[FENG SHUI] The Reviews Never Cease
Geoffrey C Grabowski
REVIEW:
Feng Shui: Shadowfist Roleplaying
As had become nearly de rigeur on this sort of thing, I might as
well say that I actually bought my copy of Feng Shui, though I should
note I've had the writer's guidelines for the game for a couple of months
now. I'm not married to, sleeping with, on the payroll of or even
particularly close friends with anyone from Daedalus, though I was
introduced to Robin at Origins last year.
Enough with the disclaimer already. Review time.
Graphic Presentation:
Everone is really hyped, negtively and otherwise, over hte
grpahic presentation, so I'll start with that.
The cover looks like a _Rifts_ book. Really. Someone pointed it
out to me sitting beside the Rifts section and I had to go up and scan
around to see exactly which book it was. This might be intentional, and,
yeah, I was hung over and had only gotten three hours of sleep the night
before. Now, I love seeing Tom Waits kicking the tar out of someone, and
getting Rifts players to pick up the game isn't a bad idea. If the cover
style wasn't an intentional move to get the game picked up by Rifts
players, then if there was ever a place that needed a serious shot of Ting
Ting going full out, it was that cover.
Internal illustrations are okay. Much better than most of the ones
in _Underground_, and with none of the smearing present in my copies of
both _Underground_ and _Castle Falkenstein_. Some of them are very good.
Some of them are... not. Still, this may reflect the fact that my personal
tastes run a little more towards Besson and Anime Martial Arts than
towards HK.
The layout and backgrounds are good. There's one page I found
jarringly difficult to read (the background looks like pitted chalk) but
everything else was enjoyably readable. Thankfully, however the game is
comparable to _Underground_, it does not have the trademark Underground
1" sidebars.
Rules and Writing:
The rules look to be workable and _quick_. I caught the hang of
them while literally asleep on my feet, hung over and trying to prepare
to run a totally different game. The writing is very nice, and has the
easy, casual style I've come to associate with R. Talsorian and Atlas
Games books. The overuse of exclamation points, so much a problem with a
Certain Other Game Firm (does 3d2x12.347 damage!!!!!!!!), was avoided.
I came in _really_ wanting to dislike the archetype-only chargen
system, but can't. Within the genre, it makes sense, and I dont feel that,
after I've seen the six infamous 'missing archetypes' and gained some
experience with the rules, adding any I feel to be missing will be
too terribly large a problem.
Background:
The background looks like a nice excuse to have every possible
form of action movie all rolled into one strange and highly kinetic
monster. I've already thought of several ideas for extended campaigns
based around it. The background is also very easy to ditch if you want to
run a more conventional action game. I'd complain it's another conspiracy
oriented game, but that's such a staple of the genre I can't really bring
myself to be bugged.
Beefs:
Yeah, I left my realism at the door, but M1911A1s are .45s and not
9mm, and all the clones are .45s too.
Some basic idea of 'how many mooks does it take to...' would have
been handy also. Obviously, I'm going to figure it out in about two
fight scenes, but starting off with some idea of how many nameless thugs
it takes to make the 'average' (if there is such a thing) Feng Shui party
member miserable would be nice.
Overall:
Highly recommended.
(1-5 stars)
Overall: **** 1/2
Rules: *****
(5: Over the Edge, 1:1st ed. EPT)
Background: ****
(5: RuneQuest/Ars Magica, 1:Traveller: The New Era)
Art: *** 1/2
(5: Heresy Cards, 1:Early FASA Products)
G.
--
|Geoffrey C. Grabowski|gcg...@pitt.edu|Undergrad, U.Pittsburgh|Swing Heil!|
[O] "They call us knights - is this the way we die,
[O] by the hands of women, under this foreign sky?"
[O] -The Nibelungenlied, stanza 443
Jose Garcia
> Some basic idea of 'how many mooks does it take to...' would have
> been handy also. Obviously, I'm going to figure it out in about two
> fight scenes, but starting off with some idea of how many nameless thugs
> it takes to make the 'average' (if there is such a thing) Feng Shui party
> member miserable would be nice.
