I am still pondering this so bear with me a bit.

Ye ancient times
Ghosts and monsters roamed the Earth.  Great heroes were capable of superhuman feats.  People knew about about hungry ghosts and minimized their appearance.  Heroes took care of the ones that did appear with their superhuman martial arts abilities.

Building the barrier
I haven't decided exactly when but I am thinking of putting this during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong at the height of the Tang Dynasty.  A barrier was built between the human world and the spirit world.  Ghosts were blocked off from entering the human world.  Demons and monsters were either prevented from entering or cut off from their source of power and withered.  The super powered martial artists also drew from the same power source also lost their abilities.  Since they were no longer needed to fight supernatural threats, this was considered an acceptable trade-off.  People continued to study kung fu as normal martial arts.  Only a small number of people had the superhuman abilities even then so, for the vast majority of people, the study of kung fu was no different than it had ever been.

Ghost festivals
In retrospect, many people think that the various ghost festivals around the world like The Hungry Ghost Festival, Samhain or The Day of the Dead marked times and places where a certain number of ghosts were allowed to leak through into the human world as a sort of pressure relief valve.  The purpose was to keep too much pressure from building up on the other side of the barrier.  The ghosts released were far weaker than they had been in ancient times and were more of a nuisance than a real threat.

The 20th century
Whoever or whatever built the barrier did not anticipate the sheer scale of carnage that took place in the 20th century.  People died violently in the tens and hundreds of million.  Many were never given proper burials.  The pressure relief valve could not even begin to keep up with the massive influx of ghosts.  The ghosts created by the ongoing war in Ukraine was the last straw.

The dam breaks
At midnight China Standard Time on September 6th 2025, the dam broke.  Instead of a trickle of ghosts, there was a flood.  On a roughly 800 mile line from Western Guangxi to the coast and extending from pole to pole tens of million of ghosts began to pour forth to consume the living the turn them into more ghosts.  Many believe that the dam broke here because of the sheer death toll during the Great Leap Forward.  As the Earth rotated, the effect swept over the world.  Militaries responded to the the ghost invasion but were quickly overwhelmed since conventional weapons were useless against them.

Aftermath
Because of the way the effect spread, People in Western China had a precious 24 hours to respond before it got there.  Cities were evacuated.  Kung fu practioners found that their skills were effective against the ghosts where conventional weapons failed.  The same held true of dedicated practioners of other martial arts but, of course, there were far fewer of them in China.  The PLA grabbed every martial artist they could find and used them as a rearguard while the civilian population retreated.  Many lives were saved.  The death toll was still very high but nowhere near the almost complete extermination that happened in the areas that were initially hit.  Many of the survivors were evacuated to Ordos City in Inner Mongolia.  It was the perfect refuge.  It was an entire built but scarcely populated city in a remote, thinly populated area where only a few ghosts appeared.  Many now believe that Ordos City was actually built for this purpose.

Now
The last five years has been a period of regouping and adjustment.  The PLA started a crash program to teach all of their surviving soldiers kung fu.  Weapons and armor from pre-modern times went back into mass production again since they were effective against ghosts in the hands of a skilled martial artist where more modern weapons and body armor failed.  Food and water had to be secured for the populace.  Kung fu schools are opening everywhere since demand for kung fu instruction has dramatically increased for obvious reasons.  A few martial artists have started to manifest the fantastic abilities from the old stories.  A handful of survivors from Shaolin Temple are attempting to organize these people into special teams to be the spearheads in retaking China.  PCs being member of these teams is the default premise.  Meanwhile, the hordes of ghosts have started to slowly spread out from the areas where they initially appeared.  Possibly they are looking for fresh prey.

I am pondering systems for this thing.  I want a system that already has all of this.  I have no inclination to start with a generic system and build it all myself.  I would prefer a system that can also handle modern weapons since there will be creatures like Mongolian Death Worms that can be shot and, of course human antagonists to deal with.  A detailed system for this is not necessary.  Super kung fu should trump guns.  This time, the Ho Chuan are right.  Martial arts really can make you bulletproof now.             

I think it's a cool idea and I'd love to play.  Immediately my mind went to Big Trouble in Little China.

Here's one thing I'd add to the mix if I were building up the setting: Taoist mysticism.  I would look into things like Feng Shui, Xi flow, and divine personalities like the Four Heavenly Kings. 

