It occurred to me that Tintin stories are ripe to be modified into pulpy style Cthulhu scenarios. A cross-over would be hilarious (Captain Haddock ramming his ship into Cthulhu,) but even for more serious play it seem many of the stories have the right hooks to make good mythos tales. Has anybody tried this?
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He he! Yes I tried something like that when I re-used "The Blue Lotus" setting for a pulp adventure set I Shanghai...
Among the Tintin's adventures that can be easily "pulpized" I'd say:
-Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934). A perfect Pulp setting: chasing drug traffickers from the Sea of Arabia to India and, later, China
-The Blue Lotus (1936). Same. I'd say it's the archetypial Pulp ambiance, I'm surprised not to see Dr. Jones somewhere in the background...
-The Broken Ear (1937). Looking deep in the jungles of South America for a strang idol statuette... That, plus the Chaco War as a background, need I say more ?
-The Black Island (1938 ): In Scotland, fighting Nazi spies trying to flood the British economy under forged money. Inspired from a real attempt to do so during WW1...
-King Ottokar's Sceptre (1939): simply replace "Syldavia" by an other central european monarchy, et voilà!
-The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941). Same comment than for Cigars of the Pharaoh and The Blue Lotus. In fact you can merge the three books to build a whole campaign...
-The Shooting Star (1942): A star fallen from the sky. Falls in the arctic sea. Triggers very strange phenomenons. The most Chtulhuesque of all the Tintin's adventures...
-The Secret of the Unicorn (1943) and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944): Classical treasure hunt, at first. but who knows what the Unicorn was REALLY transporting ?? You see: "the cursed gold of the Inca/Maya/Aztecs/others" and all that sort of things...
-The Seven Crystal Balls (1948 ) and Prisoners of the Sun (1949): Lost world classic. In this case the remnant of the Inca civilization. By what unspeakable oath have they remained hidden so long ? Complete with human sacrifices included...
-Land of Black Gold (1950): still playable today. Rewatch "Lawrence of Arabiua", then go for it!
-The Calculus Affair (1956): A mad scientist invented a possible superweapon, and is chased by half the secrets services of the World, and by the Investigatiors... I'm already hearing the Raider March in the background...
-The Red Sea Sharks (1958 ): see "Drug traffickers" above. Add "slavery" to the stuff. And the best submarine/ship chasing scene EVER.
Let's keep in mind that Tintin's first adventures are set in the 30's, one decade more than the "Classic" period. But that should not pose much problem...
Last edited by ZEE; 22nd January 2012 at 08:14 AM.
In Germany a player once did some fake comic covers for a crossover:
http://www.cthulhu.de/artikel/tim-un...nd-der-mythos/ (Tin Tin is called Tim in Germany)
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I was one of those kids who completely missed out on the Tintin phenomenon, but having been introduced to it by my wife, I can certainly see the usefulness of Tintin as an inspiration for Call of Cthulhu scenarios. Inspiration comes from all corners: why not children's fiction?Originally Posted by citybumpkin
And as ZEE notes, it wouldn't be difficult at all to convert these plots into a pulpy 1920/30 adventure. Some of these titles sound brilliant. I'm going to have to hunt down 'The Shooting Star' - I want to know how that ends!
Since you're from Scotland, try also to find out "The Black Island"... But better get the version with the original 1938 drawings, if possible...I'm going to have to hunt down 'The Shooting Star' - I want to know how that ends!
Children's fiction.... grrr... Iconoclasts! Parasite Patagonians! Miserable earth worms! Interplanetary goats with thousand young...! No offence, but Tintin is not merely "children's fiction", those albums are classic adventure literature (yes, comics are literature!) , which is beloved by both adults and children! In continental Europe we take comics very seriously! [/rant]
Thus perfect for Trail.
Other Tintin albums I think could be used for Ctulhuian inspiration:
-Flight 714 (Vol 714 pour Sydney, 1968 ). Just makeSpoiler:
-Tintin in Tibet (Tintin au Tibet, 1960). Well, the setting is Tibet, Tintin has weird dreams, and of course, there's the mysterious Yeti...
