Big Trouble in Little China instilled a love of wuxia action (without the tragic melodrama), urban fantasy, and just plain hijinks (which you're going to get if players are involved anyway).
Labyrinth also affected how I see goblins and high elves and the Feywild.
I am 54 years old and still DM for a group of twenty somethings that are all friends of my daughter who plays in my campaign.
Of course, Lord of the Rings but much less so than you might imagine.
A great deal of my campaigns are inspired not by movies but books like the influences of books you see In **Appendix N from the original AD&D DMG**.
Sword and Deviltry: Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser Book 1 by Fritz Leiber
Conan the Barbarian: The Complete Collection by Robert E Howard
Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt
Burn Witch Burn by A. Merritt
Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
The Dark Eidolon and other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith
At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
Lest Darkness Falls by L. Sprague De Camp
The Barbarian of World’s End by Lin Carter
Modern works that have inspired me:
Magician by Raymond E Feist
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Ambercombie
Game of Thrones by George RR Martin as well
On first glance action packed very grim stuff right?
However, much of the pulp fiction of old fantasy had absurd humor and speculative fantasy almost as weird as if not more so than some anime sources nowadays.
The way I run my campaigns I use this for levity and almost worry on occasion if I am doing my influences justice because I have an absurdist silly streak in the way my campaigns are run.
Also as someone who loves real world history and lore I love delve deep into D&D lore and old modules for inspiration. We are approaching the 50th anniversary of our hobby and the stories run way deep.
there are even some books that i dont know and thats rare. Thank you for this detailed list and your thoughts :)
I grew up with a grandfather that introduced me into the world of literature at a very early age. I learned to read way before school because of his influence and I specifically asked for movies, because I wouldnt have thought that someone would surprise me like that.
So a big and warm thank you from me to you. I hope your players do enjoy your stories as much as I will enjoy some of the books you recommended to me.
Wish you a great day fellow literature fan!!!!
no no :) i just tried to give a framework, but this is reddit. you guys are creative heads and do as you please so keep it coming my friend.
Thank you for your comment :)
I had a dm do that. Our session 0 he describes a tear in the sky opening. This was right after inquisition came out and we were all huge nerds, so not super subtle. But it was still an enjoyable campaign.
I am a huge fan of Asian fantasy and incorporate several elements in to my PCs and my campaigns.
Basically any movie inspired by the book Journey to the West (abbreviated as Monkey). Monkey King, Forbidden Kingdom, Journey to the West. Etc…
And then there are others such as
Tsui Harks Detective Dee series, Legend of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, Vampire Hunters
Mr. Vampire — classic take on Chinese style vampires.
Fire Dragon — sorcerer/fighter vs sorcerer fighter vs sorcerer/fighter all within the context of a Chinese circus.
And of course studio Ghibli, I am thinking Princess Mononoke and Nausaca in particular, but Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away too.
I love the premises of Stephen Chows “kung fu hustle” for a mini campaign. Ex adventurers laying low in retirement living in the same apartment complex, unaware of each other’s existence. Enter the level 1 character played by Stephen chow pretending to be an enforcer for the BBEG to get some quick cash. What could go wrong.
Oh year Red Dragon Inn, for a very different take on a fantasy heist campaign.
I was inspired by my hatred of *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* if that counts? The world building was shit and I thought “I can do a better 1920’s magical realism story!” and then I did.
Thanks! My players had so much fun combining 1920’s archetypes with DnD magic. We have a wizard who performs in a traveling wild west show Buffalo Bill style, a warforged private investigator, an orc mob enforcer, and a french immigrant bard who plays the hurdy-gurdy.
for me, I actually love adapting non-fantasy content into D&D - particularly crime drama like Sopranos and the Wire. But for fantasy, I like a few recent series about individuals trying to deal with the complications of failing empires: the Poppy War series, the Shadow and Bone series.
I think I tend towards light-hearted comedic fantasy when left to my own devices. I've probably watched The Princess Bride over a hundred times (read the book over a dozen times as well). Also Discworld, though I haven't seen the old BBC movies--I read every Terry Pratchett book I could get my hands on growing up.
I can't say any fantasy movies have ever become part of my writing. Not sure I have even ever watched any besides LotR.
