What Movies Inspire Your Game?
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Robert Ranting
First Post
I had a player insist on interrogating a captured foe by going through the entire dialogue of Samuel L. Jackson's interrogating that guy in Pulp Fiction...."Do they speak Common on What?! " Worse yet, this was all done as he held the poor schpoo out over the side of the boat, above his shark animal companion, Cupcake. "Does Cupcake look like a b****?!" I don't think a single person at that table could breathe for the laughing that ensued. This is just one example of Mike's contributions of Samuel L. Jackson-isms to the game however. As he puts it "Everything's better with a sassy black man in it".
As far as other influential movies, I'd have to say that the adventure that line came up in was more than a little inspired by both The Dark Crystal and The Count of Monte Cristo, as the PCs were in a dungeon where magic-users who were politically inconvenient had been tossed to the cruel mercies of the Harrid (avian, magic-devouring beasties from Arcana Evolved that have more than a passing resemblence to the Skeksis). I suppose you could also say that the Zombie Pirates, Gargantuan Crocodile, and the Hellmoth/Gloomwing encounters were probably inspired by "Pirates of the Carribean", "Lake Placid" and "Mothra".
Mostly however, I generally try to draw more from literature than movies, as that provides more surprises for the less well-read members of my gaming group. However, with a jungle adventure coming up, I may end up using Jurassic Park and the Conan: The Barbarian as references. (Snakes just love Jungles, don't ya know).
Robert "The Captain" Ranting
As far as other influential movies, I'd have to say that the adventure that line came up in was more than a little inspired by both The Dark Crystal and The Count of Monte Cristo, as the PCs were in a dungeon where magic-users who were politically inconvenient had been tossed to the cruel mercies of the Harrid (avian, magic-devouring beasties from Arcana Evolved that have more than a passing resemblence to the Skeksis). I suppose you could also say that the Zombie Pirates, Gargantuan Crocodile, and the Hellmoth/Gloomwing encounters were probably inspired by "Pirates of the Carribean", "Lake Placid" and "Mothra".
Mostly however, I generally try to draw more from literature than movies, as that provides more surprises for the less well-read members of my gaming group. However, with a jungle adventure coming up, I may end up using Jurassic Park and the Conan: The Barbarian as references. (Snakes just love Jungles, don't ya know).
Robert "The Captain" Ranting
Gold Roger
First Post
Movies and similar sources from which I draw on my next homebrew (mostly athmosphere):
-The Indiana Jones and the Mummie Movies
-Pirates of the Caribean
-Zorro, three Musketeers and similar stories
-The Manga Naruto,Kenshin and One Piece
-The Anime Cowboy Bebop as far as possible, didn't see much of it
-And the Oddball, there only because I've become enthralled with the "Lords of Madness" sourcebook, H.P. Lovecraft. That books one of, if not the best D&D book I've ever read!
-The Indiana Jones and the Mummie Movies
-Pirates of the Caribean
-Zorro, three Musketeers and similar stories
-The Manga Naruto,Kenshin and One Piece
-The Anime Cowboy Bebop as far as possible, didn't see much of it
-And the Oddball, there only because I've become enthralled with the "Lords of Madness" sourcebook, H.P. Lovecraft. That books one of, if not the best D&D book I've ever read!
VorpalBunny
Explorer
I found inspiration for NPCs, encounters or the feel of my Eberron game in:
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
The Mummy (1999)
The Lord of the Rings
In the Mouth of Madness
The Indiana Jones Trilogy
Lawrence of Arabia
King Solomon's Mines
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Phantom Menace
Batman
Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon
The Big Sleep
The Mummy (1999)
The Lord of the Rings
In the Mouth of Madness
The Indiana Jones Trilogy
Lawrence of Arabia
King Solomon's Mines
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
The Phantom Menace
Batman
AFGNCAAP
First Post
A few things, actually: movies, TV shows/cartoons, computer games, books, comics...
In no particular order:
The Lord of the Rings (recent movies): Mainly the richness & depth of the cultures. The lived-in, used, plausible sort of style that places & objects had (as opposed to the sort of "medieval setting, modern styles" in a fair amount of current D&D art). The Uruk-Hai influenced my notion of hobgoblins (along with Claudio's illustration of pseudo-Roman hobgoblins).
