##NOTE: This message was originally posted to RPG.Net, in modified
form. ##

Well, I just ran a totally impromptu game of Wushu for my group. (Two
of the five players couldn't make it, so the Serenity game will hafta
wait for next week.)

It went OK; they really had fun being able to describe their cool
stuff without fear of, you know, rolling a bunch of dingus and failing
at it all. For me, though, it was a pretty big paradigm shift -- it
seemed a totally different way of running a game. To wit:

I wasn't sure how to describe Chi loss. Since everything happens just
the way the players say it does, I was just adding descriptions to
account for damage taken -- which felt kind of shoehorned it. "I flip
him over, throw him to the ground and kick him in the ribs! Oh, I got
2 yang successes and no yin." "Okay...another guy tugs you by the
shoulder and punches you in the face." I couldn't get it in there
smoothly. Like I say, it felt awkward.

Also, I stumbled a bit during a Nemesis battle. It wasn't a rules
problem; it was a matter of describing the Nemesis' actions without
violating the Principle of Narrative Truth. In other words, it was
hard not to say, basically, "Oh, yeah? Well he's gonna DODGE, so you
CAN'T cut his arm off!"

That said, I think we all enjoyed the game, even though I was totally
making it up and had NO PLOT AT ALL. Still, like I said, everyone got
to thump some rumps without fear of failure.

Any suggestions on how to work around my problems? Thanks in advance!