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Charles Phipps
2007-10-17, 10:46 PM
Yes, the thread where we talk about how we've adapted stuff for our campaigns from other sources.

Currently, my players are (unwittingly) playing the Baldur's Gates series.

Guy_Whozevl
2007-10-17, 11:01 PM
My players are playing in a campaign based on Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door. Minus the paper and badges and hammers and jumping and sidekicks. And witty one-liners.

Anxe
2007-10-17, 11:09 PM
I've adapted so much stuff for my campaign. My most famous adaption was from Star Wars. Remember that scene where Luke goes into the cave and fights Darth Vader. After he cuts off Vader's head he sees that it was really his own head. I used that in my campaign. I stole some stuff from the Circle of Magic books too. Can't really remember anything else right now.

Xefas
2007-10-17, 11:10 PM
I've stolen many MANY names for towns and cities from videogames that I knew my players hadn't played. I'm just really bad with names :smallredface:

My first campaign world's cities used up practically all of the city names from Everquest Online Adventures for PS2.

F.L.
2007-10-17, 11:15 PM
"There is nothing new under the sun"
Ecclesiastes 1:9

At least 1200 BC.

I believe there's similar older written works in Heiroglyphics or Cuneiform, but I can't find the appropriate reference.

Me, I'm currently running something in the FR, so I'm not exactly using fresh material myself.

Anxe
2007-10-17, 11:15 PM
Turn the names backwards, then they'll be less reckonizable.

Chineselegolas
2007-10-17, 11:36 PM
Yes, the thread where we talk about how we've adapted stuff for our campaigns from other sources.

Currently, my players are (unwittingly) playing the Baldur's Gates series.
Don't forget to give them the pantaloons... :smalltongue:

Not being a DM I haven't 'adapted' from other sources, but I do draw from books and games for character backstory, which the DM's sometimes work into world, thus me indirectly making the game an adaptation of another work when the plot centres around me.

Crow T. Robot
2007-10-17, 11:47 PM
I out and out stole the "Iconograph" from Terry Pratchett. I even worked up a bit of a back story for the life of photographers in Eberron mostly based on Otto Chriek from "The Truth".

A couple of murders have been lifted from Law & Order.

Several Puzzels I stole from TV shows, which failed since one person in the groups saw them too.

There was the time that my fledgling supers game had a fight with some of the charaters from Venture brothers. I expanded on the idea from on episode where Kim and Triana I think were offered jobs as villians. So, I kept the personalities, and added powers. I over did it a bit with one of them and the party tank was nearly hammered through a wall.

Xefas
2007-10-17, 11:58 PM
The Jugs of Water puzzle from Diehard 2.

"Before you is a 5 gallon jug, and a 3 gallon jug." says the wizard's illusion in a rather condescending voice. "You must set exactly 4 gallons of water on the pressure plate, or everyone in your party is going to learn the true meaning of '15d6 piercing damage'." The wizard's illusion turns a small illusory hourglass over. "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen".

*The DM clicks a stopwatch "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen"*

If noone in your group has seen Diehard 2, it's quite hilarious.

ReproMan
2007-10-18, 12:26 AM
I out and out stole the "Iconograph" from Terry Pratchett. I even worked up a bit of a back story for the life of photographers in Eberron mostly based on Otto Chriek from "The Truth".

Oh, I have stolen so much from Discworld, I ought to be paying Pratchett royalties.

I've lifted a couple plot lines from various Akira Kurosawa movies as well for my campaigns. Need a fun adventure for a low-level party? How 'bout try transplanting the village from 'Seven Samurai' into a post-apocalyptic future and see where they run with it. The classics (Kurosawa, Shakespeare, Leone, Hitchcock, Pratchett, etc) have much source material ripe for lifting, and even people familiar with the originals will appreciate the adventures, sometimes even more than the neophytes.

Icewalker
2007-10-18, 01:00 AM
The Jugs of Water puzzle from Diehard 2.

