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This pdf is great. I can't wait to run this updated version of my favorite RPG. A show I'd recommend watching for Feng Shui, or at least with it in mind, is Burn Notice. I know it isn't Hong Kong, but it has great examples of complex conspiracies and melodramatic hooks, not to mention the updated Spy seems to be a lot more Michael Weston than James Bond. On the other hand, the action can certainly be low-key compared to the average Feng Shui session, but it served as pretty good inspiration for me as a Game Master.
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May 8, 2015 07:09
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Loki_XLII posted:Also, the Sino-japanese war has all the same potential for hosed up tone issues as nazis, if not more because it doesn't have the history nazis do of being used as cartoony bad guys. And the book essentially says to go ahead and make the Sino-Japanese War an Ascended plot, so whatever. I'm pretty sure that's because they expect people to be completely unfamiliar with the Sino-Japanese war beyond "Japan invaded so Ip Man could punch a general like in that one film," but expect that everyone in the English-speaking world knows about Auschwitz. Like it says in the Nazi sidebar, the issue isn't that the Nazis committed atrocities, it's that the Nazis committed atrocities that everyone knows about. This means you can't have Nazis in your game without bringing people down and making them feel guilty about playing a game that is derivative of films that are derivative of real life cultures (which it consequently doesn't bother treating with any real respect because it's all fodder for a punch-up in a food market) rather than being able to ignore it all and "have fun." (Okay so I'm being slightly flippant; the sidebar also makes the point that making the Ascended responsible for Hitler would be pretty disrespectful, which is a good point it immediately undermines with the above.) Bringing the Nazis up runs the risk of derailing the wacky minimum-accuracy-pop-culture-film-depiction tone, whereas the assumption is that majority of people who will read and play FS2 probably don't even know Nanjing exists, let alone know anything about the Nanjing Massacre. Blame the US education system, I guess.  e; and I mean, it's not that surprising - this is a game that fetishises Western film nerds' idea of what China is like when that idea itself is based largely on a context-free understanding of 70s martial arts flicks and heroic bloodshed films. It's not a respectful treatment of historical matters, it's a game-ification of a movie-fication of a fictional treatment of a pop culture understanding of history. When your only point of reference for e.g. Chinese-American immigrants' relationship to the US in the late 20th century is Big Trouble in Little China, you don't exactly end up with historical accuracy. This is something that's common to the vast majority of games set in historical times and FS2 is mostly fine except for the existence of the Shanghai juncture, I guess. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 09:53 on May 8, 2015 |
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May 8, 2015 08:36
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Also, honestly, RPGs love to have their massive world-sprawling conspiracies until someone mentions 'And then what about Hitler?' I admit I also tend to downplay the influence of Chi. I tend to write it as an edge, rather than a decider, and I tend to play it that that's the big mistake that lets the heroes kick the villains in the jimmies; The Unspoken Name or whoever is confident in his invincibility because he's got tons of Feng Shui Sites and he completely underestimates how anyone could possibly stand against his incredible luck and influence, only to have the Dragons (or whatever group is currently the PCs/protagonists) start snatching (or burning) sites they supposedly never could've taken, or rise up and kill some lieutenant or agent who should have been defended by the many sites they attuned. To me, it's an extension of the fact that yes, a PC is expected to be able to improvise a way to take down a Hind with a cop car and a shotgun. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 08:47 on May 8, 2015 |
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May 8, 2015 08:43
