Monday, April 13, 2009

You Will Come Out No More

Maybe this isn't a revelation to everybody, but it just hit me the other day: Big Trouble In Little China is an old-school dungeon crawl.

You've got a couple of fighting types, a magic-user, and a bunch of nameless cannon fodder making repeated trips into a bizarre subterranean complex with the eventual goal of saving the girl(s) and slaying an evil wizard. Don't even get me started on the beholder-thingy, the "black blood of the earth", and the big centipede-creature that pops out and instantly wastes a bunch of the henchmen. I could go on and on - it's all there.

Even the attitudes of the characters, especially Jack Burton, are pretty gamer-ish:




"Hollow? Fuck it."

(I still have an overwhelming desire to play an Egg Shen-style adventuring alchemist.)

I doubt there are many people following this blog who haven't already seen the movie, but if you haven't, you owe it to yourself to check it out. And if you have seen it, try giving it another viewing through the lens of the dungeon crawl.
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9 comments:

  1. KnightskyApril 13, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    "Son of a bitch must pay!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rick DakanApril 13, 2009 at 1:10 PM

    I put in a whole Big Trouble inspired adventure into my "Enter the Zombie" book for All Flesh Must Be Eaten...

    ReplyDelete
  3. letsdamageApril 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM

    I put in a whole Big Trouble inspired adventure into my "Enter the Zombie" book for All Flesh Must Be Eaten...

    You know, I've never even seen a copy of All Flesh, but that sounds pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete
  4. elhijoApril 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM

    "Two girls with green eyes! What does it mean?!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. k.bonifieldApril 13, 2009 at 2:40 PM

    My 1st Conan adventure that I ran was a homage (read: Whole-sale copy) of Big Trouble. The players didn't even catch on until I started doing my Lo-Pan impression.

    Oh, and, "It's all in the reflexes."

    ReplyDelete
  6. letsdamageApril 13, 2009 at 2:56 PM

    My 1st Conan adventure that I ran was a homage (read: Whole-sale copy) of Big Trouble.

    I didn't even know you ran Conan. I'm learning so much today! Whee!

    ReplyDelete
  7. David LarkinsApril 13, 2009 at 9:11 PM

    Yeah, Big Trouble is pretty much the quintessential gaming movie. I've always thought of it as "Ninjas & Superspies in movie form", but I dig the dungeon crawl analogy.

    Actually, come to think of it, the entirety of John Carpenter's 80s ouvre pretty much comes across as one kick-ass campaign after another transferred to the silver screen.

    ReplyDelete
  8. letsdamageApril 13, 2009 at 10:52 PM

    I've always thought of it as "Ninjas & Superspies in movie form"I could see that, especially if you were using the (awesome) Mystic China supplement.

    ReplyDelete
  9. k.bonifieldApril 14, 2009 at 9:15 PM

    Ah, Mystic China. With the Reformed Demon RCC, The class that became less powerful as you went up in level and slowly became human.

    ReplyDelete

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