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So in honour of Bundle of Holding having a big old sale on Feng Shui, I felt a thread was in order. As such, I'm going to crib from Mors Rattus' Fatal and Friends rundown for most of this. "Welcome to [b posted:Feng Shui[/b]."]Feng Shui is the game in which you and your friends face off against sinister time-travelling eunuch wizards, secretive time travelling conspirators and twisted time travelling mad scientists. In Hong Kong, of course. This secret war is all for the control of feng shui sites, which harness and intensify the planet's chi, or life force. Those who control the sites benefit from it, and thus was geomancy born. History belongs to those who control the feng shui. (Which you pronounce however you want, says a sidebar.) As for mechanics: quote:For every time you roll dice, you roll 2d6. One of these d6s is positive, the other is negative. The book suggests different colors to make it easy to tell apart. There's two kinds of rolls: Closed and Open. A closed roll is simple: roll the positive die and the negative die, subtract the negative from the positive, take the result and add it to your Action Value for the action to see what happens. An open roll is similar, except the dice explode. However, if you roll a 6 on each die, rather than both exploding, we call that boxcars. Boxcars mean you either critically succeed or fail, and you find out which by rerolling, ignoring further Boxcars results. There's more, but I'm still trying to convince my group to go back to RPG's from Boardgames, so it's at the top of my to be played pile. Hoping other people jump in and share the knowledge!
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Oct 1, 2013 05:29
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 00:30 |
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Apparently there is something in the works for even more Feng Shui, which is so goddamn great. In other news, if you need to convince people to play Feng Shui even after you explain Battlechimp Potempkin, go play some Shadowfist. Card games won't require as much time investment, and if they still don't want to play you know to get new friends.
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Oct 1, 2013 15:41
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This is a game where my players ended up being a transgendered afro-Korean former monster hunter FROM THE FUTURE Mook Turned Hero, a Pictish sorceress with fire conjuring and infinite knives, a wise old master with a pet monkey and, of course, his greatest student having become evil, and a guy who just wanted to run his auto shop and turn his 69 Charger into a battlecar. Together, they teamed up through time and space to fight crime, kill cybernetic anarchist apes, the embodied fears of all right wing delusion, and eunuch sorcerers from ancient China. What I'm trying to say is that Feng Shui is one of the best RPGs I've ever played. The rules can get a little wonky, but they clearly encourage you not to let them get in the way of the fun.
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Oct 1, 2013 15:48
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There is a Feng Shui book that is mostly special rules to use when you hit somebody with nearly everything, including a human leg (Bonus to hit if you use it to kick them in the rear end). Special Rules to play as both Johnny Quest and Scooby Doo, not to mention X-Files and NYPD Blue With Magic. Play Feng Shui. Love Feng Shui.
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Oct 1, 2013 19:09
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The nicest thing about Feng Shui is the way the setting is designed to be a game with time travel paradoxes, but not a game /about/ time travel paradoxes. The time metaphysic is clever and robust and doesn't get in the way of you travelling to 2030 and punching a cyborg gorilla in the dick.
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Oct 3, 2013 15:44
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Wow, its a shame I missed this package deal, I assume it was basically all the supplements? That said, a friend just pointed out the new about a new edition. I am rather surprised, I never thought FS would get a new edition. Apparently they're conducting playtest feedback of the original edition/intro adventure.quote:A new edition of Feng Shui Action Movie Roleplaying is in the works and we’re seeking input from gamers worldwide. In this early phase of the game’s development, we are looking for playtesters to do the following: But that means no car chase rules from Golden Comeback. 
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Oct 3, 2013 21:54
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So, any goons going to run a game?
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Oct 3, 2013 21:55
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One thing that saddens me is how little people mention Kung Fu Pope. To elaborate, ages ago the Feng Shui sites were completely dominated by these four siblings who divided the world up between them. Eventually they were cast out by the Ascended and their world-spanning empires were retconned out of existence, so now they just reside in the Netherworld kinda brooding and occasionally meddling in mortal affairs. One of these dudes cemented his rule over Europe by crane-kicking the Catholic Church until it accepted him as Pope. His art in the book even has him wearing a miter.
