Current mood:	lethargic
Current music:	Rats, Pearl Jam
Entry tags:	rpgs fengshui

I thought that in lieu of ever actually having something bloggish that I wanted to say, I could try posting some of the gaming ideas I've had. Random RPG-related ideas still strike me occasionally. Sadly I am rarely able to force them into something that would give me the will or the confidence to actually GM something, so they usually at most get stored away on a hard drive and forgotten about. Maybe by posting them some good will come of them.

I'll start off with a couple of special items for Feng Shui. It once occurred to me that while the Shadowfist CCG and the Feng Shui backstory both contain magical artifacts and whatnot, none have really turned up in the game itself. At least not in the adventures I've played, nor the game books I've read. What I ended up creating aren't really magic items per se, but they are special and unique and they could add a little bit of flavour to a Feng Shui game.

The Twin Dragons

Backstory

A pair of Colt M1911A1s, each detailed with dragons etched along their barrels and down their handles. The Dragons' eyes are picked out in jade. In recent years the guns have been stored in a sombre black briefcase, along with 2 clips of ammunition for each gun.

These guns belonged to a near-legendary postwar hitman. He disappeared mysteriously in the late 1950s, though his infamy has lived on, along with stories of his pistols, the Twin Dragons.

A person can use the Twin Dragons for one 'hit'. During a hit, the guns are deadly; a perfect pair of pistols. Countless bodyguards have fallen before them and they have signaled the end for mob bosses, gang leaders, Secret Warriors, monsters and even ghosts.

After the hit is complete, their wielder must pass the guns on to another, or they will suffer terrible misfortune for as long as the continue to possess the guns. No-one except their original owner can ever use the guns for more than one hit.

Rules

If a character with a Guns AV of 13 or higher gets their hands on the Twin Dragons, they function as normal M1911A1 pistols until the character picks a specific target. The target need not be present and can be vaguely defined as long as the target is unambiguous. For example, the target could be "Freddy Cheng", or it could be "Whoever masterminded the attack on our Feng Shui site".

In any fight directly related to taking out the target, the pistols gain some special abilities when used together:

1. They count as Signature Weapons, each inflicting +3 damage.
2. They take out unnamed characters on an outcome of 4 or more.
3. They give their wielder 3 schticks in Both Guns Blazing. If their wielder already has schticks in Both Guns Blazing, this will not raise their number of such schticks above 3.
4. They can damage *anyone*. Damage Immunity: Bullets has no effect.

It is up to the GM to decide which fights these benefits are awarded, but they should be directly connected to taking out the target. For example, fighting a bunch of mooks who know where the target is doesn't count but fighting a bunch of mooks guarding the entrance to the target's base does if he is at home.

After the target is killed or the character declares they no longer intend to kill the target, the character must quickly give the twin dragons to another character. If they do not, all characters they fight gain a +5 bonus to their AVs against the character and the character suffers any other misfortunes the GM can dream up.

The definition of "quickly" is again up to the GM. They shouldn't have to hand them to the first passing person as soon as they drop the target, but hanging onto them when they have met plenty of people who could accept the pistols is unacceptable.

Doc's Lucky Gun

Backstory

This gun is a .380 detective's special, well used, its wooden grip worn by a multitude of palms. As these things go it is an unremarkable looking weapon. The only way to distinguish it from countless other similar firearms are its obvious age, a filed hammer and the inscription "H. Lloyd" discretely etched into the weapon on one side of its barrel.

The history of Doc's Lucky Gun is far less well known than that of most legendary weapons. It is thought likely that H. Lloyd was the titular Doc, the original owner of the gun, but no-one really knows for sure. As many of its subsequent owners seem to have led rather short and unfortunate lives after taking the gun into their possession, it is likely that its first owner started this trend rolling.

Doc's Lucky Gun is a fearsome weapon and it has brought about many a person's doom. Those who have wielded it have described it as almost eager to be used, keen to jump out of its holster and into its wielder's hand at the slightest provocation. Unfortunately, while deadly, the gun is not too picky about who it shoots and it has gained as fearsome a reputation as a source of 'friendly fire' as it has for its deadliness to its wielder's enemies.

Rules

1. Doc's Lucky Gun counts as a Signature Weapon, inflicting +3 damage compared to a regular detective's special.
2. Doc's Lucky Gun takes out unnamed characters on an outcome of 4 or more.
3. As long as the wielder is using Doc's Lucky Gun it grants its wielder the equivalent of 2 levels of the gun schitck Fast Draw. If the wielder already has schitcks in Fast Draw this will not raise their number above 2.
4. While it is in their possession, whoever wields Doc's Lucky Gun has their Fortune stat reduced by 2. This Fortune penalty applies until someone else chooses to wield Doc's Lucky Gun. Throwing it away or hiding it in a closet does not stop the bad luck, somebody else has to pick it up.
5. If the wielder of Doc's Lucky Gun fails an attack roll while using it, call for a Fortune Check, difficulty 0. If this roll fails Doc's Lucky Gun will shoot a friend of the wielder (or a bystander) determined by the GM with an outcome equivalent to the negative of the outcome from the Fortune check.

Credit Where Credit's Due

Doc's Lucky Gun is largely a creation of bozobaggins, though another friend, Bruce, actually played the titular Doc. My contribution was to GM the chaos that Doc's Lucky Gun caused, and to realise that it could be happily transferred from Call of Cthulhu to Feng Shui.