I believe that Atlas Games is hitting its stride in the Feng Shui department. Not only was Golden Comeback a great book, I found the new offering, Seal of the Wheel, to be even better.
A review for those of you not interested in the FS universe:
For you, this book is a sourcebook on the modern-day secret masters of the world. If you're the type who likes to cross-pollinate your games, you may want to pick this up to see if any of the cool ideas will be of use to you. (I own a couple of Conspiracy X books purchased for just that purpose.)
Section 1: History from the Outside
This section is three pages of real history of China in the 1800s meeting the European nations. It briefly covers some of the struggles that ensued, then branches out to the world situation.
Section 2: History from the Inside
It is written as a memoir of a character, so it's a little opaque to those who don't play FS. Although it is a good example of an alternate history, it is sufficiently FS-background-related that it would be hard to adapt. A nice point is that the (character) author admits that he may well be obfuscating or outright lying. He also leaves one important point open with more than one explanation suggested. I liked the flexibility this provided. Players in any conspiracy-related genre should always get explanations like this. It tells a lot, but proves nothing and leaves a lot open to play with.
Section 3: Spokes of the Wheel
This is the best chapter in the book for the non-FS GM. This is the layout of the conspiracy that runs the world. You can ignore the extraneous elements and adapt the "families" as divisions of your own. There are some neat conspiracy tricks to pull from this section.
Section 4: Movers and Shakers
Probably the worst chapter for outside GMs, most of these characters have too much weird stuff to adapt. Running Horse and Kyle Jameson could be used in any game as a tracker and a cleaner, but you probably have access to such characters on your own.
Section 5: Wheel Sites
FS has a strong reliance on sites as an underpinning way to rule the world. This book continues the trend of branching these out in useful ways. These sites are useful to any conspiracy game because they are part of the apocrypha of the world, except Redglare Chapel. The Fountain of Youth, the disinformation movie studio (explaining weird stuff by showing it as a movie), the real Area 51, the island where the Most Dangerous Game is played by anthropomorphic animals. It's all there.
Section 6: Campaign Resources
You may not find the schticks (animal powers and kung fu) useful, although they should give you great ideas for weird stuff in your own games. Depending on your needs, the archetypes may be good ways to point players at a character conception. Some of the information about equipment and operations is adaptable depending on how much your campaign resembles an action movie.
Section 7: Adventure!
This adventure involves trouble on a movie set, with the PCs going in undercover. It is portable, assuming you are able to create your own opening (the McGuffin is FS-related) and final villain (also FS-specific). It does have one really nice element in that the villain is optional and could be any of the main GM characters. (Under FS rules, it's fairly easy to do, under a different set, you may have more trouble replacing or possessing a character.)
Connecting Story
It could have been worse. It could have been better. It certainly beats more than half of the "connective tissue" stories out there, but it's no Roll Your Bones. A great deal of it may be confusing or insufficiently detailed for non-players of FS.
Layout/Art
This book is laid out well with two columns of text framed by a light patterned border. Boxed text contains stats and important notes on characters or objects. It's easy to read and find. The index is surprisingly good. My only complaint with the production values is for the archetypes section. In my book, at least, the art reproduced far too darkly, and most of the images are extremely difficult to make out. I usually don't care too much about production values as long as it doesn't actively interfere with reading comprehension.
I have become a little more thoughtful about art since starting to read reviews here on RPG.net. I cannot praise Andrew Baker's work enough. Despite a slightly flattened look (I can't explain that well. You might look at the picture on page 20 for an example. Take a look at the ninja and her short blades. They look somehow…flat.), his pieces always seem to have come directly from an actual action movie. I love the ambiance they provide. I enjoyed most of Thomas Manning's work, especially the directly connected illustrations like the picture of Bleys Fontaine on page 60. Torin Atkinson stayed close to the midline, some pieces better than others. (The Snake assassin on page 44 is a good one.) Richard Pace has one good piece, one really awful piece and his others are colored a bit darkly to make out well. The other art, unfortunately, mostly falls into the fan art category, undistinguished and sometimes distractingly bad.
I recommend this book for anyone who runs near modern games, especially those with strong conspiracy elements.
This section is aimed at FS players.
