春節快樂!

Happy new year! The year of the Metal Rabbit is ending today, and the year of the Water Dragon starts tomorrow!

The Chinese New Year is the occasion for all Chinese to tidy up their homes, throw out old objects, buy new shoes and new clothes, and, most importantly, to remove the worn-out pictures of the Door Gods and to replace them with brand new shiny ones. See also p13 of The Celestial Empire.

The two pictures of the Door Gods (ménshén 門神) are placed on each side of the main entrance to the Chinese home and stand guard there for a full year to keep away evil spirits. The pictures face each other — it is considered bad luck to place them back-to-back.

Scenario Seed: Save the New Year!
The characters are resting in the city of [city name] before the Spring Festival. They are in the city magistrate's employ, or owe him a favour. They are summoned to the city yámén in the night before New Year's Day by a close retainer of the city magistrate. This is very unusual, since even civil servants are supposed to be off duty and celebrating with their family on New Year.
The magistrate receives them in casual dress... this is even more intriguing. He explains them that the situation is so urgent that he forgot about behaving properly. May Confucius forgive his misbehaviour. The whole stock of Door Gods prints that the city printer had prepared for distribution the next day has been stolen! The characters must absolutely find a solution or the whole city will go in panic mode once the disappearance of the good luck-bringing posters becomes public!

The characters may suggest...

• that the printer re-print a batch of Door Gods pictures. This is impossible because there's not enough paper left.
• that the magistrate buy a batch of pictures from another printer. This is impossible because the closest is in the next city, which is one day travel from their city.

Possible courses of action: the PCs could try and find paper somewhere (didn't that Buddhist abbot want to print out the Dàzàngjīng?), or they could try and a find a means to travel faster (isn't there a Daoist hermit in the mountains who can travel 500 lǐ in a day?). The best idea, however, would be retracing the thief. He's currently on the river bank, waiting for a boat that will take him to a city downstream where he's planning to sell the images.

Possible consequences should the PCs fail: Panic spreads through the city. Ne'er-do-wells and thieves take advantage of it to commit burglaries. The following days, having had word of the situation, brigands raid the city. In a campaign game with supernatural elements, the city could even fall prey to demons or yāoguài.

Weird Chinese Cults

Secret Santicore 2011 is a massive, free role-playing supplement produced by the Old School Renaissance (OSR) movement finest. You may get it from here.

I really enjoy reading the contents of the book, and I often find myself thinking how I could adapt this or that to The Celestial Empire. Today I am presenting you my Chinese adaptation of Weird Cults by Brendan S.

Roll 10D10 and pray the Buddha that nothing too weird happens!

㊀ TABLE I: What do they worship?

1. A foreign religion (see p39 of TCE)
2. A demon lord (a mìngmó, see p117 of TCE)
3. A forgotten deity from the ancient past
4. Prince of animals (roll on the animal table)
5. Chī Yóu
6. Emperor Xīn of Shāng (aka Evil King Zhòu)
7. The Dào
8. The new prophet
9. The overlord of a rival state
10. An ancient machine

㊁ TABLE II: What is their identifier?

1. Animal tattoo on their back (roll on the animal table)
2. Fine silver ring, allowed to tarnish
3. Ritual cross-hatch scars on upper arms
4. Glass eye
5. Secret kowtow
6. Green blood
7. Eyelid fold
8. Sharp teeth (either sharpened or naturally sharp)
9. Hairless
10. Verbal prayers of thanks to the patron upon any success

㊂ TABLE III: What is their ultimate goal?

1. Extinction, but they want to take as many others with them as possible
2. Accumulate souls for their account in hell
3. To take back the underworld — men belong underground, demons above
4. Prepare the world for the ancient masters from the stars
5. The Pill of Immortality; each cell has part of the recipe, they seek each other out
6. Enlightenment through extreme experiences
7. Reforesting the great waste known as civilisation
8. Red is the sacred colour, as much of the world as possible must be in this hue
9. Yellow is the sacred colour, as much of the world as possible must be in this hue
10. The end of warfare (could be latter-day Mohists)

㊃ TABLE IV: Who is in charge?

1. Mad charismatic crackpot
2. Demon, corrupt Xiān, or Yāoguài in human guise
3. Alchemist who found the recipe for the Pill of Immortality
4. Swindler, bilking the credulous
5. Swindler, bilking the credulous, unaware that his teachings are true
6. A sentient yīn lóngmài (see p85 of TCE)
7. A sentient yáng lóngmài (see p85 of TCE)
8. Prince of animals (roll on the animal table)
9. One of the PCs in a past life
10. An animated icon (see p84 of TCE)

㊄ TABLE V: What is their taboo?