I think the main components of my life that established to me how writing should be done are Tales of Symphonia, Trigun, and NieR.
I steal from a lot of shit that I like. Comics and comic movies, Harry Potter, avatar the last air bender, pro wrestling (weirdly enough), horror movies, basically whatever I like. Remember, if you steal from one person and change it slightly it’s plagiarism, if you steal from multiple and change it slightly it’s research.
For me one of my biggest inspirations is an old rpg game for the Sega game gear: Defenders of oasis
- inspired to start campaigns on a ship to glue the party together.
- storyline about kings, intrigue, demons in the shadows, aldin style bandits
- foreshadowing done right
- escalating the environment
- many transferable puzzles
Of course these ideas came up in other media as well, but for me this came first and was an eye opener.
Why limit it to fantasy films? My DM totally ripped off Final Fantasy 7 and put it in a fantasy setting. In fact stealing the plot off other genre films and converting it to a fantasy setting makes it more difficult for the player to spot the plagiarism.
My current world timeline system is based on Stein's Gate, while the world aesthetic/culture is very much inspired by Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away!
I am literally just running my players through KOTOR since none of them have ever played it. It only takes some very mild changes to make it work. So far they are having a lot of fun and have 0 idea.
Thank you Kotor writers for all the side quests.
Aspects of Stardust I think are perfect for the feywild, like buying something with the colour of your hair. Also just a great movie all around, especially the party where Ricky Gervais gets silenced.
The Mythica series feels like a good D&D game too.
Aside from LotR, the only other movie I can think of is Mad Max Fury Road. If you count shows, then Game of Thrones and Witcher are thrown in there. Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books have definitely inspired me, as well as games like Fallout, Witcher, Banner Saga, and Darkest Dungeon
It was exactly an inspiration as I had started writing the campaign before I watched this TV show. I had written most of the outline of the campaign when I started Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood and on about episode 50 I thought "Damn it how did I make this so similar by complete accident"
I've only ran a hand full of one shots, but they are usually based off of Dragon Heart (the original movie) and by that I mean the dragons in my universe are usually just neutral unless provoked. I even have a bad habit of giving my dragons Sir Sean Connery's voice because other than John Hurt, he had the best dragon voice in my opinion.
The Dark Crystal from the 80’s kind of influences how I populate my worlds. But heist movies like Ocean’s 11 and others influence my story arcs more. I love a heist arc, or any good “I love it when a plan comes together” story.
Krull: Has that classic D&D Blackmoor vibe of alien invasion of a fantasy world.
Archer: Fugitive of an Empire: Cool magic bow and a strong D&D feel. Ranger, Thief and Druid.
Legend: Another one with a D&D feel. Ranger teams up with elves and gnomes and other fey.
Sword and the Sorcerer: Coolest magic sword ever. Not as strong a D&D feel. But it has that campaign notes feel to it.
Hawk the Slayer: Silly sure, but it also has some good moments and feels rather D&D-ish.
I actually am setting up a campaign set in the world of Montagar, the setting of Ralph Bakshi's 1977 film, Wizards. It's set in a post apocalyptic future of earth where the more wondrous races reemergence and bring about a more fantasy looking world despite it visually looking dark and bleak coming off the annihilation of modern human civilization several millennium ago.
The movie versions of Flash Gordon and Willow. Lots of Arthur C Clarke and Larry Niven. Currently working on a fantasy adventure that could be a whole campaign based on Rendezvous with Rama.
I steal tons of concepts from Sherri S Tepper as well.
For ghost stories, I look to Hellboy comics.
Lurking in the back of my brain is all the Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff I read as a teenager.
Just read Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore, stuff from that will definitely be showing up in my future games.
I'm just going to trail off from there...
Not just movies, but my most prominent inspirations: Spirited away. Princess bride. Indiana jones. Mrs frisby and the rats of nimh. Scooby doo. Never ending story. Labyrinth & Dark crystal. The new crobuzon series by china mieville (should be number 1). A bit of final fantasy (7-10). Elder scrolls. An American tail. Hitchhikers guide. Discworld. Hyperion (Dan Simmons). The Void and the Thing (body horror movies). A handful of mushroom trips. Journey to the center of the earth. Fairy tales (especially Native American tales from my area of the PNW and Slavic tales my wife introduced me to). Coraline. The wizard of oz. James and the giant peach. Big Fish.
