Cinematic inspiration

Scorpion13

Mongoose
I was watching an old Harryhausen Sinbad movie the other day, and I realized something: It could fit very well into a Conan campiagn.

That got me to thinking, what other movies have parts that could be lifted and put into a Conan game with little trouble.
 
Beastmaster. Would take some reworking of one of the classes, but could still be possible.

Gladiator - "coming soon to S&P" hopefully.

Vampire Hunter D.

The Thing.

Even something like Excalibur.
 
Yeah, those old sinbad movies could make really good Conan adventures. Too bad I can't remember how they went. I saw them when I was a kid, and when you're a kid the only important part are the fight sequences with the kewl monsters.
 
Scorpion King

Unforgiven (take away the firearms)

Seven Samurai

Yojimbo

Dune (dump the sci-fi elements)

Planet of the apes (swap the spacecraft for a ship accidentally held in magical stasis)

Fallen (transpose it to a fantasy setting, and drop firearms)

Stargate (tweaked slightly)
 
I also agree about the Sinbad movies. Great stuff.

Also, don't forget about Jason and the Argonauts. Great Harryhausen movie. I really want to put a hydra as a big monster to overcome in one of my scenarios, just so that I can have an evil sorcerer use it's teeth to create the "Children of the Hydra's Teeth" - a bunch of skeleton warriors with swords, shields and spears.

I guess I really just want to deliver the famous line - "Against the Children of the Hyrdra's Teeth there is no protection!" - in a roleplaying environment. :)

Jumba
 
Crossroads (substitute Brittany Spears with an Aesir reaver who sets off on a journey with some friends to discover his true self).

Why not? That could so work! :D

A little more seriously:

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (The characters have to fight a bloody swath through inbred, degenerate bastards who are after their skins.)

Dawn of the Dead (An ancient Acheronian tomb is uncovered and out come the risen dead. Apparently everyone killed by the walking dead join their ranks, and the characters are soon beset from all sides. They get holed up in a castle and must find a way to escape.)
 
geordiekimbo said:
... Yojimbo ...
Y'all know that was the basis for Leone's Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars), don't you?

I think this would work well as a Conan pastiche, with the Cimmerian taking the Mifune/Eastwood role. I'm not so sure it'd work so well with a group of players in a Conan RPG campaign...

Scorpion13 said:
... Sinbad ...
Yeah, in all those Sinbad movies he always had a bunch of companions with him. Any kind of "Arabian Nights" story would work well.

geordiekimbo said:
... Scorpion King ...
You don't say?! :D

Ciao,
Ant
 
How about the Mummy movies, the The Scorpion King was the prequel for, a little twitching and the story line could fit nicely.

Maybe a couple of the old John Wayne or Clint Eastwood westerns, Fist Full of Dollars, or High Plains drifter, Rio Lobo. type of movies. a change of technology and era but the story would still fit reasonably well.

Last man standing with Willis, would also be fitting, a warrior maybe somewhere close to a city a thieves guild or priest of set are moving in and, the Hero or anti hero, sets the factions to fighting and then showing weapons prowess kill everyone else. It maight be able to be interesting.
 
Maybe a couple of the old John Wayne or Clint Eastwood westerns, Fist Full of Dollars, or High Plains drifter, Rio Lobo. type of movies. a change of technology and era but the story would still fit reasonably well.

Last man standing with Willis, would also be fitting, a warrior maybe somewhere close to a city a thieves guild or priest of set are moving in and, the Hero or anti hero, sets the factions to fighting and then showing weapons prowess kill everyone else. It maight be able to be interesting.

Fistful of Dollars and Last Man Standing are Yojimbo in different clothing- Western and Gangster respectively
 
Wyrmsbane said:
How about ... Fist Full of Dollars... Last man standing with Willis, would also be fitting, a warrior maybe somewhere close to a city a thieves guild or priest of set are moving in and, the Hero or anti hero, sets the factions to fighting and then showing weapons prowess kill everyone else. It maight be able to be interesting.
I already mentioned A Fistful of Dollars, which was based on Yojimbo... and guess what? So was Last Man Standing! :)

You could also do something with The Magnificent Seven or Battle Beyond the Stars... but of course both are based on Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai - also known as The Seven Samurai and... The Magnificent Seven!!!), which geordiekimbo mentioned. (And both U.S. films starred Robert Vaughn in the "same" role.)

Which really just goes to show how adaptable these stories are!

Ciao,
Ant
 
Belkregos said:
13th warrior
We actually did the 13th Warrior (although it was on Middle-Earth rather than the Hyborian kingdoms). It worked well enough, especially since the GM spiced it up with a lot of his own ideas.
Tell you what - I think almost ANY action-oriented or horror-themed movie is usually very suitable to be turned into a RPG adventure. Some GMs do a lot of this.
It only depends on how well you can bring the PCs into the setting of the movie. And, if you can find a good motivation for the PCs. That's why Star Trek plots usually don't work for fantasy adventuring parties.
Me, I've been thinking about doing a James Bond plot in a sword&sorcery setting (I'm not telling which, since some of my players may be reading this).
 
Turloigh said:
...Me, I've been thinking about doing a James Bond plot in a sword&sorcery setting (I'm not telling which, since some of my players may be reading this).
From Hyrkania with Love?

Cheers,
Ant
 
Some GMs do a lot of this

Yeah i agree, I've got one GM in my group who does it a lot. Only trouble is with me being a bit of an aficionado of films I often twig the film he's used as inspiration. Last one was Sin Eater in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. It was a bit of a laugh when he said oh I've based it on afilm, but I'm sure you'll not have seen this one. One before that was the Ninth Gate for Buffy too...I think he said the same thing about that one too. Oops. :D


Edited for spelling (not aficionado, honest!)*
 
Some more suggestions (those of you who frequent the conan.com forum will know where some of these ideas come from!):
- Big Trouble in Little China aka Big Trouble in Little Khitai
- Escape from New York aka Escape from Shadizar
- The Maltese Falcon aka The Barachan Falcon
- The Italian Job aka The Argossean Job - "The barbarian was only supposed to knock the bleeding doors down!"
- Gone in 60 Seconds - horse stealing to save a PC's younger brother
- Zorro aka The Zingaran Fox - the PCs are hired to discover the identity of the masked swordsman; do they fulfill their task or do they side with him?
- Scaramouche, Captain Blood, ... - pretty much any film based on a Sabatini book
- A Fish Called Wanda aka A Fish Called Sonja - the PCs are hire to find an inquisitor who's fallen for a red-headed warrior woman out of majestic Hyrkania who stole a cache of diamonds
- Rio Bravo aka Río del Trueno - a small-town reeve in Zingara enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young barbarian* in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy... (* or any bunch of PCs, really)

Gr.,
Ant
 
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