It's a shit movie but you might get something as far as inspiration from Bulletproof Monk.  (Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior would be another but I think that might be a bridge too far.)

Quote from: yosemitemike on February 27, 2025, 06:23:08 AMI am pondering systems for this thing.  I want a system that already has all of this.  I have no inclination to start with a generic system and build it all myself.  I would prefer a system that can also handle modern weapons since there will be creatures like Mongolian Death Worms that can be shot and, of course human antagonists to deal with.  A detailed system for this is not necessary.  Super kung fu should trump guns.  This time, the Ho Chuan are right.  Martial arts really can make you bulletproof now. 

I think I may have just the game you're looking for:  Far West.

It'll take a little tweaking and a little kit-bashing but I think it'll do what you want.  It's based on WEG D6 so it's compatible with all the material that's out there for other WEG/Open D6 games.  A little reskinning, a little borrowing from other source books...

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 07:07:35 AMHere's one thing I'd add to the mix if I were building up the setting: Taoist mysticism.  I would look into things like Feng Shui, Xi flow, and divine personalities like the Four Heavenly Kings. 

I want to include that sort of thing but I want it to be very rare and limited to a few NPCs.  Genuine magical practice is just now coming back after centuries of magic not working while the barrier was in place.  A lot of that knowledge was lost as people stopped practicing magical practices that no longer worked,  Much knowledge was lost during the cultural revolution along with a lot of Chinese cultural heritage.  Right now, I am inclined to make PCs venture into the ghost haunted heartlands to find this knowledge rather that starting with it.

Quote from: yosemitemike on February 27, 2025, 08:13:14 AM

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 07:07:35 AMHere's one thing I'd add to the mix if I were building up the setting: Taoist mysticism.  I would look into things like Feng Shui, Xi flow, and divine personalities like the Four Heavenly Kings. 

I want to include that sort of thing but I want it to be very rare and limited to a few NPCs.  Genuine magical practice is just now coming back after centuries of magic not working while the barrier was in place.  A lot of that knowledge was lost as people stopped practicing magical practices that no longer worked,  Much knowledge was lost during the cultural revolution along with a lot of Chinese cultural heritage.  Right now, I am inclined to make PCs venture into the ghost haunted heartlands to find this knowledge rather that starting with it.

I'm with you.  The PC's are having a fish-out-of-water experience with the supernatural.  They could discover things like their grandmother's talisman actually have tangible benefits in reflecting curses from ghosts and the foo dogs really do create a barrier against evil spirits.  Rather than the PCs being anti ghost wizards, they are more akin to kung fu ghost busters that use some arcane knowledge they learn along the way.  LAte stage play would look more like a Constantine story rather than a traditional fantasy game.

I could see it being a game that plays a bit like Call of Cthulhu and a bit like The Witcher books.  Learn about the ghost or other supernatural entity, find it's weakness, learn the appropriate rituals and kung fu moves, then have a showdown.  Adventures could involve things like searching the mountains for a lost monastery library and visiting octogenarian kung fu masters for training.

I like the concept. I'd be interested how a martial world might map out in this kind of setting

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 09:17:38 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on February 27, 2025, 08:13:14 AM

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 07:07:35 AMHere's one thing I'd add to the mix if I were building up the setting: Taoist mysticism.  I would look into things like Feng Shui, Xi flow, and divine personalities like the Four Heavenly Kings. 

I want to include that sort of thing but I want it to be very rare and limited to a few NPCs.  Genuine magical practice is just now coming back after centuries of magic not working while the barrier was in place.  A lot of that knowledge was lost as people stopped practicing magical practices that no longer worked,  Much knowledge was lost during the cultural revolution along with a lot of Chinese cultural heritage.  Right now, I am inclined to make PCs venture into the ghost haunted heartlands to find this knowledge rather that starting with it.

I'm with you.  The PC's are having a fish-out-of-water experience with the supernatural.  They could discover things like their grandmother's talisman actually have tangible benefits in reflecting curses from ghosts and the foo dogs really do create a barrier against evil spirits.  Rather than the PCs being anti ghost wizards, they are more akin to kung fu ghost busters that use some arcane knowledge they learn along the way.  LAte stage play would look more like a Constantine story rather than a traditional fantasy game.

