While I understand Will isn't at liberty to discuss what's going on, that doesn't stop us speculating/wish listing what we want to see. So what are your big wants for a new edition?

Personally I want a custom character creation to go alongside the Archetypes, and a higher degree of Dramatic Editing than is currently possible with Fortune points.

What about you?

I would like to see more interesting uses of Fortune points, some rebalancing of schticks (*kof* Neural Stimulator *kof* 10,000 bullets *kof*), greater variety of unique schticks available for archetypes and awareness of supplements. So, for example, it mentions in the Cyborg type that there are options for different schticks in Gorilla Warfare. Some may complain that it's advertising sourcebooks, but I'd find it very convenient when generating new characters as I don't have to open half a dozen books for the player and say 'read all these bits, they're all relevant'.

It might also be and idea to make some of the house rules used (such as ideas for making mooks a credible threat, limiting Av inflation and whatnot) part of the cor sourcebook- even if only as optional rules.

I'd also like to see stats checks (like Fortune and Perception) adjusted to the same scale as skill checks- basically by making all stats rolls the same as initiative. Apply a -5 penalty to using a skill untrained (instead of -3) and you're good to go. It's difficult to calibrate the two different scales of difficulty. But that's just a personal thing.

I have a hard time thinking up a new PC type that isn't just some tiny variation of something already out there. And while many home-brew 'Shui webpages have indeed listed an impressive number of new 'types, most of them are as I said above, simply tinkered versions of existing classes. So I don't know that an archetype-creation write-up is a good use of space for this particular type of game.

Unfortunately, I think any truly useful re-working of the game into a new edition would have to include combining some of the supplemental material. [It would be nice to have all the Gun and Fu schticks in one place.] And yeah, something's gotta be done to bring the Ability-check vs. Skill-check dilemma into balance.

And, while I know everyone is gonna blow a gasket when I say this, I'd really like to see less space wasted on Hong Kong. I know the game was based on the author's undying love of HK wuxia cinema, but I couldn't give two shakes of a cyborg's stump about Hong Kong, and it disturbs me that soooo much space is devoted to the subject in the main rules. Save it for a supplement, and give me something more generically useful in a core rule book.

I'd like to see some more vehicle stats for past/ future conveyances, now that the wonderful Chase Rules have been detailed in Golden Comeback.

Combine the Sorcery and Arcanowave juncture modifiers into the same thing. They both rely on magic, why should they be tracked separately?

Explicit standardized rules for dealing with Invisibility, Darkness, Blindness, Deafness, Confusion, Stun, and other special conditions.

Follow Starfox's T3 lead and use three secondary attributes for each base attribute. Do we really need to differentiate between Dexterity and Agility?

Rename a couple skills, such as change Seduction to Persuasion. Ok, so accuse me of homophobia, but it bothers me when my action hero tries to fast-talk his way past a big beefy bouncer and I have to "seduce" him. Police can be combined with Detective.

Certain archetypes, such as the Big Bruiser and Cyborg, are weaker than the others and need to be beefed up a bit.

More effective arcanoware. None of my players will touch the stuff, and I can see why... on the rare occasion it does anything useful, the drawbacks tend to outweigh the advantages.

Rules for dealing with mooks in groups, squads, armies, etc.

More explicit rules on how and when Fu schticks can be combined, especially the 0-shot schticks. Can Breath of the Dragon be used on the same attack as Claw of the Dragon? And let's settle the Old Master's unique schtick argument once and for all... does he get that +6 damage on his Flying Windmill Kick or not?

Add Superhero schticks and Big Robots.

Just my two pesetas' worth: Hell, yeah, he gets the +6! He's an Old MASTER, man. He's *supposed* to be able to kick your ass. But that's just me...

I'd like to see some more elaborate rules for melee weapons. The emphasis is on firearms, and martial artists or other types who prefer to whack people with sticks or other up-close-and-personal inplements of pain get shorted. There are many, many hand to hand weapons designed to do cool stuff, like entangle, stun, disarm, or distract an opponent. [Heck, if the game's about kung fu, ya may as well let the kung fu guys actually have some toys.]

Nothing wrong with having Dexterity and Agility, especially since it's only a secondary attribute and a lot of characters just use their primary anyway. They make sense - Agility is full-body nimble-ness, Dexterity is had-eye co-ordination. More different than Constitution and Toughness.

If we're tinkering with skills, I'd merge Deceit and Seduction into one, and Intimidation and Leadership also.

