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Enigma
In a similar vein to the many, many topics on Shadowrun-esque movies and TV shows, but different enough to hopefully avoid the flaming, I propose this topic. What movies or TV shows (or even books) do you know that make for a good shadowrun game with minimal re-writing.

My first contribution is Where Eagles Dare, which is an old, old Clint Eastwood war movie. Basically the main plot is an American general has been shot down during WW2 and is being held in an evil nazi castle. He knows too much about the plans for the invasion of Europe so he must be rescued. Plan B is bomb the cr*p out of the castle and kill him, but it doesn't do to angry up the Americans by bombing their general. The real plot or secondary plot I won't ruin for those who haven't seen this great movie but it involves there being a mole in MI6 (MI6 are the ones running and planning this mission). Don't worry about me spoiling it - they explain about the mole in the first few scenes.

This makes for a good game because the whole plot works best if the team comprises some MI6 types (intel, special forces or whatever) and also some complete outsiders (ie the players). The players basically replace Clint Eastwood's character. The plot also works best where the players are asking themselves constantly 'this is a military/spy mission, why the hell am I here?' because this only gets revealed at the end (in the room with the fireplace near the end). It ends with a cool escape bit and firefight plus plenty of tension, it has evil nazis (corporate types or whatever) and plots within plots that can be easily grasped by players. It can be basically nicked entirely, or mildly re-written for almost any game. I highly recommend it.

My second contribution is the movie Spartan with Val Kilmer. Basically a kidnap game - the president's daughter is gone, get her back before the media get wind of it because once it hits the news the kidnappers will realise who they've got (they haven't figured it out because they just snatched some girl) and probably kill her or sell her to Iran or someone. Half way through the movie comes the twist, which I won't ruin, but it means that the hunt gets called off except for a dedicated few.

This is a good game for players seeking redemption. I have run it as a single-player game for a character who was looking to redeem himself karmically because of a career body count that was embarassingly high. It has good government conspiracies (which can be a corporate conspiracy easily enough), dark aspects like white slavery, cool international travel and so on. You may or may not want to change the ending - I didn't, which fitted the character in question very well.

Any other suggestions?
Mercer
Off the top of my head, here are some movies and tv shows I stole directly from to run games:

Jurassic Park: This was a fun one. The pcs were on a very Jurassic Park-like island filled with every conceivable Awakened critter I could scrounge up from PAoNA, PAoE and wherever else, when terrorists detonated an EMP that shorted out the island's fences, power and some of their cyberware. During a hurricane, natch. There was a bunch of good chaos on that one, with the pc's trying to hunt down the terrorists and get the scientists to safety while the entire island went crazy with escaped paranormals. (I regret I didn't include a juggernaut in the t-rex role.) This one had a weird movie crossover with Under Siege, as the island's "cook" was a ex-special forces guy who kept saying, "I'm just the cook" and was eventually eviscerated off camera by a wyrd mantis. (This was also the game in which one player, when requested in combat to do something responded by yelling, "I'm trying, but I keep getting killed by this f****** monkey!", which is something we still say to this day.)

Dark Blue: Cop movie with Kurt Russel. I ran this exact plot (since I was the only one who saw it) as a Lone Star mini-series. The pcs ended up shooting the one honest cop in the group and hiding out in the sewers during the rioting.

To Cast A Deadly Spell: One of my first SR games, based almost directly on the made-for-HBO movie that had H.P. Lovecraft recast as a Phillip Marlowe-like gumshoe working in a post-WWII L.A. where magic was commonplace. David Warner was in it, as well as Julianne Moore. (In the movie, not my game.)

John Carpenter's Vampires: This one wasn't based so much on the movie, as there was a npc group of vampire hunters the pc's interacted with on a couple of occasions. For whatever reason, I was running a lot of vamp-themed SR in those days. Some elements from Blade made it in as well (as one of the vamps they were hunting was a poser who called himself Deacon Frost). Actually, a lot of my SR vamp-stuff had to do with how overly dramatic and angsty the vamps were, which was really me skewering the Vampire: The Masquerade.

Band of the Hand: I'm kind of proud of this one. The pc's plane went down in the Everglades, and they had to hike several kilometers through the swamp back to civilization. There was a good moment when the Gator Shaman saw a bunch of gators sunning themselves and was debating rolling around with them in the mud, but he felt I'd just have them rip him to shreds. (I wasn't, but he chickened out anyway.)
Karaden
The Forge of Mars and The Digital Dead (books) are amazing, and very honestly, with the exception of the lack of magic, feel -very- shadowrunny. Including the fact that chemists and such now build things using VR, showing the computer how to do something and letting the computer finish it up for them once it has learned what it is doing (An almost exact example that the SR book gives). While lacking bioware, it shows plenty of high tech stuff that you would see in SR. It maybe wouldn't make the best mission exactly, but I'm sure you could get plenty of ispirations for various missions, and just plain fun stuff to put in the game. The second book even has what can only be described as a technomancer (two now that I think about it). And yes, there is a hacker who gets fried a bit by getting hit while in hot sim.

