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Coplantor
2008-12-20, 02:08 PM
So, I am a mediocre DM, I ussually try to invent everything that happens on my campagn based only on my personal thoughts, then again, some books actually recomends you to steal ideas once in a while. Anyway, now I have to start a new campaign and curiously, I found my inspiration on a queen song, so I decided that everything that will happen on that campaign will be somehow related to a song. Right now I'll base the campaign on "Princes of the universe", "Ogre batlle" and "original sin" by Tylor Dane from "the shadow" movie (It just screams EPIC!).

So I was wondering, from where do you ussually get your inspiraion for character concepts, villians and campaigns?

Checkmate
2008-12-20, 02:15 PM
I get most of my inspiration for villains from classical Greek/Roman Mythology.

UserClone
2008-12-20, 02:34 PM
This (http://www.penguinking.com/premise.php). So, so very this (http://www.penguinking.com/premise.php).:smallamused:

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 02:45 PM
that webpage of yours

Premise: Glory-hound transvestites play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the ruins of post-apocalyptic New York.
Genre: Horror

Hahaha, this is sooooo awesome

Vortling
2008-12-20, 02:47 PM
I like to take ideas from movies, books, and mythology. Then I tweak them a little to create a setup that's vaguely unique. It's worked well for me so far. I keep the music stuff as inspiration for characters.

UserClone
2008-12-20, 02:58 PM
Hahaha, this is sooooo awesome

Holy crap, that was ridiculously awesome, lol

I think that that generator is perfect for Risus (http://cumberland.swampside.org/risus-1p53.zip) or Wushu (http://www.story-games.at/wushu/open_reloaded.pdf).

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 03:09 PM
check this little jewels:

Amnesiac ducks evolve beyond human limitations as the stars align and the Great Old Ones make their triumphant return

Criminal angels take the law into their own hands in modern-day Italy.

Childlike barons get in touch with their feminine side in a virtual world.

Convervative barons search for free booze while the world descends into bloody barbarism.

Necrophiliac psychics struggle against the beast within in modern-day Italy

By the way, what are those two links? I dont have much time to read them right now.

UserClone
2008-12-20, 04:16 PM
They are both rules-light, fast-action systems more or less built for pick-up games. While Risus is more the Beer-and-pretzels comedy game, Wushu is more the cinematic action game, and takes itself a bit more seriously. Both are cool.

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 04:25 PM
Good, I'll try em up next weekend

Totally Guy
2008-12-20, 04:25 PM
For my last campaign the plot was inspired by Lost and the 4E MMORPG criticism.

I combined the Lost "hatch" plot with all the numbers and the timer countdown to doom under the city.

Then to get down I made a dungeon that played out like an MMORPG. There were many adventurers and respawning monsters. Monster farming would have been a ligitamate tactic which would have made a dull campaign but that was a gamble I made. And it paid off, the players really enjoyed all the elaborate baddie plans.

The Mormegil
2008-12-20, 04:42 PM
I take my plots by videogames, change the basic plan into something reactive and look at how my players destroy the whole setting and ruin any and every thing, while creating a story completely different from the original one. And skipping the main plot.

For example, I started a campaign based off of Suikoden V, with the whole Sun Rune thing, and the queen and the Godwins and such. And got away until the Godwins attacked the palace. Then it got all... weird. I had the PCs plotting with the Barows, and then allying with Armes to get rid of the Godwins, while the Dawn Rune was still lost so they killed the bearer of the Twilight Rune, turned against the Barows and Armes mid-war, then allied with the enemy to undermine them from within and we had hilarious situations of every kind. Then the war ended and the Runes were almost forgotten since the war was so fun...

Kerouac
2008-12-20, 05:54 PM
Dragonlance.

Look, I like a lot of fantasy books and settings, but Krynn is tops. When I think of adventure and RPG I think about knights on dragonback clashing above armies far below and small bands of friends (sometimes even adversaries) who don't choose to be heroes but are reluctantly forced into being heroes because it's what NEEDS to be done. They're flawed, they're afraid, and sometimes they fall... but that's what makes them who they are and larger than life.

WaterTengu
2008-12-20, 05:59 PM
anything and everything, modern events, historical things, books i have read, games i have played, mysteries that occur today, OOTS, anything and everything. I have about ten or so campaigns done, and TONS of started ones.

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 06:02 PM
Can you guys give eamples?