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In other news, making dumb archetypes loosely based on video game characters is fun: Demon Slayer  You are the fruit of abandoned Ascended research into creating the perfect demon- and monster-killing machine. Martial Arts 13 Guns 12 Defence 15 Toughness 6 Chi 8 Speed 8 Shticks: Demonbane: +2 Martial Arts vs. Underworld denizens. Subtract 1 from the shot cost of any attack on an Underworld denizen or denizens (minimum shot cost remains 1). Mach Speed Dash: spend 1 Chi and choose an enemy within 28m whom you can see; you immediately appear adjacent to that enemy, ignoring all obstacles in the way. You can do this as an interrupt when an enemy who meets those conditions misses you with a ranged attack. Perfect Parry: spend 3 shots and 1 Chi as an interrupt when an enemy close attack misses you to make a Martial Arts attack against that enemy. If the enemy attack was a Way-Awful Failure, double your weapon damage value for this attack. Soul Drain: regain 1 spent Chi whenever you kill an opponent. Signature Weapon: your favourite Buster Sword deals 3 more damage than the norm (the listed damage value for your Buster Sword already includes this bonus). Flinch: whenever you take more than 5 Wound Points from a single attack, you also lose 1 shot. Skills: Seduction 15 Intimidation 12 Info: Underworld Denizens 15 Weapons: Buster Sword: 15/10/-. A six foot long by two feet wide sharpened slab of metal, so called because using it will bust your arms and back. It costs 4 shots to make a normal attack with the Buster Sword. AMT Hardballer: 10/2/4. A M1911 knockoff from the same manufacturer as the Automag. Wealth: Working Stiff. Awesoming Up: Add a new archetype shtick: This Party's Getting Started: spend 8 Chi to increase all your weapon damage values by 8 until the end of the current fight. You cannot do this in the first sequence of a fight. Add a new archetype shtick: Grand Slam: on a successful Martial Arts attack with an Outcome of 5 or more, you can trade 5 points of Outcome to make the target lose 3 shots. Add one schtick from any of these Martial Arts paths (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Banisher, Fox, Hundred Names, Sword, Tiger, Weapon Master, Welcoming Sky, Willow. And one schtick from any of these Guns schticks: Bank Shot, Battle Scavenge I-III, Bloody But Unbowed I-III, Both Guns Blazing I-V, Carnival of Carnage I-IV, Covering Fire, Disarming Shot, Fast Draw I-IV, Flesh Wound, Hair-Trigger Neck Hairs, Lightning Reload I-IV, Lone Wolf, Reactive Fire, Scattering Fire, Shake It Off, Signature Weapon. Add a skill you do not have from this list, at a rating of 10: Deceit, Detective, Driving, Fix-It, Gambling, Info (any), Leadership, Medicine, Sabotage. Increase a skill value from less than 12 to 12. Increase a skill value of 12+ by 1.
Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 13:17 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 12, 2015 19:17
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Lemon Curdistan posted:In other news, making dumb archetypes loosely based on video game characters is fun: You're doin' the lord's work.
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May 12, 2015 19:48
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Does not have "This Party's Getting Crazy!" shtick, 0/5.
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May 12, 2015 20:47
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Evil Mastermind posted:Does not have "This Party's Getting Crazy!" shtick, 0/5. I kind of ran out of space, which is the primary reason why it's missing a bunch of stuff, plus it's not supposed to be an exact translation of Dante, just largely inspired by him (the parry mechanic is mostly Raiden, for example, and I debated whether to make this a Chi- or Scroungetech-based). Six archetype schticks and two more in the advancements section is probably enough as it is. Most of the schtick names (Grand Slam and Demonbane excepted) are placeholders, so if anyone can think of better names, suggest away. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 22:09 on May 12, 2015 |
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May 12, 2015 21:50
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Finally, we can put the "Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series" on more than just Hunter: the Vigil.
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May 12, 2015 22:08
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Rename Limit Break to This Party's Getting Crazy! obviously. I'd suggest renaming Active Counter to gently caress It, Parry It but that's a bit obscure.
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May 12, 2015 22:10
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"gently caress It, Parry It" is for the cyberninja archetype, not the hard-rockin' demon hunter.
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May 12, 2015 23:31
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Change chi to scroungetech and TADA!
