A tabletop roleplaying game of Wuxia melodrama, Powered by the Apocalypse. In Hearts of Wulin, players take the role of skilled martial artists in a world of rival clans, conspiracies, and obligations. The game emulates films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Chinese wuxia TV series like The Smiling Proud Wanderer and Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and Chinese martial arts novels from the second half of the twentieth century. In these tales, romance is as dangerous as a blade. Everyone has ties to factions, loves they can’t quite express, and secrets which will shake them to their core. As in the source material, stories in Hearts of Wulin are driven by the characters’ duties, romantic desires, and entanglements with other characters. Hearts of Wulin is Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), meaning its mechanics are inspired, in part, by Apocalypse World by Vincent and Meguey Baker. The game is strongly influenced by several recent PbtA games, including Monsterhearts 2 by Avery Alder, Masks by Brendan Conway, and The Veil by Fraser Simons. That said, Hearts of Wulin stands on its own, and has several distinct features that help players tell stories steeped in wuxia melodrama.
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From Lowell-
I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s update to talk about the cultural sensitivity process, mistakes I’ve made, and some lessons I’ve learned, thanks to the generosity of people willing to teach me. The first of these was Agatha Cheng. I was really lucky that she came on board early in the Hearts of Wulin development process. She helped me frame our approach, refine moves, and really importantly help me understand the Confucian context to many of the source stories.
When Agatha couldn’t continue the work, I was super lucky to get Joyce Ch*ng on board to cover all of the cultural and historical material for the book. That’s material I don’t feel qualified to write, no matter how much research I could do. Joyce delivered terrific material that enriched the book. Once I had the draft full text, I reached out to Agatha again to see if she was available to do the cultural sensitivity reading. She was able to start on that task, but unfortunately she had to stop after working through the first several sections. It was all good and useful feedback.
I went into panic mode and reached out looking for another reader in the meantime. Cat Rambo and Curtis Chen helped out with this process.
But I hadn’t really thought about what the task required and what would be equitable pay. I grabbed an old ballpark figure and didn’t do further research. It was a combination of crisis mode and white guy assumptions about what the default is.
So when I received Yilin Wang’s offer of services, I balked because they asked for more money and time than I’d budgeted. And I turned them down without looking at the scope of what I was asking for. I did a huge disservice in that. But as soon I realized I’d screwed up, I went back to see if Yilin would still be willing to come on to the project.
Quite rightly, Yilin took me to task. But just as importantly, she walked me through what reasonable compensation and timetables looked like for a labor like this, so I could learn what to do in the future. In particular, she pointed me to this document which lays out the importance of and a set of base standards for working with cultural consultants.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Ea7_hWJzVmnO3O4MU03FKClKF6WAQWNvPB4E0_PjbQ/edit?usp=drivesdk.
It was the kind of legwork I should have done before starting the process.
Yilin agreed to take on the reading, which I’m incredibly grateful for. She asked about what PoC creators had been already involved in the project and what kinds of external research I’d done. She also reviewed chapters to confirm the scale of the project. I know she didn’t have to step up and help educate me about what designers need to do to take cultural consultation seriously. I should have done that before, and I’m extremely lucky she did so.
My initial failure is especially galling to me given that Hearts of Wulin wouldn’t exist without Agatha and Joyce’s support, but as importantly without the enthusiasm and energy of Jason Cordova, a queer Latino designer and publisher. He came to me saying this game was worth pursuing. I also did a disservice to the diverse group of stretch goal authors who trusted I would handle the sensitivity process well. In an time where we have voices like Asians Represent speaking for awareness and change, I should have done better.
I want to thank Yilin again for joining the project. This experience -- and these useful guidelines -- will stay with me and help me with my commitment to doing better on future projects—not just anything further for Hearts of Wulin, but also any other games I work on. I hope other game creators will join me.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.