Stitchpunk Goodness
One of the advantages of a long flight is that you get to catch up on movies that you should have seen when they first came out. Today I saw 9 and District 9 (what's up with the number nine?). With nothing else to do on the flight, I naturally starting thinking of how they might inspire gaming material. With District 9, I started thinking about the Kafer of Traveller 2300/2300 AD and how I might do a Risus adaptation of that game. That post will hopefully happen when I return home and have access too my rulebooks. With 9, my thoughts were much less specific and therefore perfect for a quick post before I try sleep off my jet-lag.
9 is not the best steampunk movie that I have seen. That honor goes to Sherlock Holmes (which may or may not inspire a post in the near future). But to someone who loves the steampunk/retro-future aesthetic (as I surely do) 9 is undeniably gorgeous. It's also pregnant with gaming possibilities.
The concept is pure one-shot gold. The players characters are creations that wake up into a world barren of humans. They can solve the mystery of man's undoing, fight other (more hostile) creations, or establish some kind of new society. A series of adventures can do all of the above in an epic quest.
The stitchpunk characters of 9 are not particularly deep with respect to other films but they make great character sketches for a game like Risus. Due to the circumstances of their creation, each little homunculus represents an iconic and complimentary personality archetype with a unique and interesting shtick. 1 is the Cowardly and Stubborn Old Leader; 2 is the Fearless Gadgeteer-Explorer; 3 and 4 are Twin Voracious Scholars; 5 is the Big-Hearted Engineer; 6 is a Sensitive Artist-Prophet; 7 is the Fiercely Independent Adventuress; 8 is the Magnetism-Addicted Muscle; and 9 is the Courageous and Honest Hero.
I also love how the small scale of the stichpunks turns ordinary objects from the ruined world into incredible props (e.g. a scissor blade for a sword and flash-light bulb lamps). And the crumbling post-apocalyptic building become incredible locations for staging action sequences.
The concept is pure one-shot gold. The players characters are creations that wake up into a world barren of humans. They can solve the mystery of man's undoing, fight other (more hostile) creations, or establish some kind of new society. A series of adventures can do all of the above in an epic quest.
The stitchpunk characters of 9 are not particularly deep with respect to other films but they make great character sketches for a game like Risus. Due to the circumstances of their creation, each little homunculus represents an iconic and complimentary personality archetype with a unique and interesting shtick. 1 is the Cowardly and Stubborn Old Leader; 2 is the Fearless Gadgeteer-Explorer; 3 and 4 are Twin Voracious Scholars; 5 is the Big-Hearted Engineer; 6 is a Sensitive Artist-Prophet; 7 is the Fiercely Independent Adventuress; 8 is the Magnetism-Addicted Muscle; and 9 is the Courageous and Honest Hero.
I also love how the small scale of the stichpunks turns ordinary objects from the ruined world into incredible props (e.g. a scissor blade for a sword and flash-light bulb lamps). And the crumbling post-apocalyptic building become incredible locations for staging action sequences.
Labels: Inspiration, Steampunk
posted by Risus Monkey at 9:10 AM
2 Comments:
I fully agree. While the movie had some flaws and was pretty straight forward, the character are perfectly transferable to a Risus game. And I think you are correct that an imaginative group of gamers could use the 'giant' world around them to create a pretty unique gaming adventure if they wandered about this world.
Haven't seen 9 yet, but the small figures in a larger world gaming makes me think of Bunnies & Burrows, Mouse Guard, and the old Land of the Giants TV show. The last inspired many imaginary childhood adventures as my brothers had an ancient boardgame for LotG with nifty improvised gadgets. The only one I recall right now was the saftey pin
plus string/thread grappling hook and rope.
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