Something that came up on the other boards was skills vs stats (such as resisting magic) - they're no contest at all. So maybe when stats resist, they do so at +5 or something.

I don't think the Old Master does get it with Flying Windmill Kick - it says bare[i]handed[/i], probably reflecting his grounding. Thus is you're in the air it doesn't work.

This may be a tad too literal reading of the description. 'Bare handed' is a generic term for 'without weapons'; I don't think an actual -hand- has to be used. (Martial artists train to do damage with any part of their body.)

I wouldn't want arcanotech dumped entirely. The weirdness is part of the Buro's flavor. But seriously, it *does* need overhauled. Nobody in my group will touch it either, even the Monster Hunter who has skills for it. I mean, who wants one bad roll to turn you into a scaly boogum just because you used an agony grenade on some mooks? However, I agree with Master Kiero that they should have a lot more hi-tech gadgets that don't rely on arcanotech.

I concur that some of the skills could be combined. Intimidation and Leadership results can be derived from the same skill, and I've never seen a real need to have separate Sabotage and Fix It skills. [Generally, someone who knows how to put things together also knows how to junk 'em up.] And I agree that there's no useful difference between Detective and Police. Deceit and Seduction can stem from the same skill as well.

Reversion needs to be rethought, as long as we're at it. Again, with one poor roll, Tran Animals can be screwed if they try to adventure in 69, 2056, or the Netherworld for any appreciable length of time. There was a nice article on Dave Eber's old website entitled "Reversion Reconsidered" that I use, which softens the danger of your favorite character turning into a ring tailed lemur at the end of a session just because you were visiting the Ice Pagoda.

Reason I say that is because you can imagine that their understanding of chi means they can "draw" it up from the ground, thus the damage bonus. Mountain stance and all are a staple of movies, so I see to coming from there. Punches and kicks both work, as long as they are in contact with the ground at the time. But it's down to individual interpretation at the end of the day.

Not just the mutation stuff, a lot of the archano-stuff was pretty weak. Especially when you considered the risks. The Monster Hunter makes a fairly decent character without any of the Arcanowave stuff, even better if you can trade them off for other schticks.

1)Clarification of rules (For example: when do some special attacks do normal wound damage (with reduction from toughness) and special wound damage (without toughness reduction). Thats not always clear.). Or conditions like stun, darkness etc. FS has a very simple rule system, it should be "bulletproof" and should leave no questions and "interpretation" open, what the meaning of rules could be.

2) Every "class" you can chose should have at least some points for skill customization (sorcerer).

3) Better artwork. Some artwork is very good, but sometimes ... well, it is not very convincing. This goes especially for the gun and vehicle pictures. "True" pictures or drawings, not b/w-sketches, would be nice.

4) "Roleplaying vs Action-Movie": FS is still a RPG and the contuining parodies agaings "roleplaying" are sometimes not so funny. Roleplaying and action cinema can be combined. After all, FS is a very dark and despairing setting, not an action comedy (also some parts are of coure very funny). And things like journalist, thief or the social skills indicates, that not everything in FS ist *crashboombang* with swords, spells or guns.

5) Languages: the "everyone speaks cantonese"-rule is ... well, please at least change it to "everyone speaks english". ;-)

6) Continue with the shadowfist storyline in the official adventures.

7) I can accept, that you need to be attuned to a FS-Site in order to increase the Chi of your body and soul (magic, luck, fu ...). Thats ok. But that I need a FS-Site for increasing Body, Mind or Reflexes? Come on! Not every fitness studio is a FS-Site.

SYL

Edited 2/22/2004 3:48:04 PM ET by APPLE1233

But the description of the ability says nothing about the Old Master drawing extra chi up from the ground. It says that his knowledge of chi allows him to perceive weak points *in his target*.

I'll add an additional thing I'd like to see in a 2nd ed:

#) Get rid of any explicit complicated rules for making attacks which require multiple checks. Actually, I'm thinking of the pretty much the entire Supplemental Fighting Rules section by Rob Vaux in Golden Comeback. This is personal, but I have reservations about using half the rules (Str vs Str checks; are they balanced? Body is already the best stat as it is. Why wouldn't Martial Arts help someone get out of a hold?) and would never use the other half. (*Joint breaking*? Specific RULES for jump kicks? NO. A jump kick is simply a kick with style. You shouldn't have to make special Move rolls to execute one.)