>
6 mooks per PC is an easy fight (however it gets tougher if you mix
named characters in with the mooks), 12 mooks per PC is a bit tougher, 20
mooks are probably an even match for most PCs. Keep in mind that gunman
with carnival of carnage are paticularly adept at taking out mooks.
Mooks can make a big difference in a long drawn out fight, my series
had a huge fight last week with five named baddies and 30 mooks. The fight
lasted 4 sequences and ended with the PCs hightailing it out of there (and
3 of the five had failed death checks and were down but not dead). The
mooks were all but ignored until the end and they made all the difference
they continualy pinged away at the PCs and made their lives a living hell.
Jose Garcia
Daedalus Entertainment
Daedalus is running a Shadowfist/Feng Shui fanfiction contest, contact me for details.
I am damned unsatisfied to be killed in this way.
Shadowfist Web Page http://www.aracnet.com/~bruce/daedalus/index.html
Check out Bryant Durrell's Shadowfist players registry http://www.innocence.com/~durrell/shadowfist/players/index.html
Harrigan
Geoffrey C Grabowski posted yet another review (but a good one) when
he wrote:
>REVIEW:
>Feng Shui: Shadowfist Roleplaying
[Snippa snippa snippa]
>Graphic Presentation:
[Chop]
> Internal illustrations are okay. Much better than most of the ones
>in _Underground_, and with none of the smearing present in my copies of
>both _Underground_ and _Castle Falkenstein_. Some of them are very good.
Whoa. You mean the _Underground_ rulebook? I consider those the finest
illustrations I've ever seen in a rulebook. I've yet to even *see*
Feng Shui (curse my local shops!), but I'd be hard pressed to believe
the internal art lent itself to the flavor of the game like
Underground's does. I mean c'mon, Geoff Darrow did a few
illustrations!
The other Underground books are a little uneven, so if *that's* what
you mean, then okay. But the original book still knocks my socks off.
>Some of them are... not. Still, this may reflect the fact that my personal
>tastes run a little more towards Besson and Anime Martial Arts than
>towards HK.
> The layout and backgrounds are good. There's one page I found
>jarringly difficult to read (the background looks like pitted chalk) but
I just don't understand it when people do this. Web pages abound that
are nearly impossible to read! Why don't people *look* at their work?
>everything else was enjoyably readable. Thankfully, however the game is
>comparable to _Underground_, it does not have the trademark Underground
>1" sidebars.
I don't follow you here. It's 'comparable,' by not having the
sidebars?
[Slice]
>Beefs:
> Yeah, I left my realism at the door, but M1911A1s are .45s and not
>9mm, and all the clones are .45s too.
Ugh. Don't you hate stuff like that? I do.
[Hiya!]
>Overall:
> Highly recommended.
I think I'll have a gander at this game, when it finally makes it's
way into the frozen north.
> (1-5 stars)
> Overall: **** 1/2
> Rules: *****
> (5: Over the Edge, 1:1st ed. EPT)
> Background: ****
> (5: RuneQuest/Ars Magica, 1:Traveller: The New Era)
Incidentally, I'd put Underground in there with the best backgrounds.
Truly twisted.
> Art: *** 1/2
> (5: Heresy Cards, 1:Early FASA Products)
Anyway, thanks for posting the review.
Harrigan
Geoffrey C Grabowski
In article <4p091g$2...@thor.atcon.com>,
Harrigan <harr...@loki.atcon.com> wrote:
>Whoa. You mean the _Underground_ rulebook? I consider those the finest
>illustrations I've ever seen in a rulebook.
I liked about half the art in _Underground_ a whole lot. I didn't
like the other half (the fillers) much at all. I overall found the art to
be as evocative as Underground's of the setting, but there was less bad
filler, and I'm inherently biased because I don't like the traditional
American style of comic-book illustration.
> The other Underground books are a little uneven, so if *that's* what
>you mean, then okay. But the original book still knocks my socks off.
I've never seen the other Underground books, so I couldn't say.
>I just don't understand it when people do this. Web pages abound that
>are nearly impossible to read! Why don't people *look* at their work?
