Which of Shakespear's plays could be redone in Traveller?

[Space Cadet]

Which of Shakepear's plays could be redone in a Traveller Setting?

Julius Caesar, maybe Hamlet, or how about MacBeth. You could keep the essence of the stories but redo the particulars. A while back there were some Shakespearean plays that were converted into Dungeon modules. Any ideas?

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Henry the Fifth, without a doubt, would make an excellent mini-campaign for Traveller.

Of course, I'm a bit biased.

Come to think of it, Romeo and Juliet could be done with the players hired to protect the couple from both the Capulets and the Montagues.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Anyone of his comedies if you think about it (as a change from the 'stab and grab' Kings of England series of plays)--mistaken identities, shipwrecks, loves lost & found--

(..oh..sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone in the PG-13ium crowd here--that's love not gratuitous sex, please read here--roleplaying, okay?),

power struggles of wronged nobles set to right (sort of, in the Tempest, Midsummer Night's dream, As You like it, Merchant of Venice, and so on) by loyal Household members (that be the players themselves) and lots of good plot twists.

the star-crossed lovers of two warring households of Romeo and Juliet I saw done as an amber-zone adventure somehwere..

 

[The Shaman]

I've pulled a Rosencrantz-and-Guildenstern on the characters - send them as messengers, with the message reading, "The bearers of this message are assassins sent to kill you." :wicked grin:

 

[The Shaman]

Merchant of Venice might work, at least as a set-up - a speculator receives word that a ship carrying his cargo is lost to pirates, leaving him destitute and beholden to a vengeful moneylender. The adventurers could be asked to locate the missing cargo before the speculator is forced to become a bondman subject to the speculator, or find some other way to rescue the speculator from the moneylender's wrath.

(Oh, and the moneylender has a hawt daughter! )

 

[Malenfant]

The Tempest, duh!

I mean, wasn't the Forbdden Planet movie based on that?? If that's not something that could fit into Traveller I don't know what is.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by The Shaman:
Merchant of Venice might work, at least as a set-up - a speculator receives word that a ship carrying his cargo is lost to pirates, leaving him destitute and beholden to a vengeful moneylender. The adventurers could be asked to locate the missing cargo before the speculator is forced to become a bondman subject to the speculator, or find some other way to rescue the speculator from the moneylender's wrath.

(Oh, and the moneylender has a hawt daughter! )

yes, an excellent drop-in for it! I've substituted the Moneylender for local syndicate crimelord trying to get his "pound of flesh" a time or two.

agreed about the hawt daughter tho

 

[PVernon]

The original question: "Which of Shakepear's plays could be redone in a Traveller Setting?"

I have a better question which of them can not be redone in a Traveller setting?

 

[Liam Devlin]

Originally posted by PVernon:
The original question: "Which of Shakepear's plays could be redone in a Traveller Setting?"

I have a better question which of them can not be redone in a Traveller setting?

At the risk of thread jacking, and curiousity, I'll ask:

Ok, PVernon, which one(s)?

 

[MJD]

The Kiidkar incident is Much Ado About Nothing, more or less....

 

[Ishmael]

All of them can be done ( probably has been done even if not on purpose )

A wider question would be...
what about Mark Twain's stories?
or Herman Melville?....

Actually..there ain't all that many plots out there..just lots of characters and settings

 

[otherles]

Three lines from my current literary project:


DENNIS

Did the Captain say anything else?

GRACE

She said that she felt like she was
reading one of those ancient Hellenic
tragedies, you know, where the
protagonist kills his father and rapes
his mother.

DENNIS

Oh, I would never do that to Mom.

 

[Space Cadet]

Originally posted by Ishmael James:
All of them can be done ( probably has been done even if not on purpose )

A wider question would be...
what about Mark Twain's stories?
or Herman Melville?....

Actually..there ain't all that many plots out there..just lots of characters and settings

Not sure what to substitute for the Great White Whale in outer space. Any living creature that could fly through space would be quite unusual in the OTU. I don't think anyone makes a living hunting "living starships", and such a thing would be more valuable if captured alive rather than dead.

 

[otherles]

Instead of a whale, think a person.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Wrath of Khan and First Contact both referenced Moby Dick. The Bedford Incident is another variation.

 

[otherles]

And today Shatner could actually play the role of a great white whale...

 

[Andrew Boulton]

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

I was thinking about this on the drive home. Not to belabor the obvious, but just about any story could be used as the basis of a Traveller adventure - except that since the basis is a story, the players would likely have to be secondary characters of the story as the main ones have already been scripted and their actions mapped out.

Let's look at Romeo and Juliet as an example. To match the story as a referee, you'd have to run only a handful of players through a very tight series of railroaded encounters. Romeo and Juliet would have to be played more as an actor would than you average role-playing gamer.

Now instead of adapting the story whole cloth, use the situations and encounters dictated by the story for the adventure. The approach would have the player characters placed more in a position of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (to keep the Shakespeare analogy) or Tag and Bink (for the Star Wars analogy) than that of the main characters in the story.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Possibly Jeff--but if one of your players was one of the Noble Households, he/ she could be either of these two characters..

Its easier, true--if the players are sidekicks (Rosencrantz/Guildensterns) within Romeo & Juliet, to insert into an established campaign group.

As we have seen with several motion pictures, you can change *the settings* in Shakespeare, but leave *the story* intact and still be entertained & moved by it.

Mulling over PVernon's question, if done correctly, there isn't a single play of Shakespeare's that comes to mind this could not be done with.

Sorry you herman Melville Fans if we steered back on topic.

Bill Shatner..I'll let that stand on the grounds of humor.

 

[Ishmael]

How can anyone run a megacorp scenario without at least thinking "Bartleby"?

or run a Imp Navy game without at least thinking " White Jacket" ?

there's more to Melville than Moby Dick...(and Ahab is such a great character...too good to not use)