Where do you find your inspiration?

[Llew ap Hywel]

So doesn't need to be campaign specific although in my case this is Mythras related.

Im trying to find inspiration for where my players will be adventuring as well as a few decent plot hooks to sow the setting with but because of my hiatus I seem to have developed GM's block.

I could go with prewritten adventures like the book of quests but really wanted something more home grown.

So like Stevethulu and his Iron Maiden inspired Stormbringer game where do you go for inspiration?

 

[soltakss]

TV Shows, Films, Books, Mythology, History, Legends, Folk Songs, Ballads, all kinds of things really.

Where is your Mythras campaign set? I am sure there would be loads of things that could be used as inspiration.

 

[Necrozius]

I usually crack open anything by Mike Mignola to get inspired by imagery or basic plot.

Also looking at my folder of 1 or 2 page adventures.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

TV Shows, Films, Books, Mythology, History, Legends, Folk Songs, Ballads, all kinds of things really.

Where is your Mythras campaign set? I am sure there would be loads of things that could be used as inspiration.

My original idea was a mix of sandbox and plot points.

Setting wise I started down a very Mesopotamia/Hyperborea idea but now I'm not sure.

It's my own fault I should have started developing the idea when the inspiration was hot, now I'm flip flopping all over the place. And the novels im reading aren't helping.

It's really frustrating to be honest, I don't usually have much trouble sketching the setting out. I'm really reluctant to use a prefab one but...

 

[The Butcher]

Shit, it's all over the place. Movies, TV, videogames, novels, real life stuff.

My upcoming ACKS game started as a deliberate send-up of Dragonlance (which I find horribly corny) and then picked up ideas from Reign of Fire (movie), Jericho (TV series), World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (videogame expansion) and a few unspecified bits of Sword & Sorcery and Weird Tales love that's in the air with the OSR.

When I'm working with Earth as a setting, my chief sources are real life events and trends, which I interweave with the game's fictional material. For example, my upcoming Mage: the Awakening game is inspired by British politics, economy and culture such as the gentrification of old London counterculture haunts; the prevalence of dystopian fiction in British literature and what it says about their history and collective psyche; the portrayal of wizards in pop culture and the overlap with British stereotypes; and so on.

An old WFRP game was inspired by Diablo III of all things. The apocalyptic urgency of everything, the end-of-the-world stuff going on, the horrific antagonists. And yeah, the hammy voice acting.

The recent Godbound game had a bit of that game in its DNA, but it was mostly driven by stuff in the core rulebook with side orders of GoT/ASoIaF and Hammer horror. (I recently saw the Castlevania anime on Netflix and was shocked by the similarities.)

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

I usually crack open anything by Mike Mignola to get inspired by imagery or basic plot.

Also looking at my folder of 1 or 2 page adventures.

Yeah I tried the fantasy art approach but just brings up way too much PF (nuD&D) style tripe.

I'm thinking I might try some specific artists again and try and look over some books and music this afternoon.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

Shit, it's all over the place. Movies, TV, videogames, novels, real life stuff.

My upcoming ACKS game started as a deliberate send-up of Dragonlance (which I find horribly corny) and then picked up ideas from Reign of Fire (movie), Jericho (TV series), World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (videogame expansion) and a few unspecified bits of Sword & Sorcery and Weird Tales love that's in the air with the OSR.

When I'm working with Earth as a setting, my chief sources are real life events and trends, which I interweave with the game's fictional material. For example, my upcoming Mage: the Awakening game is inspired by British politics, economy and culture such as the gentrification of old London counterculture haunts; the prevalence of dystopian fiction in British literature and what it says about their history and collective psyche; the portrayal of wizards in pop culture and the overlap with British stereotypes; and so on.

An old WFRP game was inspired by Diablo III of all things. The apocalyptic urgency of everything, the end-of-the-world stuff going on, the horrific antagonists. And yeah, the hammy voice acting.