It may be that the game needs rules for throwing, holds, etc. But they should be as simple and streamlined as possible.

Personally, I'd rather they kept to one edition, and made that one edition the most kicking-ass edition they could. The countless reprints and revisions is one of the reasons I dumped my D+D books in favour of FS. Besides looking like a money grab, I only have so much cash to devote to my RPGing, and I'd rather spend it on new material instead of rehashing old material with a few edits.

Call me old-fashioned, but I like dealing with known quantities. Knowing what is available to the Director and his Actors is a very good thing. You set a good frame-work to deal out the action from.

Neil.

> "when do ...attacks do normal damage (with reduction from toughness) and special damage (without toughness reduction). Thats not always clear."

Hm... I dunno, I've never found a problem with this. Toughness is deducted from physical damage, unless a schtick or effect says it's not. Is there a particular damage issue that's not clear we could discuss?

> "Every 'class'...should have at least some points for skill customization (sorcerer)."

Every archetype *does* have points to allot for customization, at character generation. Do you mean you want more points? I think that would unbalance beginning characters, but I don't like my new PCs to be supermen, personally.

> "Better artwork. This goes especially for the gun ...pictures. 'True' pictures or drawings, not b/w-sketches, would be nice."

Not for me, dudes! I'm a fan of the silhouettes. Gives you a perfectly good idea of what it looks like, yet still leave something to the imagination. (It's like, I dunno, firearm burlesque...)

> "After all, FS is a very dark and despairing setting, not an action comedy."

Ooooo, I disagree. Sure, 2056 is oppressive, but the rest of the junctures aren't necessarily dark and dreary. (Especially not the Contemporary Juncture. Party party!) And a great bit of Feng Shui inspiration comes from action comedy movies. Big Trouble in Little China, Shanghai Noon (any Jackie Chan flick, really), even Bulletproof Monk, are excellent examples of FS action, but plenty o' comedy.

Edited 2/28/2004 10:41:22 PM ET by Sensei (SENSEI22)

[Toughness is deducted from physical damage, unless a schtick or effect says it's not. Is there a particular damage issue that's not clear we could discuss? ]

Sting (transformed scorpion power): 3 Points of damage, which would mean that this power could never really hurt anyone. Just for example, i would have to search the books for more examples. Even more stings would not help, because the toughness would be subtracted individually from the 3 poins per sting.

[Every archetype *does* have points to allot for customization, at character generation. Do you mean you want more points?]

Only for attributs, not for skills. Example: sorcerer, old master. They can not customize their skills at charakter creation (customize in this case = increase skills oder get new skills).

[I think that would unbalance beginning characters, but I don't like my new PCs to be supermen, personally]

Well, more skills != supermen IMHO.

[I'm a fan of the silhouettes.]

And I am a fan of "true" pictures. :-)
The weapons described are not generic weapons, but actual models which (at least for 69-1996) can be found in reality. And a .50 AE Desert Eagle in chrome really looks more impressive than a silhouette picture.

[are excellent examples of FS action, but plenty o' comedy. ]

Oh yes, they are excellent filmes (especially for FS)and of course there are a lot of funny elements and moments in FS. But IMHO the fundamental atmosphere of the game is more or less neutral to dark and despairing.

For example: the Dragons will fight the good fight without having a real chance of ending the secret war with a good outcome, every juncture is more or less problematic (from the tyranny of the lotus in 69, over the supression of the people and the opium addiction in 1850 to the very well known problem auf 1996 to the dictatorship of 2056), the groups (ascended, architects) are almost ubeatable, the PCs can only hope not to worsen the situation etc.

And, once the realized the true magnitude of the secret war ..., well, I would despair of the sheer size of the power of my enemies. On the other side, I am not an action hero. ;-)

However, of course, it is just my interpretation of page 149 of the basic FS-book and of FS-Films like Hard Boild, Better Tomorrow, Zu Warrior, The Killer etc.

SYL

Edit: I forgot to mention films like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero".

(and sorry for my many mistakes, but english is not my native language. I am trying to improve myself)

I do think that when FS next gets a reprint it would be worth revising it. There's nothing _wrong_ per se, I would just like to see bits of clarification here and there, some tightening up of schtick imbalances. Plus mention of later sourcebooks so players new to the system know where to get more information on particular things. Then any significant changes can be released online as a pdf- like the archetypes omitted from the Daedalus edition of the core rulebook.

The same cool goodness we know and love, but made even better.

