Feng Shui 2 is great but it's been so long since it came out, with little support since, that what I really want to see now is one massive supplement (about the same size as the core book) that just goes to town on the setting. All four major junctions covered in detail, possibly an additional section on the Netherworld, plus an adventure for each juncture, or maybe one larger adventure that takes the PCs to all four.
Info on the main junctures, with the exception of contemporary Hong Kong, was the main thing missing from the core book. At this stage (I think with some justification) I don't have much faith in the prospects of ongoing future support for FS2, so one huge, one-and-done mega-supplement seems like a sensible approach to give fans something they can sink their teeth into.
Whether it would be financially viable is a different matter and something I have no expertise in, but I would happily support a crowdfunding campaign for this and it would 'complete' the game while still leaving options open for future adventures and supplements.
EDIT: Sorry for creating the topic twice. I accidentally deleted the first one and didn't realise I could just restore it.
I totally agree with you. Feng Shui 2 is a great game to play, with very little support. As you I hope for a massive supplement, too. There were rumors about a supplment about Dragons... but it is a lot time that, except silence, come nothing from Atlas Games... and I so sorry for it.
Tes, they have done very awesome scenarios about contemporary junction and future junction. They did also a exstraordinary scenario about a pop-up juncture like Paris in WWII... but that's all.
I thin there is need something new for Feng Shui 2. It is time for it!
While the corebook is very short on information about most of the junctures, there's a lot more in Atlas Games | Secrets of the Chi War (atlas-games.com) . There's a good chunk about each Juncture in that product, and based on your post I thought it's possible you might have missed that this resource exists. It's not a huge book, but it's also only $8.
That said, I'd love to have more content for Feng Shui 2. I would happily buy any new sourcebook Atlas chose to release.
I also hope they decide to add Feng Shui to the ORC license, given their recent blog post about the OGL situation. Atlas Games | Post (atlas-games.com) I have a lot of material I've worked up for my own campaign that I'd love to be able to share with a wider audience.
Thanks. I do have the Secrets of the Chi War pdf, picked up recently. I may be wrong but as far as I'm aware it was never available in print, only as a pdf. It has about five to eight pages on each major juncture, and that information is really useful. This amount of setting information, though, is dwarfed by almost any other 'full size' RPG that has a specific setting. The amount of information packed into each of the Tribunal supplements for Ars Magica, for example, is incredible.
Of course, I do understand that Ars Magica is a very different type of game, and there’s a reasonable argument that the main purpose of the different junctures in Feng Shui is just to serve as exotic settings for various fight scenes. I don't entirely agree, though. My understanding of the Feng Shui game is that while fight scenes may be the central focus, in a broader sense it does set out to emulate every aspect of the HK action movie genre, not only the fight scenes.
Many HK action movies are packed with time and place specific details, including rich cultural detail, and they're all the more compelling as a result. I very recently re-watched Mr Vampire, for example, and although its tone is predominantly slapstick comedy often bordering on the absurd, the attention to setting detail throughout is excellent and genuinely elevates it.
Also, I think longer running Feng Shui campaigns are more likely to stray from the typical 'three fight scenes per session' formula and delve more deeply into politics, adventuring and storytelling, and so would benefit even more from detailed setting information.
I agree completely that deeper dives into the setting would be very welcome.
I should also mention that if you look on DriveThruRPG, you'll find that many of the 1st Edition sourcebooks are available there as PDFs. Again, not as good as a print version in your hand with mechanics that match the current edition, but it is another way to get more setting detail.
Yup, I have print versions of 1st edition and several of the supplements. I ran a 1st edition campaign not long after it first came out (yes, I am old). The trouble is, two of the three main junctures have changed entirely in the new setting, and the Contemporary junction has moved on. So, game mechanics aside, only the information relating to 1850 is genuinely as useful for 2nd edition as it was for 1st.
That's a very good point. Things are very different now, compared to 1st Edition.
I would love for Atlas to release a sourcebook about the Empire of Wu Zetian. It's such an interesting time and place, and one I knew absolutely nothing about prior to reading the rulebook.
It would also be interesting to see a sourcebook on Contemporary Hong Kong, as I have a sneaking suspicion many things about the place have changed in the handful of years since the release of the FS2 corebook. Real-world political turmoil and protests, a terrible housing shortage, and of course covid, have all complicated that city a lot. Figuring out what's gameable in that mess is tricky, but I feel like there's some serious potential plot/themes for underdogs rebelling against the system. On the other hand, if I were starting my campaign over today, I might decide to use the old 1996 Juncture in it's place, as it feels less of a political minefield and includes the exciting Kowloon Walled City as a location for adventure.
I am in this position as well. I've tried a number of times to suggest some sort of community content license for Feng Shui 2 but haven't heard anything back.
Some have criticised the OGL for not giving any rights which people didn't have already. This is true, in fact it takes away some rights we already have. However its actual value is in providing certainty. A guarantee that you wont get taken to court if you follow these rules.
That's why the current situation is so destabilising, it degrades the trust that guarantee depends on. People are loosing faith in the guarantee and that's long term damage that WotC will have to deal with.
Gaming is my hobby so I'm not going to put in effort only to risk legal entanglements which I have no means or desire to manage. Thus some sort of easy and safe path to sharing my stuff with other hobbyists would be welcome. If I could make a little pin money off it as well that would be a bonus.
One thing the OGL showed, and WotC seem to have missed, is that this is a 2 way street. Gamers get more content, of variable quality, and publishers get a much better supported product at no cost to themselves.
It seems Atlas Games (Trident, Inc.) owns the copyright and trademarks for Ars Magica, whereas Robin D. Laws owns the copyright and trademarks for Feng Shui and Atlas Games publishes it under license. So, Atlas Games probably can't make any announcement about ORC and Feng Shui, even speculatively, without at least having a conversation with Robin first. This may be one reason why Atlas has not yet made any mention of Feng Shui in connection with ORC.
Personally I feel a community license would be the best thing to re-invigorate Feng Shui 2. Get it up on DriveThru and really stick it to those other games.
Though as said, it is not entirely under Atlas Games. Robin D Laws still has influence on this.
In the question of Content, did the Capoeira Supplement/Adventure get abandoned in the Subscription or are there still plans for Atlas to release it as a regular supplement in the near future?
I asked over at the Patreon for Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff:
Given all the recent clamor about open-source gaming, is there any chance of Feng Shui 2 and/or Night's Black Agents ending up on the ORC license or something similar? I've created a lot of content for my home campaigns that I'd love to be able to share with a wider audience, and I'm sure others must likewise have accumulated a lot of cool ideas and content they'd love to share, too.
Robin D. Laws replied:
I do not control the underlying rights to the Feng Shui mechanics. GUMSHOE is available through a Creative Commons license. Pelgrane is watching the current open licensing situation and evaluating options.
So it kind of sounds like the rights situation for Feng Shui is more complicated than I'd realized. I hope something more gets published for the game. My players and I are really having a blast with it.
Interesting, sounds like a mystery. Who really owns the rights to Feng Shui? The Ascended? The Prof? Kar Fai (and not Car Fat as autocorrect tried to do)? One of the Monarchs? Battlechimp Potemkin?
yes of course. And Feng Shui 2 has a book to 'convert' the 1st edition sourcebooks to the 2nd. However, I prefer to have something that tell me what happens (or happened) after the C-Bomb rather than previous... I'd like to know what are the current ascended's active projects, how the Guide Hand is and so on. Yes, the corebook has a bit of everything but... you know... it is just a bit of everything...