The main problem is that it is much more eye-catching than the
page beside it, which is on one of the regular tinted wickerwork
background. Turning to the spread is the reading equivalent of having a
bright light suddenly pointed at your eyes.
In the end, I've come out mixed on the color issue. Feng Shui
wouldn't be the game it is without color. The illos and the gloss help
carry the game an deliver it the way it was meant to be seen. Despite
what people say, graphic design is crucial to the delivery of a
piece, especially one as oriented around ideas as an RPG. Feng Shui would
work as poorly in B&W and Vampire would in bright, gaudy pastel color.
However, I think parts could have been done better. If the whole
book were done as well as the really _brilliant_ two page spread the Fu
Schticks are laid out on, or the intro with the page-and-a-half art, or
the really nice Miracola art in the archetypes, it'd be (visually) the
best game I'd ever seen. But there are bad parts, and some art that really
isn't the greatest, and so while I am certain it color wasn't an issue,
and I certainly didn't mind paying a bit extra for it, I still have the
nagging feeling it could have been done better.
Sie la vie. It's still comparable to anything out there, and a
_damn_ sight better than the use of color in Birthright.
>I don't follow you here. It's 'comparable,' by not having the
>sidebars?
What I meant to say was, 'However many people compare Feng to
Underground, it does not have the huge sidebars'. Those sidebars, along
with a character generation system that made itself very difficult to use
by attempting to deny it was DC Heroes with an uzi, were Ungerground's
main failures, IMAO. At least as an experienced RPer, Feng was a cakewalk
to learn. I really did buy it after sleeping three hours on a couch in an
unfamiliar house full of cats (to which I am rather allergic), getting up
hung over. I could have run an (admittedly very choppy) session by that
evening. I _know_ I could run it now.
>Ugh. Don't you hate stuff like that? I do.
Yeah, but Robin already apologized, and I've made sillier
mistakes myself.
>I think I'll have a gander at this game, when it finally makes it's
>way into the frozen north.
Excluding JoT designs, of which I am a major devotee, Feng Shui is
the best game (and I'm speaking largely from a mechanics POV) I've seen
since The Whispering Vault, which was flat out the best game I'd ever seen
up to that point.
Feng invites a lot of comparison to Vault. While they're not
really mechanically similar, they _are_ both really excellent designs that
try to be fast all the way from start to finish and succeed. Feng has the
edge that it is by and large full realized, while Vault was almost a demo
of the game, an never got the development it deserved (hopefully Ronin
will fix that). Feng manages to keep the genres even, however, while Vault
had a noticeable problem with firepower creeping up when the Stalkers went
to the future.
I haven't done combat yet, but I suspect it to be really fast,
despite the shot counter. A _lot_ of mooks (the Feng Shui term for
'spearcarrier' / 'redshirt') might slow it down, but I read Jose Garcia's
full writeup of the 'really big battle' he cites in the response to my
review question about 'how many mooks does it take?'. While he is
admittedly as familiar as you can get with the system, there's also no
other system I can think of that would let you run a battle that was 30
grunts and 5 Big Villains versus the PC party with any sort of detail in
less than a full session. DC could do it, but it would jsut be a big,
abstracted multi-attack followed by Hero Point Siege. AD&D could do it
easily, but that's almost as abstract as DC when it comes down to it.
(I'm sure someone from Daedalus is reading this - is there any chance
Jose's really excelletn campaign logs might find their way to the web
site? I know they were one of the major teasers that got me salivating
over the game)
>Incidentally, I'd put Underground in there with the best backgrounds.
>Truly twisted.
Ratings are always sehr subjective, and I tend to rank backgrounds
according to how much depth they have and how many ideas immediately come
to mind when I start wondering if I can run it. For pure neatness, I'd put
Kult, Heresy and The Whispering Vault up as five-stars (can you tell I
like black horror?), and for pure depth it'd be EPT and RQ. Underground
never really caught me 'that way', but that's so damn YMMV as to be almost
meaningless.