I read these books back before I started playing SR, and hadn't really thought of it before now, but I swear the person who wrote it has played SR before.

*edit* Now that I think about it even more, there is an arcology in the book that they are working on or something, but it is kind of small. There is also a super gifted doctor who uses old rituals and stuff to help his paitents out (magic?). And not to spoil much, but the Forge of Mars one involves an unknown gate on mars (which I believe SR4 has as well) I wonder if the SR people read this book and not the other way around.
Bastard
My friends and I have been gaming together for a long, long time. While most of us moved away, moved back, played army a bit, got married, and moved away again, we still have a small group that plays regularly. During the holidays, or when ever there is a big event coming up (marriage, births, family reunions, ect.) our old friends and relatives return to town and want to game.

This is where I use these one-shot movies usually. I usually create characters based on the characters in the movies, thus relieving the week long chargen that usually takes place in my group. This also lets my players know that the game is going to be extra lethal and when the characters die they aren't so depressed. biggrin.gif

So far I ran:
Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep (Phillip Dick)- I got this one off of the Dumpshock (not forums) website about five years ago, but just ran it recently. It has the runners as blade runners tracking down the synths and a side mission that discovers the V-K test validity.

The Usual Suspects- This one I had them play the criminals and their fixer kept setting them up with all the jobs. I NPC'ed Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) and dropped in hints and the story about Kaiser Soezo. I had a mole (a player who was in on the game and helped me write the mission), who played Verbal Kent (Kevin Spacey) and
[ Spoiler ]
Only the guy who helped me write the mission and played Kent had seen the movie so I didn't even have to change the names, but I would suggest it if your players have.

Dude, Where's My Car?- Yes, this was ran as a joke, but it actually turned out pretty good, and really fun. I had to add in a little combat, but was great for a one nighter with two players. The game began with the players waking up and feeling disorientated and every time they went to do something, they had either had that deja vu feeling, or felt things were out of place. It was a night of laughs, and if you have a light hearted group that sometimes likes a less serious game, I would definitely suggest this one.

Deep Blue Sea- This was fun, and even though everyone had seen it, the story was pretty open ended and exciting. This one the players built their own low-level campaign characters (Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book, page 118), and I told them that they would be marine biologists and such. I didn't tell them that it was ripped off the movie, but they figured out pretty quickly.

Die Hard- This one is easy, and I think everyone has done it in some form. I didn't do this one as a one-shot, and the team took the role of John McClane (Bruce Willis). To put them in them in the "shoeless" position, they had gone to meet a contact and were in the buildings spa. So they also had on robes and no weapons, but at least half of them left on their underpants. wink.gif

QUOTE (Mercer)
Jurassic Park: This was a fun one. The pcs were on a very Jurassic Park-like island filled with every conceivable Awakened critter I could scrounge up from PAoNA, PAoE and wherever else, when terrorists detonated an EMP that shorted out the island's fences, power and some of their cyberware. During a hurricane, natch. There was a bunch of good chaos on that one, with the pc's trying to hunt down the terrorists and get the scientists to safety while the entire island went crazy with escaped paranormals. (I regret I didn't include a juggernaut in the t-rex role.) This one had a weird movie crossover with Under Siege, as the island's "cook" was a ex-special forces guy who kept saying, "I'm just the cook" and was eventually eviscerated off camera by a wyrd mantis. (This was also the game in which one player, when requested in combat to do something responded by yelling, "I'm trying, but I keep getting killed by this f****** monkey!", which is something we still say to this day.)


I am so running this next year! biggrin.gif

I also want to run one ripped off of Apacolypse Now/ Into the Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad).
Mercer
I'm glad you liked it. Something I just remembered, the vamp-themed runs that included Blade, Vampires and so on, well the actual game all that took place in was directly lifted from:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The pcs were hired to stem a outbreak of HMHVV at a suburban high school. Since one of the students of that school was an elf who started expressing her phys ad abilities at the same time, I called that one Brittany the Vampire Slayer. Good times.
martindv
QUOTE (Bastard)
Die Hard- This one is easy, and I think everyone has done it in some form. I didn't do this one as a one-shot, and the team took the role of John McClane (Bruce Willis). To put them in them in the "shoeless" position, they had gone to meet a contact and were in the buildings spa. So they also had on robes and no weapons, but at least half of them left on their underpants. wink.gif

FASA made two Die Hard modules, both based around the 2057 election.

One was in Super Tuesday, where they are doing a VR test run only to wake up and find the facility was taken over by terrorists while they are practically naked.

