hawkeyefan
Legend
It’s only in recent years I’ve realized how much overlap there is with westerns and fantasy. I’ve always liked westerns, but never realized how much they were influencing our gaming.
Once you see it, though, you cannot unsee it.It’s only in recent years I’ve realized how much overlap there is with westerns and fantasy. I’ve always liked westerns, but never realized how much they were influencing our gaming.
Such an amazing film, and with awesome soundtrack too.Obligatory mention of Boorman's Excalibur.
I wasn't actually much of a fantasy fan before I started playing D&D. An SF fan, yes, but if West Coast D&D fandom didn't have a fair bit of SF seeping into it, I'm not 100% sure it'd have caught me (though I was always interested in mythology and monsters, so it had that going for it).
Obligatory mention of Boorman's Excalibur. My high school D&D group got together to watch it. Not that it actually inspired our game, which was thoroughly dungeon-crawly until I bought a few of the published modules, which landed like a wet towel with the group.
It would be an experience to see that properly in a theater.Ah Excalibur. That soundtrack, the gleaming armor, the bombast! It wasn't until I watched it in middle school with my D&D group that I realized that the version I'd grown up watching was a TV edit. That was an eye-opener.
I saw it revived in the early 90s, twice I think. (Once in a double with Blade Runner.)It would be an experience to see that properly in a theater.
You really can do everything in plate armor!Ah Excalibur. That soundtrack, the gleaming armor, the bombast! It wasn't until I watched it in middle school with my D&D group that I realized that the version I'd grown up watching was a TV edit. That was an eye-opener.
* wets pants *I saw it revived in the early 90s, twice I think. (Once in a double with Blade Runner.)
We found this a general frustration of the era. Several of us had Bushido, by FGU, but despite its wonderfully written setting and background and evocative skill list, playing it didn't produce Kurosawa. We had Cyberpunk, but it's play didn't produce Gibson.I love the aesthetic of The Seven Samurai, and also Yojimbo. But I don't think I've ever successfully incorporated it into RPGing.
Now I want to write a D&D scenario based on Desolation Row.the only time I can think of actually using a song to inspire a RPG idea was Dylan's Isis, and especially the line "We came to the pyramids, all embedded in ice": I've used pyramids embedded in ice twice.
While I played a lot of Cyberpunk back in the day, I didn't read Gibson's work until I was in my early thirties. It wasn't until then that I discovered just how different the Cyberpunk RPG was from Gibson's work. Mollie Millions hardly has any cyberware compared to what Cyberpunk characters typically possessed. But then D&D is radically different from almost any fantasy book I ever read (not counting books influenced by or set in D&D worlds).We found this a general frustration of the era. Several of us had Bushido, by FGU, but despite its wonderfully written setting and background and evocative skill list, playing it didn't produce Kurosawa. We had Cyberpunk, but it's play didn't produce Gibson.
A variant of Over the Edge?Now I want to write a D&D scenario based on Desolation Row.
A game is not a book. Your DM didn't have the fine control over your characters' actions a screenwriter, director or author would. If you had fun, that's the most you can hope for. (I mean, there are cases where published replays of people's games have kicked off whole games or anime subgenres (in Japan), but we don't have that in our culture.) You got together to tell a story and have fun, and that's what you aimed for. Nobody's doing this to make art, let alone genre-defining art by a master.We found this a general frustration of the era. Several of us had Bushido, by FGU, but despite its wonderfully written setting and background and evocative skill list, playing it didn't produce Kurosawa. We had Cyberpunk, but it's play didn't produce Gibson.
A game is not a book. Your DM didn't have the fine control over your characters' actions a screenwriter, director or author would. If you had fun, that's the most you can hope for. (I mean, there are cases where published replays of people's games have kicked off whole games or anime subgenres (in Japan), but we don't have that in our culture.) You got together to tell a story and have fun, and that's what you aimed for. Nobody's doing this to make art, let alone genre-defining art by a master.
I don't think that @chaochou is expecting replicate Kurosawa per se - see his post upthread about Firefly vs The Wire.A game is not a book. Your DM didn't have the fine control over your characters' actions a screenwriter, director or author would. If you had fun, that's the most you can hope for.
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You got together to tell a story and have fun, and that's what you aimed for. Nobody's doing this to make art, let alone genre-defining art by a master.
Of course there are differences in medium. The experiences will be different. What makes for a good GM or a good player of a specific RPG are different qualities than what makes for the best writer or actor. That does not mean we cannot strive to experience the same sort of thematic heft or visceral emotional experiences we get from a well written novel or well performed movie. Specifically when it comes to visceral emotional experiences tabletop RPGs actually have a leg up because the characters, the setting and the situation are so intimately personally to the audience because they had a hand in their creation and we get to experience genuine tension and uncertainty in a way that a written narrative is incapable of.
It certainly does not mean that roleplaying games are incapable of things like ensemble dramas.
See, I find the aesthetic of Seven Samurai and Yojimbo to be completely different. If I were to put in Northrop Frye's terms, Seven Samurai is low-mimetic (heroes are not superior in degree or environment) with flashes towards high-mimesis, while Yojimbo is high-mimetic (heroes are superior in degree but not in environment) with flashes towards romance. Sanjuro is a flat out romance (heroes are superior in degree and environment).I love the aesthetic of The Seven Samurai, and also Yojimbo. But I don't think I've ever successfully incorporated it into RPGing.