What made it most interesting was the background, evil was everywhere
and there was very little that could stand against it. In fact...
There was only you...
The system was simple, D6 base plus modifiers, but unlike other game
systems where everything had a reasonable level of balance, Feng Shui
understood that it was fine to have things completely unbalanced, as long as everything was unbalanced. It was the first game to make popular the
ideas of powers that could fundamentally change things in the game, a trend
that would be continued with Exalted to reach it’s zenith with games like
Scion. You couldn’t go into this game as
a regular person (Well you could, but, well, Dead before the end of scene one),
but you could choose a variety of ways to enhance your character, from mystical
and technological boosts, to skills beyond the range of mortal men, to fighting
techniques long forgotten by the world that most would see as some sort of
sorcery.
To give you some idea on this, one such technique was Vengeance of the
Turtle, a technique by which striking a vehicle with bare foot or fist
instantly destroyed that vehicle.
Didn’t matter what the vehicle was, car, or main battle tank, the vehicle was destroyed...
And then there was the background, a secret war fought between
sorcerers, demons, technologists, martial artists, and cops. A war that was fought across a number of
different time zones, from the 1800’s to the 2000’s and beyond, with each
Juncture (What they called time zones) having a different part to play in the
war. The whole war centered around the
control of sites of power (the aforementioned Feng Shui), both in the past,
present, and in the future. Those who
controlled the sites, controlled the power, and those who controlled the power,
controlled the world.
As a premise, it was massively complex and overpowered, it took a long
time to progress the characters to anything beyond what they started at, but
they already started at a level that a lot of characters would have retired
before. The characters in this game
weren’t beginners and that proved to be a great attraction for many as well,
there was no danger that a lucky hit would wipe you out at level one, and the
game brought forwards the case for Mooks, being henchmen that served only as
cannon fodder for the players and villains.
These were not a threat to the players, but in great enough numbers, they
could complicate things.
Feng Shui was very popular in the time that it was out, and the reason
for writing this review today over any other day is that Atlas Games have
finally (it’s been nearly twenty years) announced that they’re going to be
doing a second edition of the game.
Some of the best news I’ve had all year that...
So, we’re backing, because there’s been twenty years of fan input on
this, and while they couldn’t possibly add in all the things that the fans
want, it’s clear that they intend the new edition to be everything that we
remember the old game to be (even if it wasn’t those things at the time).
The kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/feng-shui-2-action-movie-roleplaying-game-by-robin
and it’s already 500% funded, by the time it’s done if it’s not more than 5000%
funded, I’ll be surprised.