Feng Shui (role-playing game)

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.

Characters also have schticks,[2] or special abilities, which greatly enhance either their combat prowess or their usefulness out of combat. Some can be acquired by a character as they become more experienced, but some are unique to a particular character archetype (see below).

A character will be created based on one of the pre-written archetypes in the game,[2] each typifying a protagonist from a certain genre of action film, such as the Maverick Cop, the Martial Artist, the Journalist and the Big Bruiser. The archetype defines what the character is best at, and although character advancement is free-form after initial creation, it is usual to remain within the original archetype.

The character details are defined by attributes, skills, schticks and weapons.

• Characters have "primary attributes" which are divided into "secondary attributes". However, in many cases all the secondary attributes are the same as their associated primary to simplify book-keeping.
• "Skills" come as a skill bonus to be added to the appropriate secondary attribute, although after character creation only the final Action Value is important.
• The character may have one or more "schticks" as part of the archetype, and may be able to choose some more.
• "Weapons" appropriate to the character's style of fighting.

In various parts of the world there are portals to a place called the Netherworld. The Netherworld is a shifting labyrinth of tunnels and caves that connects portals to a number of different time periods of human history. These are 69, 1850, 1996 and the dystopian future of 2056. These periods are known as junctures and travel between them is possible through the Netherworld.[2] The Netherworld itself is populated by a wide variety of strange inhabitants who, for whatever reason, no longer have a place in any of the junctures. In the second edition the ancient juncture is now at 690AD, and the dystopian future has become a post-apocalyptic one.[3]

A means to travel in time inevitably means that people will try to change the past or future. When this happens without a Feng Shui site changing ownership, this results in a superficial shift. Details change, but everything important remains the same. People may find themselves laterally reincarnated into a different name and job, but their memories will change to match their new identity. Whoever was in charge before is still in charge.

However, when there is a significant change in the flow of Chi as a result of Feng Shui sites changing hands, there might be a critical shift. Such a shift may make major changes to history and the balance of power. World War II may have ended with the Axis powers victorious, a large part of the world might have become a peaceful Confucian state, or the entire world might be recreated according to some terrible pattern. As with superficial shifts, people will be laterally reincarnated to fit the new world.

Anyone who has been to the Netherworld, however, does not get laterally reincarnated and will be acutely aware of the changes.[2]

There are a number of factions fighting for control of the world across all four junctures. Their goal is to control enough sites with good Feng Shui to trigger a critical shift and remake the world in their favour. Because the average person is unaware of this, the ongoing struggle is known as the Secret War. Many of the factions have minions within their home junctures who are used to keep order there without knowing the truth behind it all. They also have powerful agents who are quite aware of the Netherworld and are active in other junctures. These agents are known as Innerwalkers or Secret Warriors - and the player characters number among them.

There are seven main factions:

• The Eaters of the Lotus are a group of evil eunuch sorcerers from the China of 69 AD. They rule Han-era China from behind a puppet emperor and wish to spread their power throughout the timestream. Their chief weapons are sorcery, demons, and political intrigue.
• The Guiding Hand is a group of neo-Confucian monks committed to bringing about a world of peace and harmony within strict rules. They abhor the Western powers and seek to stamp out all foreign influence from China, no matter how beneficial, and despise modern thinking and technology. Their stronghold is in 1850s China and is hotly contested with the Ascended. They specialize in kung fu.
• The Ascended are not truly human at all, but are the descendants of animals that became human through force of will. They abhor the magic that can turn them back into their primitive forms. They control the 1850 and 1996 junctures more-or-less totally, and prefer to use armies, police, criminal syndicates and their human secret warriors to do their dirty work in places intrinsically hostile to them. However, they are skilled in kung fu, guns and have abilities related to their animal heritage.
• The Architects of the Flesh rule 2056. Their world is one based on equality, fairness and good order but enforced brutally and without compassion. They simply wish to extend their dominion through time 'for the good of everyone'. Their most effective weapons are arcanowave devices, which they graft onto humans and captured demons from 69 regardless of the consequences, and which have bad effects on humans who overuse them.
• The Jammers are a psychotic group of anarchists composed mostly from deserters from the Architects and the subjects of their failed experiments on apes and monkeys. They want to wipe the world clean of all influences of Feng Shui at any cost, primarily by blowing every site they can find sky-high, regardless of who might get hurt or killed in the process. They principally use guns, heavy weapons, explosives and cyborg enhancements.
• The Four Monarchs once ruled the world until a critical shift engineered by the Ascended removed them from power. Each of them now rules a portion of the Netherworld, scheming against each other and the other factions. Each of them is a powerful sorcerer in his or her own right, and their followers specialize in either sorcery or kung fu.
• The Dragons are a loose set of idealistic warriors opposed to the tyranny of the other factions. It is to this group that the player characters will be inexorably drawn.

For some reason, Hong Kong has a high concentration of both Feng Shui sites and Netherworld portals. It also has a history of being the place where the most significant battles in the Secret War take place.