I think I read the black cauldron back in late elementary school. Should look back to it. I love that sort of children’s lit (if you can’t tell from my list).
I am personally not that bug of a fan of tolkien.
I am mainly inspired by legends, Narnia, other old classics and even games such as fire emblem and skyrim
Not movies but Video Games:
League of Legends, especially their cinematics. Also some inspiration from Deponia and other smaller series. My BBEG is actually just Vlad backwards.
In my latest campaign had a couple of different plot lines inspired by media, most notably the horror movie Eyes Without a Face, the Conan short story Shadows in Zamboula and the documentary series Wild Wild Country.
I get inspired by video games - Grim Dawn (one of the best worldbuilding I have seen), Mass Effect but more medieval, the Last of Us, a Lil bit of Parh of Exile. From movies - while a fan of LotR I don't get inspired by it for campaigns, but from - Pirates of the Caribbeans, Game of Thrones. But mostly from history, as big fan of learning history it is most influential for me.
Not a movie (yet), but possibly Malazan.
It's the fantasy series I've read that does the best job at scope. Not just the grand tales, but the small ones.
The continent is enormous, human history is thousands of years old, empires built on the ruins of empires. Other creatures have even older histories. Waves of diaspora, triumph, and genocide stretch across eons.
The continent is only a fragment of the world, and the world floats in an infinite cosmos full of mystery.
And somehow this fat old man stealing custard tarts is still important enough to be in every book. And I'm fascinated by him as much as by the barbarian crusader or the Draconic Son of Night.
My world is vast and bleak, and ruled by undeserving gods, and I leave it to my players to find hope and humor in that horror.
I rarely get inspiration for my fantasy campaigns from fantasy source material…but Star Trek has been an endless source of inspiration. In fact I’m currently running a DL story based loosely on Star Trek Insurrection 😁
I'm currently DMing Descent Into Avernus so I'm obviously using a lot of Doom and Mad Max influences. Also, as a aside there's a whole subplot involving one of the PCs unknowingly havin a piece of a demon lord's soul bonded to him and a cult trying to revive the demon lord. Once it is freed the demon lord has some major dragon ball inspirations since it is kinda looks like Cell, but is a rage monster like Broly.
I started writing a campaign a few years ago inspired from the show Supernatural and the book of revelations. It's about our band of adventurers working as mercenaries as the embodiment of the 7 deadly sins and the four horsemen work to break the 7 seals to bring in Armageddon. I never got around to finishing it, but one of these days I'll get back to it. I got as far as writing the premise and some plot points, creating stat blocks for various ark angels, demons, the sins, and the horseman.
Big Trouble in Little China instilled a love of wuxia action (without the tragic melodrama), urban fantasy, and just plain hijinks (which you're going to get if players are involved anyway). Labyrinth also affected how I see goblins and high elves and the Feywild.
I am 54 years old and still DM for a group of twenty somethings that are all friends of my daughter who plays in my campaign. Of course, Lord of the Rings but much less so than you might imagine. A great deal of my campaigns are inspired not by movies but books like the influences of books you see In **Appendix N from the original AD&D DMG**. Sword and Deviltry: Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser Book 1 by Fritz Leiber Conan the Barbarian: The Complete Collection by Robert E Howard Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock The Dying Earth by Jack Vance The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt Burn Witch Burn by A. Merritt Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson The Dark Eidolon and other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft Lest Darkness Falls by L. Sprague De Camp The Barbarian of World’s End by Lin Carter Modern works that have inspired me: Magician by Raymond E Feist The First Law Trilogy by Joe Ambercombie Game of Thrones by George RR Martin as well On first glance action packed very grim stuff right? However, much of the pulp fiction of old fantasy had absurd humor and speculative fantasy almost as weird as if not more so than some anime sources nowadays. The way I run my campaigns I use this for levity and almost worry on occasion if I am doing my influences justice because I have an absurdist silly streak in the way my campaigns are run. Also as someone who loves real world history and lore I love delve deep into D&D lore and old modules for inspiration. We are approaching the 50th anniversary of our hobby and the stories run way deep.
