History TabletopGame / FengShui

%%* OldMaster: One of the archetypes

* AncientConspiracy: The Ascended.

* NamesTheSame: The basic premise of "Hong Kong Phonebook", one of the game's published adventures - three different factions each abduct a man named Simon Wong, but each of them has the wrong Simon. Wacky hijinks ensue. [[invoked]]

* WeaponOfChoice: Signature Weapons.

* RareGuns: Several of the guns on the gun list, including the Smith and Wesson 3566 (which is a custom-shop gun which fires the .356 cartridge).

* FemmeFatale: The Buro has an...odd example. Her name is [[AwesomeMcCoolname Desdemona Deathangel]], and she's actually an abomination, disguised as a drop-dead gorgeous woman. The public loves her! Of course, the CDCA is trying very hard to keep [[DarkSecret certain information]] well-hidden, such as her [[EatsBabies preferred]] [[IAmAHumanitarian diet]] [[BlackWidow and other]] [[DeathBySex propensities]].

* OldMaster: One of the archetypes

* BondVillainStupidity: The [[DiabolicalMastermind Criminal Mastermind]] archetype is unable to [[JustShootHim just shoot]] any named character or Buro agent captured; he must whenever possible try to keep them alive while [[JustBetweenYouAndMe gloating about]] their EvilPlan (this includes keeping your party members from shooting them as well). The flaw is named [[LampshadeHanging "Slave to the Cheese"]].

* BuddyCopShow: Players of Karate and Maverick Cops will often pair the two archetypes up Buddy Cop style, with the Karate Cop being [[ByTheBookCop by-the-book]] and the Maverick Cop being the rule-breaker.

* ArmorIsUseless: In recognition of this trope, armor is made "rather unattractive" -- it adds to your Toughness when calculating damage taken, but it reduces your Agility score (which many characters need for their Martial Arts skill) and makes you look like a contemptible Ascended or Buro goon (depending on the juncture and the type of armor).

* AwesomeButImpractical: [[AvertedTrope Feng Shui laughs hysterically in this trope's face before asking it "Are you freakin' serious?!" then laughing some more.]] It tends to be the more ''mundane'' things in the game that aren't too useful, while the flashy and awesome stuff works extremely well. There are some exceptions, like the Missile Launcher hardware schtick, a gun with a damage rating of [[NoKillLikeOverkill 23 (which in Feng Shui terms is almost double what most heavy weapons do)]] that also does SplashDamage, but takes most of an entire sequence to reload, and also needs time to aim before firing... But most of the time, Awesome '''''Equals''''' Practical.

* {{BFG}}: Anything with a concealment rating of 6 (requires a trenchcoat to hide) or 7 (cannot be hidden, period). Come on, did you really think there wouldn't be?

* BombThrowingAnarchists: The Jammers.

* DualWielding: You don't suffer any penalty for doing this unlike other games. Feng Shui thrives on the RuleOfCool.
** But there's no bonus either. Difficulty is based on what your action actually intends to accomplish, not on exactly how it is done. All DualWielding really does is enable you to invent cool and well described DualWielding stunts.
** Actually, the Both Guns Blazing schtick allows you to use two guns to shoot named characters, for a penalty that decreases with each schtick in it you buy and eventually turns into a bonus when using two-gun attacks. Successful rolls result in damage from both guns being dealt.

* GunsAreWorthless: Guns only do as much damage as your average kung fu warrior's unarmed attacks or weapons, and a named character is never taken down with one bullet. May be reflective of genre, however, given the [[HeroicBloodshed movies that inspired the gunslinging archetypes]].

* MadScientist: Curtis Boatman, head of the CDCA (those Buro people who created [[{{Magitek}} Arcanotech]] and Abominations).

* NoCampaignForTheWicked: Usually averted, since none of the factions are totally, irredeemably evil... with the critical exception being the Architects of the Flesh, whose fluff automatically assumes you're playing a rebel or a defector. The sourcebook "Seed of the New Flesh" instead has the option of playing [=TacOps=] for the Buro, who are far, far more idealistic and compassionate than their MadScientist contemporaries, but to destroy the latter is to collapse the former -- the Buro needs the CDCA the other owns to preserve itself.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: If a Critical Shift cannot be reversed by the [=PCs=] somehow, it is a clear-cut case of this.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Johann Bonengel, President of the Buro, just wants a world free of racism and crime. At ''any'' price.

** Also, the Jammers, who are attempting to free all of history from the overwhelming influence of Chi so that people can make their own choices and not have them influenced by who controls more Feng Shui sites. (It must be noted, though, that the destruction of Chi might have serious negative consequences.)
*** When the Jammers actually do manage to 'free' their time period in ''Feng Shui 2'' through the use of the Chi Bomb, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone they're horrified at the consequences of what they've done]], and set about trying to make sure it never happens, no matter what the cost.

* HunterOfMonsters: The Exorcist Monk, Magic Cop and Masked Avenger archetypes, as well as any character with a suitable Melodramatic Hook. The Monster Hunter from the first game, in contrast, ''isn't'' out to kill monsters, but to capture them so that they can be made into Abominations by the CDCA of their home juncture of 2056.

* HunterOfMonsters: The Exorcist Monk, Magic Cop and Masked Avenger archetypes, as well as any character with a suitable Melodramatic Hook.

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Anyone who visits the Netherworld acquires this. This isn't always a good thing, given that while your memories may remain intact, your world and the people you love may not.