WaterTengu
2008-12-20, 06:05 PM
Can you guys give eamples?

of our campaigns?

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 06:17 PM
yeah, like "mmm, i read X or seen Y and then in my campaign/character done Z"

KingGolem
2008-12-20, 08:26 PM
I have thought of a few campaign settings that I would like to run someday. They're almost always based on something that I read on the internet or in a D&D book or saw on tv,in a video game, or in a picture. It's all about linking together obscure sources. For example, look at this link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5380173&postcount=46). It is my post in that "settings in a page" thread, showing brief detail about a campaign setting I thought of for my army in Picture Wars. It lists some things that I drew on for inspiration. I needed some way of justifying how EMI (my PW army, for you non-link-clickers) was hopping around to random dimensions killing random other people. I came up with them using inter-dimensional magitech portals to gather resources from other worlds. I for one think that it would make a pretty cool setting.

Here are a couple of other ideas for campaign settings I've thought of:

An alternate history setting that takes place in the 12th century where the ancient empire of China expanded across the Pacific ocean and colonized the west coast of North America. Also, one of the empires in northern Africa (probably Mali) didn't die out, and are also a huge world power by this time as well. Add in some monsters from mythology and the stage is set. My primary inspirations for this was that Europe and the far east were the primary centers of lasting civilization, so I thought of how to mix it up. I also thought that since China has been so overpopulated for so long, they would have been a little bit more expansionist. Another inspiration was the game Monster Hunter, which is sorta like prehistoric China with dragon hunting. The ancient Chinese technology fits well with the feel of that game.

A post-apocalyptic Earth setting where the United States as we know it has fallen completely after a nuclear war with China and the collapse of the economy. China conquered several states on the west coast, and the federal government became completely unable to enforce its authority. In the ensuing anarchy, some corporate titans who saw this coming begin raising militia forces and repairing local infrastructures, essentially forming territories from which they rule over the now impoverished populace. Since the corporate titans can provide the people with food and protection, they become the absolute authority over the people in their territory. In other places of America, especially Chicago, powerful gang lords rule over the people with fear and violence. On the west coast the Chinese have set up a communist puppet government, and everything is pretty police-state looking. However, in the Chinese ruled territories, gangsters have become liberators of the people by fighting against the military occupying the cities. The south and southeast regions have a sort of dark-age thing going on, where they form tight-knit communities and farm for sustainence. Now for a twist: instead of everybody being wretched and depressed, there has been a revival of moral fiber and conservation, the likes of which have not been seen in centuries. My inspirations for this are my thoughts on how everybody says the corporate titans own everything. Whether they do or not is not up for debate, but my thought was what it would be like if they actually did, openly and un-ambiguously. Then there's also the thought of what would happen if the economy collapsed, which is a common thought these days, though highly exaggerated in this case. Then I thought of reading something in D20 future, where they talk about the age of giant robots (although there would be none in this setting) where soldiers use melee weapons again "in situations where modern weapons would not be necessarily advantageous." I thought that was ridiculous, so instead I thought of the "high moral fiber" thing. For example, when soldiers of the corporate titans' armies would face off, it would be like ritual combat, where they draw swords, bow, and charge towards each other.

