Garet Jax said:
Obviously, this game is built around creative, cinematic combat/action sequences. What I'm also hearing is that if you're not a creative GM or player--when describing your action scenes--the game does not work and it's difficult to come up with ideas for a long campaign. Am I right?
I'd argue that thyere's a difference between being unable to do that and not having done it before.
Feng Shui is one of those games that lets players feed on one anothers energy, and I've seen players who have never really progressed beyond seeing DnD combat as a tactical minatures game flourish when given such an open system. All it takes is one players getting into the spirit of things, and everyone else tends to get dragged along for the ride.
On top of that, the structure and theme of the game really does edge people into over-the-top stunts regardless - the mechanics are suitably cinematic in their approach that you can't help but think of the game as a movie.
Does it handle other aspects of action movies well, like espionage and stealth missions, ala Splinter Cell/Metal Gear Solid? Or is it only good for Dynasty Warriors type of campaigns?
I figure it can pretty much handle anything you throw at it, in terms of the action genre.
Another question I have is about the power curve. I know all characters start out with a lot of powers/skills. If there are no levels, do PCs gain a decent amount of power as they progress through the adventure (I take it their skills improve and all)? Can a high level NPC squash a beginner PC like they can in D&D, simply because of better stats? How long will it take before a beginning character can challenge the big bad villains and agent Smiths in Feng Shui? I guess what I'm trying ask is, what's the main determinant for power in FS, how you describe your actions, or what your stats/skills are?GJ
The power curve iis interely different to DnD. Where it differs is in its focus on PC's as true heroes of action films - men and women who are never going to be taken out by generic guard 5 in a scene. Players can mow through hordes of unnamed mooks with ease, even at lower levels, without having to worry that they're going to get killed or even mortally wounded. It's only in the really big, dramatic scenes where they get to take on the named Bad Guy and his more impressive goons that the possibility of a real challenge comes. And as with all good films, the bad guy is never so unbeatable the PC's can't hope to defeat him.
In short, the PC's can tackle bad guys immediately, but how powerful the bad guy tends to scale with the adventures. For the most part both mooks and named NPC's are easy to scale (Work out the average combat value of the PC's, add or subtract the difference between that and 15 from all the NPC's combat values). The PC's do improve, often quite rapidly if you're using the core Shadowfist campaign system and they have access to Feng Shui sites, but that improvement tends to be in tiny increments - new schticks, new skills, taking their core concept in new directions.