1. Must not eat cereals
2. Will not bow in front of authority
3. If you meet their eyes, you will learn one of their secrets
4. They must wash skin that sunlight touches
5. Dead cultists must be buried in the cemetery of the leader's home village
6. Must not start a fire
7. Sexual abstinence
8. Will eat nothing cooked
9. Must not lie
10. Must always have a clear mind; no intoxicants

㊅ TABLE VI: What is their secret power?

1. Start and control fires — use the Flames of the Sun spell (see p131 of BRP) at half cost
2. Corpses speak to cultists — use the Necromancy skill (see p63 of TCE)
3. Discipline of the body — a random wǔshù power (see p66 of TCE)
4. Preserve corpses indefinitely, à la Kim Jong-il
5. None, though they believe they can summon demons
6. Rust metal by touch
7. Detect Truth at will (see p77 of TCE)
8. Fertile — crops tended yield 2 to 3 times normal bounty
9. Access to uncommon Battle Magic spells (see p76 of TCE)
10. Wire fu! — use the Sorcerer's Leap spell (see p134 of BRP) at half cost

㊆ TABLE VII: What is their ritual garb?

1. Saffron robes
2. Bronze armour with ornate helm
3. Official magistrates — they actually run the place!
4. Crazy Daoist garb, à la Chinese Ghost Story (they believe they are puissant Daoist sorcerers)
5. Finely scented loin cloth
6. White tunic and sandals
7. Masquerade masks
8. Loose hair, no hat
9. Aboriginal clothing
10. Shape-shifters — vixen spirits or other, ritual 'garb' is their non-human form

㊇ TABLE VIII: What do their nameless rituals entail?

1. Eating live animals (roll on the animal table)
2. Recitation of apocryphal sūtra
3. Silent meditation
4. Ritual combat
5. Human sacrifice
6. Animal sacrifice (roll on the animal table)
7. Burning the sacred texts of rival cults
8. Riddles
9. Summoning
10. Believer suicides

㊈ TABLE IX: Where do they hold their nameless rituals?

1. Theatre
2. Sacred cave
3. Sacred mountain top
4. Ancient unearthed vessel
5. Yámén — they run the place!
6. Ancestral hall of a ritually slain clan
7. Ancestral hall of the leader's clan
8. A natural glade under an overcast sky
9. By a yáng lóngmài to protect from hostile spirits
10. A rival cult's holy place

㊉ TABLE X: How old is the sect?

1. Just founded last week
2. Since before the Shāng
3. Was loosed on the world by something let out of an adventure by the PCs
4. During the founding of the current dynasty
5. The previous dynasty (cult is all that remains)
6. Cult is a cyclical plague unleashed to punish decadent societies
7. Originally founded by a mythical ancestor in ancient times
8. Older than written history (all cult records are oral)
9. It was born with the leader and will die with the leader
10. Founded based on some past innocuous PC action

APPENDIX: Animal table

1. Mantis
2. Turtle
3. Goat
4. Wasp
5. Ox
6. Rat
7. Worm
8. Monkey
9. Snake
10. Centipede

Chinese Age Reckoning

The traditional Chinese way of reckoning a person's age is completely different from the Western one. In the West, we are born at age '0', and we age 1 year at our birthday. In Imperial China, newborn start at 1 year-old, and they add 1 year on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

Hence a baby born on the 30th day of the 12th month is already 1-year old at birth. He or she ages 1 year on the first day of the Chinese New Year, i.e., the 2nd day of his or her life. So when the baby is two days old, his or her age is actually "2 years"!

As a consequence, there will always be a 1- or even 2-year difference between the Chinese age and the Western age of your characters, the former being the larger one. GMs may or may not want to take this into account for the rules about character generation etc.

Quick Tables to Generate Chinese Province Names

I have received very positive feedback on my post about the creation of on-the-fly Chinese town and city names. Therefore I am now providing a post on how to create Chinese-sounding province names.

Chinese provinces haven't always had the same name (and area) as today. For GMs who like their games to be historically accurate, it is easy to look up the right names of the provinces for a given dynasty in a history atlas or on Wikipedia. For GMs who like to play in a generic fantasy China à la Dragon Lines, I believe this post should come in handy.

Much like Chinese towns and cities, Chinese provinces usually have a two-syllable name. The first syllable is either a proper noun (often the name of a river or of a salient place name from the province itself) or an epithet for the second syllable, which itself is more often than not a common noun.

The following tables will create realistically-sounding names for your Chinese provinces. First roll a D20 for the first syllable from Table 1, then roll a D12 for the second syllable from Table 2. Voilà, you have a fairly nicely sounding name for your Chinese province.

