Game Masters, Referees, etc. I want to know where do you go for inspiration in your campaigns?I will be posting mine shortly, I just want to wait a few posts so this thread is actually about the sharing our inspirations instead of only critiquing my bad taste. I very much expect my bad taste to be critiqued, but I want there to be some sort of convo besides that.
>>93169397First two are in the wrong order
>>93169397some historical documents can be quite alright game material
>>93169397Something I've watched that I'm certain most of table hasn't watched
>>93169397My current campaign's main inspirations - my knowledge of XVII-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the most important), "Dziady" books by Adam Mickiewicz, "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky, Warhammer Fantasy, Witcher series, Dragon Age, Naruto.Didn't need more so far
>>93169397Obscure books. Also history yeah. I did the thirty years war and none of my players picked up on it.
Drugs
Time for me to own up to my bad taste. I'm using Fabula Ultima to run a mishmash of English myth and French fanfic about English myth. My players are my little brother and his friends. There's an almost 15 year age gap between us, and the ruleset being used was their choice. if it were up to my autistic ass I'd use The Fantasy Trip.
>>93169397I drive up to the lake, listen to the waves and read my campaign notes.
>>93169397>Harry Potter over ConanSeppuku now
Literally anything from anime, videogames, books and stageplays and/or esoteric hitlerism.I have ripped "Laputa the flying castle" wholesale with artwork and princes young boy adventure subplot. I've mashed Wagners Ring cycle into my campaign together with LotR and Eldenring while also playing opera parts in the background.Nothing is save from my hands and if players actually recognize something I don't mind at all because I love stealing and presenting them to the players in order to see where they take it. It's usually pretty fun.
>>93169537Conan is power fantasy of suicidal manchild. So yeah, I can see why 4chan would love.
>>93169397read history and mythologyand play Dominions 6
>>93169544Children's books don't really make for good games. Narnia shouldn't be there either, but at least it's not Harry Potter.
>>93169573Narnia gets a pass because it was peer-reviewed by Tolkien.
>>93169397>where do you go for inspiration in your campaigns?Well, do you know about the greatest story ever told in the greatest empire ever founded and its sequel in The New World?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGHKdj0s3M
CIA torture manuals and the Satanic bible, so basically what >>93169736 said
>>93169746WELL MET.
>>93169594Didn't he dislike them?
>>93169487Not actually true, but you knew that
>>93169756I don't have the article on hand, but I think his criticism of Narina was only mild.He very much disliked Dune though, for whatever reason.
>>93169823He disliked Dune for the same reason why he would have been livid at the take Christopher took with his posthumous books. The story was too big, too pulled out, and the world itself felt undercooked for his liking.>>93169756He disliked aspects of them. He felt they were very well written from a mechanical sense, and enjoyed the characters and descriptions. But felt they stories were a bit too shallow for their intended audience, and by that point in his life he (rightfully) hated the French and their penchant for just mixing everything together and treating it as all the same and criticized CS Lewis for mixing Greek, French, and Anglo-Saxon myth in his books. He was just not a fan backyard fantasies (or what we would now call isekeai or portal fantasy).
>>9316954590% of my campaign world is stolen from dominions and conquest of elysium kek
>>93169397Eroge.
>>93169397>not wanting historical accuracy
>>93169927Its true though, the reason modern fantasy sucks is because people just regurgitate the regurgitation. It's a snake eating it's own ass. When you go back to actual history and mythology you realize the real world is all you ever need for inspiration.
>>93169942>you realize the real world is all you ever need for inspiration.If you put the real world on the table /tg/ will complain.
>>93169942Hell when you spend time traversing the real world, camping in the mountains, breaking down in the middle of a back road in the woods, following the coast lines, you experience a lot of wonder and amusement to take back with you.Of course I did most of that in the 90s and early 00s, so I can't say how much has changed with cell phones everywhere.
>>93169397What’s wrong with historical docs?
>>93169879>too pulled outThat’s a bit rich coming from the guy that wrote A Conspiracy Unmasked and preceding chapters
>>93170106The only thing that’s changed is that people don’t go outside anymore
>>93170475Do you not remember the 'local lord' faggots infecting this board for, like, four years in the mid to late 2010s?
>>93169421>>93169446>>93169537>>93169573>>93169927>>93170475Those are reaction faces of the player *character*. Real world history is a great and rich source of inspiration, but if you had to live through it, an appropriate reaction would be "oh fuck, oh shit."
