Writing good generic adventures for a roleplaying game is a very difficult. Finding the right motivations for all the characters to become involved in the story, but still keeping them at the centre of the story is something that is very hard to do well. Unfortunately, In Your Face Again could well serve as an example of what not to do.
In Your Face Again is an adventure anthology for Atlas Games' Feng Shui roleplaying game (a fast paced and extremely fun RPG based on the furious fu action of the Hong Kong movie scene). There are ten adventures in the book, pretty well covering all of the different time junctures and all of the Secret War factions that feature in the Feng Shui setting.
Unfortunately - and I don't know if this was part of the brief to the authors - all of the scenarios take the name of the anthology literally. All of them bring the aspects of the "Secret" war right up and rub your nose in them. This is despite the fact that Robin Laws suggests that the different factions in the game be introduced slowly. Instead, most of the scenarios feature battles between several of the different factions in ways that could be described as anything but secret.
This is not an anthology that a newbie Feng Shui GM should pick up after running the Baptism of Fire scenario from the core rulebook. Most of the adventures in this book seem to be pitched at long term Feng Shui players and GMs. With the possible exception of the first adventure, all of the scenarios seem to assume that the PCs are already involved in the machinations of the Secret War up to their eyeballs. If the only Feng Shui scenario that the players have been through is Baptism of Fire, then this isn't going to be the case.
The collection as a whole lacks cohesion. This is not a series of adventures that forms a single campaign. Instead, it's a grab bag of one-shot adventures, with nothing to link them into a cohesive story arc. In fact, so diverse is the variety of subjects that it would be a lot of work for a GM to actually get the same set of PCs to play through all ten adventures.
In defence of the book, most of the authors have tried to stick to the adventure format that Feng Shui advocates, complete with lists of cool things that could happen during each fight.
The Scenarios in more detail
Fast Forward
A mix-up in the video store lands the PCs in some deep water with a couple if factions wanting them back and the added complication of stopping a nefarious Buro plot. This is one of the better adventures in the book although the scene when the PCs watch the videos seems overly contrived and likely to really upset the poor bunny that falls victim to it. Of all the adventures in the book, this one has the most potential for following on from Baptism of Fire, as well as introducing the PCs to the Dragons faction.
Blood & Sand
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the whole book, the adventure revolves around travelling to the 69AD Juncture and visiting Ancient Rome. Unfortunately, the author didn't seem willing to embrace the whole Gladiator cliche - despite the fact that it is perfect for a Feng Shui fight scene and the fact that the PCs pretty much start the adventure right under the Coliseum. The story flow is also very poor with scenes made optional when they should have been mandatory to the whole plot; the PCs really are peripheral to the whole storyline. This is such a waste of what could have been a fantastic Feng Shui adventure.
Invincible Chi
A cool fight scene in a techno dance club gets the PCs caught up in a plot to steal fu-based weapon from a temple in the Netherworld, while stopping another faction from doing the same thing. The story starts well, but then quickly degenerates into an overly linear plotline where the PCs are given the answers to many of the problems that could have made the story much more exciting.
Last Stand at Old Man Fong's
Another of the better adventures, this on involves the PCs being invited to the funeral of an unexpected wealthy friend. From there, things go bad quickly as the PCs get caught up in a plot that takes them into the netherworld and into a unexpected mess. The adventure part of the adventure is shorter than it seems as there is a lot of background information that gets presented first. This would be a good adventure for groups that have been playing for a while, as the main hook really depends on the PCs knowing the old man, who really needs to appear in a couple of adventures beforehand in order to make the hook less contrived.
The Lost City of An-Makalur
A treasure map in the 1850 juncture leads the PCs on a treasure hunt to deepest, darkest Africa, looking for a magical diamond. The second half of the adventure is perhaps overly linear, with not too many choices for the PCs to make to lead them to the climax. While the story isn't the strongest, you can probably play on the cliched stereotypes of the old African adventures to have a good laugh with this one, especially if any of the characters are British Colonial types.
Fight Night
A short adventure, were the PCs have to rescue the missing daughter from the clutches of some nasty types. The plot is fairly straight forward, although there are chances for some interesting car races and the like. The ending of the module unfortunately could be repetitive for one player and boring for the rest if the group decides to sign up for the pit fights. A number of other options are provided for guidance, which helps to mitigate the problem somewhat.
Crossfire
This adventure is similar to Fast Forward in that the PCs end up with the widget that everyone wants. This is adventure is very straight forward and is basically just three fight scenes with nothing but a short, straight line between them. Apart from the fights - which I must admit do happen in some cool locations, including a science fiction convention - there is practically nothing to this adventure. If the GM is looking for any complications, he or she is going to have to develop them personally.
Hong Kong Phonebook
Three guys, all named Simon Chou, all get kidnapped. The three kidnappings are all detailed so that the PCs can get involved in any one of them. But they don't have to be involved in any of them, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. And then from there, the PCs pretty much get handed the location of the big fight at the end if the GM doesn’t invent the investigation portion for his or herself. If we wanted to make up our own adventures, we would have.
E Ticket Ride
Perhaps the most freeform of the adventures, this one has the PCs visiting an amusement park in the 2956 Juncture for the day. The major attractions in the park are detailed (with some things that could happen) along with the ulterior motives that a couple of different secret war factions have (namely the ones you'd expect to find in 2056). Not really an adventure as such - it's more a case of this stuff is going to happen anyway and the PCs happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Murderer's Row
It's pretty much a case of saving the best till last. This one has the PCs taking a young girl - who it turns out to have supernatural powers - to a baseball game at which point much chaos ensues. After that, there's some investigation, a couple of weird fights in a couple of cool locations leading up to the big finish. The guy who wrote this one seems to have really read and understood Robin Laws' hints on putting together Feng Shui adventures and it shows. It's a pity it's right at the end of the book as I was so disappointed with the anthology as a whole that I nearly missed it.
In conclusion
I really wished I could have liked In Your Face Again, as a whole. Feng Shui is a fantastic game and I was hoping that Atlas Games would come out with a series of adventures that built upon the experience of Baptism of Fire and introduced the other parts of the Secret War to the players who might not have experienced them before. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and instead the collection preaches to the converted. They're not all bad, but none of them really stood out and made me want to actually run them.
If you're an experienced Feng Shui GM who's players have seen and done a lot, then you might find some stuff in here that you would be happy to use. If you're new to the game - like my players and I - then you might be better served by looking elsewhere.
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