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Oct 3, 2013 23:52
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He is the ultimate crusader pope, and if anybody dares mention that maybe Jesus meant being merciful to heathens too (Everyone who opposes him is a heathen by the by) they get smote by thunder because he is the THUNDER KING. Unless he wants you burned at the stake. Also Laser Jews, who were their own separate thing and practiced Chi/ballah.
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Oct 3, 2013 23:57
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Huan Ken? He's a cool guy. Don't forget he loves rock and likes to go clubbing too. I prefer Li Ting though, gotta love fire + Arbian Myths + Chinese magic.
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Oct 4, 2013 00:02
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Pui Ti is the only Royal Pagoda even worth considering as anything but Too Bad To Let Live, Too Big To Kill.
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Oct 4, 2013 00:07
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Every game of anything I've ever run since I read the Feng Shui rules have used its system for combat encounters. You want there to be a soda machine to tip on your enemies, or a rope to swing from, or a gas main to shoot out, or a boat in the canal? There always is, and you don't even have to ask. Nothing makes for more action-packed combat than a compliant stage.Mr. Maltose posted:So, any goons going to run a game? I'll give it a go, if there's interest. I'm a little dubious, because it seems like the people who'd be most interested got into the beta for the new one. Mystic Mongol fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Oct 4, 2013 |
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Oct 4, 2013 03:28
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I didn't have the spare cash to pop for the Bag, and I'm certainly interested.
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Oct 4, 2013 03:38
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I'd be kinda interested, but I can't see Feng Shui working too well play-by-post.
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Oct 4, 2013 03:41
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I'm keen, for however you wanna do it.
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Oct 4, 2013 04:10
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The thing about the Feng Shui combat system is that as much as the game has some genuinely clever innovations (The Map Is Not Your Friend, using minions) the actual dice mechanics still feel like they're getting in the way of the fun. Possibly I'm still on my honeymoon with *world, but I reckon the fail-forward rolls and Conversation structure from that system would be a perfect fit for evoking the kind of action movie feel Feng Shui wants to emulate.
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Oct 4, 2013 11:44
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If you are interested in some talk about the new edition of Feng Shui, it was briefly addressed on Robin Laws and Ken Hite's podcast this week: http://www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/index.php/episode-59-thwarted-by-trees/ It's a good podcast in general, but the Feng Shui stuff is about 3/4 of the way through. Some highlights I remember: - The "future" time points will change, in order to reflect the consequences of different Feng Shui sites being controlled - Some fine-tuning of the rules, rather than reinventing everything (for example, finding a way to make the "big guy who hits rarely but very hard" archetype more practical in play) - Also, making the rules more consistent with the genre emulation (example given was eliminating penalties for doing flashy, crazy stuff during fight scenes, since that is what you're supposed to be doing anyways) - Sticking with the Types for characters, rather than a more general point-buy system - Including some of the Types in the main book that were originally in supplements - Some discussion on how to handle the iconic characters, with the eventual conclusion that they'll most likely be "re-envisioned" as if the show/film series is getting a reboot, or possibly grouped into a supplement.
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Oct 4, 2013 21:01
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Does this mean the Contemporary juncture will be Hong Kon 2015ish rather than HK 1996? Cause that'll mean some major changes. I wonder if they'll just do that Critical Shift from the Shadowfist Card Game and replace the Buro with the flashy, sexy, Shadowsun Syndicate cyberpunk future.
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Oct 4, 2013 21:09
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Yes, I think the new Contemporary juncture will be 2013ish Hong Kong. They specifically mentioned the parts about Hong Kong's relationship with China as being pretty dated by now in the original book, and one of the things they'd like to update. The other effect of that is that, when the book first came out, Hong Kong action cinema was not so well known and part of the idea was to introduce its aesthetic to the audience. But now, it's much better known and has had many more films released. Accordingly, Robin mentioned updating the description and working in some more Hollywood action aspects as well.
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Oct 4, 2013 21:15
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Oh my god are they using the Shadowfist factions? Yeeeees.
