Have you ever ripped off an idea & passed it off as your own?

[billd91]

I steal quite shamelessly, in fact, I endorse doing so as long as it makes the game fun. What I really don't get is the idea of passing it off as my own. Is that what your DM was explicitly doing? Or was he just lifting something without making reference to where or what its inspiration was? I see a vast difference in the two. I may steal shamelessly, but I won't pass off those ideas as my own if my players ask about them.

 

[SKyOdin]

I steal inspiration liberally from videogames, books, movies, anime, mythology, history, my brother's good ideas, my old DMs' good ideas, and story hours I like. I would admit to it shamelessly if anyone asked and go over it in detail, but I doubt any one piece would be recognizable after going through the blender that is my brain.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Creativity?

Originality?

Fictions.

There were witty helper-pets long before Disney's Mulan.

Though the dialog and the name...are you sure it was a "rip off" and not an allusion to something that you didn't get until later? I mean, the movie and the character are hardly obscure. It's kind of like saying you've made a Ranger named "Strider" who hangs out with elves but is really a king in exile and he quotes Tolkien. Someone who had never read or seen LotR might then read the books later and be all "!!!", but maybe whoever did it originally thought the inspiration was quite clear.

Hey, it sounded like your bitter planetouched character developed some depth with a cartoony sidekick, so if it's cool, who cares, amirite?

 

[fanboy2000]

I'll use anything that strikes my fancy. I don't think I've ever stolen a unique plot out of movie though. Mostly because I run games where the PCs are hired to do X, and don't care how you do it.

I have, however, used names, places, events, mythologies, and items that were not wholly my own creation in a game.

But I don't really get the "as if it was your own idea" angle.

Yeah, I'm not sure what "as if it was your own idea" is supposed to mean. I didn't think people expected me not to steal. I mean, is there a citation format? Does MLA cover D&D? Chicago? Blue Book? Frankly, I don't want to distribute a "works cited" at the end of every game session. Inline citations seem like they'd be a distraction.

And don't get me started on footnotes.

 

[Hussar]

I'll gank any idea from pretty much anywhere.

Don't try to pass them off as my own, but, oh yeah, if it looks cool, I'll try to work it in.

 

[Beginning of the End]

And don't get me started on footnotes.

Most people just don't have the toe dexterity necessary to handle them.

 

[Doctor DM]

Oh god all the time. Not a carbon copy, but based on other stuff all the time. Although I don't try and claim it as my own idea. If someone notices this character/scenario/whatever is from source X, I say "yeah, exactly!" And they usually say "Awesome!"

Pretty much every other DM I've played with does the same thing. The game I'm in now had a good one:

A skinny old evil necromancer posing as a Priest, named Rev. Kane. Ever see Poltergeist 2?

We thought it was awesome. He's pretty much the creepiest person ever.

 

[C_M2008]

Does this mean that using my wishsong to transport a ring of power to its destruction while evading a horde of forsaken wizards and foilling the plans of a crippled god would be frowned upon?

 

[Nifft]

And don't get me started on footnotes.

In 3.5e you got a free 5 ft. note every round.

In 4e they changed the 5 ft. notes to squares, and the squares to circles, so the notes are all semibreves.

"I prefer semiboxers", -- N

 

[Ryltar]

P&P RPGs, one could say, are designed with one idea in mind: Thou shalt steal from them as much as possible. No wonder everyone does, and it's perfectly legitimate - after all, no one will care that the DM ran an idea or encounter from obscure third-party module x today, because no-one will have noticed.

It's a wholly different question if a DM sees the need to actively claim the idea as his or her own. I haven't done so, and I couldn't understand why anyone would do it - after all, why would anyone feel like a great GM if he's lauded for an idea that he knows isn't his own?