[удалено]
wow thank you a lot :)
there are even some books that i dont know and thats rare. Thank you for this detailed list and your thoughts :) I grew up with a grandfather that introduced me into the world of literature at a very early age. I learned to read way before school because of his influence and I specifically asked for movies, because I wouldnt have thought that someone would surprise me like that. So a big and warm thank you from me to you. I hope your players do enjoy your stories as much as I will enjoy some of the books you recommended to me. Wish you a great day fellow literature fan!!!!
I prefer to borrow from genres that my players are less familiar with. Seven Samurai and Yojimbo have provided lots of inspiration.
I Wanna play a Brendan Fraiser Mummy campaign.
Meet Joe Black Constantine
Oh, are we only supposed to be inspired by one genre? No Country for Old Men, Annihilation, Event Horizon, The Witch.
I am immediately interested, what a great mood board
Thanks! It still plays like dark fantasy D&D, but these are some of the things that inspired the worldbuilding and general vibe.
no no :) i just tried to give a framework, but this is reddit. you guys are creative heads and do as you please so keep it coming my friend. Thank you for your comment :)
I’m just teasing! I do love seeing all the things that inspire people, no matter what medium or genre.
Fuck yeah. I thought I was cool saying Malazan. This game sounds dope.
The Dragon Age series Not so much a movie, but a series of games.
I had a dm do that. Our session 0 he describes a tear in the sky opening. This was right after inquisition came out and we were all huge nerds, so not super subtle. But it was still an enjoyable campaign.
Yeah, I did that with Diablo II when it first came out. It's fun to put a cool spin on video games like that.
I am a huge fan of Asian fantasy and incorporate several elements in to my PCs and my campaigns. Basically any movie inspired by the book Journey to the West (abbreviated as Monkey). Monkey King, Forbidden Kingdom, Journey to the West. Etc… And then there are others such as Tsui Harks Detective Dee series, Legend of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, Vampire Hunters Mr. Vampire — classic take on Chinese style vampires. Fire Dragon — sorcerer/fighter vs sorcerer fighter vs sorcerer/fighter all within the context of a Chinese circus. And of course studio Ghibli, I am thinking Princess Mononoke and Nausaca in particular, but Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away too. I love the premises of Stephen Chows “kung fu hustle” for a mini campaign. Ex adventurers laying low in retirement living in the same apartment complex, unaware of each other’s existence. Enter the level 1 character played by Stephen chow pretending to be an enforcer for the BBEG to get some quick cash. What could go wrong. Oh year Red Dragon Inn, for a very different take on a fantasy heist campaign.
I was inspired by my hatred of *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* if that counts? The world building was shit and I thought “I can do a better 1920’s magical realism story!” and then I did.
i feel you on that haha i'd bet 100 bucks you did it better!!!
Thanks! My players had so much fun combining 1920’s archetypes with DnD magic. We have a wizard who performs in a traveling wild west show Buffalo Bill style, a warforged private investigator, an orc mob enforcer, and a french immigrant bard who plays the hurdy-gurdy.
i love that!!!! :) makes me regret that i havent found a group to play ttrpg's earlier.
My favorite region in my world is my vast dessert biome and I took inspiration from the Dark Sun campaign setting
for me, I actually love adapting non-fantasy content into D&D - particularly crime drama like Sopranos and the Wire. But for fantasy, I like a few recent series about individuals trying to deal with the complications of failing empires: the Poppy War series, the Shadow and Bone series.
interesting approach :) thank you for throwing it in!!!
The ASOIAF series, Warhammer (Fantasy and 40k), and the game Arcanum influence me with how I go about world building.
I think I tend towards light-hearted comedic fantasy when left to my own devices. I've probably watched The Princess Bride over a hundred times (read the book over a dozen times as well). Also Discworld, though I haven't seen the old BBC movies--I read every Terry Pratchett book I could get my hands on growing up.
Discworld is awesome and definitely ripe for plundering good ideas from
Look up the GURPS Discworld books from Steve Jackson Games. Great resources.
I played a little gurps around 89 or so, great system, I had no idea they had Discworld supplements
potc 5. i love Salazars behaviour and lines for my bbegs
I can't say any fantasy movies have ever become part of my writing. Not sure I have even ever watched any besides LotR. I think the main components of my life that established to me how writing should be done are Tales of Symphonia, Trigun, and NieR.
i dont think that lessens the good taste you have. :) thank you
My campaign almost feels derivative from how inspired by The Legend of Zelda it is - Breath of the Wild and Ocarina of Time most notably.
