The Vital Trideography of John Carpenter, part 3. Big Trouble in Little China

 John Carpenter may not be the first filmmaker that comes to mind as the creator of the dystopian future genre, but he came damned close. Films from his golden era set the tone for everything Shadowrun, including the addition of magic. Mr. Black will take you through 6 of his groundbreaking and iconic films, and illustrate what a GM can take from them and add to his or her game.

We are doing 6, in chronological order: We have covered Escape from New York, and The Thing. Now we cover one of Mr. Black’s all-time favorites, the true glory that is Big Trouble in Little China (BTiLC). Spoilers ahead, so grab your Six Demon Bag, and settle in. We have lots to cover…

(But before we do, Mr. Black needs to address an issue of cultural appropriation. There are some who have problems with BTiLC over its use of Asian culture. We will be looking at this movie and its applications through Mr. Black’s eyes, an angry Caucasian grognard. Mr. Black apologizes in advance for any anger and/or hurt he may cause, as that is not his intent. Dear Readers, you have been warned…)

“I’m a reasonable guy, but I’ve just experienced some very unreasonable things." — Jack Burton

1. BTiLC places magick, specifically,  “Chinese Black Magick”, into a mundane world. It is worth thinking about Jack Burton’s slack jaw as he is exposed to the magick. He and the other “Westerners” experience shock, fear, and true awe*. We as gamers are so used to magick in our games and entertainment, that it barely registers. But we need to remember it is rare. Channel Jack, Gracie and Margo’s fear and wonder, and apply it to the mundanes in your games.

   
   

   

   Scares the drek out of Mr. Black!

2. This is one of the few “Hollywood” movies that show us magickal martial arts. Embrace this! Adepts do not fight like a cybrawler or a street samurai. Channel Wang Chi at the wedding fight when describing the actions of enemy adepts when they start smacking your crew about. Describe their unnatural grace, their inhuman speed, the preternatural glow their limbs give off when Killing Hands or Elemental strikes are used. Facing a martial adept should be a frightening experience.

   
   

   

   He is here to kick ass and chew bubblegum...

3. BTiLC is often praised for the way it portrays Jack Burton and Wang Chi. It appears initially that Jack is our hero, but on rewatching it is Wang Chi who is actually our hero and our protagonist. Reflect on their changing roles, when you give time to let each character shine in your games.

4. There are 2 “warrior societies”, the Wing Chung and the Chang Sing in BTiLC. They are our stand-ins for the Triads in the trideo. Use them for interesting encounters. The Triads of Shadowrun should be full of low status gangbangers, cybered-up mid level members practicing various martial arts, and high flying masters of martial arts and physical adepts performing trust badassery. If they are just “Asian-looking guys” with guns, why make them Triad members? Use their uniqueness, create a special and memorable encounter for your players.

   
   

   

   The Yellow Lotus are here to say hello...

5. We get a good look at a “Chinatown”. We should remember it is more than just pagodas, guardian lions and out-of-place spirit gates. It is a living, breathing place, a home for immigrants. It is full of regular businesses, not just take out places and mahjong parlors. Tell your players about the smells coming from restaurants, the signage in various characters and syllabaries, the sounds of multiple languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, CitySpeak, and likely some sort of pigeon tongue), the bustle, people everywhere, most in Western or semi-Western wear, but some in traditional (more likely “reformed”) Hanfu or Tang style clothing. Use the differences (e.g., in the opening gang fight of BTiLC, one of the gangs wears white, the traditional mourning color of Chinese culture) as a reminder that it is a foreign place, but not alien. And depending on its size, walking tours (or ARo tours) would not be out of place, and great fun for GM’s (a running gun battle sidestepping tourists, people taking selfies with buskers in traditional outfits, gamers chasing special “Tomogatchi-Ko”** icons, hawkers peddling “real” “Peking Duck”, lion dancers, and wedding/funeral parties/parades? Sign Mr. Black up!)

6. The Three Storms. 

   
   

   

   What GM worth their salt doesn’t want to throw these 3 at their players? Even though good old Mr. Black’s trench coat is blacker than Vantablack, we still get chills whenever Lightning enters from the Heavens on his preternatural blue bolt. If you ever wanted to unleash the full magickal, mystical force of Shadowrun on your players, these three gentlemen are where to start. Don’t worry too much about stating them out. After all, if you haven’t drunk Egg Shen’s potion you can’t truly hurt them!

