The inspirational watchlist for Gamemasters

Let's start with the obvious. The Lord of the Rings movies have it all: A great story, loveable characters, fantastic monsters and amazing set pieces. Among a plethora of inspirational stuff, The fellowship of the Ring features the mother of all dungeons, the mines of Moria, the endless, eternally dark halls of Khazad-dûm. The staircase scene is a perfect example, of how to turn a part of the environment of into a most dramatic action set.

So how to make players feel the drama, the horror and the fierce action of a siege? The movie lays it out perfectly. The stakes are high and individual acts of courage may turn the tides...

Again we can chose from so many great things here. Epic battles, characters facing their destiny...

One thing to learn here is: How to introduce a monster? Just let it pop up? Or start with hints and let it built it up to the inevitable showdown? The use of Shelob in this movie is another exmple of how things should be done in adventures.

Probably the first and probably also the best "rag tag team of heroes" movie of all time. It shows how a wide varity of characters can act together to achieve a common goal. Interestingly it does not neglect any of the characters, we care for all of them and that's something gamemasters and players as well should really take to heart.

Characters aside, the movie also excels at using the story template it introduces: A farming village is endangered to be looted by a group of bandits. Thus the farmers hire a bunch of masterless samurai to defend them... There are endless possibilities to modify this template and include it in your campaign.

This is a variation of the Seven Samurai story template with vikings instead of samurai. While not without flaws (mostly due to the bumpy ride the production was), it still holds up pretty well. It has great action sets that wait to be adopted into a rpg adventure, an outstanding soundtrack you want to play over and over in the background and yet again a buch of very interesting characters.

So what if you don't want your adventure to be set in dark dungeons or filled with hordes of monsters? How about a setting filled with romance and intrigues, that calls for an entirely different set of skills? Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing has it all: Love, hate, comedy, oaths, lies, a fancy masked-ball and enough ideas to inspire quite a number of adventures based on complex social interaction, that never run boring.

Yet another formidable story rich with romance and intrigues. I think it's a great thing to have a varity of settings in a campagin. Dungeons are cool, but once in a while you have to get your players out of there and have them run into arrogant nobles, lovesick soldiers and lovely maidens. Highly emotional dilemmas can be as perilous as the meanest dragon.

If you are a game master and haven't seen this yet, shame on you! Seriously, this is probably the most highly destilled quintessence of adventure you'll ever find: Charismatic Heroes, evil villains, dungeons, death traps, treasure and a number of iconic actions scenes that have written movie history. If you don't know it, stop right now, buy it or rent it immediatly and do your ******* homework!

As if "Temple of Doom" wasn't hint enough for you: There are evil cultists, hidden secrets, the ultimate culture shock feast and dungeons filled with terror.

You'll want to steal at least one of those scenes for your adventures: the banquet, the jawdropping mine chase or the most dramatic bridge scene.

There is no way around it. The Indiana Jones movies are the 101 of adventure design. Again there are too many scenes you'd like to steal. The libary, the catacombs, the chases and last but not least the three trials.

A haunted temple, ghosts, demons, sword play, magic, a taoistic warrior monk and impossible love! This Hong Kong classic is full of great ideas!

This is actually "A chinese ghost story 2". More of the same, but with enough great ideas of its own. There's a funny scene with a magic symbol you absolutely don't want to miss.

Btw.: Skip part three or the remake of the saga...

Far superior to the first part, this movie shows perfectly how a supernatural group of main characters can be depicted in an emotionally engaging way.

There are many great things to learn from this movie for gamemasters, especially, how to create believebale, tragic villians and monsters with understandable motives.

If you are able to express in words, how the scenes of this movie look like, you have gained the ability to sell a stunning, exotic setting to your players and how to bring a foreign culture to life.

If you are not that good with words, you may at least want to use the soundtrack for any desert based adventure. It is as good as it could possibly get.

If you don't know, what a MacGuffin is, look it up. Ronin features the perfect example of a MacGuffin and proves, that sometimes the goal isn't as much important as is how you get there. That's the lesson here.

