Five Terribe Cultclassic Eghties Sword, Sorcery, & Science Fantasy Films That We Love

If your into Sword & Sorcery flicks there's a certain how shall we say this level that the gets crossed right after 1985's Red Sonja film.



In the desperate quest to find films that the players haven't heard of there was a line that used to get crossed by old school dungeon masters who came into the video store I worked in back in the 90's in Boston. Those poor desperate souls who went searching to the far shores of Europe & Italy for there sword & sorcery fare. The Italians God bless their hearts made some of the most cheese ball films in the Sixties, Seventies, & Eighties. They did it with gusto but beware these are relics of a lost age that should not be sought out by the weak of heart. There's always been that cross point between science fantasy & post apocalyptic films.
There are flicks that should be classified as weapons of mass destruction of celluloid. First up is Yor: The Hunter From The Future which is based on a decent comic book property from Argentina back in 74 by by writer Eugenio Zappietro and artist Juan Zanotto. 

The original Seventy Four graphic novel series shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as the 83 film. Sorry but even though Yor has a cult following, its still a wholly separate entity from the '74 comic series. Still the film is by itself in a class all of its own but personally seek out the graphic novels which are far more worth your time.

This next one is has been on the fringes a long time, I'm talking about Hundra  a 1983 Italian-Spanish fantasy film directed by Matt Cimber and starring Laurene Landon. This is one of those Amazon pictures with an incredibly weird history. It's a rollicking good sword & sorcery flick with Amazons front and center. Its got a Ennio Morricone soundtrack worth the price of admission.   

On the flip side of this equation is the post apocalyptic films of , Enzo G. Castellari. Especially his1982 film, 1990: The Bronx Warriors is an Italian film with all of the makings of an old school campaign. Its sort of like Escape From New York on an Italian budget. But its an old favorite of mine & the number of times its been in the VHS player is shameful in my house. Enzo Castellari has been churning out post apocalyptic & grind house exploitation films longer then I've been on Earth. His stuff was always on tap for a more adult Gamma World first & second edition campaign.

The 1990 The Bronx Warriors was followed up with 'Escape From The Bronx'; "A rag-tag group of people must fight extermination squads amid their ruined city.". That's pretty much the entire plot of the film but its really bad/good Eighties fun from '83. These films were recently released by Blue Underground again & number of cult classic video companies a few years ago.In fact there's a great website with a ton of stuff for the fans of these films. 
These might not be great films but they sure were fun. 

Recently I got into an old Eighties title called Wizards of the Lost Kingdom which comes from Eighty five and while it has a horrid IMDB rating was one of those films that seemed be on an endless loop on Cinemax way back when.
"Simon, son of the wizard, must flee when the empire is overthrown by the evil Shurka. Schooled in the arts of magic, he must find the Ring of Magic and the Sword of Power and defeated the wizard who killed his father. He is joined in his quest by  the swordmaster Kor, his faithful creature Gulfax, and the Forest Wizard Hurla."

This might be that lower tier of films that I would use for a Crimson Dragon Slayer 1.1 game campaign. The tongue is firmly planted in cheek with this film. The acting is horrendous, the plot terrible, the special effects are not that special but the whole product would make an excellent campaign.
Each of  these films marks a period in both old school gaming & film making that made people groan but gave us hours of amusement as well as entertainment.

Five Cultclassic Movies As Inspiration A DCC Crawling Under A Broken Moon/ Crimson Dragon Slayer Rpg Mash up Campaign

I'm possibly looking into a mixed game of Crimson Dragon Slayer and Crawling Under A Broken Moon DCC game coming up. To this end I've been looking into some classic grade 'Z' films. Full disclosure I used to work in a video rental store back in the 90's. Not one of those new shiny Blockbuster places but a low rent place in a back alley in Boston at the edge of Chinatown. First up is an old favorite and really this one makes a pitch perfect addition to a DCC post apocalyptic game set against the demons and old school weirdness of both of these games.
Terrorvision from 1986 has all of the elements of the early Eighties, you've got cable television, heavy metal heads, dysfunctional families, firearms, and alien lifeforms.

Next up is Cyborg with Jean-Claude Van Damme, imagine if, 'The Kickboxer" ,"Mad Max" and the first  Highlander movie got together and had a baby in the post apocalyptic wasteland? Cyborg might just be the result. Many of the locations, weird elements, cheesy special effects, and other bits could be recycled into your favorite bits of a post apocalyptic mission for a party of adventurers.

So what happens if in the wasteland not only are your adventurers the only ones coming across weird stuff but there are other time travelers and dimensional wanderers? Zone Troopers 1985 might just be the result of such an encounter between WWII Allied and Nazi forces as well as your own adventurers!

Hands of Steel from 1986 has everything you might want in a near future quasi post apocalyptic Tex Mex cyborg Eighties awesomeness including John Saxon. This film has great potential as adventure fodder including Eighties tech, lots of action and the potential for cybernetic horror in the wastelands of your favorite games!Its a movie  about a cyborg who is programmed to kill a scientist who holds the fate of mankind in his hands. Starring Daniel Greene, directed by Sergio Martino. That's mostly the entire film in one take, the locations, the action and the entire package can easily be slipped right into the backdoor of Crimson Dragon Slayer; it just has that vibe to it.

The final offering in this cultclassic list is 'The Vindicator', I couldn't find a trailer for it but basically a cybernetic warrior is created by a government think tank in 1986 after one of the scientists gets caught in an industrial accident. Think about some warlord in a city state with such a program simply using the resources he has on hand and one of his cybernetic troopers running amok and you've got a perfect set up for the style of game that we're talking about here.

Vindicator might offer PC's a look into the dangerous and highly dubious world of warlord's laboratories on Thule in the worlds of Crimson Dragon Slayer. Or the wastelands of your favorite post apocalyptic settings such as 'Merica.



Essential Material For Putting Together
A Crimson Dragon Slayer & Crawling Under A Broken Moon DCC game
Campaign

The one issue that is going to come in really handy for this sort of a campaign is going to be the Crimson Dragon Slayer Rule book and Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine issue #7 contains the Cyborg PC class and there's enough meat on the bones of this issue to put together a kick ass adventure from there. Your also going to need the DCC rule book for the funky rules and rolls that come with this sort of a campaign. Lots of outside the box situations always seen to arise in post apocalyptic campaigns and the more elements you add in the more weirdness can happen. But then again that is part of the idea with this sort of a wasteland campaign. Don't be afraid to go gonzo and in point of fact part of the fun is to embrace that aesthetic and own it during your gaming. Zombies are another often seen parts of these adventure campaigns but seldom talked about. Odd mixes of PC types are going to happen and given the set up your going to see very,very,weird mixes of parties of adventurers.


The real issue here is to use the juxtaposition of the world of the Eighties and the post apocalyptic goodness of these two games. Much of the Eighties nostalgia strangeness that these two games pull from fits the movie fodder quite well. But there's lots of potential for a dungeon master to veer off into their own direction by taking their ques from these movies. More to come as it develops.