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May 12, 2015 23:38
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Mr. Maltose posted:Change chi to scroungetech and TADA! Yeah, literally this. Like I said, the parry mechanic is Raiden, and I was 50/50 on whether to make this chi or CYBORG. The mechanics work pretty much exactly the same if you want to make a cyberninja archetype, just take the Chi powers out, convert Chi costs to Fortune, and give it a list of allowed Scroungetech advancements. And substitute Seduction for Deceit, of course. e; in fact, here you go: Cyberninja  You are the fruit of abandoned Ascended research into creating the perfect cyborg killing machine. Martial Arts 14 Scroungetech 13 Defence 15 Toughness 6 Fortune 8 Speed 8 Shticks: Subdermal Plating: add +7 Toughness vs. damage from sources other than attacks or the use of schticks. Mach Speed Dash: spend 1 Fortune and choose an enemy within 28m whom you can see; you immediately appear adjacent to that enemy, ignoring all obstacles in the way. You can do this as an interrupt when an enemy who meets those conditions misses you with a ranged attack. Active Counter: spend 2 shots and 1 Fortune as an interrupt when an enemy close attack misses you to make a Martial Arts attack against that enemy. If the enemy attack was a Way-Awful Failure, double your weapon damage value for this attack. Organic Matter Converter: regain 1 spent Fortune whenever you kill an opponent. Signature Weapon: your favourite High Frequency Sword deals 3 more damage than the norm (the listed damage value for your High Frequency Sword already includes this bonus). Flinch: whenever you take more than 5 Wound Points from a single attack, you also lose 1 shot. Skills: Intrusion 15 Fix-It 13 Deceit 11 Weapons: High Frequency Sword: 13/5/-. A high frequency vibrokatana you would swear was from the future. Wealth: Rich. Awesoming Up: Add a new archetype shtick: Rip and Tear: spend 8 Fortune to increase all your weapon damage values by 8 until the end of the current fight. You cannot do this in the first sequence of a fight. Add a new archetype shtick: Guard Break: on a successful Martial Arts attack with an Outcome of 5 or more, you can trade 5 points of Outcome to make the target lose 3 shots. Add one schtick from any of these Martial Arts paths (provided you have its prerequisite, if any): Banisher, Fox, Hundred Names, Sword, Tiger, Weapon Master, Welcoming Sky, Willow. Add one schtick from any of these Scroungetech schticks: Adrenal Boy-Howdy, Agony Grenade, Blow Up Real Good, Cortisol Field Generator, Force Blade, Fluid Spill, Grav Plate, Helix Rethreader, Hyperadrenaline Patch, Internal Lockbox, Intra-Reality Goggles, Interceptor Drone, Kinetic Distributor, Laser Goggles, Lumbar Scorpion, Onboard Flamethrower, Molecular Disturber, Neural Stimulator, Pain Uptake Inhibitor, Pulse Grenade, Reflex Ramper, Robot Arm, Seeker Missile, Shower of Sparks, Smokin', Subatomic Transfuser, Titanium Claws, Tracker Pin, Yowch!. Add a skill you do not have from this list, at a rating of 10: Detective, Driving, Gambling, Info (any), Leadership, Medicine, Sabotage, Seduction. Increase a skill value from less than 12 to 12. Increase a skill value of 12+ by 1. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 13:18 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 13, 2015 01:08
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I dunno. It needs a Stealth is my Specialty schtick.
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May 13, 2015 02:15
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I think I might be missing something here, it looks like the main rules have more information on how to run the pop-up junctures than the main junctures. Am I overlooking a section?
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May 13, 2015 07:12
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ThNextGreenLantern posted:I think I might be missing something here, it looks like the main rules have more information on how to run the pop-up junctures than the main junctures. Am I overlooking a section? I think there's more info on that, but it's spread out throughout the book. Combine the intro section, the factions section, the Chi War section and some of the running section and it seems to give a bunch of information. However, it does seem unusual that they'd go into detail for the pop-ups and not give a similar section to Typical (Jucture) Adventure.
