Hans Christian Andersen Story ideas?

[grinch]

Been a while since I was on here but I do plan to when I start up my campaign up again have a historical adventure featuring Hans Christian Andersen. A friend of Charles Dickens and one of the most famous writer of fairy tales out there. To be honest, much like Aesop I’m surprised Doctor Who has yet to do anything with him yet.

Basically I’m just throwing the idea out there as to what adventures/stories could be done with him. Perhaps inspired by some of his stories?

[Catsmate]

Welcome back!

Yes, Andersen has barely been mentioned in Who.

Hmm, when it comes to adapting Andersen the story that's always stuck with me is The Steadfast Tin Soldier.
You could adapt the title and some of the plot for any robotic soldier (maybe a reformed/hacked Cyberman missing a leg?) or use it as a variant of the scenario Death Comes To Toytown in the Gamemaster's Companion.

Alternatively there's The Little Match Girl, a rather depressing story (to me anyway) that could be twisted a bit.
I like Terry Pratchett's version of it (in Hogfather).

SPOILER: Click to show

I THOUGHT IT WAS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY, said Death.
“Ah, well, yes, you see, one of the things that makes folks even more jolly is knowing there’re people who ain’t,” said Albert, in a matter-of-fact voice. “That’s how it goes, master. Master?”
No. Death stood up. THIS IS HOW IT SHOULDN’T GO.
.......
“You know you’re not supposed to do this sort of thing, master. You know what happened last time.”
THE HOGFATHER CAN DO IT, THOUGH.
“But…little match girls dying in the snow is part of what the Hogswatch spirit is all about, master,” said Albert desperately. “I mean, people hear about it and say, ‘We may be poorer than a disabled banana and only have mud and old boots to eat, but at least we’re better off than the poor little match girl,’ master. It makes them feel happy and grateful for what they’ve got, see.”
......
THERE’S NO BETTER PRESENT THAN A FUTURE.

Have the PCs intervene and save someone, preferably with a clever plan that doesn't screw up history. The shooting start could be some alien intervention. As a scenario it's well suited to Christmas, Victorian London and the Paternoster Gang.

Finally there's The Tinderbox which could well be re-themed with an alien replacing the witch and some sort of servitors replacing the dogs; someone gains access to an advanced, alien, artefact and uses it for personal gain. In fact the original inspiration The Spirit in the Candle, even had an iron man as the summoned servitor.
This isn't dissimilar to Aladdin in many respects.



BTW if I can help with ideas for your new campaign just let me know.

[grinch]

Yes, it honestly does surprise me that Big Finish has never done anything with Mr Andersen. Mind you, I’ve always enjoyed his works so this can be an attempt to rectify that.

I’m hoping if the feedback is good and they enjoy the adventure, there is every chance he could become a recurring historical character. This campaign’s equivalent to Winston Churchill in the revived series if you will.

I like the idea of using The Little Match Girl as the basis for an adventure. And thematically it would make perfect sense for this campaign.

I’ve probably said this before but this campaign focuses on an alternative universe post-Time War Monk who now prefers to be known as Mortimus (portrayed by Reece Shearsmith) who, deeply shaken and traumatised by what he saw in the War and how close his own people came to ripping reality itself apart, wanted only a quiet life but quickly found himself caught up in an adventure or two.

Now with a few companions of his own, he travels and attempts to do right (or rather find some purpose) but finds himself extremely conflicted regarding his views on altering history. (Seeing swarms of Reapers devour entire planets will do that to you and also give you recurring nightmares to boot) You may perhaps recall that on another thread I described he and the other PCs attempted to give famous radio comedian Tony Hancock a new lease of life by briefly travelling with him in an attempt to prevent his eventual suicide. Only to skip forward a few years only to find their efforts were in vain. Deepening his resolve that no good comes from altering history.

(As you’ve guessed, he’s a bit more of a serious incarnation compared to his previous selves. Still, that’s alternate timelines for you.)

In any case, I’d imagine it would make for a good festive adventure. Perhaps it could even be set in Denmark and feature an extremely young Andersen (marking the first encounter with him and his with alien life) as Mortimus comes to terms with the possible benefits of giving someone a future. Does he or anyone else have the right? Then simply throw in perhaps an alien artefact gone astray to avoid it becoming too saccharine. (Thinking a healing device or something. Maybe something like an artificial intelligence from a downed spaceship?)