The Lord of the Rings (books): Using Tolkien's Elvish for my game's Elvish, Dwarven for Dwarven, and the Black Speech for Orcish. Naming conventions for elves, dwarves, orcs, and halflings.
The Lord of the Rings (Bakshi animated movie): Little influence at all, except for orcs. My campaign's orcs are more like those in this film, behavior-wise; whereas the hobgoblins are more like the Uruk-Hai from Jackson's films. Even the respective related soundtracks for each group fo characters fits: the more martial tones for hobgoblins/Uruk-Hai of Jackson's films; the more tribal/primal tones for orcs/orcs of Bakshi's film.
Record of Lodoss War (original; not Chronicles of the Heroic Knight): Bit of the feel. Bit of the good vs. evil element. Awesomeness of the dragons.
Masters of the Universe: Skeletor, ala Claudio's rendition of him on his website, for the big bad evil lich.
Thundercats: Mumm-Ra elements (incorporated into the aforementioned Skeletor-esque liche).
Ultima series of CRPGs: Some plot elements, bits of the Shadowlords from Ultima V for some unique monsters (mixed with LotR's Ringwraiths & Zork's Grues), some of the items.
Zork series of computes games: Spell names for item activation words (like "Rezrov" for a wand of knock, or "Frotz" for activating a item's light spell power); Grues (as mentioned above); anachronistic humor.
D&D Cartoon: Warduke for a "boss" villain (though using Dungeon's Warduke stats).
Star Wars (all 6 films): Jedi & Sith (minus midichlorian nonsense) for paladins & blackguards. Gen. Greivous for inspiration for a villainous Thri-Kreen NPC. Jango/Boba Fett for a bounty hunter/assassin after the party.
Conan the Barbarian (movie): For a grim-n-gritty feel to the setting. The snake-worship Thulsa Doom cult-elements for the Yuan-Ti. Akiro (Mako's wizard character) as an influence on the "feel" of Wu Jen IMC.
Myth Adventures series (books): Like with Zork, the anachronistic humor. Also a bit for the way/feel of other planes/dimensions.
Many more influences, but these are the ones that come to my mind ATM.
In no particular order:
The Lord of the Rings (recent movies): Mainly the richness & depth of the cultures. The lived-in, used, plausible sort of style that places & objects had (as opposed to the sort of "medieval setting, modern styles" in a fair amount of current D&D art). The Uruk-Hai influenced my notion of hobgoblins (along with Claudio's illustration of pseudo-Roman hobgoblins).
The Lord of the Rings (books): Using Tolkien's Elvish for my game's Elvish, Dwarven for Dwarven, and the Black Speech for Orcish. Naming conventions for elves, dwarves, orcs, and halflings.
The Lord of the Rings (Bakshi animated movie): Little influence at all, except for orcs. My campaign's orcs are more like those in this film, behavior-wise; whereas the hobgoblins are more like the Uruk-Hai from Jackson's films. Even the respective related soundtracks for each group fo characters fits: the more martial tones for hobgoblins/Uruk-Hai of Jackson's films; the more tribal/primal tones for orcs/orcs of Bakshi's film.
Record of Lodoss War (original; not Chronicles of the Heroic Knight): Bit of the feel. Bit of the good vs. evil element. Awesomeness of the dragons.
Masters of the Universe: Skeletor, ala Claudio's rendition of him on his website, for the big bad evil lich.
Thundercats: Mumm-Ra elements (incorporated into the aforementioned Skeletor-esque liche).
Ultima series of CRPGs: Some plot elements, bits of the Shadowlords from Ultima V for some unique monsters (mixed with LotR's Ringwraiths & Zork's Grues), some of the items.
Zork series of computes games: Spell names for item activation words (like "Rezrov" for a wand of knock, or "Frotz" for activating a item's light spell power); Grues (as mentioned above); anachronistic humor.
D&D Cartoon: Warduke for a "boss" villain (though using Dungeon's Warduke stats).
Star Wars (all 6 films): Jedi & Sith (minus midichlorian nonsense) for paladins & blackguards. Gen. Greivous for inspiration for a villainous Thri-Kreen NPC. Jango/Boba Fett for a bounty hunter/assassin after the party.
Conan the Barbarian (movie): For a grim-n-gritty feel to the setting. The snake-worship Thulsa Doom cult-elements for the Yuan-Ti. Akiro (Mako's wizard character) as an influence on the "feel" of Wu Jen IMC.
