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robotnik2004This one is for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
editswlonghair and chrislehrich to share. I don't know if they've ever gamed together, but I know they both dig the essential elements of this mashup. It was a long, cold drive home, so I'm not working too hard on this. Just like at a retro Chinese restaurant: take one pulp standby from column A, one from column B, rip off Hite*, and it basically writes itself:
The Judge Fu Mysteries
One of my favorite settings in the two GURPS Alternate Earths collections is Ming-3, an alternate history in which Ming China does not turn inward after the fifteenth century and ultimately grows to rule an empire that spans the globe. Ken & co. did a great job with this one. It's got a quasi-Victorian feel—a highly mannered, stratified society, a supremely confident, world-spanning empire bringing the gift of Chinese civilization to benighted heathen lands—even the tech level is about the same. One cute detail among many is the depiction of England. Three centuries after Elizabeth I's navy was vanquished by the Chinese Armada, "Tsinghau" is a thoroughly marginal island on the edge of civilization, but its people do have a knack for sailing, and "Irish" sailors can be found the world over. (The term "Irish" refers interchangeably to Irish, English, Scots, Basques, Bretons, Dutch... don't all red-haired barbarians look alike?)
So: Again and again the Noble Fists of Heaven strike against the villainous Irish Triads, yet again and again the red-haired ghosts return. Rumors grow of a power behind the Triads: a secret cult of smugglers and pirates known as the Si Lei Li. Most, of course, are vicious brutes, but their master possesses a certain malevolent brilliance. He is the Devil from Datsin, the most insidious Ho Shi Li—known in his own degenerate tongue as "Sherlock Holmes"—the Red-haired Peril incarnate in one man! Trained in the modern science of the East and the Druidic magics of the mysterious West, Ho vows the destruction of the Celestial Empire. His deadly talons stretch from a hidden lair in the Far Hebrides to the very dockyards of Nanging. Who can match wits with the Barbarian Mandarin of Crime? Only the world's greatest detective, Fu Manchu! (And the plodding but faithful scribe of his adventures, Doctor Sun Yat-sen.) John might run this as rollicking pulp action, Chris as cerebral detection—or vice versa. Either way, it's Gwai Lo by Gaslight, and I don't know whether I'd root for Ho or Fu, but I deduce it would be fun. "Quick, Yat-sen! The game is afoot!"
*I just re-upped my Pyramid subscription after about a year away, so that means I have like three or four new Suppressed Transmissions to read. Sweet! But what's this multipart column about an occult roadtrip down Route 66 and the seven cities of Cibola are America's seven chakras and General Jake Coxey ends up as the key to it all? If Ken Hite is anybody but Ken Hite, he is totally stealing my bit!
editswlonghair and chrislehrich to share. I don't know if they've ever gamed together, but I know they both dig the essential elements of this mashup. It was a long, cold drive home, so I'm not working too hard on this. Just like at a retro Chinese restaurant: take one pulp standby from column A, one from column B, rip off Hite*, and it basically writes itself:The Judge Fu Mysteries
One of my favorite settings in the two GURPS Alternate Earths collections is Ming-3, an alternate history in which Ming China does not turn inward after the fifteenth century and ultimately grows to rule an empire that spans the globe. Ken & co. did a great job with this one. It's got a quasi-Victorian feel—a highly mannered, stratified society, a supremely confident, world-spanning empire bringing the gift of Chinese civilization to benighted heathen lands—even the tech level is about the same. One cute detail among many is the depiction of England. Three centuries after Elizabeth I's navy was vanquished by the Chinese Armada, "Tsinghau" is a thoroughly marginal island on the edge of civilization, but its people do have a knack for sailing, and "Irish" sailors can be found the world over. (The term "Irish" refers interchangeably to Irish, English, Scots, Basques, Bretons, Dutch... don't all red-haired barbarians look alike?)
So: Again and again the Noble Fists of Heaven strike against the villainous Irish Triads, yet again and again the red-haired ghosts return. Rumors grow of a power behind the Triads: a secret cult of smugglers and pirates known as the Si Lei Li. Most, of course, are vicious brutes, but their master possesses a certain malevolent brilliance. He is the Devil from Datsin, the most insidious Ho Shi Li—known in his own degenerate tongue as "Sherlock Holmes"—the Red-haired Peril incarnate in one man! Trained in the modern science of the East and the Druidic magics of the mysterious West, Ho vows the destruction of the Celestial Empire. His deadly talons stretch from a hidden lair in the Far Hebrides to the very dockyards of Nanging. Who can match wits with the Barbarian Mandarin of Crime? Only the world's greatest detective, Fu Manchu! (And the plodding but faithful scribe of his adventures, Doctor Sun Yat-sen.) John might run this as rollicking pulp action, Chris as cerebral detection—or vice versa. Either way, it's Gwai Lo by Gaslight, and I don't know whether I'd root for Ho or Fu, but I deduce it would be fun. "Quick, Yat-sen! The game is afoot!"
*I just re-upped my Pyramid subscription after about a year away, so that means I have like three or four new Suppressed Transmissions to read. Sweet! But what's this multipart column about an occult roadtrip down Route 66 and the seven cities of Cibola are America's seven chakras and General Jake Coxey ends up as the key to it all? If Ken Hite is anybody but Ken Hite, he is totally stealing my bit!
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 02:22 am (UTC)Phenomenal. I hope your Old Canadian Home is inspiring enough for a few more of these. :)
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Date: 2004-12-21 01:31 pm (UTC)Great concept! If only more time... Le Sigh. I'll just have ot keep this one in my backpocket and bust it out in the nursing home someday!
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Date: 2004-12-21 02:24 pm (UTC)I think I'd want to play the really crude Mongolian who does the leg-breaking for Fu. "Youse wants this gwailo's arms broken, Fu, or does ya just wants me to rough him up a bit?"
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Date: 2004-12-21 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 03:59 pm (UTC)That's. Awesome.
CU
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Date: 2004-12-21 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 09:38 pm (UTC)We may be back on again for tonight - perhaps we should take this from LJ comments to actual emails.
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Date: 2004-12-21 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 04:37 pm (UTC)