Feng Shui 2 (04-01-21)

 

Feng Shui is a system for creating Action Movies games, specifically Hong Kong action movies. It was the System Mastery podcast which put me onto it, I really doubt I’d have looked at it otherwise as the setting it is not a natural one for me, although the designer is Robin D Laws who was involved with Over The Edge (the 2nd ed is actually dedicated to him) and the writer of Hamlet's Hitpoints, which I happened to order at the same time.

The first edition is from 1996 and although I don’t know what they've changed since I get the impression that this game was hugely influential, especially on ‘Fiction First’ games like Fate. It is a fairly simple system with the emphasis on creating fast paced dramatic action.

Players choose from one of 36 'Character Archetypes’ to play, which are more like playbooks from PbtA than D&D character classes. The idea is to take them as is, fill in the personal details (name, concept, ‘melodramatic hook’) and make any small modifications you like. 

There is no actual character creation system as such. The archetypes range from 'Everyday Hero' to 'Transformed Crab', with each listing its special abilities (‘Schticks’), stats, skills and advancement details. An aspect I really like is 'buying in', i.e. it is up to the player to say why their character is here getting involved in the action, not the GM.

The dice roll mechanic is possibly closest to Fate; you throw 2 dice, and subtract one from the other giving you a base value from -5 to +5, only it has exploding sixes so the numbers can get very high or low. To this you add the stat or skill relevant to the action, and the degree to which you beat a difficulty target set by the GM dictates the details of the success or failure. 

You can spend a point of Fortune (one of your stats, replenished at the start of each session) to gain an extra die towards your action, bearing in mind that Fortune is also the basis of luck rolls and the expendable resource required for magical abilities (should you have any).

Mechanically the element of Feng Shui newest to me is its initiative system. At the start of every combat ‘sequence’ (essentially a round) each character rolls 1d6 and adds their Speed stat. This is the ‘shot’ you start on, with the highest shot going first. Most actions take 3 shots. So if your total was the highest with 12 you would start on 12, if the next highest was 10 that character would go on 10, then you would get another action at 9 and so on. Once all shots are used up a new sequence begins and initiative is re-rolled. There are also modifiers to combat outcomes based on how long a fight has gone on, presumably to try keep things from getting too drawn out.

As with OTE a substantial chunk of the book is dedicated to the setting, providing a solid basis for just about every flavour of HK action flick. There are 4 time zones; the ancient, the past, the present and the future, over which different factions vie for control. Power is exerted by controlling ‘Feng Shui’ sites. Portals facilitate movement between these zones which behave more like places than times, making paradoxes impossible, although you can still change an entire zone by taking enough of the Feng Shui sites of another zone upstream.

This looks like a really interesting and fun game with innovative, fairly light-touch, player empowering mechanics. Cowabunga!