Talk about blantant idea stealing

[JacktheRabbit]

I know people in gaming like to reuse neat ideas they see in movies or books or other campaigns. But when someone puts it out on the web I prefer if there is a little more originality and a little less theft.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=fr/pg20021009a


Go down and read about the "Little Ones" and what they do.

Geez, all you need to do is put the "Rock" in the center temple and you have the "The Mummy Returns".

Can we be a little less blantant when stealing ideas and posting them on Wizards site.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Hey it saves lots of time for someone who wants to run something similar to the movie. I have not seen the flick, so I can't say anything more.

M@

 

[Henry]

I find it funny myself. I don't mind blatant idea theft in this context, simply because it is sufficiently different to keep from total ripoff. Besides this, I believe the idea was really not original with "The Mummy Returns" either. They cribbed it I believe from some old legends in african mythology (or perhaps a short story I read years ago just claimed that it did.) unfortunately, I cannot recall the name of the short story, but I want to say it was a robert E. Howard tale, or someone who wrote in a copycat style.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Undead halflings that defend a temple in a jungle by using blowdarts to wittle down enemy numbers then attack in mass when the party is sufficently reduced.

Sounds like a 100% rip-off description of the creatures and the entire battle with them in the movie.

 

[Balgus]

I seriously don't have a problem with taking ideas from outside sources and incorporatng them into a campaign.

Like Roger Meyers Jr. said, "If you take away our right to plagiarize, where are our ideas gonna come from?"

 

[Hand of Evil]

Mmmmm, sound like writers block to me and a law suit too!

Wonder how soon it it be pulled!

 

[IceBear]

Only if that scene from the Mummy Returns was original

Knowing Hollywood I seriously doubt that it was original, and I do seem to remember a story similar to that when I was a kid.

IceBear

 

[maddman75]

I thought the little blowgun using jungle critters were awfully reminiscent of some monsters in act 3 of Diablo 2.

 

[Umbran]

Yes, well, get this...

The Mummy Returns came out in 2001, right?

Well, the Blizzard game Diablo II came out in 2000. And it's got such critters in it. When I watched the movie, I was immediately struck by the similarity.

Now, I won't accuse the moviemakers of stealing from a video game. Instead, I'll suggest that maybe both took inspiration from some other source...

 

[I'm A Banana]

This is Africa.

Back in the early days of anthropology, one of the more famous "freak show" discoveries was of a tribe of jungle pygmies.

So, the concept of midgets in a jungle using poison isn't so much a rip-off from The Mummy Returns or Diablo or anything as much as it is using a cool story to make into a cool fight scene.

They're human pygmies that live in the jungle. It's hardly an original or innovative concept, y'know.