Creating games - songs

[ArghMark]

Anyone had an adventure creation from a song?

I recently re-heard the 90's pop classic, I saw the Sign by Ace of Base.

The Sign lyrics

Shock!

I gotta new life
You would hardly recognize me I'm so glad
How could a person like me care for you
Why do I bother
When you're not the one for me
Oooo, is enough, enough

I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
Life is demanding without understanding
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong
But where do you belong

Under the pale moon
For so many years I've wondered who you are
How can a person like you bring me joy
Under the pale moon
Where I see a lot of stars
Is enough, enough

I saw the sign...

I saw the sign and it opened up my mind
And I am happy now living without you
I've left you, ooohhh
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I sae the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong

I saw the sign - I saw the sign - I saw the sign



Immediately I had an idea for a villaness/Call of Cthulhu nutcase who had seen the Yellow Sign and found herself uninterested not just in men but in earthly life itself.

Its not just that she wants to get to carcosa, but that she thinks everyone should go there.

Anyone else want to do a song-to-adventure link!

 

[Oddric]

Heh.

"Highway To Hell".

 

[Ariosto]

Yeah; it's a pretty old tradition whence I come.

Weasels ripped my flesh in the court of the crimson king. An agent of fortune, electric warrior initiate of the blue oyster cult, I quested to find the invisible sun before the priests of Syrinx. Escaping the necromancer's clutches in a hot-wired shining red Barchetta, I drove over the toads of the Short Forest even as the wheels spun in yellow snow.

Demons danced alone, red-eyed Eskimo residents of the moles' Third Reich swathed in vileness fats and wearing matching tie and handkerchief. Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees.

I wear a tall hat and ride a white swan. My people were fair and had sky in their hair but now they're content to wear stars on their brows.

 

[Jack7]

Kashmir, Led Zeppelin

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed

Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear
But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
Oh, oh.

Oh, I been flying... mama, there aint no denyin
Ive been flying, aint no denyin, no denyin

All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find where Ive been.

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high and true, when movin through kashmir.

Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear
Ohh.

When Im on, when Im on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when Im down...
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well Im down, so down
Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there

Let me take you there. let me take you there...


Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd

[01:35]so, so you think you can tell
[01:41]heaven from hell,
[01:45]blue skys from pain.
[01:49]can you tell a green field
[01:53]from a cold steel rail?
[01:58]a smile from a veil?
[02:02]do you think you can tell?

[02:07]and did they get you to trade
[02:11]your heros for ghosts?
[02:15]hot ashes for trees?
[02:19]hot air for a cool breeze?
[02:23]cold comfort for change?
[02:26]and did you exchange
[02:30]a walk on part in the war
[02:33]for a lead role in a cage?



Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Van Morrison

Piper at the gates of dawn
The coolness of the riverbank, and the whispering of the reeds
Daybreak is not so very far away

Enchanted and spellbound, in the silence they lingered
And rowed the boat as the light grew steadily strong
And the birds were silent, as they listened for the heavenly music
And the river played the song

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The song dream happened and the cloven hoofed piper
Played in that holy ground where they felt the awe and wonder
And they all were unafraid of the great God pan

And the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

When the vision vanished they heard a choir of birds singing
In the heavenly silence between the trance and the reeds
And they stood upon the lawn and listened to the silence

Of the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

Its the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn
The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn


By the way, Lyrics Freak is good for this type of thing


Poems proper also inspire in me both story and adventure ideas.

Xanadu, Coleridge

Xanadu
Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me
That with music loud and long
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.


Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, Browning

I.

My first thought was, he lied in every word,
That hoary cripple, with malicious eye
Askance to watch the working of his lie
On mine, and mouth scarce able to afford
Suppression of the glee, that pursed and scored
Its edge, at one more victim gained thereby.

II.

What else should he be set for, with his staff?
What, save to waylay with his lies, ensnare
All travellers who might find him posted there,
And ask the road? I guessed what skull-like laugh
Would break, what crutch 'gin write my epitaph
For pastime in the dusty thoroughfare,

III.

If at his counsel I should turn aside
Into that ominous tract which, all agree,
Hides the Dark Tower. Yet acquiescingly
I did turn as he pointed: neither pride
Nor hope rekindling at the end descried,
So much as gladness that some end might be...

XIII.

As for the grass, it grew as scant as hair
In leprosy; thin dry blades pricked the mud
Which underneath looked kneaded up with blood.
One stiff blind horse, his every bone a-stare,
Stood stupefied, however he came there:
Thrust out past service from the devil's stud!...

XV.

I shut my eyes and turned them on my heart.
As a man calls for wine before he fights,
I asked one draught of earlier, happier sights,
Ere fitly I could hope to play my part.
Think first, fight afterwards---the soldier's art:
One taste of the old time sets all to rights.

XVI.