The other was Excelsior in Shadows of the Underworld, which was basically Die Hard only set in the top floors of the Empire State Building. They get stripped of weapons and good toys just to get in, and it goes from there.
Bastard
QUOTE (martindv)
The other was Excelsior in Shadows of the Underworld, which was basically Die Hard only set in the top floors of the Empire State Building. They get stripped of weapons and good toys just to get in, and it goes from there.


I think I ran this one long ago... about 10 years ago! Damn Im getting old. I forgot all about it. smile.gif

ANYONE ELSE HAVE ANY GOOD MOVIES TO RIP???
martindv
There was a Heat-themed bank heist job in Blood in the Boardroom (the heist was of a device macguffin).

That's the thing. Almost every crime movie ever made could be turned into a run. I recently watched The Third Man and realized that it would make a great run set in Denver or Boise or any other city split up between more than two countries. Reading Ed Brubaker's (and friends') essays and comments on crime noir movies and books in the back pages of Criminal each issue has practically buried me in ideas.

Touch of Evil is good. Get Shorty is good (Be Cool sucks, so don't bother). It depends on what kind of games you run. Warren Ellis' novel is great, too, in a sort of epic way.

Hell, Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy (Caught Stealing, Six Bad Things, A Dangerous Man) of books is a wonderful inspiration for the rise and fall of a civilian who becomes a shadowrunner. Plus it's just a great read. My most recent PC was based on some of the supporting cast from the books.
Fortune
Two words ...

Hudson Hawk wink.gif
Zhan Shi
Speaking of Blade Runner, there was a game some years ago that, while not based on the movie, came close (at least, it seemed that way to me). The PC's were all bounty hunters working for some intergalactic conglomerate. Dammit, just can't remember the name...I think it was a British rpg.
Karaden
You could also present them with the sort of task you find in ocean's eleven and see what they come up with. Might be interesting to see how they try and manage it.
Zhan Shi
In regards to my previous post, I remember now. It was "SLA Industries".
Jeremiah Legacy
It was such a bizarre idea, I felt compelled to try it. I am still shocked on how well it worked.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Had to watch it in the seventh grade. Musical comedy from the 1960's or so about this family of seven backwards brothers who kidnap seven women and cause an avalanche so nobody can get to their mountain home until the spring. Of course, the first thing the women do is take over and kick the men out of the house so they are living in tents. There's more to the movie, but that's the jist of it.

Ran it as the team's job was to get them back from Mt. Rainier (In Salish-Shidhe territory), only to discover that the women didn't want to leave. Created a moral quandry, but the runners, being equal parts capitalist whore and hopeless romantic, brought the women back but left the van running. Colected the money and then the women "stole" the van, complete with the navigation system to guide them through the mountain pass. The only mountain pass safe to travel. The one nobody knew about and the team didn't tell Mr. Johnson about. ("He didn't ask for it and didn't pay for it. We are shadowrunners, not welfare.")
Catsnightmare
Big Trouble in Little China.
It's already got street gangs, driver/rigger losing his personal vehicle, kidnapping of runner/character's family/loved-ones, infiltration of a corporate building, organized crime, kung-fu/physads, guns, magic, magicians, ally spirits, para-critters, ritual magic, sorcery duels! Just add cyberware and metahumans and you have a ready-made Shadowrun adventure.
martindv
Don't forget to give the rigger the Braggart flaw and Incompetence (all firearms). It is amazing how he never realizes that he's the comedic sidekick.

The Six Demon Bag is probably a mix of awakened drugs (maybe... six of them?)
Catsnightmare
The Six Demon Bag, would more likely be a Power Focus of some sort. Or else a special batch of expendable spell foci.
martindv
No way!

It powered up everyone who drank from it, and allowed them to "see what no one else can see" (astral sight) and "do what no one else can do" (stat bonuses). I'd say that pretty much defines the effects of an awakened punch combo.
Mercer
Most of John Carpenter's movies came out on DVD a few years back, and when they did he and Kurt Russel did commentaries on Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China. (They may have done more but those are the only ones I have, my Escape from LA doesn't have any commentaries on it.)

Both commentaries are interesting not only to hear them talking about the movies and the experience of filming them, but also because these are two veterans sitting down years later to rewatch movies they made as relative newbies. (I mean, Kurt Russel was starring in movies as a fetus, but at the time he was working with John Carpenter he was trying to transition from a teen hearthrob in Disney flicks to being a movie star.)
Lindt
QUOTE (Bastard)
Dude, Where's My Car?- Yes, this was ran as a joke, but it actually turned out pretty good, and really fun. I had to add in a little combat, but was great for a one nighter with two players. The game began with the players waking up and feeling disorientated and every time they went to do something, they had either had that deja vu feeling, or felt things were out of place. It was a night of laughs, and if you have a light hearted group that sometimes likes a less serious game, I would definitely suggest this one.

