Q&A on cultural differences, game design, hosting, and more

Thanks to Sho from my Discord community who asked these amazing questions! I thought they were very insightful and had a ton of fun answering them.

Question 1)  

Beyond language, what is the most common cultural assumption in original Chinese scripts that you actively have to re-wire or explain for a Western audience? (e.g., specific family dynamics, social hierarchies, or concepts of justice that are just fundamentally different).

There are certainly some jubensha that assume a lot more background knowledge than others, for example, ones set in China during a specific period. One common difference is how characters might relate to each other as siblings despite having no blood relationship. The terms “brother” and “sister” are a lot more widely used in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, and can refer to anyone from strangers to friends to a deep platonic bond.

Even for jubensha that do not advertise a story tied to China, the influences of their Chinese writers are still subtly present. For example, they may rely on concepts such as reincarnation (which draws heavily from Buddhism), filial piety, or specific social factors in China such as families broken up due to financial reasons, the university entrance exam, or gender expectations. 

Jubensha is just another medium, like novels or movies, through which we can understand its writers and the culture they come from. When these themes come up, as a GM, I enjoy explaining these concepts during or at the end of the game so that my players can gain that understanding.

Question 2) 

When you read a Chinese script for the first time, what are the immediate signs that it's a masterpiece? Is it the elegance of the clue flow, the depth of the character web, or a specific structural element (like a mid-game reveal) that consistently separates the truly elite scripts from the average ones? What's the 'X-factor' you can feel even in the original Chinese before a single word is translated?

I’m most impressed when a jubensha cohesively ties in all elements of the game together. The typical jubensha will have two main components: the emotional/story reconstruction and the murder solve/logical deduction. The standard expectation is that these two are tightly intertwined so that solving the story means also solving the murder, and vice versa. There are no loose threads, making the players wonder: “Why was that important?”

The more complex scripts have additional and unique components that are carefully crafted to support both of the above elements. This could include interesting ways to obtain clues (you only receive a clue when something else happens) or different ways to connect information (instead of being told what time it was you took an action, you need to infer it from other information). Creativity is great, but only so long as it is bespoke to the game. When done well, it makes the game really stand out!

Another factor is that there are impactful reveals that matter to each player. These could be things that shake up their worldview up until that point, completely change the direction of their goals, or provide a strong emotional moment. I think jubensha is one of the few types of games that can elicit this kind of experience, and the best games reward good detective work with the juiciest reveals.

Question 3) 

Tell us about a time a script almost didn't work. What was the specific element, a character, a motive, a clue, that was so culturally rooted you had to completely reinvent it, not just translate it, to preserve the emotional core of the story?

I usually filter out games that rely on a lot of Chinese knowledge before I even begin looking through it. Past that, the content warnings are usually the biggest reason to abandon a potential translation project.

There have been some games I’ve translated requiring some knowledge of cultural elements, but I added notes into the scripts to help explain them. My experience is that players are receptive to it, even though it is a hint that that particular portion is important to the story.

The other reason for me to drop a jubensha for translation is that it asks its players to break Western social norms. For example, a jubensha’s solving mechanism was to know every character’s weight, which is provided on the cover of each booklet. The strict beauty standards of East Asia might make it more culturally acceptable to scrutinize a character’s weight in that way, but I didn’t think it would be considered appropriate in Western regions.

Question 4) 

Everyone asks about the process, but what are the unwritten rules? Are there specific formulas for clue distribution or relationship mapping that Chinese designers use that Western writers have yet to discover? What does your spreadsheet/storyboard actually look like when it's working? Could you describe the architecture of a perfect clue?

I don’t know what Chinese designers use, but I can share how I go about writing a jubensha. There are three things I start with: theme, characters, and the puzzle. 

Cohesion is the biggest challenge, and for me as a player and host, the marker of a great jubensha. Therefore, I start with the theme – what do I want the players to feel? Will it be light and comedic, heavy and dark, or romantic and emotional, etc.? Knowing this will help with figuring out the characters, the plot, and which tropes to use. Everything you decide in the jubensha must be cohesive with the theme.

Characters are, in my opinion, the most important part of a jubensha, and will make or break it. You want every player to feel like the main character in their own story, but side characters in everyone else’s! I use a character mapping grid so that every character has a unique and conflict-driven relationship with most of the other characters. I want to build tense interactions between them, so the players can act them out later. 

The puzzle is the third element and – for some players who are all about solving the murder – the most important. The best jubensha games create a bespoke puzzle to fit their theme (or come up with the theme after developing the puzzle) so it’s hard to say how to create the puzzle. Often, it involves a variation on a timeline reconstruction, where players must confirm who was where at what time. For a jubensha writer, it’s like creating a maze. Figure out the “true path” and add red herrings or “dead ends” along the way. Ideally, every dead end should still be a satisfying addition to the game, for example, it helps reconstruct someone’s backstory or helps someone’s secondary objective. 

The perfect clue is one that is simple yet carries a lot of weight. Complex clues force players to stop and read for minutes at a time, disrupting the momentum of the game. Because real estate in each game is limited, a great clue should push forward more than one jubensha element, whether that’s emotional or character development, a key to solving the murder, or story reconstruction. You need a mix of different clues in the game; ones that prompt immediate action, others that are confusing to start but make sense later; ones that connect to other clues, and others that connect to character backstories. Most important is to develop clues that are cohesive with the theme of the game!