I tend to be inspired by just whatever happens to catch my fancy. I've run campaigns based around everything from the Tarot journey, to the movie White Zombie, to the plot of an obscure Junji Ito story. Just take whatever makes an evocative story, and bend it to fit into your world.
>>93169397The game I'm making now has mechanical inspirations based on NES Mario and Legend of Zelda, with a little bit of semi-modern Final Fantasy thrown in and a splash of Resonance of Fate.When I get around to actually doing the campaign, it'll play like a dungeon crawling roguelike with everything generated at random, room by room./tg/ likes to talk about video games so much, that I figured I'd lean more into those for inspiration.
>>93169397Whatever I happen to find intriguing at the time, all mashed together. Currently I'm about to run a game heavily inspired by Dark Sun, Trigun, Xenogears, and Demon's Souls, with some Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask thrown in for good measure.My world map is the Kabbalic Tree of Life mixed with astrology, except it's a map of time periods rather than physical space. The players will enter a 1000 year time loop and attempt to solve the mystery of the world by learning about its genesis and history. Each of the Sephirot is a district time period, where each quest is themed after an astrological body (and its associated mythological being) and the plot or quest line of a different video game. By getting though each historical event, the players will meticulously peel back the layers and discover the true nature of the planet and how it created the future they grew up in.
>>93170708That doesn't make any sense anon, the player characters can't ask questions of the GM nor hear the response. The images are framed as a reaction to possible answers to a clearly out of character question beginning with "hey DM".
>>93169544Oh, look is the Howardschizo! Why do you chase every mention of Howard's work here to unleash your impotent faggot rage?
>>93169397Non-fiction history books are my #1 source of inspiration! Followed closely by horror short stories by authors none of the players have ever read (which is getting easier and easier every year, sadly.)
>>93169537Both are garbage and obviously derivative. And of both the only two redeeming qualities was coming out at the right time for their target audience and being engaging enough. They are at best yard sticks of literature.
>>93169397For my current project it's post-apocalyptic fantasy anime so Vampire Hunter D, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess and Breath of Fire 3. The last campaign I ran was heavily inspired by Bungie's Myth games.
>>93169823I've always seen people say that Tolkien disliked Dune because of its themes around monarchy and religion, is this just a huge meme?
>>93172407My understanding is the crux of his criticism was that it's too scientific, not escapist enough, and there's no happy ending.But I can't source that, I can only source that he "disliked it with some intensity" without further details.
>>93169544Dilate.
>>93169397Well for my setting it was my anger surrounding warhammer 40k.I hated how humanity was portrayed as infallible gods who never did anything wrong.I hated how all other races jobbed to it despite giving little value and openly admitting to being retarded.I hated how religion was always portrayed in a ironic light at best and cynical light at worst.I hated how one dimensional the characters were.So I tried to make a setting that puts all those ideas on it's head. Instead of having humanity look at the more advanced race and laugh at it for it's fuck ups, I made humans the ones that fucked up. Instead of having humans in overpowered suits of plot armor that outnumber and outgun the opposition, I gave them spears, their wits, and make them the ones outgunned and outnumbered. etc etc.You can still play as "humans", but my setting was designed to dab on everything HFY stands for.
>>93169544Howard left a far greater legacy than you will when you off yourself.
>>93169397Battletech and Plato’s Republic
>>93169397I honestly don't know. Probably from building mtg decks, thinking about value engines and going infinite.Then I just self-inserted as an evil wizard and wondered what I'd do to rapidly gain money and power/live forever. So I learned some naughty spells and made a trade deal with the archdevil. Created a sociopolitical system that harvests humanoid souls from small cities. In exchange I (the evil wizard) got knowledge, reinforcements, and material support; my players got a plausible setting to explore.
>>93169879>hated the French and their penchant for just mixing everything together and treating it as all the same and criticized CS Lewis for mixing Greek, French, and Anglo-Saxon myth in his booksIsn't that literally what Tolkien's did too, and I would argue a big aspect of many fantasy worlds? He was inspired by things like Beowulf to the Odyssey to the Kalevala which is like whole centuries and miles apart from each other
>>93170671It persisted way after that.That's a non sequitur though, regurgitating shit from one historical document (if any) isn't the point, keep fucking reading more sources. If you get boring you failed.
>>93169472Please never DM anything. Go become history teacher or something instead of tormenting fellow Poles
>>93176750Don't worry anon, the real world doesn't exist, it can't hurt you.
