The Bones of Chinatown and Me

I started to write the DOUG review when I realized that it became a review of the publication history of The Bones of Chinatown. Interesting story, I think, but not relevant to DOUG. So I'm going to post it separately here.

I've been wanting to run this scenario for many years. Really it goes back to January 2002 when Dungeon magazine had Polyhedron run in the back, and in that issue they had a d20 mini-game called Pulp Heroes. That was my first introduction to the world of the 1930's adventure pulps and roleplaying and I was quite hooked. The rules were actually quite elegant without being too complicated and the class system of d20, while not the best, seemed to work.

I sat down and scribbled out an outline for "The Eyes of the Ruby Tiger" for d20. I never did anything with it, but as the months went by I would periodically return to that outline to restructure and reorganize it. After I picked up the GURPS Cliffhangers 2nd edition book I changed the name to The Ruby Eyes and broke it down into three acts, converting the whole thing to GURPS at the same time. Or at least I tried, as I only got through the first act, The Bones of Chinatown.

Then I was introduced to Savage Worlds through the Ravaged Earth Society and I knew I had found the perfect fit. I went back to The Ruby Eyes and updated the first act and finished the second and third parts, converting it all to Savage Worlds. And then I sat on it for a short while. I wanted to see it in print but I didn't know what to do, and then in an issue of Knights of the Dinner Table they were advertising an adventure design contest. Any adventure for any genre or system.

Since the Bones of Chinatown could very easily stand on its own and fit the word count, I submitted it for KoDT. I got response message back saying my email was undeliverable and I was sad, but moved on quickly. After a few weeks I got in contact with the company that picked up the license for the Ravaged Earth Society, Reality Blurs, and I submitted The Ruby Eyes for publication (since they were a SW licensee already). They liked it and I got in touch with Sean Preston, the president on what projects I could work on.

Immediately after hanging up with Sean for the first time in December 2008 I got an email from KoDT saying my submitted adventure had taken 3rd place and would be published in an upcoming issue of KoDT! My joy was split. I was ecstatic that I was going to be in the magazine/comic that I've read for so long, but I was torn by the fact that I had submitted the scenario to two different companies (thinking the first one had failed!). I called up Sean and explained the situation and he was very understanding.

We agreed that there was enough Ravaged Earth stuff coming down the pipe that The Ruby Eyes would not be terribly missed so I gave the go ahead to KoDT. The Bones of Chinatown was published in Knights of the Dinner Table #148, The Perp Walk. And I finally got to run it in February 2010. W00t!