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

[gabriel_ss4u]

yeah, they r just little god-ling offspring, like the Amber series... fits right in.

[gabriel_ss4u]

Just saw "Your Majesty"
Fuckin' Funny!, sounds like an PRG fer sure.
Also caught Thor finally, great visuals and it spawned a few ideas to.. good job Marvel, keep them coming, i know u will

[daniel_ream]

The Lion in Winter's been mentioned already.

The James Caveziel version of The Count of Monte Cristo has some delightful deadpan dialogue that would be in place in Amber.

The Kirk Douglas version of Spartacus has some excellent scenes where people plot and scheme, and the "snails-and-oysters" dialogue is a mastery of innuendo.

D'Artagnan's Daughter is an interesting look at how older Scions of Amber might react to one of their children taking up the family business.

Clark Ashton Smith's Averoigne series of fantasy stories has so much in common with Amber it was almost certainly a source of inspiration for Zelazny.

[Sydius Mendoza]

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.

Creatures of Light and Darkness is a good idea source as well. It may lack a Corwinesque protagonist, but the use of the Egyptian pantheon is well done. And the story does have "The Agnostics Prayer" which is a stroke of genius.

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.

I've been trying to take a Zelazny like approach to building my campaign. In that, I've been looking to literary classics for the genesis of Shadows that will figure heavily into the story line.

For example, I've been working on including Osric IMC. I'm using Howl by Alan Ginsberg as inspiration for the Shadow ruled by Osric and his Sons.
The Shadow is called Moloch.
Osric has three sons named Ginsberg, Cassidy, and Solomon.

Haven't got much further then that, but you get the idea.

[Sydius Mendoza]

The James Caveziel version of The Count of Monte Cristo has some delightful deadpan dialogue that would be in place in Amber.

"I find that smuggling is the life for me, and would be delighted to kill your friend the maggot!"