To Lareau Web Parlour On the Brink of the Edge Page

The first inkling of an alternate, Feng Shui campaign setting came while I was rereading WEATHER/CUCKOO and ran across the reference to the "Shanghai Edge", an alternate world where the Edge was patterned after 1930's Shanghai. I always thought that would make an interesting setting to play with. Then came Feng Shui, a game where cosmic upheaval and alternate histories/worlds are all part of the Big Picture already. Since the French version of OTE sets The Edge on a Caribbean island (BTW: is that version out yet? Is it available domestically from anyone? I MUST have it!) and there are to be changes in the Italian version (that one too!), the idea of one more misplaced island didn't seem too far fetched. Besides, the games have some...names... in common. :-)

In this version of Al Amarja, which needs a new name, The Edge is a city located on an island in the South China Sea, um, north and west of Vietnam. Its history is a little different, but strangely familiar. The Island was once a French colonial territory, administered from the same offices that oversaw French Indochina. It has a fairly large population of French settlers/colonialists. During WWII, the Island was occupied by the Japanese. In 1940, a crafty French settler woman by the name of Monique D'Aubainne engineered a deal in which she bought the island from the Japanese and staged a "Liberation" of her newly purchased property by a rag tag army of plantation workers and former French POW's masquerading as "guerilla partisans". She declared the Island independent, a claim which was supported by Allied troops when they passed through the area on the way toward Japan. Quick to make friends with the US, to keep the French from taking back her expensive little playground, she adopted the dollar as currency, made English the official language and generally rode the coattails of the American victory in the Pacific War.

The Island has since thrived, a decadent little freeport with very liberal trade policies and a nearly invisible international profile. The Island absorbed large numbers of Chinese refugees from the mainland in the wake of the Communist victory. They joined a sizeable population of ethnic Chinese already on the Island. (The original native population is ethnically similar to the Vietnamese on the nearby mainland, but has strong Filipino and Japanese elements as well.) Another huge wave of refugees flooded onto the Island with the fall of Saigon. The latest wave has begun to trickle in, Chinese and British seeking to leave Hong Kong, most of them decadent or corrupt individuals trying to hold on to ill-gotten gains. Monique has seen the Island through all of these crises and held onto supreme power with an iron fist.

In Feng Shui terms, the Island Juncture is essentially similar to the present day Juncture, with the following differences: Magic is still a strong, if hidden force in this reality. The Transformed are powerful, but not as powerful as they are in the game's version of the modern world. They have to hide from Magic Using opponents. The Island is rich in Magical energies, and so they must be cautious about operating there. In this world, the Transformed and their Lodge must wage secret wars for control against the agents of the Xian Ti, the "Immortal Emperors". The two sides have been battling for millenia with no clear winner in sight.

Here's a quick rundown of the Island's neighborhoods (the Chinese names are cobbled together from the list found in Palladium's MYSTIC CHINA, I have absolutely NO talent for that language and don't really pretend to have good translations. I had to fudge the names for the closest thematic fit I could make. Anyone with a better grasp of the language, please HELP me!)

The neighborhoods are identified by the large square in the middle of the district or ward associated with it.

Arms Barrio/ AN HSIEH "Tranquil Unification" : the concrete parade grounds echo with the stamp of thousands of training soldiers. The square is surrounded by regimented blocks of barracks and fortified bunkers which house the command centers for the Island's military. On festival days, the children of the soldiers housed here perform disciplined displays featuring the blue pennants and white star of the national flag, or line up in rows to display a composite portrait of Her Exhaltedness made up of thousands of individual placards.

Broken Wings/ QIAN XIN "Money Heart" or "Rich Heart" as its inhabitants prefer to think of it. Old style colonial mansions stand amid the walled remnants of plantation enclosures. The statue in the square was reduced to rubble by occupying Japanese soldiers. The new regime has never replaced it, preferring to leave the rubble as a reminder to the Island's wealthiest inhabitants of just how much they depend on Her Exhaltedness for their prosperity.

Flowers/WAN JU "Ten thousand Chrysanthemums", the Artists district. Jade statues and priceless works of calligraphy are on sale here. Kumite style blood-duels are fought for the amusement of audiences in bars and warhouses here, under the watchful eye of the NIU or "Ox" gang. All Niu must have been born in a Year of the Ox. They rely on astrological calculations/magic from their Taoist shaman advisors as much as on their own brawn. Secretly, many Niu are actually Transformed Ox-warriors. They are shielded from Magical exposure by talismans they receive from the shamans, all part of an ancient pact made in the dim past.

Four Points/SI TIAN "The Four Heavens". A desperate slum of huge, towering apartment blocks, all new and all cheaply constructed. Similar to Mongkok in Hong Kong. The buildings are perpetually crumbling in the stormy tropical climate of the Island and are covered with scaffolding as repairs are almost constantly underway. This is the dumping ground for the poorer Vietnamese boat-people who came flooding in faster than they could be assimilated into the better neighborhoods. The crumbling towers of SI TIAN are among the most recognizable aspects of the City's skyline. Once, this was the territory of the She Gang, a Serpent Gang based on similar astrological premises as the Niu. The Serpents have been exterminated by a ruthless, agressive new gang, the GOU HOU or "Dog-Monkeys". Gou Hou is the name given by locals to the Vietnamese work gangs pressed into perpetual service on the scaffolds. The Gou Hou use jury-rigged weapons made from construction tools, especially rivet guns and nasty pneumatic jacks & drills. They are reputed to use combat trained monkeys as well. Veterans of the Shadow Wars suspect that they have Transformed Monkeys as well as Jammer bionic chimpanzee/ape soldiers in their ranks. Actually, any or all of the above may be true

