Mining Netflix for Game Ideas
Jun 3, 2016 12:45:15 GMT -8
Post by mrcj on Jun 3, 2016 12:45:15 GMT -8
I thought I posted this before as I wrote it months ago, but maybe I didn't.
Here are a few thoughts/leads about generating new ideas from older material hiding in the DVD section of Netflix. I had confirmed all these were on the service last year, but as always things change.
I did most of my GMing in the 80s and 90s but even then because I’ve always been a big old movie buff I could drop in characters, situations, elements, whole plots from early movies and TV shows and none of my players would know. Now we are closing on another thirty years later even fewer players will know if you use material from the 1930s, through the ‘60’s.
So if you are a GM looking for some inspiration Netflix is your place. Below are a few places to find content to perhaps sprinkle your campaign with a few ideas. These movies and TV shows are old, some are in black and white, this is before CGI, so adjust your special effects expectations and enjoy.
The Wild Wild West (TV show not movie); about as close to a steam punk TV series as there ever was and packed with ideas for just about any setting.
The Prisoner (TV show from 1967 to 1968) 1960s spy-cudalic, don’t try to figure it out it will only make your head hurt.
Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone (there were a stack of these some loosely based on the novels by Doyle many not and a number set during WW2); when you are done with these and you want to get real politically incorrect check out Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto (usually short mysteries starting white guys as Chinese/Japanese detectives); you could pull the plots and villains straight out of these and no one would know.
Swashbucklers- the thirties, forties, and into the fifties saw a number of pirate movies that have a ton of material in them, The Sea Hawk, Captain Kidd, Treasure Island, The Crimson Pirate, The Princess and the Pirate, go and on look up Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Tyrone Power and you should have a good list.
Ray Harryhousen; Harryhousen was a pioneer of stop motion animation and his movies always had a fantastic quality. They look primitive by today’s standards but are really fun, look up Sinbad, he did at least three of them, as well as Jason and the Argonauts and a bunch of others.
Different takes on the Seven Samurai. The original is Akira Kurosawa, and this is the typical adventuring group (a group of murder hobos, er, specialists in the ways of different violent acts bound together to complete a task: Look at The Magnificent Seven (and their sequels); Battle Beyond the Stars; The Sons of Katie Elder; The Guns of Nevarone; The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, etc.
Re-skinning WW2 movies; there so many movies about World War two, some made during or directly after have plots galore to use in any campaign: The Sands of Iwo Jima; Bridge Over the River Kwai; Kelly’s Heroes; Attack; Von Ryan’s Express; Where Eagles Dare; Force Ten From Nevarone; just look up John Wayne (for both Westerns and World War Two movies) or William Holden.
Reskinning Westerns- Too many to list, look up John Ford, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, and also look at Clint Eastood for his early spaghetti westerns.
Serials-back in the twenties through the forties going to the movies took longer, you would see a newsreel, a cartoon or two, sometimes a short, before you got to the feature presentation. To get people back in the theater they would often run multi-part serials 10 or 12 episodes, if you have the time look up Buster Crabbe for Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers; other greats are The Undersea Kingdom, The Phantom Empire; these tended to be pulpy even having some primitive superhero titles.
Dr. Who, the first series, look up Tom Baker, John Pertwee, William Hartnell, and Patrick Troughton (keep in mind these are BBC low budget TV productions, just be amazed at what they could do with just about nothing, and watch the (usually four) individual episodes, not as one long episode, it make no sense as one long show)
Other movies to consider:
The Great Race- brilliant and funny
The Locomotive Chase- exciting
Tarzan movies: look up Johnny Weismuller and Buster Crabbe
The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn the best Robin Hood ever
Road to Zanzibar and Road to Morocco, light hearted with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
Thunderbirds are Go!: crazy puppet TV show, and its not even puppets, well they are kind of puppets
Look up Walter Pidgeon, he was in a ton of fifties and sixties Sci Fi movies like Fantastic Voyage and When Worlds Collide
The original Planet of the Apes movies (beware they spend less and less money as they go)
Look up George Pal, directed a number of classic Sci Fi movies including When Worlds Collide and War of the Worlds.
