Types Profiles

Was thinking of the numerology comment.
130 is a very deadly number some could say.

When you take 130 and use Theosophical Reduction the resault is interesting.

130 = 1+3+0 = 4

4 is a number associated with death in China.

That O.T.O. training is good for something it seems.

Interesting, I'll consider the numerology/OTO idea. However, there is sort of a good news/bad news development.

(Possibly) Bad News: I am now in contact with Atlas Games and I'm honestly not liking the odds of being able to include the official types in the document.


Good News everyone:

So far I now have permission from:
X Bryant Durrell
X Colin Chapman
X Queex from Atlas Games forum
X Dave Blewer
X John Powell
X "Wanderer" from Atlas Games forum
X Gerry Saracco
(X) James Lowder (Pyramid/Steve Jackson Games for Delinquent Schoolgirl Cop)
X Benjamin Baugh
X Dave Van Domelen
X Jason Langlois
X "Trip" for Reformed Gangster and Ring Fighter
X Geoffrey C. Grabowski
X Rupert Smith

Have emailed:

Tim Byrd (Daedalus unreleased material)
"Amurgsval" webmaster/Max Rible
Anthony Botz
Dave Eber
Tom McGrenery
John Seavey
SgTomServo
Kevin Treadway
Rich Warren (left note on his blog)
Pyromancer from his post of a Grammaton Cleric on RPGNET a month or so ago (PM'd him twice, got no reply)

Still need contact info for:
Evan James
Mike Hall
"Shatter" from Fortress of Shadow for Kensai (Sword Saint)
Alielle Taylor from Blewer-d.tripod.com for Mystic Warrior

Any help is greatly appreciate to put out a free PDF reference/game aid for players and GM's for Feng Shui. Thanks!

I'm also getting conflicting advice from various people, some just everyday fans/netizens like me, some published authors, saying to release the document as Creative Commons Non-Commercial, Public Domain, OGL, etc.

Good news, though somewhat of a twist in the whole "Master List of Types" document. I can't make any solid announcements but from my current understanding, from the way I'm interpreting things, I should still be able to get this whole thing published more or less as intended, BUT I'm going to have to break it up into two different documents instead of one giant one, which is fine with me, free is still free, one or two PDFs, right?

I was going to post more but for now I think I'll wait because I still don't quite grasp the whole situation, and art is going to be the first thing that gets the kibosh, as I naturally expected it would, at least for the official types, not sure about the fan-types. I'll post more when I know something more substantial.

Just got one more permission, Rupert Smith, for the Jock.

I still have gotten nothing back from:
Tim Byrd (Daedalus unreleased material)
"Amurgsval" webmaster/Max Rible
Anthony Botz
Dave Eber
Tom McGrenery
John Seavey
SgTomServo
Kevin Treadway
Rich Warren (left note on his blog)
Pyromancer from his post of a Grammaton Cleric on RPGNET a month or so ago (PM'd him twice, got no reply)

And I still need contact info for:
Evan James
Mike Hall
"Shatter" from Fortress of Shadow for Kensai (Sword Saint)
Alielle Taylor from Blewer-d.tripod.com for Mystic Warrior

If anyone can help me out, I'd really appreciate it. I really don't feel completely right, releasing these people's types without their permission, but at the same time, I hate leaving them out, Eber and Seavey and Hall make up a LOT of the types.

Kudos for nearly relevant subject matter spam.

xiaobao, why do you hate my freedom?

Hey all, I've been working on a breakdown of the official 59 Types and thought I'd share a brief summary chart and show you my breakdown.

Top 21 Types
1 Spy
2 Dallas Rocket
3 Magic Cop
4 Gambler
5 Masked Avenger
6 Gearhead
7 Bodyguard
8 Sorcerer
9 Portal Jockey
10 Bounty Hunter
11 Thief
12 Ninja
13 Free Sex Militant
14 Two-Fisted Archaeologist
15 Smuggler
16 Velocity Addict
17 Old Master
18 Pledged Agent
19 Uber Kid
20 Shaolin Master
21 Guiding Hand Archer

If I ranked only by primarily combat potential, it would be more like this:

Top 27 Types by Combat
1 Magic Cop
2 Monster Hunter
3 Sorcerer
4 Portal Jockey
5 Bodyguard
6 Gambler
7 Shaolin Master
8 Old Master
9 Uber Kid
10 Old Master
11 Uber Kid
12 Supersoldier
13 Guiding Hand Archer
14 Ghost
15 Cyborg
16 Gardener
17 Science Ninja
18 Dallas Rocket
19 Masked Avenger
20 Ex-Special Forces
21 Spy
22 Shaolin Disciple
23 Big Bruiser
24 Martial Artist
25 Supernatural Creature

So you are saying the avarage portal jockey could take out the avarage old master or killer?

