How many of you take inspiration from a narrative genre to write a game scenario about a different genre?

As I often told here, the basis for my 13 years long D&D campaign were the Iran-Contra scandal and "Clear and Present Danger" by Tom Clancy. Even "chapters" within it were inspired by the Bourne movies or Inception - while never deviating from fantasy.

Back in the day, porting Top Gun in Dragonlance was obvious but I also have a scenario for Dragonlance based on "The Hunt for Red October" - which uses only elements from Dragonlance.

I actually always thought that one can do a straightforward port of Top Gun. One thing that is always missing from the "many dragons, many riders!" settings is the idea that they have to train, to learn BDM (Basic Dragon Maneuvers) tactics, how to fight together, how to fight strategically (a flight of dragons flying terrain following in a "wild weasel" mission before the main strike hits can win a war on the spot).

You have dragons and wondrous artifacts but NO ONE EVER created magical helmets that allow the dragon riders to communicate with each other and coordinate their flight? Come on...

I did C.S.I. Waterdeep and we had a lot of fun (poster made by me to follow).

We are in the middle of a Cthulhu campaign written by me set in the 1920s and where the investigators will only temporary stop the BIG MENACE. One day it will return - in 2015, actually, with an unexpected  "coda" inspired by True Detective (first season, the only one).

"Fallout Fantasy" is easy: Centuries ago, powerful mages wielding incommensurable energies, waged a war that obliterated the World. The only survivors were those capable to flee in subterranean, self-sustaining cities (think Moria or the underground cities in Cappadocia). Now something dire happened, and a party of clueless must exit their city - first ones in 500 years - and discover what is happening "out there". The creative possibilities are infinite.

These are only examples. I have many others. I'm always surprised when people think that ideas must be "self-contained" in their genre. The underlying structure of a good idea from John Le Carré can bring freshness to the most stale "D&D with elves, dwarves and orcs" campaign.

[I hesitate to count Star Wars, as SW can already be western, samurai movies, techno-thriller... Rogue One was a sort of Were the Eagles Dare and, IMHO, the only good thing made by Disney SW]

Do you do the same? Have you even be inspired by "something totally different" when you wrote a scenario?

I think it is rather easy for such mashups to devolve into mere pastiche, or in some cases parody.  Not that they must, but that is the likely outcome unless monitored rather carefully. 

Note that it is not that I never take anything from other genres--or even other media.  I've built adventures that were inspired by a particular piece of music, for example.  Or even had some snippets of lyrics make their way into the adventure.  However, in the way you are discussing, I tend to take small things from many different sources--sometimes 20-30, then mix them up to the point that most people, most times wouldn't recognize the source.  Not that it is entirely hidden.  Someone really digging could probably make some educated guesses and get some of those correct.  It's just not in your face.

The reason why I made C.S.I. Waterdeep was how, while binge-watching some episodes, I thought: "Wait a moment... The Lords of Waterdeep have access to powerful magic, people with an in-depth knowledge of topics ranging from necromancy to the Planes... And for sure many strange things happen in Waterdeep. Why there isn't an arm of the law whose job is to investigate unusual cases?"

When I started jotting down how such a campaign could be built I also got the answer: because seldom people think how, let's say, magic, can totally transform a world. They take a medieval/renaissance world and parachute magic in it. You have fireballs and dragons but the armies still fight in close formations...

So, that Waterdeep has its own C.S.I. became obvious. The idea fit organically into the campaign, because what happened was that the Lords of the city used the resources they already had - and for sure there are occurrences when the Lords want to know what happened, and the militia is not enough. You need a fixed team of specialists to send around.

Regarding the Iran-Contra scandal, the underlying idea is that with great powers (what the USA can do) come great responsibilities. What if, however, someone feels that these responsibilities are an obstacle for the "Greater Good" you want to reach? They ditched them and... it didn't end well.

Clear and Present Danger is a fictional story but it is Tom Clancy's retelling of the mistakes that led to the Iran-Contra scandal. This time the "Greater Good" is the War on Drugs - and the end result is how the very War on Drugs is led on the brink after "boy scout sensibilities" are ditched.

So, I was thinking about the terrible, terrible "Avatar Saga" in the Forgotten Realms, where some Gods mess up and others are even killed in one of the worst storylines ever created for any RPG, and thought: "Wait a moment... What if some Gods of Good betrayed the very values they represent for "The Greater Good" - i.e. to start the Bloodwar between Devils and Demons?... And now everything is about to come apart?"

NO ONE in 13 years, realised that they were playing my own version of the Iran-Contra scandal, because, like Clancy, I was using the underlying idea - which is universal. BTW, it was also interesting to see a group of low level players trying to fix a mess made by... er... a group of GODS... while wondering "If we reveal what happened the Bloodwar will stop, Devil and Demons will be VERY miffed... And no one will ever worship these Gods of Good anymore. They will become irrelevant. Should we lie for the "Greater Good"? Are we doing the same, original, mistake?"

All in all, this made for some interesting 13 years.

Generally speaking, however, sometimes it is only a matter of looking. A certain kingdom has a millenary tradition of riders fighting on dragons, hippogryphs, giant eagles... And in centuries no one developed tactics, a way to communicate while in flight using magic (some spells already border this...), created "Red Flag" exercises and so on? It makes no sense. There you, as the DM, have your opening. Maybe buy a book on the history of aviation, DON'T COPY IT, but look at how normal minds said "we can fly and fight while flying... how we can improve this new arm?" - and apply the lessons to your campaign (which, as I said, can become Top Dragon without losing its original D&D identity).