Table 1 (D20)

1. Ān (peaceful)
2. Fèng (respectful)
3. Fú (happy)
4. Guān (frontier pass)
5. Guǎng (expanse)
6. Hé (river)
7. Hú (lake)
8. Jiāng (river)
9. Jīng (bramble)
10. Lì (merit)
11. Lín (descend)
12. Lǐng (mountain ridge)
13. Níng (peaceful)
14. Shān (mountain range)
15. Shǎn (mountain pass)
16. Tóng (lofty)
17. Xián (united)
18. Xīn (new)
19. Yǒng (eternal)
20. Yún (misty [mountains])

Table 2 (D12)

1. běi (north)
2. chuān (circuit)
3. dōng (east)
4. jī (domain)
5. jiàn (establishment)
6. jiāng (疆, frontier)
7. jiāng (江, river)
8. nán (south)
9. nèi (inside)
10. xī (west)
11. yòu (west)
12. yuán (plain)

Quick Guidelines & Tables to Generate Chinese Town & City Names

Chinese town and city names are usually made up of two syllables. The first syllable would usually be an adjective or a proper noun, and the second syllable a common noun, most frequently a proper noun such as "prefecture", "capital city", etc.

Some examples from actual Chinese place names:

Capital cities: ending in -jīng:
Běijīng = Northern (běi) + capital city (jīng)
Dōngjīng = Eastern (dōng) + capital city (jīng)
Nánjīng = Southern (nán) + capital city (jīng)
Shèngjīng = flourishing (shèng) + capital city (jīng)

Prefectural seats: ending in -zhōu:
Guǎngzhōu = Guǎng (name of the province) + prefecture (zhōu)
Hángzhōu = Háng (proper noun) + prefecture (zhōu)
Lánzhōu = orchid (lán) + prefecture (zhōu)
Quánzhōu = source (quán) + prefecture (zhōu)
Sūzhōu = Sū (proper noun) + prefecture (zhōu)
Zhèngzhōu = Zhèng (name of an ancient state) + prefecture (zhōu)

Medium-sized cities: ending in -chéng or in -dū
Áodū = Áo (proper noun) + city (dū)
Běidū = Northern (běi) + city (dū)
Chéngdū = Chéng (proper noun) + city (dū)
Dàdū = large (dà) + city (dū)
Guīchéng = turtle (guī) + city (chéng)
Jǐnchéng = brocade (jǐn) + city (chéng)
Róngchéng = hibiscus (róng) + city (chéng)

River-name-based city names:
Hànkǒu = Hàn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river mouth (kǒu)
Hànyáng = Hàn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)
Luòyáng = Luò (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)
Shěnyáng = Shěn (name of the river that flows through the city) + river bank (yáng)

Miscellaneous names:
Bǎo'ān = precious (bǎo) + peace (ān)
Cháng'ān = long (cháng) + peace (ān)
Chóngqìng = double (chóng) + celebration (qìng)
Fóshān = Buddha (Fó) + mountain (shān)
Guìlín = olive tree (guì) + forest (lín)
Lín'ān = descending (lín) + peace (ān)
Níngbō = tranquil (níng) + waves (bō) [Níngbō is a port city]
Qīngdǎo = azure (qīng) + island (dǎo)
Qìngyáng = celebration (qìng) + river bank (yáng)
Rìzhào = sun (rì) + shine (zhào)
Shàoxīng = continue (shào) + thrive (xīng)
Tiānjīn = sky (tiān) + ferry (jīn) [Tiānjīn is a port city]
Xī'ān = Western (xī) + peace (ān)

The above examples should enable you to create on-the-fly city names when needed. Here are some more guidelines:

For a large city, the easiest is <a syllable>+zhōu. The first syllable being quite often a proper name, you may use the sample surnames from p8 of the rule book, or alternatively one of the following:

• Bái: white
• Běi: Northern
• Dōng: Eastern
• Hēi: black
• Hóng: red
• Huáng: yellow
• Nán: Southern
• Níng: tranquil
• Qīng: azure
• Xī: Western
• Zhōng: central

For a medium-sized city, roll 2D10 and refer to the following table:
die roll – 1st syllable – 2nd syllable
1 – Běi – 'ān
2 – Xī – dǎo
3 – Hé – mén
4 – Jiāng – chéng
5 – Zhōng – chuān
6 – Hú – dū
7 – Qīng – lín
8 – Dōng – shān
9 – Nán – yáng
0 – <use a syllable from the table of surnames> – zhuāng

Smaller settlements can simply be named “<surname> family village”, <surname> being the most common surname in the area, or the surname of the foremost local clan, e.g., the notorious Zhù Family Village in the Water Margin.