"Before you is a 5 gallon jug, and a 3 gallon jug." says the wizard's illusion in a rather condescending voice. "You must set exactly 4 gallons of water on the pressure plate, or everyone in your party is going to learn the true meaning of '15d6 piercing damage'." The wizard's illusion turns a small illusory hourglass over. "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen".

*The DM clicks a stopwatch "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen"*

If noone in your group has seen Diehard 2, it's quite hilarious.

Now I'm curious, seeing as (I think) that is impossible...how does he "correctly" do it?


I take a lot of ideas adapted from basic ideas out of songs. I got a whole adventure out of the "Beethoven's last night" album from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (awesome album, by the way)

Ideas for some classes from several songs, most of which I never actually got around to making.

Hell, I took names from Spanish. Two...kinda BBEGs I am going to have are gonna be Trueno and Relampago. Thunder and Lightning in Spanish. :smallbiggrin:

Xefas
2007-10-18, 01:07 AM
Now I'm curious, seeing as (I think) that is impossible...how does he "correctly" do it?

There are technically two ways.

From the Internet Movie Database


There are two solutions to the water jug riddle in the park, at the elephant fountain. To place exactly 4 gallons of water on the scales when you only have two jugs which hold 3 and 5 gallons respectively, you must do either of the following. 1. Fill the 5 gallon jug and decant the water into the 3 gallon jug. This leaves two gallons in the big jug. 2. Empty the 3 gallon jug and pour in the two gallons from the 5 gallon jug, leaving space for one gallon in the small jug. 3. Refill the 5 gallon jug and pour water from it into the 3 gallon jug until the small jug's full. 4. That leaves exactly four gallons in the big jug; put it on the scale and the bomb is disarmed. The second method is: 1. Fill the 3 gallon jug and pour the water into the 5 gallon jug. 2. Refill the 3 gallon jug, and pour into the 5 gallon jug until the big jug is full, leaving one gallon in the small jug. 3. Empty the big jug, and transfer the one gallon from the small jug to the big jug. 4. Refill the small jug and pour all three gallons into the 5 gallon jug, resulting in four gallons in the big jug. Place the big jug on the scale and the bomb is disarmed.

triforcel
2007-10-18, 01:14 AM
The Jugs of Water puzzle from Diehard 2.

"Before you is a 5 gallon jug, and a 3 gallon jug." says the wizard's illusion in a rather condescending voice. "You must set exactly 4 gallons of water on the pressure plate, or everyone in your party is going to learn the true meaning of '15d6 piercing damage'." The wizard's illusion turns a small illusory hourglass over. "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen".

*The DM clicks a stopwatch "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen"*

If noone in your group has seen Diehard 2, it's quite hilarious.

Fill the 5 gallon jug and use it to fill the 3 gallon jug and then mark the water level at two gallons. Dump the three gallon jug and pour the two gallons into the 3 gallon jug and fill the 5 gallon jug to the two gallon mark and put both jugs on the pressure plate.

Or do it the easy way and cast create water at a low enough caster level that it creates exactly four gallons in the 5 gallon jug.

Jack Mann
2007-10-18, 01:18 AM
Simple.

Fill the five gallon jug. Use this to fill the three gallon jug. You now have two gallons of water in the five gallon jug. Now, empty the three gallon jug and pour the remaining water in the five gallon jug into the three gallon jug. The three gallon jug has two gallons in it. Fill the five gallon jug. Use it to fill the three gallon jug. There is only room for one gallon of water in the three gallon jug. Five minus one is four gallons of water. Place that on the pressure plate.

EDIT: Double ninja'd! But I worked out my solution fair and square, and it doesn't require any materials not on hand.

Cogwheel
2007-10-18, 01:29 AM
Getting away from the whole water jug thing...

I've stolen a bit from Pratchett. Or rather, I used Ankh-Morpork as a slight inspiration for one of the cities in my campaign setting, although there's very little to no resemblance now (well, except that the ruler slightly resembles Vetinari in the way he acts). I also made a character based on Reg Shoe.