>>93173395So you just recreated every fantasy series where humans are the underdog/inferiors compared to the wizards/fae/aliens/whatever top dog species is out there.This shit really is just one giant wheel of spite, isn't it?
>>93169397>lotr good>lore based on norse and celtic mythology with a touch of christianity bad>lotr is the latter
>>93169397This is the shittiest meme and format I've ever seen presented on this board. You should be ashamed.
>>93172448Dunc was a bit of a contentious thing in its day since there were basically two people who liked it: The sane, who took it largely at face value for the story it told, and the insane, who believed that actually Paul was evil and the entire thing was a cautionary tale about monarchy and authority.The reason for the contention is that the author was split between both camps, and kept getting mad and writing sequels because people just "didn't get it!" in the last book.
>>93177016Spite-fueled work often leads to dogshit, so probably. It's why Nu-40k is almost entirely lifelessly boring and cringe-inducing. Instead of having a few spite-driven authors or stupid bits of fluff some idiot wrote, it's now solely authored through spite.
>>9316939790% of my campaign's premis is froma dream i had
>>93177466It's not a good-bad meme
Can I get some fantasy book recs? I don't need "le high literature" or even something old necessarily, just something to get the creative juices going.
I usually run campaigns based on whatever feverish dreams I've been having. Or Warhammer Fantasy; it tickles my historical fantasy bones.
>>93169397I've never had a problem with inspiration and have always had a problem with a desire to follow the inspirations through.I don't know what it's like to be you, who have desire to follow through but no inspiration.What is your life like?Can I take half of you?I'll let you have half of me.We'd probably be able to make two functioning humans that way.
>>93184220Honestly >>93169942 is pretty good advice as far as recs go
>>93169397I pull new ideas from my ass and, good or bad, run with it an play it straight.
>>93173395>I hated how humanity was portrayed as infallible gods who never did anything wrong.What fucking 40k lore is Anon reading?
>>93184220There's the famous N Appendix or something on the AD&D DMG, with the stuff that influenced the game.
>>93176677The difference is that Tolkien wrote his stories with a Northern European culture and mythos in mind. Lewis on the other hand mixed up various myths and mythological creatures without thinking how they would fit together coherently and archetypically, hence the “Lucy would be invited to a rape” quote, as fauna and centaurs were relegated in classical mythology to representing the uncontrolled passions
>>93184220Just read some dunsany
>>93169397Mostly ass-pulling, bullshitting and knowing my players' fetishes.
>>93169397For All Mankind.
>Not using Historical documents as a sourcePic related, name a party that wouldn't relish at the chance.
>>93184220I really enjoy the Cleric Quintet, it's a very different look at the Realms than you royally get from Salvatore, although the Crystal Shard trilogy is also quite good. Arena, the OG MTG book is fun and very different than MTG media that came out later. If you don't mind light novels, Bakemonogatari have fantastic english translations.
>>93169397Golden age comics, nearly 80%. The rest is other comics. Novels are cool but the good ones don't work for ttrpgs DESU and I wouldn't want to read any poor ones.
>>93169482Well, unless you're a continental, I imagine three decades of raping Germans over religious differences probably doesn't come up all that often.
I've recently watched every episode of SU by Tamers12345 and I want to host RIFTS for the first time. I hope I'll be in the right head space.
>>93190437It probably won't hurt.
>>93169397>where do you go for inspiration in your campaignswell, I first came up with my setting's history by taking something from what I like/dislike (some may say take your fetish) and build upon it.f.e. I'm an atheist, but I know that gods are very real in d&d. so I came up with an event that caused them to vanish and built upon that - why did they vanish? what happened? are people missing them? what happens with clerics? without gods, clerics are probably really rare or seen as desperate. in my setting, druids have taken the place of healers and people started worshipping ghosts of nature (my next fetish, weeaboo alert: japanese shinto religions).and then you build apon that until you come up with a bbeg that fits into the realities of your world.I find "the great gm"'s master plot sentence to be very helpful with defining the plot of your campaign:(someone) wants (something) by the/a (time frame) and is having difficulty getting it using (action) because (reason they can't get it)what does your villain want? by when does he want it? what is he doing to get it? why can't he get it?there. your overarching plot.
>>93169397Kirby, Madou Monogatari, Mother 3.
>>93177016>So you just recreated every fantasy series where humans are the underdog/inferiors compared to the wizards/fae/aliens/whatever top dog species is out there.I don't know what you're talking about. Yes there are fantasy settings that do that, but it's far from common. You sound like you have an inferiority complex.>>93177586Example?
