Feng Shui

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Finally Saint did the review....
He's had my book for almost 3 months... scratch that since before the war.....
errr like three months..

Some interesting tid bits about Feng Shui

It holds the distiction of being one of the few RPG spin offs of a card game. (Shadow Fist). The first edition had a lot of color pages and was published by Daedalus Games.

There have been a few changes between the Daedalus and Atlas editions with some minor annoying stuff and some great new stuff....

It has something for everyone....
No really
it does

Few games tackle sci-fi, fantasy, and the modern era so seemlessly.  

Its easy to customize. Make your own guns, design your own schticks, create new fu or transformed animal types... Feng Shui has it all.

Eric doesn't want to look at Golden Comeback, but its a great resource too filled with info of vehicle chases, new fu, guns, stat schticks, and other goodies that'll make you want to cream the badguys and kick some abomination butt.

If Saint wants I'll definately play in a mini game.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Actually, I wrote that a month ago. It's the one I originally emailed to Fell but then he didn't touch so I submitted by the form. Lo and behold, the next day it was posted. The Punk.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

This game is ideal for the Matrix setting.... in fact its an immensely quick fix...

Remove all references to the secret war and chi... insert new references about machines and a virtual world.

The Underworld then becomes the real world..... and the junctures become well you get the picture.

Initially I thought about using Nobilis for a matrix like game... but lets be honest the Matrix is nothing but a really high budget hong kong action flick (with or without the spoon)

[Entsuropi]

El Jeffe - if you want, i can email you a bunch of rules that the nobilis mailing list came up for playing matrix games in nobilis. it involves combining the aspect/domain rules.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I would like that,... but I have a lot on my plate at the moment... maybe in a week.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Yes, FS would be nearly perfect for the Matrix. Takes very little customization at all...

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Imagining my character mowing down mooks and discarding used weapons like party favors...

Mmm carnival of carnage......

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

"First rule of fight club,.... no one talks about fight club..."

No one said anything about Feng Shui. D20 could learn a lesson from this game. I realized that D20 fights are boring even with feats. It wouldn't take a genius to rework the stunt rule for d20 and make it into a fun game....

You'd have to jack down XP on unnamed baddies and lower HP too. Then give PC's a bonus for each stunt instead of a penalty. Named baddies need to be tough thoough or it won't work.

[Entsuropi]

Hate to break it to you, but stunts are not the purpose of D&D. Epic Sword and Sorcery fantasy is.

And the various other games do not have it since it does not fit into their games - Cthulhu D20 with stunts? No thanks.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Thats a lame argument....
How can you use the word "epic" and not include stunts....

I know you've seen Fantasy movies. I also know you arn't telling me that Conan, Willow, and even Hawk the Slayer weren't filled with stunts....

Of course the idea of stunts for d-20 its not great fit for all d-20 games but now that you mention it Call of Cthulu could be cooler with stunts. It would certainly make me want to play more than one game of it.

Or would you rather your players jusst say I hit him with my sword...ugh.

Me personally I'd rather hear, " I leap about in a flurry of steel furiously beating my opponants sword away from me. I roll uner his blade and twist my wrist just so trying to slide my blade between his fifth and sixth rib.

[Entsuropi]

*Sigh*

Or would you rather your players jusst say I hit him with my sword...ugh.

Me personally I'd rather hear, " I leap about in a flurry of steel furiously beating my opponants sword away from me. I roll uner his blade and twist my wrist just so trying to slide my blade between his fifth and sixth rib.

Thats a problem with your players, not the system.

Call of Cthulu could be cooler with stunts. It would certainly make me want to play more than one game of it.

Try playing a game you actually understand the point of... CoC would be destroyed by stunts.

I know you've seen Fantasy movies. I also know you arn't telling me that Conan, Willow, and even Hawk the Slayer weren't filled with stunts....

Aye. Power attack. Whirlwind attack. Lightning reflexes. Dodge. All basic D20 feats, all doing what they are meant to do - replicate epic fantasy maneavures.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Thats the fault of the players and not the system...

No not really D20 doesn't challenge your players to think of new and unusual ways to skewer their opponents.
They can do it on their own, and sometimes they do, but you never get the carrot that FS give the players.
The cooler the stunt the better chance you get of getting bonuses. If the players keep using the same stunt... like whirlwind attack or great cleave or dodge... well the dont get squat. For what I want to do D20 feats suck, their schticks but not very good ones IMHO.

"Try playing a game you actually understand the point of... CoC would be destroyed by stunts."

Wow someone needs to take a chill pill and stop assuming he knows more about COC than anyone else...
I understand Call of Cthulu quite well thank you, I get that its a horror game and that the aura of fear and horror should build like a great gothic novel.
I also think that a COC game can get really really old.
Stunts really could liven up a stagnant COC game and arn't against the spirit of the style at all unless you really want them to be. In fact there is a Cthulu adaptation to FENG SHUI floating around on the net.

[Entsuropi]

In fact there is a Cthulu adaptation to FENG SHUI floating around on the net.

So? There is a Star Wars Call of Cthulhu crossover on Shoggoth.net. Don't read too much into it.

Stunts really could liven up a stagnant COC game and arn't against the spirit of the style at all unless you really want them to be.

So.... CoC goes from a game where there is no realistic chance of victory, where violence is a desperate tool at best... and you stick in hong kong action stunts...? Right.

I understand Call of Cthulu quite well thank you, I get that its a horror game and that the aura of fear and horror should build like a great gothic novel.  
I also think that a COC game can get really really old.

Any game can get really old. Any game set in a single genre. Are you telling me you could play FS every week for a year and not get tired of it? Right. CoC would probably be best when it is inserted as a 1/2/3 session game into another game every now and again... kinda like how Slants group is using their 'Barbarian' game.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So.... CoC goes from a game where there is no realistic chance of victory, where violence is a desperate tool at best... and you stick in hong kong action stunts...? Right.  

First of all by stunts I don't always mean Hong Kong Action movie type stunts.  But thanks for trying to read my mind. Waht about good old American movie stunts.

Using stunts can emphisise the desperate struggle taking place and bring it into sharp relief for later in the game. By giving your players hope early on in COC you can have a much more dramatic effect later when your players realize that all their skills don't amount to Jack vs the might and evil of the old gods. How do you do this, by making their skills and stunts fail at darkly appropriate times,... give minuses rather than plusses but dont tell them whats going on.  Watch them squirm as it slowly dawns on them that the evil looking thing dripping gore and grinning at them over the partially eaten body of a fallen comrade is going to destroy them and their soul.  

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Also the thing that sucks the fun out of a COC game is the fact that there is almost no real chance of victory.

I really  love games where my player ends up institutionalized after a couple of games, and that if he's lucky. Great fun...