Consideration of Influences

[pyat]

I think the most successful RPG campaign I've ever run, by several metrics, was The Voyage of the Riddock's Dawn for Ironclaw. This game, if you didn't know, features animal people living in a fictonal world with society and technology vaugely akin to 15/16th century, with magic. And... yes, animal people.

Listening to some music just now got me thinking about the campaign, and future Ironclaw adventures, and the media that inspired elements of how I run the game.

First, Umberto Eco's novel, The Island of the Day Before. This was, undeniably, the largest influence on the game. Several bits were taken directly from the novel, such as the diving bell, the race to find a means to determine latitude, and little throwaway bits about homeopathic magic. It's a very dense book, but well worth reading. The last several chapters grow more and more insane as the narrator succumbs to hunger and thirst, and contain wonderful speculation about the theological implications of the international date line.

The Mission. A 1986 film. Everyone knows the soundtrack, which has been lifted for numerous TV shows, movies, and weddings. It's a beautiful film. A little plodding here and there, but full of incredible vignettes and dramatic pieces. It's one of the few pieces of modern media that actually recognizes the fact that slave trade was always controversial, particularly in the eyes of the church. The game featured the uneasy conflict between the realpolitik concerns of the nobility and more venal clerics with the The interaction between velvetpage's priest and wggthegnoll and redstorm's more earthly characters coincidentally resembled the scenes between Jeremy Irons' Jesuit and De Niro's ex-mercenary on more than one occasion. And, of course, the images of uniformed men slipping through jungles, fighting each other and Native tribes.

Not as clearly sourced in the game, but certainly inspiring some of my writing for the sourcebooks was Franco Zeffirelli's Brother Sun, Sister Moon, a perplexingly earnest, beautiful, silly, boring, twee and charming movie about the life of St. Francis of Assisi. It highlights the conflict with the established temporal and spiritual power, and the actual words of Christ. Interesting clip, by the way, with Alec Guiness as the Pope, willfully returning to his earthly trappings of wealth and power as St. Francis leaves.

Comments

[matthiasrat.livejournal.com]

Uh, the Albigensians practised two things that I know of, complete denunciation of all sexual acts, and voluntary/forced suicide, usually by starvation.

Really not sure how your pagan friend came to believe what they believed.

Dominus tecum