I'd always wanted to use a "Kick Murder Squad" in a game ever since I first saw Blade Runner. I finally used the KMS in an Agents of Oblivion (Savage Worlds) campaign I ran a while back. The players, who were working as a cell for the Oblivion organisation, had become bitter enemies with a NPC nick-named "Burn Face", It eventually led to a showdown when they heard that Burn-Face was leading a KMS unit for Pandora (the enemy of Oblivion) and they were hunting the PCs down. The players researched KMS units and it basically made them start to panic. The players decided they had to face the KMS on their terms and set a trap. When the showdown finally happened it didn't disappoint - I nearly had a TPK on my hands but the players just managed to survive and they still talk about the scene years later.

I just showed one of my players the Blade Runner movie (he'd never seen it before) and he did a double-take when he heard Zhora being described by Bryant 

Needless to say I plagiarise from movies, books, music...in fact, anything and everything is fair game to me...but the KMS was my favourite.

Gruntfuttock wrote:

The day was saved however, by a free exhibition at the gallery that we didn't know about - The Art of Ray Harryhausen, As well as sketches and drawing that Harryhausen had made for his various films, they also displayed three of his original models used in the making of those pictures - Pegasus, the gorgon Medusa, and best of all a skeleton warrior - always my favourite as a kid!

​The exhibition also features painting and sketches by the Victorian artists who inspired Harryhausen in the look of his landscapes and cities. 

​Even better, they had film trailers played onto one of the walls, all the Greek myth films and also the two Sinbad films. So, not only the original models but Caroline Munro as well!

I enjoy all of Harryhausen's fantasy films, but The Golden Voyage of Sinbad looms especially large among my fantasy RPG inspirations, whether BoL or D&D. 

 

For me, real history often provides inspiration. I like to have the feel of a real world moving along in the background in games, while the main focus is the PCs. So if the PCs are roaming around the world's biggest empire, I like to know what political and social trends are happening in the background. Real world events are a good source of ideas here:

Barbarian invasion on the borders?  - Germans crossing the Rhine to ravage Roman Gaul

Aging ruler with unacceptable heir and ambitious bastard son (a succession crisis)? - King Charles II of England (ruler), James, Duke of York (heir) , Duke of Monmouth (King's illegitimate son)

Magician sends demon to kill a succession of noble young ladies clearing the way for his patron's daughter to marry the royal prince - the Jack the Ripper killings

PCs might be hired as scouts or mercenaries/work as spies for one side or another (or both!)/be dragged out of jail to solve the demon murders and face the rope if they fail.
 

Last edited by Gruntfuttock (2/22/2019 2:50 am)

I have been away in other realms for a long time but I stumbled upon this little gem that got my attention.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Adventurer_(1992_TV_series)
It is 90s Saturday morning fodder but it seems to have had some thought behind it and feels well researched in the Conan lore.
It being a kids show there is no bone crunching and blood letting and it has the obligatory comic side kick but it serves as personified Hero Point so I only wince a little.
The inspiration? It actually has a story arc that I hope to use when we get back to Lemuria.
You can find the series and a bunch of other stuff for animation fans (Thundarr anyone?!) on AnimeDub (watchcartoonsonline)
Have fun.