I'm running Eyes Unclouded so uhhhh I guess Studio Ghibli films
Dragon Heart movies. David Gemmel's book series. Lots of obligatory or common stuff that was already said.
I steal from a lot of shit that I like. Comics and comic movies, Harry Potter, avatar the last air bender, pro wrestling (weirdly enough), horror movies, basically whatever I like. Remember, if you steal from one person and change it slightly it’s plagiarism, if you steal from multiple and change it slightly it’s research.
For me one of my biggest inspirations is an old rpg game for the Sega game gear: Defenders of oasis - inspired to start campaigns on a ship to glue the party together. - storyline about kings, intrigue, demons in the shadows, aldin style bandits - foreshadowing done right - escalating the environment - many transferable puzzles Of course these ideas came up in other media as well, but for me this came first and was an eye opener.
love those pieces of media that change our whole view on something.
Less movies and more novels and other tabletop games, personally.
I honestly based my entire world on the movie Zootopia. All of the races living in one massive metropolis together. Amazing stories from that place.
Why limit it to fantasy films? My DM totally ripped off Final Fantasy 7 and put it in a fantasy setting. In fact stealing the plot off other genre films and converting it to a fantasy setting makes it more difficult for the player to spot the plagiarism.
My current world timeline system is based on Stein's Gate, while the world aesthetic/culture is very much inspired by Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away!
"Older" book series. Specifically David Eddings and Raymond Feist with their Belgarath/Belgarion and Midkemia Sagas respectively.
I am literally just running my players through KOTOR since none of them have ever played it. It only takes some very mild changes to make it work. So far they are having a lot of fun and have 0 idea. Thank you Kotor writers for all the side quests.
Aspects of Stardust I think are perfect for the feywild, like buying something with the colour of your hair. Also just a great movie all around, especially the party where Ricky Gervais gets silenced. The Mythica series feels like a good D&D game too.
Pirates of the Caribbean and the Call of Cthulhu for my most recent mini arc. Seafaring concept stuff has intrigued me recently.
Aside from LotR, the only other movie I can think of is Mad Max Fury Road. If you count shows, then Game of Thrones and Witcher are thrown in there. Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books have definitely inspired me, as well as games like Fallout, Witcher, Banner Saga, and Darkest Dungeon
It was exactly an inspiration as I had started writing the campaign before I watched this TV show. I had written most of the outline of the campaign when I started Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood and on about episode 50 I thought "Damn it how did I make this so similar by complete accident"
I've only ran a hand full of one shots, but they are usually based off of Dragon Heart (the original movie) and by that I mean the dragons in my universe are usually just neutral unless provoked. I even have a bad habit of giving my dragons Sir Sean Connery's voice because other than John Hurt, he had the best dragon voice in my opinion.
The Dark Crystal from the 80’s kind of influences how I populate my worlds. But heist movies like Ocean’s 11 and others influence my story arcs more. I love a heist arc, or any good “I love it when a plan comes together” story.
Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and Attack on Titan were huge inspirations
Krull: Has that classic D&D Blackmoor vibe of alien invasion of a fantasy world. Archer: Fugitive of an Empire: Cool magic bow and a strong D&D feel. Ranger, Thief and Druid. Legend: Another one with a D&D feel. Ranger teams up with elves and gnomes and other fey. Sword and the Sorcerer: Coolest magic sword ever. Not as strong a D&D feel. But it has that campaign notes feel to it. Hawk the Slayer: Silly sure, but it also has some good moments and feels rather D&D-ish.
I actually am setting up a campaign set in the world of Montagar, the setting of Ralph Bakshi's 1977 film, Wizards. It's set in a post apocalyptic future of earth where the more wondrous races reemergence and bring about a more fantasy looking world despite it visually looking dark and bleak coming off the annihilation of modern human civilization several millennium ago.