OK, I see how this could be confusing.
The sting text says that "you do not do normal damage. Instead, opponent suffers 3 Wound points (etc.)". My interpretation of this was that Toughness doesn't help, because it's 'not normal damage'. (Granted, this was just my theory, but it *does* make the sting ability worthwhile.) If it's not "normal" physical damage, then Toughness wouldn't apply.

I agree that these kind of situations could be made clearer, yep.

>> [Every archetype *does* have points to allot for customization, at character generation. Do you mean you want more points?]
>> Only for attributs, not for skills. Example: sorcerer, old master. They can not customize their skills at creation.

Ah, I see what you mean. This was part of the trade-off, though. The Master starts with a buttload of skills already, so he doesn't really need more. [The archetypes that get skill bonuses are the ones that start with about half the ones that Masters start with.]
The Sorceror also gets to start with 5 spell schticks, so that's a nice chunk of goodness right there that the other archetypes don't get.

Of course, you can always dump some of these guys original skills if you want to customize them more. I'd get rid of Noodle Making or Calligraphy, for instance, and pick something more useful.

>> "But IMHO the fundamental atmosphere of the game is more or less neutral to dark and despairing."

Hey, everyone's campaign is different, no problem.

>> "and sorry for my many mistakes, but english is not my native language. I am trying to improve myself"

As a language teacher, I admire anyone who learns and betters themselves in another language! I wish I were better in the languages I've studied.

I don't consider minor alterations the same as inventing a new archetype. The above examples are perfectly fine GM modifications, but they're simply tweaking an existing archetype by giving them a new schtick. That's not the same as creating a totally new archetype based on a cliche'd image from a movie.

I would just say that in a rewrite/ update of the rules, there's no need for minor variations to be listed as separate archetypes. (Not enough dissimilarity to make them distinct.) A good addition tho would be a section on the bottom of the archetype's page listing some suggested variations like the ones above.

Blind Martial Artist

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you. Heh."

A long time ago you lost your sight, but you spent
a lot of years working to overcome that handicap
and even to turn it into a source of strength.
You are a skilled martial artist, but perhaps
not so pure in your dedication to the art since
you took to martial arts as a means rather than
end.

There's a shifty quality about you and you usually
pretend to be more harmless than you really are but
you still remember when you were virtually helpless
and as you wander, when people try to bully you
or the genuinely weak, you make sure they regret it.

Juncture: 69, 1850, Modern

Attributes: Bod 5
Chi 0
Mind 5 (Per =9)
Ref 5

Add a total of 5 points to your primary attributes

Skills:

Info (Eastern Philosophy) +4 (9)
Deceit +3 (8)
Martial Arts +10 (=15)

Add a total of +6 in Skill bonuses
to any skills of your choice (except
Martial Arts)

You may pick one Fu Shtick, but if you
have no Chi, then it must be Signature
Weapon.

Weapons: A cane that may or may not have
a blade inside it.

Shticks:

Unique Shticks: 1. You are unable to see but
your acutely trained other senses mostly compensate
for that problem. However any power or device
that makes something totally silent effectively makes
it invisible. You must scout an area for obstacles
before a fight or risk tripping any time you move
quickly. You are of course incapable of reading
two dimensional print or of driving safely.

Wealth Level: Poor
______________________________________________________
He's a Perception monster the way that the regular martial
artist is a Fu monster, but the only reason why I bothered
to design him rather than just picking another template
and cranking the Perception with optional points is
because I wanted a blind character to have that unique
shtick. Same thing with the Excellent Archer template
I'm still working on. There's no point to him except
that I have to give him a unique shtick to make Bows
worthwhile and restrict him from guns.

So far the only things that I think need rethinking about Feng Shui are:

Its always bugs me when an old master and a Killer fight in fairly close quarters...Hand to Hand an old master should dice a killer just about instantly...but the killer gets to use his huge guns score as his dodge.  He'll probably loose the fight but not as fast as he should.  It just never felt quite right to me...

Need Weapon schticks...perhaps more like Fu Paths...they sort of do it a couple times with Path of Fly Steel in BOTV and the few sword schticks that are part of the Leaping storm path... But I'd like to see more...

I guess these are perhaps more of house rules but it seems to me if there were actual weapon schticks that were Fu paths you could have alot of real cool combos.

There are probably a few other things, but these are mostly small concerns.

The only other thing to mention is is that I really prefer the '69 AD' sort of stuff, and I'm really bummed that Pramas' Dragonfist has been buried.

