The Game Rules

On this page you can find links to the game rules of Outlaws of the Water Margin. Before you go ahead and download, a few comments. The contents are, of course, copyright protected, and may not be used for any commercial purpose without the permission of the author.

The arrangement is pretty simple: the files contain zipped archives of HTML files. These HTML files were produced rather quickly from the Word 6 (Japanese Edition) files which contain the 'real' game. In the process, certain elements have been lost. Number one, of course, is artwork. I don't have enough room on my provider's hard disk to upload viable files containing artwork. Number two is Chinese characters (hanzi) which are extensively used in the 'real' game to add atmosphere and information for those who want it. Number three is fiddly little bits like the character sheet, which is rather tough to include for the obvious reason that it is layout intensive. Number four are certain extra sections, which I've arbitrarily cut to keep the file size down. These are not necessary for play, and include things such as many of the character templates and stuff like that.

Secondly, I should point out that what is currently available is an out-of-date version of Book One, the rules heavy part of the package. There is quite a lot in there about China, but it is predominantly rules. The reason why this is complete is that the game's purpose is for me to actually use. Since I have a fair idea of the background material myself, getting the rules in usable form was a priority. With them out of the way, however, I can turn my attention to the second book (currently half finished) which contains a lot of detail about the Society, Beliefs and so on, not to mention practical details about China itself.

So, the game is there for you to download, read, consider, comment to me about and even *Shock! Horror!* play. If you have no commercial intent, download away.

If you like what you find, and feel you might like the 'real' version even more, e-mail me and we'll see what we can do. The 'real' version will be available as Adobe Acrobat 3.0 files. If you want to be informed when it is ready, drop me a line and I'll put you on the list.