Last night I got to play the most fun game of the year, thus far. Shreyas ran his game in development Mist-Robed Gate for 10(!) of us Western Massive/Story Games Boston types. The theme was a western on Mars, as colonized by Chinese kung-fu masters. Whoo-boy.

Cool things about the game design:
Each character picks a color, weather, and 'kung-fu tell', which turn into points when you bring them into narration.

Because the people not on-screen get to vote as to who's winning the kung-fu fighting, everyone stays engaged even if you're not in the screen.

Yes, the cool rules about the knife include stabbing another player's character sheet as an option.

Cool things about the game play last night:
I don't ever remember being in a game where there was *that* much applause. 11 people who are all quality players makes for a really fun game, even just to watch.

Who's who:
Carrie=Flower Blossom, the oldest daughter of local notables, and a high-ranking water resource manager with a marriage she wants kept secret
Elizabeth=Metal Wind, a bounty hunter, later revealed to be Flower Blossom's little sister
Shreyas=Small Happiness, a Taiwanese/Phobosean spy, works with Flower Blossom at the water station
Jonathan=New World Chen, the cop, with
Kat=Plum Blossom, owner of a saloon called The Grove, she has a painful past
Evan=Misery, the penitent fanatic who drags a ball and chain everywhere, self-styled slave to Flower Blossom
Dev=Old Duck, the simple dirt farmer and moral center of our tale, linked to Plum Blossom's past
Kelly=Sounding Bell, a traveling religious fanatic, head of Misery's sect
Josh=Clouded Glen, tyrannical water system controller, Flower Blossom's boss, now dead at Old Duck's hands
Meg=Fragrant Plum, the hooker with the heart of gold at The Grove, a Party Loyalist
Joshua=Nine Hands Mi, a wandering 'man with a past' who has found in Plum Blossom a reason to stay here

Can you see it? It's all about water control and water access, crossed with secrecy and religious fervor. I spent a lot of time listening at doors and ferrying info to my cop 'friend'. Carrie's prim water manager is *dangerous*! Do Not mess with her!

Best bits, not in chronological order:
Flower Blossom trying to bribe New World Chen to leave the humble farm before recognizing her as something beyond a farm-wife. How do you trust a cop who won't take a bribe??
Sounding Bell's blind-folded monkey.
Nine Hands Mi catching the falling soup bowls - so kung-fu!
Plum Blossom's pimp-coat and arch looks. There's a lady who knows how to run a business!
Clouded Glen's spitting-mad freakishness in smashing the control panels when his authority was questioned, and his threatening dying words. Impending nuclear explosion, you say?
Metal Wind's mono-filament razor ear-rings inscribing twin circles in the stone wall during the sister's fight.
Old Duck's insistence on his town's right to water, and Small Happiness' revelation about all the extra water in Dark Militant Lake. And then death to Clouded Glen!
Misery looking for 3/4 inch pipe, and Fragrant Plum lending him a, um, hand in measuring.

Oh man.

You know, the first time I played MRG at JiffyCon, I totally thought the random bursts of applause when incredibly cool things happened was a group thing, but now I think it might just be something the game style encourages. And both times, I walked out of the game with the same excitement as I get from watching a great wuxia movie-- like I could do a totally sweet backflip RIGHT NOW and then leap into the air and do something awesome.

Jonathan Walton compared the wirework mechanics to a rap battle, and I think that's a pretty accurate way of describing it. I really love how this game really challenges you to bring your best, but in a way which is fun and not intimidating.

We should totally play again soon.

I seem to remember reading something somewhere about the author working on actual wuxia combat rules for MRG. Any report on the status of those? Of course, I could be completely misremembering that, so feel free to ignore this if that's the case. :)

Regardless, do you mind expanding on what it is about the rules that gives the feeling of "I could do a totally sweet backflip RIGHT NOW and then leap into the air and do something awesome"? Unfortunately I have not had a chance to play MRG. I have read the rules, though, and while I find them intriguing, I don't quite see where that particular sort of a feeling would come from. I would love to hear more!

Hey Frank, I'm the author!

Red Mars was actually the first run of the wuxia combat rules, actually. I prefer to call them 'wirework', though, because they're about action sequences in general - like chases, dances, struggles to catch hold of something while falling down a cliff, ships in a storm - rather than just fighting. The wirework rules are where the 'kung fu tell', weather, and colour come into play. Used to be that you wrote them down on your character sheet, but we didn't know what to do with them.

I suspect that's what Elizabeth's talking about; I wouldn't want to put words in her mouth, but I know that watching people do wirework makes ME feel pretty awesome. It's possible you haven't seen the wirework rules yet, because I just got around to typing them up for Origins. If you're still reading, can I answer any more questions for you?