Wind on the Steppes – Preview

A seven-page preview of Wind on the Steppes is available on Alephtar Games' web-site. I suggest you pay particular attention to the bit about shamans, which are one of the key aspects of nomad life.

Mellified Man (蜜人)

from a suggestion on G+ by Joshua Bearden; text from Wikipedia

Mellified man, or human mummy confection, was a legendary medicinal substance created by steeping a human cadaver in honey. The concoction is mentioned only in Chinese sources, most significantly the Běncǎo Gāngmù (本草綱目) of the 16th-century Chinese pharmacologist Lǐ Shízhēn (李時珍, 1518-1593). Relying on a second-hand account, Lǐ reports a story that some elderly men, nearing the end of their lives, would submit themselves to a process of mummification in honey to create a healing confection.

This process differed from a simple body donation because of the aspect of self-sacrifice; the mellification process would ideally start before death. The donor would stop eating any food other than honey, going as far as to bathe in the substance. Shortly, his faeces (and even his sweat, according to legend) would consist of honey. When this diet finally proved fatal, the donor's body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey.

After a century or so, the contents would have turned into a sort of confection reputedly capable of healing broken limbs and other ailments. This confection would then be carefully sold in street markets as a hard to find item with a hefty price.

Leprosy (lài 癩)

Leprosy in East Asia is believed to be caused by (a) bad geomancy or (b) bad karma. People with leprosy are marginalised and discriminated against. Lepers are restricted to living in leper colonies, remote villages isolated from the rest of the population, or even secluded on islands (esp. in Korea). Lepers are deprived of their inheritance rights.

Because of fear, stigma, and revulsion toward lepers, the latter may travel quite unhinderedly— constables or guards, for instance, will refuse to search their body and belongings. On the other hand, what explanation can they provide for not being restricted to their colony?

If you're using The Celestial Empire, the Status skill of a leper is limited to 20%. If you're using Monsters & Magic, the Status attribute of a leper is limited to 4.

French-Language Liánhuánhuà

Beautiful boxed set of French-language Xī Yóu Jì

For some reason, Chinese comics have become quite popular in France. There is one publishing house, whose products I really enjoy, that has specialised in Chinese comics or in China-themed French comics. They're called Les Éditions Fei, and I have already mentioned them in an older blog entry.

Les Éditions Fei have been publishing Chinese-inspired but European-like comics for quite some time now, but now they are bringing a real novelty to the French comics market by collecting and translating liánhuánhuà (連環畫).

Liánhuánhuà are small, oblong comic books printed on cheap paper. The drawings are not hidden by speech bubbles because all the text is collected below the drawing, similarly to what happens in Dutch comics. I believe the heyday of liánhuánhuà was in the 70s and 80s.

The first liánhuánhuà translated and adapted by Les Éditions Fei was Au Bord de l'Eau (the Water Margin), which is not a surprise, as the picaresque adventures of the Mount Liáng outlaws are quite universal and don't need any particular exposition to Chinese culture to be enjoyed. At the time, I remember how impressed I had been by the choice of a prestigious edition. Each booklet (30 of them) had been printed on sturdy paper, and the booklets collected in a very tough cloth box with a magnetic fastener. The boxed set cost something like €80.

The second liánhuánhuà that has been brought to the French public was Les Trois Royaumes (Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Again 30 booklets within a cloth box. I didn't purchase this one , so I cannot comment further.

The third boxed set has just been released and, wow!, is it gorgeous. This time we have been granted access to le Voyage vers l'Ouest (the Journey to the West) in French. It's again 30 booklets within a cloth box; the boxed set also contains a booklet with the major gods and characters of the novel, and an absolutely fantastic full-colour map of all the (mostly imaginary) countries and locations that the monk Xuánzàng and his fellow travellers have to go through to reach India and retrieve the Buddhist Scripture. I suspect this boxed set will probably be the most successful one, owing to the popularity of Sūn Wùkōng aka the Monkey King. The boxed set is almost €90 but I just couldn't resist — just look at the picture above.

Look at the map!

Yesterday, by the most incredible chance, I serendipitously met the two translators of these liánhuánhuà in a Paris bookshop where they were presenting their latest opus. We spent like 30 minutes chatting and exchanging ideas and impressions about Chinese classical literature. They told me there were other liánhuánhuà in the pipe... The next one to be published is certainly going to be the Dream of the Red Chamber, maybe followed by the Plum in the Golden Vase (which should appeal to the Gallic appetite for risqué literature).

Wind On The Steppes Available For Pre-Order!

Wind on the Steppes, Alephtar Games' latest supplement is available for pre-order. Here's the publisher's blurb:

Be they Huns led by Attila, Turks, Kipchaks or the most feared of all – Genghis Khan’s Mongols, the nomads are surging from the depths of Central Asia! And they have just one goal in mind: raiding and pillaging everything in your campaign. So have your player characters get ready to face the fight of their life, for there is no escape route… unless they belong themselves to the horde.

Wind on the Steppes is a supplement for Basic Roleplaying describing the features common to all nomad tribes and the peculiarities of each nomad ethnicity or empire. Within it you will find inspiration for fleshing out powerful enemies for your fantasy or historical campaigns based on other Alephtar Games supplements. But its use is not limited to providing you with more detailed “bad guys”: Nomads can be fascinating player characters, too. The harsh life of the steppe and the unique flavour of their shamanistic approach to the supernatural world will give you plenty of great roleplaying opportunities.

This book requires the Basic Roleplaying core ruleset, available from Chaosium Inc.

Book + PDF bundle to be ordered at $29.90 from this page.