Karavansara

18 September 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The Return of Feng Shui

For me, Feng Shui, the Roleplaying game, remains one of the best gaming systems and gaming universes ever.
Few other games have granted so much fun to me and my players.

Designed to allow players to engage in the furious action of the classic John Woo or Tsui Hark movies, bringing together in a single coherent setting everything from heroic bloodshed to wuxia, Feng Shui was the ultimate action roleplaying game, a perfect blend of elegant mechanics and jaw-dropping worldbuilding.

And now it’s back – and Feng Shui 2 is being financed through a Kickstarter.
As usual, WordPress does not allow me to post you the snazzy animated link… so we’ll make do with a static picture.

I paid my ghost money to the Dragon already.
I invite you to do the same.

18 September 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Ten books meme – multiple reading edition

OK, there’s this meme going, about the Ten Books of Your Life.
Silly.
Like there was only ten books that important in my life.
And I was talking about this with my friend Claire – and she’s doing two lists of ten books, because she knows.
And as we chatted about it I thought I can’t actually set down a list of ten books that are all-important – because I can’t decide what they are important for.

But I can do set down a list of ten books I re-read regularly.
Because sometimes I do re-read some of those books. Continue reading →

17 September 2014
by Davide Mana 4 Comments

Wu Xing for writers – part two

OK, I said I’ll give an example of the way in which I’m trying to use Taoist elemental theory in outlining my characters.

My story features a female character – she’s the female half of the protagonist team.
As you probably know, I like writing about couples of characters – I’m pretty convinced a man and a woman together can work better, as protagonists of an action story, than a man or a woman alone.
Probably comes from growing up watching The Avengers (as in Steed & Peel).

Let’s see what happens when, doing my final draft, I plug-in the Taoist Elements – which, I’d like to remind you, are a logical thing to add considering story, setting etc. Continue reading →

17 September 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Come to the Party!

As I’m writing this we’re less than a week away from the launch party for The Hand of Isfet, and things are going strong.
A bit hectic, but strong.

IF – and that’s a big if – everybody that said they’ll be at the party will really be at the party, we’ll be almost 50.

Which is a lot, for me.
Actually, it’s more people than any other party I attended… except maybe that time in Kilburn when the girls in a university guest-house set-up a weekend-long bring-a-bottle party.
But that’s another story altogether.

And let’s not get scared by numbers – if you’re coming, or if you’re not coming, please spread the news.
Thank you!
We’re gonna party like it was 276 AD (yeah, I know, this one’s getting old…)

16 September 2014
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Wu Xing for writers – part one

In the pauses of my writing binge I’m trying to put together the bits and pieces I’ll need for my next writing job – a novel looms on the horizon.

Which, in a very circuitous way, leads us to Wu Xing – that is, Taoist elemental theory.

According to the Taoist masters, reality is built by the interplay of five elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.
The five elements are connected by complicated relationships of generation and antagonism. Continue reading →

16 September 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Seven points plot

The Writing Excuses podcast is so good, I’m linking it here in the sidebar.

And as I am at it, I’d like to point out this very interesting, simple story structure that was discussed in a not-so-recent podcast. It’s the seven-points story structure, and I like it quite a lot.