How to Run:Hong Kong Action Theatre
Another one from the original thread, posted by Joe Dizzy.
How to run Hong Kong Action Theatre![edit]
1. Everybody be cool. You. Be. Cool.
Realism is not an issue. "That's not possible." is not a sufficient reason to make a roll harder for the character. "That's so lame." OTOH is. HKAT! is not a game in which the abilities of the characters are questioned, meaning that the PCs are *always* better than everybody else, they don't have to prove it through dice-rolls. What they have to do though is prove that they are cooler than everybody else.
The coolness of an action should be the main criteria to the GM when deciding its consequences. A cool action is rewarded with positive consequences, an uncool action with none or negative ones.
2. And the Oscar for shameless over-acting goes to...
I know that this borders on belittling asian cinema, but let's face it... compared to western sensibilities HK action movies are filled with melodrama and over-acting. Don't be ashamed to follow suit. This is a HKAT! game, it's not Macbeth or some Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Non-combat scenes should be filled with melodramatic over-acting, unless this over-acting contradicts rule #1.
If your group consists of intense roleplayers who relish the small nuances in emotion of their character, HKAT! can be very liberating with its broad strokes. And if your group never delves into the mindset of their characters, HKAT! can be a new and enjoyable experience, since everybody has seen enough action movies to know when a character should be angry, sad, happy or confused.
But either way, if you can't enjoy some good old over-acting on any level, don't bother with HKAT!.
3. Story? What story?
If you cannot sum-up the story of your game in 3 sentences, you're over-complicating things. HKAT! is not a game of finely tuned sensibilites... in this game things regularly explode, earth-shattering revelations hit the characters every 20 minutes and the action drives by so fast that you don't have time to worry about plot-holes or a lack of logic.
If you give your players time to breathe and think things through, you've already lost 'em.
4. Embrace the spectacle!
If, after reading this, you think HKAT! should be run like a parody of a HK action movie, you're wrong. This isn't about sniggering and sneering at the over-the-top-ness of it all, but about embracing it and wallowing in it. If you cannot enjoy the spectacle of your own HK action movie, unless you can MST3K it... you're missing the point.