Funny you should say that as The Tinderbox was always a favourite tale of mine. I like the idea of the alien servitors. I’m thinking of possibly a race that has been trapped/imprisoned within some pocket dimension or void that is otherwise completely inaccessible to our reality. (Even the TARDIS would have trouble getting there) Maybe the artefact in question which the soldier has to recover forms a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with him enabling him to temporarily pull forth a few of their servitors/warriors to do his bidding. Naturally, once their task is done they would forcibly be shunted back to their extra dimensional prison.

I’m imagining that the soldier would think the artefact would enable him to control the servitors. When in actuality, it does nothing of the sort merely enabling a few of them to temporarily exist on this plane of reality. The servitors merely follow his commands so as he feels encouraged to use the artefact more. The more the soldier uses the artefact the more it weakens the divide between dimensions until his body breaks down making him the portal through which they can break through into our reality. It’s all just a massive lie on their front and they’re manipulating him. Can even keep them as dog like beings if that works. I’m probably just rambling but I thought of it off the top of my head.

What do you think? There are definitely a lot of his stories you could do something with. (Any other suggestions would be most welcoming and appreciated) Not to mention he once spent a few weeks at the home of a certain Charles Dickens so I’d imagine there’s scope for him to bump into certain characters if they find themselves in Victorian London. Thanks for the ideas and if you do have any more, please don’t hesitate.

Down the line I plan on giving Hans Christian Andersen (and possibly Tony Hancock if I have the time or can find the original one) their own statblock which I naturally will post here in the event others want to run adventures with them.

Most definitely. I’ll be sure to give you a shout if I’m stuck for ideas.

[Catsmate]

Sept 19, 2020 22:51:49 GMT grinch said:

Yes, it honestly does surprise me that Big Finish has never done anything with Mr Andersen. Mind you, I’ve always enjoyed his works so this can be an attempt to rectify that.

I’m hoping if the feedback is good and they enjoy the adventure, there is every chance he could become a recurring historical character. This campaign’s equivalent to Winston Churchill in the revived series if you will.

I like the idea of using The Little Match Girl as the basis for an adventure. And thematically it would make perfect sense for this campaign.

I’ve probably said this before but this campaign focuses on an alternative universe post-Time War Monk who now prefers to be known as Mortimus (portrayed by Reece Shearsmith) who, deeply shaken and traumatised by what he saw in the War and how close his own people came to ripping reality itself apart, wanted only a quiet life but quickly found himself caught up in an adventure or two.

Now with a few companions of his own, he travels and attempts to do right (or rather find some purpose) but finds himself extremely conflicted regarding his views on altering history. (Seeing swarms of Reapers devour entire planets will do that to you and also give you recurring nightmares to boot) You may perhaps recall that on another thread I described he and the other PCs attempted to give famous radio comedian Tony Hancock a new lease of life by briefly travelling with him in an attempt to prevent his eventual suicide. Only to skip forward a few years only to find their efforts were in vain. Deepening his resolve that no good comes from altering history.

(As you’ve guessed, he’s a bit more of a serious incarnation compared to his previous selves. Still, that’s alternate timelines for you.)

In any case, I’d imagine it would make for a good festive adventure. Perhaps it could even be set in Denmark and feature an extremely young Andersen (marking the first encounter with him and his with alien life) as Mortimus comes to terms with the possible benefits of giving someone a future. Does he or anyone else have the right? Then simply throw in perhaps an alien artefact gone astray to avoid it becoming too saccharine. (Thinking a healing device or something. Maybe something like an artificial intelligence from a downed spaceship?)

Funny you should say that as The Tinderbox was always a favourite tale of mine. I like the idea of the alien servitors. I’m thinking of possibly a race that has been trapped/imprisoned within some pocket dimension or void that is otherwise completely inaccessible to our reality. (Even the TARDIS would have trouble getting there) Maybe the artefact in question which the soldier has to recover forms a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with him enabling him to temporarily pull forth a few of their servitors/warriors to do his bidding. Naturally, once their task is done they would forcibly be shunted back to their extra dimensional prison.

