Positive Middle Eastern Action Archetypes

[Mailanka]

I'm tinkering with a campaign concept that I've nicknamed "Sons of B!^*#($", and one of the concepts I had was of an international team of "heroic" thieves, conmen and criminals, sort of a cross between Fast Furious 5 and the Expendables.

I've been tinkering with those nationalities, and I've decided that nations have cultural templates, mainly small things: What languages they tend to know (everyone speaks English, but most people in countries that aren't America speak at least one other language), what cultural familiarities they have (most only have their native, but a few "border" countries might have multiple) and so on. And one idea I had was a list of "national perks," options that you could choose that might reinforce the Action genre stereotypes for your chosen country, but only optionally. The idea here isn't to turn every Brit into a snooty tea-drinker, or every Russian into a giant, vodka-drinking bear, but if you want to go in that direction, you've got a few options. And because it's the action genre, your character is awesome, and thus the idea of the perk list is to suggest why being from country X is "awesome" and to act as a bit of a springboard for people who want to try being from a country they're not very familiar with.

I can think of pretty positive archetypes and concepts from Action movies for most of regions I'm tinkering with, until I got to the Middle East. Apart from Israel, I'm having a hard time thinking of positive depictions of Middle Easterners. Most of them seem to either be post-Cold-War bullies working for a dictator, or crazy (or cynical) religious terrorists. And I intend to have those (what Action Movie isn't complete with criminals and governmental organizations? I plan on having them for each country I touch on), but where Russia has the KGB and the Russian Mafia, it also has its heroes in the movies. The same is true of America, or Japan, or what have you. But I can't think of the heroes of the Middle East.

Any Action fans out there with any suggestions for source material?

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm tinkering with a campaign concept that I've nicknamed "Sons of B!^*#($", and one of the concepts I had was of an international team of "heroic" thieves, conmen and criminals, sort of a cross between Fast Furious 5 and the Expendables.

I've been tinkering with those nationalities, and I've decided that nations have cultural templates, mainly small things: What languages they tend to know (everyone speaks English, but most people in countries that aren't America speak at least one other language), what cultural familiarities they have (most only have their native, but a few "border" countries might have multiple) and so on. And one idea I had was a list of "national perks," options that you could choose that might reinforce the Action genre stereotypes for your chosen country, but only optionally. The idea here isn't to turn every Brit into a snooty tea-drinker, or every Russian into a giant, vodka-drinking bear, but if you want to go in that direction, you've got a few options. And because it's the action genre, your character is awesome, and thus the idea of the perk list is to suggest why being from country X is "awesome" and to act as a bit of a springboard for people who aren't sure what they want to play yet.

I can think of pretty positive archetypes and concepts from Action movies for most of regions I'm tinkering with, until I got to the Middle East. Apart from Israel, I'm having a hard time thinking of positive depictions of Middle Easterners. Most of them seem to either be post-Cold-War bullies working for a dictator, or crazy (or cynical) religious terrorists. And I intend to have those (what Action Movie isn't complete with criminals and governmental organizations? I plan on having them for each country I touch on), but where Russia has the KGB and the Russian Mafia, it also has its heroes in the movies. The same is true of America, or Japan, or what have you. But I can't think of the heroes of the Middle East.

Any Action fans out there with any suggestions for source material?

Well, I can tell you to avoid anything made by Golan-Globus as a start...LOL

[Dammann]

Perhaps it would be helpful if you gave us some examples of the sorts of Perks you already have? What can French, Russian, Japanese, and whatever characters buy in national perks?

[aesir23]

"The Middle East" is also quite broad a category, I wouldn't necessarily consider a badass from North Africa to be archetypically the same as one from the arabian penninsula or West Asia,

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Dammann

Perhaps it would be helpful if you gave us some examples of the sorts of Perks you already have? What can French, Russian, Japanese, and whatever characters buy in national perks?

I haven't made any yet. I, in fact, might do something else completely. This is still very much in the formative phase.

But I can picture "typical" heroic action characters from various regions: James Bond from Britain, the typical rough-around-the-edges Russian or the Russian femme fatale, the Hong Kong hero, the former Yakuza from Japan, and so on. I can't picture one from the Middle East, and that really bugs me.