Question 5) 

Jubensha is about lived-in emotion. What specific design technique creates the most powerful immersion you've witnessed? Is it a type of prop, a specific instruction in the character's secret backstory, or a moment where the game mechanics force genuine human interaction?

My favourite mechanic for this is revealing a secret about a character that even the player themselves didn’t know. It gives the game a sense of progression – as though going through the game has fundamentally changed this character; that there is a tangible impact. 

The best way to generate this kind of revelation is through character interaction. Players should think: “If it weren’t for this interaction I had with another player, my character wouldn’t have found out X! And this might even change my goals or how I see the world/these people.”

I strive for a quality of story telling and character development that rivals novels and movies. I want to see characters change over the course of the game, changed by other characters and the events of the plot. For me, this is what drives the emotional aspect of jubensha.

Question 6) 

Beyond managing the game, what is the most nuanced thing a host can do to shape the emotional experience? How do you guide the vibe of the room differently than a D&D Dungeon Master would?

The GM role is bespoke to every jubensha. In some games, I have an active role as a unique character, in which case I would stay in character as much as possible and encourage others to stay in character through embodying my character. In other games, where I do not have a character in the game, it’s about stepping back and letting the game unfold with minimal logistical interruption and redirecting the group if confusion is overtaking their immersion and enjoyment of the game. It’s quite different to a D&D dungeon master, but it’s hard to say what a jubensha GM does as most games requiring a GM have a unique reason for it. If not, then the game is better off advertised as no GM required.

Question 7) 

Based on your unique position, what is the single biggest misconception or missing piece holding the Western jubensha scene back from creating stories with the same depth and cultural authenticity as the originals?

There are a number of constraints that inhibit the West from creating jubensha.

First, and most glaring, is the lack of awareness. Not many people know what it is, and even for those who know about it and want to write them, they don’t have good access to jubensha to have a solid foundation on what the game consists of. It’s like trying to write a screenplay when you’ve only ever seen one or two movies. 

Second is that the audience for it is still small. It’s dedicated, but small. The amount of time and energy it takes to write a quality jubensha vastly outweighs the monetary or even social benefit from doing so, as not many people (currently) will end up playing it without proper marketing. Marketing a jubensha is quite the behemoth task as it’s not only advertising your jubensha, but jubensha as a game type itself. It’s an uphill battle, but we’re heading in the right direction!

Third, the nature of the games might not appeal to as many people as it does in East Asia. Many in the West are not used to sitting down and reading for 15-30 minutes as is common in even beginner games. Scripts are naturally longer in English than in Chinese due to the nature of the languages. Some are used to the D&D-type role play where you come up with your own character and build your own story, which is not the kind of role play that jubensha offers. The amount of time, usually no less than 3 hours, is also a big commitment. Lastly, the strict small group player count where if one person doesn’t show up, the game can’t be played, is a difficult barrier to overcome. 

Lastly, the infrastructure for jubensha is plainly not here. There are no established publishing studios for jubensha (though some are now emerging) meaning any aspiring jubensha writer needs to do all the publishing work themselves. There are no physical stores offering the true jubensha experience (with a themed room and costuming) that entice the more casual entertainment-seeker to try it out. And there are no hundreds if not thousands of games to choose from when you walk into a shop that allow you to find a game no matter how many people are in your group and what you’re in the mood for. It’s hard to know what part of this infrastructure we need to start building first, as they all tie into each other.

Question 8) 

For the readers who finish this and feel the fire to create, what is the first, most critical step you'd tell them to take? What should they study, play, or practice before they even write their first word?

My advice would be to try out some jubensha to see if that’s the game type they’re interested in designing. They may end up disliking parts of the core elements, such as the amount of reading, or the fact that a pre-set character is assigned to them and players can’t freeform their role play. 

If they already know it’s jubensha they want to write, I suggest they reflect on what was personally most exciting to them. Was it the character relationships? The story reconstruction? The murder mystery puzzle? Knowing the kind of jubensha you like to experience will make it easier to write something you’ll love. Right now, we don’t have enough market data on what any potential target audience will enjoy, so just write for yourself!

Practice creative writing and creating interesting puzzles. These are the core skills of jubensha design that can be applicable to other domains, like escape room design. You don’t need to write or design a jubensha to get better at the skills needed for it!

Last thing I recommend is joining a community that will support you. I’ve created a growing Discord server for both jubensha players but also jubensha writers! We test each other’s games and provide valuable feedback that’s hard to get elsewhere, especially from those who have jubensha experience.

Question 9) 

If you could give Western writers one single, counter-intuitive piece of advice you've learned from the best Chinese scripts, something that completely inverts how we think about mystery writing, what would it be? (For example: "Start with the emotional betrayal, not the murder," or "The culprit should be the most sympathetic character.")

Every jubensha is a handcrafted, unique experience and so there is no specific advice I can give. The more general advice I have is that you need to have a strong cohesive vision for the game, and everything needs to ladder up to that. It should be elegant. 

This might not be the most counter-intuitive advice, but this is what differentiates murder mystery dinner party boxes with jubensha. You end up with subplots that don’t tie into each other whatsoever. For those games, the fun is in the costuming and the dinner party, but for jubensha, it’s all about the stories and puzzles and how they are intertwined.