I’m imagining that the soldier would think the artefact would enable him to control the servitors. When in actuality, it does nothing of the sort merely enabling a few of them to temporarily exist on this plane of reality. The servitors merely follow his commands so as he feels encouraged to use the artefact more. The more the soldier uses the artefact the more it weakens the divide between dimensions until his body breaks down making him the portal through which they can break through into our reality. It’s all just a massive lie on their front and they’re manipulating him. Can even keep them as dog like beings if that works. I’m probably just rambling but I thought of it off the top of my head.

What do you think? There are definitely a lot of his stories you could do something with. (Any other suggestions would be most welcoming and appreciated) Not to mention he once spent a few weeks at the home of a certain Charles Dickens so I’d imagine there’s scope for him to bump into certain characters if they find themselves in Victorian London. Thanks for the ideas and if you do have any more, please don’t hesitate.

Down the line I plan on giving Hans Christian Andersen (and possibly Tony Hancock if I have the time or can find the original one) their own statblock which I naturally will post here in the event others want to run adventures with them.

Most definitely. I’ll be sure to give you a shout if I’m stuck for ideas.

I like this, it's an excellent basis for a campaign and gives you a lot of freedom to develop your own post-Time War mythos, while still allowing you reuse the basic Whovian mythos.

I've always like the character of the Monk, he had a lot of potential for plots that were something different from the (somewhat repetitive) "take over the world" or "destroy the Earth" loop that the Master seemed suck in.
Reform him, give him some personal trauma, and a few companions for balance and you have a fascinating protagonist.
Certainly he's likely to be more....pragmatic say, than the Doctor in certain regards. With perhaps a few elements of Ms. Quill?

Andersen is an interesting recurring character, somewhat in the Dickensian mould but a different personality; the same social awareness but more religious.
He could well have been been inspired in-universe, by encounters with aliens and oddities to create some of his stories. Given his extensive travelling they could have happened all over Europe.
His relationship with Dickens is interesting, perhaps their falling out after 1857 was down to some shared outré encounter?
I do have an urge to mix Kierkegaard in there too.... And of course Jenny Lind.

• Which can link in P. T. Barnum somehow.
  

My take on The Match Girl is that someone altered events; she survived when she should have died (maybe caught up on the fringe of some other adventure).
Later in her life she's wrong, in the way of Jack Harkness (or Gandalf Gray), sensitive to oddities, able to sense/see/manipulate the eddys in time. The perfect person to get involved in ghost hunting or investigating weirdness. Give her Psychic and Feel The Turn of the Universe, with the potential to develop the Vortex trait eventually.

I have to say my knowledge of weird/Fortean events in Denmark is very limited; I recall a few UFO sighting (especially 1952), the small Gudenaa river monster in 1941, the Haraldskær Woman and the Holmegaard bows. But maybe there's a time rift in Copenhagen?

I like you take on The Tinderbox, rather Cthulhuesque.

The Nightingale could be inspired by Andersen taking a trip in the Monk's TARDIS and finding someone (or a culture) who prefers virtual reality to the real world (like the Twilight Zone episode Dreams for Sale perhaps?) Or maybe there is a mechanical nightingale, made by Jacques de Vaucanson?.

The Red Shoes strikes me as a parable of the dangers of cybernetic enhancement. Very much in the bio-chauvinist tradition of Who.

[grinch]

Been reading a few of Hans Christian Andersen's stories as of late. Here's a few stories of his which could make for interesting stories.

The Little Mermaid: Well, as of Cryptobiosis Mer People are actually a thing in the Doctor Who universe. And of course, there's nothing to say a Sea Devil base could suddenly become active during the mid 18th century. Failing that, a century into the future Zaroff's Fish People are presumably still knocking about.

The Snowman: The PCs have to help a hopeless romantic who has fallen in love with a member of another species whose biology is not just incompatible with its own but is in fact quite fatal.

The Flying Trunk: Be easy enough to just have the titular Flying Trunk be a TARDIS disguised by a Chameleon Circuit. And really generic as well. So, let's do something different. Maybe the Trunk in fact belongs to a member of The Circle who has decided to retire further back than the rest of Percy Closed's lot.

The Fir Tree: A planet full of sentient trees who despite their short lifespan have a very different perception of time.

The Shadow: One of Hans Christian Andersen's darkest stories. A lot you could do with this one. Evil doppelgangers from another universe who seek to replace your PCs, entities conjured up from their darkest thoughts and parts of their mind as the result of some mental interference, etc. Or maybe just a brief character exploration for your PCs with your obligatory moments of introspection.