Shadowfist
Shadowfist logo
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| Designer(s) | Robin Laws and Jose Garcia |
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| Publisher(s) | Inner Kingdom Games, Z-Man Games, Daedalus Entertainment |
| Players | 2 or more |
| Age range | 13 and up |
| Setup time | 5-10 minutes |
| Playing time | variable |
| Random chance | Some |
| Skill(s) required |
Card playing Arithmetic Diplomacy |
Shadowfist was created by Robin Laws and Jose Garcia. It was released in 1995 as a collectible card game (CCG), but was shifted to a fixed distribution of cards as of 2013. It shares the same background as the Feng Shui role-playing game, also by Laws and Garcia and released the following year.
Shadowfist is a multi-player asymmetrical strategic game, the design of which is influenced by games such as Cosmic Encounter, Dune by Avalon Hill, Magic: The Gathering and its direct predecessor, On the Edge.
Shadowfist is primarily inspired by Hong Kong action cinema and wuxia films of the late 1980s and 1990s, and by action films in general. In the game, various factions from across time battle for control of the world's Feng Shui sites in a conflict known as the "Secret War." Time travel takes place through an alternate dimension known as the Netherworld which opens to various time junctures. The current open junctures are AD 86, 1867, and 2013. The pulp (1942) and future (2072) junctures were closed with the 2013 Combat in Kowloon release. Unlike Feng Shui, Shadowfist's time junctures move forward as time actually progresses, permitting new game releases to reflect the present.
The titles of cards and the flavor text in the game are rife with humor and pop culture references, especially the Jammers faction, which contains cards such as "Furious George" and "Entropy is your Friend."
Shadowfist was originally published as a CCG by Daedalus Entertainment until they went out of business in 1996. The license was acquired by Zev Shlasinger in 2000; Shlasinger had primarily established his game company, Z-Man Games, to bring Shadowfist back. Z-Man Games released ten new sets over the next five years, before moving on to other projects. The next year a group of fans formed Shadowfist Games to continue publishing sets. This group worked with Shlasinger to publish the next three sets between 2006 and 2009.
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