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Anyone who visits the Netherworld acquires this. This isn't always a good thing

** In the chronology of the ''Shadowfist'' CCG, which shares a general setting with ''Feng Shui'', a similar schism has happened to the Architects of the Flesh as a result of a civil war between the two leaders of the Architects, Johann Bonengel and Curtis Boatman, and a critical shift in 1934 which wiped their timeline out of existence. The Architects are now split in two factions: the [=BuroMil=] led by Bonengel, who have taken over Nazi Germany from within, and the CDCA led by Boatman, who heads a multinational corporaton in a more {{Cyberpunk}} future in 2072.

** In the chronology of the ''Shadowfist'' CCG, which shares a general setting with ''Feng Shui'', this has happened to the Architects of the Flesh as a result of a civil war between the two leaders of the Architects, Johann Bonengel and Curtis Boatman, and a critical shift in 1934 which wiped their timeline out of existence. The Architects are now split in two factions: the [=BuroMil=] led by Bonengel, who have taken over Nazi Germany from within, and the CDCA led by Boatman, who heads a multinational corporaton in a more {{Cyberpunk}} future in 2072.

* DepopulationBomb: The Chi Bomb, which was meant to free humanity in every juncture from the "tyranny" of chi, instead turned out to be this for the Future juncture.

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Anyone who visits the Netherworld acquires this.

* ShootTheHostageTaker: The Take The Shot gun schtick gives you a +4 bonus to your Guns for the purpose of doing this to bad guys trying to pull a PutDownYourGunAndStepAway situation.

'''2074 AD:''' Thanks to the Chi Bomb, this juncture has gone from a totalitarian dystopia to a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wasteland]] along the lines of ''Film/MadMax'', with cyborgs, mutants and road warriors struggling to survive in a devastated world. In 2069, the '''Jammers''' detonated the bomb in an attempt to eradicate chi in all major junctures. Fortunately for the timestream - if not for those who survived - the worst effects were chiefly limited to their time period, killing 97% of the population, mutating many of the survivors, and laying waste to the environment. The Architects of the Flesh, as holders of most of the planet's chi sites, were wiped off the face of time and existence. The Jammers, faced with the horrific disaster they'd brought about, split into two factions. The original Jammers, still led by Battlechimp Potemkin, now seek to claim sufficient chi sites in the past to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, no matter how many innocents have to die in the process. The '''New Simian Empire''' led by the Battlechimp's former right-hand ape Furious George, in the meantime, seeks the establishment of a new cyber-ape empire, whether in this era or the past.

The '''Jammers''' are a group of BombThrowingAnarchists who are among the few people born with immunity to the influence of chi. They started as rebels against the Buro and the Architects in 2056, and have developed their own brand of junkyard tech that doesn't rely on arcanowave science. Among their number are a good number of intelligent cybernetic apes, the results of the Architects' first experiments. The Jammers want nothing less than to destroy every Feng Shui site in existence so that humanity can be freed from the "tyranny" of chi, something which could have some very bad consequences for the world at large if they succeed.

'''2074 AD:''' Thanks to the Chi Bomb, this juncture has gone from a totalitarian dystopia to a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic wasteland]] along the lines of ''Film/MadMax'', with cyborgs, mutants and road warriors struggling to survive in a devastated world. In 2069, the '''Jammers''' detonated the bomb in an attempt to eradicate chi in all major junctures. Fortunately for the timestream - if not for those who survived - the worst effects were chiefly limited to their time period, killing 97% of the population, mutating many of the survivors, and laying waste to the environment. The Architects of the Flesh, as holders of most of the planet's chi sites, were wiped off the face of time and existence. The Jammers, faced with the horrific disaster they'd brought about, split into two factions. The original Jammers now seek to claim sufficient chi sites in the past to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, no matter how many innocents have to die in the process. The '''New Simian Empire''', meanwhile, seeks the establishment of a new cyber-ape empire, whether in this era or the past.

* TouchOfDeath: Ming I, Queen of the Darkness Pagoda, has the Arm of Darkness. If this hits you, it doesn't deal any damage, it just forces you to make a death check that you do not want to fail.

'''690 AD:''' The closure of their original era thanks to the bomb forced the '''Eaters of the Lotus''' to find refuge in this new juncture, during the time of the Tang Dynasty, where Empress Wu Zeitan, China's only official female ruler, has begun her reign. Unfortunately for the Lotus, the Empress is not about to tolerate any threats to her power, and has purged her court of sorcerers, so the Lotus seek to undermine her and claim power for themselves. They're also trying to retrieve their boss, who was left behind in the 69 juncture.

* ExtendedDisarming: The Full Metal Nutball unique schtick "Oops, Forgot That One" basically makes him fail any attempt to conceal his weapons, which leads pretty much invariably to this scene -- and even if the Nutball says he's completely disarmed, there's always one more weapon to take away. This is purely for the purpose of comedy and doesn't mean the Nutball is always armed in a combat situation.

* AGodAmI: Furious George, since his falling out with Battlechimp Potemkin in the wake of the C-Bomb, has developed a severe god complex. And we're not kidding about that either -- Furious rules the Future juncture as a GodEmperor, with his rule being both military and religious in nature.

* MadBomber: The Jammers.

* AfterTheEnd: The new Future juncture is essentially a post-apocalyptic love letter to the ''Film/MadMax'' series.

* {{Dystopia}}: The 2056 juncture.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: The Buro in a nutshell. It's as if the wild ramblings of every apocalyptic internet Men's Rights Activist came true: the social order has been overtaken by people so obsessed with equality and progressiveness (essentially stereotypical "Social Justice Warriors", ''with missiles'') that same-race marriage has become taboo, straight people are ashamed of themselves for being insensitive and being paid more than a co-worker is a crime. That said, the books do point out that if it weren't for the murderous, dictatorial lengths the Buro went to achieve its goals, most of them would've been quite noble, and while their future is generally dystopian, it ''is'', in some small ways, better than our own socially speaking.