   
   

7. Never forget Lo Pan. 

   

   He’s never forgotten you!

   Not the truest face of evil. He is no Noah Cross. But he is a greater personnel threat. Need an ancient terror for your game? He is your man. Need a soulless murderous sociopath with money and local power? Lo Pan is your man. Need a smart dressing smack talking spellcaster capable of shredding your Crew? Lo Pan is your man! And do you need all of the above wrapped in a sympathetic goal, to regain his humanity? Lo Pan is still your man! Better yet, confound your players by blinding them with magick, sicing monsters on them, and condemning them to the Hell of the Upside-Down Corpses, all while doing your best kindly Mr. Ping impression!

   

   And you were not put on this Earth to “get it”!

8. Egg Shen. Kindly old wizard, or eternal philosopher-sorcerer in the shenguai xiaoshuo*** tradition? You decide. Of all the strange events and beings in BTiLC, he just might be the strangest.

   

   An American Legend

9. And lastly, Mr. Black just wants it on record that James Hong is a Goddess blessed American treasure. Born in Minneapolis, served in the Korean conflict, with 142 films (and counting) and countless TV appearances. He embraces his ethnicity and his country of birth, and always entertains while doing it. In his 90’s, he teaches a new generation of AAPI actors, and doesn’t even have a star on the Walk of Fame. If anyone in the film business deserves an American Medal of Freedom, it is James Hong.

*an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.

**Tomogatchi-Ko is a AR trideo game similar to Pokémon Go. Special areas of a city (or those willing to pay the designers a fee) have unique “battle gatchi” to capture.

***Shenguai Xiaoshuo is a traditional Chinese literature that roughly translates to “Gods and Demons”. It concerns immortal beings fighting each other. Has Egg Shen been waging his war a lifetime, or since the demon Lo Pan was cursed with “no flesh” centuries before… Mr. Black has more to say about mixing Chinese classics and culture with Shadowrun, but that is for another post.

The Vital Trideography of John Carpenter, Part 2

 John Carpenter may not be the first filmmaker that comes to mind as the creator of the dystopian future genre, but he came damned close. Films from his golden era set the tone for everything Shadowrun, including the addition of magic. Mr. Black will take you through 6 of his groundbreaking and iconic films, and illustrate what a GM can take from them and add to his or her game.

Spoilers ahead, let’s dig in, in chronological order: Last time we did Escape from New York. This time we cover The Thing. So buckle in, check your flamethrower fuel, and let’s visit a classic.

1. Let’s start with the setting. A science base at the bottom of the world. In true horror style, it is isolated, and cut off from the world. It is a harsh, deadly environment, with no place to go, and there is no place to escape from what is about to happen. Let’s put it this way: DocWagon ain’t showing up to save anyone anytime soon.

   

   No one is showing up anytime soon..

   
   Sounds like a great place for a Big Ten Corp to set up a research station that they don’t want anyone to interfere with. And you can use this in your game. Pick a place close enough for the Crew to get there, but far enough away that help can’t show up. Choose a place isolated from civilization, and all its support*. No Matrix, no hospital, no police, no contacts coming to rescue them. The gear they have fits in the single carryon they could bring with them. The small Cessna C753 seaplane that brought them in has left.

   

   No one is showing up here either...

    The fuel cells on the YNT Delfins that transported them are dry. The sled dogs can’t be trusted. Cut them off. This is smarts over warez time.

2. The key horror of The Thing is body horror. This is the complete loss of control of our very physical being, and that control given to an uncaring alien force with the the ability to warp our human frame to its desires. Body horror is right up Shadowrun’s wheelhouse. Between uncaring corporations doing vile experiments, the inhumanity of cyberware, the attack on metahumanity by shape shifting AI’s and spirits, and the possession capabilities of some of them, body horror is at the base of Shadowrun’s burgeoning transhumanity. Use it!

   

   I am still a man! Please put the improved flamethrower away!

   
   

3. Use words that cause unease in your audience. Words like moist, crevice, orifice, secrete, and squirt. Remember, you cannot gross out the characters at your table, only your players. Use language that makes them cringe. If you are lucky, they will translate their emotional distress to their characters via roleplaying. 

   

   Moist, secreting orifices, coming right at you...

