Do you want to play a ganster on a bloodsoacked trail of shell casings and redemption? How about a historical martial arts master fighting against collonising forces and home-grown corruption in the imperial palace? What about an ancient sorcerer or their bestial enforcer. All are yours for the taking in Feng Shui, the (Hong-Kong) action cinema roleplaying game.
The release of
Feng Shui
in the mid 90s was an important point in my personal gaming journey as it
was my first encounter with a game which explicitly pursued genre
emulation rather than realism.
Clearly it was not the first to attempt this: that is pretty much the
whole point of all roleplaying games. But it was one of the first to
make it an express aim and to try viewing the rules through the lens of
Does this create the feel I want at the table?
Naturally it had mixed success in achieving this but it made a big impact on me. Probably due to the fact that I had recently discovered the joys of Hong-Kong action cinema myself.
When the second edition was brought to Kickstart I jumped at the opportunity. Thankfully I was not disappointed and have had some small success running the game for both home groups and at conventions.
I find the game works better than most for one-shots due to its use of archetypes rather than characters and an emphesis on describing fights on top of rolling dice. It's still full of opportunities for campaign play though.
The current publishers hosts a forum for the game which carries some interesting discussions.
Below I present a number of things which I have found success with at the table. Maybe you will too.
Each time a named foe hoves into view the GM needs some means to track how much damage they've taken. That's what this is for. Why not print it double sided and laminate it? Then you can use dry-wipe markers and reuse it for ages.
Alternatively just print it, use it and recycle it.
The new edition introduced a set of rules for vehicle (and livestock) chases. These promise to integrate chases with the general action of cinematic violence. Unfortunately I use them infrequently enough that I forget how they work.
This worksheet is intended for use with little die-cast cars as tokens and lets everyone at the table see what's happening and what options are available.
I have found the shot tracker to be an invaluable tool for running action scenes. Something which a good Feng Shui 2 game has a lot of. But how best to look after the tokens? For people with a 3D print the answer may be this little caddy I've thrown together.
It comes in two parts: the tray which holds the tokens and a lid which keeps them from flying all over the place. If you prefer you can obtain them through either Printables or Thingiverse.
I recommend printing the lid upside-down so as that way it doesn't need supports. If you find the lid doesn't stay in place an elastic band or piece of string will sort it out.