Feng Shui was such a big release, we sicked our main-stay reviewer Kevin Jones on it. but to give it a bit of a twist, we also slipped a copy to newcomer James Macduff. Boy, did they have a lot to say.

Feng Shui was designed by the same guy who's responsible for a whole lot of the really strange Over The Edge source material. Robin D. Laws is the fellow who created The Cut-Ups Project expansion for On The Edge (the ccg based on the above mentioned RPG) which included cards that allowed you to bring cards from other ccg's into play and others that could not be used unless you defaced them with a black indelible marker. To put it in kinder words: Mr. Laws has a very unique perspective on reality, a highly commendable virtue in our rather "correct" day and age.

With all of role-playing's focus on genre, with all of role-playing's focus on action, it seems odd that a role-playing game based on the action genre hasn't come along until now. Or, for that matter, that it took a card game to finally get it through. Feng Shui, based on Daedalus Games' popular Shadowfist CCG, takes the situations and clichés from all those cop-buddy, mystic kung-fu, chunks of violent mayhem movies and gives them a concept whereby they can come to bone-snapping life.

That out of the way, it's probably safe to say that the setting is a bit off the beaten track. Basically, there are a wide variety of conspiratory forces — some mystical, some cybernetic, some just plain sneaky — who are vying for world domination. Plotting their schemes across time and space, they battle each other for control of feng shui sites — areas designed to focus and intensify the life forces that gives the universe its power. The only thing standing in their way is the players… who can portray a wide variety of characters taken from the annals of every action movie ever made. Kung-Fu Fighters, One Man Armies, Loner Cops… they're all here, just waiting for your players to jump on board. They're tough, they're nasty, and they have what it takes to take down hundreds of faceless extras at the drop of a hat. What better group to save the world?

The generation system is fairly straightforward: players choose from a variety of basic templates (ex: The Maverick Cop), and are then encouraged to flesh out and develop them by selecting skills, schticks (keen things your character can do), and weapons unique to their person. Players must also choose melodramatic hooks — little facts about their characters that'll let the GM create adventures down the line ("Got an ex-girlfriend involved in the drug trade? Well, she's been captured by this rival gang, and suddenly internal affairs is all over you about it…"). Such development is not encouraged to go too far, however, since the source material for Feng Shui was often two-dimensional and shallow.

Skill checks and combat are resolved quickly and easily, using a pair of dice to augment a basic skill — one die adds to your skill, the other subtracts from it, and sixes are rerolled. Add to that various schticks like Both Guns Blazing and Carnival of Carnage and you've got a system that runs quickly and effectively — but not very realistically. These are action characters, after all, and all those nit-picky little details that drive physics majors nuts are alive and well in here. Players don't need to reload. Any NPC without a name has an average life span of about two seconds. Shotguns cause more damage if the player makes a "cu-CHIK!" sound before firing. All of it makes for a lot of fun during play, and players can have a real blast trying to one-up each other with cheesy clichés… but those searching for fastidious accuracy and stark naturalism had better look elsewhere.

That, however, is one of the strengths of the game. Most RPGs based heavily around combat strive for some kind of realism in their system. Even Warhammer 40K has viable explanations for why some of their stuff does the horrifying stuff that it does. Feng Shui comes from a different cut of cloth. The designers knew that their system was ludicrous, and that's exactly what they wanted. It's goofy, it's preposterous, it makes no sense in terms of the real world, and it makes you love every minute of it.

Feng Shui is not a great game for people who want intricate complexities and deep-set character development in their campaigns. It is a great game for those who don't mind playing fast and loose with the rules, for those who aren't concerned about being deadly serious, and for those who just like to blow away faceless thugs by the truckload. Taken in moderation, such a game can be a lot of fun, and a refreshing break for older, more serious campaigns. After all, that's what action films are for, aren't they?