Section 2: History from the Inside
It's written from Draco's point of view. I found some of it hard to swallow, since I first came across Draco in Shadowfist first, and then found out more in FS. I see him as a strong force, a cultured fellow, but old-world, not up on modern developments. Some of the concepts he threw out seemed not to be very, well, Draconian. (The fractals in the final paragraph smacked me out of reading, for example.) On the other hand I really liked the tie-in to Kinoshita house. As I mentioned in the reviewlet above, I liked the modular effect. The players could easily read this and have no more idea of what really went on than before. Nicely done, if a little uneven.
Section 3: Spokes of the Wheel
This had some great ideas. The work is divided among the families with members of bloodlines crossing over to work in families that fit their individual talents and personality more. (The plotting, wise rat joins the Web of the Spider and the violent, aggressive rat can join the Fist of the Bear.) I loved the Jackals added here and the small divergent splinter groups within the established families. Draco's secret is revealed here. I've already revealed my Shadowfist bias, so I found it…interesting. Not enough to use, I think, but interesting. There are short write-ups on the Order of the Wheel and the Jade Wheel societies, including their sometimes-fractious history.
Section 4: Movers and Shakers
They're there: leaders, assassins, fixers, cleaners; all the people needed to run the world. I can't figure out why Reverend Redglare showed up here instead of in the Netherworld book, but he's here. (I also didn't much like what they did with him, a vague sketch, but maybe we'll get something more interesting later.)
Section 5: Wheel Sites
The shining ideas here are an inspiration: the cheap dojos to provide all those half-trained Ascended thugs, the real area 51, the Fountain of Youth. Great stuff!
Section 6: Campaign Resources
I've never been a big fan of some of the more outrageous schticks. The Bear Awakened, for example, seems like a great way to get a hosey power with no particular rhyme or reason. In Champions terms, this'd be one of those minimaxed powers for which the player has no special effect. YMMV.
You really could make the archetypes by adapting others, but each of these had sort of an interesting pull to them. I especially think they're useful if you want a nicely varied group of modern-day archetypes to provide in a "normal start" campaign.
I disliked the attempt to put the Ascended halfway into the Architects' court with super science and pseudoscience. The shades were passable if unnecessary except to explain why MiBs wear shades, but the combat drugs left me cold. Just modify the archetype to show the effects, and remove the troubles with PCs getting them. The gear was fun, though. Minicopters! Gyrojets! Submarine Cars! Your Pledged campaign just looks more and more fun.
The killkids, however, were as uninteresting as the Bonechills. Okay, I think we have enough emotionless killers in this universe. The Ascended already HAD the snake killers. God knows, when we get the rewritten Thorns, there are going to be killers who have their emotions magically suppressed. Sigh. I especially enjoyed the Kuanlun process and project X-ray. One's run by a Lotus traitor, the other by a dolittling bat. Fun stuff. ChiNet was halfway successful for me. The initial flavor text was great, but the idea of being able to channel the entire world's chi to a point sort of destroys the "soft flow" model of the world's energy. Try to spray 70 hoses onto a spot and the spot gets wet. Most of the water goes all around instead, though. Happily, the story suggested an alternate explanation to me. I think ChiNet should be able to access ArcanoWave-modified brains instead of all chi. That leaves the Architects just as unable to directly assault the present, but gives a less "big hammer" reason.
I think the author of the Two-timin' section had some great ideas about the bonuses of being able to access two junctures. I am unsure that he or she should have been quite so sure that the Ascended could provide so specific a lateral reincarnation. If you paid my grandparents to move to Australia, then perhaps I would be reincarnated as someone else in this area giving you trouble, just with a different name (as if you had simply killed them). Still, changing my name every week would confuse the heck out of me.
Section 7: Adventure!
I liked the general idea enough that I'm adapting it to my campaign. It's trouble on the set of an Ascended movie. I found it hard to believe, though, that a production so important to the finance and propaganda of the Ascended didn't have a handler who would get low-level Triad TransAns to lay off. For example, wouldn't the Web of the Spider send a message to Johnny Fan telling HIM to cut it out? And wouldn't Devon Sharpe have a mandate to continue the movies stronger than the command of an obviously out-of-line superior?
Fortunately, this was easily fixed in a few moments. Just have Devon Sharpe stay in his trailer throughout the first fight, then turn the demons in the second fight into real demons summoned by the Lotus infiltrator. Voila, there you go!
This is the strongest book Atlas has put out for FS yet. Pick it up.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
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