Shadowfist is a card game created by Robin Laws and Jose Garcia.

[1][2] It shares the same background as Feng Shui, a role-playing game created by Laws and Garcia and released the following year.

In the game, various factions from across time battle for control of the world's Feng Shui sites in a conflict known as the "Secret War.

The next year a group of fans formed Shadowfist Games to continue publishing sets.

The card set that would become Combat in Kowloon and Back for Seconds (in January 2013) was originally slated to be a single booster pack release using the long-standing CCG model.

Inner Kingdom Games broke up "Hong Kong 2010" into two separate releases ("Combat in Kowloon" and "Back for Seconds"), and published them beginning in January 2013.

Dubbed the "Rebirth Cycle" It included the decks, "Reloaded", "Reinforcements", and "Revelations".

An acknowledgement that a flat distribution wouldn't fulfill the needs for some cards that would have been more common in the CCG model.

A second Kickstarter campaign in 2014 resulted in the release of the Coming Darkness block, consisting of the Queens Gambit, Knight's Passage, and Endgame sets.

With enough Chi, characters can see and use portals to the Netherworld, an alternate dimension that connects the various junctions in time.

States are played on other card in order to modify them or provide an additional effect.

Resources represent either a faction's increasing involvement in the conflict or additional access to one of three talents (Tech, Magic, and Chi).

Shadowfist, released in 1995, differs from its CCG contemporaries in that focuses on multi-player gameplay rather than dueling.

One of the most important skills in the game is judging when and how to use resources for defense against other players in lieu of attacking power.

The storyline follows a grand scheme by Ming I to supplant Xin Ji Yang on the Dragon Throne by setting a trap for her in the Modern Juncture.

"[11] Andy Butcher reviewed the Netherworld expansion set for Shadowfist for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall.

[12] Faragher comments that "As with all expansion sets, Netherworld increases the complexity of the game, but otherwise there's precious little to criticise.