XIAO! LONG! BAO! ~ Release + The Inspirations behind my Dim-Sum Adventure!

https://xiaofang64.itch.io/xiao-long-bao
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/546911/xiao-long-bao-a-mothership-scenario

Officially the 1st Rank peer-rated module of the Fall TripTech² 2025 Game Jam and winner of awards for: Most Favorable, Community Select & Thematic Excellence!

Xiao! Long! Bao! is a trendy new grub spot on Prospero's Dream that serves home-made dim sum. Customers agree: Head Chef Uncle Bao makes the best soup dumplings this side of the Milky Way.
    But… There's a reason Uncle Bao keeps his secret recipe so close to his chest, and there’s a reason his competitors are dying to steal it. D’ya wanna learn how the mincemeat is made? The truth will make you sick to your stomach…

Xiao! Long! Bao! is a trifold sci-fi horror scenario designed for use with the Mothership RPG 1e (Tuesday Knight Games). This download includes:

• Trifold PDF in both colour and Black & White for convenient printing
• Map image files, in GM/Player-facing formats, top-down and perspective styles
• Bonus art, including beauty shots of the secret monster and X!L!B!'s mascot, Bao Boy!
• An mp4 of the X!L!B! ad- use it as an immersive TV spot!

 How the Meat is Made

The following contains massive spoilers for Xiao! Long! Bao! 

This game was made as part of the TripTech²  Mothership Jam, which was an absolute blast. It was, of course, hugely gratifying to see the positive response that my work got, but the best part of the experience was seeing peoples' creative visions coalesce together during the creation phase. I am not a great collaborator, and it was difficult for me. But I hope I can make it a habit in future.

 Anyhow in case you're interested, here's some info about the real life mythology that inspired X!L!B!

 The Hundun

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundun 

 

The minor monsters in the adventure, the hundun, are based on a real mythological creature from Chinese mythology. You might have seen it in Shang-Chi. The real creature is less of a horror monster and more of a symbolic creature. Like my hundun, it has no face or anus, which is related to the concept of "primordial chaos," a kind of time-before-time when things like physical needs did not exist.

 

The hundun is also thought to be symbolically linked to the wonton dumpling, so there's a dim-sum connection there!

 

My preference for creature design skews more biological than magical, so in X!L!B!, the lack of a face and an anus is not a sign of the creature having a supernatural metabolism, but rather being part of a limited life cycle. It shares this with some butterflies, who emerge from their chrysalises unable to eat. 

 

The Taotei

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taotie

 

The Taotei is also based on this real mythological creature. (The standard romanisation is TaotIE, I don't really remember why I changed it except that I think "tei" looks better on the page.)

 

The Taotie has also been used in some films, notably that weird Matt Damon Great Wall movie. The actual mythical features of the Taotie are not totally clear, but there are two things that are common: it's associated with gluttony and it's used as a motif on bronze pots/vessels, like the one above!

 

My Taotei obviously draws heavily from those features. Gluttony is a theme running through the adventure. I tried to design the monster as a kind of biological pot: somewhat disturbing but also a bit awkward and frumpy- perhaps even a bit cute from a certain angle. Anecdotal evidence: I tested out X!L!B! with two groups. One slew the Taotei, and other felt bad for it and ended up tranquilising it and finding it a better home.

 

  The Dumplings

 

Dim Sum is a huge part of Cantonese culture. But xialongbao, or doup dumplings, are from further north. When I started thinking about the adventure I initially thought about using something I was more familiar with, like charsiubao (pork dumplings). But charsiubao are kind of considered a bit of a kid's food whereas xlb is a little more refined and has a reputation for being difficult to make well. When the game jam's theme of Impossibly Perfect was announced, I settled on X!L!B

 

I also think it sounds better to shout but that's subjective.

 

Conclusion and Myth Making

Along with Monkey King, this is the second time I've based a Mothership scenario on a piece of (Chinese) mythology. It's fun!

Finding the right balance between groundedness and magic is a unique kind of challenge. I tried to create a sci-fi nonsense "reason" why an alien could produce dumplings, and even so I got some feedback that it strained credulity a bit too much for some readers. I may post some more thoughts about this subject in future, but one more monster I'd like to bring to Mothership is the Jiangshi.

Watch this space!