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The Dragon’s Gate: San Angelo’s Chinatown is a supplement for Gold Rush Games’ San Angelo: City of Heroes series. My review copy is a pre-release PDF supplied by Gold Rush Games. It weighs in at 128 pages, with quarter-page illustrations about every other page or so. (My printer broke shortly after I received the PDF, so I had no way to print it out.) It is statted for the HERO system, the Action! System, and the M&M Superlink System. It is a well of information about the Chinatown district of San Angelo, with an amazing amount of detail. Everything from heroes and villains to a detailed map of the area to how the businesses interact are detailed to a fascinating degree. The Dragon’s Gate reads more like a history and cultural guide than a modern roleplaying supplement. This is a good thing, if you like scads of information. (Most supplements of this kind I have seen are more interested in their characters, monsters or shiny new toys than the world around them.) There are plenty of characters in this book, and all of them (or at least the major ones) have stats in the three systems mentioned above, but the knowledge and history of the area is what takes primacy.
The book is laid out in the familiar double columns. Most pages have some interest added to the columns by way of artwork, sidebars, or character/place descriptions, so reading does not become tiresome. There are six main subsections to the book: Introduction; The Changing Face of Chinatown; Life in Chinatown; Media, Entertainment and the Arts; The Tongs (organized crime groups); and Allies and Enemies. Under this last section, the named characters in the book are statted for the Action! System and the M&M Superlink System.
The artwork is good, what I’d expect in a professionally done book for the HERO system. The styles range from photos (or photorealistic) to cartoonish, but none of them seem out of place or jarring. I have only seen the cover on the website (WWW.SACOH.COM), but I liked it. There is no color art in the book, except for a small splash on the last page, in an advertisement for the Action! System.
The scene is Chinatown. You’ve been there, either in real life, or in the movies. You’ve seen the quaint shops with the Asian fruits and vegetables on tables outside, the little noodle room with the poetic names, the bustling streets filled with people seeing the sights and enjoying the smells. Sometimes, there are hopping vampires or the eternal masters of evil walking around, looking for the chosen one to capture or a place for some good Mongolian pork. All of this is contained in the book. In fact, this is the background of The Dragon’s Gate. The background is flexible enough that it could be altered to fit anything from Big Trouble in Little China’s action to something with a western flair to cyberpunk to superheroics on a massive scale.
There is a timeline that spans 8 pages and 133 years. It covers local heroics and villainy for that time, giving plenty of plot hooks and game ideas. The timeline also acts to give the area a rich background, a great sense of history, so that you know what has gone on before and what your heroes have to live up to.
Every facet of life within Chinatown is described in detail, even to the point of delineating the outer and inner faces of the area, showing what visitors will see, and what they probably won’t. The outer face is the smiling, prosperous place I described above, with the small, tourist-oriented restaurants and the colorful parades and attractions. The inner heart of Chinatown is very much like a Chinese (or other Asian) city, with signs in Asian languages, and a less tourist-friendly atmosphere. Other facets of interest that are described are such things as religion, martial arts, mysticism and how the wealthy live their lives.
The Media, Entertainment and the Arts section carefully describes the local papers, radio and television personalities, the various cuisines that are common to the area, and where one might pick up some culture. Strangely, for a book that is so much background, this is actually a pretty short chapter. However, within this short space there are several location listed and one fully statted character. There are other characters presented here, reporters, stars, artists and athletes, so there is a good springboard if the intrigues of the GM’s plot requires these types of supporting characters.
The Tongs are the organized crime syndicates of the Chinatown area. They act as the various rival factions in the seedy underground that inhabits any urban fiction. They also act to preserve their own brand of law and justice. There are three major Tongs, and each of them is well thought out and presented. Organizational schemes, areas of influence and colorful characters are all presented for each group, along with campaign hints to help work the Tongs into your next gaming session.
The last section is Allies and Enemies. This section presents several super-powered heroes and villains to populate a Chinatown game. It also gives the stats for the various characters in the Action! System and the M&M Superlink System. Any character that is given stats in the book is given stats in the back section. I think this is a nice touch, as it makes conversion between the systems simple.
THE GOOD: The amount of information in this book is staggering. I don’t know how they put that much stuff on 128 pages and kept it easy to read and visually interesting. I’m glad they did, though.
THE BAD: I can’t find anything bad enough to complain about. There are some typos and some of the art looks a little out of place (Not so much in the book as in the section), but neither of those things is a deal killer for me, and I am using a review copy that might be different than the eventual hardcopy.
Working on this review has led me to a couple of conclusions. A) Gold Rush Games has done some excellent work. The attention to detail and sheer volume of knowledge presented in this book simply amazes me. B) I will have to check out the rest of the San Angelo series now. If they are all as good as this one, then I will have to coerce some of my friends into roleplaying in that fabled city.
As I mentioned early on, a review PDF will not buy a good review. However, dropping a ton of information in my lap in 128 easy-to-read pages will earn a good review. I would recommend this book to information junkies, those who play in the San Angelo area and any GM who needs to model a Chinatown or other exotic enclave in their city of choice.
