A Son to the House of Frankenstein

[Kevin Scrivner]

I just finished watching the 1931 version of "Frankenstein" with Boris Karloff. The Monster isn't the powerhouse of popular perception. He's stronger than the scientists and villiagers he encounters; they usually lose a one-on-one confrontation. But he's not so strong that Frankenstein and two companions (an elderly medical instructor and a hunchbacked assistant) aren't able to overpower him and tie him up, more than once. Now, I realize that by the second movie, "Bride of Frankenstein," the Monster is tearing out of chains and knocking down heavy wooden doors. But even then a group of irate villagers is able to overpower him and drag him off to jail (that's how he got in chains in the first place).

 

Same with the Wolf Man. He's dangerous but not so powerful that he can't be threatened with hunting dogs or beaten to death with a cane by his own father. It's only later that he becomes indestructible.

 

Maybe it's escalation, like in the James Bond movies. In "Dr. No," Bond is a skilled but normal human being capable of making mistakes and being tricked. He's even threatened by a tarantula let loose in his room. Several decades later, Bond in "Goldeneye" is leaping off cliffs and tearing through downtown Moscow buildings in a stolen tank.

 

Thoughts?

[Captain Obvious]

They spent their XP well?

 

Seriously, I think when a new thing comes along, it's new enough to get by without a lot of embellishment. As more and more movies are made with the same characters, it takes more to keep audiences coming back.

 

Plus, with those monster movies, they always seemed to escape the inevitable death at the end at the end of the last movie. They HAD to be tough to do that....

[Kevin Scrivner]

I just thought it was interesting.

 

In the original movie with Karloff in the role, I'd give the Monster a STR 25, INT 10-15, DEX 12, PD 10. Dangerous to the 50-point normals he was up against but not overwhelmingly invincible.

 

Toward the end of the saga with Glen Strange in the role, the Monster has 35-40 STR, INT 8, DEX 15, Damage Reduction, and some degree of Life Support.

 

So he got stronger, tougher, slightly less awkward, and much dumber. I guess that last part is from all the brain transplants they tried on him.

[The Monster]

My character in one of our campaigns is *the* Frankenstien monster, though based mostly on the book, not the movie - though it's set at about the same time the movie came out, so it's a plot hook begging to be set. Actually, the campaign is in the Adventure! system, but I got so peeved with that system that I redesigned all the PCs into Hero and run my own "Adventure Hero" sessions at my local con.

 

In the book (also check out "the Annotated Frankenstein"), the monster is really very bright, as well as extremely strong (though I think not quite chain-breaking strong) and agile, also able to withstand extreme temperatures with little problem. I ended up giving him fairly high stats - STR 30, INT 18, plus some Life Support and Resistant Defense. He's probably the most powerful guy in the group, but has very few useful skills and, of course, some major disads in Distinctive Features, Reputation and Psychlims (though he's calmed down a bit from both the book and the movie).