The recent Godbound game had a bit of that game in its DNA, but it was mostly driven by stuff in the core rulebook with side orders of GoT/ASoIaF and Hammer horror. (I recently saw the Castlevania anime on Netflix and was shocked by the similarities.)

I'm trying to find a few good films or to in the right vein but it's scarce picking.

 

[Mrfish]

Comic books is perhaps the main source. Sometimes movies can inspire or set the mood, but they rarely give concrete ideas. I find tv series to be better in this way. Problem is to mine these shows without the players realising you´ve blatantly stolen the premise for a campaign from a tv show.

I often find some inspiration from books, but i rarely read fantasy. So the ideas tend to be more about mysteries, plots, and characters and perhaps meta-plots. I rarely get inspiration for setting ideas from books. Music often gives me good ideas for a scene or a specific mood/feeling.

 

[The Butcher]

The fucked-up thing about Mythras is that it's such an amazing toolbox of a game that it can be overwhelming. Here are a few options I've considered:

Mythic Earth. I have Mythic Britain and Mongoose's Vikings of Legend. Looking forward to getting Mythic Britain: Saxons, Mythic Rome and soon Mythic Constantinople. I'm even considering combining Vikings and Constantinople into a Varangian mercenaries game, tentatively titled "Ill-Met in Miklagard."

Glorantha. Get old RQ2/3 Third Age stuff or Mongoose's Second Age material and go apeshit. I'm partial to Second Age so your Orlanthi and your proto-Lunars can team up against the dragon empire Wyrm's Friends and Mage: the Awakening's Silver Ladder God Learners.

Eternal Champion. Mongoose Elric stuff goes great with TDM's Luther Arkwright. Just sayin'

Sword & sorcery mash-up. Monster Island, Mongoose's Xoth series of adventures (The Spider-God's Bride, Song of the Beast-Gods, Citadel Beyond the North Wind) plus assorted fluff from OSR jewel Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and general Weird Tales weirdness. Combine everything in a single setting. I've been working with the idea of PCs hailing from some antediluvian empire like Atlantis or Lemuria, having been sentenced to exile to Monster Island, and either exploring the place or fleeing to the wider (Xoth and Hyperborea-inspired) world.

Conversions, conversions, conversions. I've considered converting to Mythras, among others: World of Warcraft, A Song of Ice and Fire, the Hyborian Age, Empire of the Petal Throne and Totems of the Dead (a Savage Worlds "sword & sorcery Precolumbian America" setting). Each would take work but I see it working every time.

 

[Stevethulhu]

I get ideas from all kinds of weird places. But one thing I find works really well is genre bending.

Like, I've taken ideas from Douglas Adams and used them in Star Wars. Star Trek has given me fuel for Cyberpunk of all things. And more often than not, what the players do drives events forwards as I think how NPCs will react to it.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

You know I have the Xoth adventures so maybe I'll see what I can do with them to start. Probably be easier to introduce the players to the rules without worrying about writing my own stuff.

 

[Simlasa]

I could go with prewritten adventures like the book of quests but really wanted something more home grown.

Sometimes a prewritten adventure can guide me by telling me what I don't want.
Like last night I was reading the first of the Classic Fantasy adventures TDM put out, Terror of Ettinmarsh. Right away I started changing it as I read... no dwarves, no elves... but these 'dragon knights' are an intriguingly vague thing I could build on (nothing to do with actual dragons/dragonmen)... etc.
Not that it is a bad adventure, but I'm just using it as a grain of sand to (hopefully) build a pearl around. I might not keep any thing of the original... or maybe just the maps and floorplans.

 

[opaopajr]

Im trying to find inspiration for where my players will be adventuring as well as a few decent plot hooks to sow the setting with but because of my hiatus I seem to have developed GM's block.

I could go with prewritten adventures like the book of quests but really wanted something more home grown.

Love.

