Okay, so I just finished watching The Four (四大名捕), a terrific Chinese wuxia martial art film. In it an investigation team composed of martial arts and paranormal specialists answering directly to the emperor called the Divine Constabulary battles criminals, assassins, and zombies in tracking down a conspiracy. Their rivals are Department Six (the "Six Fan Gate"), the official imperial investigations department. Sometimes they work together but sometimes they are at odds. Some Chinese martial arts films are pretty cheesy, but this one is a cut above the usual. It's martial arts, plus super-hero powers, plus zombies, plus magic, plus intrigue.
As I was watching it I was thinking that this would be a cool way to run an RPG campaign. You could have the PCs start out as a team of special, semi-official investigators working for their local magistrate. As they advance in level and prestige, they will get promoted to working for the county magistrate, then the provincial governor, and then an imperial minister, and finally the emperor personally. At each level the enemies get more powerful, the stakes higher, and the intrigue deeper.
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