Aside from that, although I'm by no means a fan of the gundam series, I'm considering making a campaign villain based on (or rather, somewhat inspired by) Rau Le Creuset. he makes for an interesting enough character to make me want to steal a few aspects, and besides, I don't know about the english version, but in the original Japanese version of the series, he has some really excellent quotes.

kamikasei
2007-10-18, 01:30 AM
My campaign setting's cosmology steals shamelessly from the comics Sandman and, especially, Lucifer. I'm also very tempted to put in a "Batman". Literally.


"There is nothing new under the sun"
Ecclesiastes 1:9

At least 1200 BC.

I believe there's similar older written works in Heiroglyphics or Cuneiform, but I can't find the appropriate reference.

I forget the reference myself, but remember a quote that went something like:

"Now we see that the nations of man turn against one another, the land and the heavens are in upheaval, and children no longer obey their elders. Truly the end of the world must be near."

-on a cuneiform tablet that's one of the oldest surviving pieces of writing, ever.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-18, 01:40 AM
"1001+ Things that the Worst Party in Eberron is no longer allowed to do." Repeatedly.

But seriously, I try to be fairly original in my plots. Characters, on the other hand, I steal wholesale from whatever comes to mind, which is why part of the cast of Final Fantasy VI had a cameo in my play-by-post game. I think that was before the Giant did it.

Although...I've been thinking about it...and I could basically run the entire plot of Martian Successor Nadesico with little modification in Eberron...

Skjaldbakka
2007-10-18, 01:51 AM
Water Jug:

Or you could fill them both halfway, and then pour the 1.5 gallons in the 3 jug into the 2.5 gallons in the 5 jug. 1.5+2.5=4

Jack Mann
2007-10-18, 01:55 AM
Water Jug:

Or you could fill them both halfway, and then pour the 1.5 gallons in the 3 jug into the 2.5 gallons in the 5 jug. 1.5+2.5=4

The problem is doing it exactly. That requires a degree of eyeballing. The shape of the jugs could make this very difficult.

Nebo_
2007-10-18, 02:08 AM
I steal a lot from Pratchett, too. I also stole most of the enemies from Half-Life

Argent
2007-10-18, 01:58 PM
My best theft so far was from the old Fred Saberhagen "Book of Swords" series. Quick summary: the gods created twelve magical swords, each one symbolizing one of the gods and their portfolio. Each had a unique name and set of powers (Woundhealer, Farslayer, Townsaver, et cetera). Wars are basically started to recover and control the swords. Good times. Since none of my players at the time had read any of these books, I lifted the idea, modified it slightly, and used it shamelessly.

valadil
2007-10-18, 02:28 PM
I put a little too much emphasis on originality so I don't steal too much. But I also recognize that pretty much everything has been done in fantasy if you look hard enough, so I don't lose too much sleep over it. In general I end up putting my own twist on things so they end up not being recognizable anyway. It's more like I'll use a scene for motivation and only I ever end up knowing where it came from. Like, I'll pick a scene and then figure out how to seamlessly bring my PCs there rather than have a Braveheart based session. Or something.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly finds its way into many of my games. Most notably Tuco and Man w/ no name shooting out nooses, and the trio gunfight at the end.

One time I got involved in a DDO guild raid the night before game and didn't have time to plan the session. As a result the next days quest looked a lot like Vault of Night 5. No players figured it out though.

The gimp scene from Pulp Fiction made its way into the only game session I regret running. In my defense, it was the first game I ran and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I had a player who wanted to have an insane character. He wrote some of his own neuroses into the backstory. I figured an insane character shouldn't be able to distinguish what was in his head from reality so I added schizophrenia but didn't tell the player. The schizophrenia played a huge part in the game, but nobody figured out what was up until the very last session. Essentially the character had his own Tyler Durden-esque double life. This was very recognizably a Fight Club rip off, but it was impossibly well executed and happens to be my proudest moment in GMing. After the game we spent a couple hours going through each clue I dropped and what the players thought was going on. They all still talk about it 4 years later. Their friends who weren't even there still talk about it. It was that awesome.

