The first influence of this campaign was the classic SF film Forbidden Planet.
Since then I’ve been reading a lot of SF novels from the 1960s – 1990s. We maintain a somewhat retro-futuristic feel in this campaign. Think the bridge and technological look of the first 2 Alien/Aliens films.
One of our players, William, has noted that our campaign reads more like an SF novel than a blockbuster movie. There’s a reason for that. I’ve spent the last 8 years reading old SF novels.
Anyway, here is a list of some influences…
- Downward to the Earth, by Robert Silverberg
- The books of H. Beam Piper’s Terro-Human Future History
- The novels of the Humanx Commonwealth by Alan Dean Foster
- The Dumarest of Terra saga, by E.C. Tubb
- The Solar Queen novels by Andre Norton
- The Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons
- The Stainless Steel Rat novels by Harry Harrison
- The Deathworld novels, by Harry Harrison
- The Alien film franchise
- Trader’s Tales From the Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper
The planet covered by a planet-wide intelligent psionic fungal network was inspired by a documentary I watched called Fantastic Fungi. If I see anything out in the “real world” that might spark a good idea for the game I take note. I am always scanning.