Last edited by KMatthias; 22nd January 2012 at 05:33 PM.
I am in complete agreement with you, KMatthias. And welcome to Yog-sothoth.com.
What I meant is that Children's literature often contains very adult subtexts mixed in with a good dose of adventure, making it a perfect medium for inspiring scenarios, and that we need not limit our inspiration to purely adult forms of literature or fiction. Comics transcend such boundaries and are brilliant for inspiration as well!
@ ZEE - I'll check out 'The Black Island' as well. Sounds right up my alley.
As noted by fellow Tintin fan ZEE the comic is not children's fiction. It wasn't even intended as such.(...)Inspiration comes from all corners: why not children's fiction?
And as ZEE notes, it wouldn't be difficult at all to convert these plots into a pulpy 1920/30 adventure. Some of these titles sound brilliant. I'm going to have to hunt down 'The Shooting Star' - I want to know how that ends!
Anyway, I would say every single Tintin book is suitable for adapting into a pulp scenario, though I'm personally not so inclined to specifically add Mythos elements. The Seven Crystal Balls (Les 7 boules de cristal) and Prisoners of the Sun (Le temple du soleil) have a great hidden exotic cult though Hergé did make the mistake of having the Incas put inscriptions inside their tombs when in reality they actually didn't have a written language.
RPGbericht (Dutch)
I second KMatthias for Flight 714 and Tintin in Tibet, especially Tintin in Tibet.
Tell me what you though of it...@ ZEE - I'll check out 'The Black Island' as well. Sounds right up my alley.
Well, I'm 37, you know, and I do think Tintin is children's fiction, but children's fiction that's good enough to please adult people who, like me, still enjoy it. In fact Tintin is the prototype of many more modern heroes, Pulp or not…
I'd say that ALMOST every single Tintin book is suitable for adapting into a pulp scenario.
For example, I really doubt that The Castafiore Emerald may be adapted, but who knows ?
Speaking of the Incas, yes, Hergé made some real mistakes about them (he admitted that point himself), but many Puilp authors have made worse in this respect and that does not change much to the interested into "pulpizing" the story for Call of Cthulhu…
Now, there the still unanswered question about HOW would we adapt Tintin’s adventures into Pulp-Cthulhu adventures…
What would we keep ? Wet would we drop ? What would we change ? and, of course, what Mythos stuff would we add and why ?
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EDIT: These should have come out as little thumbnails of Tintin/lovecraft covers.
In terms of how, I was thinking there are two basic approaches. One is to use the plot hooks or even the skeleton of the story for a "serious" Cthulhu scenario. For the Secret of the Unicorn, you could have one investigator as a model ship enthusiast who purchases the Unicorn. Possession of the Unicorn places him in danger as rival cults seek to take the Unicorn from him, because the Unicorn models were commissioned by famed explored and Occultist Sir Francis Haddock. It is rumored that Haddock hid clues that would lead to an arcane treasure he brought back from an expedition to the South America...a groestque idol given to him by a tribe of island natives shunned by their neighbors.
The other approach is to play the mythos-laced Tintin story as a light-hearted parody (in the style of Blood Brothers 1 & 2.) If you play this way, you can actually have the investigator be Tintin, Captain Haddock, Thompson and Thomson...someone can even play as Snowy (Milou!). These characters can play scenarios based on Tintin stories or the Keeper can write some original Tintin meets Mythos cross-over.
Unlike normal investigators, these characters would be much more durable. Haddock would be near-impervious to sanity loss in his alcoholic haze, while Thompson and Thomson would be so dense they wouldn't even graps what they are witnessing is somehow unnatural ("I say, Thomson, the fellows in this fishing village sure have rough skin...almost scaly...guess that exposure to sea air is no good for your skin...")
