""The Naked Prey" (1966), gameable?" Topic

All,
I'm sitting here watching The Naked Prey with Cornel Wilde. Briefly, he is running for his life being chased by a group of Zulu-ish warriors. A great, tense film. Has anyone ever tried to do this as a game?
Nick

yes
It had n over-complicated rule for tracking.
The prey had different length pieces of yarn trailing him and depending on your die roll, you'd follow a specific piece of yarn till you got close enough to toss a spear.
it also had wild animals to deal with.
ymmv,
R

Mel Gibson tried it in 2006 in "Apocalypto." A very similar plot line.

I once played in a French & Indian War game of "This Very Ground" in 28mm. I had a small detachment of Rogers' Rangers escorting a group of noncombatants through the forest trying to reach the safety of a distant fort. Had to try and evade several warbands of Native American Iroquois warriors in pursuit.

We almost made it to the fort.

I suppose the cobra bite was the quickest. I definitely would not want to be the human pottery! Still, a great movie. I feel like something from Two Hour Wargames would work, as it would have to be a solo game.

That cooking scene has always haunted my dreams and stopped me from EVER watching the film again. It horrified me when I was a teen.

I saw a write up in one of the glossy mags a few years ago about gaming it.
It was with 54mm figures, with the old classic 1:1 Western rules (Mike Blake?) whose name escapes me.

The manhood of the prey was extremely impressive.

Love that movie. It was very much on my mind when I put together my Darkest Africa collection. I included the Arab slavers and the Hudson and Allen desert fort in my Darkest Africa Gallery because the H &A fort reminded me of the fort at the opening and end of the Naked Prey.

Thought it could be gamed on an ever moving table. When he reaches the end of the table, place him back at the beginning and place new terrain. Random events could help him hide (e.g. cross river; trackers lose trail for 1 turn); hinder the trackers movement, attacks by animals (both him and trackers); find weapons (spear, revolver, etc.); huts.

Saw that movie when I was maybe 10 or 11 and it FREAKED. ME. OUT.

'Human Hunt' movies in general though… great scenario-fodder.
'Hounds of Zaroff' (aka 'The Most Dangerous Game'), 'The Run of the Arrow', 'Apocalypto', 'Centurion', 'Welcome to Blood City', etc.

In the late '90's there was a mini-revival of the genre with movies like 'Hard Target' and 'Surviving the Game'.
The emphasis had changed from simply escaping the hunters and became more about kicking their butts.

Schogun, like the ever moving table idea.
The Fort reminded me of the old Airfix Foreign Legion Fort.

I would run this with players as the chasers and me (the GM) running the runner, with hidden movement. Rules for tracking (slows you down but tells you the right way to go ) and spotting, whoever gets him has to get him home to win…

BURN YOU DEVILS,BURN!!!

Sure, use the Long Rifle rules. There's the Chase and Canoe Chase rules that would work well.

My dad enjoyed watching movies like "Khartoum", "Zulu", and "The Naked Prey" on television when I was a child back in the 1960s. So I got to see "The Naked Prey" when I was very young. I don't think that either my father or the rest of our family realized what we were about to see. (Still, Dad didn't turn it off!)

The beginning of the movie was very disturbing, where the hunters and their porters were murdered one by one. It was like a nightmare for me as a kid, and it's still nightmarish.

When Cornell Wilde briefly turned the tables on his pursuers by creating a brush fire, he cried, "Burn! Burn, you devils!" I thought his character was showing considerable restraint at that point.

It's a favorite of mine. Imagine a movie that is all about a guy running away from other guys…and it's good.

I recorded The Naked Prey and (Heston's) The Naked Jungle a few weeks ago. I'm waiting for the right time to play them back to back!

Dan
PS. In 1972 Cornel Wilde made one of my favorite, creepiest films of my childhood:
link
YouTube link

I enjoyed the movie and watch it whenever shown on the cable channels.
You might be able to use part of Adventures in Jimland for gaming this. Some of the rules aspects that may be useful: a terrain set up table (instead of dividing your table into quarters divide your table into more sectors for terrain), movement rules, and a skill types and levels charts (fighting and saves skills), weapon ranges,and animals. Rules here:
PDF link

Cacique Caribe:

Gargoyles!!! How could I forget?

Jeff

Yeah, like Winston said. Need like Gutshot or Western rules for individual, detailed combat. or even some RPG style blow for blow turns.

Naked Jungle, the only Heston Film I can't watch (besides the Awakening, it made me ill it was so bad) Theants scared the HELL out of me when I was a kid.

Every time I see an ant hill, I think of the army ant scene. :(

I just came across this old thread but…We (Skirmish Wargames Group) did a 54mm Old West version, Run of the Arrow, based on the real John Colter story He was naked). Even took it across the Pond one year to Historicon.

Rules were quite simple and based on another chase game in WI which I have forgotton the name of.

When we first played it at Armageddon/Colours and the Colter figure made a final leap to safety the watchers actually cheered!