[Feng Shui] I hate you all!

[Piratecat]

Re: Re: Re: [Feng Shui] I hate you all!

Maybe I'll never play, but at least I can dream about playing when I have tho book!

Will, we've found that Feng Shui is THE best game for teaching non-roleplayers how to roleplay. Everybody knows the action genre, and Feng Shui is a great game for getting newbies interested!

So buy the book, pick four non-gaming friends, and go have fun.

 

[Nikchick]

BTW, for those who need an additional recommendation, and don't know me from Adam, I'd point out that Mike Mearls writes for Feng Shui, so it's gotta be good, right?

Pramas wrote and self-published the official Guiding Hand sourcebook (Blood of the Valiant), back in the day. It's always been my favorite. It's out of print at the moment, but I believe Atlas is reprinting it eventually. They bought all rights to the book after they took over the Feng Shui line. Nephew could tell you for sure.

Nicole

 

[UD]

*Must resist urge to purchase FS*

 

[JohnNephew]

Nephew could tell you for sure.

Yep, we've got reprint rights for both Blood of the Valiant and Thorns of the Lotus, and Nik had an active (dare I say, "guiding"?) hand, I think it's fair to say, in lining up both for us. ;-)

Among published adventures, besides those mentioned already (like Four Bastards) there's also Burning Shaolin (the Coriolis FS/D20 dual-stat adventure, now available as a freebie with Dragon subscriptions, while supplies last; everyone on this board needs a Dragon sub., right?), set in the 69 AD juncture, and a collection of adventures called In Your Face Again.

 

[LcKedovan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: [Feng Shui] I hate you all!

Will, we've found that Feng Shui is THE best game for teaching non-roleplayers how to roleplay. Everybody knows the action genre, and Feng Shui is a great game for getting newbies interested!

So buy the book, pick four non-gaming friends, and go have fun.

Hehe, where to start.... well... I went to my local shop (not hoping for much) and I browsed the shelves. The nice thing about this store is things are grouped together by publisher for example, but not alot of organization to it all (ie not alphabetized by publisher etc.). I like that for the atmosphere.... anyhow, I found a Feng Shui section, and it was in English! (Important point here for me in Germany)..... the unfortunate thing was that they didn't have the rulebook! So I bought the latest mod. the Burling Shaolin crossover (thought it looked neat and would give me a framework for how adventures are in FS. Plus I couldn't resist not picking up "Golden Comeback" as a sourcebook for players... So now I'm on a hunt to find the sourcebook without paying a fortune to have it sent here.

On another note... I want to PLAY rather than run a game, I need to have some Player fun before I burn out

-Will

 

[Corinth]

I've got to make time to post my own FS game as a Story Hour.

 

[Corinth]

Originally posted by JohnNephew:
Yep, we've got reprint rights for both Blood of the Valiant and Thorns of the Lotus, and Nik had an active (dare I say, "guiding"?) hand, I think it's fair to say, in lining up both for us. ;-)

Among published adventures, besides those mentioned already (like Four Bastards) there's also Burning Shaolin (the Coriolis FS/D20 dual-stat adventure, now available as a freebie with Dragon subscriptions, while supplies last; everyone on this board needs a Dragon sub., right?), set in the 69 AD juncture, and a collection of adventures called In Your Face Again.

Speaking of which, John, what's coming this year for FS? I know about the GM screen and I heard about BotV getting a reprint, but what about Gorilla Warfare? Are there any talks with Z-Man about using what they've dreamed up for future sourcebooks?

 

[Bagpuss]

Before I go into my own Feng Shui stories (and tips for a good Feng Shui game) a couple of points.

A) See there is life outside D20,
B) Thank-god this is not D20 or else this thread would have disappeared to the "black-hole" of the D20 System Forum.

My first real experience of Feng Shui was at GenCon UK the year it came out I had bought a copy the week before we went down and had read through it. So when I saw there was a game organised I thought "I got to play this!!!" unfortunately so had 75 other people and the 3 GM's they had arranged looked a tad out numbered. So they asked the crowd "Anyone read the rules and happy to GM?"

I put my hand up as did a few others and in the end everyone got to play (or GM), the GM's briefing consisted of a five minute scan through the senario, with the guy that wrote it.

Senario: Crack commando team made up of Martial Artist, Killers, and the like were to HALO jump (ie: Freefall and open the chute late) down onto "Evil bad guys island" to rescue kidnap victim.

[Tip: #1 Senarios don't need to be complex, and players don't need to know all the back story, fill that in when you find the time, "Keep it Simple".]


Scene One: Game Starts with players lined up at the back door of Airplane as the green lite comes on. They then throw themselves out of a perfectly good airplane.

[Tip #2 ALWAYS start with action, in the middle of things.]

Unknown to the players Evil Bad Dude knows they are comming in fact a steath jet has been following them inside parachuting Ninjas who jump after the players and intercept them in a mid-air brawl.

[Tip #3 Make life complex, layer the danger. Fights in a street are okay, but fights on top of a half-build sky-scrapper are better and fights on a burning oil-rig only makes it more interesting.]

(At one point during this senario one character lassoed a mook round the neck with his bull-whip before deploying his shoot. Give a player an interesting situation and they often rise to it.)

Scene Two: Having dispached the sky-ninjas the players face more trouble as they make there way through the estates grounds. (Seen Commando? You get the idea).


Scene Three: The House. This was really well discribed with all sorts of things for players to deal with.

Kitchen - Including Chinese cook with big cleaver, plenty of improvised weapons to be found here.
Lounge - Open staircase, balcony, glass tables, sofa, lamp stands, etc.

[Tip #4: Anything can be used as a weapon, fill your description of rooms with things that might be useful. If the players invent something that could logically be there but you forgot to mention go with it.]

(IE: Play grab a poker form the fire place to use as a weapon, although I'd never said there was a fire place it seemed logical for such a room and I never said there was one. If I'd said it had an gas fire then it wouldn't be okay, but since I left it blank the player can fill in the canvas.)

I think the whole thing ended with a fight on speed boats with people jumping from boat to boat, and one guy paracending (sp?) at one point with his reserve shute.

In the end I got better feedback from my players for that Feng Shui session than the AD&D one which I aslo DM'ed and had two weeks to read through and prepare.

Feng Shui does not require a whole lot of planning but you do need to be able to think on your feet. It helps if you have seen a lot of Jackie Chan, oh that remind me.

[Tip #5: Steal things from movies.]

 

[JohnNephew]

Speaking of which, John, what's coming this year for FS? I know about the GM screen and I heard about BotV getting a reprint, but what about Gorilla Warfare? Are there any talks with Z-Man about using what they've dreamed up for future sourcebooks?

The fortune cookies are hazy, unfortunately...too much time, too many manuscripts to publish, too few editors and layout staff (and a distinct abscence of bottomless bags of money with which to procure more). I certainly can't deny any of the rumors mentioned. ;-) For the moment, I'm just focusing on getting the dang screen done (which is something I'm taking care of editing and laying out on nights and weekends).

 

[JohnNephew]

On the upcoming release topic, I did want to add -- there *are* now eight books in print for the game, including the main rulebook and Burning Shaolin, plus four out-of-print titles not published by Atlas which can still be procured in some places. So while I wish we had more ready for imminent release (and the devoted fans wish it even more than I do), there's a lot out there for anyone new to the game to be buying (about $153 for a complete set of what's in print).