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Oct 4, 2013 22:46
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I have always regretted not playing more of this game. All I remember about what I have played is 1) There are rules for riding explosions 2) We used those rules in the first session
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Oct 4, 2013 23:08
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I'm writing up a Feng Shui adventure for the contest of the month that's intended to introduce the party to the Secret War and all factions thereof. You can check out the quick outline in the contest page, but the elevator pitch is Scooby Doo + Hard Target + TURBODRACULAS = Feng Shui As gently caress.
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Oct 4, 2013 23:20
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I am sooo pissed that I missed the Humble Bundle on this, but I guess there's that really good Shadowfist Apocalypse World hack to scratch the 'kill mooks with kung fu, use corpses of mooks to kill more mooks, then throw down with a cyborg gorilla' itch.
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Oct 5, 2013 00:42
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I'm getting ready to start a session where we're doing the playtest stuff, and I can't find anywhere where it lists damage ratings for melee weapons. Am I just missing it? Or did they go through all that detail for guns only to completely skimp on hand to hand stuff?
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Oct 12, 2013 04:19
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Page 139 of my Atlas edition, in the Fights chapter.quote:Punch/Chop, Tonfa, Nunchaku = Strength +1
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Oct 12, 2013 04:31
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Thanks a lot. I guess I could ask for better organization.
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Oct 12, 2013 05:02
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I played two games of this at a con. One was called 'Uzi Suzy and the Bad Chis' (say it 5 times fast and have a working knowledge of early goth music, and its pretty funny). The other had Ash Ketchum, a Predator, and a bunch of other random characters fighting the Umbrella Corporation. They were pretty awesome, but what I read about in the Fatal & Friends review was even better.
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Oct 13, 2013 11:16
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You know, I was thinking about Feng Shui more (thanks to watching a few action movies) and one of the things I never liked about it was tracking ammo bullet by bullet. It seemed like something that would just things slow down with some more paperwork. Also because you could only fire one bullet from a pistol at a time, how often do you see that in action movies? Pffaaw! Action Heroes spam that trigger and fire pistols as fast as they can! One house rule I worked up, but never got to use, was that ammo wasn't tracked by counting bullets. Instead every time you rolled snake eyes, your gun was out of ammo and you had to reload. I also changed burst fire, burst fire was +3 damage, -1 AV (So basically the equivilent of 3 bursts RAW) and increased the chances of running out of ammo by +1. So basically if you fired two "bursts" you'd get +6 damage, -2 AV, and run out of ammo if both dice rolled a 1, 2 or 3 (about a 25% chance). I never thought it out much beyond that, but I also figured guns with exceptional ammo capacities could get some kind of bonus like ignoring the first out of ammo result or maybe lowering the chance or something. Oh, and I'd also let people who stop to dramatically reload even if they didn't have to receive some kind of damage bonus. Anyways, one thing I'd like to see out of a new edition is a different way of handling ammo. With the exception of stuff like revolvers or guns with out a few bullets per magazine(like sniper rifles and maybe some pistols) who wants to count bullets? Not me, too much paperwork.  [edit] I also don't think I'd mourn the loss of the +1d6-1d6 roll mechanic, it always felt a bit odd to me and made even minor difference in skill between characters significant. A person with 13 skill fighting someone at 16 skill is going to have a hard time putting hurt on the 16 skill person, especially if they're actively defending. Galaga Galaxian fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Oct 22, 2013 |
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Oct 22, 2013 08:20
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Really pissed I didn't hear about the bundle of holding till it was too late 
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Oct 23, 2013 10:17
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Galaga Galaxian posted:[edit] I also don't think I'd mourn the loss of the +1d6-1d6 roll mechanic, it always felt a bit odd to me and made even minor difference in skill between characters significant. A person with 13 skill fighting someone at 16 skill is going to have a hard time putting hurt on the 16 skill person, especially if they're actively defending. Having been banned from using certain dice (ones that allowed mooks to put the hurt on a willow-stepping old master) I don't necessarily agree. But to put things into context, d6-d6 is the resolution mechanic used in more cinematic versions of Fate - and I don't think many people would rate the chances of someone with a rating of +1 in Fate doing much to someone with a rating of +4.
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Oct 23, 2013 12:23
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It's strange, I never got the hang of Feng Shui because it was too meta - but on the other hand I loved Over The Edge. Maybe, like Paranoia, it can be really funny if you play it straight faced?