Feng's background fulfills two important roles, it lets you put
absolutely every genre trope all in one game if you want to, and it can be
ditched with minimal loss to the game if you just want to run something
else action-oriented using the system. Underground was a true wedding of
the system and setting, and it really only did Underground.
>Anyway, thanks for posting the review.
Never a problem. Ditto with service "after the sale". If a review
tells even one person something important to them, or if it being a fast
exchange in a public forum rather than a setpiece like a magazine
articcle lets me answer a question someone had about the game, I'm happy.
> Harrigan
Carl Rigney
In article <jgarcia-0306...@blv-pm12-ip20.halcyon.com>,
> 6 mooks per PC is an easy fight (however it gets tougher if you mix
>named characters in with the mooks), 12 mooks per PC is a bit tougher, 20
>mooks are probably an even match for most PCs.
And here I'd been thinking 3 mooks per PC would do, since that's what
the sample adventure used. Thanks for the number!
But how're the 12/pc armed? Is that revolvers? Shotguns? UZIs??
The Reconstructed Abomination example given was wholly unimpressive when
Unnamed; even with a 16 damage Hellharrower Guns 8 almost never hits a
PC with dodges in the 14-16 range. The toughness and armor does
nothing for an Unnamed either. Are abominations intended to be Named,
or are they supposed to be thrown at the PCs in howling waves bussed in
by the truckload? Or both? :-) :-)
On the plus side, Cyborgs Rock! If I had my way, the Buro would stick
neural stimulators on anything that moved, and make it move FASTER.
You just gotta love the look on the players' faces when you ask for
shot 18.
--
Carl Rigney
c...@netcom.com
Ob MiniReview: If you like HK action cinema, this is the game you've
been waiting for, buy it now! If you don't like HK action cinema, buy
it anyway because the pretty color patterns contain special hypnotic
commands from earth's secret masters instructing you to tell others
that if you like HK action cinema, this is the game you've been waiting
for, buy it now! If you don't like HK action cinema, buy
Bryant Durrell
In article <carDsH...@netcom.com>, Carl Rigney <c...@netcom.com> wrote:
>In article <jgarcia-0306...@blv-pm12-ip20.halcyon.com>,
>> 6 mooks per PC is an easy fight (however it gets tougher if you mix
>>named characters in with the mooks), 12 mooks per PC is a bit tougher, 20
>>mooks are probably an even match for most PCs.
>
>And here I'd been thinking 3 mooks per PC would do, since that's what
>the sample adventure used. Thanks for the number!
>But how're the 12/pc armed? Is that revolvers? Shotguns? UZIs??
I've been feeling like we're plowing through 3 mooks apiece with
sterling ease, myself.
>The Reconstructed Abomination example given was wholly unimpressive when
>Unnamed; even with a 16 damage Hellharrower Guns 8 almost never hits a
>PC with dodges in the 14-16 range. The toughness and armor does
>nothing for an Unnamed either. Are abominations intended to be Named,
>or are they supposed to be thrown at the PCs in howling waves bussed in
>by the truckload? Or both? :-) :-)
Named!
"Is it my imagination, Mei, or did that snarling spitting cyberdemon
just call that other snarling spitting cyberdemon 'Teddy'?"
--
Bryant Durrell http://www.innocence.com/ dur...@innocence.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Deleted code has fewer bugs." -- Xibo
James Nicoll
In article <carDsH...@netcom.com>, Carl Rigney <c...@netcom.com> wrote:
>In article <jgarcia-0306...@blv-pm12-ip20.halcyon.com>,
>> 6 mooks per PC is an easy fight (however it gets tougher if you mix
>>named characters in with the mooks), 12 mooks per PC is a bit tougher, 20
>>mooks are probably an even match for most PCs.
>
>And here I'd been thinking 3 mooks per PC would do, since that's what
>the sample adventure used. Thanks for the number!
>But how're the 12/pc armed? Is that revolvers? Shotguns? UZIs??