No joke, "Love." Passion. Interest. Curiosity. That's it, because if you don't love it enough you won't get off your ass to embrace it, learn it, use it, and fearlessly share it.

We all walk through a thousand stories, and countless tidbits, in this life through experience and media. And it is only that which matters to us that stands out. Part of that is our better or worse nature attracted to its desires. But regardless (as long as you are not doing therapy at the table) your fixated attention brings that magical breath of life to the table. It impels you to create, and that shines through for others to see.

If it's feeling hard, pare down to that which is loved most. Slices, doodles, melodies, sketches, tastes, daubs of color... put those pieces out there and then step back. With distance look at your disconnected pieces and let your mind dance to connect the dots. It wants to, because it loves.

Then listen to its whispers. o_O;)

 

[K_Peterson]

You know I have the Xoth adventures so maybe I'll see what I can do with them to start.

They are some great material to work from.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

Sometimes a prewritten adventure can guide me by telling me what I don't want.
Like last night I was reading the first of the Classic Fantasy adventures TDM put out, Terror of Ettinmarsh. Right away I started changing it as I read... no dwarves, no elves... but these 'dragon knights' are an intriguingly vague thing I could build on (nothing to do with actual dragons/dragonmen)... etc.
Not that it is a bad adventure, but I'm just using it as a grain of sand to (hopefully) build a pearl around. I might not keep any thing of the original... or maybe just the maps and floorplans.

I think that's where I need to start. A good seed and let it grow from there.

 

[K_Peterson]

I have no issue with using prewritten material and altering it to meet my needs. I do it with CoC adventures routinely - and I have used Xoth Publishing adventures for a campaign I ran 5 years ago. I'm not much of a setting-creator these days. I just don't have the spare time to invest in it, and would rather focus on other aspects of GMing. The prewritten material is pretty much a starting point, or rough framework, for me, though. From there, inspiration comes from other sources - and the behavior of the players in the campaign.

 

[Stevethulhu]

I have no issue with using prewritten material and altering it to meet my needs. I do it with CoC adventures routinely - and I have used Xoth Publishing adventures for a campaign I ran 5 years ago. I'm not much of a setting-creator these days. I just don't have the spare time to invest in it, and would rather focus on other aspects of GMing. The prewritten material is pretty much a starting point, or rough framework, for me, though. From there, inspiration comes from other sources - and the behavior of the players in the campaign.

I'm one for using prewritten material, too. I'll often kick a game off with a prewritten module, because it usually allows for maximum flexibility. Not being written with any specific characters in mind and all. Then from there, I'll either go with my own ideas, or run with whatever the players were wanting to do.

And sometimes it's a combination of both. The ideal being, players work in what they want to do and the GM chucks in what he wanted to do and it all becomes this big old pile of you had to be there.

 

[The Butcher]

I have no issue with using prewritten material and altering it to meet my needs. I do it with CoC adventures routinely - and I have used Xoth Publishing adventures for a campaign I ran 5 years ago. I'm not much of a setting-creator these days. I just don't have the spare time to invest in it, and would rather focus on other aspects of GMing. The prewritten material is pretty much a starting point, or rough framework, for me, though. From there, inspiration comes from other sources - and the behavior of the players in the campaign.

Yeah, as the burdens of adulthood encroach, I too increasingly look to published material for fluff as well as crunch — not that my homebrews were ever terribly original to begin with (I distinctly remember repurposing the Mystara hex maps in the D&D RC Appendix at the age of 14).

 

[Apocryphal]

I get a lot from history books, from old (pre 1930) travelogues to exotic places, and from novels. For S&S Fritz Leiber and Clark Ashton Smith can be goldmines. H Rider Haggard can also be good for Mythras. You could also do worse that stealing from Xena or Hercules TV episodes.

