Hong Kong Task Force 88 was included in Free RPG Day 2016 as an introduction to Feng Shui 2. (You can still grab a PDF of it for free.) We’ve being using the scenario at conventions as part of Atlas Games’ Special Ops program. Our playtesting, however, has revealed that the scenario is running a little too long to fit comfortably into our four hour convention slots.

These notes, therefore, are designed to streamline the adventure, reorganizing its core structure largely around a 5 Node Mystery (with a twist!). You’ll need a copy of Hong Kong Task Force 88 to provide full background details and stat blocks. These notes are also likely to make more sense if you have already read the original scenario.

INTRODUCTION

A new designer drug is ravaging Hong Kong. DietRiot has exploded both uptown and downtown; it seems equally appealing (and equally available!) to both the upper classes and the lower classes. Reports on what the drug actually does are all over the place: Some describe it as a methamphetamine. Others as a hallucinogenic. It also appears to be almost supernaturally effective as a diet drug.

The authorities have decided action must be taken. A special task force – Hong Kong Task Force 88 – has been formed. You have all been selected (or volunteered) to be a member of this task force.

As you choose your characters, think about why or how your character was selected.

SCENE 1: THE DOCKS

• Generally effective to have 1-2 of the PCs be the “local cops” who are meeting the others at the Docks.
• Allow time for a brief discussion.

THE FIGHT: Blondie calls out some insult from the end of the dock. They turn to see him and a bunch of mooks wielding machetes.

• Blondie (HKTF88, p. 10) – make sure to mention the wifebeater he wears covered in English swear words
• Machete Mooks (HKTF88, p. 11) – 2 per PC

DURING THE FIGHT: At least one of the PCs should see Jian Wu watching the fight from the roof of a nearby warehouse. He has a distinctive dragon tattoo on one cheek. As soon as they notice him, he walks away from the edge of the warehouse and disappears.

SCENE 2: INVESTIGATION MONTAGE

Hard cut from the end of the fight to the precinct headquarters Task Force 88 is based out of.

CHEWED OUT BY THE CHIEF: The local police chief is screaming at them about property damage, disturbance of the peace, wielding weapons (do you know how much paperwork?!), etc. Whatever happened during the awesome fight in Scene 1, he’s pissed off about it. “GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!”

• After the door slams shut behind them, the rest of the detectives at their open office desks give the PCs a round of applause. One of them whispers that the chief is actually very impressed and wants them to keep up the good work.

TASK FORCE OFFICE: The Task Force has been assigned a random office in the precinct headquarters. There’s not a lot in there right now: A thin file folder with the DietRiot case file. An empty file cabinet. A desk. An empty cork tackboard.

• Note: Establish the tackboard because you’ll frame up on it later.

INVESTIGATION MONTAGE: Tell the players you’re going to do an investigation montage: Each of them will choose one line of potential investigation. Likely options include:

• Checking the casefile.
• Trying to track down that guy with the weird tattoo they saw.
• Roughing up local dealers for information.
• Talking to an old friend or other local contact for information.
• Analyzing samples of DietRiot in the crime lab.
• Conducting drug buys to roll up the local distributors for interrogation.
• Putting surveillance on known DietRiot dealers and monitoring their communications.

The actual methods they choose don’t matter except by context. Group them together in ways that make sense and present fast-paced, hard-hitting sequences that rapidly spill out the three major leads:

• There is a victim of DietRiot named Fen. You can talk with her at the Lucky Cat Apothecary.
• Jian Wu (“the guy with the tattoo”) can be found at the Neon 77 club.
• There are a pair of well-connected street dealers named Snake Eyes & Ed who are selling out of the Bird Gardens.

Each of these point to one of the Scene 3 investigations.

SCENE 3: THE INVESTIGATIONS & THE FIGHT

There are three different leads that the PCs can pursue after the investigation montage. Generally speaking, the order in which these scenes occur doesn’t make a difference.

At some point during this sequence, Blondie’s brother shows up. He’s pissed off that the PCs killed/arrested his brother and he’s looking for revenge.

(This probably works best with Scene 3A or Scene 3B, as Scene 3C already has a fight sequence in it.)

THE FIGHT:

• Blondie’s Brother (HTKF88, p. 14): He wears the same wife-beater that Blondie does, but his is covered with swear words in Chinese. And he has a pair of katanas, because everyone knows katanas are better. (To be honest, Blondie and his brother are basically tools.)
• Fist (HKTF88, p. 14)
• Reaper’s Boys (HKTF88, p. 15) – 2 per PC
• Interrogation: If interrogated, these mooks can give up the location of Reaper’s lab (see Scene 4).

SCENE 3A: FEN & LUCKY CAT APOTHECARY

• This scene is described in HKTF88, p. 12-13.

Key Clues:

• Reaper’s Card
• Fen’s grandmother thinks the drug blocks chi

SCENE 3B: JIAN WU @ NEON 77

• Neon 77 is a glitzy club of chrome, mirrors, and trance music.
• Or maybe it’s a sedate club with soft-tune jazz disco balls casting starscapes on the walls. Whatever works.

Jian Wu is framed differently in this version of the scenario:

• He has a dragon tattoo on his cheek.
• He’s Reaper’s Kowloon dealer for DietRiot.
• He’s not happy: The money was good; now he thinks it was too good. The drugs are too cheap; there must be some hidden agenda behind all this, but he hasn’t figured out what it is.
• He can point the PCs in the direction of Reaper’s lab (see Scene 4).

SCENE 3C: THE BIRD GARDEN

This scene is heavily revised for this version of the scenario.

