Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall

Last updated
Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall
Designers Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim
PublishersGame and a Curry, Wet Ink Games
Publication2021
Genres tabletop role-playing game, Jiangshi fiction, horror
ChanceHigh
Skillsrole-playing

Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is a tabletop role-playing game about Chinese immigrants to North America managing a family restaurant while battling Jiangshi, legendary hopping vampires. [1] The game was designed by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim, who are both Chinese immigrants. It was published independently in 2021 after a Kickstarter campaign raised over US$100,000. [2] The instructions focus heavily on authentic portrayals of Chinese history and immigrant experiences. The default scenario takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1920s, [3] but the game box comes with a book of scenarios by a variety of writers offering more adventures in different cities and historical periods. [1] The game's tone can range from serious to comedy horror. Themes include fighting racism, exploring intergenerational knowledge and relationships, coping with economic hardship, and working together as a family. [4]

Contents

Gameplay

During daylight phases, players manage the Chinese restaurant, then during nighttime phases, the Jiangshi appear. Successfully running the restaurant gives players bonuses to fight the Jiangshi, while unfinished chores generate mechanical consequences. [1] [5]

The game mechanics mix elements typical of both tabletop role-playing games and board games. [5]

Reception

In 2022, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall won the Silver ENNIE Award for "Best Setting" and was also nominated for "Best Production Value" and "Product of the Year." [6] The game was nominated for the 2022 Indie Game Developer Network award for "Most Innovative." [7]

Related Research Articles

Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. They are best known for the free indie RPG system Fate, Blades in the Dark, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, all of which have won multiple awards.

Jiangshi fiction, or goeng-si fiction in Cantonese, is a literary and cinematic genre of horror based on the jiangshi of Chinese folklore, a reanimated corpse controlled by Taoist priests that resembles the zombies and vampires of Western fiction. The genre first appeared in the literature of the Qing dynasty and the jiangshi film is a staple of the modern Hong Kong film industry. Hong Kong jiangshi films like Mr. Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind follow a formula of mixing horror with comedy and kung fu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powered by the Apocalypse</span> Game system for tabletop role-playing game

Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other RPGs.

<i>Blades in the Dark</i> Tabletop fantasy role-playing game

Blades in the Dark is a tabletop fantasy role-playing game by John Harper, set in a fictional city of Doskvol, inspired by Victorian London and Gothic fiction. The game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2015, raising US$179,280 from 3,925 backers.

Renegade Game Studios is an American game company based in Escondido, California that creates and publishes board games, card games and role-playing games. In 2020, they also began producing jigsaw puzzles using art from their games.

<i>City of Mist</i> Tabletop role-playing game

City of Mist is an urban fantasy neo-noir detective tabletop role-playing game (RPG) designed by Amít Moshe and published by Son of Oak Game Studio. The game is set in a modern-day metropolis where ordinary people of all walks of life become modern-day reincarnations of myths, legends, and fairy tales, gaining magical powers and abilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banana Chan</span> Game designer and writer

Banana Chan is a Chinese Canadian game designer and writer.

<i>Thirsty Sword Lesbians</i> 2021 tabletop role-playing game

Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a narrative-focused tabletop role-playing game that emphasizes telling "melodramatic and queer stories". The game was funded via a 2020 Kickstarter campaign and published by Evil Hat Productions in 2021. It uses a modification of the Powered by the Apocalypse game system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucian Kahn</span> American musician and game designer

Lucian Kahn is an American role-playing game writer/designer and musician based in Brooklyn. His work focuses on LGBT, Jewish, and subcultural themes, typically utilizing satire and farce.

Magpie Games is a tabletop role-playing games publishing company founded in 2011.

Wanderhome is an indie role-playing game by Jay Dragon about animal people in a pastoral setting, based upon the Belonging Outside Belonging game engine by Avery Alder. It is published by Possum Creek Games. Unlike typical tabletop role-playing games, Wanderhome does not use dice, turns, or a gamemaster, focusing instead on the characters' emotional journey. Dialogue takes the place of battles, and gameplay revolves around question prompts.

