Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - How to get that feel in an RPG?

[Dlsharrock]

how do you keep this kind of action going in a campaign without it becoming tired?

I would intersperse the big, brassy action with lesser, but no less sublime, close up moments. Spielberg does this well. The girl hyperventillating onto a cobweb in War of the Worlds, seconds later Tom Cruise destroying a tripod in spectacular fashion, for example. Beware deux ex machina and the temptation to exploit realism or logic for the sake of bold action sequences.

 

[Crothian]

Hollow Earth is the best for this because it is not assuming the PCs have special abilities like Adventure does. Otherwise, you really can't do wrong by any of the suggestions.

 

[mhensley]

Play Traveller. Most of your starting pc's will be old geezers like Harrison Ford.

 

[mjukglass]

Spirit of the Century seconded.

 

[Gargoyle]

If you can find a copy, check out Torg.

The idea of having both standard and dramatic encounters worked very well. Standard encounters are fights where there are lots of easy to beat mooks and dramatic encounters are against tougher challenges. Beating the the standard encounters in a flashy way rewards the heroes with the tools they need to beat the tougher dramatic encounters.

There is even an example in the rules of how Torg emulates movies like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. They explain that when Indy rides a horse up to the truck and beats up several Nazi's, it's a standard encounter, and it turns dramatic when the tough sergeant climbs up to the cab, beats him up, and throws him out the window. It's that swing between kicking butt and the fear of being beat that gives the adventures such a great feel.

Torg was designed with this kind of cinematic adventure in mind, especially in the Nile Empire. It's also cross-genre, so it's good for adventures that you might see in a horror movie and other genres, and for mixing genres in particularly weird adventures, but the overall idea is that it is cinematic, and it handles pulp adventure very well.

 

[Rechan]

Spirit of the Century thirded, fourthed, fifthed, and whatever else I can do to it.

 

[WayneLigon]

For the 'feel' of any movie, system doesn't really matter. Some might make it a little easier or harder to do certain 'waa-hoo' actions (if your system doesn't have a good chase mechanic, for instance, it might make it harder for you to do car chases or know when you overtake the bandits on horseback), but the 'feel' can be invoked in any system at all. It just takes experience and willingness on the parts of the players to just let some things slide as far as rules go - the main thing is to keep the scene moving at the same pace.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you can find a copy, check out Torg.

The idea of having both standard and dramatic encounters worked very well. Standard encounters are fights where there are lots of easy to beat mooks and dramatic encounters are against tougher challenges. Beating the the standard encounters in a flashy way rewards the heroes with the tools they need to beat the tougher dramatic encounters.

There is even an example in the rules of how Torg emulates movies like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. They explain that when Indy rides a horse up to the truck and beats up several Nazi's, it's a standard encounter, and it turns dramatic when the tough sergeant climbs up to the cab, beats him up, and throws him out the window. It's that swing between kicking butt and the fear of being beat that gives the adventures such a great feel.

Torg was designed with this kind of cinematic adventure in mind, especially in the Nile Empire. It's also cross-genre, so it's good for adventures that you might see in a horror movie and other genres, and for mixing genres in particularly weird adventures, but the overall idea is that it is cinematic, and it handles pulp adventure very well.

To recreate the feel of The Mummy or Indiana Jones (and probably anything else "pulpy"), Torg is a good choice.

The difference between standard and dramatic encounters can also be incorporated into other games, though, but you need to "improvise" a bit.

Basically, standard encounters are encounters with inferior enemies - lots of mooks. Dramatic encounters, and you meat the real villains.
In 3E, mooks can be replicated with lower level NPCs (CR = Level -2)
In 4E, Minions are the obvious choice, and maybe also regular monsters, but with lower level and the total XP probably skewed towards the lower end of the scale.
In 3E, the dramatic encounters are those where you fight encounters against monsters with CR equal to or higher then the PCs (and in sufficient numbers to generate EL = PL +4)
In 4E, you probably use some more regular and Elite monsters, possibly a few levels beyond the PCs, with total XP skewed towards the higher end of the scale.

 

[Princesskeyblade]

buy & play Hollow Earth Expedition

I agree with The Cardinal... I have played in a Gameday HEX game where I played Indy and it was a BLAST!

 

[Psion]

Just saw the movie today. Movies like this make me want to play a game that tries to capture the feel of the movie. What system(s) best model the action sequences?

FATE / Spirit of the Century.

Wide-eyed, high action. Great chase rules. Great mook-smashing. Rules for exploiting scenery are built right into the core of the system.