Starting a new campaign... as a player!

I've been invited to join a new campaign that's starting up. The DM and at least one of the other players are long-known to me, having been part of the Rift City campaign going back before Covid (and we've known each other for decades, it just took a long time to getting round to playing D&D together). I'm pretty sure I also played some 5e with one of the other players, under the DM that is running this campaign, but again, that was pre-Covid I think (a good few years ago now, anyway).

It's a 5.5e campaign, which is a new thing for me, but it seems pretty similar to 5e from what I remember (I first played 5e back in about 2016 I think, and then as I say maybe about 2018-19). It's all very complicated.

The setting is 'Wuxia'. I'm trying to get a handle on the world we're in, which mentally I'm pitching as being somewhere on a continuum from 'Kung Fu Panda' to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'. I originally conceptualised this as 'Monkey' to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', then realised 'Monkey' is where I hope we end up, and you could instead run the line from 'no humans, everyone's flying about doing kung fu' to 'all humans, only a few people are flying about doing kung fu' (there is, beyond this point, 'The Water Margin', in which, as far as I remember, there are all humans, but no-one is flying about doing kung fu). 

Monkey - the original and best. Sandy, Monkey, Tripitaka, the horse (who is also a character in 'The Journey to the West'), Pigsy. Yes, I know it's a Japanese interpretation of a Chinese story about people going to India, but I don't particularly care, it's still awesome.

And then there's this one - the Monkey remake from 2019. Sandy, Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy. Yes, I know it's a New Zealand remake of a Japanese version of a Chinese story about people going to India. I thought it was not too bad - I liked the baddie (not pictured in this picture).

I figured I'd quite like to play a Monk. It's a bit of a classic of the genre. Obviously, apart from 'Monkey', there's a lot of things I can take as inspiration - 'Kung Fu', 'Bulletproof Monk', 'Dr Strange', 'House of Flying Daggers' and 'Hero' for a start that I can think of, I think I may watch some of them again (I have a few at least on DVD).

I'm playing about with an idea that I could play a 'shan xiao' - a 'Mountain Imp' (or perhaps 'Mountain Demon'). I came across them looking at this site to get information on Chinese folkloric monsters.

Mountain Imps and Household Goblins

In Chinese folklore, mountain imps known as shan xiao (山魈) are depicted as petty, misshapen demons inhabiting remote wild areas, often functioning as malefic tricksters that embody the dangers of uncivilized frontiers. These entities, likened to European goblins or Russian leshii, are bizarre creatures associated with affliction and mischief, such as leading travelers astray or pilfering tools in forested mountains. Regional tales from Sichuan portray them as dwarfish, horned figures capable of both guiding lost wanderers to safety and engaging in deceptive bargains for luck or protection, though betrayal of such pacts invites curses and misfortune....

Regional Variations Across China

In northern China, particularly in regions bordering Mongolia such as Inner Mongolia and the northern provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi, folklore features hardy mountain goblins known as shanxiao, depicted as mischievous spirits inhabiting remote peaks and steppes. These entities often embody the harsh environment, with tales where goblins serve as tricksters guarding landscapes, blending Han Chinese beliefs with steppe animism. For instance, shanxiao are described as beings that lure travelers into peril, reflecting the nomadic hardships and vast terrains of the north, distinct from more urban Han variants.

I definitely wanted my shan xiao to be Northern - just my prejudice. Both Northern and Southern shan xiao lure travellers from their path (or potentially put them back on it), so that's fine, I can go with that. A great description is 'malefic tricksters'; and a Goblin seemed a good choice for how to do that. Maybe a Kobold. But, neither Goblins nor Kobolds are playable races in 5.5e. They are described as 'petty' (which I took to mean 'small' rather than 'pointlessly argumentative and prone to grudges'), and the Southern varieties of shan xiao at least are 'dwarfish' (I assume meaning 'small compared to humans', and not 'bearded with winged helmets, beating metal and singing about gold'). That to me ruled out playing an Orc, because Orcs aren't generally considered smaller than humans in D&D, and I definitely wanted to go with something tricksy rather than brutish. I did consider playing a Gnome, but I find it hard to separate them from Western cultural tropes. But the Southern shan xiao are described as being horned, and that - along with their tricksy, perhaps demonic, nature - made me think of Tieflings.

Obviously, not being much of a late-editions player, I don't know very much about Tieflings (perhaps liberating me from the baggage I might otherwise have brought). From what I can gather, they're sort of Half-Demons in the same way that Half-Orcs are Half-Orcs and Half-Elves are Half-Elves. Of course, they've done away with Half-Orcs and Half-Elves in 5.5e. But they haven't done away with Half-Demons.

That's where I'm at currently - a Tiefling Monk. I put a bit of work into that and I'm fairly happy with how it's going. Character creation is a bit weird, though, I'm rather more used to rolling some dice and saying 'so what does that get me?' rather than going 'what do I want and how can I do that? Oh, and what do all these choices mean?' but I'm sure I'll get my head round it eventually. Not knowing what the end result is does make some of the choices seem a bit arbitrary though. 

I did make one roll (electronically, I couldn't be bothered to look for my dice, but have since remembered they're in a bag, inside another bag, approximately 4 feet from where I'm sitting). There is a d% roll you make to find a 'Trinket' during character creation, and I rolled 90. My 'Trinket' is a single ancient arrow of Elven manufacture.

That left me wondering. Not sure if there are any Elves in this setting, they're perhaps (qua Elves, anyway) a bit Western, but, I'm going to assume for the time being that there are some aethereal tree-spirits that might use bows somewhere in the realm. Whether they might sing a lot is currently unknown.

Anyway, that aside, that's what I ran with. We've been told that we're starting 5th Level. Cool, I get to pick a Monkish school for him to be involved with. I chose Way of the Shadow-Warrior as it seemed to go with my conception of his as being tricksy and somewhat sinister. Meet Shan-Linghun, Tiefling Monk of the Shadows, rendered in mini-form (or at least, illustration thereof) via the Hero Forge interface (here, in case anyone on the planet doesn't know what Hero Forge is).

Tiefling Monk with lots of gear, courtesy of Hero Forge

He's got a lot of kit. Given his Monk class he gets a spear and five daggers, as well as either a musical instrument or a tool-kit. I gave him the 'Guide' background (leading travellers astray, or to the right path) which gives him a Cartographer's Kit (so he had one toolkit anyway), so I went with a musical instrument as my Monk option. There's something Pan-like about him, so I thought maybe he could play songs in the misty hills, luring travellers with his haunting flutey melodies. Guides also get a shortbow and 20 arrows as part of their starting equipment. 

This, confusingly, is a weapon with which he has proficiency, but is not counted as a 'Monk Weapon'. As far as I can tell, this means that he's got a bonus to hit with the shortbow, but he can't utilise special Monkish skills like multiple strikes or using his ki-power. These have to be used with melee attacks. No matter, as I see it at the moment he can use the bow at some distance and if things get up-close and personal he can drop his bow and start leaping about and punching people, or using the spear and daggers I guess - he isn't an 'Open Hand' Monk, he's a 'Shadow' Monk, which means he's more of a sneaky, stealthy type, but I shall have to look into what that means exactly, all of this is new to me.

Anyroadup, that's where I'm at. Expect intermitant updates on this...