>
>Unnamed; even with a 16 damage Hellharrower Guns 8 almost never hits a
>PC with dodges in the 14-16 range. The toughness and armor does
>nothing for an Unnamed either. Are abominations intended to be Named,
>or are they supposed to be thrown at the PCs in howling waves bussed in
>by the truckload? Or both? :-) :-)
Grenades are darn spiffy for slowing down Old Masters, Scrappy
Kids and other AV monsters. As Mocker, my Costumed Adventurer, might say
if I ever get to play him "Damn. Need another sixpack of Scappy Kids."
Heh. A well designed Abomination might be able to shrug off
grenade damage--that'd piss off the players. Do they get weapons immunity?
My copy of Feng Shui is upstairs in my apartment and I don't go home during
work hours*.
Even Mooks *eventually* roll 6's. When you have a busload, they
roll them sooner rather than later.
James Nicoll
*Because work and home have to be separate for me to relax, that's why.
--
" The moral, if you're a scholar don't pick up beautiful babes on deserted
lanes at night. Real Moral, Chinese ghost stories have mostly been written
by scholars who have some pretty strange fantasies about women."
Brian David Phillips
Bryant Durrell
In article <4p0npf$a...@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>,
Geoffrey C Grabowski <gcg...@pitt.edu> wrote:
>(I'm sure someone from Daedalus is reading this - is there any chance
>Jose's really excelletn campaign logs might find their way to the web
>site? I know they were one of the major teasers that got me salivating
>over the game)
I snagged this for my unofficial Feng Shui site (which is still in
very formative stages), along with a weird cluster of other stuff.
Small yet, but as soon as I can get some decent titles going it'll
be a decent place to visit. http://www.innocence.com/fengshui.
(Speaking of which, mind if I grab your review?)
--
Bryant Durrell http://www.innocence.com/ dur...@innocence.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Shouldn't we be carefully placing these comics in plastic bags?"
"No, we have lives." -- MST3K
Geoffrey C Grabowski
In article <4p1r2i$j...@shellx.best.com>,
Bryant Durrell <dur...@shellx.best.com> wrote:
>I snagged this for my unofficial Feng Shui site (which is still in
>very formative stages), along with a weird cluster of other stuff.
>Small yet, but as soon as I can get some decent titles going it'll
>be a decent place to visit. http://www.innocence.com/fengshui.
Rockin'
(You know, as much as I love Duke Nukem 3D, I really wish it
hadn't made that word a major part of my vocabulary)
I highly recommend checking these writeups out. They're _really_
evocative of the game's tone.
>(Speaking of which, mind if I grab your review?)
Sure, as long as it's credited, be my guest.
>Bryant Durrell http://www.innocence.com/ dur...@innocence.com
G.
Carl Rigney
In article <4p1j8n$r...@shellx.best.com>,
>I've been feeling like we're plowing through 3 mooks apiece with
>sterling ease, myself.
OK, clearly I need to double the mooks, and throw in more grenade launchers.
--
Carl Rigney
"Your kung-fu is indeed mighty, Grasshopper. But ... take the grenade
launcher just in case." -- Kung-Fu: The Shadowfist Years (John Rogers)
Steve Spencer
I've just got to say: I've been reading the net for nearly 7 years now, and
never yet has the hype around a game convinced me to buy it. And NO WAY did
I ever intend to pay big bucks for a system again (not after getting suckered
into a $30 copy of Synnibar, AKA The World's Works System(TM)). But, even
though I have never even seen a copy of FENG SHUI, I'm psyched! I'm gonna
buy it! Congratualtions all of you fawning, praising gamers out there! Now
look what you've done...
"Hi, I'm Steve Spencer, and I'm a game aholic." 'hi steve.'
I hope this game lives up to all the hype. (And I hope to hell that my game
is this popular when it finally hits the shelves!)
Congrats Robin! Don't let me down!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Steve Spencer, Jack of Moons,
Thief of hearts, Paladin of Ovaltine.
SLC, UT. s...@unislc.slc.unisys.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No, I'm not an actor; but I play one on TV.
sha...@cyberenet.net
c...@netcom.com (Carl Rigney) wrote:
>In article <jgarcia-0306...@blv-pm12-ip20.halcyon.com>,
>> 6 mooks per PC is an easy fight (however it gets tougher if you mix
>>named characters in with the mooks), 12 mooks per PC is a bit tougher, 20
>>mooks are probably an even match for most PCs.
