Pop Culture Movies/TV... Reference for background; ADRPG

scottishstorm · September 09, 2009, 03:55:10 PM

The Lion in Winter. Check it out.

The 1968 version with Katharine Hepburn & Peter O'Toole (actually, this just begins the star studded list of cast) is superior to the most recent remake with Glenn Close & Patrick Stewart. But, both versions have merit and are fantastic atmosphere movies in respect to "The Family Game" and Amber.

RPGPundit · September 11, 2009, 05:33:26 PM

Lion in Winter is definitely good inspiration. So is "I, Claudius", if I haven't mentioned it already in this thread...

RPGPundit

David R · September 11, 2009, 09:59:59 PM

I like these when it comes to Amber :

Barefoot in Athens (Peter Ustinov as Socrates)

Hamlet (Branagh's version)

Othelo (Laurence Fishbourne)

Election (Johnnie To)

.....argh, too many to name !

Regards,
David R

SunBoy · September 18, 2009, 08:10:05 PM

This may be a little weird, but I just saw "Silence of the Lambs" again yesterday, and Hannibal Lecter would make such a great amberite... the way the man has to lead every exchange to his own field, to make everyone play by his rules... it's just excellent. I sort of picture him as a good Oberon, or maybe a really sinister Dworkin or Suhuy (and then you can believe the man-eating part, too).

boulet · September 19, 2009, 07:00:04 AM

Good call Sunboy. At least it's a nice source for roleplaying our favorite arrogant bastards.

jibbajibba · September 19, 2009, 07:58:04 AM

Quote from: SunBoy;332399This may be a little weird, but I just saw "Silence of the Lambs" again yesterday, and Hannibal Lecter would make such a great amberite... the way the man has to lead every exchange to his own field, to make everyone play by his rules... it's just excellent. I sort of picture him as a good Oberon, or maybe a really sinister Dworkin or Suhuy (and then you can believe the man-eating part, too).

Interesting in my head when I used to cast the Amber movie I would make when I was older I was oft times torn between Connery or Hopkins to play Oberon, obviously with Oliver Reed as Ganelon.

weilide · October 11, 2009, 10:47:53 PM

I just finished reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Getting too specific would be a big-time spoiler but suffice it to say there is interesting talk regarding probability, the many-worlds hypothesis, and the like, that translates marvelously to the ADRPG.

Also, the TV show dollhouse is good for ideas that could be applied with some modification to Pattern / Logrus ghosts.

RPGPundit · October 14, 2009, 04:22:52 PM

I forget if someone already mentioned it, but House of Saddam, the miniseries about the Hussein family, would be very good inspirational material.

RPGPundit

jibbajibba · October 15, 2009, 07:05:47 PM

Just watched Hellboy 2 . Some really quite nice amber bits in there obviously more Chaosite than Amber....

JongWK · October 15, 2009, 09:13:26 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;338155I forget if someone already mentioned it, but House of Saddam, the miniseries about the Hussein family, would be very good inspirational material.

RPGPundit

"I did... what was necessary. The man who can sacrifice even his best friend is the man without weakness. In the eyes of my enemies, I am stronger now."

That's an Amberite in the making, right there. Of course, he went batshit insane later, writing the Qur'an with his own blood... :hmm:

gabriel_ss4u · October 19, 2009, 08:30:19 PM

Quote from: SunBoy;332399This may be a little weird, but I just saw "Silence of the Lambs" again yesterday, and Hannibal Lecter would make such a great amberite... the way the man has to lead every exchange to his own field, to make everyone play by his rules... it's just excellent. I sort of picture him as a good Oberon, or maybe a really sinister Dworkin or Suhuy (and then you can believe the man-eating part, too).

I had thought of him (Hopkins) as the pinnacle for Butler in Castle Kolvier, as seen in "Remains of the Day"

gabriel_ss4u · October 29, 2009, 02:04:00 PM

I watched Gremlins in passing, yet again (may be the movie I've seen the most times next to Wizard of Oz), and with Halloween here, it got me thinking.

Has anyone has any creatures in gameplay that have amounted to chaotic eruption about Amber due to some little varmit or troublemaking clan of creatures wreking havok on the town or castle?

Trevelyan · November 03, 2009, 10:58:55 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;310040some of Zelazny's other works

That one bears repeating and, in case anyone missed it in the midst of the list of other recommendations that Pundit provided, I thought I'd repeat it.

The thing about Zelazny is that he frequently reused the same essential protagonist. The Corwinesque, wisecracking cynic with hints of a deeper motivation is repeated time and again in Zelazny's other works, and many of the situations in which this recurring character finds himself would work well in Amber. Top of the list would probably be Lord of Light since it essentially contains the same family set up. There are also all sorts of useful hints at the way some of the less well defined elements of Amber might operate in other works. Mana from Heaven (the short story, as distinct from Manna from Heaven, the compilation of short stories containing Mana), for example, contains a detailed summary of how sorcery in the Mana setting works which could be lifted almost completely and dropped into Amber, complete with hung spells, lynchpins and the like.

The other thing to consider are those books which Corwin and others reference themselves, some of which have been mentioned on this thread already. Within just Nine Princes Corwin directly mentions Moby Dick, The Count of Monte Cristo and quotes Shakespeare several times. There are probably more that I've forgotten. Zelazny himself was exceedingly well and diversely read and brought a lot of that to his own work.

RPGPundit · November 07, 2009, 03:09:47 PM

He was a real renaissance man. Aside from literary/theater references, he also put a lot of his hobbies into the books. You can tell the moment Zelazny started seriously getting into fencing, when he started seriously getting into samurai stuff, and when he seriously started getting into smoking a pipe, because in each of these cases his characters/narrative in the Amber novels start showing that.

RPGPundit

gabriel_ss4u · November 24, 2009, 10:37:49 AM

I was watching the end 1/2 of 'The Princess Bride', an excellent movie, as I'm sure anyone who has seen it, would agree.
But THIS time, I caught something I never noticed the other dozen times I've seen it.
Perhaps it was because i was just thinking of Amber stuff, but I noticed Prince Humperdink was clothed in Bley's colors. (the scene he's in before the wedding scene.) A nice Orange Red & Yellow styled outfit, much like the one Bleys wore in his trump, just different pattern.

Just thought I'd mention it.

As you wish...