Close
Close
Advanced Search

Strange Tales of SonglingClick to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/300445.xml&w=500&h=324
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.drivethrurpg.com/pdf_previews/300445-sample.pdf

Strange Tales of Songling

ADD TO WISHLIST >

A Horror RPG Inspired by Chinese Ghost Stories 

Adventure in worlds haunted by fox spirits, hopping vampires and ghosts. Strange Tales is a Chinese horror RPG inspired by the supernatural accounts of Pu Songling and Yuan Mei. Players confront the supernatural as demon hunters, scholars, wandering swords and dangerous ritual masters.  

Strange Tales provides a streamlined and easy system for quick play and comes with four complete adventures. It also includes a selection of monsters based on Chinese anomaly accounts, folklore, and horror movies. The GM section provides a number of approaches with a focus on monster-of-the week style play.

 

 

 

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (2)
Discussions (6)
Customer avatar
Liberty C May 09, 2022 7:47 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hello,
Are you aware that the full-sized preview is basically the entire pdf of the book?
I don't mind downloading the book for free but I want to make sure you are aware of it so that you are not accidentally giving out your book for free.
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D May 10, 2022 7:46 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for mentioning this Liberty C. Yes. This is intentional. It is part of a test to see if a full preview is viable (when you are at a book store, you are free to flip through the whole book, so I thought it might work for our PDFs too). I did it with a few of our books. The intent isn't to give away the book for free, but to give people an opportunity to look through the whole book before buying it or making the decision to pass on it.
Reply
Customer avatar
Chris C June 05, 2022 1:59 pm UTC
I bet you were the kid in school that always reminded the teacher that homework was due.
Reply
Customer avatar
Liberty C June 05, 2022 3:04 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Well, I didn't know if the publisher had by accident put out the entire pdf by mistake. You can download things using the full sized preview. If the author didn't intend it and didn't know then a bunch of pdfs could have been downloaded without the author getting royalties.
I was actually thinking of doing that myself, but asked because it didn't seem fair. Then, because I had the interaction, and it was only ten bucks, I just decided to buy the thing.
Call me teacher's pet, if you will, but I would like to make sure artists get their royalties.
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D June 21, 2022 6:06 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
We are still playing around with different approaches here. It was helpful information because I am still trying to figure out the best approach to preview books here. I want to find a way of giving people as much of a preview of the book before they buy the PDF as possible. However I also feel for anyone who wants a copy of an RPG and can't afford it in their budget, so if anyone is having an issue with affordability please feel free to contact me (there is a contact button on The Bedrock Blog page) and I can send a comp PDF.
Customer avatar
Ryan April 15, 2022 9:19 am UTC
Is Strange Tales of Songling licensed in such a way that a 3rd party could release an adventure for it, perhaps based on other stories from "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio"?

With proper permission/crediting of course.

Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D April 17, 2022 3:39 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Ryan. We don't have a license for 3rd party publishers. People can always reach out if they want to do something and we can discuss it.
Customer avatar
corvo A June 03, 2021 10:50 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, i read the original books Strange Tales of Pu Songling, and I would like to know :
- if the monsters/bestiaries and adventures are really based on the books, or just vaguely inspired from ?
- the system is lighter than WHOG, and is it also lighter than RB,RB, your other wuxia game édited somewhere else ?
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D June 09, 2021 3:53 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi. It is a mixture. Most of the monsters are directly inspired by those found in Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Some are attempts to create monsters in his style (the Skeleton Puppet Master for example was inspired by a song dynasty painting and an attempt to create a monster that felt like it came from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio). Many of the monsters are also found in Chinese folklore and myth. One of the adventures is based directly on a story in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, the others are inspired by Pu Songling, but not based on specific stories. The adventure Heads of Waterfall Bay takes a lot of inspiration from the film Human Lanterns.

Yes, this is a much lighter system than the other games I have been involved in. The reason was I felt rules light worked better for horror, and I was interested in making something very stripped down.
Customer avatar
Prince M August 03, 2020 3:53 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hello!

Probably a silly question but will there be a fillable character sheet made for this game? Not a big deal if it doesn't happen but would be cool!
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D August 03, 2020 8:07 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Presently there isn't a plan for this (but we might put something together eventually like we did for WHOG). However a poster at RPGpub made a fillable version here I believe: https://www.rpgpub.com/resources/strange-tales-of-songling-fillable-character-sheet.79/
Customer avatar
Shiru B May 13, 2020 3:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This seems really interesting, but could I get some more info about them? Simple things like whether this supports session with multiple players, or whether it focuses on investigation or battle?
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D May 14, 2020 12:22 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
It assumes a standard party size of 4 or more characters (recommend playing it with 2-6 players). It is designed around monster-of-the week adventures, and best suited to short campaigns (the ideal campaign length is 10 sessions). Scenarios can vary. Investigation is definitely a big part of the setting. While it has combat, it isn't tactically crunchy and combat tends to be very quick (the point is more to avoid the monsters, find ways to beat them, than it is to spend the whole session fighting them). It is much more focused on role-play, investigation, etc. That said there are combat abilities in the game. Player characters will fight monsters. But it is a high lethality game.
Reply
Customer avatar
Shiru B May 19, 2020 3:20 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you!
Customer avatar
January 17, 2020 8:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
May we see the full-size preview please?
Reply
Customer avatar
Brendan D January 20, 2020 10:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry about that. They just tried to fix it and should kick in in a couple of hours
Reply
Customer avatar
January 21, 2020 5:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Browse Categories
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Silver seller
Pages
149
Publisher Stock #
BED9008
File Size:
126.32 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
January 14, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on January 13, 2020.