A setting where a single nation of a fantasy world has ascended to a stereotypical utopian society fueled by technology and magic. This is my latest idea, so I will go through the inspirations as I detail it. I had been wanting to make a utopian society for a while, as it would be quite a change of pace from my usual pessimistic outlook. Furthermore, I had been thinking of how I could re-fluff psionics to use as magic in a setting. The two collided together when I read this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrystalSpiresAndTogas) article on TV Tropes. Psionics revolves heavily around crystals, and apparently so do extremely utopian societies. Another great idea arose when I happened to recall what somebody wrote about campaign settings in a Wotc thread, saying that what they hated the most about campaign settings is when they're ripped off from somewhere, and he proclaimed that in campaign settings, he always sought something well out of the ordinary. I was watching that show Chowder at the time (I don't care what they say about its target demographic, it's an awesome show) and while looking at the psychadelic colors of Marzipan City, I mentally noted, "There is something different indeed." While thinking of "something different," my thoughts jumped to the subject of psionics re-fluffing and a passage which I read from the book Sorcery and Steam (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=498&it=1&affiliate_id=35526) which said that the steampunk technology in the book didn't even need to be powered by steam, and could run on stuff like bound demons or divine will or something. All of these elements intermingled in my mind and the result was that the psionic disciplines could be re-cast as different colors, and the psionic energies could fuel some magitech that runs the utopian society. Machines could be animated with the different psionic colors to achieve different effects for different colors, like red energy making machines more powerful and blue energy making them run longer, etc. Also, using a modded astral construct spell, piles of scrap could be animated into clockwork servants, with their stats being affected by the color of magic that animated them. All the machines and constructs (as well as the crystal spire towers) would be tinted the color of the magic animating them, thus painting the cityscape into a dizzying array of colors. Now, a utopian society is no place for adventure if there is no strife, so I thought of a force of evil for the protagonists to rail against. Since I got the game Lock's Quest just a few days ago, that was a major inspiration, as was that picture of that kung-fu chick fighting robot skeletons on page 42 of D20 Future. I envisioned the color black being discovered as a seventh form of magic, but everything it animated was inherently evil and destructive. Being a utopian society and all, the evil and destructive black magic was outlawed. The wizard (psion) that discovered black magic refused to quit studying it, and so he and several of his students went into hiding to practice their experiments in secret. Now they release their unwholesome experiments (like the constructs they animate with the black magic being the robot-skeletons) onto the people to test them, and it would be the goal of the protagonists to seek out their hidden laboratories and destroy them.

Phew, there you have it. One rediculously long post detailing examples of my own thought processes concerning campaign setting formulation. In short, it's really all about finding things that have nothing to do with each other, ripping pieces out of them, and stitching those pieces back together to form a campaign setting. I for one think that the third one is the coolest, and the most detailed on the way this process works.

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 08:38 PM
Nice, you know, right now im developing three different campaign settings, one of them here on this forms, is te link at the bottom of my sig. That one started as an experiment following the world building guide of rich burlew.

Another setting is about a big city and he fact that magic is forbidden because it is ultra destructive and dangerous for both the magic users and hose who doesnt practice those arts. This one is actually based on a dream I had.

Thee third setting is a high fantasy world wich started as a Slayers rip off but he n evolved into something quite original even though I took things from wrcraft and morrowind.

bosssmiley
2008-12-20, 08:42 PM
This (http://www.penguinking.com/premise.php). So, so very this (http://www.penguinking.com/premise.php).:smallamused:

I bow before the greatness of this here thing. :smallbiggrin:

My preferred method. Find an interesting word, enter it in http://www.factbites.com/ answer generator, choose any three answers and combine them into a setting.

valadil
2008-12-20, 09:14 PM
I steal quite liberally from just about anything. Usually I'll just take a single facet from something I like and combine it with elements of other amusements to form a unique character/plot/whatever. For instance I'll steal a scene from a movie, not the overarching plot.

Kris Strife
2008-12-20, 09:24 PM
Hedonistic chickens seek spiritual enlightenment in the catacombs under the Vatacin.

Jalathas
2008-12-20, 10:14 PM
I was definitely looking for a campaign inspiration and found it in the first suggestion that site gave me... O_o

Outlaw heroes perform covert operations on the high seas.

Coplantor
2008-12-20, 10:19 PM
Criminal yaks try to get laid in the world of competitive cooking.

Fightin' drunks get in touch with their inner child in a world devastated by natural disasters.
Genre: Dungeon Crawl

Savage madmen fight in the name of Communism in Ancient Greece.

Piratical dragons discover a strange, new world in a subterranean military complex left over from the Cold War.

Any of the above would be awesome settings.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-12-20, 10:33 PM
Obligatory TV Tropes Link (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage)

Seriously though, I've always used Tropes to round out my campaigns and, occasionally, to provide a framework for an adventure. Now I just happen to have a website I can refer people to :smallbiggrin:

Plots (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Plots) gives you a rundown of an enormous number of plots. Sure, not all are great for D&D, but even the more outlandish ones can be adapted or at least provide a jumping-off point.

Characters (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Characters) is great for building everything from innkeepers to BBEGs. Character As Device (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharactersAsDevice) can help you figure out what you can do with an NPC, and Characterization (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterizationTropes) can add the little flair that makes NPCs more than stat-blocks.

For more complex tasks (World-Building and Campaign Construction) you can use Settings (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Settings) and Motifs (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Motifs) to provide some fuel for your creative fires.