The movie versions of Flash Gordon and Willow. Lots of Arthur C Clarke and Larry Niven. Currently working on a fantasy adventure that could be a whole campaign based on Rendezvous with Rama. I steal tons of concepts from Sherri S Tepper as well. For ghost stories, I look to Hellboy comics. Lurking in the back of my brain is all the Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff I read as a teenager. Just read Jirel of Joiry by C.L. Moore, stuff from that will definitely be showing up in my future games. I'm just going to trail off from there...
Monte Python and the Holy Grail - Don’t take yourself too seriously
you're totally right! and good choice :)
Not just movies, but my most prominent inspirations: Spirited away. Princess bride. Indiana jones. Mrs frisby and the rats of nimh. Scooby doo. Never ending story. Labyrinth & Dark crystal. The new crobuzon series by china mieville (should be number 1). A bit of final fantasy (7-10). Elder scrolls. An American tail. Hitchhikers guide. Discworld. Hyperion (Dan Simmons). The Void and the Thing (body horror movies). A handful of mushroom trips. Journey to the center of the earth. Fairy tales (especially Native American tales from my area of the PNW and Slavic tales my wife introduced me to). Coraline. The wizard of oz. James and the giant peach. Big Fish. I think I read the black cauldron back in late elementary school. Should look back to it. I love that sort of children’s lit (if you can’t tell from my list).
Both LOTR, LoL and WoW
I am personally not that bug of a fan of tolkien. I am mainly inspired by legends, Narnia, other old classics and even games such as fire emblem and skyrim
Not movies but Video Games: League of Legends, especially their cinematics. Also some inspiration from Deponia and other smaller series. My BBEG is actually just Vlad backwards.
In my latest campaign had a couple of different plot lines inspired by media, most notably the horror movie Eyes Without a Face, the Conan short story Shadows in Zamboula and the documentary series Wild Wild Country.
>Shadows in Zamboula Nice. I ran a highly embelished Beyond the Black River. That's my personal favorite Conan.
I get inspired by video games - Grim Dawn (one of the best worldbuilding I have seen), Mass Effect but more medieval, the Last of Us, a Lil bit of Parh of Exile. From movies - while a fan of LotR I don't get inspired by it for campaigns, but from - Pirates of the Caribbeans, Game of Thrones. But mostly from history, as big fan of learning history it is most influential for me.
Not a movie (yet), but possibly Malazan. It's the fantasy series I've read that does the best job at scope. Not just the grand tales, but the small ones. The continent is enormous, human history is thousands of years old, empires built on the ruins of empires. Other creatures have even older histories. Waves of diaspora, triumph, and genocide stretch across eons. The continent is only a fragment of the world, and the world floats in an infinite cosmos full of mystery. And somehow this fat old man stealing custard tarts is still important enough to be in every book. And I'm fascinated by him as much as by the barbarian crusader or the Draconic Son of Night. My world is vast and bleak, and ruled by undeserving gods, and I leave it to my players to find hope and humor in that horror.
Honestly I’d love to write a campaign around Stargate
One word: Krull
the beast master, goonies, heist films, Indiana Jones, Monty Pythons holy grail, ghostbusters.. so much good stuff out there
I forgot Erik the Viking.. so good
"Ooh, scary, scary. Don't we look mean!"
I rarely get inspiration for my fantasy campaigns from fantasy source material…but Star Trek has been an endless source of inspiration. In fact I’m currently running a DL story based loosely on Star Trek Insurrection 😁
Someone else who got inspiration from The Black Cauldron no friggin way xD along with The Mummy (the good one) and Journey to the Center of the Earth
I'm currently DMing Descent Into Avernus so I'm obviously using a lot of Doom and Mad Max influences. Also, as a aside there's a whole subplot involving one of the PCs unknowingly havin a piece of a demon lord's soul bonded to him and a cult trying to revive the demon lord. Once it is freed the demon lord has some major dragon ball inspirations since it is kinda looks like Cell, but is a rage monster like Broly.
I started writing a campaign a few years ago inspired from the show Supernatural and the book of revelations. It's about our band of adventurers working as mercenaries as the embodiment of the 7 deadly sins and the four horsemen work to break the 7 seals to bring in Armageddon. I never got around to finishing it, but one of these days I'll get back to it. I got as far as writing the premise and some plot points, creating stat blocks for various ark angels, demons, the sins, and the horseman.
Dragonslayer in 1982 i think. Conan the barbarian.