Have you ever been inspired by...

[Andor]

Have you ever stumbled across something in day-to-day life that was just too cool not to use in gaming?

For example an invasive weed where I work has common name that just screams out to be used in a game somehow. "Mother of Millions"

 

[DarkSoldier]

The first thing that came to mind when I saw "Mother of Millions" was to use it as another name for Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Forest With a Thousand Young.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Constantly. I would say that 50% of my best inspiration comes from things I see in real life. There was a discussion on a different board a long time back about an extraplanar creature that was like kudzu, speaking of weeds. It could extrude part of itself into the Prime, and if you killed it, it just grew right back.

 

[Dog Moon]

I tend to be inspired by weird-looking people. I don't say this to be mean, but normal-looking people just aren't inspiring. I certainly like to look at attractive people, and I do admit that occasionally, I see a particular style of clothing, hair, eye color from one of these attractive people that inspires me. However, it's the ones that wear odd clothing, funky hairstyles, etc that tends to be more noticeable.

 

[awayfarer]

Generally music is what gives me ideas. Often times a tune will begin to give me certian mental images of a character or thing.

For instance, "Serentiy" by the band Godsmack. The image I got from that was of a tall, slender person with scaly purple skin holding a tasseled spear while standing on a hilltop. He stares out of bulging eyes into the distant horizon as the sun sets, the sky is a reddish-violet.

Basically the image it gave me was of a purplish humanoid with a lot of aberrent, fishy features. Sort of an arcane, shamanistic bloke. I rolled up this character about a year ago. He lasted about two hours.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I worked graveyard shift for an inner city convenience store. I always got complimented on the interesting and evocative NPCs in my game.

 

[Harmon]

Campaign inspiration hits me just about every where-
- Met a kindly old man that became the inspiration for the patron of one group.

- A campaign about a desert campaign came from laying plywood on a roof for a couple days.

All kinds of things like that, I am recently having trouble coming up with campaigns, but I think that has to do a lot right now with Player desires and GM ideas.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Ditto. Everyday life is filled with opportunities for gaming ideas.

Dave

 

[Quickleaf]

On a canyoneering day-trip through the Tahquitz Reservation (near Palm Springs), we had to climb a dicey rope ladder, navigate murky water up to our chests with our packs overhead, and make our way behind a waterfall. Plenty of inspiration for a group of gamers there!

Another time, camping in Sequoia by a lake I heard a what sounded like the roar of a bear or a jet breaking the sound barrier. Only later talking to a man hiking the PCT did I learn it was the ice covering another lake at higher altitude cracking as the sun hit it. Wow.