Media Which Informs My Design

I love movies. I effectively minored in film in college. I think about games in very filmic terms; when gamemastering I use establishing shots, scene transitions, carefully timed sound effects and music, even the occasional montage. I also think about movies in game terms. I see crits and fumbles and think about how many points Proteus has in Melee Combat.

When I get really excited about a movie, it's hard for me not to want to include some aspect of it in my game. It's a very fine line between "Yeah! That was awesome!" and "Yeah! That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

The Four Feathers
I saw Four Feathers when the first concepts of the game were starting to crystalize. Here's a time and a setting in which guns and swords are both viable choices in combat, a little politics, a little romance, a lot of straight up adventure, and a lot of complexity and moral ambiguity - the British are not 'good guys' and the Sudanese are not 'bad guys'. It touches on issues of colonialism, imperialism, racism, technological and economic difference and cultural exchange, and it's about people who cross these illusory boundaries. Right at the moment I was deciding what I wanted this game to be, this movie came along and said, "This is what you want it to be."

The 13th Warrior
If The Four Feathers gave me a theme, The 13th Warrior gave me a style and tone. You've got an Arab teaming up with some Vikings to fight cannibal Neanderthals. It's got a lot of the same cross-cultural themes, with a thread of bizarre humor. I like that it doesn't pull punches on culture shock and religion, and Viking manners are a major inspiration for Retulians. And the gibbering blind-seer/madwoman is a good fit for where I want magic to be.

10,000 B.C.
A lot of people hate this movie, and I recognize its faults, but there is a lot of stuff I like about it. But what really puts it on the list is the shamaninc magic. "Yes! Yes! Effing yes! This is how magic should be!"

The Last Legion
This is the other side of the magic coin for me. There's enough superstition in the world for people to mistake extraordinary abilities, unusual occurances, and a little sleight of hand for real wizardry.

Baraka
If you haven't seen this movie, go see it right now! This is humanity in all its glory and squalor, derangement and genius. This is true diversity, not Hollywood's token black guy. This is why we don't need no stinkin' elves!

Firefly
A few years ago I ran a very rough alpha playtest with an incomplete draft of the game. The first group I tried it with was great, but the second group kind of didn't get RPGs. Part of that was my shortcomings as a GM - I need to remember to give more guidance to inexperienced players. When I saw Firefly, something else clicked. This is how an adventuring party should work. Before character creation I need to sit the players down and say, look. You've all got different backgrounds. Different goals, motivations, personalities. Some of you may not even like each other. But you are bound together, by relationships, by loyalty, by fate, by circumstance, whatever, and you've got to work together now. This is how the team works.

There are lots of other movies and books I use as reference. Believe me, I've looked up and rewatched every movie I can find with pre-1870 technology, cross-cultural interaction, and subtle magic. These six are just the main ones that forged the key concepts of Stone, Steel, and Steam in my mind.