Plot Ideas From Film

[Morbog of Ghetto D]

My last DM and I are notorious for borrowing from film, and integrating "scenes" into the game. It works really well, and few players immediately recognize or make the connection.
Here are some themes and concepts I use... And here are some films for inspiration and ideas.. Go rent them or check them out on TCM..i wont state the obvious ones like Conan or Excaliber. If you're careful, a subtle "stolen scene" wont be noticed...but dont be obvious.
My old DM did a Black/White face scenario from an Old Star trek episode that was rudely rejected. Worse he once chose to insert "ASH" from Evil Dead as an actual NPC.. NO players accepted or believed this. best bet are movies with "groups" of heroes taking on a mission. You can always see....he's the rogue, he's the bookish scientific mage...etc, etc.

Im thinking everyone should add their favorites and new stuff..

Good the bad & the Ugly- My last Dm used the "Cemetary Scene". and 3 characters of differnt alignments chasing the same "gold" buried in an unmarked grave is a great concept

Fist full of Dollars/For a few dollars more...( all based on japanese samurai flicks) Really really cool.

Where Eagles Dare- This is a WWII movie (Awesome) with 3 characters infitrating an enemy castle. Espionage..etc.

Alien/Aliens- Change the weapons to swords...and you have a great D&D adventure..
I most recently used a "chest burster" aranea which totally freaked out the PCS..

Resident evil/resident Evil Apocolypse..Again Insert swords and its 4 PCs killing undead and mutations...

7 Samurai/Magnificent 7- Hired swords fight to defend a helpless village from...hobgoblins, assassins, you name it....Oltimers remeber "nights of Dark terror?"

Grease- JUST KIDDING

Hellraiser-has such cool ideas for planer travel, and demons....etc..Plus an atrifact that summons Hellions..." We have such sights to show you."

The Professionals _With Lee Marvin , 4 hired guns/sword with different skills, rescue a woman from a bandit leader, and then there is a really cool ending...

13th Warrior-I mention this because far too often this film is overlooked. IT IS A TOTAL D&D plot...

Last of the Mohicans-4 PCs must escourt 2 NPCs through Hostile teritory...and deliver them safely

The Wild Bunch-Watch this movie and then imagine your PCs in the final battle...its just too cool. I used this in another game, and it was totally cool.


These are just few..that Ive drawn from...

 

[Mordmorgan the Mad]

13th Warrior-I mention this because far too often this film is overlooked. IT IS A TOTAL D&D plot...

YES!!!! I love that movie.

The Ninth Gate- fantastic for the Investigation/Horror type games.

The Brotherhood of the Wolf- A french film. Excellent, especially for hard core monster hunting.

Pitch Black- What else can I say?

Pirates of the Carribean & The Princess Bride- Both straight D&D

Waterworld- Add a little magic, and this movie would make a great campaign setting.

EDIT: I don't know how I forgot Constantine. See it, love it, tear it to shreads and use it

 

[Gurney Halleck]

Oooh, very good ideas. While I don't very often find time to DM myself, I know that Xen did sort of a Gladiator scene not long ago. Then again, it had a little Godfather in it, lol.

 

[Morbog of Ghetto D]

More goodies

Brotherhood of the wolf -Awesome...how many tribal/shamen characters can that inspire?

This is a small survey....I ask most gamers, and find that we should have been the focus market for "Hudson HawK"...that was such the old school "top secret" module.

THE THING... I have yet to see a real compelling version of this creature...I mean its part doppelganger, and part something else....but I have dreamed of springing that creature on PCs in a dungeon Setting...I just imagine PCs running through cooridors with this "thing" after them, only to find it infiltated their group.. I'd probably have to include several NPCS to kill off...Its kind of hard to say," O.K. the Mages head shakes, and then it sprouts legs and skurries away. Wann play again?"

Preditor-Privateer Press has a coool concept in the Monsternomicon, called a Totem Hunter, very preditor like. Again settings where the players are the "hunted" is just too cool.

Chronicles of Riddick- Was a total SF RPG, My belief is that if RIFTS is ever made it should be filmed just like this. Or an Eberron setting, not that Im experience d with Eberron, but the artwork reminds me of CORiddick. Also the NECROMONGER were an awesome adversary, and they all wore that cool platemail....PS. The DVD has all these cool concept sketches...

PIratres of the Carribean- The DVD has a utility where you can import Photos and convert them to "Undead" . has anyone used this?...it would be so awesome to use this in game in someway.