So I guess I'd like to see a new setting for the Feng Shui system set in a 69 AD-like period.

Call the setting "The World Of Martial Arts"  There are quite a few movies that actually use that phrase to describe their world.  Kung Fu Cult Master comes immediately to mind.

But I don't think that fights should be staged in such a way that it becomes much more difficult for martial artists to engage the enemy. Sniper rifles might be okay for films like Leon and they could be useful for the odd assassination attempt against someone, I suppose, but it's not terribly exciting. :)

A .50 Desert Eagle as sig weapon? Fine, but i've made a point of sniper rifles being unusable in combat. I've always made a point of restricting or tweaking schticks and making him the team clutz when it came to non-combat moves. Plus 'Randomly' determining that he is the source of all mook attention because he's firing his hand-cannon when everybody else has a sword or something soon knocks the stuffing out of him...

Mind you, when I was playing FS we didn't have any car chases, but I don't think any of our characters had Driving. The Cop's highest skill being driving, he ought to shine in car chases.

Signature Desert Eagles are nasty, but so are high-Body martial artists. Body 8 and a Signature sword does as much damage, and the martial artist can soak more damage if the gun character doesn't have the same amount of Body.

My last Feng Shui experience was a one (well, two) shot adventure set in feudal Japan. My character was the middle son of a samurai family who reverted to banditry. Rather than use the Bandit archetype, we used the Ninja, but with the Bandit ability to gather troops instead of a Fu schtick. And, well, having a group of mooks on your side isn't that great, plus MA 14 and no fu schticks makes it fairly tough to be effective in combat, especially compared with a martial artist with high MA and (as I recall) a signature sword. I liked my character, though.

1) Neither he nor anyone at Atlas Games is planning on or has mentioned a new edition. I got the impression that me asking about it was the first he'd heard of such a thing.

2) However, he did say "it's about that time" that, in the normal lifespan of an RPG, that you might expect a new edition to come out.

3) If there was such a thing as a new edition, the only thing he'd change would be to smooth out and clean up a few of the klunky bits in the rules. The factions, junctures, and Secret War stuff would be the same.

The scenario he ran for the "Play With A Creator" event, based loosely on _God of Gamblers_, was a blast. It didn't involve the Secret War, just a group of kids growing up on the streets of Hong Kong. The characters provided were all gun-related or not involved in the secret war: Ex-Special Forces, Everyman Hero, Killer, and Gambler. We all died horrible, bloody deaths, as befitting the Hong Kong gangster movie archetype. But we managed to kill all the bad guys first. A couple quotes:

Killer: "Ok, we completely screwed that up. Where do we go now? We can't go back home."

Robin: "You're pretty sure if you go back to your apartment, they'll be waiting for you there."

Me: "I know exactly where we go. To a church. With, of course, a wedding going on, and white doves everywhere."

Later....

My wife: "We drive back to our Uncle's noodle shop."

Me: "Is there an exotic bird shop next to the noodle shop?"

Robin: "Of course there's an exotic bird shop next to the noodle shop. How else would you expect them to be smuggling in the drugs and guns?"

A little later...

Robin: "Okay, you jump out the window and shoot the gas tank on the car, but unfortunately you misjudged how powerful the explosion would be. Instead of cushioning your fall, the explosion knocks you back up to the second floor, through the window, and you fall right into the center of a group of mooks. *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* *SNAP* all around you as they all get the drop on you."

Killer: "Uh oh."

Robin: "Do you surrender?"

Killer: "Um..."

Robin: "You do realize that, even though these are mooks, they all have the drop on you, and if they all open fire, they will kill you?"

Killer: "Yes. I smile and *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*. If this is where I'm going out, then this is how I'm going out."

Oh, and I asked Robin about the Old Master unique schtick (yet again), and he confirmed that it does not stack with barehanded Fu schticks such as Flying Windmill Kick. His barehand damage is supposed to be nasty, but wasn't intended to work with his Fu schticks.

He used his precious fu schticks to aquire them, he uses his precious fu points to empower them ... and every Martial Artist with a body of 7 to 9 may use these unarmed fu schticks?

Well, RL may be the creator of the coolest RPG in the world, but that is just stupid. The Old Master, especially the Old Master, the Master of unarmed Kung Fu, cannot use unarmed Fu schticks? Now, that sounds just ... stupid. :-|

SYL

Dan

My opinion: Normal Damage ist Str +1 or +2, for the Old Master +6 (+ Damage from Fu schticks).