You can play Tintin characters in a more purist way where they die and go insane horribly, but I don't think it'll leave too much time to have fun with the characters. It's also hard to imagine an inebriated Captain fainting from being confronted by the mythos instead of shouting abuses at it ("Iconoclasts! Bashi-bazouks! Ectoplasms! Politicians!")
Oops, seems I was quoting the wrong person. It was KMatthias. I wonder if there's any hard proof that Tintin was or wasn't intended as children's fiction... It sure doesn't read as such to me. In fact I've heard my nephew, who was I think 10 at the time, say he didn't quite understand what The Calculus Affair was all about. Also, a lot of the jokes are lost on kids.Well, I'm 37, you know, and I do think Tintin is children's fiction, but children's fiction that's good enough to please adult people who, like me, still enjoy it. In fact Tintin is the prototype of many more modern heroes, Pulp or not…
I think I'm going to have to agree with you about that one, hehehe.I'd say that ALMOST every single Tintin book is suitable for adapting into a pulp scenario.
For example, I really doubt that The Castafiore Emerald may be adapted, but who knows ?
I didn't mean to imply that, I was just stating it for those Keepers who care about historical correctness in their scenarios.Speaking of the Incas, yes, Hergé made some real mistakes about them (he admitted that point himself), but many Pulp authors have made worse in this respect and that does not change much to the interested into "pulpizing" the story for Call of Cthulhu…
RPGbericht (Dutch)
I was interested in this question as well, so here's the result of a little lunchtime research and voila:
Hergé (real name Georges Prosper Remi) was made responsible for producing material for a new children's weekly supplement, entitled Le Petit Vingtième (The Little 20th), for the Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siècle's (The 20th Century) in 1928. The first Tintin story, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, appeared in Le Petit Vingtième on January 10th, 1929.
Excerpted from Philippe Goddin's 2008 book The Art of Hergé, Inventor of Tintin: 1907–1937 (Vol.1)
The tone, topics, and politics of the serials/books do seem to be very adult, however, despite being written for a children's supplement. It's clear from everyone's comments here that Tintin's appeal is universal!
Last edited by StuartB; 25th January 2012 at 11:15 AM. Reason: added reference
Tintin was based on a Belgian journalist, who went around the world, I saw a documentary on it, it was very interesting, Tintin ever used the same motorbike as the journalist!
I can not remember the chaps name, though he was famous in his day.
The static in my mind, leaves me hollow and unkind.
Granted. The Calculus Affair was an espionage story with much untolds (or simply guessed) events, that make the story a bit obscure. But funnily it's one of my favourite...
Absolutely, I 100% understand and agree with you...
Albert Londres ? Hergé much admired him, but Albert Londres was French...
I see your point, and I really prefer the first approach: using the plot’s skeleton and create your own story around it…
I, in fact, have already done it many years ago (somewhere around 1995-1996…) with "The Blue Lotus".
From Memory (‘cause I lost all my notes since then) I started the story in Shanghai in 1935, with the Investigators looking after "the poison which causes madness" (Rajaijah), after one of their chinese friends has been struck by it…
After that, the Investigators discovered, that behind the drug traffickers was a Japanese ultra-nationalistic society (today well known as the "Black Dragon society"), that their Chinese friend was actually a member of the Chinese police services and that the Rajaijah was actually developed by the infamous Japanese "Unit 731" (the secret Japanese Army Lab that was developing chemical and bacteriological weapons) in Manchuria.
It eventually ended up by a commando raid against the Unit 731’s facilities led by the investigators with the help of a Mongol's local warlord and the logistic support from… the Japanese Navy’s Intelligence service!! Simply because the Japanese Navy wanted to thwart the Army’s ambition in Asia in favor of its ones in the Pacific islands…
Looks complex ? Well… the world of Intelligence services, mixed with High-level strategy, is a strange one, where double-crossing is the norm, more than the exception…
All in all, my players told me, even years later, that they REALLY loved the story…
Last edited by ZEE; 25th January 2012 at 08:58 PM.
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