A friend of mine once ran a really good campaign where the setup was quite simple - we were all nomadic tribesmen in the same clan, and during a gathering of clans one of our fellow clam members was provoked into killing someone from another clan. The tribal elders had to decide between the two parties, and declared that each clan had a month to go out into the world to gather wealth for the tribe. Whichever clan brought back the most marvellous and most useful things would have the case decided for them. This was a wonderful set-up for exploring a setting.

 

[Doc Sammy]

Anime, Video Games, Films, Books, TV shows, and even things like World History and events from my childhood have inspired my ideas for characters and campaigns.

 

[Spartan]

Usually from listening to music. I find the Morrowind soundtrack to be especially inspiring.

 

[Silverlion]

Lots of it comes from my strange dreams, wierd nighttime internet hunts (like "Top ten Haunted Highways" and things like that.), and books I'm reading.

 

[Doc Sammy]

Usually from listening to music. I find the Morrowind soundtrack to be especially inspiring.

I also find inspiration from music at times. I've been listening to the soundtracks of Goodfellas and Mafia II, and I sort of want to do a campaign set in the 1950's and 1960's in the near future.

 

[daniel_ream]

My girlfriend is, as they used to say, from the subcontinent, and she's been exposing me to all manner of really interesting Pakistani/Bollywood and Turkish film and television. There's some amazing genre blending in there as their nascent film industry steals anything from Hollywood that isn't nailed down and mixes it with local cultural tropes and history/myth. So instead of Game of Thrones with its trite remixing of the English War of the Roses, you get stuff set during the Moghul Empire or the Turkish equivalent of King Arthur. I watched a B-grade drama the other day that was basically an Indian version of The Count of Monte Cristo, except with ghosts.

 

[Llew ap Hywel]

I want to see Bahubali

 

[Dammit Victor]

For me, gaming begets gaming. Two of my biggest campaign inspirations are Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter.

 

[noman]

Love.

No joke, "Love." Passion. Interest. Curiosity. That's it, because if you don't love it enough you won't get off your ass to embrace it, learn it, use it, and fearlessly share it.

...snip...

Then listen to its whispers. o_O;)

Dude. That was beautiful.

Of course, the same can be said for hatred. ;)

 

[noman]

I try to avoid film, TV, and most forms of popular media for inspiration. For reasons, the most important being my players are already familiar with them. I want my worldbuilding to be viewed with uncertainty. You're less likely to explore and have tension if you're already familiar with the setting.

I rely heavily on music. Any and all music. I sit back, listen, and let my mind form threads of sensory data from that music. Different genres have different effects. Classical lends itself well to environments, scenery, and wide, fantastic vistas. Various types of urban music, from punk to rap, tends to invoke sensations relative to the struggles of city life (any urban game I might be planning). I like to find epic remixes on Youtube. If I find one I like, it often gets me thinking on a fantasy level.

The music inspires imagery, scenes, and even smells in my mind. I take these snippets and then construct plot and setting around them.

That's not to say that I'm strictly homebrew. If I like a published setting, such as Godbound's, I use it. Sometimes repeatedly. But I always make major changes in order to keep my players guessing.

I will sometimes make use of fantasy art. I recently found this place, which you might enjoy.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

All over the place, but my weirdest was a Deadlands adventure involving a Servitor and an Abomination looked in a war with each other. One was a graverobbing necromancer and the other was a fiery human-turned-demon, and the whole thing was ripped off of WWE's Undertaker and Kane storyline.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Video Games and music. Within the actual game itself, too, although I know that's a bit recursive.

I look at Dragon's Lair (for example) and I get excited by the possibilities of a funhouse dungeon like Singe's Castle.

With music, it's not what you might think (the Conan soundtrack, etc.) Go listen to Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs, specifically "Too Stoned Rolling": when I listen to that track I picture a lone adventurer like a Kull or a Conan (or possibly even a group of adventurers) out in a postapocalyptic fantasy wasteland, a Bakshi-inspired metal earth (hi, Aos!) so far in the future that everything tech is fantasy again, trudging across the hostile world, having median or bad luck as they wander from adventure to adventure...

stuff like that really fires the imagination

 

[opaopajr]

Dude. That was beautiful.

