I know that there is a great number of games out there that capture the feeling of larger then life, faster then the norm (more norm than avg. Hollywood norm that is) but what are they? Feel free to make a list that you believe captures "Bullet Time" for the players.

Posting this in Minis too


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

There is an RPG system that handles this sort of storytelling and action called the System by Daniel Bayn.
The system can be described as A Fast, Light & Cinematic System. It's built around a dice pool mechanic that rewards vivid, creative stunts by making them more likely to succeed, without pre-set feats or a tacked-on point system.

A core rules preview is a free download. (They are from A Wushu Guide to the Matrix). And the supplements range from $2.50usd for the Guides:
A Wushu Guide to Gun Fu, Car Fu, Wyrd-Fu (to name a few).To $5.00USD for core books(currently on RPGNow).

I have the Roanoke corebook. Which is a setting based on the story of the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Island\]Lost Colony.[/url] Set in the colonial era. You try to discover what happened to the colonists of Raonoke. (Multiple end stories examples are provided from the Cthulu-esque, to Indian subversion to other interesting ideas). The game can best be described as Brother Hood of the Wolf meets Sleepy Hollow(Tim Burton version). I like both of these films a lot. There setting and moods they evoke through the visual styles and story telling is right up my alley. And this RPG system allows for this type of story exactly.

____

by Clinton R. Nixon has a really interesting mechanics system for combat where you decide whether to do simplistic combat measured in a few dice rules. Or do what's called Bringing down the Pain. Which can be described as Bullet Time combat. Where it can be broken down and detailed out in second by second action/reactions.
I "think" a version of the revised game has been released under the Creative Commons licence, so the core rules are a free download.

~Floyd

Heh, one of the campaign qualities that is described in Spycraft 2.0 is Wire-Fu -
Wire Fu (–25 XP, 1 GC Action Die): Personalities regularly defy
the laws of physics. Each special and player character may take
movement actions in any direction, even directly up through the
air or along a vertical surface. If at the end of the character’s
movement, he is not on a stable surface, he is subject to the falling
rules. Any falling damage suffered, however, is reduced to 1/2
standard (rounded down).

There is also the Raptor Expert class, which has a class ability called Wuxia -
Wuxia I: At Level 2, your horizontal and vertical Acrobatics/
Jump check results are no longer limited by your height. Further,
the distance you travel when making a Jump check increases by
50%.
Wuxia II: At Level 7, the distance you travel when making a
Jump check increases by an additional 50% (for a total increase
of 100%). Further, you are considered to weigh only 1 lb. when
determining if a surface or object can support your weight.

You can end up with characters bouncing all over the place....

The Auld Grump, not a genre that I am all that fond of, but...

Well I'm now in a bit of ahurry but I remember quite in the John Woo style is FENG SHUI... I run a pulp/fantasy camaping with the rules and it went quite well...

Off the top of my head I can come up with these:

review can be found .

review can be found and .

, now I know that this is a Supers system but it handles this type of gaming very well indeed. The system can be retooled to do almost anything. Also there are three games that are free online to try out. Review

Also an old game called , which I have just found the "latest" version of to . I haven't looked at this system in years (its in storage - god I hate hardcopies for this very reason) but it is one of the first games that used a flexible dice pool.

All these games run with dice pools of some sort that usually involves moving dice about to show the changes in the characters and their actions that are about to take place. This, I believe reflects the nature of Cinematic action. Immortal and Fireborn are two of my favs. Weapons of the Gods is great and surpasses them but I haven't gotten around to play it yet. It has very cleverly crafted systems that stay true to the Wuxia, and there is a modern Gun-Fu guide in the Forum. I believe that the up and coming Weapons of the Gods Companion has a new political ruleset – the Great Game –.

Wild Talents is just damn smart and nifty - once you get your head around the ORE system (not a brain strain just different) again this system has what it takes to make a game Very Wire Fu.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

A friend of mine has a game which called Hong Kong Action Theater. I've never played it but he thinks it's one of the most fun RPGs ever.

You can check for an interesting link to a listing of numerous Wire-Fu type games (each with their own separate link to more info).

Steve

I had a small RPG a while back called Point Blank. It was a hollywood/chinese cinema sytle jobby. More of an action movie game than a substantial RPG. Players only needed to re-load their guns when it was 'Dramatically Appropriate', bad guys were cannon fodder (more so in the chinese style), and a good time was had by all as we re-created scenes from all of the action movies we'd ever seen in a very basic semblance of a plot.

Mr Blackhammer

That sounds very much like how my friend described Hong Kong Action Theater! I wonder if it was a precurser or an offshoot of some sort (or if all wire-fu type games take that approach).

Steve

Feng Shui is another game worth noting in this discussion. The mechanics reward creative descriptions. Its closer to John Woo style action than wuxia, though you can certainly do that as well.

I have a RPG from a few years back, downloaded free from TSR/WOTC (can't remember if it was before the WOTC takeover), based on a fantasy version of Hong Kong movies............. "DragonFist"!!!!

Wuxia - heeeaaaaahhhhhhh

Was quite a good game, based on AD&D 2nd Ed.

Unfortunately I only have a hardcopy at home, the pdf file was lost a while back.

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_2657.html

Looks like Green Ronin took over the rights to it, but can't find it on their website!!

Goodman Games' has some ideas for 'Fu'ing d20 Fantasy combats. See the preview for details.

The "Turnion Flares" idea, in particular, adds bullet-time to the game (and could probably be applied to pretty much any system).