This is a bonus tip for gamemasters who do not have time to prepare.
While you’re consuming stories, reading books, watching TV shows or movies you can actually just take the scenario and the story of the book or movie and run it as an adventure or an RPG campaign.
Simply take the movie or book and lift the whole thing and just put it right into your campaign.
Just run the story exactly the way the movie or book does it only changing or departing from it as necessary due to the limitations or the nature of a tabletop role-playing game.
Good Example
Here’s an example of when this is done correctly. When I was a teenager I had created a post-apocalyptic role-playing game that I had called Anarchy.
It’s actually the first book I self-published and it started my career in self-publishing role-playing game books. But I let it sit for a long time and that’s a long story.
When I was playtesting in my early twenties, I had one playtester who was pretty much always there. He was my best playtester and he was one of my really good friends
As we played the RPG, I experimented with different combat systems and different skill systems and everything else. He was a great sport and he loved the post-apocalyptic genre so we had a blast.
However, I had never been able to play my game as a player. I was always the GM. I never got just to make a character and play it myself.
So I begged my friend.
I begged him asking him if he would gamemaster and run me through some adventure. He didn’t want to. He said was not a good gamemaster. He gave me all the standard excuses.
So, what could I do?
I begged him and I begged him and I begged him until finally, he agreed.
He starts off a session and to tell you the truth it blew my mind. It was amazing.
The session was incredible he had a full story, situations, NPCs, locations, and villains. He had everything.
In the end, I was like man you are such a great gamemaster why don’t you do this all the time?
Well, it turns out that he ran me through a movie.
The movie is called World Gone Wild. It was a movie he had picked up at the video store on a whim a few years earlier and he just used that movie and ran me through it.
I hadn’t seen the movie at the time, so it was all fresh and new to me.
This trick of running somebody through a movie or book or TV show is perfectly valid and can save you a ton of prep time and can be a great experience to your players.
By the way, I watched the movie years later and it was awesome. If you are into 80’s post-apocalyptic cinema, check it out.
Danger!
However, there is a danger here.
Make sure that the movie or TV show or book is obscure so that your players haven’t seen it or even heard about it.
If somebody at the table knows the source material very well, the situation I described above will most likely not happen. Case in point.
One time I was about 20 minutes into a session as a player, not the GM, and I realized the gamemaster was running Star Trek 6.
I am a Star Trek fan. A pretty big Star Trek fan at least back in the day. I love the original Star Trek series and I love The Next Generation.
I have seen Star Trek 6 more times than probably any person should really have ever seen Star Trek 6.
I know the story. I know the scenes. I know some of the dialogue. I’ve seen the making of videos and behind-the-scenes documentaries about Star Trek 6. I have read behind-the-scenes articles about the making of Star Trek 6.
Needless to say, when I recognized that we were running through Star Trek 6 I was concerned.
I thought perhaps maybe it’s just a scenario or a situation from Star Trek 6. Maybe the GM is going to use Star Trek 6 as just a setup for the session.
No, that was not the case. The entire session was Star Trek 6 with no deviations. Everything was the same. Everything.
I was very sad for the next 3 or 4 hours.
There is danger here so make sure if you’re running the person through a book or movie, pick one that is obscure or one you know absolutely that your players have not seen or read.
Borrowing from Popular Media
Using popular books or movies from session or campaigns can be done. However, keep in mind a couple of things.
If you’re going to borrow from Black Panther or a very popular book like Ready Player One, make sure you’re only taking kind of snippets or little bits of the scenario.
Something you can use as a starting piece or some setup. Then allow the campaign or scenario to really bloom and go on its own way.
Do not slavishly force your players to follow the exact plot of the book or movie.
Or if you’re going to take the concept from a book that is fairly common or very popular, get player buy-in first.
Just tell your players, hey we’re going to be playing through Ready Player One. Or hey we’re doing the Trojan War or The Lord of the Rings.
As long as the players have agency and the session are not simply marches through the plot, many players will be excited to play.
Coming Up
Stay tuned for more gamemaster tips and thoughts. Don’t miss a post and get free dungeon maps.