The Games We Play: RPG's Based off of Movies or TV

I have tried my hands at many different games that were originally based as a movie or television show. Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr. Who, Battlestar Galactica, James Bond 007, Serenity, Lord of the Rings, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, Robotech and there are probably others I can't quite remember. The one thing that seemed to span across all of these games was the metaplot. Since I enjoyed watching these shows or movies, I was also more inclined to either have my characters interact, or have my players interact with at least some of the characters from the show or movie.



For example...



A storyline I have always thought would be interesting for a Star Wars campaign would be a small group (or single individual) of bounty hunters who were contracted to help hunt down and bring rouge Jedi to the Empire. The initial start of this game would take place before the events of "A New Hope". After the Death Star was destroyed in the Yavin system, my thought was that the group (or individual) would then be contracted to bring in Luke.



The intention was that no mater how hard the characters tried... and I would provide clues to help them along so the players don't feel like they're cheating... they would eventually come a little late to actually find Luke and the Rebels. (i.e. Getting to Hoth after the Empire had left or arriving at Dagobah after Yoda's passing.)



When the Empire is destroyed, the players would find a new calling in the New Republic, and receive the out-of-character reward of finally meeting Luke and the rest of the gang. A bit of desert for all their hard efforts.



When I first bought the Serenity core book, I remember my wife trying to run a game for me. She couldn't think too far outside of the series, so my character was another member on Serenity. That was short lived, but I enjoyed myself. I especially liked using Chinese food names for profanity like "Kung Pao chicken, it's hot out here."



I know there have been times where I've been a player in these games and we haven't gone towards the meta. That never bothered me, but it was always interesting when my character got to meet someone I could connect to the actual series or movie.



Good times... and more to come.