I could see it being a game that plays a bit like Call of Cthulhu and a bit like The Witcher books.  Learn about the ghost or other supernatural entity, find it's weakness, learn the appropriate rituals and kung fu moves, then have a showdown.  Adventures could involve things like searching the mountains for a lost monastery library and visiting octogenarian kung fu masters for training.

I might have missed it if this idea was already mentioned, but one idea that could work too is having people from the prior eras make their way to the present through the gate if you want characters who are plucked right out of wuxia (the fish-out-of-water comment prompted this thought). There is a movie called Terracotta Warrior that is about that idea (came out in the early or mid-80s). Old masters who are still alive and know how to contend with ghosts could be useful (and could be an interesting foundation for new sects)

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 07:15:11 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on February 27, 2025, 06:23:08 AMI am pondering systems for this thing.  I want a system that already has all of this.  I have no inclination to start with a generic system and build it all myself.  I would prefer a system that can also handle modern weapons since there will be creatures like Mongolian Death Worms that can be shot and, of course human antagonists to deal with.  A detailed system for this is not necessary.  Super kung fu should trump guns.  This time, the Ho Chuan are right.  Martial arts really can make you bulletproof now.

I think I may have just the game you're looking for:  Far West.

It'll take a little tweaking and a little kit-bashing but I think it'll do what you want.  It's based on WEG D6 so it's compatible with all the material that's out there for other WEG/Open D6 games.  A little reskinning, a little borrowing from other source books...

I'm not familiar with _Far West_ so I don't know how they compare, but you might also take a look at the _Feng Shui_ RPG. It's originally from Daedalus Entertainment and now published by Atlas Games. It covers a wide range of Hong Kong action movie tropes, including gun-slinging and magic - so you'd have to disallow many magic and gun abilities. Still, it covers ghosts from the past coming into the present.

https://atlas-games.com/fengshui

Funny coincidence, I'm also working on a setting/system that is largely based in Chinese aesthetics and folklore. Granted, mine is a bit more on the xianxia/fantasy side of the scale.


If you Don't mind sharing, what sources do you to reference? A lot of the translated old myths are, for some reason, insanely expensive in print and I can't find pdf or ebook versions.

As for a system, somebody already mentioned "Feng Shui," which is probably the best fit.  "Mists of Akuma" has potential as well, but it's based on Japan, not China.

An interesting possibility is "Amazing Adventures" from Troll Lord Games and you could pick up their "Codex Sinarum" for Castles & Crusades for background history & mythology. 

There's also "Heroes & Hardships" from Earl of Fife Games, which is a generic, universal system with lots of crunch.

Quote from: Hzilong on February 27, 2025, 06:40:04 PMFunny coincidence, I'm also working on a setting/system that is largely based in Chinese aesthetics and folklore. Granted, mine is a bit more on the xianxia/fantasy side of the scale.


If you Don't mind sharing, what sources do you to reference? A lot of the translated old myths are, for some reason, insanely expensive in print and I can't find pdf or ebook versions.

What kinds of things are you looking for?  Most of the classical novels and supernatural short stories are available in cheap translations and there are tons of reprints of Lafcadio Hearns' collections from the early 20th century that compile Asian myths & ghost stories. A few of the Jin Yong wuxia novels have been translated as well.

I've actually been searching for a digital version of a translation of a specific book called Classic of Mountains and Seas. I saw a physical copy of the translation on amazon or ebay, but the thing was 100+ dollars.

Greetings!

I also agree with Persimmon. There are many reasonably priced books about history, culture, and mythology available. I have a decent collection for example, covering some Ancient China, and also Ancient India.

However, having said that--there are many very excellent resources, such as Historical Dictionaries, large compendiums of mythology, and so on--that are typically on the more expensive side. I have several large books for example, on Ancient India; two covering Indian history and culture, and one dealing with Tamil Culture. These books are written by accomplished scholars, and properly translated into English. Hardcover, usually 500 pages and more. They each sell for $125 or $150 dollars *each*. There source availability is limited, for example. Amazon gets them from one university in America or Britain or India that has published them. You are not likely to find these books--in English--anywhere else. So, yeah, getting your hands on some of the better, or more thorough and comprehensive resources is likely to be much more expensive than you are accustomed to. Another example, some of my top-notch resources on Mongolia have not been cheap, either. $80.00, $125.00, and $150.00 dollars are pretty standard prices.