Thousand Year Old Vampire is a one-player tabletop role-playing game by Tim Hutchings, played through guided journal writing using semi-randomized prompts. Gameplay can last from hours to weeks. The storytelling game revolves around documenting the life of a vampire, relying on the use of dice to generate open-ended prompts, which the player interprets and records as experiences. The vampire's story develops through gaining and losing memories. The player can only store a limited number of experiences, so the core gameplay loop includes erasing parts of a character's history. The game's central question is what to do with immortality and power. The print edition of the book is illustrated with detailed collages.

<i>Visigoths vs. Mall Goths</i> Urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game

Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game with LGBTQ dating sim elements by Lucian Kahn, with art by Robin Eisenberg. The ancient Visigoths have time traveled to 1990s Los Angeles and are battling mall goths for control of the mall. The game's tone is silly and the setting has many puns. The game was inspired by 1990s movies The Craft, Empire Records, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Clueless.

Good Society is a tabletop role-playing game based upon the Regency era novels of Jane Austen. A live action role-playing game version is also available. Good Society was created by the two-woman Australian game design team Storybrewers, consisting of lead writer Hayley Gordon and graphic designer Vee Hendro. In addition to role-playing, the game mechanics include spreading rumors and writing letters. It can be played with or without a gamemaster.

Bluebeard's Bride is a gothic horror tabletop role-playing game based on the Bluebeard folktale. It was designed and written by Whitney "Strix" Beltrán, Marissa Kelly, and Sarah Richardson, and published by Magpie Games in 2017. Players represent five aspects of a woman's mind as she explores the mansion of her frightening new husband.

Honey & Hot Wax is an anthology of live action role-playing games on the theme of sex and sexuality, published by Pelgrane Press in 2020. It includes games by Sharang Biswas (co-editor), Yeonsoo Julian Kim, Julia Bond Ellingboe, Kat Jones, Lucian Kahn (co-editor), Jonaya Kemper, Will Morningstar, Alex Roberts, and Susanne. It also has a foreword by Naomi Clark, academic chair of NYU Game Center, and a chapter on consent by Maury Brown.

Mörk Borg is a tabletop role-playing game inspired by heavy metal music, created by Swedish game designers Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr and published by Free League in February 2020. The game features dark themes, frequent character death, and a doom metal playlist. The title means "dark castle" in Swedish.

Alice is Missing is a tabletop role-playing game played in silence through text messaging. Players investigate the disappearance of a high school girl. The game was designed by Spenser Starke and published by Hunters Entertainment in 2020 after raising over $138,000 on Kickstarter. In 2022, Paramount Pictures began developing the game into a movie.

Heart: The City Beneath is a tabletop role-playing game about surreal underground labyrinths, designed by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor.

The Gauntlet is a publisher/producer of tabletop role-playing games and podcasts. In addition to game books, they publish a monthly game zine called Codex to encourage experimentation in indie role-playing games and OSR. They also host over 100 online games each month and maintain public forums on gaming topics. They have won and been nominated for ENNIE Awards and funded multiple projects through successful Kickstarter campaigns.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wieland, Rob. "Save The World And Your Family Restaurant With This New RPG". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  2. ↑ "Track Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall's Kickstarter campaign on BackerTracker". BackerKit. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  3. ↑ Biswas, Sharang (2021-02-17). "Indie RPGs show roleplaying can - and should - be far more than Dungeons & Dragons". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  4. ↑ "This Board Game Uses Vampires To Fight Anti-Asian Racism". HuffPost. 2021-05-05. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  5. 1 2 Writer, Alex Meehan Senior Staff (2020-07-16). "Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall is an RPG about cooking and vampires". Dicebreaker. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  6. ↑ "2022 Results – ENNIE Awards" . Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  7. ↑ "Indie Groundbreakers Awards". Indie Game Developer Network. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.