I admit that my idea for doing The Hunt of Red October in classic Dragonlance is a bit out there - but not really by much.

Yes, though they pretty much remained ideas instead of actually being developed.  "The Last of the Mohicans" would make a pretty good game scenario.  If you want the villains to be sympathetic, replace the Hurons with Picts or some other human tribe; if not, make them orcs or hobgoblins.

Tennyson's poem "Rizpah," in which an old lady patiently gathers the bones of her son as they fall from his rotting corpse in a gibbet so that she can rebury them in consecrated ground, gave me an idea in which a woman does this so that she can resurrect her son.  She makes a pact with dark powers and becomes a necromancer, then wreaks vengeance on the local community.

Since I am not that creative, cadging poems or song lyrics for inscriptions is also something I've done.  The final couplet from Agnes Mary Robinson's poem "Etruscan Tombs" goes "They sleep their patient sleep in altered lands/ The golden promise in their fleshless hands" and that might serve as the spark for a treasure hunt or tomb-robbing expedition -- what is the "golden promise" the ancient song mentions, that song you just heard a tavern bard sing?  Does that mean the old barrows outside of town are full of treasure?

A few lines from Iron Maiden's "Powerslave" would serve as an excellent warning, once the ancient hieroglyphics were translated.  Does the party really want to break into the mummy's tomb after reading this inscription on its sealed door?

Now I am cold, but a ghost lives in my veins/ Silent the terror that reigned, marbled in stone /The shell of a man god preserved for a thousand ages/ Open the gates of my hell, I will strike from the grave

Well, yes.

First, because D&D come from a mix of genres already (fantasy but also some sci-fi an horror; i.e., "weird", plus some adventure/historical).

Second, mixing genres is fun... although I don't remember anything quite like CSI: Waterdeep.

Fallout is more likely; I think I'd use some fallout inspiration fro my Dark Sun games (which already uses Dune, Tékumel, John Carter, environmentalism, and maybe Mad Max).

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2015/10/mad-sun-part-i-inspirations.html

EDIT: BTW, I also considered a Dark Sun / Post apoc version of Curse of Strahd, seems to fit perfectly.

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2021/08/postapocalyptic-strahd.html

I run fantasy games like Cyberpunk.  I will go so far as to take cyberpunk modules and adventures and convert them.

Quote from: Eric Diaz on August 08, 2023, 09:10:35 AM
Well, yes.

First, because D&D come from a mix of genres already (fantasy but also some sci-fi an horror; i.e., "weird", plus some adventure/historical).

Second, mixing genres is fun... although I don't remember anything quite like CSI: Waterdeep.

I discovered how it is far from an original idea. While doing my research I discovered that two authors wrote novels about "Average American Police Station as seen in the movies - only in a D&D (Dungeons & Dragnet) City".

Keith R.A. DeCandido wrote his "Precinct" series of novels and tales, set in "the overcrowded fantasy metropoliis of Cliff's End" (i.e. Waterdeep). Humans and elves, dwarves and gnomes, wizards and warriors! The hard-working, under-appreciated officers of the Cliff's End Castle Guard work day and night to maintain law and order as best they can.

Michael Angel wrote a series of novels called "Fantasy and Forensic" with a different approach but equally fun. Basically, the land of Faerie does exist and the USA open formal diplomatic relationships with its rulers. If a crime crosses both worlds, a, let's say, LAPD detective is paired with a counterpart from the fantasy world and their adventures go from the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles to the seedy underbelly of.... a city out of "The Faerie Queene" by Edmund Spencer.

Back in 3E days, when C.S.I. Waterdeep was written, there were even a lot of third party supplements about "Law & Order", "Crime, Investigation and Punishment" and so on. As I said, putting everything together was quite easy.

I do it. I just don't push that hard on making things fit. If it strikes me as cool, I go with it. I don't seek a 1:1 analog.

I may run AD&D 1E Starship Troopers. I'd use the mercenary hirelings as the troopers. PCs get to be 1st level characters. Battlefield promotions happen as officers die. But you fight giant bugs. I don't try to stat up the starship troopers bugs. I take what I've already got in the game. Anhkhegs, Boring Beetles, maybe some Giant Wasps, and so on. This would all still be a fantasy game, not sci fi. Just using a bug invasion as the campaign backstory.

I'm also thinking of doing a dystopian future campaign using 1E. I don't feel the need to make up modern classes. Fighters, Rangers, Thieves, Assassins, and Monks would be the class options. I don't feel the need to make up modern weapons. The Boot Hill conversion stats in the DMG is enough.

I think the danger of pushing this too hard is making things a bit silly... like a kind of "Poughkeepsie" syndrome, to paraphrase LeGuin.

I.e., you got assaulted by an orc, then you go to the elf police, but the police is corrupt so you go to the dwarven shop to buy a +1 axe, etc. It stops being magical, it feels more like some kind of "ren faire" of sorts. I am reading "Dragons of Deceit" and the books bores me to no end with all their talk about lawyers, commerce (fiefdoms and time-travelling magic items are bought and sold for ridiculously low sums of money), sympathetic dragons that allow other to ride them just because, etc.

But if you do it right, then you can get something as cool as "Alien" - a gothic haunted-house horror movie that works EVEN BETTER when set in space.

(Also, come to think of it, there is "Dragon Heist", a 5e module about a literal hesit, with crime lords etc.)