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May 13, 2015 07:31
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Played the intro adventure from the corebook on Sunday. Three players, Swordsman, Redeemed Pirate and Karate Cop with the game set in Dublin. I played Seamus Chang, Henpecked Last Cop in Drimnagh with Family Tension: Mother in Law From Hell who is a Triad Mob Boss. Mechanics were smooth, character creation was fast, we got three fights in and we all went down in the final fight, the bad guys got away and the swordsman died. Was totally awesome.
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May 13, 2015 07:45
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thelazyblank posted:However, it does seem unusual that they'd go into detail for the pop-ups and not give a similar section to Typical (Jucture) Adventure. Yeah, I really like how the Pop-Ups have the "Why you go there", "Who/Where you fight", and "Distractions" sections. It really helps me get a feel for each of them.
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May 13, 2015 07:45
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Yeah, absolutely, the regular junctures need a section like that, it's really nice.
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May 13, 2015 14:26
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I brainstormed some ideas last night before I went to bed. Since it was a brainstorm, there has been no quality control over them. I regret nothing, except my lovely handwriting since I didn't have a table to steady on.
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May 13, 2015 20:52
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My recurring nemesis as my Ex Special Forces character were her old squadmates, who had all been taken into an Ascended enhancement program instead of killed like she'd thought. The sniper, specifically, loved to go on long monologues about what it means to be a soldier and the purpose of war to gently caress with people she was shooting and throwing her voice to trick people into thinking she was where she was not. I also had to fight a polish cyborg ninja on top of a flying Catalina Flying Boat. Lt. Gallagher's recurring minibosses were basically all parodies of Metal Gear and it was fun as hell, so METAL GEAR!? can definitely work in FS.
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May 13, 2015 20:56
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Thinking about it while listening to the Metal Gear Rising soundtrack, fights against major enemies in Fung Shui Should totally be like Metal Gear boss battles. Crazy set-piece battles against enemies with ridiculous powers' during or before which everyone stops so the bad guy can spout his crazy bulshit philosophy.
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May 14, 2015 15:20
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You know what FS2 doesn't have? Enough Jammers. The Real Jammers Furious George wants to enslave the world. The Battlechimp has fallen victim to self-pity and now conspires to use feng shui to rewrite the future, greatest of all crimes. Both have turned to tyranny and forgotten the Jammers' real mission - to liberate all life from the oppressive control of chi. Enter the Real Jammers - a small group of Jammers who, instead of following their previous leaders and turning their backs on Jammer ideology, have decided to keep at it and build more C-bombs. Sure, the first C-bomb wiped out 97% of the future juncture's population. That was an unfortunate mistake, but look at it this way - whoever was responsible for that screwup is statistically likely to be dead. Just because it didn't work properly the first time doesn't mean you should give up, though - just iterate and try again, until you get a C-bomb that doesn't murder everyone! Fortunately, the first C-bomb created a whole bunch of unstable portals to new junctures, which means that when it comes to actually testing the C-bomb Mk. II (and Mk. III, and so on and so forth until they get it right), there's no shortage of viable targets they can use, consequence-free! The Real Jammers are lead by Siamangurai, a cybergibbon cyber-ronin whose ultimate plan involves building a C-bomb powerful enough to explode backwards through time and destroy all feng shui sites before anyone who can use them shows up, thus creating a perfect world in which free will can, for the first time, truly exist (and also, hopefully, people). Luckily for everyone, you can count the Real Jammers on all four of your cyber-ape hands. For now. There's no telling how many Jammers and Furious George cultists they might be able to recruit back to their cause. Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 18:28 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 14, 2015 17:14
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So these are the guys you'd have to steal chi-bomb parts from before/after you convince Potemkin to help you build a micro-chi bomb to nuke Kun Chau in 669 before she can destroy modern day Hong Kong. (At least in the critical shift scenario I've got in my head )
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May 14, 2015 17:39
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Thinking about it while listening to the Metal Gear Rising soundtrack, fights against major enemies in Fung Shui Should totally be like Metal Gear boss battles. Crazy set-piece battles against enemies with ridiculous powers' during or before which everyone stops so the bad guy can spout his crazy bulshit philosophy. Not to mention all the banter while you fight, of course. People should be talking an awful lot in Feng Shui fights.