Istari
2007-10-18, 03:09 PM
The Jugs of Water puzzle from Diehard 2.

"Before you is a 5 gallon jug, and a 3 gallon jug." says the wizard's illusion in a rather condescending voice. "You must set exactly 4 gallons of water on the pressure plate, or everyone in your party is going to learn the true meaning of '15d6 piercing damage'." The wizard's illusion turns a small illusory hourglass over. "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen".

*The DM clicks a stopwatch "You have 2 minutes, gentlemen"*

If noone in your group has seen Diehard 2, it's quite hilarious.

There is a puzzle just like that in KOTOR but with pressure tanks, no time limit and you are trying to get something to explode

Charles Phipps
2007-10-18, 03:23 PM
"1001+ Things that the Worst Party in Eberron is no longer allowed to do." Repeatedly.

*sniff* I feel like Kevin Bacon. I'm so happy.


Although...I've been thinking about it...and I could basically run the entire plot of Martian Successor Nadesico with little modification in Eberron...

That is an awesome plotline. I just wonder where you'd stick the Unknown Attackers using Constructs.

DraPrime
2007-10-18, 04:18 PM
Currently I'm running a pbp campaign based on the computer game Gothic. Mainly because I've lately been to lazy to come up with a legit campaign. I hope my players don't read this.

GimliFett
2007-10-18, 04:22 PM
I ran a Forgotten Realms campaign for three years based somewhat on the Mighty Max cartoon series. I made the Mighty One's cap into an intelligent circlet that manages portals (the various Open/Close/Block/etc Portal spells) and had a lot of angst towards dwarves (IMC, the Elven/Dwarven war was perpetrated by Duergar and Drow to thin the elven ranks for massive invasion from the Underdark. Unfortunately, while the Elves and Dwarves managed to screw each other up nicely, the Duergar and Drow just couldn't keep it together long enough to follow through).

I ran a Deadlands (Weird West and Hell on Earth) game that started off with an old B-movie called Gargoyles and slid into the Coldfire trilogy by CS Friedman. That was frickin' awesome, if I say so myself. :smallbiggrin: Gerald Tarrant in the Weird West was a wealthy land owner who became a sorcerer looking into how to manipulate the manitous and the Reckoning's effects on the world. For Hell on Earth, Tarrant had become The Hunter, claiming a large section of the Pacific Northwest as his territory.

I'm sure there've been others, but those are the first two that come to mind. I'll post more as my brain dredges them up from the abyss.

Tengu
2007-10-18, 04:32 PM
I steal like crazy, from various sources - mostly enemies. For example, my group had to fight thinly-veiled clones of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke ones. Imps my PBP group fought here looked basically like anime and slightly less humanoid versions of Doom imps (the old sprite-based Doom, not the new one).

Dark Knight Renee
2007-10-18, 04:50 PM
I steal from just about anything that catches my interest, and I am notorious for excessive stealing of characters directly and for using crossovers. Star Wars (I'll steal from SW into SW, which can get pretty silly), LotR, DOOM, an old game called Master of Orion, Lexx, Farscape, Stargate, Pirates of the Caribbean, Phantom of the Opera, and oodles of other stuff.

Basically, I steal lots. Also, I think I'll be stealing that Jug thing from diehard now :smallamused:

AslanCross
2007-10-18, 05:00 PM
Although...I've been thinking about it...and I could basically run the entire plot of Martian Successor Nadesico with little modification in Eberron...

That would be so awesome. Flying ships, ancient mysterious ruins, and giant robots. What else are we missing?

Deepblue706
2007-10-18, 05:02 PM
I once made an entire campaign based on the lyrics of this amazing song: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-18, 05:03 PM
That is an awesome plotline. I just wonder where you'd stick the Unknown Attackers using Constructs.
Xen'drik, clearly. As the wild, unknown frontier, it represents both Mars and Jupiter rather well, and was home to a lost civilization which created a lot of really damn neat magical technology, including advanced constructs and magical mass-production facilities.