>>93169397>NarniaWhy would I be happy to play in a campaign where the entire party dies IRL in the end?
>>93193493Much like the movies, the campaign always just dies out before reaching that point.
>>93169573stealing ideas for children's books is great for short adventure inspiration>horton hears a who where the player's a stopping a dumb giant from crushing a faerie settlement or something bigger that they can't just stab to deathi'm spitballing but anything can be used as inspiration as long as you aren't fucking up the tone of the game with it you're good. Also if someone likes Harry Potter and wants to use it for inspiration thats fine. HP had plenty of stuff to steal from a Magical Boarding School that you can put anywhere but the UK and it doesn't have to be a school it could be a prison a hosipital a library a company that sells dimensional beds to only the kindest of souls or maybe the school can move? It flies place to place and has canons because its at literal war with something. It could be another school, regual humans, an evil cloud, or a good cloud. Maybe its a magical school for illegal magic so they have to constantly move and hide and the players are learning necromancy and chronomancy from devils or aliens it doesn't matter what matters is your ability to steal shit and run it off a fucking cliff because in those deep deep waters of your mind you might find a pearl that everyone appreciates and loves for the rest of their life. or whatever
>>93194328>>93169573Gygax literally ran adventures inspired closely by Alice In Wonderland. Narnia was one of the idea roots for D&D. The whole hobby was literally founded on not turning your nose up on children's books".
>>93169544...You literally don't know Conan or Howard.
>>93169421Whole thing's backwards. LOTR and Narnia were deeply influenced by history and classics. Heaven forbid people read about history and be interested in it.
Did Ancient greek mythology, Gigantomachy, Rome, migration period, War in Heaven, Paradise Lost, Book of Revelation, Ragnarök end of the world fantasy mashup trying to fit all that into 5e as my first campaign. While I learned a lot it was not a great, fulfilling game. Turns out having hundreds of NPCs and many of them gods is not good for a game. Now that I know what 5e is about after two years of suffering with it, I would like to change the system. Alas the players are scum, as always.
>>93169397I just shamelessly steal from books my players haven't read, which is handy because most of them don't read anything ever. I'm on the third Earthsea book right now, really looking forward to pilfering stuff from it.
>>93169397>where do you go for inspiration in your campaigns?If you're playing with zoomers, most CRPG settings are a goldmine. European schlock reigns supreme.
>>93169397I'm running a Fallout game and am ripping the FUCK out of Asimov and his Foundation series. TTRPG Players don't read anyway, so books are the safest haven for inspiration.No one can stop me
>>93169397I mean the usual: Books, movies, comics...but a surprisingly good one I've found recently is Saturday morning cartoons in the same genre/setting type you are looking at.Recently ran a post-apocalyptic campaign set in the Umerica setting (Dungeon Crawl Classics based) and my players and I watched Thundarr The Barbarian while running through it. Really did wonders for inspiration on both sides of the GM screen.Plus the episodic nature can help you craft narratives that can be compelling and resolved in a session.
>>93169397>books by walter moers->final fantasy tactics advance>yugoslav war>bronze age collapse>dune>dorohedoro >peter watts novelsSome others that are less general and mire specific to some partsLike Slaine, everquest, dark souls 2, nausicaa, the kushan empire, prestor johns legends…>>93169543Chad, just take whatever you like and be unapologetic about it>>93169545Dominions is a great sourfe of inspo, Its basically trawling mythology made easy
>>93169397I unironically turn to music. My current campaign is heavily based on a song from Alan Wake 2.
>>93206655Based.This song is a huge inspiration for my campaigns background https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UfZ3sveQB40&pp=ygUTaMOkbGxhcyBmYWRpbmcgaGVybw%3D%3DMeanwhile I like listen to Rome to come up with the conflicts between factions
>>93206655I once ran a Star Wars d6 campaign based around the Rancid album Indestructible.
>>93184220black company- shenanigans of a band of mercenaries who are already getting old and jaded, but end up in completely wild shenanigans, warning the last book of this series is yet to releasetemeraire- napoleon-era britain but with talking dragonsbook of the new sun- you're not high iq enough to understand this
>>93184220Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords and the Lost Swords sequel seriesgreat campaign fuel, he originally wrote them to be adapted into a video game but the technology was nowhere near ready for it (early 80s)
>>93202290They'll accuse you of ripping off something else because everything that ripped off Foundation.
