Obviously this is based partially off of Frankenstien, but there seem to be some other influences at work.
First off, the stone ring outside of Lepidstatd called the Spiral Cromlech seems like it came (at least in name) from China Mieville's Bas-Lag world. Spiral Jacobs is a character in Iron Council and High Cromlech is a language spoken in a near-fabled city ruled by the undead (I think, been a while since I read them). Also, the spelling of the chemical works with a 'y' is reminiscent of Mieville.
The second less-than-obvious (or imagined exclusively by me) influence that I spotted was Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher (or perhaps the film by Robert Wise) in the form of the two alchemists of questionable morals.
Third, The Punishing Man is very obviously based on The Wicker Man.
And fouth, the Seasage Effigy has the fishy smell of Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth all over it, but anyone who's looked ahead at what adventures are to come probably saw that one.
Any one agree? Disagree? Spot things I missed? Mr. Pett have anything to contribute?
The Crooked Kin and the myriad of deformities reminded me of the 1932 movie, Tod Browning's "Freaks". At least to put a title to what Generic Villain noticed.
I definitely got the 'One of us' vibe :P
Ah yes, I think you have most of them covered. Freaks is an incredible film (although it has a bizarre ending) - if you haven't seen it try to watch it, it's amazingly moody and disturbing.
Haven't come across the Haunting Ground GV, but yes a definite Sherlock Holmes influence too (waterfalls and swiss alps included) - I'm a big Holmes fan.
I felt we needed some bodysnatching in the adventure so yes Stevenson too.
Obviously with this one the desire was to pay homage to a certain genre and type of story, and cherry-pick parts to put into the recipe.
I can't wait to see what the other writers have turned in, there looks to me some meaty stuff coming along, I hope the adventures are as good as that Kortes' fellows starter, curse him.
Rich
Well, the "adventure history" for the first AP book anyway really got to me like no other adventure background.
spoilered for fear of spoiling anything in Trial of the Beast;
I purchased The Trial a few days ago, and I'm enamored of the 'kin.....the sadly howling dogfaced boy was really compelling stuff. I feel his pain.
(lol) kruelaid showed up in the opening scene of my pbp with a massive half orc barbarian, who promptly pulled a dead gnome out of a sack and placed him at the table of the carriage house tavern I had the group rendevous in before the meat of the adventure began. This was fun with a group also consisting of two good clerics and a paladin. Can't wait until Wod meets the 'Kin, man. They've just got to travel with those kooks.
Adding my influences,....
I used the opening fight against the cannibal highwaymen from Book of Eli on my p.c.'s, so that movie's definitely an influence early on, anyway.
I think I'll mix Evil Dead into what has allready influenced the esteemed writer.
It might be a bad idea, but.......it can't be helped.
It's beyond my control.
Now I just need to figure out a way to incorporate chainsaws into the AP somehow.
Ah yes, I think you have most of them covered. Freaks is an incredible film (although it has a bizarre ending) - if you haven't seen it try to watch it, it's amazingly moody and disturbing.
Haven't come across the Haunting Ground GV, but yes a definite Sherlock Holmes influence too (waterfalls and swiss alps included) - I'm a big Holmes fan.
I felt we needed some bodysnatching in the adventure so yes Stevenson too.
Obviously with this one the desire was to pay homage to a certain genre and type of story, and cherry-pick parts to put into the recipe.
I can't wait to see what the other writers have turned in, there looks to me some meaty stuff coming along, I hope the adventures are as good as that Kortes' fellows starter, curse him.
Rich
Thanks for the response. I hope you don't mind that my picking your writing apart, I just enjoyed several of your references so much that I felt the need to comment.
You certainly created an atmosphere that I liked when I read it. It'll be many months before I get to run it, but I'm sure it'll be great; good to read usually means good to play. I also like adventures compressed into just a couple days to tax the party's endurence.
I haven't seen Freaks but I've heard of it many times, so I'll definately have to bump it up the netflix queue since it comes so highly recommended.
If you haven't seen the film adaptation of The Body Snatcher I would highly recommend it. While it's not especially scary, it does have a fantastic atmosphere, especially in the use of shadows. Boris Karloff does a fantastic turn as Grey and is able to convey serious menace from behind his mask of amiability. It comes as a DVD double feature with I Walked With A Zombie, another equally great b&w "horror" film.
Oh, and Aubrey, who is British, said my npc's often remind him of some warped version of a show called Sooty, so I have to own up to that I guess.
It was completely instinctual too; I never even heard of Sooty until Aubrey's prompting me to do some Youtube research of the matter.
I have no idea how I overlooked Caromarc; he's obviously a reference to Marc Caro, co-director of Delicatessen and City of Lost Children and production designer of Enter The Void! It seems especially good considering he was the art designer (and boy were those some amazing designs!) as opposed to Jeunet, who directed the actors and the pace. Can't believe that didn't occur to me sooner!