Not it! I fancied Cuthbert's reddening face
Beneath its garniture of curly gold,
Dear fellow, till I almost felt him fold
An arm in mine to fix me to the place,
That way he used. Alas, one night's disgrace!
Out went my heart's new fire and left it cold...

XXXI.

What in the midst lay but the Tower itself?
The round squat turret, blind as the fool's heart,
Built of brown stone, without a counter-part
In the whole world. The tempest's mocking elf
Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf
He strikes on, only when the timbers start.

XXXII.

Not see? because of night perhaps?---why, day
Came back again for that! before it left,
The dying sunset kindled through a cleft:
The hills, like giants at a hunting, lay,
Chin upon hand, to see the game at bay,---
``Now stab and end the creature---to the heft!''

XXXIII.

Not hear? when noise was everywhere! it tolled
Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears
Of all the lost adventurers my peers,---
How such a one was strong, and such was bold,
And such was fortunate, yet, each of old
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

XXXIV.

There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! in a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew. ``Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.''



To me many things should inspire adventures, both real and imagined. There are many seas to sail, we should put out on to as many as we can reach.

 

[Nai_Calus]

Curse you, OP. I had successfully forgotten that song entirely until this thread.

 

[Ravilah]

Well its not actually a song, but I once came across a poem called "The Song of a Mad Minstrel." The first two verses go like this:

I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight;
I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night.
I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;
I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate.

I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat,
Laughing man's labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet.
I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay;
The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day.


Well the whole poem was just too evil for words, so I thought it sounded like the hymn of some dark cult to aberrations. So I invented a deity of aberrations and had his cult be the center of a whole campaign (my first homebrewed campaign actually).

 

[ExploderWizard]

We played an entire long running GURPS fantasy campaign based on the song Defender by Manowar:

When You Are Old Enough
To Read These Words
Their Meaning Will Unfold
These Words Are All That’s Left
Though We’ve Never Met My Only Son
I Hope You Know
That I Would Have Been There
To Watch You Grow
But My Call Was Heard
And I Did Go
Now your Mission Lies Ahead Of You
As It Did Mine So Long Ago
To Help The Helpless Ones
Who All Look Up To You
And To Defend Them To The End

Defender

Ride Like The Wind
Fight Proud My Son
You’re The Defender
God Has Sent

Ride Like The Wind
Fight Proud My Son
You’re The Defender
God Has Sent
[ The part above narrated in pure awesome by Orson Welles]

Father Father
Father I Look Up To You
And Heed Thy Call
This Letter Ends My Search
I’ll Live Your Dream
Now Passed On To Me

And I Now Wait
To Shake The Hand Of Fate
Like The Dusk Awaiting Dawn
So Wizards Cast Your Spell
With No Heart To Do Me Well
So It Is Written
It Shall Be

Defender

Ride Like The Wind
Fight Proud My Son
You’re The Defender
God Has Sent

 

[Mallus]

An NPC in my old "Chronicles of Burne/More Tales of CITY" campaign was based on the following:

"She's so swishy in her satin and tat
In her frock coat
and bipperty-bopperty hat
Oh God, I could do better than that

She's an old-time ambassador
Of sweet talking, night walking games
And she's known in the darkest clubs
For pushing ahead of the dames
If she says she can do it
Then she can do it,
she don't make false claims
But she's a Queen,
and such are queens
That your laughter
is sucked in their brains"

(and s/he was introduced in an adventure rife with other Bowie references)

 

[Ktulu]

Well its not actually a song, but I once came across a poem called "The Song of a Mad Minstrel." The first two verses go like this:

I am the thorn in the foot, I am the blur in the sight;
I am the worm at the root, I am the thief in the night.
I am the rat in the wall, the leper that leers at the gate;
I am the ghost in the hall, herald of horror and hate.

I am the rust on the corn, I am the smut on the wheat,
Laughing man's labor to scorn, weaving a web for his feet.
I am canker and mildew and blight, danger and death and decay;
The rot of the rain by night, the blast of the sun by day.


Well the whole poem was just too evil for words, so I thought it sounded like the hymn of some dark cult to aberrations. So I invented a deity of aberrations and had his cult be the center of a whole campaign (my first homebrewed campaign actually).

Hehhe, "I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the onion that stinks in your eyes!" Gotta love Darkwing Duck.

Back on topic:

Another song that I've always wanted to use was The Thing that Should not Be by Metallica:

Messenger of fear in sight
Dark deception kills the light

Hybrid children watch the sea
Pray for father, roaming free

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell

Crawling chaos, underground
Cult has summoned, twisted sound

Out from ruins once possessed
Fallen city, living death

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Timeless sleep
Has been upset
He awakens
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell

Not dead which eternal lie
Stranger eons death may die

Drain you of your sanity
Face the thing that should not be

Fearless wretch
Insanity
He watches
Lurking beneath the sea
Great old one
Forbidden site
He searches
Hunter of the shadows is rising
Immortal
In madness you dwell.


In case you were unaware, it's about Cthulhu.