Documentaries

[Ronin Lore]

Documentaries are my thing, so here is a list of documentaries that I have seen that should be of some use.

Afraid of the Dark
Of all the documentaries I will cover in this posting, this is the most applicable to the classic Ravenloft era. We in our modern age cannot imagine what life was like before electric lights, instant communications, and professional law enforcement and emergency services. To convey this, the program is based around the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale. Using real-life examples, the program shows what basic facts of life were like for our ancestors. The information in this program is contemporary for all eras before the 1900s. It can also apply to post-apocalyptic eras, where basic services have failed.

Day after Disaster
This is the most frightening documentary I have ever seen. The subject is the detonation of an atomic bomb in the continental United States. Unlike most programs on this subject, the primary focus is not B grade actors, acting out simulated events, but the real people who are involved in the planning for, and will response to the actual event. Using the 9/11 events as a guide, the program covers Continuity of Government, Scatanna, and other related programs. This program is applicable for all modern, (Gothic Earth Eternal,) eras.

Special Presentation Zombies
If you have not seen this program, find the toughest person you know, and have them beat some sense into you. Not only does the program cover the cultural history of zombies, but it also includes battle and survival tactics. It starts with the voodoo type zombie, and then jumps to George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” The political elements are discussed, and even groups such as the C.D.C. and Zombie Squad are covered. This program is useful for anyone running a zombie apocalypse type scenario.

Vampire Secrets
This program is pretty much standard fare for the History Channel. It is list of historical facts that starts with revenants, and then progresses through Elizabeth Báthory, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It ends up with Rod Ferrell and Susan Walsh. Through it touches on modern vampires, but it doesn’t spend much time there. I am trying to track down another documentary, done by the Biography Channel that covers modern vampires, (or Vampyres,) more completely. This documentary is good information for a mostly nosferatu type vampire.

Chased by Dinosaurs
I can’t understand why games don’t take more advantage of dinosaurs. They are big, fierce, and public domain. This program is part of the “Walking with Dinosaurs” series. This program is hosted by Nigel Marven, who is a “Steve Irwin” type naturalist. While the other programs in the series are just about the dinosaurs themselves, this one has Nigel superimposed into the film so you have a good idea how big the dinosaurs really are compared to a human. Most of the sequences of this program cover aquatic animals, so you can get a good idea just what Cthulhu has in his aquarium.

Love Lust & the Undead (Renamed; Love Lust & Vampires)
Of all the documentaries I have seen, this is the only one that truly compares/contrasts vampires and zombies. While we as gamers have no problems with combining vampires with zombies, culture itself tends to separate the two. It is either vampires, or zombies that are popular, never both. Another thing that separates this program from all the others is that it credits John William Polidori with the creation of the vampire as we know it today, and not Bram Stoker. The event was the very same writing contest in May 1816 that also gave us Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
(I have an interesting idea for a storyline. It starts out as a standard zombie apocalypse. Then the main characters realize that the zombies are herding the survivors together, and keeping them in pens like livestock. The characters learn that the apocalypse was started by a vampire, who is now in control. So our heroes decide that they have to kill the vampire. They succeed at this only to realize that the survivors are still trapped in the pens, and there is no one controlling the zombies.)