SYL

Scratch out the Unique Schtick and pencil in Str=10.

SYL

I wonder if Robin meant that the OM's unique schtick doesn't stack with schticks which also *add to damage*, but would work with ones which work differently, like modifying the outcome, or having some other effect.

I think it would be interesting to try without the stacking... it might mean the Old Master is better off taking a different set of schticks, like Crane, Fox, etc. (With a Fox schtick he could steal someone else's strength temporarily, and beat them up with that.)

After all, the Old Master has the highest starting AV, and he can take a defensive schtick granting +5 on active dodges, making him REALLY hard to hit, plus he has the best chance of hitting anyone.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Regarding the damage enhancing Fu schticks:

Kar Fai, famous old master in FS, is a master of furious tiger kung fu aka path of the Healthy Tiger IIRC. As a master of unarmed combat he cannot use several of his path kung fu powers in combination with his unique schtick? Even if the source of his powers are extremly different (fu power fueled by chi points vs experience/perception/knowlege of chi flow through the human body)?

And every Martial Artist can use the +5doge defensive schtick (Willow Step and/or the fox power). Of course, he starts with an AV of 16, on the other side, he has only move 4 and toughness 4 (and strength 4 for non-combat related strenght-checks) and luck 0 at the beginning.

And to be honest: an OLD MASTER of Kung Fu should be a little better than a common heroic martial artist. ;-)

SYL

Actually if I remember right...Kar Fai doesn't have the unique schtick...

We've never allowed the old master in our games as a PC character...its clearly unbalanced.

Why would you ever take a martial artist if you could take old master (min/max wise not role playing wise)??

Unbalanced? In Feng Shui? That depends.

Why you would take an MA and not an OM? There are several possible reasons for that (note: not all reasons are equally important):

- Until you get an FS site for increasing your attributes, an OM cannot increase his luck. Luck however in FS is something that is, in my opinion, very important. The MA has at least in theory the possibility to increase his luck value by one or two points.

- If you have an FS site (or two), the difference between an OM and a MA are around 25 to 30 XPs, thats means, some evenings. Then an MA will have its AV of 16 and his 5 schticks, too. Of course, the MA will have some new schticks, ok. If you play very long, however, the 30-point difference becomes more and more irrelevant.

- Damage: High Strength + Sword + Signature Weapon = 14+ Damage.

- Fu schticks: the OM is the master of unarmed combat. However, some very nice schticks require weapons (Water Sword etc), in this case, the OM is handicaped by his low body.

- General damage resistance. Body 4 is not very nice, if you have an GM who rolls a 20 every second sequence. Trust me, itīs really not nice. :-|

- At the beginning, the skills of the MA can be increased or he can have new skills. The OM is stuck with his skills until he has access to an FS site.

- Armed combat looks way cooler than unarmed combat. ;-)
Coolness in FS has its own rewards.

Personally, I have another problem with the OM, from a pure logical point of view: the old master, described as a master of kung fu, the teacher to students, has only 5 schticks? ... Shouldnīt he has some more? Thatīs the reason I see him not as an old master but as an crippled old kung fu fighter. ;-)

SYL

I received a second-hand copy of Back for seconds this morning (see my post elsewhere on that subject, but mainly YYYEEEEEESSSS!!) and as a character anthology/overspill book for the main rules its great. I know that the Atlas hardcover rulebook included the 'new' character classes (gambler, magic cop, etc) to make them available to people who never got BFS so how about re-writing some of those BFS GMC's (to avoid any copyright/ intellectual property issues with BFS being out of print) for the players and GM's who got into the game after 1998? There are some MAJOR names in BFS (Draco, Furious George, etc) and i know that i searched out an-out of print book just for that info but that it's unlikely to be printed again (copyright, etc.)so lets suggest that an updated rules include the best of those characters, or at least a new anthology of the infamous to be published (and i want credit for the 'Anthology of the Infamous' name, OK?)

And just to keep everybody happy, I happen to think that the Old Master should be able to kick butt with the best of them but it should be wise and wily, not brute strength. How else did all those uncles and sifus keep Jackie Chan in line for all those years?

I'd be tempted to not allow damage stacking (to show the older physique) but allow an additional fu power or two to represent experience. (Of course this doesn't represent years of difference in training but it is a simple game to be enjoyed, not bogged down in rules and charts like some).

So endeth the lesson.