5 out of 5 rating for Old Shanghai Sourcebook
Old Shanghai is a system neutral setting about Shanghai during the thirties. Odd as it may seem, the city does work with all kinds of themes, from pulp, crime and spy games to Call of the Cthlhu. Shanghai is kind of the archetype city for cyberpunk, but without the cyber. It's a metropolitan melting pot, where everything and everyone seem possible.
You will find a good chapter on Chinese history, (not too long, not too short) the background of the city and locations throughout the city. It also provides maps and description of different parts of neighborhoods. Furthermore, there are chapters dealing with stuff like martial arts, gangsters and gambling. Its also give you all this with less fluff and more content than you expect.
This is also a book for game masters that like to do their own stuff. There is plenty of information that inspire to all kinds of different adventures. The last part lists NPC's to be used and they give you an idea about how the city works and helps to involve a group of player characters in the city.They have included two adventures, but the great stuff in this book is the easy access to well researched information, ready to be used by a GM. A drawback is that there is not much artwork in the file. To compensate, there are several "newspapers" as handouts to players. My players liked them!
It is a dense 60 odd pages, PDF file and they don't have anything in print. The PDF file itself is well laid out and makes the history bit a part of the story. The information is helpful! A Gamemaster even gets details like travel times to other part of Asia, how currency is used etc. I didn't need to go and find more info before starting an adventure. Old Shanghai is one of the most useful books dealing with a historical location I have seen so far.