The Three Musketeers, tons of versions of these, the Peter York version is good as is Gene Kelly
Cyrano de Bergerac with Jose Ferrer
Here are a few thoughts/leads about generating new ideas from older material hiding in the DVD section of Netflix. I had confirmed all these were on the service last year, but as always things change.
I did most of my GMing in the 80s and 90s but even then because I’ve always been a big old movie buff I could drop in characters, situations, elements, whole plots from early movies and TV shows and none of my players would know. Now we are closing on another thirty years later even fewer players will know if you use material from the 1930s, through the ‘60’s.
So if you are a GM looking for some inspiration Netflix is your place. Below are a few places to find content to perhaps sprinkle your campaign with a few ideas. These movies and TV shows are old, some are in black and white, this is before CGI, so adjust your special effects expectations and enjoy.
The Wild Wild West (TV show not movie); about as close to a steam punk TV series as there ever was and packed with ideas for just about any setting.
The Prisoner (TV show from 1967 to 1968) 1960s spy-cudalic, don’t try to figure it out it will only make your head hurt.
Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone (there were a stack of these some loosely based on the novels by Doyle many not and a number set during WW2); when you are done with these and you want to get real politically incorrect check out Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto (usually short mysteries starting white guys as Chinese/Japanese detectives); you could pull the plots and villains straight out of these and no one would know.
Swashbucklers- the thirties, forties, and into the fifties saw a number of pirate movies that have a ton of material in them, The Sea Hawk, Captain Kidd, Treasure Island, The Crimson Pirate, The Princess and the Pirate, go and on look up Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Tyrone Power and you should have a good list.
Ray Harryhousen; Harryhousen was a pioneer of stop motion animation and his movies always had a fantastic quality. They look primitive by today’s standards but are really fun, look up Sinbad, he did at least three of them, as well as Jason and the Argonauts and a bunch of others.
Different takes on the Seven Samurai. The original is Akira Kurosawa, and this is the typical adventuring group (a group of murder hobos, er, specialists in the ways of different violent acts bound together to complete a task: Look at The Magnificent Seven (and their sequels); Battle Beyond the Stars; The Sons of Katie Elder; The Guns of Nevarone; The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, etc.
Re-skinning WW2 movies; there so many movies about World War two, some made during or directly after have plots galore to use in any campaign: The Sands of Iwo Jima; Bridge Over the River Kwai; Kelly’s Heroes; Attack; Von Ryan’s Express; Where Eagles Dare; Force Ten From Nevarone; just look up John Wayne (for both Westerns and World War Two movies) or William Holden.
Reskinning Westerns- Too many to list, look up John Ford, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, and also look at Clint Eastood for his early spaghetti westerns.
Serials-back in the twenties through the forties going to the movies took longer, you would see a newsreel, a cartoon or two, sometimes a short, before you got to the feature presentation. To get people back in the theater they would often run multi-part serials 10 or 12 episodes, if you have the time look up Buster Crabbe for Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers; other greats are The Undersea Kingdom, The Phantom Empire; these tended to be pulpy even having some primitive superhero titles.
Dr. Who, the first series, look up Tom Baker, John Pertwee, William Hartnell, and Patrick Troughton (keep in mind these are BBC low budget TV productions, just be amazed at what they could do with just about nothing, and watch the (usually four) individual episodes, not as one long episode, it make no sense as one long show)
Other movies to consider:
The Great Race- brilliant and funny
The Locomotive Chase- exciting
Tarzan movies: look up Johnny Weismuller and Buster Crabbe
The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn the best Robin Hood ever
Road to Zanzibar and Road to Morocco, light hearted with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
Thunderbirds are Go!: crazy puppet TV show, and its not even puppets, well they are kind of puppets
Look up Walter Pidgeon, he was in a ton of fifties and sixties Sci Fi movies like Fantastic Voyage and When Worlds Collide
The original Planet of the Apes movies (beware they spend less and less money as they go)
Look up George Pal, directed a number of classic Sci Fi movies including When Worlds Collide and War of the Worlds.
The Three Musketeers, tons of versions of these, the Peter York version is good as is Gene Kelly
Cyrano de Bergerac with Jose Ferrer