Since Godzilla (Quicktime trailer) is being re-released in the United States in the original version, I figure it’s a good time to mashup that very movie. The scoop on all things Godzilla is long and intricate; feel free to draw from any element of the mythos.
Monsters coming from beneath the waves to destroy civilization? Sounds like Call of Cthulhu to me.
DATELINE: TOKYO
The monster Godzilla has returned. Last week, seismologists at the University of Tokyo detected anomalous seismic events emanating from a location 500 miles from Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Two Japanese destroyers were sent to investigate; they were lost with all hands. Yesterday, satellite photographs revealed Godzilla, making his way towards Tokyo yet again.
The seismic events have since been analyzed and found to match similar events occurring at the time of the last Godzilla assault. There are some slight differences, centering around Antarctica, but these are not thought to be significant. The President of Japan has guaranteed that his next budget will fund an ongoing watch for such events, in order to provide more warning should Godzilla return once more.
Meanwhile, a local cult predicts that Godzilla’s return signals, quote, that the stars are right.
You do this one as any of the good-guy Godzilla vs. a monster movies, except that the monster is Cthulhu and Godzilla (along with the rest of the world) is doomed. Godzilla may buy enough time for the PCs to disrupt the rituals that woke Cthulhu. For a nasty modern spin, Aum Shinryu is the Cthulhu cult; that’d be a decent Delta Green scenario, even.
16 Comments
Hee. Fun. Or what if you just cast Cthulhu in the Godzilla role? I’m picturing that old Saturday morning kids cartoon with the Mad Sea Captain Alhazred, who has the red button on his belt to summon Great Cthulhu from beneath the waves. And don’t the big C’s lovable little nephew Cthookie.
I’m also entirely enamored of Ken Hite’s Alternate Pearl Harbor involving Godzilla and King Kong as proxies for Japan and the US in WWII. The natural extrapolation would be a Cold War with giant monsters in the place of nuclear weapons.
That’d make an awesome Cartoon Action Hour game! You should run it. Or I should.
Hm.
That should say “and don’t forget the big C’s lovable little nephew”.
aaiiieee! Cthookie was a running joke with my crowd in Columbus back in the 90s! More proof of my universal geekmind theory.
I’d have to run Godzilla as a WoD game. You all play monsters. You’re so unloved! You don’t WANT to smash up those little model armies, but you must struggle with your inner nature, which wants nothing more than to polka on downtown Tokyo. And they just don’t understand you! You try to show the love, you beat back your fellow monster gone berserk, and they just lead you into high-tension lines and shoot Electron Ray Guns at you. I say, give the Big G a trenchcoat and a katana or two and you’re in bid-ness!
More proof of my universal geekmind theory.
No, it’s just what HPL said about sensitives receiving sendings in their dreams from Cthulhu’s dark sleep.
Our equivalent running joke was “Richard Simmons’ ‘Sweating To The Old Ones’.”
(Bryant, I’d play (or run) – though I’m not convinced the joke has the legs for 3 sessions.)
The natural extrapolation would be a Cold War with giant monsters in the place of nuclear weapons.
I believe Charlie Stross’ “Atrocity Archives” stories mix Cthulhu and the Cold War. One of the stories in Toast has Ollie North and the Iran-Contra scandal, mixed with Hastur.
See Bruce Sterling’s story “The Unthinkable”, a cold-war story set in a history where we dropped the Azathoth Bomb over Hiroshima.
I’d have to run Godzilla as a WoD game…
I actually thought of doing this as a LARP. Monsters destory cities to make political points…
Oh, and my contribution this week is a quickie, Godzilla + 7th Sea:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/xiombarg/449417.html
This week, Bryant gives us Godzilla as his half of the mashup….
This week, Bryant gives us Godzilla as his half of the mashup….
For some reason I double-trackbacked, but it doesn’t seem to be showing up. I’m just checking to see whether commenting will solve that.
Oh, yeah, I gotta tweak again. New server, new installation. Sorry about that!
My effort this week is weak on execution, but that’s only because Bryant took the good idea.
In Monday Mashup #27, Bryant asks us to mash Godzilla. History shows again and again How nature points up the folly of men -Blue Oyster Cult, “Godzilla” For this game, the PCs would take the roles of elven nobles from…
“The President of Japan”
Actually, Japan doesn’t have a president. Sorry to nitpick, Bryant. Still, cool mash.
It’s a fair cop. 🙂