Movies/books/tv that've inspired your D&D/RPG games?

[Hussar]

/snip of lots of great stuff

/snip More fantastic stuff

Y'know, reading those lists explains a lot why there are some real differences in opinion over gaming. I mean, on a quick skim of those stories, all excellent, the one thing that really stands out is very, very little of it comes from after about 1989 and most of it from quite a bit before most gamers were even born.

My most recent inspirations have been:

Steven Erikson's Malazan books. There's just SO much for mining there.
Anything by Terry Pratchett
A number of steampunk short stories, particularly ones found in Beneath Ceaseless Skies : : Issue #75
A number of New Weird stories, such as might be found in The Drabblecast

 

[Wiseblood]

Predator
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Relic
Pitch Black
Congo


Too many more to name but I hadn't seen those mentioned yet

 

[scourger]

The colonial marines from Aliens have featured in several military and sci-fi campaigns that I have run. Hicks always has a spare shotgun and manages to survive, Hudson is handy but whiny ("Game over, man!"), Apone is a grizzled veteran, Gorman is a green lieutnenant, Drake & Vasquez have heavy machine guns, etc. I like it because it gives me instant personality to give the extras.

My next inspiration is Gladiator for my alt Roman Empire game - if I can get it going. The player characters will probably be tasked by various people to either ensure General Maximus survives or does not as they battle mythical foes on the imperial frontier.

 

[Greg K]

Y'know, reading those lists explains a lot why there are some real differences in opinion over gaming. I mean, on a quick skim of those stories, all excellent, the one thing that really stands out is very, very little of it comes from after about 1989 and most of it from quite a bit before most gamers were even born.

Most gamers? I don't know. Definitely many gamers.

Anyway, my more modern influences affect other genres and rpgs not my D&D. Some examples include:
Avatar: The Last Airbender which I only discovered in the last year.
Blood+
Trinity Blood
Cowboy Bebop
Full Metal Alchemist
Hellsing
Ninja Scroll
Outlaw Star
Read or Die
Trigun
Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon
Hero
Iron Monkey
Legend of the Drunk Master
Pirates of the Caribbean
Unforgiven
Angel
Buffy
Charmed
Firefly
Andromeda
Babylon 5
Farscape
Stargate

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Y'know, reading those lists explains a lot why there are some real differences in opinion over gaming. I mean, on a quick skim of those stories, all excellent, the one thing that really stands out is very, very little of it comes from after about 1989 and most of it from quite a bit before most gamers were even born.

Yeah, that occurred to me as I was writing my list. I've continued to read fantasy (although I read fiction from other genres, too), but I can't say that more recent stuff has inspired my D&D game. (It has sometimes inspired me, but using other RPGs, not D&D.)

There's a lot of fantasy fiction that I enjoyed to one degree or another, but that didn't inspire my D&D game (e.g., Eddings, Martin, Goodkind, Tad Williams, Feist, Gaiman, Gemmel). And there are some quite popular modern fantasy authors that I just couldn't get into (e.g., Mieville).

Modern fantasy movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy don't feel inspirational, to me. I suspect in the case of the LotR films, it's a case of being very familiar with it, already, and also preferring to draw my Tolkien inspiration from the books. I did think of a more recent movie I found inspiring, though: 13th Warrior. (And the Eaters of the Dead novel, for that matter.) There are probably others if I think about it some more. I haven't seen the new Conan movie, yet.

My most recent inspirations have been: Steven Erikson's Malazan books. There's just SO much for mining there.

Those sound interesting. I'll have to check them out.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Anyway, my more modern influences affect other genres and rpgs not my D&D.

Interesting. You posted that while I was composing my previous post (which says the exact same thing). I wonder if that is a common thing among people who started playing D&D in the 70s and 80s.

 

[Hussar]

Interesting. You posted that while I was composing my previous post (which says the exact same thing). I wonder if that is a common thing among people who started playing D&D in the 70s and 80s.

Speaking solely for myself, no. I started playing in 1980 and I did the standard Conan/Tolkien pastiche thing and, frankly, it bores me to tears now. I've largely given up on fantasy for exactly that reason, it just doesn't interest me any more.

I much prefer some of the sub genres, like China Mieville (heh) which do hit the points that I prefer. New Weird, Steampunk (Zeitgeist is REALLY interesting me right now) are about as close to fantasy as I generally read anymore, excepting Terry Pratchett (whose more satire anyway) and Erikson which I find just fascinating.

 

[Jhaelen]

There's been a time when pretty much every (speculative fiction) media I was exposed to found its way into my rpg.

These days I prefer more focused settings. My last 3e campaign was partially influenced by the 'Nightfall' expansion for the 'Guild Wars' online game. In a way it's quite similar to Eberron's Quori/Dreaming Dark campaign hook, but it also gave me some powerful images to describe the effects of an invasion of nightmare realms upon the world.

 

[Dioltach]

Besides the usual genre stuff, I've been inspired by Conrad's The Heart of Darkness.

 

[jasper]

scooby do. Jackie Chan Adventurers. the generic slasher haunted house movies all have been put into my campaign.