PROFEscy I,II,III-Totally cool concept of Angels Vs. Devils. mediaval setting..insta-cool.

And dont forget "Time Bandits" that giant ship hat deal is too cool...

 

[Blade of Desecration]

Chronicles of Riddick- Was a total SF RPG, My belief is that if RIFTS is ever made it should be filmed just like this. Or an Eberron setting, not that Im experience d with Eberron, but the artwork reminds me of CORiddick. Also the NECROMONGER were an awesome adversary, and they all wore that cool platemail....PS. The DVD has all these cool concept sketches...

I'm not surprised. After all, Vin Deisel plays D&D.

 

[Gurney Halleck]

The numbers of those who play DnD are not few. The Futurama creators and many others play. Kinda funny actually. Anywho, I was thinkin of a few that would be good;

Resident Evil- I mean, hell, I DMed a d20 modern that was pretty creepy this way. Zombies. Zombie dogs. Whats not to be scared of, Zombie... uh... oh my god, zombie MOSQUITOS!

The Gunslinger- I know, this isn't a movie, but Stephen King did a great job in writing this book and gave some DnD air to it. It's got a very high goal in the end, and you can give the PCs several quests and side quests to keep 'em busy.

Dune- My personal favorite series. Although they weren't all that good. Anyways, replace the tech with more Old School stuff, and you got yourself an Underdog struggle.

 

[LilMissKittyn]

I only have a few to add to the stack, and one is another's idea (I'm sorry for stealing it but you didn't post).

First, the Sword of Truth series is amazing. Completely evil villians, good plot, nail-biting scenarios....and not entirely well-known, which makes it easy to steal from. (Just make sure you don't recommend the series if you're going to steal from them, that could be bad.)

Second, The Last Samurai. This one may be a bit harder to translate but they have some good battle scenes to them that you may be able to adapt.

Third, any of the old "knight in shining armor" movies would be great for this. Excalibur, Braveheart, that kind of thing. Perfect fantasy/action scenes and setups.

Fourth, Indiana Jones movies. Traps, anyone?

Fifth, buff up on your history. This will work better for large-scale battles, but you can pull snippets here and there, and you can (and hopefully will) create some awfully interesting NPCs, etc from past stories out of time. Just make sure not to make it too obvious or else you'll ruin the effect.

That's all I've got for now. Hope it's worthwhile!

 

[MarkCsigs]

Alien/Aliens- Change the weapons to swords...and you have a great D&D adventure..

I did an 'Alien' a while back, and it worked out to be one of the best low-level adventures we've ever done. This was back in 1e, so I realize the damage reduction works differently now ... but it could still be duplicated.

My party of 1st and second level adventurers went to investigate the levels underneath a recently ruined wizard's tower. The adventure had a handful of traps and only one monster: the wizard's imp. But without a magic weapon in the party they had no way of harming it. There was a +1 dagger hidden in the dungeon and the key to the adventure was to survive long enough to find it!

Shortly after entering the rooms, the party triggered a stone-door trap that sealed off the dungeon. The door had a timed release of 24 hours before it reset itself, but in the meantime the imp struck. They managed to find several creative ways to hold off the imp for a while but it knew the dungeon and its secret passages and traps perfectly and continued to harass the party for hours, picking off several members before they finally succeeded.

So there you have it. No alien belly-birthing sequence but you have a lot of the other elements: Enclosed space with no escape, Unkillable monster with intelligence and hit-and-run tactics ... the players never recognized it as a borrowed plot.

--Mark C'sigs

 

[Gurney Halleck]

Speaking of Traps, I have one, and a few unrelated ones...

Cube- Imagine a Dungeon that is composed entirely of countless cube-like rooms that might or might not have traps, such as Poisonous gas, Needle spikes that jet out of the walls whenever even the slightest sound is made. Watch the movie. You'll see how it turns out.

Fight Club- Imagine it as a Cult or, perhaps, a monestary for monks, and there you have it.

Lord of the Rings- You knew it would show up sooner or later. I mean, jesus, its obvious.

 

[Xen155]

Dungeons and Dragons- Great Movie. Dragon wars anyone?


The God Father- Great for those big bad bandit lord/mafia type games.

Dune- Movies were OK, books were GREAT and the charecters were the coolest (Including Gurney Halleck )

Just my 2/100 of a $