I’m in total agreement that Cloverfield (and the first Godzilla movie) contextualizes the giant monster as a sort of natural disaster outside of the characters’ control, which I agree is a fantastic and original way to approach introducing the Tarrasque in a campaign. I think you’ve hit on a great way to approach this sort of monster.

It simply occurs to me that kaiju movies that don’t follow this model (indeed, the vast majority of kaiju movies) also might serve as inspiration (this is probably old news or obvious to some, but it hadn’t occurred to me). I didn’t mean to suggest that this great article is missing information, but rather I’m excited by the additional possibilities!

And I was definitely joking about Gamera, although I wouldn’t mind a campaign where the Tarrasque plays the role of valiant defender of the innocent ;p.

Cloverfield is purposefully cleaving to aspects of Godzilla that helped make it a classic. The original Godzilla was not about helping Godzilla or having other monsters fight Godzilla, but was about the cyclical nature of unchecked science and violence. As the Blue Oyster Cult tells us, “history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.” This is less about western kaiju films and more about following in the footsteps of the classic to recontextualize the nature of our fears for the modern day. Nuclear war giving way to terrorism and extremism.

While there are certainly things to learn from every genre and medium, and the core of most of the Super Sentai/Voltron/Pacific Rim stories are about trust, friendship, doubt, and co-operation. These are crucial elements to tabletopping, but I was exploring something specific in this time around. Those films have more in common with super hero stories, in many ways – worth exploring, just off topic for this.

It’s really less about the commonality of appearance – neither looks like the Tarasque of legend anyway, and they do resemble each other more than the classic descriptions of the French beast – but more of their use and purpose. The Tarrasque certainly looks more like Gamera, but Gamera owes an awful lot to Godzilla, so there we are again.

I’m a big fan of kaiju, from Gamera to Kong, and in my eyes Cloverfield represents one of two main perspectives on the genre. Cloverfield, like most western Kaiju entries, understands giant monsters through the lens of the disaster movie. The main characters are usually humans dealing with the fallout of the destructive monster, and trying to stop it. The alternative approach makes the monster the star. Humans are often sidekicks, assisting their monster against the threat.

Just as there’s a lot to learn from the disaster-style kaiju movies, there’s probably lots of inspiration that could be used from this other form of the genre. If the Tarrasque is the threat, maybe the heroes need their own kaiju champion to defend the city? Perhaps take a page from Super Sentai or Pacific Rim and give the players control of a massive golem?

And if you’re looking for a Tarrasque analog, Gamera is maybe the closest in appearance. Is the Tarrasque known as a friend to all children?

I like the idea of powerful magic unleshing a Tarrasque by accident or on purpose. The person responsible could be the BBEG, an innocent NPC spellcaster or even one of the NPCs. Good stuff!

It’s a measure of how much I love it that I will take dramamine just to watch it 🙂