Do you need to read all of TV Tropes to be a good DM? No! In fact, clicking about randomly or through links until something strikes you is probably the best way to use it. The point of TV Tropes is that you should know all the Tropes that are listed, but you probably haven't thought of them as discrete entities. This is why TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife). :smallbiggrin:

Michaelos
2008-12-20, 10:38 PM
Try to have the action follow naturally from what just happened. After taking a necessary breather to rest and handle administrative work (Ordering several thousand arrows and 69 suits of small studded leather needs to be done just like killing that Level 16 Blighter.) I had the following chain of crazy happen in my game. (Currently level 17) Bare in mind this weaves in and out of game reasoning together, so it will get confusing, and very very VERY run on.

After destroying the Lich Queen (Twice, because of time distortions, which foreshadow at something in the future, as almost everything does, while serving two out of game purposes [beating her the first time was too easy] and also [time distortions also allow me to explain why some people are able to play more frequently than others]) The remnants of her apprentices (A crazed Diviner named Dominic (Based on the idea of what would happen if Dominic Deegan from the comic actually did suffer from Mind Break) who was using a chain of candles of invocation to get a large number of wish spells to make stat books to grind up for something called super soldier serum, which could be chugged by low level fighter to greatly boost their power [which made them somewhat decent competition for the higher level heroes] He fought the party inside the lair of the currently sealed Atropal (Sealed by the spirits of 70 Pelorian clerics who sacrificed their lives to form seals. [a number of seals equal to the Atropals HD are required. 4 were broken in game by the actions of the Lich Queen's apprentices, so if one more breaks, Hello Atropal!] After charming the Dwarven Spellsword and convincing him to teleport to flee his friends fighting, the rest of the party started running back to town, worried about if that is where Dominic escaped too when he teleported away after most of his forces were glitterdusted and defeated. In the mean time, The Dwarven Spellsword faced a dilemma: Based on what he could see, The Greater Succubus was demanding he hand over an adamantine weapon (why not wish for their own adamantine weapon? I told you Dominic was crazy.) [and of course, the PC's have to have a chance.] or she would try to gate in a Balor which would slaughter 2 dozen charmed townsfolk from the town before they knew what was going on. He decided to Glitterdust the Greater Succubus as an act of defiance, She gated in the Balor successfully, and Dominic, who was in the background having fun with a lesser Succubus, started attacking. Meanwhile the Human Barbarians followers were defending the town from a few stray super soldiers (Who were nigh unhittable, with their relatively high AC.) A Nature Spirit of Air came in to help save the Dwarven Spellsword from a Nigh unwinnable situation so he had a chance to help save the Followers dending the outskirts (The two dozen people died, of course, but were wished back to life by the Vow of Poverty druid's "Treasure Share", a wish solely to help other people. of a one of Dominics's Candles of Invocation (The Efreet that was Gated in promptly had other Efreets nuke Dominic's island after finding out he was dead and promised they would suffer the same fate if they wished for more wishes or more candles.) However, since that overkilled the wish, the Twist ended up with The Balor focusing on the Nature Spirit instead of the Commoners at first, resulting in a fight where The Nature Spirit ended up dying after beating everyone else, retroactively killing her, as she had prophesized earlier. This set up the next quest, where the Vow of Poverty druid had to atone to regain his Druid powers after accidentally killing a spirit of Nature.

You end up just sort of flowing with it at some point.

Prometheus
2008-12-20, 10:45 PM
I don't seem to follow the inspiration model of creation. I think of something mildly interesting, and not in the least inspiring, and tweak it until a) makes sense in the world b) makes for a nice story c) is interesting d) has room for the players to contribute e) has room for me to add on later. Usually this means fleshing out the setting and the NPCs.

Oh, and that strange concoction I got from a witch doctor in Paraguay that I drink while listening to Beatles songs backwards, but you know, that's probably just a placebo.

Aether
2008-12-20, 10:50 PM
Premise: Renegade swordsmen struggle for acceptance in a realm of magic and mystery.
Genre: Romance

Makes sense.


Premise: Fated psychopaths evolve beyond human limitations in Revolution-era America.
Genre: Dungeon Crawl/Western/Sci-Fi

Wah? Mixing sci-fi and westerns? Via a dungeon crawl?



Premise: Swashbuckling cops face their destiny in modern-day Chicago.
Genre: Noir

...I guess that makes sense, though "swashbuckling" seems an odd description for bold cops/investigators.


