Depth

BrokenClock
BrokenClock
edited June 2010 in General Archive
As an English major, I am a pretentious twat. It simply comes with the field.

I enjoy using literary allusions and abstract metaphors in my adventures. I like to throw in obscure book and movie references that I'm sure nobody will ever get, simply because it is not to be expected. I also like making allegories that provide a sort of commentary on current events within our world, that is to say, the 'real world'. But, I'm obviously careful when doing this. You don't want your players rolling their eyes when they have to defeat the evil mage who lives in the east and who may or may not have a giant spell that could wipe out half of the population of the realm. Subtly is the prefered course of action.

Right now I'm working on a mini adventure that should mimic the Odyssey slightly. However, my approach is currently the hammer and not the scalpel. I want the effect to be obvious, for high amounts of hilarity as my intention is subverstion and not homage.

I was wondering if anyone does the same. If you do, I would love to hear it. As a person who does it myself, I know it's nice to share when nobody in the party got the joke or reference.

Pretentious? absolutely!

Comments

  • gnunn
    gnunn
    Posts: 423
    I definitely do this. My Riverside Complete Works of Shakespeare is one of my go-to sources for random NPCs. Two that I can think of off the top of my head are Phoebe, the bar-maid who appeared in my very first session, who was based on the character of the same name from As You Like It... and last session, my group ran into a long-winded young lass named Helena, based on the character from Midsummer. They haven't found this out yet, but one of her motivations is to win the heart of her fellow Pelorian initiate, Demetrius... Oh, they also ran into a pixie turned bandit named Mustardseed (again, from Midsummer)

    Of course, I use as many pop-culture references as I do literary, like the drow sheriff named "Ba'art":http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/ in a human frontier town with his deputies, James Kidd and Mon'go.
  • FrankSirmarco
    FrankSirmarco
    Posts: 250
    Dealing with 1920s NYC in my Cthulhu campaign, I am very aware of the people and events that shape the era. One of the investigators is a Beowulf expert, and has an ongoing correspondence with J.R.R. Tolkien who, at the time, was a professor at Oxford and also a Beowulf expert. The investigators ran in to the Mayor of New York City and Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees in their first meeting at the Blue Heaven Ballroom. Also, the password for the local mythos-friendly speakeasy is a quote from Ulysses by James Joyce.

    Sometimes the investigators pick up on it, sometimes they don't. Either way, it's a nice way to immerse the players into the action even more.
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    I tend to take the last three to five books I've read and try to rewrite the plots altogether, editing out bits and pieces. It's plagiarism of the lowest sort, but it does allow me to be familiar with the scenes, but be random enough to keep anyone who happens to have read one of the books from being too familiar with what's going on.

    It's very fun to mix Tim Dorsey with William Gibson and Dragonlance and have a smattering of Piers Anthony in the plot here and there. Also, Poul Anderson and H.G. Wells are mixing oddly in my head at the moment.
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    I'm fairly certain my players don't read the forum here (this one) so the basic metaplot is a young mage releases an ancient horror that was part of a trinity that were locked away in candles. To destroy them, they need major historical artifacts, including Caledfwlch (which is Excalibur, and in my world also the Sword of Atilla and Thu?n Thi
  • arsheesh
    arsheesh
    Posts: 850
    Although I made a ton of background changes, I based the persona of "Madam Illendra":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/age-of-legends/characters/62531 loosely upon the character "Nandi" in the _Firefly_ episode "Heart of Gold." I liked the character of Nandi and basically wanted to try and replicate something similar in my own campaign. The party didn't seem to like her though, and in the end she died. Shame really.
  • BrokenClock
    BrokenClock
    Posts: 51
    I wouldn't worry about taking stuff from books. Hell, the D&D source books encourage it!

    All of these references sound very clever.

    I feel taking characters from books or movies and giving them different names works amazing when generating a random NPC. It helps me to roleplay as that character. All I have to do is write by the NPCs name the character I was imitating. It makes for great continuity. The only thing you have to watch out for is doing too good an imitation. Players might not take a Captain Kirk inspired gnomish fighter too well.
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    I've never trusted Kobolds, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy.
  • FrankSirmarco
    FrankSirmarco
    Posts: 250
    I would give my firstborn to have Bill Shatner play a gnomish fighter in our Pathfinder campaign.
  • Hardhead
    Hardhead
    Posts: 65
    I steal from everything. Hell, I stole from Firefly, for God's sake, though in my campaign the NPCs were talking about orcs, and not space-barbarians ("They're going to rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skin into their clothes. And if we're very, _very_ lucky, they'll do it in that order"). This was said to let my characters know that my orcs weren't the Klingons that WoW has turned them into in some people's minds. They aren't noble savages. They want to eat your face. And then, the rest of you.
  • BrokenClock
    BrokenClock
    Posts: 51
    Haha, Firefly is a good source, for sure.

