Kowloon horror.

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Furwerkstudio

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In the cramped, walled city of rusted piles, crumbling sheetrock and tight corridors with the largest space being 2 meters wide exist a world of triad crime, trash and eras of discorded electronics that is compounded by the unreal, aimless curses and living shadows. This, is the basis behind Kowloon horror.

I really like to talk about the idea behind this, having this surreal horror setting based on infamous Kowloon City, which is a very messy game of political ping-pong between the Chinese and the British governments, was taken over by the Japanese in WWII, losing it, and the people living their kind of becoming their own "government" after the world war kicking everyone out but could never expand a certain point so they just build up with little to no planning. This created a pretty unique and really disturbing setting just ripe for some kind of off the wall setting, where one could mix classical Asian mythologies with modern fears.

Honestly I would like to hear other's opinions, thoughts and ideas on the setting but I am very afraid to talk about this on something like Reddit (I would never even dare speak of this on RPGnet) out of fear of being told I was "stealing from another culture", even though I am part Chinese myself.
 
I'm not very knowledgeable about Kowloon beyond it's depiction in the Shadowrun: Hong Kong video game. Main reason I even clicked on this thread was cuz I recognized the name from the game, where it's almost always referred to as the "Walled City". But they do mention it's real name a few times, which is how I recognized it.

Most of the action in the game occurs around the city, and people all over the place keep having nightmares because the city is under some kind of curse from all the negative energy that's gathered there throughout it's history. You might wanna check it out for ideas if you're into isometric RPGs. The NPC dialogues are kinda long sometimes, but very well written with lots of character development. There should also be wiki about it with info from playthroughs and such.
 
Isn't there a surreal horror punk game already out there covering Kowloon? Ah, here:

Honestly? Pretty dang cool. Don't let it stop you from positing or making something unique of your own.

My personal opinion? There are no boundaries for fiction or comedy. There are caveats, of course. But don't build a cage around yourself if you don't have to.
 
I believe some variation of that is covered in "1000 Hells" for Kindred of the East. IIRC Mitsuboshi? Basically a demon city of endless hyper-urban sprawl that has some thin veils in HK, along with other cities. That and IIRC In Nomine had a tether from Kowloon to Shal-Mari demon city of pleasure, likely tethered tou the demon prince of Drugs, Fleurity, on his Black Lotus riverboat palace floating on the cess river. Typically you'll see variations on the urban East Asian theme, not Kowloon exactly.

I personally love the idea. Hey, I've seen plenty of Asian (East, South, West, Central, & "Russian" :hehe: *cough* North ) pop culture "Occidentalism" in action, so I am totally down with havin fun with tropes!

What were you thinking of doing with it? Any particular genres or premises bouncing around?
 
There were a japanese only Playstation 1 adventure game called Kowloon's Gate. It was released in 1997. It's kind of a cult hit these days. Some years ago I tried playing it. But since it's only in japanese and there's no translation available, I didn't get very far. But the game has some amazing visuals of the city, that holds up even today.
Here's a link to an article in english, on the game: Kowloon's Gate
 
Honestly I would like to hear other's opinions, thoughts and ideas on the setting but I am very afraid to talk about this on something like Reddit (I would never even dare speak of this on RPGnet) out of fear of being told I was "stealing from another culture", even though I am part Chinese myself.
Here's my opinion: don't let other people dictate to you what you can work on. I would work on such a setting without a second thought, in fact I'm working on something similar for my own setting:thumbsup:!
So by all means, work on what you want!

Also, as a popular saying goes, "even if the dogs might be barking, the caravan is still going its own way"...which is, in a nutshell, how I recommend treating any such objections: be the master of your own caravan:devil:!

Also, I just posted a character who lives in Kowloon in the Character Creation 2022 thread. He is for Feng Shui 2, but I suspect a similar character would be right at home in your setting as well?
 
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Not overall, I do have this idea of using it to be a heavily cursed place that only the stupid and brave, or the desperate go to.

How about doing a mix? Corporeal & Astral/Celestial layered atop each other, akin to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (video game). In the physical world it is crimey crapsack with desperate people doing desperate things, in the spiritual it is a ghoul infested megapolis, with boogeymen harvesting flesh and suffering while fighting amongst themselves. Doubles the cramped maze space while keeping it a claustrophobic hell. Mark certain mirrors and closets as portals then go run a mega haunted house maze chase!
 
How about doing a mix? Corporeal & Astral/Celestial layered atop each other, akin to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (video game). In the physical world it is crimey crapsack with desperate people doing desperate things, in the spiritual it is a ghoul infested megapolis, with boogeymen harvesting flesh and suffering while fighting amongst themselves. Doubles the cramped maze space while keeping it a claustrophobic hell. Mark certain mirrors and closets as portals then go run a mega haunted house maze chase!
Sounds like it would be lots of fun to play:shade:!
 
Sounds like it would be lots of fun to play:shade:!

Glad to hear it! I was thinking it could use the Ghostbusters RPG and copy off "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon episodes dealing with Egon & the Boogeyman.

Also Hong Kong chop sckey flicks of the 1970s to 1990s had quite a lot of ghost hunter flicks, ancient & modern setting, which would be great reference for Furwerkstudio. A lot of I Ching trigrams and Feng Shui geomancy tropes help sell the atmosphere.
 
Glad to hear it! I was thinking it could use the Ghostbusters RPG and copy off "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon episodes dealing with Egon & the Boogeyman.

That was a hell of an episode, stayed with me for years

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Glad to hear it! I was thinking it could use the Ghostbusters RPG and copy off "The Real Ghostbusters" cartoon episodes dealing with Egon & the Boogeyman.
I'm not familiar with Ghostbusters, never having found a legal copy, but yeah, a quick search seems to indicate copying those episodes wouldn't be a bad idea at all...:grin:
I like that picture inverted better I think...

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The first version was impressive in the skill it required...
This one is a thing of twisted beauty for extra-nice Referees (with adult players:devil:).
 
Also Hong Kong chop sckey flicks of the 1970s to 1990s had quite a lot of ghost hunter flicks, ancient & modern setting, which would be great reference for Furwerkstudio. A lot of I Ching trigrams and Feng Shui geomancy tropes help sell the atmosphere.

Seconded. There are so many incredible horror movies from that era (everything from Mr. Vampire and a Chinese Ghost Story to stranger things like Seeding the Ghost and Holy Virgin Vs. Evil Dead: and classics like the Black Magic movies). There are some really cool, if a little extreme movies by Kuei Chih-Hung. His movie Killer Snakes is one part supernatural snake horror film, one part Taxi Driver. And he did Hex (which is a really interesting film based loosely on a french movie) and Boxer's Omen. Corpse Mania is pretty out there but interesting. There are more recent horror movies too that are quite good. Rigor Mortis and Dumpling both could fit in this kind of campaign I think.
 
I would definitely use Dredd and The Raid as inspiration for some of the situations / panic / isolation that such an environment would elicit.
 
I honestly thought Dredd would suck as a movie. The Stallone version had its moments, and solid props dept, but came off unpalateable. That S.A Vodophone building plus Karl Urban plus slo-mo drug... the bee's knees. :kiss:

I wonder if Judge Dredd rpg has any decent Adventure Modules to plug n play...
 
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