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Oct 23, 2013 13:57
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neonchameleon posted:Having been banned from using certain dice (ones that allowed mooks to put the hurt on a willow-stepping old master) I don't necessarily agree. But to put things into context, d6-d6 is the resolution mechanic used in more cinematic versions of Fate - and I don't think many people would rate the chances of someone with a rating of +1 in Fate doing much to someone with a rating of +4. I thought about this, but in Fate you can generally tag an aspect if you want for an easy +2, and the enemy can't spend a single shot to raise your target by +3. Sure you can spend a fortune die to add another d6, but most archtypes have a limited supply of them, and aren't constantly earning more like Fate characters are. Reversing the stunting rule from being a -2 to a +2 or something would definitely be a big help.
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Oct 23, 2013 18:25
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Have they announced any new junctures? I've usually used FS for games outside the actual setting with lots of action (postapocalyptic Americana, Shaw Bros. movie, Ancient Greece) but I'm interested in exploring the junctures and Time Travel stuff with this new FS. Will there be the ability to create your own junctures? Was that in the original book and I missed it?
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Oct 23, 2013 18:33
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You always could create your own genres, it doesn't require much beyond deciding a time, the magic modifier, and what the local faction(s) are. As for new junctures, they hinted they'd be updating the timeline to a 21st century modern day "Contemporary" juncture, which means they might throw in the new juncture from the shadowfist cardgame and the extensive change to the 2056 juncture that occurred. In shadowfist a new juncture opened to the 1930s and the groups started fighting for dominance of it, including a breakaway faction from the Architects of the Flesh who used math-based magic or something. Anyways, another new faction of crazies tried to do a ceremony in the pulp juncture to attune themselves to EVERY Feng Shui site on the planet in the 1930s in order to summon what was basically cthulhu. The resulted in a huge free for all battle at the site of the ceremony involving practically every faction. When the dust settled somehow a Golden Dragon had managed to accidentally(?) complete the ceremony and was for a brief moment attuned to the worlds entire Feng Shui network. poo poo happened. Modern Day didn't change too much besides a significant weakening of the Ascended's power, but the 2056 juncture changed completely. The dysoptian future of the Buro was wiped out, replaced by a sleeker, sexier, iFuture filled with massively power criminal syndicates/corporations with a heavy technology+chi focus (but none of that freaky poo poo the Architects did) and science ninjas. Basically Kung-Fu Cyberpunk. The Remnants of the Architects were forced to flee to their substantial Netherworld holdings and while significantly hamstrung are still a force to be reckoned with if you're not careful, especially since they've started slowly taking over Nazi Germany. So yeah, thats the sort of stuff we MIGHT see in a new updated timeline Feng Shui. Or they could do something different. That said, if you ever need inspiration for running Feng Shui, just start looking at Shadowfist cards.           I mean, look at that! The Habbakuk as a Feng Shui site! 
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Oct 23, 2013 19:05
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I missed out on all of this Feng Shui stuff until I got the Bundle of Holding. It's like a part of me was missing, before checking this out. Only I never knew it. And yet, here I am.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:34
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Feng Shui is one of my favorite 90s games - as you might guess, since I wrote the F&F for it. I've occasionally thought about running a game of it. (I wouldn't do Baptism of Fire, though. I don't really...do canned adventures.)
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Oct 25, 2013 17:10
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Jesus, somehow I totally missed this until an extended discussion in the chat thread a couple days ago. Sad I missed the bundle on it. Should I just wait for the new edition at this point?
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Oct 25, 2013 19:59
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So, what are the best supplements? I kinda want Gorilla Warfare for what I think should be obvious reasons.
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Oct 26, 2013 23:18
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I'm a fan of Seal of the Wheel and Blood of the Valiant. Friends of the Dragon is pretty good. Seed of the New Flesh is really good but not my personal cup of tea. Iron and Silk is probably the weakest.
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Oct 26, 2013 23:21
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Well, Golden Comeback has more info on the designated-player-faction, the Dragons, it also has awesome Car Chase Rules. There are supplements dedicated to each of the other factions and while I own none of them () Mors Rattus' overview of them makes each of them look excellent for covering their factions.
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Oct 26, 2013 23:22
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