Monday, March 31, 2014

Review And Commentary On The Dawn Of The Apes Trailer As Influence On Your Old School Post Apocalyptic Campaigns & Beyond





Well the new Dawn of The Planet Apes has landed and it looks pretty bad ass. I have a feeling that we're going to be seeing a lot more mutant apes in your post apocalyptic campaigns.
The trailer looks excellent and the movie's advertising campaign is in full effect. Will the film live up to the hype.
Here's the basic plot : The apes and humans appear to be at each other's throat after the viral outbreak of the first movie. A few years have passe but this movie has it's ties deeply story wise with the Rise Of Apes fist film. 
This movie looks like it picks up right on the heels of the last film and what was established in that one. We continue with the trials and tribulations of Caesar and the emerging evolved ape nation.
These films seem to loosely follow the 1960's and 70's apes films but they're also charting their own territory.
 These movies seem more 'realistic' and heavy on the story line of conflict between ape and mankind. The original films always seemed to have a flair for an alternative Earth that you the viewer just stepped into with backgrounds just waiting to be explored. These films almost seem to be a world that is twelve seconds from our own world.Everything here is growing organically.   I wouldn't mind exploring these films as campaigns making rules up for PC generation. Yet I don't have too.
 Apes have always been lurking in the lists of mutant animals and encounters ever since the first edition Metamorphosis Alpha by James Ward. Gamma World allowed us to play such creatures.

Many of the post apocalyptic old school games can easily adapt to either of the ape movie styles. Either the nineteen sixties classic Planet of The Apes or the newer Rise material.  From Mutant Future to its predecessor in spirit Gamma World either of the games has the means to meta game many of the ideas we've seen in both Rise and Dawn.
Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord certainly has had write ups of many of the main species of apes and it's not a huge stretch to see them with used within games.
 AD&D certain had stats for a number of simian antagonists that can be used as monsters or bench marks for PC generation.
My friend Bill from Green Skeleton Gaming guild even had War Chimps for planet Algol and many of the other classic & retroclone games.
Available right over HERE
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes TV Spot

What will the world of Caesar look like three hundred years in the future of Dawn of The Apes world? I'm not entirely sure but it's a very interesting looking film. I absolutely love the classic Planet Of The Apes films but that's a whole other blog post. There is far too much material. Does the movie look fantastic? Yes.. But is this film that I would want to play an adventure or two in? Absolutely but an extended campaign might just drive me bananas.


The Further Reaches of Simian Exploration


We've seen many of the classic motifs of explorers from the past traveling into the world of the post apocalyptic future of the classic Ape films. But what about trying something different for your PC's? In this case the PC's come across a post apocalyptic ape world. Could the species of apes from Dawn of the Apes be a completely different world? A strange alternative timeline or perhaps another variation on the PC's home world where things have taken a very dark course? What would the PC's reaction be?
 What happens if they go back to their own home world only to find out that the events of Dawn are occurring just as they get back to their own world? Is time a cycle after all and they've simply traveled along their own time track?
Could a Stars Without Numbers game become a fix up job of such a world. Instead of merely trying to explore strange new worlds. Could the PC's prevent the genocide of two species?  Would they want to? What if saving the humans damages the time line of their own world and they're actually the cause of such an extinction?
Could the PC's come face to face with Simian explorers from another time track who are just as perplexed about the PCs? The mind boggles with gaming possibilities.

Good science fiction films make the audience speculate and while they're not going to replace the 1960's classic Planet Of The Apes. This set of movies is certainly
shaping up to be something entertaining and different. At least they're not leaving the audience swinging from the trees. 
I'll be getting my coat and don't forget to try the fish folks. Be sure to tip your waitress and roll some dice.  

2 comments:

  1. Good thoughts! I'm looking forward to Dawn. It looks like is going to be good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the great comments. Dawn looks like it might be a hit. I think that the film might be have quite an impact on science fiction role playing game campaigns. Rise was quite good as well.
    More to come my friend.

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