World of Kung-Fu

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The World of Kung-Fu is a reformatted version of the setting on wiki.rpg.net

Busy-street-nyc-2010 — New York City, 2010

Background[]

There is a secret world behind our world. A world of Kung Fu. Righteous monks and lethal assassins, maniacal villains and vigilante heroes walk amongst us unnoticed. The history of this secret world is the history of a war of good against evil; a war as ancient as China. The Kung Fu War. The Kung Fu War is a war against tyranny, a war against crime, and a war against diabolism and the powers of the dark.

Our world is under threat of conquest by an organization devoted to the pure pursuit of power; an organization with its tentacles reaching into every government on Earth; an organization named “Wushu”. Ruling China through its puppet communist regime, Wushu fights for the day when everyone will bow to its will.

Our world is under threat of being engulfed by a rising tide of criminal anarchy, as martial arts gangs prey on civilians for easy money. Worldwide, police are helpless as the infamous Five Venoms syndicate spreads its empire of corruption and violence. In the USA, a homegrown criminal alliance sweeps through the streets, washing them with blood: The Maniac Warrior Empire.

Our world is under threat of consumption by the forces of evil itself. The Laughing Devils, an ancient, degenerate cult, plots our downfall with magic and Kung Fu, martialing a legion of demons, vampires, and more terrible things yet to overwhelm and destroy us.

If our world is going to survive, it’s going to need heroes. And those heroes are going to need some mighty Kung Fu! For as long as there have been those who would subjugate humanity, there have been those with the guts and compassion to stand up and defend us against the armies of evil. Throughout history, the monks of Shaolin and priests of Wudang have championed all that is right. In the face of imperial tyranny and criminal greed, ten thousand martial arts styles bloomed to resist, from Wing Chun revolutionaries rising up against the Manchu, to the Karateka of Japan battling the Ninja menace. In the US, the Vigilante movement gathers martial artists trained in styles from all over the world, united by the will to defend the weak against the strong, and to see freedom and justice reign.

Timeline Comments[]

This is, of course, an alternate reality as there are events in the World of Kung-Fu Timeline that there are irreconcilable with our own. For example, the Hell’s Angels, in 2020, still use the death’s head symbol while in this really they were forced to abandon it in 2017 by the Five Venoms.

The Major Factions[]

The Good Guys[]

Shaolin (World of Kung-Fu): The righteous monks, fighting for truth, compassion, and the Buddhist way. Shaolin’s allies include Kempo, Pak Hok, and Praying Mantis.
Wing Chun (World of Kung-Fu): The idealistic revolutionaries, uniting the factions to save the world. Wing Chun’s allies include Hung Gar, Kajukenbo, Kuntao, and Jeet Kune Do.
Wudang (World of Kung-Fu): The mystical Daoist alchemists, masters of Kung Fu and magic. Wudang’s allies include Hsing I Chuan, Pa Kua Chuan, and Tai Chi Chuan.
Vigilantes (World of Kung-Fu): Ordinary American martial arts heroes, taking back the streets.

Fundamentals[]

The compassionate nature of good guys has produced a culture that regards it as dishonorable to kill or maim enemies. Neither the Wulin nor the Vigilantes have a killing culture, rogue sets apart. Killing is viewed as something bad guys do. Even guys in the middle generally regard it as dishonorable to kill. The Circle of Iron don’t kill and neither does Karate, not even in the heat of the Karate Wars. IFF fighters rarely express reservations about killing, but if it came down to it, some would and some wouldn’t. Ronin might do anything, but even they tend towards choosing not to kill. Ninja, of course, kill without hesitation.

The refusal of the good guys to kill leaves them with the problem of what to do with defeated evil-doers. If the defeated are wanted by the police, they are left for the police to find. The Wulin deal with those they regard as too dangerous for regular prison by handing them over to the Shaolin, who maintain a special prison of their own in the Songshan mountains. Conditions in Shaolin prison are notoriously humane and pleasant, due to the legendary compassion of the jailor monks. While the prison is the hardest in the world to escape from, sometimes, exceptional prisoners do escape and have to be re-apprehended. Have you ever tried to keep a Ninja locked up?

The Bad Guys[]

Five Venoms (World of Kung-Fu): The international lords of crime, with their hand in every pocket.
Laughing Devils (World of Kung-Fu): The infernal sorcerers, sowing corruption and madness.
Maniac Warrior Empire (World of Kung-Fu): The hordes of criminal anarchy, their gangs running rampant in the streets of America.
Wushu (World of Kung-Fu): The mysterious totalitarian oppressors, tightening their control over the world.

The Guys in the Middle[]

Circle of Iron (World of Kung-Fu): The loyal brotherhood, keepers of the underground fighting syndicate.
Infinite Fighting Federation (World of Kung-Fu): The modern gladiators, heroes to the masses.
Karate (World of Kung-Fu): The feuding samurai, a shogunate at war with itself.
Ninja (World of Kung-Fu): The mysterious assassins, on a thousand secret missions.
Ronin (World of Kung-Fu): The outsiders who walked away, living without rules.
Animal Styles (World of Kung-Fu)

General Faction Information[]

The Shaolin, Wing Chun and Wudang factions are collectively known as the Wulin, a term originally referring to the Chinese martial arts. The Wulin have a long history of cooperation, and to a lesser extent, of feuding and rivalry. Though the Wulin originated in China, they are ethnically diverse in the USA, as are all the other major factions. In the US, the Wulin recruit through kwoon teaching the Chinese martial arts. While many of these students are ethnically Chinese, many are not. Even clan-based factions like the Five Venoms and the Ninja recruit talent where they find it, without regard to ethnicity.

Martial Arts Styles[]

For every martial arts style, there is a faction or factions that practitioners are particularly likely to belong to. For instance, a master of Shaolin Kung Fu will almost always owe allegiance to the Shaolin faction. While the style used by a martial artist need not indicate their faction or attitudes, people will make assumptions about what faction a fighter belongs to and what their beliefs and attitudes are based on the style they use. The more unusual the style is, the more that it will be used as a standard to stereotype people by