Mining movies for setting ideas

[Felix]

I was watching "Krull" the other day and was amazed at how many quite interesting details the world had, and how profitable a campaign setting could be if it went around mining movies for ideas. I suppose I'll start with a few I've ripped directly from Krull to start the ball rolling, and let other folks add on from any movie they like as we go along. Feel free to re-use any reference changing its mechanical workings to suit your pleasure.

Oh, and I'll provide a citation to the movie and to the referent, and ask that you do too.

Krull

The Glaive:
1d6 base damage, Slashing, 18/x2 crit, Throwing and Returning abilities, +3 Enhancement bonus.

The Blind Emerald Seer:
Some Divination specialist wizards lose their physical gift of sight after 10 levels or so, but gain a sort of Blindsense to know when creatures are present, though lack the ability to distinguish between individuals. These diviners gain a +4 bonus to their caster level when casting Divination spells.

Cyclopses:
These creatures' ancestors were failed candidates for the PrC "Eye of Gruumsh" who were cast out from orc society. Their offspring have inherited a curse which includes being born with only one eye and being able to foresee thier own death. A lack of bifocal vision hinders them not, nor does the knowledge of their death benefit them.

Fire Mares:
The celestial equivalent to Nightmares and Cauchemars, though they reside on the Prime Material Plane; their abilities of speed and flight are only active in females, though the stallions do posess the genes and may pass them on. Some Fire Mares have been bred to prize studs to produce truly magnificent colts and fillys. A breeder is only considered noteworthy if he manages to arrange for Fire Mare blood in his horses.

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Ravenous

Cannibalism/Wendigos
I'm a big fan of the quirkyness of this movie, but I also like how cannibalism functions in the movie, healing the cannibal and giving him prodigious strength. For you Robert Howard fans, it is similar to the Dafari cannibal rituals of "Eating the Moon" whereby the cannibals become invulnerable during the nights of the full moon after they have feasted on human flesh.

Mechanically, the Ravenous cannibalsim would bestow a Heal effect upon the cannibal after having consumed a set amount of the victim, and grant him +4 to strength. The hunger for more would drive most to repeat their cannibalism but not again benefit the cannibal. Perhaps a Will save would be appropriate? Guy Pierce showed it was possible for forego indulging.

The Dafari ritual cannibalism would make all damage taken while the light of the full moon shines upon the cannibals non-lethal damage. As soon as the moon is covered, by tree canopy, clouds, or other contrivance this effect is suspended and all non-lethal damage is converted back into lethal damage. The full moon lasts for 3 days every month, and the ritualistic cannibalism must be presided over by a priest/shaman/cleric of the Dafari gods, or a similar god in the campaign.

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So, what movies do you like to mine, and how have you or would you convert them into interesting nick-nacks for your campaign setting?

 

[smootrk]

Generally, it seem that the cheesier the fantasy movie (plot-wise anyhow), the better it is suited for making into an adventure or scenario (ie Hobbit, Krull from above, D&D Movie). Large, complex, or multi-plotline stories are much harder to make happen in a gaming setting (ie LotR).

Races, items, cities, etc are very easy to port into Homebrews.

 

[Felix]

Oh, it's not the storyline I'm looking for, but the small details that can add flesh and believeability to a setting. I don't want an adventure named "Krull", but rather in an adventure of my own making, or to insert as NPCs into a module, I'd like to have the glaive kicking around. Or perhaps have the PCs run into a fight twixt Orcs and Cyclopses. That sort of thing.

 

[DJCupboard]

Well, I was just watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy the other day, and it struck me how cool some of those races would be for a fantasy RPG. For instance the Hobbits (or "halflings," as the Rohan call them), would be a neat race. I'm thinking something like:

- +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength.
- Small: As a Small creature, a halfling gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but she uses smaller weapons than humans use, and her lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.
- Halfling base land speed is 20 feet.
- +2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks.
- +1 racial bonus on all saving throws.
- +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear: This bonus stacks with the halfling’s +1 bonus on saving throws in general.
- +1 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons and slings.
- +2 racial bonus on Listen checks.
- Automatic Languages: Common and Halfling. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Orc.
- Favored Class: Rogue. A multiclass halfling’s rogue class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

;-) Sorry, I couldn't resist.

