Print The Legend

A new Tarzan movie seemed like an odd choice last summer, and it kind of is. One which contains the origin in a few flashbacks and then sends him on a new adventure mixed up with late 19th century European imperialism in the Congo definitely is.

Samuel L. Jackson plays George Washington Williams as a somewhat badass comedy sidekick, and Léon Rom dies a lot younger in the Tarzan universe than in ours. Its history is as revisionist as Inglourious Basterds, it’s just that the history it’s revising isn’t as well known. I guess the title being The Legend Of Tarzan evokes the quote I named this post for...

Print the legend

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a fascinating folly, taking that premise entirely seriously (there are literally three other jokes in the film) to the point that its blaming historical tragedies on vampires without a hint of levity is at least dubiously tasteful. It takes pains not to blame slavery on vampires, while happily blaming them for other things.

Still, at least most of it is in focus.

Mixing up fantasy and reality should always be done with care, in case the specifics or even the general idea of doing so offends.

Adventure Calendar 2023 14: Primetime Adventures

Adventure Calendar 2023

14: Primetime Adventures

Primetime Adventures is actually 15, but 14 is the box set version of Mouse Guard.

Primetime Adventures is the RPG of creating TV series, going full narrative construction rather than many licenced RPGs being a mix of narrative with simulation of the world, even beyond genre deconstructions like They Came From... The players all have a hand in scene framing, and its defining mechanic is that the PCs in the ensemble cast have spotlight episodes built in as their Screen Presence varies over a season.

My first thought is to look at holiday episodes for show-based RPGs (I’ve done that aplenty) and my second is to remind you all of the time I swiped the Eerie Indiana finale for The Watch House and had some of the PCs discover they were in a TV show.

But to go a different way, have the PCs interacting with normal media in their setting. Famous enough PCs could get Print The Legend happening to them, but at lower levels of notoriety can they get on the local news, or avoid it as the case may be?

What shows do they watch, which writers do they follow and so on? Is there a local TV station, a movie studio, radio, theatre, publisher, particularly good tribal storyteller?

This depends how close to the real world we are, naturally - the animated Batman grew up on The Gray Ghost instead of the Shadow or, well, Batman. (IIRC one of the Silver Age heroes read the equivalent Golden Ages comics in-character?)

The Christmas Special

The PCs somehow end up involved with a festive broadcast. Superheroes making an appearance, more low-key characters helping out with a fundraiser. They get to look around a studio and see some of the production process. But is somebody going to cause trouble...?

RPGaDay2023 10) Favourite tie-in FICTION

#RPGaDay2023

10) Favourite tie-in FICTION

Does The Expanse count?

2014 answer with five answers. (I have since read The Subtle Knife. It’s good too!)

One word prompt

10) FICTION

How would player characters of sufficient fame deal with stories about them? Being known in song, having dime novels “print the legend”, having their actions tracked on the chatty rooms?

Dave Chapman

Runeslinger

Who's Who

Over on t'Whoblog, I mentioned the old World Of Darkness portrayals of Rasputin in the context of Celebrity Historical episodes. On the whole, these tend to "print the legend" as in Westerns, as Mark Gatiss put it when talking about his depiction of Churchill.

So how to portray real people in other games?

An urban fantasy or horror game like World Of Darkness might focus on the strange mysteries of history, where someone like Rasputin seems fair game, but the third-party Call Of Cthulhu adventure "Secrets Of The Kremlin" which had Stalin actively studying the Mythos seemed a bit tacky. (To say nothing of one of those Rasputin appearances being in the same book as vampire Himmler, since quietly ignored.)

Of course, this is the real(ish) world, and care must be taken to cause offence in some cases.

Teaming up with the President in a superhero game? Or possibly Prince William, ace helicopter pilot? Heroic portrayals can be pretty amusing. Conversely, use of real "villains" makes me twitch with discomfort.

Beyond our history, some fictional settings have detailed enough backgrounds that you might have stories of modern, historical and legendary figures ready to go. "So who's this Conan guy anyway?" You could add characters the PCs would know about, but it's more involving if the players recognise them as well.

I can imagine historians in fantasy worlds arguing about portrayals of ancient heroes. That "Know, O Prince..." opening has always made me wonder who's talking, and to whom.

And if the PCs are ever flung forward in time, they'll probably be rather surprised by how history remembers them. "We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero!"