Hmm...998 YK, Stormhold is attacked and wiped off the map by Unknown Attackers apparently from the southern end of Xen'drik, who then proceed to wage war on all of Khorvaire, which has the fortunate side effect of uniting the feuding kingdoms into a loose coalition. One year later, the combined interests of Houses Cannith, Lyrandar, and Deneith, dissatisfied with the Nations' prosecution of the war, have created an incredibly awesome airship and staffed it with quirky young adults...

GimliFett
2007-10-18, 05:04 PM
That would be so awesome. Flying ships, ancient mysterious ruins, and giant robots. What else are we missing?

Gekigangar III!!!

Anxe
2007-10-18, 05:56 PM
Oh yeah songs! I base a lot of my villains off songs. My favorite was the Irish Were-Tiger Assassin based off of "Top O' The Morning To Ya" by House of Pain.

Anxe
2007-10-18, 05:58 PM
Oh yeah songs! I base a lot of my villains off songs. My favorite was the Irish Were-Tiger Assassin based off of "Top O' The Morning To Ya" by House of Pain.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-18, 08:24 PM
Gekigangar III!!!
That is the one flaw in my plan, as I can't think of a way to do that Eberron-style without it seeming forced.

Perhaps a pulp-novel series instead of a TV show?

Karma Guard
2007-10-18, 09:44 PM
The problem is doing it exactly. That requires a degree of eyeballing. The shape of the jugs could make this very difficult.

Well, if they're cylindrical jugs (like this -> |__|), then if you hold them diagonally when they're full, then (If I'm remembering my trivia correctly!) the remaining water is equal to half of the container's holding capacity.

psychoticbarber
2007-10-18, 09:56 PM
I have to be very careful when I do this kind of stuff, because my players are very very observant. I tend to steal themes rather than specifics, like two giants in a playground (Babylon 5) and that kind of stuff.

GimliFett
2007-10-19, 08:55 AM
Remembered a couple:

I used to GM Shadowrun. During the whole Renraku Arcology blow-up, I basically turned the Arcology into a combination of The Cube and Screamers. Shifting deathtrap rooms and AI-driven drones, some of which impersonated people. Much fun was had by all me. :smallbiggrin: Naw, everyone enjoyed it.

In a Brave New World game, I ran a mission based on Phantasm and the overall story-arc of the campaign was based on Age of Apocalypse and Terminator. The Phantasm adventure basically had a Necromancer character animating folks to do his bidding, which was actually the bidding of the main villain of the campaign (Apocalypse-like character) who actually had controlling interest in Cyberdyne Systems, whose AI, Skynet, eventually began a systematic assault on mankind: which the Apocalypse-like villain really didn't mind, since only the strong would survive the ordeal, and he could shut Skynet down whenever he wanted. Except he couldn't... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh, and Nerd-o-rama:

That is the one flaw in my plan, as I can't think of a way to do that Eberron-style without it seeming forced.

Perhaps a pulp-novel series instead of a TV show?

I think the pulp-novel series would be a good idea. It's the closest thing available, aside from just plain theater.

Leadfeathermcc
2007-10-19, 09:33 AM
I am creating a new city based campaign and am stealing liberally from the Fritz Leiber books about Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, as well as adding dashes of Steven Brust's Vlad series, Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieve's World anthologies, and Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. series. Oh and I stole that slaver's guild from Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series.

GimliFett
2007-10-19, 09:37 AM
Oh and I stole that slaver's guild from Joel Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame series.

Nice. I love those books!
THE WARRIOR LIVES!

Talanic
2007-10-19, 09:42 AM
Lessee.

I stole my *core* plotline from these boards: Mind flayers were trying to do a ritual spell to bring reinforcements from their home time period to begin the age of their dominance. Disruption of the ritual caused Bad Things.

A time traveler from the timeline in which they succeeded came back and disrupted the ritual; the party followed him into the actual plot and isn't sure yet if they're in Another Dimension or not. They can't ask the time traveler because he has apparently turned to steel; they only investigated him for a couple minutes before abandoning him. A few weeks later, they checked up on him again, but he had gotten up and left.