Myth Adventures series (books): Like with Zork, the anachronistic humor. Also a bit for the way/feel of other planes/dimensions.
Many more influences, but these are the ones that come to my mind ATM.
Ellie_the_Elf
First Post
Lord of the Rings, for obvious reasons. Mostly notably, I have a Gandalf-esque and a Saruman-esque wizard fairly central to my campaign plot. Gandalf-esque wizard recently died and the players are expecting him to turn back up in white robes any day now 
I've also taken a lot of inspiration from Buffy and Angel, and am currently planning a plot inspired by the Fred/Ilyria storyline in Angel centred around an NPC ally of the PCs.
My boyfriend wastes no time in telling people that the movie 'Constantine' stole his holy-water-in-the-sprinklers idea which he used in a Buffy RP game a couple of years back
Ellie.
I've also taken a lot of inspiration from Buffy and Angel, and am currently planning a plot inspired by the Fred/Ilyria storyline in Angel centred around an NPC ally of the PCs.
My boyfriend wastes no time in telling people that the movie 'Constantine' stole his holy-water-in-the-sprinklers idea which he used in a Buffy RP game a couple of years back
Ellie.
Every fall when I start up my homebrew I give the players a viewing and reading list to help set the mood. The movie list for the current game is;
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Name of The Rose
The Order (Not the Van Dam one)
Witch Hunter General (with Vincent Price)
Black Adder Season II
A Man for all Seasons
For last year it was
The Last Valley
Alexander Nevsky
Henry V (the Kenneth Brannagh version)
Flesh and Blood
Aguerre Wrath of God
Its rare that they read anything,but I always try to choose movies I have bought so that they can borrow them and watch. One player never does but the others have been enthusiastic. It helps that several of the major NPC's are always closely based on characters from the films. The players watch closely, hoping for clues.
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Name of The Rose
The Order (Not the Van Dam one)
Witch Hunter General (with Vincent Price)
Black Adder Season II
A Man for all Seasons
For last year it was
The Last Valley
Alexander Nevsky
Henry V (the Kenneth Brannagh version)
Flesh and Blood
Aguerre Wrath of God
Its rare that they read anything,but I always try to choose movies I have bought so that they can borrow them and watch. One player never does but the others have been enthusiastic. It helps that several of the major NPC's are always closely based on characters from the films. The players watch closely, hoping for clues.
Tinner
First Post
The Three Musketeers
The Hidden
The Changeling
Caddyshack
The Princess Bride
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
House of Flying Daggers
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Robin of Sherwood
Christmas Vacation
Planet of the Apes
Logan's Run
The Omega Man
A Boy and his Dog
Six String Samurai
No Such Thing
Soylent Green
Near Dark
Fright Night
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Predator
Guys & Dolls
Battle of the Planets
And much, much more ...
The Hidden
The Changeling
Caddyshack
The Princess Bride
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
House of Flying Daggers
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Robin of Sherwood
Christmas Vacation
Planet of the Apes
Logan's Run
The Omega Man
A Boy and his Dog
Six String Samurai
No Such Thing
Soylent Green
Near Dark
Fright Night
Die Hard: With a Vengeance
Predator
Guys & Dolls
Battle of the Planets
And much, much more ...
Commonblade
First Post
Whoa! That’s a big request. Ok, here is the movies that I have barrowed from recently…
STAR WARS (honestly this starts everything in my world.)
Conan: Barbarian and Destroyer
Superman (all)
Batman (all)
Robocop (all)
Terminator (all)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
13th Warrior
Flash Gordon
Last Star Fighter
Never Ending Story
5th Element
X-Men I & II
Dark City
Last Samurai
Hulk
Big Trouble In Little China
Die Hard (all)
Transformers The Movie
The Princess Bride
Predator 1 & 2
Aliens
And many more movies, comics and video games.
STAR WARS (honestly this starts everything in my world.)
Conan: Barbarian and Destroyer
Superman (all)
Batman (all)
Robocop (all)
Terminator (all)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
13th Warrior
Flash Gordon
Last Star Fighter
Never Ending Story
5th Element
X-Men I & II
Dark City
Last Samurai
Hulk
Big Trouble In Little China
Die Hard (all)
Transformers The Movie
The Princess Bride
Predator 1 & 2
Aliens
And many more movies, comics and video games.
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