I think I came up with a campaign idea to ease my players into Feng Shui.

They would start in the Contemporary Juncture as normal characters. No Fu/Arcano Tech to worry about, just guns and fists so they can learn the basic game.

Anyway I was thinking Operation KillDeer succeeds. The Netherworlds is closed and the Secret War is on hiatus, with no one able to travel between junctures. Some secret warriors are trapped in the different junctures and they are all trying to figure out what's going on, and how to reopen access to the Netherworlds.

The characters will cross paths with these warriors who will in an adventure or two reopen the Netherworlds and access to the entire world of Feng Shui.

How do they open up the Netherworlds again? I haven't completely thought this through, but I was thinking perhaps the Architects of the Flesh or Jammers are trying to build a 'real' time machine. That is, travel back before Operation KillDeer occured and change the events so it fails. I was thinking of perhaps haveing an element like Quantum Leap so the characters 'occupy' the great heros of the Operation and change the events so KillDeer fails. They will all die, but it will be a glorious death.

Chuck

I've recently been successful converting another of my playing groups to Feng Shui. My success has come not from running in the contemporary juncture, but by using the 69AD juncture.

As starting players I limited them to Fu only. There is no real need for guns with the limit of only bows due to juncture. I pared down the starting templates, and spent time with each player 1:1 making characters.

Each game I've introduced both a new mechanic (Guns, Magic, Sites, Creatures) and a character involved in the Secret War (without revealing the nature). I have focussed on Cinematic Creativity and the benefit of entertaining -everyone- at the table (each game there is an XP bonus for most entertaining).

The only bribery I've resorted to was picking up dice for each player. This gives them a keep-sake, and also standardized dice rolling. It didn't cost much either. I picked up three different 12-packs: one with white dice, black pips (positive die); one with black dice, white pips (negative die); and one with red dice, white pips (fortune and initiative die).

With standard dice, I don't have to explain when I want my players to roll initiative. I simply pick up my red die and roll it.

Did I mention I have great players? hehe.

Hope that helps. You've got the right idea by starting them slowly into the mechanics though.

My next campaign will start them in the 2056 juncture with a one-shot where they get to play the bad-guys before they get into being heroes. I'm using that to show them what the world is like before they have to make characters to deal with it.

All the best,
Neil.

edit - PS - Oh yeah, and make sure they've got plenty of movies to reference. Titles are helpful, but having them over for parties where there's KungFu in the background helps.

Ah, no need to worry there. Chuck's the guy with the video store, so there's plenty of reference material to watch... for a price, of course. :) ($1 on Wednesday, $2.99 otherwise) :)

Seriously, most of our group is well versed in various action movies, though perhaps we'd be better off in the 69 juncture, mainly due to such things as over-exposure to the Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms games. Still HKA films are a staple of our group. Hexk, one could use a series such as Cowboy BeBop for reference, too...

Steve
(Boogie Woogie Feng Shui!)