This game will be using the Wushu Open: Reloaded rules, which may be found here.<br/><br/>http://wiki.saberpunk.net/Wushu/OpenReloaded (http://wiki.saberpunk.net/Wushu/OpenReloaded)<br/><br/>However, because this is survival horror, there are a few changes needed.<br/><br/>This following is compiled from a thread originally submitted to the RPGNet Forums by CasperLions from 4-8 October 2006, and there’s a link to it archived on the Wushu Wiki.  We’ve taken a chainsaw to things, done some editing to keep everything coherent, corrected some of the spelling, but the original idea and initial content was all his doing.  (The title we used was suggested to CL by cglasgow)<br/><br/>ZOMBIE-FU!  A Wushu Guide to Survival Horror<br/><br/><strong>What is Survival Horror?</strong><br/>Coined by the creator of the Resident Evil videogame franchise, ‘survival horror’ is more than just a video game genre. It is a rich genre spanning many mediums, and with many subgenres. There is the creepy psychodrama typified in the Silent Hill videogames, the more action-oriented tension and gore of Resident Evil, and of course the desperation and helplessness of the common slasher film. Despite this wide-range of material, it all has something in common that set the genre apart from general horror. Horror movies are about scaring you. Survival horror is about scaring the protagonist. Even the most visceral horror movie might take a more cerebral approach at fear, whereas even the most mentally complex survival horror material, such as Silent Hill, still focuses on the base fear of desperation to stay alive…hence the name.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><strong>A Note on the Narrative of Survival Horror</strong></span><br/>The general operating principle behind this Wushu Guide to Survival Horror is that showing weakness gives you strength. Instead of describing how cool you are and having cool things, you emphasize your weakness and play up drama of having the things precious to you threatened.  The more hell you put yourself through, the better chance you have of surviving. That's because in a horror movie non-important characters get killed off quickly.  The ones that end up really being tortured are usually the ones who survive (at least until the big finish).<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Wording Changes from Wushu to Zombie-Fu</strong></span><br/>PCs = Victims<br/>Chi = Guts (CL called this Crimson…cool but not quite creepy enough for us, so we borrowed this from Baileywolf’s Monster-punk write-up instead.)<br/>Yin = Slash (CL called this AB-, which seems a bit clumsy.)<br/>Yang = Hack (CL called this AB+, which also seems a bit clumsy.)<br/><br/><strong>Gory Details</strong>: The more hell a character is put through the better their chances for survival.<strong>Dice pools are built from narrating the gory details of the threat from the eyes of the character and description of the character's fear</strong>(rather than the sheer badass-edness of their actions as in normal Wushu).<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Character Traits</span></strong><br/>Three traits with a 5/4/3 split as is customary with Wushu Open: Reloaded.  Traits should be built around the threefold theme of Physical, Mental, and Moral survival.  Victims also have a Greatest Fear, a Frailty, and a Needful Thing.  Available equipment should be kept to a minimum.  This IS a genre involving cars that won’t, don’t, or can’t start, guns with little or no ammo, mostly empty first-aid kits, and the like.<br/><br/><strong>Physical Survival</strong>is pretty obvious—hitting stuff, shooting stuff, running away from stuff, jumping over wide gaps, lifting stuff.<br/><br/><strong>Mental Survival</strong>is how well you cope with the weirdness and horror as it creeps after you with clammy, decaying fingers and sharp, nasty, pointy teeth.  Think of it as a cross between your sanity and your coolness under pressure.<br/><br/><strong>Moral Survival</strong>is how well your personal morals and ethics hold up under pressure like this.  Do you gradually turn into a monster yourself, willing to do anything to survive personally?  Or do you stay true to yourself and accept the consequences of stopping to help a friend in need?<br/><br/>Each character has a<strong>Greatest Fear</strong>, which works like a normal Wushu-style weakness (causing all traits to work like they were rated at 1 during conflicts where the weakness comes into play). However unlike a standard weaknesses, if the character whose Fear is being preyed upon is the one who finishes off the Conflict at hand, that Fear is worked through and the mechanical drawbacks of the weakness go away.  This offers a sort of beleaguered heroism to our poor tormented Victims and can give them that one final boost to get them all the way to the final horrors they must face for our amusement.  Just ask James Sunderland.<br/><br/>A<strong>Frailty</strong>is a normal Wushu-style weakness that is tied to a single trait (usually the one with a rating of 3) and affects only that trait when it comes up in a scene.<br/><br/><strong>Needful Things</strong>are modified Special Things from Wushu Open Reloaded. A Needful Thing is an object or a person that gives the ‘owning’ Victim an extra die (even if it goes over the pool limit) during the scene in which it is invoked.  Since this is horror, Needful Things will more often be at risk than a help, but just as descriptions of fear and the gruesomeness of the threat increase a Victim's will to survive (die pool), so to with their Needful Thing being in jeopardy.