>And here I'd been thinking 3 mooks per PC would do, since that's what
>the sample adventure used. Thanks for the number!
>But how're the 12/pc armed? Is that revolvers? Shotguns? UZIs??
In my game I've found that about 10-20 mooks per PC makes for a good
challenge. 3 mooks would barely make them to bother to pick up their
dice. Of course, two of the characters in that group have Carnival of
Carnage, which makes a big difference. Also, the non-gun using PC's
have been coming up with creative ways to take out multiple mooks in
one shot. The Big Bruiser in my group is fond of wrestling-style
spinning windmill attacks, while the martial artist made use of
hubcaps as deadly frisbees (a la Xena) in one game.
Normally, I'll only have a nebulous number of mooks in mind anyway if
its a really big fight scene. I only keep a rough count of how many
have been killed, and when I think its enough I end the battle.
>The Reconstructed Abomination example given was wholly unimpressive when
>Unnamed; even with a 16 damage Hellharrower Guns 8 almost never hits a
>PC with dodges in the 14-16 range. The toughness and armor does
>nothing for an Unnamed either. Are abominations intended to be Named,
>or are they supposed to be thrown at the PCs in howling waves bussed in
>by the truckload? Or both? :-) :-)
Both
>Carl Rigney
>c...@netcom.com
David Eber
sha...@cyberenet.net
John Tynes
In article <4p1j8n$r...@shellx.best.com>, dur...@shellx.best.com (Bryant
Durrell) wrote:
> >Are abominations intended to be Named,
> >or are they supposed to be thrown at the PCs in howling waves bussed in
> >by the truckload? Or both? :-) :-)
>
> Named!
I recently had the issue of how to deal with PC vs. Buro Attack Helicopter
combat. I finally decided to stat up the Buro chopper as a Named GMC, with
Body, Ref, skills, etc. Worked well, and you'll be meeting "Bubba the Buro
Attack Helicopter" in MARKED FOR DEATH. The chopper isn't sentient or
anything, but mechanically it came out okay.
--
John Tynes r...@halcyon.com [] "If he died in Memphis,
http://www.halcyon.com/rev/ [] wouldn't that be cool?"
Pagan Publishing [] -The Replacements,
& Daedalus Entertainment [] "Alex Chilton"
---check out DELTA GREEN at http:www.halcyon.com/rev/dg.html---
Steve Barr
Steve Spencer wrote:
> I've just got to say: I've been reading the net for nearly 7 years now, and
> never yet has the hype around a game convinced me to buy it.
> But, even though I have never even seen a copy of FENG SHUI, I'm psyched!
> I'm gonna buy it! Congratualtions all of you fawning, praising gamers out
> there!
Steve,
I'm a long-time fan of Hong Kong Action Movies and that's why I was
interested in Feng Shui. I could care less about all the elements that
make Feng Shui "another Shadowrun" (magic and creatures and cyber, oh my!)
and I still think it was a worthwhile purchase.
Steve
George W. Harris
In 4 Jun 1996 19:02:19 GMT of yore, gcg...@pitt.edu (Geoffrey C Grabowski)
wrote thusly:
= Rockin'
= (You know, as much as I love Duke Nukem 3D, I really wish it
=hadn't made that word a major part of my vocabulary)
Rent "Evil Dead 2" (the funniest horror movie ever made)
and watch it continually until it's due back at the video store. After
that, 'Rockin'' will be replaced by 'Groovy.'
"Evil Dead 2" could possibly be done as a FS scenario...
=|Geoffrey C. Grabowski|gcg...@pitt.edu|Undergrad, U.Pittsburgh|Swing Heil!|
--
1. Keep your hand moving. 2. Lose control. 3. Be specific. 4. Don't think.
George W. Harris gha...@dur.mindspring.com
Bruce Baugh
>I'm a long-time fan of Hong Kong Action Movies and that's why I was
>interested in Feng Shui. I could care less about all the elements that
>make Feng Shui "another Shadowrun" (magic and creatures and cyber, oh my!)