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May 14, 2015 18:05
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Lemon Curdistan posted:You know what FS2 doesn't have? Enough Jammers. I was more focused/less tired right now, I'd write up my ideas for the remnants of the Architects post-Chi-bomb.
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May 14, 2015 18:05
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For one of my games that features the secret daughter of Curtis Boatman and Akikko Bonengel (Bonengel's daughter, only mentioned briefly in the Seed of the New Flesh) as the protagonists in my own version of the post C-Bomb world, I had the C-Bomb go wrong and instead hyper-concentrate chi in certain areas that became hellish, lush, demon-infested 'arcanozones'. Post-apocalyptic mutants and wizards forming the Resistance against Potemkin (I couldn't see him breaking down over losses and so used him as the main villain, plotting to go back and conquer the rest of time for his world without chi) lived in these zones, beset by terrible monsters and Jammer patrols, while the old cities were taken over and revitalized ala City 17 to mass produce weapons and material for an eventual war on 2014. The Architect remnants were holed up in the BRC, hopeless and aimless, still vaguely scheming to retake the world but with Bonengel succumbing to depression at seeing his 'utopia' rejected and Boatman in an 18 year long panic over no longer having so much power to protect him from all the enemies he made while high on the hog. Akikko Bonengel was a modern German police officer (Karate Cop), Trixie Boatman a resistance wizard from the future (Sorcerer), and together they hired guys from the Association of International Mercenaries (I like Jagged Alliance, okay? Also where the party Killer came from) and recruited a back-time version of Anita Dao (Techy) to try to prevent the apocalypse and rebuild the world from purifying the Arcanozones and restarting chi flow properly. And to do it without making a totalitarian hellhole like their fathers. Oh, right. And also the intelligent bodyguard Abomination griffin-thing, IQ-134, the last legacy of Trixie's mother who saved her from the C-Bomb when she was a little girl. He was an experiment in Abominations that wouldn't need a grepper, because they'd had their brain modified to feel genuine affection for their defense target. A sort of Big Daddy type thing. Also, really, Jagged Alliance is basically a strategy game populated entirely by Feng Shui characters as it is. Good-hearted but greedy (or occasionally lovably psycho) mercenaries who go in in 6 man teams of quirky personalities to free whole nations? Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:33 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 14, 2015 18:15
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Got my link for the pdf of Blowing Up the Movies just now, can't wait to read it!
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May 21, 2015 16:08
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Since it's being said in every TG thread now, go see Fury Road because all you have to do is add cybergorillas and you've got the new Future jucture.
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May 21, 2015 16:13
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But 2070 used electric cars! Where are all these monstrously modded hot rods with big-block engines coming from!? MaybeThe Simian Army controls a set of netherworld portals to a massive junkyard in contemporary Arizona they pick over for parts.
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May 21, 2015 17:13
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There's also the Junkyard in the Netherworld, which I don't think gets a mention in 2. It's basically the dumping ground for old tech from erased timelines, and it's where the Prof used to live.
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May 21, 2015 17:16
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Galaga Galaxian posted:But 2070 used electric cars! Where are all these monstrously modded hot rods with big-block engines coming from!? They're getting them the same place your Gun Character gets all his incredibly illegal and exotic military hardware between scenes. From the land of 'Goddamnit I want to see something enormous explode.'
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May 21, 2015 17:47
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Blowing up the movies is out on PDF to backers..