I also think there is an "Exotic" factor involved, and also a kind of "economy of scale". I have many books for example on Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, or the Vikings, that go for $15.00 to $50.00, maybe $60.00. The reason is simple--the public demand for these topics is much higher for Greece, Rome, and Vikings, so the publishing can thus be much cheaper. The market for Chinese or India topics is considerably smaller, and thus, for the universities, publishers, and the authors involved, such must be more expensive to justify the costs and make a minimal profit.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 09:17:38 AMI'm with you.  The PC's are having a fish-out-of-water experience with the supernatural.  They could discover things like their grandmother's talisman actually have tangible benefits in reflecting curses from ghosts and the foo dogs really do create a barrier against evil spirits.  Rather than the PCs being anti ghost wizards, they are more akin to kung fu ghost busters that use some arcane knowledge they learn along the way.  LAte stage play would look more like a Constantine story rather than a traditional fantasy game.

The old protections definitely work and there is an emerging cottage industry of people doing things like making protective talismans and breeding foo dogs.  I have research to do here since I don't know a lot about this subject.  The PLA has its own branch that makes talismans to issue to recon units that are keeping track of what the ghosts are doing and foraging parties going into ghost haunted areas to get needed resources.  Right now, I am thinking that a talisman has a certain amount of power in it when it's made and repelling ghosts or curses uses power.  When all the power is used up, they need to be replaced.  Even with protections, venturing into areas that are thick with ghosts is very dangerous.  Only the best martial artists are assigned to these units.  They are. essentially, elite special operations teams.  This is another default campaign framework.

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 09:17:38 AMI could see it being a game that plays a bit like Call of Cthulhu and a bit like The Witcher books.  Learn about the ghost or other supernatural entity, find it's weakness, learn the appropriate rituals and kung fu moves, then have a showdown.  Adventures could involve things like searching the mountains for a lost monastery library and visiting octogenarian kung fu masters for training.

I was envisioning some more action oriented that Call of Cthulhu.  A lot of things can be defeated just by beating them up with your super kung fu though this may well be easier said than done.  Needing specific knowledge or preparation would be for major antagonists like the returning demons which I haven't really mentioned before.  There are only a few of them and most people aren't aware of their existence but they are extremely powerful and dangerous.

Quote from: Bedrockbrendan on February 27, 2025, 10:15:54 AMI like the concept. I'd be interested how a martial world might map out in this kind of setting

This part is very vague at the moment.  This is something that has only really started to form in the last couple of years.  Before that, people were mainly focused on regrouping and sheer survival.  Ordos City was already built but a lot of work had to be done to make the place habitable for a large number of people.  There is a sect that was created by three elderly men that escaped from Shaolin Temple when it was overrun by ghosts.  They are too old to go adventuring themselves so they are recruiting younger, more vigorous people.  Their long-term goal is retaking the heartland of China.  Their more immediate goal is to recover the knowledge they were forced to leave behind when they fled the Temple.  This is the default sect that the PCs would belong to.  There are also a number of sects formed by the small number of demons who have returned.  Right now, they are mainly fighting each other because all of the demons want to be the one in charge.  Right now, they are all operating in the shadows and the vast majority of people, even members of these sects, do not know they exist.  There are also a ton of different kung fu schools all trying to position themselves as the best school to fight ghosts.  Some are doing this cynically to gain wealth and influence while many genuinely think that their school is the best.   

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 09:17:38 AM

Quote from: yosemitemike on February 27, 2025, 08:13:14 AM

Quote from: BadApple on February 27, 2025, 07:07:35 AMHere's one thing I'd add to the mix if I were building up the setting: Taoist mysticism.  I would look into things like Feng Shui, Xi flow, and divine personalities like the Four Heavenly Kings. 

I want to include that sort of thing but I want it to be very rare and limited to a few NPCs.  Genuine magical practice is just now coming back after centuries of magic not working while the barrier was in place.  A lot of that knowledge was lost as people stopped practicing magical practices that no longer worked,  Much knowledge was lost during the cultural revolution along with a lot of Chinese cultural heritage.  Right now, I am inclined to make PCs venture into the ghost haunted heartlands to find this knowledge rather that starting with it.

I'm with you.  The PC's are having a fish-out-of-water experience with the supernatural.  They could discover things like their grandmother's talisman actually have tangible benefits in reflecting curses from ghosts and the foo dogs really do create a barrier against evil spirits.  Rather than the PCs being anti ghost wizards, they are more akin to kung fu ghost busters that use some arcane knowledge they learn along the way.  LAte stage play would look more like a Constantine story rather than a traditional fantasy game.

