OT - Prepping for a Boxer Rebellion one-off

[Targan]

The thread title says it all really. I've started researching for a one-off session I expect to be running in about a year. It will actually be a radically out-of-time-and-place one off session in which the PCs in my current Harnmaster campaign will interact with an ancient esoteric object which is, in effect, a magical VR recording and playback device.

When they interact with the device their characters will all instantly fall unconscious. I'll hand each of the players a pre-generated character sheet and a detailed biography for their character and a synopsis of the time and location their VR characters are in. The PCs will be for the duration of the VR scenario inside the minds of the pre-generated characters. Obviously they'll know that something is seriously "off", but it will be like a really vivid dream.

The players will take on the roles of:

British Royal Marines Light Infantry Captain Lewis Stratford Tollemache Halliday;

Probably three other Royal Marines (a couple of privates and a corporal or sergeant);

A Royal Navy officer sent by then-Assistant Director of the Naval Intelligence Division Prince Louis of Battenberg;

And a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, sent from Burlington House.

The scenario is set at the end of June or the start of July 1900 and will involve a room-to-room battle as the party fights it's way through parts of the Peking Foreign Diplomatic Legations compound to try and recover an artifact previously held in the nearby Hanlin Academy, a complex of courtyards and buildings that housed "the quintessence of Chinese scholarship ... the oldest and richest library in the world" (which had burned down several days before).

The artifact the characters are trying to recover will be... the same artifact the original PCs back in Harn interacted with to start the VR session. If they all get killed by angry Chinese Boxer militiamen, the "VR session" will start again, and it will be a Groundhog Day situation over and over again until they succeed in recovering the device, at which instant they will be returned to their original bodies.

[ChalkLine]

I'm doing my campaign background for Shanghai 1925 where the theplayers are westerners who are both dubious criminals and mercenaries. Here's part of the blurb:

Presently Shanghai is being fought over and troops frequently clash on the city’s outskirts although sometimes the tides of war clear the area and leave the hinterland peaceful albeit heavily scarred. No incursions deep into the city have been made nor have the Concessions been occupied but once out of the city it can be dangerous to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Occasionally characters will hear the thudding of artillery in the distance and this may bring back unpleasant memories of other or even this particular never-ending conflict.

The sides that are fighting over China’s largest city are the colourful ‘The Dog-Meat General’ Zhang Zongchan of Zhang Zuolin’s Fengtian Clique from Manchuria which is allied to the infamous Japanese Kwantung Army. The opposing force is Qi Xieyuan’s troops from the anti-Japanese Zhili Clique who is occasionally controlled by the brilliant Wu Peifu, possibly one of China’s greatest tacticians and whose forces under the previously mentioned Qi Xieyuan just last year evicted Lu Yongxiang from the Anhui Clique as Shanghai’s warlord1. Both Qi Xieyuan and Zhang Zongchan will be Shanghai’s warlord on and off over the year and as Qui’s Zhili Clique is supported by Chinese and European business and Zhang’s Fengtian Clique is supported by Japanese business and the Japanese army and navy the supporter's fortunes wax and wane along with those of the armies while the Concessions look on in anxiety.

However untold misery is being visited on the local Chinese and refugees from the hinterlands are swelling the city. Occasionally fugitive soldiers or mercenaries try and seek refuge within the Concessions but amid this there are areas in the hinterland which are almost untouched.

Due to the European and American arms embargo only the Soviets and the Japanese are supplying weapons and both are arming the Fengtian Clique. Other cliques rely on smuggled weapons, those made in-country or captured stocks. European, American, Japanese and White Russian mercenaries often operate technical equipment such as artillery or armoured vehicles, the Russians being predominant on the armoured trains and armoured cars. Large amounts of weapons from The Great War have ended up in China, especially those of the defeated Central Powers.
The troops are armed as following;
Qui’s Zhilli Clique detachments use a bewildering array of small arms from all over the globe but usually use the Hanyang 88 rifle, Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun, the Madsen light machine gun or the Mauser C.96 automatic pistol along with the huge curved Dao (sword)2. The usual grenade is the French F1 or a Soviet copy. They have no tanks but an eclectic array of armoured cars give weight to their large amount of cavalry. They often deploy an armoured train when it’s not urgently needed elsewhere. For artillery the field guns vary but large numbers of the tiny 37mm mle.1916 cannon are used to hunt enemy tanks.