• Snake Eyes & Ed (HKTF88, p. 10) are selling DietRiot in the Bird Garden (as described HKTF88, p. 17).
• Rather than an out-of-control talent manifestation, Ed casts spells to summon the fireworks foes (HKTF88, p. 18):
  • He summons the first one on his first turn.
  • On each subsequent turn, he can initiate a 5-shot action. If not interrupted, at the end of those 5-shots another fireworks creature is summoned.

In one run-through of this scenario I had Snake Eyes open up a door in the side of a tree and run through it, emerging back at Reaper’s lab. You could do that; or maybe it just turns into a chase sequence.

Key Clues:

• They know the drug blocks Chi.
• They can point the PCs in the direction of Reaper’s Lab (see Scene 4).

SCENE 4: REAPER’S LAB

This scene is described on HKTF88, p. 20-21.

• Don’t bother including Jian Wu.
• The key framing is that the PCs can observe the grungy warehouse from outside; and then only later catch a glimpse or burst into the gleaming, ultra-clean drug lab inside filled with scientists in hazmat suits watched over by goons in suits with SMGs slung over their shoulders.

THE FIGHT:

• Repeat (HKTF88, p. 21)
• Alora (HKTF88, p. 21)
• Mittens (HKTF88, p. 21) – I gave him the ability to jump around like a cat. Pretty much entirely descriptive, but gave him some nice
• Gangsters (HKTF88, p. 22) – 3 per PC

THE BIG FINALE?

In my playtests, time was generally running out at this point. The fight in Reaper’s Lab provides a great conclusion here, and you can generally wrap it up here.

Alternatively, the action can be carried into Scene 5 with these clues:

• Questioning anyone in the laboratory indicates that the drug design comes from the company DruDekTel.
• Searching Reaper’s unconscious/dead body finds a business card for Curt Raglan of DrukDekTel.
• Looking at the documentation in the lab links the process back to DruDekTel

SCENE 5: DruDekTel HEADQUARTERS

Okay, you know that incredible long-take fight from Tony Jaa’s The Protector? The one where he fights his way up a long spiraling ramp inside an office building before finally reaching the luxurious office of the Big Boss at the top?

You’re not? Okay. Watch that.

Yeah. We’re going to do that: DruDekTel’s HQ has that same architecture, with a big hollow center and a spiraling ramp that goes from one level to the next.

Things they can encounter on their way up:

• Massage parlor.
• Tea shop.
• Office cubicles.
• Slot machines.
• Food court.
• Copy machine nook.
• Video conferencing room.
• Drug research lab.

Have 3-5 levels. Each level has a number of mooks (use Reaper’s Boys and the Gangsters) equal to half the number of PCs.

Curt Raglan’s Office: At the top is Curt Raglan’s office.

• Curt Raglan (HKTF88, p. 22)
• Gangsters (HKTF88, p 22) – 1 per PC

During the fight, have Raglan monologue loudly about the true purpose of DietRiot:

• We will seal magic away forever by blocking chi!
• You fools are putting the entire world in danger! You can’t imagine the real stakes!
• The Guiding Hand will protect him. They cannot possibly win!
• The testing is almost complete! As soon as it stops killing people – well, as soon as they can get the mortality rate down to a reasonable level – they’ll put it in the drinking supply!
• The Four Emperors will never return!

Yada, yada, yada, and so forth.

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Many moons ago, I wrote Prep Tips for the Beginning DM, a super-streamlined set of guideposts for a first-time DM to follow. The advice was aimed specifically at D&D/Pathfinder GMs, and over the years I’ve received a number of queries about how GMs can get started with other systems. The truth is that the advice is largely transferable. For example, here’s how you could get started running a fairly typical cyberpunk campaign where the PCs are a crew that runs heists and similar jobs in the style of William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

(You might be starting up a new Shadowrun campaign. Or maybe you’re hyped about the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 and want to run a game like that for your friends. Whatever works. This advice is widely applicable.)

(1) Start with a simple run featuring a location-based crawl. Keep it simple! Make it a single building with maybe a dozen rooms. Keep the challenges inside the building firewalled (i.e., the PCs can generally muck around in Room A without also bringing everything in Rooms B-Z down on their heads) with the possible exception of a roving security patrol that will also respond to triggered alarms. Keeping things compartmentalized will make it easier for you to run; it’ll also give your players a chance to figure out their characters and the system.

(2) Do a couple of those. You can slowly start building the complexity. Introduce adversary rosters so that the complexes become more dynamic and active. This will increase both the challenge for your players in planning out their runs and the complexity for you in actually GMing those runs.

(3) Take a look a the Three Clue Rule and use it to create a linear investigation scenario: Go to Location A, find clues that lead to Location B. At Location B, find clues that point to Location C. Repeat until you reach the conclusion.

LINK IT TOGETHER

It’s okay to just run a purely episodic campaign where each run is independent from the last. But here’s a simple example of how you can link all of these things together: The PCs are hired by somebody to do a couple of jobs. Then their patron calls them with another job, but when they show up for the briefing they find him dead. Now they need to figure out who did it.

Discovering who their patron was, what he really wanted, and why he was killed will either wrap up the mini-campaign or wrap up Act I of the ongoing campaign and give you a nice launchpad for the rest of the game.

Note: You don’t need to prep all this before you start play. In fact, you shouldn’t because you’ll be learning stuff in play that you’ll want to implement in the next scenario you design.

All you need to get started is #1: A simple run.

As you’re wrapping up Act I, take a look at Don’t Prep Plots and Node-Based Scenario Design. Use those to build an Act II.

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