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10-11-2019, 06:51 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Camp Halfblood
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adopting settings from books/movies etc
When you adopt a setting from a book/movie/ wherever what information do you give the players? For example, I've adopted the setting from The Wave universe (Without Warning, After America and Angels of Vengeance) basically on the eve of the Iraq War, March 14, 2003, the bulk of the population of the contiguous United States (along with the bulk of the populations of Canada, Mexico, and Cuba) disappears as the result of a large energy field that later comes to be known as "The Wave".
My game is set in between books one and Two. So The Wave has disappeared but only limited exploration has taken place. EDIT: To clarify,i'm not asking for advice. Just wondering how others approach it.
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“Your head is full of kelp.” Last edited by seaweedbrain; 10-11-2019 at 10:08 AM. |
10-11-2019, 07:19 AM | #2 |
Aluminated
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: East of the moon, west of the stars, close to buses and shopping
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
Have you read GURPS Adaptations yet?
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I've been making pointlessly shiny things, and I've got some gaming-related stuff as well as 3d printing designs. Buy my Warehouse 23 stuff, dammit! |
10-11-2019, 10:01 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Camp Halfblood
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
never mind, realized my mistake.
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“Your head is full of kelp.” Last edited by seaweedbrain; 10-11-2019 at 10:07 AM. |
10-11-2019, 10:20 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
The only time I've done this at length was a GURPS campaign in the setting of Charlie Stross' Laundry stories. For that, I deliberately separated the PCs from the main storyline, making them part of a different branch of the Laundry ("The Plumbers") that is referenced, but not explained in any detail. This meant that I wasn't tied to the story characters or their timeline.
I've also run a couple of short Discworld campaigns, avoiding the major characters, and a homebrew Toon: Schlock Mercenary game where I could not avoid the major characters, but the gameplay felt forced. In general, I feel it's a bad idea to try to play the characters used to establish a setting in a different medium, or to play through those stories. RPGs are their own kind of story, and work best if you accept that.
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10-11-2019, 11:58 AM | #5 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
I like to give the players as much information about a setting as possible. If I'm basing it on a previous work, I'll say so.
On the other hand, I'm a compulsive setting tinkerer, so I'll probably tell them there are changes to the setting and do my best to say what they are, so they'll never be able to say "But the walls are 100 feet high, not 20!"
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
10-11-2019, 12:03 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
We're big on setting inspired by fiction but rarely adapted. It kind of stifles the creativity of the GM to work within the framework of someone else's story. We have recently played a cool game based on a French TV series called Black Spot. The GM simply didn't announce the source and he changed enough parts of the story to keep it fresh.
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10-11-2019, 01:05 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
I discussed a lot of approaches in GURPS Adaptations, nearly all of which I've used, other than "play out the exact original storyline." But most basically, when I run a campaign in the setting of a fictional or dramatic source, I tell my players up front that that's what I'm doing; that recruits players who are familiar with it and encourages them to take advantage of the source material for inspiration. Usually, anyway. There was the time when I used E.R. Eddison's Zimiamvia: Only one of five players read the books, and the resulting campaign was in a radically different mood, a mix of Shakespearean comedy and Dumasian swashbuckling.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
10-12-2019, 06:22 AM | #8 | |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: adopting settings from books/movies etc
Quote:
I prefer inspiration to adaptation to avoid the know-it-all type player who knows more than I do about the setting, but primarily to avoid having to absorb the thousand Star Trek books, comics, shows (etc.), just because I want to run something like Star Trek for a little while. I don't like homework with my fun. |
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