That's right. He's a tribute to the song, Iron Man.

Other than that, most of what I have is just drawn from the books, but the way that I let time fragment allows me to have different areas be completely different from each other. The party is trying to put the world back together in a most literal sense, and each shard they come across can range from the age of dinosaurs to a frozen land whose sun died long ago...

Doresain
2007-10-19, 11:04 AM
im a player that has based a number of characters off of a number of sources...had an artificer that i tried to turn into darth vader, made a catfolk that was essentially predator, made a wizard that was supposed to be Darrell Hammond playing Sean Connery in the SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skit, i ripped jack of blades from fable, and according to the last game my group played my character was astaroth from soul calibur...

Machete
2007-10-19, 11:34 AM
Digimon.

Those Vestiges? See Season 4.
A few spells.
Character names. Timi Homoki anyone?
Weapons.
Large pieces of plotline. No one ever noticed the parallels, athough they were hard to detect.


The Fifth World RPG

The setting as a background.


Episodes of Chappelle Show.

That extra evil pimp? Wayne Brady.
The drunken Bard/Sage? Rick James.

GimliFett
2007-10-19, 11:36 AM
Digimon.

Those Vestiges? See Season 4.
A few spells.
Character names. Timi Homoki anyone?
Weapons.
Large pieces of plotline. No one ever noticed.

That extra evil pimp? Wayne Brady.

I actually really liked Digimon. Vestiges, huh? Neat.

Wayne Brady as Evil Pimp? GREATNESS!

kjones
2007-10-19, 11:53 AM
I steal *everything* from somewhere else, to the extent that if my players were sufficiently astute, they'd probably be able to "see into the future" of my campaigns.

Usually, however, the theft is somewhat subversive, especially when it comes to naming... I once had a player ask me the name of a bartender and was completely caught off guard, and so I spouted out the first thing that popped into my head, which was "Jenova". Hilarity ensues.

(On a related note, I was stuck coming up with a name for an NPC fighter, and put it off until I actually introduced him as a character. I still couldn't think of anything, so I just called him "Joe", but the running joke became that nobody ever remembered or recognized him because he was so thoroughly generic. He was still pretty dangerous, especially when I re-spec'ed him as a Warblade, but whenever he met the players, they would say, "Oh yeah, it's... Bob? Bill? Jim?" And then he would get angry and attack them. Good times.)

I stole the name "Hagley Town" from Knights of the Dinner Table, and to this day, its utterance can make my players collapse in hysterics. Proof that true names have great power indeed.

The thing that I steal the most, however, is maps, because I can't stand making them. I once made a city that was basically modeled on a map of my hometown, transplanted into a fantasy setting. If I can ever find floor plans online for random buildings, I'll turn them into dungeons... and so on.

Finally, there was the time that I stole and reworked the entire Greek pantheon. I don't know why I thought my players wouldn't pick up on it, but they did, almost instantly.

Me: This statue looks like it's dedicated to a female goddess of wisdom. She is depicted as wielding a shield and spear.
Player: Oh, like Athena?
Me: (inwardly) Crap.

Blue Paladin
2007-10-19, 12:22 PM
The question is more like what haven't I stolen from...

TV/Film:
Alice from Alice in Wonderland (too-eager wannabe adventurer NPC)
Mr. "B" (Butlertron) from Clone High (comic relief NPC, in dream sequence)
#16 from Dragon Ball Z (friendly NPC)
Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z (captured NPC/power source)
Fuuryu from Gaogaigar (intelligent artifact)
Zondar from Gaogaigar (scary borg-zombies)
Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma 1/2 (name inspired artifact)
Beld's death from Record of Lodoss War (murder scene)
Hawk Haven from Silverhawks (description of mountain carving)
Hiei from YuuYuu Hakusho (enigmatic NPC)

Books:
Hong Qigong from Condor Hero trilogy (mysterious beggar NPC)
Huang Yaoshi from Condor Hero trilogy (mysterious wandering NPC)
Brotherhood of the Crystal Star (generally friendly NPC wizards)
Vonotar the Traitor from Lone Wolf gamebooks (villain NPC wizard, first seen classically "using" the party for own ends; later seen using subsequent campaign's BBEG for personal revenge against first party)