Premise: Undead barbarians challenge orthodoxy in modern-day Italy.
Genre: Cyberpunk/Thriller

Thriller and undead makes sense to me, but cyberpunk?



Premise: Maverick elementals seize ultimate power as Heaven and Hell marshal for the final battle.
Genre: Fantasy

Ooh, I like this one! It could be epic, fantasy... Maybe the clerics suddenly notice their spells have messed up, and summoning is going awry... And the elemental forces have more influence and prescence in the material plane... What happens to the souls? And what is the result of the battle of Heaven and Hell? Why do elementals, "neutrals," want to seize power?

The Mormegil
2008-12-21, 05:30 AM
Ooh, I like this one! It could be epic, fantasy... Maybe the clerics suddenly notice their spells have messed up, and summoning is going awry... And the elemental forces have more influence and prescence in the material plane... What happens to the souls? And what is the result of the battle of Heaven and Hell? Why do elementals, "neutrals," want to seize power?

Starting from here, just flowing the thought off the top of my head. Duration of the process: 5 minutes.

The Elementals want to seize power because they know something terrible will happen if the forces of Good win the epic war; Asmodeous has made a deal with a terrible entity, one of the Five Custodes of Reality, that will allow him to gain ultimate power, but the price is that he needs to destroy every single evil creature in the world. Thus, he is starting and losing the War, while actually recluting any and every evil creature in the world to face off the Angels. The Elementals know this, because one of the Five told them, but they cannot (and would not, they are neutral bastards) tell the Angels. So they are trying to turn evil themselves, and take power to balance evil and good forces in the world. While the top ones remain distant and Neutral, they are corrupting the lower elementals. So the heroes have to face little evil and corrupted elementals, while escaping torture and slaughter by the demons and devils (in this setting, they'll be one thing only) and trying to help the Angels wwin a war that will doom us all.

Needs refining, but could work. ;)

Fostire
2008-12-21, 06:36 AM
Amnesiac ducks evolve beyond human limitations as the stars align and the Great Old Ones make their triumphant return


Psyducks? :smalleek:

Z-dan
2008-12-21, 08:02 AM
For the games that I've dM'd, I'm not sure where the inspiration came from but they've been as follows...

1: Underdark setting: githzerai have freed you from illithids and sent you on a quest to free more slaves- never got completed due to real world commitments

2: Underdark setting: you're a slave again! but this time you're happy doing what the evil overlords are telling you, until you reach a point where your mind has built a resistance to the psychic enslavement when you canchoose what to do- either overthrow the illithids, or decide they're not that bad and help them overthrow the other races. This campaign is still in progress.

3: In the event of the previous campaign finishing with dead illithids: one of your NPC companions turns out to be Gith :smalleek: so, you gonna be a githyanki or githzerai?

4: In the event of number 2 finishing with dead illithids: if you're now evil, time to work on the surface. if you're good, carry on sorting out the underdark

as you can prolly tell, I haven't thought much further than the current campaign... apart from when I watched an episode of Dr Who with the Ood, and it's shown they're a peaceful people that have been enslaved, then take revenge on their masters- I plan for my whole series of illithid adventures to revolve around the gith revolution, followed by the successful near-extinction of illithids where they're now just slaves, followed by the illithid uprising (Ood style), followed by the end of the world when they travel back in time to make themselves more successful (this is what the illithids actually believe. its all in the lords of madness book)

Starsinger
2008-12-21, 08:16 AM
Starting from here, just flowing the thought off the top of my head. Duration of the process: 5 minutes.

The Elementals want to seize power because they know something terrible will happen if the forces of Good win the epic war; Asmodeous has made a deal with a terrible entity, one of the Five Custodes of Reality, that will allow him to gain ultimate power, but the price is that he needs to destroy every single evil creature in the world. Thus, he is starting and losing the War, while actually recluting any and every evil creature in the world to face off the Angels. The Elementals know this, because one of the Five told them, but they cannot (and would not, they are neutral bastards) tell the Angels. So they are trying to turn evil themselves, and take power to balance evil and good forces in the world. While the top ones remain distant and Neutral, they are corrupting the lower elementals. So the heroes have to face little evil and corrupted elementals, while escaping torture and slaughter by the demons and devils (in this setting, they'll be one thing only) and trying to help the Angels wwin a war that will doom us all.

Needs refining, but could work. ;)

This explains the Blood War... what better way to thin the ranks of evil?