they make characters using this project:
This text was added because roleplaying games offer an unusual case in intellectual property law. Because the rule-books are sold with the intention that their purchaser will create derivative work. Everything linked here is presumed by the authors to be based on copyrights of a defunct company whose assets were bought by several later firms. We're just trying to continue with the fair use we were originally sold. We don't advertise these works in commerce. None of this material is directly copyrighted, however this material is often derivitave of other works. The nature of those works is that they must make allowances for purchasers to develop the material for small-scale non-commercial use. Reasonable use on a small scale is never a threat to the originating copyrights.