In all seriousness, I want to incorporate the undead and magic items from the first Pirates of the Caribean movie (and the sequal had some cool concepts, as well), but can't quite figure out the logistics.

You'd have unturnable (or maybe just Turn Resistance +?) and DR -/gold, skeletons with really high regeneration; and the magic compass that apparently can guide the way to anywhere you have been before/ really want to go.

DJC

 

[Cthulhudrew]

You'd have unturnable (or maybe just Turn Resistance +?) and DR -/gold, skeletons with really high regeneration;

What makes you think they're unturnable? No one in the Pirates movies even tried, from what I remember.

(Jack should have just gone and gotten a cleric to help him, rather than that wussy Legolas. )

 

[Tonguez]

I used the Ravenous Idea to turn my Barbarians into 'Cannibal Savages'; eating long pork is what powers their rage

and I used Krulls cyclopses

The Smurfs developed to become my Blue Gnomes (who live in clans of about 100 with only 1 female)

The Dark Crystal gave me the Uru mystics



From The Labyrinth came a creature based on Ludo - who is the 'cohort' to a high level Druid/Barbarian whom I once played (and subsequently used as an NPC and minor goddess of War)
another of her companions was a mystical creature with the face of an angler fish based on the the idea of Aughra (from the Dark Crystal)

There's a few others too but I'm gonna have to try and work out which movie they came from

 

[Turanil]

So, what movies do you like to mine, and how have you or would you convert them into interesting nick-nacks for your campaign setting?

A couple of movies:


Earthsea
I like the magical book that attracts Ged's attention, and almost casts a dark spell all by itself, with runes moving alone on the pages, etc.

Conan The Destroyer
I like the statue that needs to be completed to give life to an odious demon, and to kill it, you must remove what initially completed the statue.

Chinese Ghost Stories
I love these ghosts, and how they do help the good monk novice after having tried to pervert him.

Pirates of the Caribean
I love its undead and once statted them. I think I called them "Crypt Cursed", and they are in some monster netbook.

 

[Wik]

My goblins often behave like the grunts from Halo... I use the voices and everything. In fact, at one point we were playing and my brother just said "You sound like the grunts from Halo..." the very next thing my goblin shouted out was a line from the video game: "Bad cyborg! Bad cyborg! Er.... Barbarian!"

Back in the 2e days, we used a magical weapon generator based off the idea in Diablo. You'd find a magical item that was a "red longsword of lifeeating" and "Conan's Axe of the Dragon". Lots of fun. IN fact, I think at least one GM is still using the list I wrote up, all those years ago...

 

[Felix]

The Smurfs developed to become my Blue Gnomes (who live in clans of about 100 with only 1 female)

Tonguez in cheek?

Yeah, droll... quite. Ahem. Anyway, how did you use them? I like the idea of gnomes being diminuitive creatures, as they are in Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and I suppose Smurfs work for that... But how would you come accross these creatures in the setting? Do they participate in human societies, or are they on their own, living in cool, damp fungus-growing places?

Chinese Ghost Stories
I love these ghosts, and how they do help the good monk novice after having tried to pervert him.

Ghost stories in general, or are there some I might could look up online to get a better idea of what kind of ghost you're talking about? I've read Journey to the West, and the spirits in that place are generally sedentary and don't have much to do with the world outside of their specific location. Perhaps some other kind of ghosts?

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Dead Man's Chest
Divination through the use of bones is horrendously common in folklore of most cultures, and is evident in Tia Dalma's character in this movie. How would this become a DnD magic item? Perhaps with a sufficient Spellcraft check the bones reveal a more or less accurate Legend Lore effect; the higher the check increases the knowledge you gain from the spell and shortens the casting time down to, oh, one minute. Give or take. How does that sound?

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Didn't an issue of Dragon essentially have stats for the Cyclopses race like the ones from Krull? Medium-sized, able to fortell their deaths, etc.