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May 21, 2015 18:11
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Why is TG so adamantly against metaplot-heavy RPGs, but makes an exception in the case of Feng Shui? I mean, I understand that the factions and junctures are cool and all, but I don't see how this wouldn't become a better game if they'd stop telling you what time periods you can and can't go to and the minute motivations of every faction member. Is the 2nd edition better about this?
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May 21, 2015 19:10
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SirFozzie posted:Blowing up the movies is out on PDF to backers.. Awesome, I've been refreshing my email ever since I saw this.
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May 21, 2015 19:23
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Cyphoderus posted:Why is TG so adamantly against metaplot-heavy RPGs, but makes an exception in the case of Feng Shui? I mean, I understand that the factions and junctures are cool and all, but I don't see how this wouldn't become a better game if they'd stop telling you what time periods you can and can't go to and the minute motivations of every faction member. I don't mind having some stock characters to modify and some base settings to gently caress around with, but I've never felt particularly limited by what's there. I think part of the reason it was less odious is because 1e presented it as 'This is the setting at start' rather than having an ongoing metaplot where some characters were intended to be untouchable, etc. It was sort of a snapshot of setting rather than a metaplot. It's best to take what's written as 'here are some junctures we already wrote up for you, in case you don't feel like making your own.' Probably one reason I don't really like 2e 'moving the plot'. The whole C-Bomb thing feels a little too much like something I'd have preferred to interact with (prevent, cause, whatever) and a little too heavy for a background detail.
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May 21, 2015 19:28
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Feng Shui isn't really metaplot heavy, it's setting backstory heavy. The timeline doesn't advance as more sourcebooks come out, it's always 1996 and the Dragons have always just recently been wiped out and are about to be rebuilt because you're the new generation of rear end-kickers.
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May 21, 2015 19:29
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unseenlibrarian posted:Feng Shui isn't really metaplot heavy, it's setting backstory heavy. The timeline doesn't advance as more sourcebooks come out, it's always 1996 and the Dragons have always just recently been wiped out and are about to be rebuilt because you're the new generation of rear end-kickers. Yeah, this is the fundamental difference. Metaplot is ongoing, and features changes and poo poo regardless of what the players do. A good example of this is the Shadowfist CCG which Feng Shui the RPG is based on. Shadowfist has metaplot that plays out over new sets and expansions, a whole story that unfurls and that you the player are just dragged along with. Feng Shui the RPG simply has a backstory that concludes right at the point of "enter the PCs." Another example of this approach is Eberron, a game that has I would venture even more world detail and backstory than Feng Shui does, but Eberron games always start out in the year 998 unless deliberately changed by the GM and there's no ongoing Eberron metaplot where Erandis d'Vol blows up Sharn and suddenly demons invade but are repelled by a coalition of NPCs, all of which you can read about in our new sourcebook for $29.95. Kai Tave fucked around with this message at 19:42 on May 21, 2015 |
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May 21, 2015 19:40
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Plus, on top of all of this, you can shift it around in the middle of the game and that's expected. Critical shift turns the main junctions on their ear and it doesn't have to change the background info that much. If critical shifts weren't something they expected people to run with, people would probably get more cranky about the base setting of Feng Shui.
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May 21, 2015 19:42
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Isn't that, somehow, even worse? Setting backstory will be completely irrelevant to most games. When it does become relevant, the only people that engage with it and care about it are the ones who have read through the book. In my experience, that number tends to fall between zero and one player.
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May 21, 2015 19:43
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Cyphoderus posted:Isn't that, somehow, even worse? Setting backstory will be completely irrelevant to most games. When it does become relevant, the only people that engage with it and care about it are the ones who have read through the book. In my experience, that number tends to fall between zero and one player. No, because critical shifts are presented as really big deals. A shift means that one of the factions has gotten an upper hand over the others, and nobody will realize this besides innerwalkers. Any of the factions seizing control is a bad thing since they're all bad guys, and I can't imagine most PCs being okay with the fact that the timeline they existed in no longer exists.
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May 21, 2015 19:54
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