Of course, the same can be said for hatred. ;)

I loved Terry Pratchett's bit of wit in one of his Discworld books that the opposite of love is not hate -- for in fact they are on the same side of the coin -- but indifference.

Or as I like to parse even further, you can only hate after you fear what you love is endangered.

A rather useful setting tool to set otherwise like-minded groups at each others' throats most viciously. For none fight so terrible as brothers. o_O

 

[daniel_ream]

I try to avoid film, TV, and most forms of popular media for inspiration. For reasons, the most important being my players are already familiar with them.

I have the opposite problem. I can't get my players to look at representative media for love or money.

 

[Spinachcat]

I like to read between the lines of a game setting, or take a throwaway idea in the text and think about What If?

 

[daniel_ream]

I would be afraid that would lead to massive assumption clash between the players and the GM, though, if you're using a published work. I find it hard enough to keep five players on board with the general themes and tropes of a setting and avoiding lasersharking without pulling back the curtain, as it were.

 

[TristramEvans]

As most people have stated, there's no simple answer to this. Inspiration is found everywhere.

 

[rumble]

A little thread necro cuz I didn't feel the need to create a whole new thread if something close existed...

If I'm really struggling for inspiration (which is rarely), I head to one of two sites:

r/AbandonedPorn

r/AbandonedPorn: High quality images of abandoned things and places.

www.reddit.com

Atlas Obscura - Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations

Definitive guidebook and friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places. Travel tips, articles, strange facts and unique events.

www.atlasobscura.com

 

[Withywarlock]

Similar to what rumble above says, the r/imaginary[x] threads can prove inspiring as people make fan art or upload images that are akin to whatever it is the subreddit is about.

When writing my current MÖRK BORG campaign setting, THE GREAT BORG, I've been getting inspiration from the following:

• Reading accounts of the soldiers who lived (and died) through it
• Leafing through replica manuals which were given out, or reading propaganda posters
• Listening to songs from around the time ("Verdun on ne passe pas" being a personal favourite)
• Looking at pictures of the culture at the time: clothing, tools, buildings, the kinds of jobs there were, et cetera.
• Watching Blackadder Goes Forth. Where were you when you heard Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry?
• Consuming any media that features it, including The Darkness video game, Hellraiser, and of course Sabaton albums.

I appreciate that my setting of choice is somewhat limited in scope (solely the Somme, not the myriad aspects at play in WW1), and thus is easier to narrow down sources of inspiration. Also helping is that I run very short term campaigns, long enough that we've had a good time in them and nobody runs out of steam (me in particular; WW1 can only remain my special interest for so long).

 

[MoonHunter]

Everywhere. You would be surprised what would inspire a fantasy piece... something from a supers comic or a nature program. My most recent inspiration for a plot/ character was an electroswing song.

I tend to break the Youtube Algorithm in my quest for information/ data and the random inputs.

My only inspiration source advice is to increase the volume of information you are intaking.



I have posted this before, but I will continue to do so.

Feed the Beast!
Remember, creativity is a skill you can learn and improve.

You hear it all the time (or read it on a board)....
I suck at making up worlds
I can't create places
I can't come up with an interesting adventure.

My response has been two fold. "How much have you practiced doing it?" and "How much work have you put into doing it?"

JK Rowling says it well
The muse works for you. You don’t write at her beck and call—you train her to show up when you’re writing.

I am a big advocate of practice doing it. Sure you will be less than stellar in the beginning. You are whenever you start a skill. Did you fall when you learned to ride a bike? Did you fail at shading things properly when learning to draw? What were your grades in Math when you were just learning a skill process when compared to after you master it? How many essays have you written and how many of those before you got good at it? Do it once or twice and think it will be great? I have news for you, probably not.