Zhang’s Fengtian Clique use the same as Qui’s but more often us the Soviet Mosin-Nagant rifle or the lighter Japanese Type 38 rifle. For heavy machine guns they also field the Soviet PM.08 Maxim or the Japanese Type 3, a Hotchkiss M1914 copy. Fielded in some numbers are the troublesome Type 11 light machine gun. Pistols are often the beloved C.96, the Soviet Nagant revolver or the Japanese Type 26 revolver and grenades are once again Soviet or Japanese, being the Soviet F1 or Japanese Type 10.
They also have a grab bag of armoured cars but a dangerous force of French, Japanese and Soviet FT-17 tanks. Probably the most feared of all their assets is the Tsarist/Bolshevik/Czech/White Russian heavy armoured train Zaamurets operating in the area, feared due to its ability to suddenly strike anywhere there is a railway. Their Manchurian cavalry is rugged and dependable.

The troops tend to wear similar uniforms although mercenaries usually wear national uniforms, the White Russians wearing Chinese-style gear as theirs wears out along with their distinctive headdress. Usually a warlord’s soldier’s gear consists of a khaki uniform with a padded jacket, a light cap and puttees. Bandoleers are common but there is no real standardisation. By far the most common weapons are a rifle and bayonet.

It's a 10,000 words and ten pages so far and should blow out to double that plus tables and appendices but I'm really going for the feel of exotic and very strange Shanghai.

The system is house rule Cyberpunk 2020, weapon damages based on foot-pounds/40 (which makes a military rifle an almost certain one-shot killer) and the old Cyberpunk/Call of Cthulhu conversion.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by ChalkLine

I'm doing my campaign background for Shanghai 1925 where the theplayers are westerners who are both dubious criminals and mercenaries.

Excellent . It's such a compelling setting isn't it?

Will William Fairbairn make an appearance?

[Adm.Lee]

Wow to both ideas!

[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by Targan

Excellent . It's such a compelling setting isn't it?

Will William Fairbairn make an appearance?

And such great resource online!

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

Wow to both ideas!

+1

I dig international casts, and both concepts open up a lot of possibilities in that regard. Both also lend themselves to an "Escape from Kalisz" style, cut-off-behind-enemy-lines starting point.

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[Ancestor]

This is really cool! All I can suggest is the infusion of Chang Sing and Wing Kong. With maybe a younger Shaftoe or Burton as part of the American occupying force...

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Ancestor

This is really cool! All I can suggest is the infusion of Chang Sing and Wing Kong. With maybe a younger Shaftoe or Burton as part of the American occupying force...

It's all in the reflexes!

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[Ancestor]

Originally Posted by Raellus

It's all in the reflexes!

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Ha! Yes! Other great JB quotes:

1. When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

2. "Sonofabitch MUST PAY!"

3. My all time favorite exchange in a movie and the story of my life:

Jack Burton : I don't get this at all. I thought Lo Pan...

Lo Pan : Shut up, Mr. Burton! You are not brought upon this world to get it!

[ChalkLine]

Originally Posted by Targan

Excellent . It's such a compelling setting isn't it?

Will William Fairbairn make an appearance?

He's just setting up the special division. If the players meet him it will be to their everlasting dismay.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Ancestor

This is really cool! All I can suggest is the infusion of Chang Sing and Wing Kong. With maybe a younger Shaftoe or Burton as part of the American occupying force...

Big Trouble in Little China is in my top 5 films of all time. "We really shook the pillars of heaven, didn't we Wang?"

[CraigD6er]

The line that applies to many things in the RPG world and wargaming:
"Wasn't easy!"