Cathay: Any revues?

[LADRILLON]

Hi:

(Having no prior knowledge of this) I see not a lot of stuff about the Cathay SB for ED... I was wondering, why? & is it any good?


Thanks!
L

[slayride]

Cathay is a war of Five Kingdoms and an Empire torn asunder by a great trial. The Therans move in again through Indrisa and turn the ear of the leader of Shan Dei.
The Gar Tribes war to the north and if they ever united would be a threat to Cathay, especially now. The land of Jih'Po to the east sees some traffic to Cathay through the wandering of ronin samurai spreading the land's customs and culture.

The Player's Guide: 4 new races, 11 new Disciplines, 1 specialist Cavalryman in the Charioteer.
New talents, spells, especially for the new Sorcerer class, skills, talent knacks, racial abilities such as the Lightning Born ability of the Storm Children. New weapons, armor, chariots.

The Game Master's Guide: Information about the Five Kingdoms of Cathay and the land of the Gar. 40 pages of Creatures, Spirits, Dragons, and Horrors. New treasure and ships for Cathay. A starting First Circle adventure in Blood in the Sands and some adventure frameworks.

You can use the Cathay books in two ways. One of them is to run a Cathay-based game. Secondly, you can import things to your Barsaive. Everything in the book from Disciplines to Creatures could be imported to Barsaive for your use in those campaigns. In this way they function as extra core books to use for your Barsaive game.

[galafrone]

i can add that cathay books are great
the merchant discipline can be easily adapted for the merchant-rich environment of barsaive (and theran empire).
a real must for an ED enthusiast

[slayride]

I've also been running a Cathay game for over a year now, and even ran a couple of scenarios for Cathay at Gencon this year, so if you got any questions just ask.

[LADRILLON]

The Player's Guide: 4 new races, 11 new Disciplines

Hiyas:

Couldya detail these please?


Thanks
L

[slayride]

Ki Mao: Cat-like Elves who live in the Jungle of Endless Wandering. Low-Light Vision.

Po Na: Monkey people who live in the Jungle of Endless Wandering and have wars with the ki mao from time to time. Prehensile Tail, weaker Tail Combat

Storm Children: Born from bolts of thunder as fully grown. Has the Lightning Born ability adding resistance to lightning attacks and can gain knacks that act as spell-like abilities.

Gar: A race of elves exiled out of Cathay that have become savages. Low-Light Vision.

Beastlord: Discipline focused on tapping into inner animal selves from former lives. Heavy belief in reincarnation. Evil Usurpers slay beasts to add them to themselves as tattoos, removing their natural animal selves for magical creatures. Can manifest animal selves as a pseudo summon.

Daughter of Heaven Female only Discipline focused on healing with missions from the Tower of Secrets. Betrayal of the order by violating the principle of neutrality is met with Assassins. Major powers include the ability to use their recovery tests to recover damage inflicted on others.

Guardian of Cathay. When Cathay split into 5 Kingdoms, this Discipline split into 5 factions, each upholding the laws of the five kingdoms. Gear'ak from my Campaign is an old Guardian of Order from the secret group in my campaign of the Hands of Cathay, and has no allegiance to the 5 Kingdoms, only Cathay as it was in his first time of awakening. Powers include mostly elemental-based ones, making them Warrior-like.

Merchant. A Discipline about buying and selling and maximizing profit. Focus is on social interactions and economics.

Monk. An order dedicated to Luung, who emulate the fighting styles of the crane, panther, snake, and tiger to eventually master them and gain access to the Way of the Dragon including dragon techniques like Dragonfire. Focus is on unarmed combat, but can also use melee.

Pugilist: An unarmed fighter dedicated to fighting in arenas. Includes new style ones dedicated to bloody Theran arena combat and the one dedicated to the old Cathayan ways of entertaining villages by displaying fighting prowess.

Samurai: An excellent melee and missile combatant who can also use pool options to gain cavalryman style abilities from the land of Jih'Po. A premier combat class, very strong.

Scholar: Male only. From the Tower of Secrets there job is to collect knowledge and transmit it to the Tower of Secrets using their Moon Staves as the medium of passage for that information. The Moon Staff can also be used as a spell-like ranged attack. In many ways, a superior Traveled Scholar variant.

Sorcerer: A magician class that focuses on transmutation. They alter reality in this manner, like illusionists but without the illusions. Tends to be weak until Third Circle, when they get the strong Astral Strike spell.

Sword Dancer: A Swordmaster-like class that focuses on one on one combat. Abilities such as Blade Dance turn the tables on multiple-attackers. This class is on par with the Samurai in terms of power.

Gar War Rider: A mounted archer cavalryman who makes war in the Land of the Gar's rolling steppes. A Gar only Discipline.

Charioteer: A Cavalryman variant. They get abilities like Steer Wagon, making them excellent wagon masters for caravans and allows them to drive the war chariots on Cathay's battlefields.

[LADRILLON]

Hi:

Wow, thanks! Seems almost like another world entirerly!


L

[Oofje]

[LADRILLON]

Hiyas!

Taking into account that Barsaive is geographically the Ukraine region, that figures...

I just didn't believe that Cathayans were so different. Are there hooks (in the books) for Barsaivians (et al) to go there, within reason (no "trip to the moon" kinda scenario) & vice versa?


Thanks
L

[Oofje]

Not as such. There is reference in the Cathay books of Barsaivens visiting the 5 Kingdoms (as Cathay is often referred to), but it's entirely up to the GM to provide incentive (if you, or the players want to go to Cathay) to visit.