   
   

4. Invest in that unease. It is hard, but with a little work, and maybe some time with a thesaurus, it can be done. Channel those scenes where the creature possesses people, and warps itself. Describe all the inhuman details to your players. Never give them generalities. Don’t say, “The scientist’ head falls off, legs appear and it walks away.” Compare that with, “Paul’s head suddenly crooks to the side, at an unnatural angle. His mouth opens, and a high pitched sound comes from it. Then the head, Paul’s head, slides down his lab coat. You can hear bones crack, and cartilage pop. His neck stretches and parts, like a candy bar of caramel and nougat, stringy and moist, but red like blood. Long thin moist tendrils extend from Paul’s neck, whipping around with an inhuman intelligence. Paul’s lab coat is smeared with a bubbly pink mucus, as the last strands of his neck give way, and his head hits the floor with a wet plop. Thin crab-like legs extend from the orifices of Paul’s head, and it scurries off, towards the one way out of this room…”

   

   Hi! My name is Paul’s head...

   
   

5. Note how I kept mentioning “Paul’s” head. This is an example of using proper nouns to create immersion. By using his name, we are emphasizing his humanity, even as it is brutally taken from him. You need to make the NPC’s human to the players. No one cares when nameless mooks die. Kill 1, kill 100, they are just fodder and statistics. You need your players to empathize with the NPC’s before you kill them. Give them names. Give them traits. Give them hopes and dreams. After all, if Paul, the microbiologist with a girlfriend back in Seattle, who kindly shared his sesame krill treats with Blue Dawg the soy-allergic Troll decker can be possessed, by this thing, then no one is safe…

   

   One of us is going to betray you. Can you guess which one?

   
   

6. This use of proper nouns also aids creating paranoia. If you have 10 nameless faceless mooks and Paul, not only is it easy to guess who the thing is, but there is no tension when mooks betray you. Because only people you trust can betray you, and it awfully hard to trust “nameless person in a lab coat #2”. So spend some time with them. Think about Alien. We get to know them all quite well before the horror starts. Mr. Black is willing to bet that most of you can name the cat in Alien right now...

   

   SAY MY NAME YOU WORTHLESS GUTTER BUNNY!

   
   

7. And if we are giving names to the NPC’s, the thing does NOT get one. This Trideography is called The Thing for a reason. Because as soon as you name it, you give the players power over it. If you call it a Wendigo, or a Black Annis, your players will know they can kill it, and how. And then all the paranoia and fear you have worked so hard to create is gone, just like that. Even if the thing IS a shedem or an insect spirit, never confirm it to the players. When their characters suggest it, have the NPC’s deny it. “So you're saying a undead-like spirit creature from another dimension is possessing them? That’s crazy talk! How does that even work? I mean I am a professor of Advanced Thaumaturgy and Metamagicks, and it just doesn’t work that way!”

   

   I am a professor of Advanced Thaumaturgy,
   University of Washington State! I am perfectly fine!

   
   

8. The Thing, in Shadowrun terms, is a textbook example of insect spirit possession. An alien, non-human entity, takes over people, and warps their bodies and very souls to its non-mammalian will. Some may appear human on the outside, but on the inside, they want you to join them and create more inhuman spies. Just abdicate your intellect and you will be safe. And there is no harmonious space to share. You are either one of them, or just a future host. If you want to introduce insect spirits to your game in a controllable way, The Thing is a good template. Just the Crew and 10-15 scientist/researchers/fodder for nightmares…

9. While Mr. Black has much more to say about horror both in Shadowrun and at your table, The Thing is a good start. Follow the notes here until Mr. Black adds more.

*Around Seattle, sea floor research facilities abound in the turbulent waters of Puget Sound. And the NAN Salish Council lands can be isolated enough, especially during winter. Try the Cascade Ork lands, full of polluted mining projects, acid snow, and a repressed tribal people who dislike foreigners, non-NAN members, pink skins and breeders, in ascending order of hatred. Or try the top of a skyscraper, the top thirty floors cut off. Or a vast, deep basement of a research lab, with the elevator power out, and 300 meters of reinforced concrete between them and daylight. Or a facility in Glow City, for a The Thing-lite version. Toxic insect spirits anyone?

The Vital Trideography of John Carpenter, Part 1

 John Carpenter may not be the first filmmaker that comes to mind as the creator of the dystopian future genre, but he came damned close. Films from his golden era set the tone for everything Shadowrun, including the addition of magic. Mr. Black will take you through 6 of his groundbreaking and iconic films, and illustrate what a GM can take from them and add to his or her game.

Spoilers ahead, let’s dig in, in chronological order: first up, Escape from New York. 

