While set in 1920s Chinatown, in many ways Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a game for our current time. Players manage a family-run restaurant in the daytime while also having to fend off Jiangshi (Chinese hybrids of zombies and vampires) at night, causing stress to piles up and possibly turn them into Jiangshi.
Created by veteran game designers Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a tabletop RPG with board game elements for a more tactile feel. Both designers are well known for their work in both board games and ttRPGs. Chan, co-owner and co-founder of A Game and a Curry, has worked on everything from Terror Below and Sea of Legends to the recent Betrayal at Mystery Mansion. Lim is an award-winning card and board game designer who has also written scenarios for Kids on Bikes, The Curse of the House of Rookwood, The North Sea Epilogues, Gears of Defiance and more.
“Jiangshi slowly siphon the psychic energy from their victims, becoming more powerful as they do so. The Jiangshi are more akin to the zombies in The Walking Dead in that they represent an overwhelming force that keeps coming for the family,” said Lim.
That oppressive feeling melded perfectly with the 1920s restaurant setting. “Friends and families who grew up in restaurants always talked about: the grind. During the 1920s, and unfortunately still in 2020, racism was a major factor that affected immigrant families."
“We wanted to focus on building a story about how stressful it is for a family to go through the events that they had to during the time,” added Chan. “The Jiangshi are in a way, a physical manifestation of the stresses — both with the oppression of the 1920s and having to run a small business.”
While a classic RPG with a GM, the designers came up with an elegant solution for how characters are affected by the stress.
“As the characters take on more and more stress or physical damage, the things that make up their character (their Skills, Facets, items that they carry, their Hopes and Dreams) get covered up,” explained Chan. “They are literally losing parts of themselves. Once all the slots have been taken up, they flip over all the cards to the Jiangshi side and now they have new Jiangshi powers. The restaurant works in a similar way, where it loses abilities and parts of itself when chores go unattended.”
“The goal was to give players who are unused to full 'theatre of the mind' style RPGs something tangible. The character sheet and the restaurant board act like player mats in most board games. The areas where abilities and items are listed get 'turned off' if a player is forced to place cards over them.” added Lim.
Jiangshi can be played either humorously or seriously. James Mendez Hodes wrote a section on how to play if you're not Chinese to create better understanding of the setting, especially when played seriously. Similarly, a section for GMs on how to handle the racism in the setting without condoning it helps. A customized X-card with art by Stephen Wu as a safety tool, and recommendations for incorporating Lines and Veils and Stars and Wishes for further safety keeps the game entertaining while providing insight into both the setting and the real-life stress immigrant families still endure.
Chan and Lim hope that Jiangshi serves several purposes, depending upon the audience. “For players coming from immigrant families, I hope that they get to play something that is cathartic and meaningful to them, while feeling seen,” said Chan.
Lim added, referring to all players, “I want them to understand, even at just the surface level, the amount of intergenerational conflict that goes on in many immigrant families who are trying to assimilate while retaining their cultural and ethnic identities in the face of racism. I want them to hopefully see themselves in these families, no matter where their ancestors come from.”
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is on Kickstarter now.
Created by veteran game designers Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a tabletop RPG with board game elements for a more tactile feel. Both designers are well known for their work in both board games and ttRPGs. Chan, co-owner and co-founder of A Game and a Curry, has worked on everything from Terror Below and Sea of Legends to the recent Betrayal at Mystery Mansion. Lim is an award-winning card and board game designer who has also written scenarios for Kids on Bikes, The Curse of the House of Rookwood, The North Sea Epilogues, Gears of Defiance and more.
“Jiangshi slowly siphon the psychic energy from their victims, becoming more powerful as they do so. The Jiangshi are more akin to the zombies in The Walking Dead in that they represent an overwhelming force that keeps coming for the family,” said Lim.
That oppressive feeling melded perfectly with the 1920s restaurant setting. “Friends and families who grew up in restaurants always talked about: the grind. During the 1920s, and unfortunately still in 2020, racism was a major factor that affected immigrant families."
“We wanted to focus on building a story about how stressful it is for a family to go through the events that they had to during the time,” added Chan. “The Jiangshi are in a way, a physical manifestation of the stresses — both with the oppression of the 1920s and having to run a small business.”
While a classic RPG with a GM, the designers came up with an elegant solution for how characters are affected by the stress.
“As the characters take on more and more stress or physical damage, the things that make up their character (their Skills, Facets, items that they carry, their Hopes and Dreams) get covered up,” explained Chan. “They are literally losing parts of themselves. Once all the slots have been taken up, they flip over all the cards to the Jiangshi side and now they have new Jiangshi powers. The restaurant works in a similar way, where it loses abilities and parts of itself when chores go unattended.”
“The goal was to give players who are unused to full 'theatre of the mind' style RPGs something tangible. The character sheet and the restaurant board act like player mats in most board games. The areas where abilities and items are listed get 'turned off' if a player is forced to place cards over them.” added Lim.
Jiangshi can be played either humorously or seriously. James Mendez Hodes wrote a section on how to play if you're not Chinese to create better understanding of the setting, especially when played seriously. Similarly, a section for GMs on how to handle the racism in the setting without condoning it helps. A customized X-card with art by Stephen Wu as a safety tool, and recommendations for incorporating Lines and Veils and Stars and Wishes for further safety keeps the game entertaining while providing insight into both the setting and the real-life stress immigrant families still endure.
Chan and Lim hope that Jiangshi serves several purposes, depending upon the audience. “For players coming from immigrant families, I hope that they get to play something that is cathartic and meaningful to them, while feeling seen,” said Chan.
Lim added, referring to all players, “I want them to understand, even at just the surface level, the amount of intergenerational conflict that goes on in many immigrant families who are trying to assimilate while retaining their cultural and ethnic identities in the face of racism. I want them to hopefully see themselves in these families, no matter where their ancestors come from.”
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is on Kickstarter now.