[Edman]

What you could do is look at the Koran. A lot of the Middle East is still pretty religious, and a Sufi scholar, seeking to set Sharia laws in accordance with the true Islamic writ, fighting a Jihad against the inner corruption, could certainly be a force for good.

A hypnotizing voice, and super speed (buying into the whirling Dervish trope) could get him far?

[Dammann]

Hmmm, maybe imagine those dudes from The Mummy, or the troops that rode with T. E. Lawrence and Emit Faisal? Or even imagine a toned down version of the Fremen from Dune, who were inspired by Bedouins. You may want perks that emphasize resistance to desert hazards, like heat and lack of water. You might prefer to emphasize things like an ability to disappear into the wilderness or a crowded urban setting, a network of contacts who can help one purchase hard to find items in a strange city, or a more generalized claim to hospitality.

I guess I am just unsure how cartoonish or cinematic these abilities are supposed to be.

[Dammann]

Is this the sort of thing you are thinking (with some different terms or whatever)?

British hero archetype: cultured, composed, indefatigueable

Russian hero archetype: strategic, boisterous, strong

American hero archetype: brash, bold, serendipitous

Middle-Eastern hero archetype: proud, clever, resilient

[Mailanka]

The Mummy's not too bad as an inspiration, though it's a little dated.

Perhaps a better way to put my needs would be this way: Let's set aside the mechanics for now and just look at inspiration for Action characters from various countries. I'm looking for movies, games or books that depict Middle Eastern characters from a modern or near-modern period, in the Action or Thriller genre, where said characters are depicted in a generally positive, heroic light, in such a way that I would inspire me to create a Middle Eastern Action character.

The Mummy is a start. The Devil's Double might be another. Can anyone think of anything else?

(and I don't mind the notion of a heavily Muslim character. The Middle East is very religious, though there's far more religion in that area than just Islam. Such a character as a character of faith seems reasonable. But that's just one element. What else can you think of?)

As for appropriate traits, they can certainly be cinematic, but they should feel appropriate to an action movie. A British character might have Sartorial Integrity, for example. A Russian might have access to Alcohol Tolerance, Temperature Tolerance (Cold) [1], and Intuitive Repairman. The first two are rather obvious given many Russian stereotypes, but for the latter, I often see Russians depicted as tech savvy in a run-down land. An American hacker has a slick new Apple computer, while a Russian hacker has a system he's cobbled together and works just as well. This is a good example of what I'm looking for: a very modern take, and a multi-faceted set of stereotypes that shows several different faces of the Action oriented archetypes.

And the Middle East seems to lack that multi-faceted feel, at least when it comes to Action movies.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Dammann

Is this the sort of thing you are thinking (with some different terms or whatever)?

British hero archetype: cultured, composed, indefatigueable

Russian hero archetype: strategic, boisterous, strong

American hero archetype: brash, bold, serendipitous

Middle-Eastern hero archetype: proud, clever, resilient

Russians heroes are also very self-reliant and cynical. They seem to be able to survive anything, and they're a little paranoid. They tend to carry a little Noir with them into action movies. Especially in movies from the Cold War, there's this element of "The Russian is honorable, but on the wrong side." They're also very adept at adapting substandard technology and turning it into an advantage. They're known for their rugged-yet-cheap weaponry, vehicles and computers. Give them half the budget of an American hero, and they'll still walk away just as effective, just not as pretty.

The American heroes tend to be very gun-happy, anti-authoritarian (Lethal Weapon, Bourne Identity, Enemy of the State), lucky, and good at improvisation, just cobbling together traps and inventions from nothing but bailing wire and spit.

The Chinese heroes tend to be very flashy and acrobatic. Even their gunslingers tend to be show-offs: Chow Yun Fat invented the whole gun ballet genre. There's always some trick that lets you bring martial arts into play (Jet Li is always getting into fist fights in the Expendables, despite it being a movie about gunplay). I haven't seen much about technology from Chinese action movies (as opposed to Korean and Japanese action movies, which are full of them).

Germans seem to be perfectionists. If they're going to get something done, they get it done right. When you see their equivalent of SWAT officers, they move with tactical precision and have finely manufactured guns. Perfect candidates for "Better (Gear)." The holdovers from WW2 imagery gives them a certain ruthlessness, but I'd like to see an element of honorable pacifism and an adherence to international law, which seems more appropriate for modern Germans (and it's my game, so...).