Feng Shui (role-playing game)

Feng Shui

Feng Shui role-playing game cover, Atlas edition
Designer(s)	Robin Laws
Publisher(s)	Daedalus Entertainment, Atlas Games
Publication date	1996 (Daedalus) 1999 (Atlas Games) 2015 (Second Edition)
Genre(s)	Hong Kong martial arts action movie
System(s)	Custom, with emphasis on quick combat

Feng Shui is a martial arts-themed role-playing game, designed by Robin Laws, published first by Daedalus Entertainment and now by Atlas Games. The game shares its setting with the collectible card game Shadowfist. The system is simple, with most detail being in the game's combat system. Combat is made to flow quickly, moving from one action scene to another very quickly. It was inspired and based on Hong Kong style action movies. The characters begin at a high level of skill, as appropriate for protagonists in the source films.

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Feng Shui on its list of "The Millennium's Best Role-playing Games". Editor Scott Haring said that "Feng Shui found the way to do over-the-top cinematic roleplaying without turning it into an exercise in dice rolling and power trips".

The name Feng Shui refers to one of the central themes of the game: those who control places with powerful Feng Shui control the world. These people find that events go in their favour more often than would be explained by chance. The outcomes of all major historical events, such as wars, elections and natural disasters are dictated by who has the most powerful Feng Shui. Numerous groups vie for control of these sites, and thus control of the world.

Feng Shui crosses genre boundaries and includes martial arts, firearms, magic and advanced technology.

One of the main features of the game is that the physical settings for scenes are meant to be vague, allowing the Game Master and the players room for creative improvisation and description of exciting stunts during combat.

The rules are intended to be simple and easy to learn. There is one central mechanism for making skill checks. Non-combat checks are generally resolved with a single roll of the dice, whereas a scene involving combat can last half an hour or more.

For each skill a character has, they have an associated Action Value that states how good they are at that skill. When a skill is used, two six-sided dice are rolled. One, the positive die, is added to the Action Value. The other, the negative die, is subtracted from that sum. The final value is the Action Result which is then compared to the difficulty of the task being performed. If the Action Result is greater than or equal to the difficulty, that action succeeds. Because the average Action Result is equal to the Action Value, the difficulty can simply be the Action Value of an opponent.