Creating a mini-supplement: some questions

[James Holloway]

Not about the mini-sup process, which I think I understand. But I'm working on something right now and I was looking for some suggestions.

The working title is Dead Souls. It's a setting/variant for Sorcerer in which the demons are the spirits of the dead - usually people the sorcerer has some kind of emotional connection with, but not always.

What I'm looking for are films, novels, or whatever which address the individual's relationship with the dead. Not necessarily "ghosts": in this setting ghosts serve to embody "the dead" or "the past." Whether the person is a dead loved one, an ancestor, a dead role model, or even a dead stranger, I'm looking for media which addresses the way people think and feel about their dead.

Does that make sense? I have a pretty strong idea of the issues which motivate Dead Souls, but I can't really think of material which express them - I guess I'm just drawing a blank here.

[David Howard]

Edgar Allan Poe: poems "The Raven", "Annabel Lee"; tales "Ligeia", "the Black Cat"

Toni Morrison, Beloved (the book, not the movie)

Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (the Olivier movie version is also good): Rebecca is the demon here.

Henry James, "The Altar of the Dead"

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff and Cathy

Just off the top of my head.

Dave

[Mike Holmes]

Six Feet Under.

This HBO show has me in awe, and should be perfect. Though its hard to say for sure, because I'm not sure how people are supposed to get powers from the dead in your game.

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

The movie "The Sixth Sense"

The novel "Isle of the Dead" by Roger Zelazny

I'll muse over some more classical references and see what seems most relevant, too.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

BTW, I'm assuming it's not a satire. Despite the name being the same as the nineteenth century novel by Gogol. The title might imply a connection.

Now that would make a great comedy game, beaurocracy and provincialism in late Czarist Russia. :-)

Mike

[Clinton R. Nixon]

This movie is funnier than the rest of the suggestions, but I highly suggest watching "The Frighteners" (directed by Peter Jackson.) Excellent stuff for a Sorcerer variant.

I would also obviously suggest "The Crow." Gothy and overused by now, but it's still good, and there's a definite sorcerer in this one: the young girl.

[Clay]

I'll muse over some more classical references and see what seems most relevant, too.

The single ost obvious work that comes to mind is the Orestia, the series of three plays that starts off with Agamemnon. It's a good action thriller where the last 10 to 15 years of transgressions against blood and marriage come to a head.  The dead work through the living to take their revenge upon the world.

Hamlet is another prime example.  It's the ghost of a dead father than throws Denmark into turmoil. Save for this relationship with the dead, we'd just have an angsty prince who was quiety deposed.

[James Holloway]

Yes, Hamlet and the Oresteia were both on my mind... in fact, you can interpret Hamlet pretty well in Dead Souls terms. I used it as an example for a player who had never played Sorcerer.

The name is taken from the Gogol novel, though they're not about the same thing. The only connection is that when I was reading Gogol's novel, I started to think that the "Dead Souls" of the title were not the serfs that Chichikov was buying, but rather Chichikov and everyone around him. The same thing may apply in the game - the dead souls in question may not be the demons.

These are all great suggestions, guys. Thanks. And if you have any more, keep 'em coming! Remember, it doesn't have to be ghosts, just the dead or the past.

- James

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I would also obviously suggest "The Crow." Gothy and overused by now, but it's still good, and there's a definite sorcerer in this one: the young girl.

Ding ding ding...synchronicity alert. The Crow soundtrack also has a cover of the Joy Division song "Dead Souls."

See also:
Memento
Twin Peaks
Dead Again
Vertigo
and the graphic novel Sin City (the one with Marv & Goldie)

[Ace]

I would also obviously suggest "The Crow." Gothy and overused by now, but it's still good, and there's a definite sorcerer in this one: the young girl.

Ding ding ding...synchronicity alert. The Crow soundtrack also has a cover of the Joy Division song "Dead Souls."

See also:
Memento
Twin Peaks
Dead Again
Vertigo
and the graphic novel Sin City (the one with Marv & Goldie)

I second on Twin Peaks.
Especially good is  Fire Walk with Me, the prequal (or is it sequal time is a little wierd in that film)

Dead Again is really good too.

For a good scare not entirely related and maybe a look at the dark side of that sort of thing see "The Serpent and the Rainbow"

Also Black Cherry Blues by James Burke is a ghost ridden detective story that I can highly recomend

One final recomendation for the truely twisted soundtrack "Voodoo" by Godsmack,  "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles and the very apt "Sorcerer" by Stevie Nicks can't be beat.