Need inspiration for an adventure set in the wilderness? Follow the tracks of the Kyrgyz ranger Uzala (who seems to have maxed out his survival skill). This is a grand drama of man with and versus nature.

So what if you want to run an adventure, where the heroes are not the best of the best, but ordinary, if not very vulnerable and weak people who have to face the forces of evil? From this stems a certain type of horror, which has been translated pretty well to screen in Bubba Ho-Tep (with a dose of humor). This is small scale epicness.

The original monastic murder mystery. This is yet another adventure template, that has been copied very, very often. You may want to try as well. But be warned! Few ever got close to the greatness of the Name of the Rose!

A silent masterpiece, that confronts us with the dangers of magic in the form of an awakened clay guardian, which goes rampart. You may find a few ideas here.

Yet another 80'ties adventure movie (Those were golden times!): Riddles, a treasure map, evil antagonists, unlikely friends, traps and tunnels... you'll love the organ ... Aarr!

How to give life to a movie monster, that was never really creepy? Enter The Mummy from 1999. This surprising revival of the classical adventure genre, around a time it hadn't been seen in cinemas for a while, did it right. The mummy was no longer a slow moving guy wrapped in bandages, but something strong, fast and threatening from beyond the grave. All this came wrapped in a tongue in cheek treasure hunting story, that fortunately didn't take itself too seriously. Creepy when it had to be, exciting when it had to be and entertaining from start to finish. Gives you a good idea of how to structure an adventure well.

The question is not: "Why is a heist movie on this list?" The question is: "Do you have a heist adventure on yours?" If not, you may want to consider the possibilities and give it a try. This type of story template is timeless and can be translated to any setting.

Horror & mystery. This highly atmospheric tale of a headless rider terrorizing a remote village is another, outstanding example of a template you can adopt easily into your rpg campagins.

Note, this template not only about a monster or similar threatening people, it's also about the reasons behind that. The symptoms of evil are not to be confused with its source.

A comedy about a guy who lives the same day over and over again. Aside from being a great movie, you may want to steal the idea for a one shot adventure for your rpg campagin. The template can easily applied to any setting of your choice and the escape from the time-cylce can happen under any conditions you see fit.

It's on this list, probably because it questions the entire concept of timely order. It is, similiar to Jumanji a concept that breaks apart the ordinary flow of the world it takes part in. I think it may inspire ideas, where suddenly a normal place or normal sequence of events can become something extraordinary. I think therein lies a certain potential. Even if it is some kind of special one.

A list of great story templates you can steal or learn from wouldn't be complete without "Die Hard". Very few heroes have to stand against a group of well organized villains, who have taken the place (skyscraper, ship, castle, ...) they are in, foil their plan, save hostages and the day. Another time- and placeless concept.

One thing this movie excels at, is depicting a foreign, archaic world that works by other rules than ours. And of course the story is full of battles among grim barbarians. All in all: There's more than enough to steal from here. I'd like to point game masters towards the awe inspiring scene, where Conan recovers a sword from a tomb in particular.

Scenes and setpieces aside, Conan the Barbarian also features one of the best fantasy adventure soundtracks of all time. You really want to listen to that.

Alfred Hitchcock was very aware of cliches and how to avoid them. The assassination attempt by plane in broad daylight is probably the best example for that. He imagined and shot the total opposite of what one would usually do in a movie, and it turned out to be one of the most famous move scenes of all time. What to learn from this movie is this: Check your adventure for cliches and then turn them upside down!

Historical Murder Mystery meets the supernatural. As Sleepy Hollow, this movie has a very rich atmosphere, that may inspire you. The story is set in early 19th century Paris and may give you some fresh ideas.

Now why is this on the list? It is because cultre shock/clash of the cultures and "fish out of the water" stories provide you with a great, basic template. The player characters may be foreign to the place your adventure takes place in, foreign to the non player characters they interact with or even foreign to each other. It may encourage great role playing from your players and even provide additional adventure hooks.

"What the heck is going on here?" Sometimes the best way to make your players know that the adventure has started, is to make them know they know nothing... Too difficult? Well you may want to throw them head first into a mystery now and then.