I'm surprised after two weeks of being up, no one has commented on this, but FFG has started to provide us some significant back story on the Shadowar Universe.

You can find out more, by clicking HERE

So what do you guys think?

Do you want to see more stuff like this?

I think that the reason nobody commented about it is because they just dont care and are not interested in shadow war. i dont mean to be negative but there are a lot of mixed feelings amoung players. i for on ethink that the story writing is horrible and unimaginative(sorry for the spelling).i would like to see an anime based title with better writing but thats just me.

Sadly im in the same boat, im really just not interested in shadowar. You got a game with Street fighter, Soul Cal, SNK etc. and then you have a random set which to me IMO lacks originality or appeal.

Lu Chen sounds so awesome in this...and just doesnt do so much in the game...sad. Anyway, I like the characters from SW so far, so I'm anxious to see what they do with it.

otakuV said:

...because Anime is more original than fantasy?

I rather like where it's gone so far. I've also read the newest bio, that being the one for Padma.

Personally I'd rather see a "State of the Game" or even just a preview of what's coming up each month. It's nice that they've got their own IP for the game... but really I think most people would have been happier seeing a new license.

Antigoth said:

I'm not.

Barely anybody reads the website. THAT is why nobody commented. It's got nothing to do with ShadoWar as a property or whatever-have-you. Can't teach an old monkey new tricks, and we were pretty much thought, for a while, to completely ignore the website. It'll come, in time.

NOW for the actual piece.

1) About **** time : Hey look! It's ShadoWar info! Any info is good news because that means we're one step closer to having a full-fleshed universe to care about. At least for those who are willing to give it a chance. Meaning most non-idiots.

2) Involves Two Yet to be Released Characters : White Crane (who we now know is affiliated to the Order of the Celestial Dawn, thereby, according to Temujin's profile, making them far less virtuous than already believed, which is pretty damned good, or that it was all a misunderstanding, which would be... eeh, yeah) and a cutesy armored assassin named Padma which IIRC was a guy's name but hey I'll roll with it because I know nothing about Indian-origin names.

3) She Throws Snakes Er Wait Snake Bling : No, seriously. Padma throws snakes. I've yet to determine whether this is awesome or crap using a personal rating system, but IF she's released in Set 12 Snake Bling Throwing better be a card.

4) Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? No, It's Lu Chen Being Superman : While I enjoy Lu Chen's backstory somewhat (it's a fall from grace done somewhat right), I have a feeling that Lu Chen will act as some sort of Deus Ex Machina for every single occurance in the ShadoWar backstory, and yes, that would suck immensely.

5) “An invitation that you leave in peace would be issued without benefit. Your amicable departure would only presage a murderous return.” : Okay, I understand that it's Lu Chen, that he's supposed to be formal in all things, but seriously, unnecessary flowery dialogue grates on the nerve of the reader. It's not out of character (hell, at this point, WHAT is?) but I could see it annoy people more down the line. THEN AGAIN - as the universe is developed maybe the use will be better placed or more done with more tact. I read that sentence as though a thesaurus had vomited all over it. No, that's not good.

6) “I would concede the entire war, if by such surrender it could be won.” : So, who starts the Lu Chen deadpool?

* * *

All in all, hey, it's good, introduces a character (and Padma profile like nao plz), gives more background information to White Crane (BETRAYAL~!) and Lu Chen. It does what it had to do - educate and entertain.

It's surprising that Yi-Shan wasn't used, considering that he's Steve Horvath's favorite character and could be seen as the ShadoWar universe's protagonist. Note that I said COULD and not IS.

I love shadowar I havent commented just because of how busy I have been with work and the podcasts we had 4 interviews in the last 2 weeks and getting all the info ready for you guys . But I will check it out for sure later tonight and also we talk a little about shadowar in one of our interviews with steve coming soon .

aslum said:

no disrespect to shadow war, but i agree with aslum. i don't play the game, but i do play UFS so a state of the game would be nice.

trane said:

Just to bring you up to speed, Shadowar is the next UFS set.

Antigoth said:

i know. shadow war and solcal 4. i was talking about the december state o the game.

trane said:

Because its you trane, FYI I'd like to point out that it is now in fact January incase you missed the whole 'its a new year and a new month' thing that happened on the first .