>and I still think it was a worthwhile purchase.
I love all the other stuff, but you've got a good point here. The bulk of Feng
Shui covers material suitable for just about any action/adventure setting,
from The Blues Brothers to Sam And Max, Freelance Police.
Bruce Baugh <*> br...@aracnet.com <*> http://www.aracnet.com/~bruce
See my Web pages for
New science fiction by Steve Stirling and George Alec Effing er
Christlib, the mailing list for Christian and libertarian concerns
Daedalus Games, makers of Shadowfist and Feng Shui
Matthew R Blackwell
In <4pcs2c$1u0...@mycroft.kenosis.com> br...@aracnet.com (Bruce Baugh)
writes:
>
>I love all the other stuff, but you've got a good point here. The bulk
of Feng
>Shui covers material suitable for just about any action/adventure
setting,
>from The Blues Brothers to Sam And Max, Freelance Police.
>
most HK films' main characters.
Matthew R Blackwell
In <4pcs2c$1u0...@mycroft.kenosis.com> br...@aracnet.com (Bruce Baugh)
writes:
>
>
>I love all the other stuff, but you've got a good point here. The bulk
of Feng
>Shui covers material suitable for just about any action/adventure
setting,
>from The Blues Brothers to Sam And Max, Freelance Police.
>
two HK films..
Ken Walton
In article <4pcs2c$1u0...@mycroft.kenosis.com>
br...@aracnet.com "Bruce Baugh" writes:
> In article <31B58F...@pobox.com>, steve...@pobox.com wrote:
>
> >I'm a long-time fan of Hong Kong Action Movies and that's why I was
> >interested in Feng Shui. I could care less about all the elements that
> >make Feng Shui "another Shadowrun" (magic and creatures and cyber, oh my!)
> >and I still think it was a worthwhile purchase.
>
> I love all the other stuff, but you've got a good point here. The bulk of Feng
> Shui covers material suitable for just about any action/adventure setting,
> from The Blues Brothers to Sam And Max, Freelance Police.
And with a little tweaking, the system would work well for genres such as 1930s
pulps and Celtic mythology. (The difference between running up a stream of
machine gun bullets and throwing three spears then jumping from one to the
other to get at your enemy is merely one of tech level!)
--
Ken Walton k...@kenjo.demon.co.uk
==============================================================
Great Quotations from Roleplaying (No. 1 in a series)
"So, you're going back to the embassy to vivisect your melon?"
- System: 2300AD
==============================================================
Tim Isakson
Ken Walton (K...@kenjo.demon.co.uk) wrote:
>And with a little tweaking, the system would work well for genres such as 1930s
>pulps and Celtic mythology. (The difference between running up a stream of
>machine gun bullets and throwing three spears then jumping from one to the
>other to get at your enemy is merely one of tech level!)
I agree with you about it working for 30's pulps - The Phantom movie
provides a pretty good example of what appears to be a classic Masked
Avenger type, complete with Feng Shui schticks (I'd guess Eagle Eye,
Hair Trigger Neckhairs, and either Both Guns Blazing or Carnival of
Carnage). I'll take your word for the Celtic myth stuff . . .
I don't think much tweaking is really required to work for 30's pulps,
although types for reporters, "adventurers" (every-man might work here,
with some different info skills) and so on might be needed. The rules
work just fine for that sort of stuff though - just think of it: Nazi
Stormtrooper's as mooks. It ain't much of a stretch, actually . . .
=========================================================================
Tim Isakson loi...@io.com | Television, the drug of the nation,
Dallas, TX, USA | Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.
http://www.io.com/~loiosh/ | -The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopresy
Bruce Baugh
>>from The Blues Brothers to Sam And Max, Freelance Police.
>>
>Hmmm. I wonder what Max's stats would be. He could probably outfight
>most HK films' main characters.
Sam and Max are both Maverick Cops, but at this point, with the better part of
a dozen published adventures, they've got experience. And I think we can
assume that their office is a feng shui site; most likely so is their car. So
they've been reaping the experience points.
