Game: Feng Shui (first edition – Atlas Games, 1996)
My Experience: Since at least 1998ish, Feng Shui has been my go-to for minimum-preparation one-shot games, usually played over New Year’s Eve. I’ve never run a sustained campaign in it, and never really felt the need. I’m probably doing its metaplot a huge disservice, but in my Feng Shui universe, it’s always Hong Kong in the latter half of the ’90s, and something is always blowing up.
Athena Cheng, Maverick Cop
You’re damn right I’m taking this personally. My grandfather was one of the best cops this city’s ever seen. He was all the family I had left – you know he raised me after my parents died in that fire on the docks that’s never been fully explained. He may not have intended for me to follow in his footsteps, but he sure didn’t try to turn me away. Everything that’s made me your best organized crime investigator, I learned from him.
So, Chief Inspector, I’m sure as hell not going to stand down from this one. I don’t care what the Superintendent told you to tell me. Yeah, maybe I am emotionally compromised, but you and I both know the brass aren’t “looking out for my best interests.” They’re too anxious to shut down this case. Someone’s pulling their strings, someone with a real interest in not being connected to Granddad’s old files. You know who they want to turn it over to? Yeah, that’s right. Slick Johnnie Shao is so bent you could use him as a hat rack. No way he’ll do anything but what they whisper in his ear.
So you can tell the Superintendent that I’m staying on this case. I’m gonna find who killed my grandfather. Figure I’ll start at the morgue. The old man made damn sure he didn’t go alone, and Doctor Tang owes me one after I got his niece out of that brothel last year. He can make dead guys talk, if you know how to listen, and I figure one of them will tell me where I need to go next. I’m gonna follow this as deep as it goes, and you tell the Superintendent that I’m doing this with or without my badge.
Hey, you got a smoke before I go? I’m fresh out.
Traits
Archetype: Maverick Cop (as if it isn’t already clear)
Melodramatic Hook: relentless pursuit of shadowy parties responsible for grandfather’s murder (duh)
Attributes
Body 5
Chi 0
Mind 7 (Perception 9)
Reflexes 8
Skills
Deceit +10
Driving +15
Guns +14
Martial Arts +10
Police +13
Schticks
Carnival of Carnage x2: Subtract 2 from the shot (initiative) cost of attacking any unnamed character.
Hair-Trigger Neck Hairs x1: +2 to Perception for spotting traps and ambushes. With success, apply the outcome of the check to Athena’s first Guns or active dodge action.
Signature Weapon (grandfather’s Browning HP-35): +3 damage with that one specific weapon and it coincidentally survives most damaging effects that don’t specifically target it.
Equipment
grandfather’s Browning HP-35 in a custom leather shoulder holster
Winchester Model 1300 pump-action shotgun in the trunk of her car
Colt Agent revolver in an ankle holster
battered Land Rover Defender 90 undercover police SUV
badge (for now)
Ronson lighter
third of a pack of cigarettes
Notes and Afterthoughts
I have nothing further to add.