To use the first problem, some people give up after a world or two. Try again and again until you get a dozen or a few dozen under your belt. You think all of mine in the beginning were great? Nope, interesting maybe, but not great settings. Every time you make a setting (character, adventure, location, etc), you learn something new about the process; how to present it, what is important, good formatting, how to paragraph effectively, and how to write it so it makes sense. You know what you want. You just have to learn to express it. Once you have done it good number of times, then we should talk about you can't do it.

It is normal at this point to say something like, "Hey Moonhunter... I am not you. I don't have ideas just dripping off me to fill up all those 101 and submissions."

That is actually my cue to smile and go on to my second point.

I have all these ideas because I work at having them. It is work, of sorts. It is not just magic (though on a rare occasion, it is), it is work. Lots of work. Lots of time doing this "work". It is work feeding the beast that is my muse. You have to feed it material to work with.

Again, going back to the first comment. I feed it stories that have worlds. I read a wide variety of game settings. I feed it articles and time in front of the TV about history, ecology, animals, and other "trivia". Fifteen minutes of a show on volcanism and geysers can help you make your world more detailed and realistic. I carefully watch movies or TV shows and pick up on settings/ world presentation that the writer has done. I might actually read a real book about it or two (Like The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, Connections, or a kid’s book on a historical period (I push kid’s books as they are fast and easy to take in)). When I am in world creation mode, I keep a steady diet of all this media. When I sit down to write, I have a bunch of stuff floating around in my head... out of this primordial idea soup... emerges bits and pieces I can put together that becomes a creative presentation of a setting (or something in a setting).

Writers must read. Artists must look at art. Gamers must consume even more because we combine writing, acting, movie/tv, and background material.

Keep feeding The Beast... keep your creativity stoked and your mind on the subject. When I am running a super hero RPG, I am binge reading every comic I own (that fits the style of the chronicle I am running). So when I am running most of my games, that is every X-men from 96 (first run) on for about 10 years, Teen Titans back in the 80s-90s on for quick bit, Satellite Era JLA, and Avengers from 100 to 200. Once I have my core bingeing done, I might branch out into other things... some Spiderman, some Flash, a little Fantastic Four, and maybe some of the fun indies. If I am not reading comics or watching video media with superheroes for at least three hours a week, preferably five or more hours a week, it is hard to maintain a proper comic style super hero mindset. For games and genres I am not perfectly fluent in, I might make the minimum bar five hours.

When I am in the mindset, the ideas I need - villains, plots, locations, and useful bits - are there ready for it. If they are not, I know I need to relax and take in some more.

Creativity, your muse, is yours to train (and care and feed).... just like JK Rowling said. You train it with practice doing what you want to do. You feed and care for it by giving it bits and pieces to work with. You might struggle with her in the beginning. Eventually, you learn how to work with her… what process works for you and the muse. Soon The Muse comes when whistle for her (or when you bribe her with coffee and scones). It is a skill process that you learn … and learn how to do it better.

 

[Zeroth_Law]

I based my last campaign on "Stairway to Heaven" and assigned all the major baddies roles within the song such as "the Lady" and "the Piper" and so on. That song is great because it's so caked in symbolism that you can really get a lot out of it on repeat listenings.

But other than that I like to rip off Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, often wholecloth. I also steal a lot from books but that's almost so redundant that I regret even writing the sentence.

It also depends on the style of campaign you want to run. Sandboxy or episodic means that Trek, The Outer Limits, and Quantum Leap are your friends. For longer forms, I'd look to your favorite fiction - especially a work with a less than stellar follow up, see if you can make the spiritual successor of your dreams!

 

[E-Rocker]

It was funny, one of my no-longer-active players had a tendency to make asides, saying, "E-Rocker got this from [show x/ movie y/ book z/ etc.]." 99% of the time, he was wrong about where I got things from.