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The Media That Inspired Your Imagination
- Thread starter Stormonu
- Start date
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
Media influences:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger movies
- Dukes of Hazzard
- Beavis and Butthead
- Cheech and Chong movies
- Iron Maiden record covers
- James Bond movies
Your list makes for a very interesting combination...sorta Fear and Loathing in Faerun.
Serendipity
Explorer
Off the top of my head....
the original Clash of the Titans
Conan (both, and for separate reasons, REH and the first film)
the Sword and the Sorcerer (Lee Horsely!)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Iron Maiden, lots of other NWOBHM
A wrinkle in time
H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Lieber (I blame the DDG.)
Castle Amber and the Isle of Dread
I'll second the Bill Melendez's "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Early 80s Ralph Bakshi movies (esp. Heavy Metal)
the Thieves' World anthology (esp. the first six books)
and loads of Bulfinch
Any of the above elicit the "THAT's D&D!" reaction to me. Though I suspect my age is showing.
the original Clash of the Titans
Conan (both, and for separate reasons, REH and the first film)
the Sword and the Sorcerer (Lee Horsely!)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Iron Maiden, lots of other NWOBHM
A wrinkle in time
H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Moorcock, and Fritz Lieber (I blame the DDG.)
Castle Amber and the Isle of Dread
I'll second the Bill Melendez's "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Early 80s Ralph Bakshi movies (esp. Heavy Metal)
the Thieves' World anthology (esp. the first six books)
and loads of Bulfinch
Any of the above elicit the "THAT's D&D!" reaction to me. Though I suspect my age is showing.
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gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Not so much for game play, but the medium that most inspired my current soon-to-be-published Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story campaign setting for Pathfinder is based on a collection of Japanese ghost stories translated by Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yagumo) published in 1902, called Kwaidan: stories and studies of strange things.
The very first story in that collection is called Mimi Nashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Ear-less) and elements in that story inspired my undead-ghost imperial house, which is very much the core of my setting.
Incidentally you'll notice the author is Irish, the Japanese loved his translations and attempt to saving a dying art (scary story-telling) that the Japanese adopted/married him into a Samurai family, so his name became Koizumi Yagumo.
Today, Japanese ghost story-telling is intrinsically linked to Lafcadio Hearn, even though he isn't truly Japanese. Every child in Japan learns his stories, like Grimm's Fairy Tales or Mother Goose to children of the west.
When I was 15, I went to Japan (to visit family, I'm half-Japanese) and I visited Koizumi Yagumo's house in Osaka, because I was 14 when I read his story collection.
I thought that's worth mentioning and 'kind of-sort of' follows your thread...
GP
The very first story in that collection is called Mimi Nashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Ear-less) and elements in that story inspired my undead-ghost imperial house, which is very much the core of my setting.
Incidentally you'll notice the author is Irish, the Japanese loved his translations and attempt to saving a dying art (scary story-telling) that the Japanese adopted/married him into a Samurai family, so his name became Koizumi Yagumo.
Today, Japanese ghost story-telling is intrinsically linked to Lafcadio Hearn, even though he isn't truly Japanese. Every child in Japan learns his stories, like Grimm's Fairy Tales or Mother Goose to children of the west.
When I was 15, I went to Japan (to visit family, I'm half-Japanese) and I visited Koizumi Yagumo's house in Osaka, because I was 14 when I read his story collection.
I thought that's worth mentioning and 'kind of-sort of' follows your thread...
GP
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Shemeska
Adventurer
As a little kid who was aware of D&D yet never played it:
Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Prydain (by Lloyd Alexander. The Dark Cauldron, etc)
Gauntlet (the arcade game)
D&D Endless Quest books (D&D choose your own adventure books)
Choose Your Own Adventure
Lone Wolf (another CYOA type series, now being republished by Mongoose)
Shadowgate (old old Mac game, later ported to NES)
Final Fantasy (NES)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
The Wonderful World of Eamon (ancient Apple IIe text based D&D type game)
More Recently:
HP Lovecraft (found him in highschool, though I read Colour Out of Space when I was 6 years old. Nightmares. So many nightmares. Didn't know who wrote it till I (re)discovered the master of cosmic horror much later on)
China Meiville
Clark Ashton Smith
2e D&D setting books (Planescape, Ravenloft, FR)
F. Paul Wilson
MUDS (almost flunked a semester of college due to them, just prior to MMOs hitting the scene)
Roguelike games (Nethack, ADOM, etc. Again with the almost flunking out but this time it was a year of highschool)
Nerdy Girlfriends (this cannot be emphasized enough just how much geek girls corrupted / still corrupt me)
Planescape: Torment
Baldur's Gate II
Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Prydain (by Lloyd Alexander. The Dark Cauldron, etc)
Gauntlet (the arcade game)
D&D Endless Quest books (D&D choose your own adventure books)
Choose Your Own Adventure
Lone Wolf (another CYOA type series, now being republished by Mongoose)
Shadowgate (old old Mac game, later ported to NES)
Final Fantasy (NES)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
The Wonderful World of Eamon (ancient Apple IIe text based D&D type game)
More Recently:
HP Lovecraft (found him in highschool, though I read Colour Out of Space when I was 6 years old. Nightmares. So many nightmares. Didn't know who wrote it till I (re)discovered the master of cosmic horror much later on)
China Meiville
Clark Ashton Smith
2e D&D setting books (Planescape, Ravenloft, FR)
F. Paul Wilson
MUDS (almost flunked a semester of college due to them, just prior to MMOs hitting the scene)
Roguelike games (Nethack, ADOM, etc. Again with the almost flunking out but this time it was a year of highschool)
Nerdy Girlfriends (this cannot be emphasized enough just how much geek girls corrupted / still corrupt me)
Planescape: Torment
Baldur's Gate II
Geez...
comics, video games, classical myrhology, music (popular and classical of all genres), art...
If I experience it, I draw on it for inspiration.
comics, video games, classical myrhology, music (popular and classical of all genres), art...
If I experience it, I draw on it for inspiration.
MortalPlague
Adventurer
I think much of my inspiration subconsciously came from Duck Tales. What a great cartoon for a fertile mind...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr_fv7QnlY0&feature=related"]Treasure of the Lost Lamp[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr_fv7QnlY0&feature=related"]Treasure of the Lost Lamp[/ame]
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Stormonu
NeoGrognard
Y'know I've had this game sitting on my shelf for years and two nights ago was the first time I got to play it. It's very different from any other CRPG I've run across (you can snap a guards neck without entering combat, really!?!), but I've gotten myself stuck in the moratorium (Can't quite figure out the "CENTER yourself" puzzle, and I'd hate to cheat by looking up a walk-through). Seems to be there's a bit of pixle-bitching to this game
. Other than that, I really like it though.
Two of the biggest influences on my game recently: Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy.
Deadwood is a great example of a sandbox style story where we have no idea where the story is going to go, I just sit and watch the characters. I think Deadwood is a perfect campaign setting and I've used it time and time again.
Sons of Anarchy is another show with some great characters. For D&D, it shows how you might have a justice-league style campaign where players might have a stable of two or three characters from whom they might switch as the story moves on.
Both are awesome shows and have a lot of potential D&D ideas.
Deadwood is a great example of a sandbox style story where we have no idea where the story is going to go, I just sit and watch the characters. I think Deadwood is a perfect campaign setting and I've used it time and time again.
Sons of Anarchy is another show with some great characters. For D&D, it shows how you might have a justice-league style campaign where players might have a stable of two or three characters from whom they might switch as the story moves on.
Both are awesome shows and have a lot of potential D&D ideas.
The Shaman
First Post
For my current game, it's these.
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