Great Men/NANCHUN "Noble Men" A decrepit, bombed out wreck of a neighborhood. NANCHUN was the prewar commercial capital of the City. It was all but devastated by the Japanese in the invasion. Some reconstruction has gone on over the years, but this ward is half reclaimed by jungle and it looks like the government would just as soon turn over the other half. Whole blocks stand empty, gutted shells around tent squats inside. The ruling power are the Chun Mo, Noble Devils, a strange gang reputed to have pacts with demons and to wield demonic powers themselves. The Chun Mo leaders each have one Supernatural Monster Power, granted to them by the bite of hissing demonic centipedes provided by servants of the Eaters of the Lotus. The Lotus are powerful here, their servants and sorcerors prowl the ruins at will. Supernatural monsters are kept in check here only by the threat of Monique's napalm equipped airforce. She has vowed to burn the ward to the ground if the beasties start prowling into better neighborhoods. The monsterous inhabitants of the ward are only rumors and legends to the inhabitants of the rest of the City, but a vicious fact of life for the poor and desperate forced to live here. The central power in Nanchun is actually Sir Arthur Compton, a degenerate Englishman driven out of Hong Kong by angry mobs ("I do believe they intended to burn me at a stake. How quaint!"). Sir Arthur is the most accomplished Sorceror known to live on the Island, and he came with his SAS trained mercenary retainers. Ever see a demon-possessed Gurkha with automatic weaponry? Not pretty. He lives in a fortified warehouse in the center of the NANCHUN.

Golden Barrio/CHIN TONG "Gold Coin" district is the new business center of the Island. It is filled with towering new bank buildings and if filled to the brim with Triad and Golden Triangle drug trade money. Anything is for sale on CHIN TONG's exchanges, including drugs, stolen artifacts, Chinese & North Korean weapons, pirated Japanese computer chips and even human slaves destined for the brothels of Thailand or Hong Kong. The district is personally overseen by Monique's daughter Constance. Her Golden Knights are the best equipped mercenaries on the Island.

Justice/CHIH LI "Judgement Ceremony" ward is named for the large executions square in its center. The Island's old warlords used to behead their enemies here. The Japanese gunned down thousands in the square during the Invasion. Monique prefers the more "civilized" method of hanging. The ghosts of the executed howl like winds through the streets at night. The simple, working class people who live here keep them at bay with ringing windchimes, constant fireworks, and tons of worthless paper "ghost money" thrown into the night air of the most unquiet alleys. The people are stoic, sullen, and quick to lynch anyone who might complicate their already difficult lives. The Guiding Hand have many students here. Their message of strength and peace through discipline finds a ready ear among the ward's young. Guiding Hand martial arts schools are common and their trained warriors might provide a threat to Monique's own power structure, if her agents didn't keep the rival schools engaged in senseless, destructive infighting constantly.

Science/TSAO WU "Laboratory" district is named for the D'Aubainne University constructed here and the acres of research labs constructed on what used to be wetlands and rice fields. The Island's numerous drug labs are based here and each is protected by an army of mercenary guards. With good reason, since commando raids by elite anti-drug units from any one of a dozen countries are not uncommon. Such illegal raiders are executed if captured. Sometimes even by Monique, if they live that long. The Architects of the Flesh have their agents here, churning out "new inventions" as fast as they can be conveyed through the Netherworld pipeline. Cyborg monsters and Abominations are housed in deep, dripping basements beneath the glass and steel research buildings. The Guild, a collective of mad scientists who are the Architects' chief indigenous allies here, have been experimenting on their own, combining the Sorcerous techniques of the Eater of the Lotus with Architect technology to create their own Abominations. The Guild has a more creative future in mind than the Buros', they are not ready to share that vision, just yet.

Sunken/KAI DONG "Expanding Cavern" ward is named for the deeply sunken square in the center, rebuilt after the old square collapsed into a sudden sinkhole. (The result of some Feng Shui site burning, no doubt.) KAI DONG is the tourists' sector of the City and is maintained as a relative safe haven for offisland travellers seeking to indulge in the decadent delights the City has to offer. It is the home of the Island's only Temple, with its gigantic red gates and massive Foo Dog statues. The Temple is a Netherworld Portal and so must be guarded at all times. The public are not allowed into its deepest sanctuaries, where warrior monks and special forces troopers guard the Gates. If there are Dragons to be found on the Island, they must be bur..."tourists" and they'll be found here.

Some sample Feng Shui sites to be found on the Island include a Mystically Potent Laundry, guarded by an order of secret Taoist Wizards; the Chateau Melmoth, a relic of the colonial past which caters to registered Sorcerors; The Terminal, another Netherworld portal, but one that is not as carefully guarded as the Temple's; and the Underground Headquarters of a benevolent secret society known as the DI CHIANG SAN, "The Threefold Spear of Earth." In the TSAO WU, a promising young physicist is working on a device that would combine the basic principles of acupuncture with global geomagnetics to harness the raw power of Chi itself. Poor Anxiu Reyes has no idea that she is on the verge of inventing the Ultimate Feng Shui site, and single handedly winning the Shadow War for her patron, Tramh LeThuy. ( oh dear, that can't be good...)

Oh, did I mention the extraterrestrial crustaceans that have begun to infest the "boat city" in the bay just west of the City? Another time, perhaps...

Hope you find something fun in this variant setting. It should work equally well for OTE groups doing some dimension hopping, or as a Sideways Reincarnation penalty for Feng Shui groups that screwed up big time. Enjoy! And let me know of any additions or variations that you may want to try with it! I haven't had a chance to run this one yet and have all the time in the world to tinker with it!

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