Progenitors (inspiration and source material)

[Starbeard]

A few more '70s sci-fi movies I've always enjoyed with dystopian, bordering on post-apocalyptic themes. I love old trailers, so here you go:

Silent Running (1972): https://youtu.be/gBWO6oJStZk
Soylent Green (1973): https://youtu.be/6Z2txLk0ybo
Dark Star (1974): https://youtu.be/IkjiDJUHPHM

There's a gaming club that's been hitting the UK wargames shows over the past few years with a really fun Silent Running racing game, using these miniatures from Ainsty Castings (who also have some good Planet of the Apes and what I suspect are Soylent Green models). I regret never taking pictures of the game, because the custom built interior of the Valley Forge was really cool.

[SpinwardMarch]

I remember seeing Silent Running on tv, probably in the mid-1970s (before I left home for college). I always cry at the end. I have the Harry Harrison book Soylent Green, which I gather is different than the movie. And then there is Huxley's Brave New World, for total distopia.

[SpinwardMarch]

There is a game set in the Amber world, published in the 1980s (I think). I have the pdf of the rules, if anyone is interested. I had just started playing in the game setting when the GM had to quit.

I've always wanted to run a game inspired by the first Amber book. The PCs wake up in a hospital on modern day earth with amnesia. They slowly piece together that they are in fact banished royalty of an interdimensional kingdom. Either that, or they're mad and hallucinating it all.

[Inferno]

Amber diceless, yes. Never played but it seems intriguing. PC stats are decided by a competitive auction among the players, I understand. That should bake in the PC grudges and hard feelings right from the beginning, in perfect keeping with Zelazny's Amber.

Brave New World is a great read (almost as good as Orwell's 1984) but I've yet to see a completely satisfying film or TV adaptation, compared to stuff clearly inspired by Brave New World, like Logan's Run.

Idiocracy is funny and prescient.

[Urson]

I have one BIG objection to "Silent Running".

How are the greenhouses supposed to keep plants alive in Saturn's orbit? There isn't nearly enough sunlight that far out.

[ChubbyPixie]

I have one BIG objection to "Silent Running".

How are the greenhouses supposed to keep plants alive in Saturn's orbit? There isn't nearly enough sunlight that far out.

Future space science, obviously.

[Inferno]

Lost Worlds



I still love the old Victorian sci-fi idea that dinosaurs have survived in some forgotten, remote corner of the world. Thankfully, as a kid, like the Victorians, I didn't have Google Earth to debunk the concept.

Anachronistic dinosaurs featured in many of my favorite movies, books and TV shows. And with them invariably came uncharted islands, volcanoes, quicksand, cavemen and other sweet, pulp adventure stuff.





Michael Moorcock co-wrote the screenplay to that movie! When he was 12, he must have been loving him some Edgar Rice Burroughs.



The original Jurassic Park and King Kong still hold up for me today. Peter Jackson's King Kong was pretty great too. I just wish it was an hour shorter.



How about you? Any love for sci-fi dinosaur movies, books or TV?

[SpinwardMarch]

Two classics I read long ago on the general theme, but I don't remember the exact titles. One was by Arthur Connon Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) about a primitive valley, and the other one was "Lost Horizons"(?). I mostly read a lot of archeology books.

[Inferno]

Yeah, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Lost World. Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote The Land That Time Forgot. Each featured living dinosaurs in hidden lands. I think they all arrived at this idea because paleontology, fossil discoveries and the theory of evolution were making headlines at the time.

[Inferno]

I mostly read a lot of archeology books.

Me too, if you count the Indiana Jones novelizations.

[Inferno]

Bugs Bunny

Maskelyn
The illusionist, knowing his limitations, doesn't offer to help with the ropes. He stands by, praying to Bugs that He chooses to prank someone else.

Maskelyn
He says a short prayer to Bugs in gratitude. Watch dat foist step, doc! It's a lulu!

There are two kinds of gods out there. Some, you pray for them to grant you a favor or some help. Others, you pray for them to leave you alone. Bugs is one of that second kind....

Bugs is my favorite cartoon character of all time. I see the Warner Bros. cartoons from the 1940s as the pinnacle of American animation, still unsurpassed today. This is a pretty common opinion.

Like the earlier, also-great Fleischer Bros. stuff, I think they wildly succeeded because it was early enough in the life of this art form that the business concerns hadn't yet swamped the artistic ones. No focus groups, no writers room, no censors. These guys were left to their own devices.

Also, they were shorts to be played before a full length feature to a general movie theater audience. So they had to work for adults as well as kids. And they do. I can watch them today with my dad and my children, and we all die laughing. They are, hands down, the best.

[Urson]

Agreed, in spades, redoubled!

[SpinwardMarch]

I have some of the Warner Bros. collector DVDs, including one of my favorites- What's Opera, Doc?
If I were to teach a music appreciation class*, my Wagner example would be that cartoon. It is a great introduction to the operas. (Note: I find Wagner operas something to endure, rather than enjoy. Your mileage may vary.)

"Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit... "(to Ride of the Valkyrie)

*BA in Music (Harpsichord/Organ emphasis), graduate studies (ABT) in Music History (medieval & Renaissance music/instruments)

[Inferno]

You're right. I forgot about the incredible music in those shorts. The entire Warner Bros studio orchestra, that would score all the feature films, would also do custom soundtracks for the shorts, from opera (Wagner, Barber of Seville, Daffy Duck's Swan Lake), to original compositions, to popular songs of the day ("The five o'clock whistle's on the blink" by Ella Fitzgerald). It's incredible.

While we're talking sound, I'd be remiss in not crediting Mel Blanc who did 95% of the vocal work for all those great, unique characters, each just oozing with personality and humor.

Man. Gotta fire up the DVD player tonight.

PS: Grad studies in medieval music? That's awesome. Where's your Bard PC?

[SpinwardMarch]

Maybe my next character will be a bard.

For several years, when I still lived in the Bay Area, I gave a presentation at DunDraCon called "Adventuring with Musical Instruments," -or- "Your Lute is Not a Weapon." I brought along some of the instruments from my collection, so gamers could actually see and touch some of the "Bardic" instruments. I worked with an instrument builder for 22 years who built medieval and Renaissance instruments.

One of the reasons the studios used classical music was to avoid paying for performance fees and copyright payments.

[Inferno]

That DunDraCon seminar sounds awesome.

[Inferno]

One of the reasons the studios used classical music was to avoid paying for performance fees and copyright payments.

Yeah. I have to assume all the contemporary tunes they used were from the Warner Bros music catalog.

[ChubbyPixie]

I had the Carl Stalling Project on cassette as a kid. Great album with all his best stuff: https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-carl ... 0000308444

[Inferno]

Gotta love Powerhouse and Anxiety Medley.

[Inferno]

The Isle of Dread

One of the many sources of inspiration for 'The Valley That Time Forgot' is the classic TSR module from 1981, 'The Isle of Dread' (X1) by Tom Moldvay and David "Zeb" Cook, voted among "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time" by Dungeon Magazine in 2004. Like most of Cook and Moldvay's stuff, it's terrific and full of pulpy goodness.

In addition to the 'red box' edition of Basic D&D, Tom Moldvay also wrote Lost City (B4) (which I'm running on Unseen Servant), another great pulp adventure, inspired by Robert E. Howard's Conan stories.

Moldvay's love of old pulp fantasy stories shines in The Isle of Dread, which is lovingly influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Abraham G. Merritt, as well as King Kong.