Randomly, did you run/write this as a one shot at GenCon a while back? I remember someone running something very similar.
martindv
I heard that most of the commentaries involved Russell and Carpenter getting drunk and joking around.

Movie? What movie?
Catsnightmare
QUOTE (martindv)
No way!

It powered up everyone who drank from it, and allowed them to "see what no one else can see" (astral sight) and "do what no one else can do" (stat bonuses). I'd say that pretty much defines the effects of an awakened punch combo.

No, "The Medicine" was something different. It was in that gourde-shaped bottle had tied on his belt. The Six Demon Bag was the animal hide/furry leather bag he had slung over his shoulder that he kept pulling the magic beads and stones out of.
martindv
Oh.

Well, I'm an idiot.
tisoz
...Since we are already a bit off track...

I was going through the movie/tv/inspiration threads, thinking about assembling a master list. When what do I learn, but an author used my actual name for the sidekick in a long running series of books. Still trying to get a hold of some copies.
PBTHHHHT
QUOTE (martindv)
QUOTE (Bastard @ Jan 2 2008, 03:58 PM)
Die Hard- This one is easy, and I think everyone has done it in some form.  I didn't do this one as a one-shot, and the team took the role of John McClane (Bruce Willis).  To put them in them in the "shoeless" position, they had gone to meet a contact and were in the buildings spa.  So they also had on robes and no weapons, but at least half of them left on their underpants. wink.gif

FASA made two Die Hard modules, both based around the 2057 election.


I keep wanting to run a scenario where the team are in the roles of the heist group instead of John McClane. Maybe have them deal with some phys ad detective who's running around shoeless... if that doesn't give them hints of what movie they're in and that they should start worrying.
mfb
yeah, the Six Demon Bag is full of wind, fire, all that kind of thing.

The Unit isn't a bad source of inspiration.
hyzmarca
I watched an awful Christian propaganda flick by Michael Landon Jr. called The Last Sin Eater. It tricks the viewer into thinking it is actually good by starting out as the trials and tribulations of a suicidal young girl who may have murdered her own sister in mid 19th century Appalachia attempting to get her sins mystically devoured by a Sin Eater. Unfortunately, it turns unwatchable about halfway through and becomes even worse as we learn that the older citizens of the little mountain village committed genocide several years ago and yet they somehow end up getting their guilt washed away by converting the Protestant Christianity and everyone lives happily ever after.

I rewrote it so that after the PCs successfully convert the Sin Eater cult to Protestant Christianity, an act with relieves their unbearable guilt, the ghosts of the innocent Native Americans they exterminated, angry that the villagers' moral suffering has been relieved, rise up and slaughter them all while pretty much leaving the PCs alone.

Really, the Last Sin Eater has potential but it is just one of those movies that would be better if angry ghosts killed everyone in a horrifically slow and painful manner.
Ravor
*crosses the movie off his "watch list"*

Damn, and here I was actually considering seeing that one.
Bastard
QUOTE (Lindt)
QUOTE (Bastard @ Jan 2 2008, 04:58 PM)
Dude, Where's My Car?- Yes, this was ran as a joke, but it actually turned out pretty good, and really fun.  I had to add in a little combat, but was great for a one nighter with two players.  The game began with the players waking up and feeling disorientated and every time they went to do something, they had either had that deja vu feeling, or felt things were out of place.  It was a night of laughs, and if you have a light hearted group that sometimes likes a less serious game, I would definitely suggest this one.

Randomly, did you run/write this as a one shot at GenCon a while back? I remember someone running something very similar.

Nope, wasn't me. Unless you really liked it (since this thread is about plagiarizing) then I will steal credit. biggrin.gif
hyzmarca
QUOTE (Ravor)
*crosses the movie off his "watch list"*

Damn, and here I was actually considering seeing that one.

You can safely watch it up to the point where the little girl stops being suicidal. Until then it is good. After that, it goes downhill fast.
Ravor
Naw, I'm too much of a completionalist, if I stopped watching if partway through I'd just feel dirty about myself. cyber.gif
Jack Spartan
It may have been mentioned before in another thread (or even in this one - I just skimmed it), but . . .

Payback with Mel Gibson

Robbing a Triad to buy into the Mafia is a great storyline and the scenes in the first part of the movie where Porter rebuilds himself with some skillful pickpocketing, credit fraud, and fencing really showcase the sort of talents a street character would need.
Ravor
Also may have already been mentioned, but I think "Silence of the Lamb" would make a great cyberpunk plotline as well, with the characters either being paid by a grieving ex/Lonestar Detective or are being used by the prep to track down suitable women.
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