I would tend to give them attack and defense bonuses for mind-alteringly weird
dialog, too.
John Tynes
In article <4phpt5$2io...@mycroft.kenosis.com>, br...@aracnet.com (Bruce
Baugh) wrote:
> Sam and Max are both Maverick Cops, but at this point, with the better
part of
> a dozen published adventures, they've got experience. And I think we can
> assume that their office is a feng shui site; most likely so is their car. So
> they've been reaping the experience points.
Alternately, one of them could have their car as a Signature Weapon. This
happened in a game here recently...
--
John Tynes r...@halcyon.com [] "If he died in Memphis,
http://www.halcyon.com/rev/ [] wouldn't that be cool?"
Pagan Publishing [] -The Replacements,
& Daedalus Entertainment [] "Alex Chilton"
-----check out DELTA GREEN at http:www.halcyon.com/rev/dg.html-----
Bruce Baugh
> "Evil Dead 2" could possibly be done as a FS scenario...
Watch the CHINESE GHOST STORY movies and find out where Sam Raimi got the
idea. They are already part of the source material for FS.
Robotech_Master
In article <4pij80$2mk...@mycroft.kenosis.com>,
Bruce Baugh <br...@aracnet.com> wrote:
>In article <4p86om$2r...@mule2.mindspring.com>, gha...@dur.mindspring.com wrote:
>
>> "Evil Dead 2" could possibly be done as a FS scenario...
>
>Watch the CHINESE GHOST STORY movies and find out where Sam Raimi got the
>idea. They are already part of the source material for FS.
Um, are you _sure_ that Sam Raimi got the idea for Evil Dead 2 from
CGS? According to the WWW movie database, they both came out the same
year, 1987. Knowing as I do just how long the film production process
can take (thanks to being a media major), it's likely that both those
films were in production at the same time (unless one was released
very early in the year and the other very late...but I doubt it).
Maybe CGS took inspiration from Evil Dead 1 (which could be the case,
comparing the P.O.V. of things rushing through the forest shots from
ED1 and CGS1), or maybe Raimi took inspiration for Army of Darkness
from CGS (I can't say, as I've only seen the first movie of the Evil
Dead trio), but I don't see how two movies released at the same time
could have taken inspiration from each other.
Obligatory Disclaimer: I could be wrong.
--
Chris Meadows aka | Author, Team M.E.C.H.A., Crapshoot & Co.
Robotech_Master | on the Superguy Listserv (bit.listserv.superguy)
robo...@jurai.net | **TAKE NOTE!** My homepage has changed to
robo...@eyrie.org | http://www.jurai.net/~robotech/index.html
Bruce Baugh
>Um, are you _sure_ that Sam Raimi got the idea for Evil Dead 2 from
>CGS?
It's certainly possible that the influence went the other way - but
there are scenes in the first two Evil Dead flicks that are practically
shot-for-shot the same as in the first Chinese Ghost Story movie.
Someone was influencing someone, that's for sure.
Robotech_Master
In article <4ptdjj$1ag...@mycroft.kenosis.com>,
Bruce Baugh <br...@kenosis.com> wrote:
>In article <4pkdrd$m...@eyrie.org>, robo...@eyrie.org (Robotech_Master) wrote:
>
>>Um, are you _sure_ that Sam Raimi got the idea for Evil Dead 2 from
>>CGS?
>
>It's certainly possible that the influence went the other way - but
>there are scenes in the first two Evil Dead flicks that are practically
>shot-for-shot the same as in the first Chinese Ghost Story movie.
>Someone was influencing someone, that's for sure.
Well, unless Sam Raimi made his way back through a Netherworld
juncture from the future, it would seem that he partly inspired
Chinese Ghost Story (though CGS took most of its plot from a Chinese
short story which is actually available on the Web; I found it through
AltaVista exploration). The original Evil Dead was made several years
earlier.
So, Sam Raimi _had_ the idea, instead of _getting_ the idea. :)
Bruce Baugh
>So, Sam Raimi _had_ the idea, instead of _getting_ the idea. :)
Fair enough. I checked the date on the original Evil Dead movie, and
clearly you are right.