I could see it being a game that plays a bit like Call of Cthulhu and a bit like The Witcher books.  Learn about the ghost or other supernatural entity, find it's weakness, learn the appropriate rituals and kung fu moves, then have a showdown.  Adventures could involve things like searching the mountains for a lost monastery library and visiting octogenarian kung fu masters for training.

I might have missed it if this idea was already mentioned, but one idea that could work too is having people from the prior eras make their way to the present through the gate if you want characters who are plucked right out of wuxia (the fish-out-of-water comment prompted this thought). There is a movie called Terracotta Warrior that is about that idea (came out in the early or mid-80s). Old masters who are still alive and know how to contend with ghosts could be useful (and could be an interesting foundation for new sects)
[/quote]

I have thought about doing some of this.  There could be some ancient masters around or some out of time people like Donnie Yen's character from Ice Man.  I want PCs the be more grounded in the current era and situation so this won't be a PC option.  There might be some of these people around pursuing their own plans and forming their own sects.  I am pondering the idea of having the three surviving Shaolin Monks be survivors on the fall of Shaolin Temple in 1647 or even the ghosts of these people who were enlightened enough to retain their sanity.  I am thinking of having tiers of ghosts.  The large majority were driven insane and just hunt any living person they detect.  Some, through being enlightened or just having particularly strong personalities, have retained more of their intelligence.  Some of the most dangerous are the ghosts of people who studied martial arts but neglected the internal aspects of it.  Martial artists who pursue the internal discipline stressed in traditional martial arts do not becomes ghosts when they die.  Ones who neglect this becomes ghosts and retain all of their martial skills.  This is why so many traditional martial arts have such a focus on this sort of thing and disapprove of martial arts that ignore this though the specific reason was largely forgotten over the centuries.  These internal, more spiritual disciplines have once again become a thing of life and death importance.

Edit

Quote from: Hzilong on February 27, 2025, 06:40:04 PMIf you Don't mind sharing, what sources do you to reference? A lot of the translated old myths are, for some reason, insanely expensive in print and I can't find pdf or ebook versions.

This is still very much in the early stages.  I thought of this the day before yesterday.  Right now, my source is pretty much the internet and wuxia movies. 

Quote from: Persimmon on February 27, 2025, 06:46:44 PM

Quote from: Hzilong on February 27, 2025, 06:40:04 PMFunny coincidence, I'm also working on a setting/system that is largely based in Chinese aesthetics and folklore. Granted, mine is a bit more on the xianxia/fantasy side of the scale.


If you Don't mind sharing, what sources do you to reference? A lot of the translated old myths are, for some reason, insanely expensive in print and I can't find pdf or ebook versions.

What kinds of things are you looking for?  Most of the classical novels and supernatural short stories are available in cheap translations and there are tons of reprints of Lafcadio Hearns' collections from the early 20th century that compile Asian myths & ghost stories. A few of the Jin Yong wuxia novels have been translated as well.

There are also a ton of fan translations of wuxia out there.

Systems I am considering

Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
Pros
 1) I already own it
 2) It has all of the martial arts techniques, monsters, sorcery, objects and power and other fantastic elements I could ever need.
Cons
 1) It's...a lot.
 2) It's lacking in support for the more modern elements.

Strange Tales of Songling
Pros
 1) It's simpler and more streamlined.
 2) It's focused on things like ghost hunting.
Cons
 1) It might be a bit too focused.
 2) I don't have it.  This is a minor con since it's inexpensive.
 3) It also lacks support for the more modern elements.

Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades
 1) Simpler and more streamlined
 2) I already have it.
Cons
 1) Lacks support for the more fantastic elements.
 2) No support for modern day.

I looked into this Far West game.  Several reviews say the rules are muddled and confusing.  The name Gareth-Michael Skarka gives me pause. 

I have considered City Of Mists.  It's lacking in detail on the martial arts side of things.

Feng Shui is a game that I have not looked at in a very long time.  I am looking at the second edition and it looks promising. 

edit
I have discovered that DTRPG lumps wuxia games into a larger martial arts category and that most of it based on Feudal Japan.  Finding stuff has proven to be more difficult that expected.