The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Wu

[ghoyle1]

I'm one of those people who abandoned the Hero System right before 5th ed came out. However, I probably will be buying Pulp Hero and most of its supplements because I'm a diehard Pulp fanatic. Looks great, Steve!

I was hoping that somebody could help me brainstorm a Pulp scenario for a local games day in October. I want to do something something like a Pulp-style "Big Trouble in Little China", but for some reason I'm having a tough time getting my head around it. In my head I can sort of see it, but I can't get it down on paper. I could use some suggestions about good places for action to occur, maybe some appropriate deathtraps, things like that.

I'd like it to be a humorous piece, but all I know is that the maguffin turns out to be a legendary recipe for General Chang's chicken. (Maybe it's a magical recipe of some kind that makes you immortal, or really cranks up your chi; or maybe it's just really good chicken, and the evil Dr. Wu can get America addicted to his chicken and take over the country.)

Anyway, suggestions would be very welcome.

[ChaosDrgn]

Been watching Undercover Brother?

[ghoyle1]

Uh, no. Haven't seen it.

[Curufea]

I think "Big Trouble" combined two concepts - weird/wonderful/unique characters - and then shoving them into a basic quest plot.

So just make up characters first. Then do the bad guy. Then have a quest involving unlikely components and longterm plans. Bad guy has goons (of course) which interrupt the plot now and then with gratuitous violence. There should also be the equivalent of Trusted Lieutenants (tm) that make cameos throughout before the final bad guy confrontation. They can only be killed/done in just before the final confrontation (or as part of it).

The setting should be exotic - back corners of well known places (so hardly known), or exotic places.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Big Trouble in Little China was already very pulp in attitude, although it managed to avoid falling into the "Yellow Peril" trap quite deftly by refusing to make all the Chinese characters bad guys.

Then again, most of John Carpenter's best work is pulpish. After all, didn't Campbell publish the original version of "Who Goes There?", the wondefully paranoid story that became The Thing? And Snake Plissken could have strode out of a dime novel without breaking a sweat, an action anti-hero with attitude to spare. (Kurt Russell and John Carpenter will probably be associated in the public mind to the end of time....)

[Southern Cross]

Actually,John W. Campbell Jr.,WROTE "Who Goes There?" ,under his penname of Don A.Stuart.

[Steve Long]

Hmmm, let's see. Good places for action in Chinatown....

--restaurants. "Chinese gotta lotta restaurants, Mr. Burton." With six PCs you get eggroll!

--secret tunnels and caverns beneath Chinatown. BTILC didn't come up with this concept; the Shadow uses secret tunnels beneath Chinatown on several occasions (though admittedly they lack monsters!).

--Taoist and Buddhist temples

--Dr. Wu's secret Oriental stronghold hidden in the heart of Chinatown (what look like tenement houses are actually the "Great Wall" around his garden and palace).

--kung fu kwoon (school)

--herbalist shops


For a Pulp-style writeup of Dr. Yin Wu, see Adventurer's Club #21. For some cool martial arts maps, including at least one of a trap-filled martial arts maze that we never published in a book, see the Map Archive #1, available in the Online Store.

[Blue]

"You enter an asian garden. Through the center runs a winding path of stepping stones that lead to a small yet high-arched wooden bridge, and dotting the landscape are topiary trees of animals; Pandas, Monkeys, Tigers, Boars. Also along the path on each side are statues of asiatic warriors, experience and pride etched in their faces. Suddenly, something moves on each side of the path..."

"The warriors start moving?"

"No, the Topiaries. The panda stands up and each of his fellows follows suit. The rooster nods its head mockingly. The Crane takes up a kung-fu stance. The tiger, now on it's hind legs extends it's paw and motions in Bruce Lee fashion for your to 'Come Get Some'. The hedges leap to action! Segment 12!"

[BobGreenwade]

Running with the chicken idea for the humorous aspect (at which I tend to excel), you might want to look at The Muppet Movie and Who Is Killing The Great Chefs Of Europe?. These can give you not only some interesting gustatory humor -- admittedly fairly dark in the latter case -- but perhaps some plot seeds to run with. (You might also consider using Weird Al's The Food Album as a soundtrack.)

And remember the ancient Chinesproverb: "Many man bite, but Fu Manchu."

[Curufea]

You could also have portals leading to "Mythic China". It would explain why the restaurant is inundated with an army of Ninja, for example

In similar fashion to London Above and London Below in Neverewhere.

[Susano]

Anyway, suggestions would be very welcome.

This might help:

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adapti...ion.html#BTILC

[Susano]

Big Trouble in Little China was already very pulp in attitude, although it managed to avoid falling into the "Yellow Peril" trap quite deftly by refusing to make all the Chinese characters bad guys.

Per John Carpenter, Jack Burton is Wang Chi's sidekick. Wang Chi is the hero of the movie.

[ghoyle1]

Awesome, guys! I'm already getting some fantastic ideas from this thread. And my DVD of Kung Fu Hustle is on the way, too; if I can't pull some wild characters and settings out of that, I shouldn't be running a game at all!

Thanks, and keep 'em coming! (And Steve, you've made a sale -- ka-CHING!)

[ghoyle1]

Anybody know of a good resource for Chinese monsters? (Of course, I'll be including hopping vampires!)

[Blue]

Well, you can start with the chinese mythology page, maybe...

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythol.../articles.html