When it was released in the 1990s Feng Shui was a genre crushing breath of fresh air. In an era of D&D clones and "mood" role playing games, Robin D. Laws' game of Hong Kong film inspired action was just what the gaming community needed. Now it's back and he joins us to talk about this fantastic game's second edition.

Eunuch sorcerers. Slick conspirators. Cyborg apes. Control freak monks. Armed with the secrets of Feng Shui, all aim to conquer the past, present, and future. Only you have the guts, guns, and flying feet to stop them!

It’s back in all its explodey, chi-blasting glory: Feng Shui, the classic game of Hong Kong-inspired cinematic action, refurbished with a fresh bag of ammo for a new roleplaying generation! Original designer Robin D. Laws rushes your way on a bullet-riddled gurney to serve up the thrills fans remember, furiouser and faster than ever.

Choose between a wide array of action flick archetypes. Be an icy-cool killer, a determined martial artist, a maverick cop, a crusty old master, a clanking cyborg, a highway ronin, or a melancholy ghost. 

Fight with free-flowing bravura! Lay low mooks, foes and bosses with guns, fu, magic, monster powers or the genetic mutations of a blasted future. Deploy smarts and skill to find your next fight! 

Bolster your abilities by capturing special sites of power, the key to the chi war that secretly commands history’s course. 

Journey through time portals from contemporary Hong Kong to the Tang Dynasty, from the rebellion-soaked Opium Wars era to scorched, post-apocalyptic roadways. 

Jennifer Brozek and Byran Thomas Schmidt have edited an anthology for Baen Books that highlights stories that contain Faith and Magic. 

"Swords and Shields. Faith and Magic.

Grab yours and get ready, for the enemy is on the move.

High fantasy and mighty conflicts go hand-in-hand. In great wars, armies rise to fight evil hordes and heroes struggle to push beyond their imperfections and save the day. These stories include more than just epic landscapes and characters...but also epic battles.

Imagine a doctor struggling to identify the spy who has infiltrated his company's ranks and poisoned his colleagues or a boy suspected of murder by a king yet protected by a princess as he helps her father against his own people. Imagine a butcher discovering that he's called to lead an uprising, or a First Born knowing that she must betray her own in order to save humanity.

The possibilities are endless, but at the heart they have this in common: soldiers--ordinary and otherwise-struggling against extraordinary odds to survive the day. They must withstand dark magic, dodge enemy blades, and defy the odds to survive SHATTERED SHIELDS."

Selected Contents:

“Ashes and Starlight” (Runelords) by David Farland
“Invictus” by Annie Bellett
“Rising Above” by Sarah A. Hoyt
“Hoofsore and Weary” by Cat Rambo
“Vengeance” (Frost) by Robin Wayne Bailey
“Yael of the Strings” by John R. Fultz
“The Gleaners” by Dave Gross
“Bonded Men” by James L. Sutter
“Bone Candy” (Black Company) by Glen Cook
“First Blood” (Paksenarrion) by Elizabeth Moon

Luke Y Thompson is the Editor in Chief of the Village Media website Topless Robot. As Editor, Luke shares his sometimes controversial opinions about what's going on in popular culture. He's agreed to join us to discuss the upcoming San Diego Comic Con. He also wants to let everyone know that Transformers 4 is well worth your time and that you should not listen to the Bay-bashers.

It's been a while since we've had Luke on the show and we are eager to chat with him.

Francis Hogan designed Adventure Maximus! to be a game where kids easily create characters, plan and run adventures, find treasures and be heroes! Like most role playing games Adventure Maximus! inspires creativity and problem solving, but unlike computer and console based rpgs it provides quality face time with family and friends.


Francis launched Adventure Maximus! on Kickstarter last year and recently sold out of the first run of the Eden Studios published role playing game. Francis joins us to discuss the recent trend of designing games for younger players, how he got into the hobby, what it was like to run the Kickstarter campaign, and what's next for Adventure Maximus! Let's just say that a good name might be Ad Astra Maximus!

Jonathan Strahan is one of our favorite editors here at Geekerati Media. He has worked for Locus: The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field as an assistant editor, is an eight-time Hugo Award nominee, has won the World Fantasy Award (Special - Professional) in 2010 for his work as an editor, and his anthologies have won the Locus Award for Best Anthology three times (2008, 2010, 2013) and the Aurealis Award four times.

Strahan joins us to discuss the current state of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. What's hot, what's not, and what's next? 

Some fo Strahan's recent publications include: 

 
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year vol. 8Reach for InfinityDark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery

The early days of Superhero themed role playing games is a case study in innovation and collaborative design. At his Advanced Dungeons and Parenting blog Geekerati host Christian Lindke demonstrated some of the influence that Superhero 2044 influenced the Champions roleplaying game's combat system, but the Superhero 2044 rulebook wasn't the only thing to influence the Champions system.

In the first edition of the Champions role playing game book, there is a brief dicsussion of how the game came to be designed. The basic story told in that text is that George MacDonald "had some good ideas for combat and characteristics, but the problem of assigning powers was a difficult one. George met Wayne Shaw at a convention, and saw his point system for distributing superpowers. The current system looks almost nothing like Wayne's original work, but owes much in spirit to Wayne and his group's pioneering work"

Those rules were published in issue 8 of the Southern California based fanzine Lords of Chaos, and we are lucky enough to talk with Wayne about how those rules were designed and get a glimpse into pre-internet era collaboration and innovation.

The mid-90s were a creative time in the role playing game industry and a lot of smaller companies were creating not only new games, but new gaming genres. DEADLANDS by Pinnacle Entertainment Group (1996) is one of the most memorable - and one of the best - games to come out of this creative period. The game combined elements of horror and fantasy with the American Western. Even the magic rules involved the use of playing cards as spell casters attempted to "beat the devil" in order to succeed in their incantations.

Fast forward two decades and now DEADLANDS is in development as an Xbox Original television show.

We'll be chatting with Shane Hensley about DEADLANDS, its death, resurrection, and its possible move into pop culture's zeitgeist.

Will Hindmarch and Stephen Hood have come up with an innovative new game that combines the best of role playing games, card games, video games, and play by post gaming to create a new kind of narrative gaming experience.

 

"Storium is a web-based online game that you play with friends. It works by turning writing into a multiplayer game. With just your computer, tablet, or smartphone, you can choose from a library of imaginary worlds to play in, or build your own. You create your story’s characters and decide what happens to them. You can tell any kind of story with Storium. The only limit is your imagination.

Storium uses familiar game concepts inspired by card games, role-playing games, video games, and more. In each Storium game, one player is the narrator, and everyone else takes on the role of a character in the story. The narrator creates dramatic challenges for the other players to overcome. In doing so, they move the story forward in a new direction. Everyone gets their turn at telling the story."

In this episode, we will discuss what sets Storium apart from other play by post games and gain some insight into Kickstarter best practices from Will and Stephen.

Modiphius is an exciting gaming company that has a wide range of products Rto explore, including our own terrifying vision of World War Two - Achtung! Cthulhu, a roleplaying setting for Call of Cthulhu and Savage Worlds. We are re-booting the fantastic sci-fi dieselpunk world of Mutant Chronicles with the 3rd Edition of the roleplaying game, bringing you the Fate Core release of Sarah Newton's Mindjammer - The Roleplaying Game and turning Paolo Parente's awesome DUST universe in to the new DUST Adventures RPG - and fully compatible with the DUST Tactics board / wargame!

The winter television hiatus is over and the networks have decided which shows are staying and which are being replaced with mid-season hopefuls. Our television expert Shawna Benson will be joining us to discuss what's hot, what's not, and what is coming soon.