So you want to play Feng Shui? The roleplaying game of Hong Kong action films? The game where you can:
- Get caught in the middle of a gun-fu shootout between corrupt cops and righteous Triad rascals.
- Lock eyes with the samurai who killed your sister, dew glistening on the edges of your blades.
- Travel through temporal portals to the 19th century, fighting British oppressors seeking to corrupt Chinese civilization.
- Serve as court detectives to Empress Wu, rooting out the seditious conspirators who would destroy China’s only female regnant.
- Slide down the gleaming black side of a pyramidal arcology while locked in a furious melee with a dozen cyber-ape ninjas.
Then you’re in for a rollickin’ ride!
This article is not designed to teach you the game. Nor is it a rules reference or a setting guide (there’s a cheat sheet for that and the entire rulebook besides). We’re here to orient you into awesome. It’s kind of like a strategy guide, but only if you remember that this is a game where the only winning move is to make the game more memorable and fun for everyone at the table. It’s a little bit about what the game expects of you, and a lot about getting into the mindset of Hong Kong action flicks.
As such, it’ll be particularly useful for those who aren’t already familiar with these films. But even if you’re a long-time fan of the genre, you may still find some useful tips in here.
ORIENTATION: FILMOGRAPHY
The best way to get into the groove of Hong Kong action movies, of course, is to actually watch the films themselves (and the films they’ve inspired around the world). Feng Shui 2 includes an extensive filmography in which Robin D. Laws provides a fantastic overview of the entire medium/genre. It lets you to pick any of a dozen different sub-genres/actors/directors and dip your toes in, but it can still be easy to feel completely overwhelmed by the dozens and dozens and dozens of films it discusses.
So here’s my essential/idiosyncratic list of twelve films to watch if you want to grok the unique mash-up of genres and the language of action in Feng Shui:
- Hard Boiled (1992, John Woo)
- The Killer (1989, John Woo)
- Chinese Ghost Story (1987, Ching Siu-Tung)
- Mr. Vampire (1985, Ricky Lau)
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010, Tsui Hark)
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee)
- Big Trouble in Little China (1986, John Carpenter)
- Kung Fu Hustle (2004, Stephen Chow)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)
- Once Upon a Time in China (1991, Tsui Hark)
- Armour of God II: Operation Condor (1991, Jackie Chan)
- Police Story 3: Supercop (1992, Stanley Tong)
If you want to narrow this list even further:
- Pick Hard Boiled OR The Killer
- Pick Chinese Ghost Story OR Mr. Vampire
- Pick Armour of God II OR Police Story 3
- Skip the Hollywood films (Mad Max: Fury Road and Big Trouble in Little China)
It’s likely you’re still looking at this list and thinking, “This is way more stuff than I want to do before my first session.” That’s no problem! That’s why we’re here, actually. But if you like the game and want to go deeper, you can start here. And if you find stuff you like, then you can use the filmography in the rulebook to continue exploring.
GETTING STARTED
Let’s start with the basics. You’ll need to have some basic understanding of the setting. This text is partially excerpted and adapted from “Getting Started with Feng Shui” on page 5 of the rulebook:
You play heroes of the Chi War, protecting humankind’s destiny in a titanic struggle across space and time. Victory depends on your gravity-defying kung fu powers, your ancient magics, your post-apocalyptic survival instincts, or your plain old-fashioned trigger finger.
Chi warriors grasp the fundamental truth of existence: the power of Earth. Certain sites that harness and intensify chi, the life force that animates man and nature, extend across the planet. Those controlling these sites benefit from the increased flow of chi, and gain great fortune in matters both mundane and mystical. Since ancient times, the Chinese have honed their knowledge of Earth magic — or geomancy — into the discipline known as feng shui.
History belongs to those who have attuned themselves to feng shui sites, forging a mystical bond harnessing their chi energy. When the Chi War ends, the victors will use their control of chi to rewrite history — past, future, and present. We will live the way the victors want us to, and we will have always done so.
Chi warriors have also learned how to access a mysterious realm known as the Netherworld. This Inner Kingdom lies between times, and by traveling through the Netherworld you can literally walk into other time periods: 690 AD (home to sinister magicians), 1850 AD (an era of imperialist oppressors), the present day (controlled by a secret conspiracy), and 2074 AD (ruled by cyborg rebels-turned-tyrants whose excesses collapsed the future). Some participants in the great struggle take their cue from this and refer to themselves as Innerwalkers.
Fortunately, the world of Feng Shui rewards heroism: You can dodge machine gun bullets, run sideways up a tree, bounce off a branch, and then clash swords with your opponent. In your best moments you might even run up the stream of oncoming machine gun bullets or cling to the bottom of a bad guy’s Maserati as it screams through the midnight streets of Hong Kong.
DEFAULT ACTIONS
If you’re playing Feng Shui and you aren’t sure what you should do next, what can you do? The default action of a game is something your character can do to trigger cool stuff when all else fails.
Hit up a contact. Possibly literally. Either approach one of your existing contacts or create a new one, as detailed in the rules tucked away on page 114 of the rulebook. This works whether you’ve gotten lost in the middle of a scenario (and just need a new lead or a little help to figure out how you can do the thing you want to do), but it’s also a great way of setting things up for your GM to hook you into new scenarios.
Attune to a feng shui site. This is the default goal of the game. If there’s nothing else that your character particularly wants to accomplish right now, you can always fall back on identifying a feng shui site and trying to attune with it. (If you don’t know where any appropriate feng shui sites might be, refer back to hitting up a contact to get a lead.)
Pursue a melodramatic hook. This is the default goal of your character (see page 22 of the rulebook). The GM will use your melodramatic hook to draw you into scenarios, but it will also often be something you can actively pursue when nothing else is currently on your plate.
Extra Tip: Look for ways to invoke your melodramatic hook in small ways throughout the game. For example, if your melodramatic hook is searching for your lost daughter then you might declare that a GMC looks just like them. Or in a quiet moment you might describe your character pulling their daughter’s photo out of their wallet. Going overboard with this will wear thin, but invoking your melodramatic hook thoughtfully will help unify the campaign into one cohesive heap of awesome.
This is great, and a fun selection of films. I’d recommend adding the famous and excellent Chinese film ‘Infernal Affairs’. If you don’t know the title, it’s the film between Police and Triads that the American remake, ‘The Departed’, is based on.