Onto Shadowar...I liked it overall. Nice change of pace from just character bg's. Nice amount of flavor. Makes me want to play Qin

And he meant the "I don't play the game part" - there is no Shadowar game. It is an IP unique to UFS. So, techncally speaking, you do indeed play the game.

yeah I like it, but... it just seems... something...

Story's ok. I'd be more excited about it if/when the set hit or if we had some spoilers at the same time as the story (wouldn't that be sweet?!?). And also if this was a story that was being told for something other than a TCG expansion.

Though that is NOT to say that I am not interested in it. Its not brilliant writing, but its an open enjoyable super kung-fuish sort of universe that I could get in to.

otakuV said:

I'd have to agree...it just seems like another carbon-copy, run-of-the-mill setting. I didn't find too much to be excited about with this new universe.

BlindProphet said:

but we still don't have the december state of the game (unless i missed something, being trane it is posible).

Because the holidays took a lot of work time that we need to get the next set done and off to the printer, which we are working crazy hard t do now. We are also working on final details of the Fight Life Championship series, I've done two podcast interviews this week and I have another full time job here at FFG besides UFS.

The STOG is my fault, I said I would get it posted last month and then blam it was 2009. Of course everyone who remembers the mythical "good old days" of STG will also remember that I was always late doing these. I will make sure to get one posted next week. And because I know what you are waiting for here is a quick preview: no new banning or errata.

Also make sure to listen to the above mentioned podcasts brought to you by commit one podcasts as they answer a lot of questions from teh forums and community at large.

See you in the arena,

Steve

trane said:

Homme Chapeau said:

Padma is a girls name. About the most well known (cough... only... cough) example I can think of is Padma Patil from the Harry Potter books (Ravenclaw sister of Parvati). If the Padma from Shadowar throws snakes, I guess that makes her Slitherin

Tagrineth said:

Totally. I remember this totally original anime where the kid was being chased by a lot of girls, you know the one. The one where he's sort of a cast-off and suddenly chicks dig him and it's uncomfortable and only one of them actually loves him. And also the fact that he has a secret.

Or the one with that weird organization that was threatening to end the world or the universe until the other organization stopped them.

Or that one guy who kills things and is kind of a bad ass loner.

Quite honestly, one of the FEW original anime I've ever seen is Yakitate!! Japan, which features a kid from the Japan countryside who is on a quest to work Tokyo in order to create... bread. Seriously. Or Princess Tutu, which is an anime where this duck becomes a girl who becomes a magical girl and fights with the power of... ballet.

edit: For future reference, if it's been on Cartoon Network, or you can find its merchandise on Hot Topic, it's not original.

Just my quick comments:

Shadowar: It's the same as any other fuedal asian style mystical movies. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "Wire Fu" card printed.

Anime: Sucks

No SotG/Bannings: Fail?

Hewittzil said:

I was referring to Padma Maharassa from Friendly Hostility. Who happens to be a guy last I checked. Either way, more background is good.

Homme Chapeau said:

After checking Friendly Hostility and looking the name up (try some of the online name generator/definition websites), Padma does indeed appear to be a girls name of Indian/Persian descent attributed to "lotus."

Mwahahahahahaha!!!

Padma is Slitherin!!!

Mwahahahahahaha!!!

Only Yi Shan Potter can save the Order of the Celestial Dawn Phoenix!

Guided by Lu-Chenbledore, headmaster of the kung fu school and accompanied by his friend Zi Meione Granger, Yi Shan Potter must battle the vicious Death Eater armies of the Covenant of Twilight and defeat their leader... the nefarious Lord Voldomar!!!

"By kung fu and fireballs... Expelliamus... to the FACE!!!"

Hewittzil said:

I'd say I pity you but quite frankly I've participated in the Marvel/Capcom/SNK cross-over pimpfic over at Shoryuken.com so really I did just as bad.

Man I wish I had saved that piece of writing.

Homme Chapeau said:

Thanks for the pity, but don't worry. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you... or at you, but either way, at least they're laughing!

To try to steer this back on course though, "pimpfic" kind of feels like Shadowar. I can see similarities with other settings (White Wolf Exalted, L5R Rokugan, Avatar the Last Airbender (gotta love that title in the UK!)). As long as Shadowar differs from these other settings, say with a hook, story element, plot point or just something plain cool to draw punters in, it should work out.

I do wonder if this Shadowar fic has been proofread though. For a new universe wanting to entice UFS players, there seems to be quite a few unfortunate mistakes in the story.