You could well be right but that seems rather suprising.

~will

I'd have to find this spreadsheet, and I did some re-tweaking on the numbers, but the rankings are fairly consistent. The Portal Jockey does indeed get more combat skills and attributes than the Killer, and more combat skills but not attributes or schticks than the Old Master. It obviously uses formulas that I came up with so are biased to the mathematical finagling I was using at the time that I felt was best unifying all the Types, so it is arguable as to how "fair" or objective it is, but I didn't just arrive at it accidentally or with any sort of dislike of any particular type.

ok i suddenly lost my shift key but anyways, here is the updated chart. the types are broken down into Overall, where all the components are simply added together for a value. then they are rated in Combat, which includes only on their attributes, schtick and combat skill vaues (and Perks/Limitations), then those two are averaged for an Efficiency rating.

the light blue highlighted types (also denoted by the black <<- symbols) are consistently average in all three ratings. it doesn't mean they're any more 'balanced' than the others, just more consistent across the board, according to my formulas.

As you can see from from the new chart, the difference between the Portal Jockey, Old Master and Killer, points wise, is within 12, whether you read it Overall, Combat or Efficiency.

Lastly, note that I list only Secondary Attributes because I broke down the FS Attribute scale into only those. It's a bit convoluted to go into but I spent many hours on the matter and determined the ultimate essence of the values and application of doing so and feel extremely confident in the interpretation.

Also from this chart, notice the grey bar at the bottom, listing the averages of each column. From this one could extrapolate the average FS character type values that one could use as a baseline to create new types. I would, with a bit of poetic and mathematical creative license, assert the following:

Average Feng Shui Type
14 Secondary Attributes: 80 points
2 Combat Skills: 11 points (both Martial Arts and Guns)
2 Other non-Info Skills: 8 points
2 Info Skills: 7 points
Perks/Limits: none (for the sake of simplicity)
3 Schticks: (2 of one type, 1 of another)
Unique Schticks: 1
Starting Weapons: 2
Wealth Level: 2 (Working Stiff)

the rest of them after a break. I'm still not sure it wouldn't be better to find good pics of real action hero characters and black/white lineart-ize them to use them as the pics, like Ah-nold as the Big Bruiser, etc. What do you think?

What does "the rest of them after a break" mean?

But yes, for my fan Types project, I have considered doing line-art but you gotta understand, there are about 70 fan Types, past the 59 official types. That's a lot of lineart for one person to be doing. It would drag out the production time immensely, as those are tedious and moderately time consuming to do.

I'm on the downhill side now of the PDF and it should just be a matter of time. I HOPE there isn't any more editing or changes needed, due to a couple of considerations, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

I've submitted the current draft to Atlas Games so now it is down to waiting to see if anything else needs to be done or if they approve it.

Coolness - I see it's up (link found by Atlas FB page).

A lot to read through, you've put an awful lot of work into it so kudos mate.

Also, am very glad that you've added the original choices for Magic Cop, Masked Avenger etc from the original versions as options.

Now all I need is a good printer so I can print this, Out for Blood and the "where to find x schtick" tables out!

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad it's finally up and done - nice to see it up there, and I appreciate the help from the co-author Jay and the other resources provided from other members here as well; I couldn't have put it all together without you all! I'll post my standardized blurb here:

Hey all, anyone interested might find the following useful, as Atlas Games has uploaded a free PDF which compiles brief summaries of each of their 59 official archetypes into one resource for players and GMs alike. I admit a vested interest in "plugging" this, as I'm the main author. Anyway, I hope it proves a handy supplement to FS players.


The Dragon's Heirs

PS: Although they're not in table format, in the Schtick Summaries, at the end of each schtick in this PDF, I list where the schtick is found and what archetype has it.