Electronic media:
Eiji Kisaragi from Art of Fighting 2 (enemy? NPC)
Battle of Chang Ban from Dynasty Warriors 2 (escape/protect the innocent scenario)
Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury 2 (ally NPC)
Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury 3 (ally? NPC)
Cecil, King of Baron from Final Fantasy 4 (imprisoned NPC)
Kain, Dragon Knight from Final Fantasy 4 (NPC helps breaks party into castle)
Rosa, Queen of Baron from Final Fantasy 4 (NPC who recruits party in the first place)
Shadow from Final Fantasy 6 (character backstory)
Kyo Kusanagi from King of Fighters 98 (mysterious NPC)
Leni Milchstrasse from Sakura Taisen (mysterious PC)
Bornodin from ShadowMUD (army field leader NPC)
Gythulu from ShadowMUD (mysterious sneaky NPC)
Kieron from ShadowMUD (city and kingdom)
Muriel from ShadowMUD (army commander NPC)
Silvermane from ShadowMUD (mysterious gambler NPC)
Siva from ShadowMUD (city)
Valkyr from ShadowMUD (captain of guard NPC)

Other tabletop games:
Starburst (Elf from previous D&D Basic campaign)
Mad Nigel (Fighter from previous AD&D 2nd ed campaign)
Shadow (Solo from Cyberpunk 2020)

Music:
Ride Forever - Due South (plot device)
Shourishatachi no Banka - G Gundam (plot device)

Are you serious?:
California (the whole state, including major cities, geographical features and roads)
Disneyland (general layout, with castle in the middle)
Hanafuda (the game, keyed to open a locked door if "played" correctly)
Tien Gow/Tin Kau (the game, as a security mechanism/trap)

GimliFett
2007-10-19, 12:39 PM
I played in a Deadlands: Hell on Earth campaign based on Record of Lodoss War. That was greatness!

I based a character on Xavier Pendragon from the video game Eternal Champions. I'd made him a direct descendant of Arthur, as Merlin had moved Arthur, Guinevere and the surviving knights from Le Morte D'Arthur from Earth to Faerun, though he still died shortly after arrival after having gotten Guinevere pregnant. Merlin took off in order to keep Morgan le Fey from following, and was forgotten over the course of several centuries. When she did return, much fun ensued.

DrummingDM
2007-10-19, 12:45 PM
Shakespeare. I ran my players through a self-adapted Macbeth back in the old 2nd Edition AD&D days.

And unfortunately, I'm finding that my current game greatly resembles A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I wrote the campaign first, and then started reading the books. I finally understand why one of my players gets an odd smirk on his face from time-to-time during the game. =/ Luckily, he's the only one of my players to have read the series.

OneWinged4ngel
2007-10-19, 02:21 PM
Hmmm... I can only think of one thing, really. I adapted from the villain of Dean Koontz's "The Face" to get a hefty part of the personality of a certain rather sadistic quori, just because the anarchist in the yellow raincoat was bloody freakin' awesome.

I really do try to be original, though. When I do get inspiration, it's usually from several sources, and none of that ever comes out looking anything remotely like what I was inspired from.


Water Jug:

Or you could fill them both halfway, and then pour the 1.5 gallons in the 3 jug into the 2.5 gallons in the 5 jug. 1.5+2.5=4

Of course, that solution gives a 99% chance of you failing, and blowing yourself up. Gotta try harder than that (it's not a hard puzzle, really)

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-20, 02:07 AM
Oh, and Nerd-o-rama:

I think the pulp-novel series would be a good idea. It's the closest thing available, aside from just plain theater.
Theater's hard to do on the ship, though. Also, centuries of popularity is more believable with a book or a show than something that takes effort and time to act out.

I'm so doing this campaign. Easier than coming up with new stuff for my face-to-face players now that I've finished the schema cycle.