    My Orcs are the same way. If they are not eating your face, they are having sex with it. (don't visualize that for it will haunt your dreams)
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    Damn you BrokenClock! I CANNOT UNSEE!
  • vstraydogstrutv
    vstraydogstrutv
    Posts: 209
    Mmmm...faceraping...

    @gnunn: I love you in a hetero way for making a Blazing Saddles reference in your campaign.

    I'm envious of those of you who can draw on things you've seen or read. I simply don't do it that often. The most prominent character I've ever used is the blind swordsman, Zatoichi; but the character was the base for a class for D&D, and not so much an NPC the PC's met. I sometimes make allusions to an NPC being "like" or "akin" to a famous fictional character, but that's usually as far as it goes.
  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    Oooh, this reminds me that I could probably pull QUITE a lot from Peter S. Beagle's writings. I know for a fact that if I crib from works other than "The Last Unicorn", nobody will catch it. And heck, even if I *do* swipe the likes of Schmendrick and Molly Grue, odds are nobody will catch it.

    And sigh. I made a typo while posting this, and now I'll have to tell my Transformers-loving friend about a potential campaign titled "The Last Unicron".
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    LMAO, this thread is a total nerdgasm.

    The Last Unicron sounds like Battletech+GURPS maybe?
  • arsheesh
    arsheesh
    Posts: 850 edited June 2010
    "_I_" would catch those references FemmeLegion! That book ranks in my top 5 favorite books of all time. I would love to play in a campaign with either of those characters. In fact, I had almost forgotten, but in one of my campaigns I will be planning to introduce a talking cat based upon the cat in Haggard's castel.
    Post edited by arsheesh on
  • FrankSirmarco
    FrankSirmarco
    Posts: 250
    Mongo has strong feelings for sheriff Bart...

    It's like they say - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Books, movies, songs, video games - all are great jumping points for the imagination. Think of it this way - there probably wouldn't be a Hobbit or Lord of the Rings without Beowulf. Even the all-time greats borrow from time to time.
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    I am now considering adapting Poul Anderson's "The High Crusade" to a campaign, if we take a break and go back to AD&D anytime soon.
  • Morrinn
    Morrinn
    Posts: 166
    I'm not well versed enough to drop references to the great old poets and bards, but i do frequently use characters, places and items from more contemporary authors.
    Guys like R. Flagg and Robert Gray have popped up in my World of Darkness game for instance.
  • JimTriche
    JimTriche
    Posts: 483
    I would avoid Gray like the plague. And nothing wrong with contemporary. I use Serge A. Storms almost unchanged in my campaign from time to time. The players haven't read the books he comes from, so it allows me to look brilliant even though I'm a hack.
  • BrokenClock
    BrokenClock
    Posts: 51
    But does anyone make commentaries on topical issues using adventures!? Haha

    Let's see, how to fit in the BP oil spill into my campaign . . . Dwarves over-mining and causing an avalanch that kills an entire town?
  • FemmeLegion
    FemmeLegion
    Posts: 521
    BrokenClock, I haven't yet, but you've reminded me of this: http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/index.php?date=2010-02-24
  • gnunn
    gnunn
    Posts: 423
    BrokenClock... my game sort of has an oil spill-esque plot that has been going for about a year. The players are tasked with stopping a mysterious spreading blight that is spoiling the land, and turning creatures undead. They temporarily slowed its spread by shutting down a druid spring after determining the blight was carried in the water supply, but now they must find the actual source and eliminate it before the forest around the grove begins to die.
  • Hardhead
    Hardhead
    Posts: 65 edited June 2010
    I don't like doing much with social commentaries, as I prefer to stick to the basics. And one thing I've discovered is that going back to the basics can actually be really fresh. For instance, as I alluded to earlier, my orcs aren't the Klingons that they've become lately. They're EVIL. They rape, pillage, and plunder, and I describe it in graphic detail. Their combat with the orcs inside "the kitchen" was very memorable, with people roasting alive on fire pits, difficult terrain that was huge blood puddles filled with skinned bodies, etc. You can't get more basic than "orcs as the evil killer horde," but it's actually pretty surprising to my players who are used to them being "Proud Warrior Race Guy":http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProudWarriorRaceGuy.

    They're also interacting with my elves now, and I've gone back to the old Irish/Celtic mythologies for the eladrin (who I generally just call "high elves" or "fey elves"). The fey elves are beautiful, elves are magical, but they aren't _nice_. They're a people full of laughter, especially when they're stealing babies out of cribs, which they think is just hilarious. It's not that they're mean spirited, they just don't have any empathy for the moral races. When the group saved the life of one, her version of being grateful was that it was so nice to meet mortals that knew their place and were willing to put their own lives in jeopardy for hers, since her life was so much more important.
    Post edited by Hardhead on
Sign In or Register to comment.

March 2024
Wrath of the Highborn

Read the feature post on the blog
Return to Obsidian Portal

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Discussions