Gangs of Chinatown

As he stepped out of the dimly lit building, the scent of desperation mingled with the distant wail of sirens, creating a symphony of urban chaos . The rain-soaked city streets glistened under the dim streetlights, mirroring the hardened resolve etched on his face. It was a night ripe with possibilities, one of them was not coming back alive.

Gone are the days of genteel mysteries and tea-sipping sleuths. The Hardboiled and Noir genre left behind the quaint English villages and embrace the stark reality of American metropolises.
In the USA of the 1920s and 1930s, crime takes on a new face, fueled by the raw energy and desperation of the Great Depression. Bootleggers thrive, mobsters rule with iron fists, and corruption seeps through the very foundations of society. It is an urban jungle where street smarts and brawn are needed by investigators to stay alive and maybe make a slight difference. 

This sourcebook peels back the layers of Chinatown’s secrets during former times, unveiling it’s underbelly of crime and corruption. This material is providing a dark landscape as background for crime and mystery roleplaying in the Jazz Age.

 

CONTENT

• Description of Chinatowns in the USA during the Jazz Age
• Specific information about the major Chinatowns in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco
• Organization and businesses of the Tongs.
• Details on the Tongs Opium and Prostitution ventures
• History and main events of the Tong Wars
• The Law enforcement dealing with Chinatowns and the Tongs
• Several NPCs with influence in the Chinatown communities
• Generator for crime mysteries in and around chinatown
• New Skills fitting the background

System Agnostic

• System-specific terms and measurements have been minimized as much as possible. 
• Dice with four sides (D4), six sides (D6), eight sides (D8), ten sides (D10), twenty sides (D20), and percentile dice (D%) are used in certain cases when applying mechanics. 
• When necessary, percentage chances are utilized as they can be easily translated into any RPG system. 
• The book is intended to be published under the ORC License, featuring rules for the Basic Roleplaying System by Chaosium, by the end of 2023.