My friend Chris recently suggested I give Osprey Games' "A Fistful of Kung Fu" a look; I'd seen the figure range on North Star plenty of times over the years (the game originally released in 2014), but I'd never bothered to check it out; well, now it seems the rulebook is out of print and only sold in e-formats, because I had to go to eBay to get a physical copy. It does not seem like the game made a big splash; I was actually kind of shocked at the scarcity of play reports on the web. I suspect this comes down to it being a game with a modern setting, instead of fantasy or scifi, and one that calls for a terrain-dense table. There's a level of physical investment that's likely more than most people would want to expend on just trying a game.
Fortunately, I've already made that investment with my terrain collection, and while I don't have any modern East Asian figures, I do have a lot of Mafia types, so I figured out a scenario using them in place of Yakuza. Consider this an Italian knockoff of a Hong Kong action film!
A SWAT team, led by Lt. Lords, had to protect Angela Dellamorte, daughter of the head of the Dellamorte Crime Family, as she prepares to turn over evidence relating to her father's crimes - and his recent involvement in the occult. Papa Dellamorte, it seems, has acquired a copy of the Necronomicon ex Mortiis, and has made a pact with the Powers of Darkness to expand his own influence.
Opposing them was one of Dellamorte's capos, Joey "The Viper" Marciano, accompanied by his right-hand man, Fat Paulie, and a number of lesser soldiers and a minor summoned demon. He'd been tasked with capturing Angela and bringing her home to her family in as close to one piece as possible for punishment.
With the SWAT forces stopped at an impromptu barricade, a shot rang out; Mr. Fibbs, a low-level soldier in the Dellamorte Crime Family, had decided that he wasn't on board with trafficking with demons, and had offed the nearest gangster.
Marciano advanced and opened fire, gunning down Officer Rosina and sending Angela barreling into the Smoke Shop to avoid getting hit.
Lords coolly returned fire, sending Marciano ducking for cover and killing Fat Paulie.
Officer Williams, an ordinary beat cop caught up in the action, took out one of the gang's hitmen as he darted amidst trash piled up next to the pawn shop.
Sgt. Baker spotted the Viper as he circled around the gas station, and ran forward with a shout - and got shot for his troubles, getting knocked down, knocked back and disarmed in the process. Before he could stand up, another hitman on the ramen shop roof sprayed lead downwards, killing him and Officer Taff.
Lt. Lords closed in on Joey the Viper, delivering a shot that knocked him down, stunned him and wounded him. He was quick to get back on his feet and scurry for cover behind a dumpster.
Meanwhile, Officer Beck retreated into the Smoke Shop to guard Angela.
Joey the Viper dashed around the building and shot at Lt. Lords, disarming her. "Well, well, well, little lady," he chuckled. "Looks like I've got you beat."
The hitman atop the Ramen Shop fired at Mr. Fibbs, stunning him; the Dellamorte family would want him alive for more appropriate punishment - letting him just die wasn't anywhere near sufficient.
The demon, finally accomplishing something, swooped through the air and launched itself through the front window of the Smoke Shop to try and seize Angela - only to get immediately blown away by Officer Beck. With a screech, the demon collapsed into ash, banished back to Hell.
Lt. Lords ducked for cover behind a cinderblock wall, and then rolled behind the car parked behind the pawn shop. "Enough of this," she growled, and charge at Marciano, delivering a double-fisted punch to the jaw that knocked him out cold. Officer Williams raced around to cuff the gangster.
Angela Dellamorte was safe and ready to testify, and once he was patched up, Mr. Fibbs would be too. And Joey "The Viper" Marciano was in custody. It was a damned good day for the forces of law and order!
***
So that played out very fast - I think only about 40ish minutes start to finish. I had fun with it though, and I think I got a decent handle on the rules; I didn't do much of anything with interactive terrain (though I did have brick piles on two buildings to throw bricks at each other, plus vehicles that could be hot-wired), and Joey might have gotten shot one more time then he really should have been based on his traits. The activation and reaction mechanism, designed to recreate the frenetic back and forth of a martial arts movie, I feel like I got that down really quick.
It's definitely a game that focuses on the Protagonists - in this case Lords and Marciano - and everyone else (the Extras) are mooks who are mostly there to get in the way, or fail their activation rolls so that the turn passes to the next player. Here, they accomplished a few things against each other but a lot of them mostly just stood around or only had enough actions available to move once and end their turn.
Overall, I'm glad I picked it up and looking forward to playing more of it.