1. At first blush, this classic actioner is about a prisoner forced to rescue someone in an apocalyptic hell zone. But it is so much more. Replace “futuristic government” with mega-corporation, and you can take a fresh new look at any of the mega’s black ops divisions. Too often we think of the mega’s as just modern-day companies with guns. But they really aren’t. They are the most powerful of Shadowrun’s nation states. They have more money, and more tech than any current nation state other than the US of A. And while the mega’s militaries may not be as big, they are the biggest of their time. And their operational commitment and decisiveness dwarfs that of any current country. Any modern state would take a highly trained, patriotic volunteer. But not the US of Escape from New York. They grab a criminal, give him a 24 hour window of success or death. Basically a Shadowrunner. They don’t really care about him, only the safe extraction of their “CEO”. Just like a Shadowrun. Really, Escape from New York is a Shadowrun, the extraction of a board member trapped in the Barrens, that no one can know about. Think about the ruthlessness of that government, and the vicious shadowy ops they execute to stay in power, and to gain even the smallest bit more.

   

   The Ready Room of your local Mega Corp

   
   

2. Speaking of the Barrens, the New York of the movie is a good replica of the Barrens of Seattle, or really the Barrens of any city. When the Crew has to enter the Barrens, picture the trash strewn streets, the fear and desperation of the inhabitants, the abandoned buildings, the dread and hopelessness of the inhabitants. It is a forgotten realm, with it’s own power structure, that of might (the Duke) and knowledge (the Brain) with street level projections of power by various feral gangs in between. Show your players that dread, that dirt, that damaged social structure. If they need more, remember the initial furious gang attack, and replay it with feral ghouls. If they need a glimmer of hope in the darkness, channel your best Borgnine and give them the Cabbie.

   

   You can’t meet the Duke! Are you crazy? Nobody gets

   to meet the Duke. You meet him once and then you’re dead!

   
   

3. Last thing, this would be a good first mission. A plane crashes in the Barrens. It is all over the news. Not reported is who was on board, a VIP of one of the Mega’s. The party fixer summons the Crew, and they have to go now, before any other Mega steps in, and before news gets out of the passenger list. The loss of the VIP would cause stock prices to drop, and so an extraction is needed. Now, immediately.

   

   When this is your Mr. Johnson, you know it is bad...

   
   The Crew gets what they need to do the job (perhaps a vehicle, or whatever else is needed.) they are also handed a tracking device locked to the VIP’s tracking bracelet (think DocWagon, but just for internal company use) and a sat phone, so they can call in when it is time for the hand off. The tracker makes this a very linear mission, perfect for a first Run. You can lead the Crew from encounter to encounter. If you need to add some flavor, add in an electronic file the VIP was carrying (aka the briefcase in the film), something extra to track down. Perhaps a character with ties to the mega sending them in is given a secondary tracker for it. (Better yet, a character with ties to a rival mega! They want the info, and want their “inside man” to get it. Without anyone else knowing, not even their Crew mates! Use the “inside man” to help create some minor paranoia, and force a moral dilemma onto your players.) Or throw in a rival extraction team. Not a HTR team, no one wants the scream sheets to see what is really going on. (This hiding of the truth/duplicity is a key theme, both of the mission, and of Shadowrun in general. Use this mission to pound that theme into their smarmy gutter bunny heads, that these are shadow ops, that keeping your mouth shut and the truth from everything and everyone is the part and parcel of their existence, and the reason for their paydays.) No it is a dark mirror version of the Crew, a Belloq to their Indiana Jones. Use this doppelgänger Crew to push the players, to put a ticking clock on their characters. You don’t want any lollygagging about here. Give them places to be, street gangs to fight, an enemy to outrun/outthink, and a good payday afterwards. Let them keep the Rover 2080, the sat phone, any toys they got. (Except the trackers, those get returned.) For future paranoia, put trackers in them all. Give them some rather generous money, or that piece of tech/ware someone really wanted but couldn’t afford/legally buy. If they carry it out (and this is a starting Run, they WILL succeed) and keep their mouths shut, they will have a Johnson for life,

   

   Guess who has another job?

   
   and the thanks of a Corp VIP (or not. Like in the Trid, show them how much the high up muckety-mucks really care!) They will also have a Mega watching them, another pissed at them, and a rival Crew to sparp with. That is a lot of rich future roleplaying out of a “starter mission”! Take it, run it fast, and introduce your players to a new, savage, and engaging future, all the way from 1981!