this is for all DMs out there, and those players who actually care for the character

[SorvahrSpahr]

Where do you guys usually search for inspiration? from books you've read? maybe some anime/serie? music?

The best source of inspiration I found for me, are the songs of the great Luca Turilli. he is the master of Power Metal and his lyrics always gave me great plots.

Like this one:

"Feeling trapped in with the slimy creatures, now close to being killed
she soon revealed her forgotten, sad past first to herself they smelled
her flesh ready to be devoured but something happened they moved away
seeming to be frightened sparing her life Shocked again she opened the
gates of her tragic past and bloody images came back to her mind
She remembered the old mission the dark comet's goal beyond the suns
...the flight through that black hole...
CONFUTATIS MALEDICTIS TRAGEDY STORMS HIM WHEN DEMONS SPARE HER LIFE AND
ALL DISCOVER SHE HAS A DEMONHEART" -Luca Turilli, Demonheart


so, where do you guys usually get your ideas from?

 

[Teflon Billy]

I mostly get mine from reading the newspaper and extrapolating into whatever genre I am currently playing in.

 

[Crothian]

Ideas for characters? I'm still getting them from myself and the source material of what the campaign is based on. We are doing an Eberron campaign and I got a Shifter idea from just reading the gaming books. My next two characters from Eberron, assuming I ever need a new character, are also vaguely defined in my mind. They were inspired as characters I could have fun with from the gaming books.

 

[SorvahrSpahr]

nice, and what about campaigns ideas? I started a new one, and found myself short of side-quest ideas

 

[Blood Jester]

Poems sometimes, songs sometimes, my fevered imagination others.

 

[Crothian]

nice, and what about campaigns ideas? I started a new one, and found myself short of side-quest ideas

As a DM side quests I get from my players. I encourage each of them to create secondary character goals and things that can easily be handled as side quests. Or side quests will be things that connect backwards in the campaigns. I've ran 8 camapigns in my hoebrew and with players that have aprticipated in other campaigns I enjoy throwing things at them that connect to other campaigns they were in. The players usually get a kick out of it since they can see how things progress from campaign to campaign.

 

[Ravenknight]

The bathtub(only place I can be alone) and coffee. Tons of coffee. Then grab a notebook and start creating.

 

[megamania]

DnD books
History books
Travel books
Storyhours
Novels
Movies
Tv
Stories
Comicbooks
and a healthy dose of real life and seasoned with imagination.

 

[megamania]

Same for Side quests mixed with player thoughts and desires.

 

[Mycanid]

Probably the single biggest source for me over the years (since 1979) has been Tolkien.

Other than that, occasional modern multimedia sources may inspire a character concept ... but as for an adventure/campaign? ... well, nowadays most of my inspiration comes from the 1e materials, believe it or not. I like creating adventures a 'la the theme of RttToEE ... i.e. What happened 15 years later or so? Treebore and SpiderMonkey have my most recent "creative explosion" of this sort. Hmm ... I wonder how they are getting on with it?

Anyway ... On the overall I would have to say that there are three main sources:

1. Books in general (of all sorts)
2. Real Life - I love modeling characters and settings on actual places and people
3. Music. This would be kinda complicated to go into....