What is currently inspiring you?

[weem]

Sometimes it's books, other times it's images. Even movies can inspire our games - whether it's ideas for our games as DM's, or for the characters we play as Players, almost anything can inspire us to create and imagine.

So I am curious...

As a DM, what is inspiring your current game(s)? Maybe a certain artist's work, or perhaps a book you are reading?

As a Player, what is it that helps you get into your current character?

I have a site devoted to things that I find inspiring (see sig) but I want to hear from others. I would also like to share some of your thoughts on said site so keep that in mind if it matters for any reason.

I'll start here...

I am a very visual person, so imagery inspires me and my DM-ing. These two images in particular I've really enjoyed recently and have spurred much creativity...

- See Full Version

- See Full Version

Also, I have been reading a number of Terry Brooks books recently and they are great. Particularly, there are some characters in there that are very inspiring.


As a player, I have a new character in one of the campaigns I play in. I found this image that really represented the vision I had for him (a Revenent Fighter)...

So yea, how about you?!

 

[Nifelhein]

This thread makes me realize that I haven't been juicing my brain enough lately, aside from reading theories on gaming and GMing I haven't focuses on the fun elements of the game that much.

 

[jdrakeh]

Peer Gynt. I really, really, want to design a short, little, parlour game based on Peer Gynt, but nothing too much like The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (which is kind of what my first attempt came out like).

 

[Obergnom]

until recently I was on some kind of nostalgia trip and got inspired by reading old D&D books and adventures. Well, no real nostalgia, as I never played any of the truly old ones, I just like that style.

I love movies as inspiration, Hellboy 2 gave me a real itch of using fey creatures in my game as well as some character idea...

btw. I love your blog. Great pictures and ideas spring to mind just looking at those...

 

[RangerWickett]

Metalocalypse. In particular, Dethblues. Selling your soul to the devil to gain amazing musical prowess. I'll have to put that into my game.

 

[Kzach]

As a DM, what is inspiring your current game(s)? Maybe a certain artist's work, or perhaps a book you are reading?
In all honesty, WotBS is inspiring me at the moment. It has it's faults, but on the whole I quite like the epic nature of the story and the level of detail and thought that has gone into it.

Which is quite rare for me as I dislike modules in general.

As a Player, what is it that helps you get into your current character?
Well, mainly it's the thought that if I create the coolest, most leet character I can, some awesome geek-girl will notice and I'll lose my vi...

I mean, usually it's an organic process for me. I start tinkering with stats and specialisations and try and envisage the character and how it thinks and reacts to various situations. I try and put myself in the character's shoes and then adjust stats and abilities. I try and find a picture to suit the character but the picture itself will inspire changes as well.

All up, there isn't one single thing that goes into making a character. For me, it's a process and one that doesn't stop once I start playing the character.

I mean, who woulda ever thunk I'd end up playing a drow sorcerer who, despite his bluff and bluster, abhors his own murderous inclinations and the society that created him, and who absolutely loves cheese of all flavours and types? Certainly not me

 

[Wik]

Dragon Age has helped get me into a creative mode lately. Plus, Avatar was a good example of what to actively avoid in a game.

 

[Rechan]

The biggest influence for my current campaign is two posts that were made by the Sons of Kryos guys. One of which is here, which is by and large the premise for my campaign. Another is the premise for the campaign's metaplot, but I don't have a link to it.

I still get inspiration from Exalted's setting, particularly how Exalted handles Spirits.

For a player, my current inspiration is:

1) Lancelot from the BBC TV show "Merlin". He's what I based my paladin on.

2) John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. They are the inspiration for my tiefling cowboy (er, crossbow wielding bard).

Dragon Age has helped get me into a creative mode lately.

Ditto! It's not really influenced my current campaign, but it's given me a few ideas to chew on just in general. I really should post the stuff I found useful from it in the Dragon Age thread that is really old.

Plus, Avatar was a good example of what to actively avoid in a game.

Resist. RESIST. Good, I made my will save.

 

[Squizzle]

Pre-Christian Logos theology, most especially 1 and 3 Enoch, but also the Exaltation of Melchizedek, and what I believe is still an unpublished paper (by a friend) on pre-Christian Jewish Metatron cults. Also various psychic desert messiah types in modern fiction, e.g. Paul Atreides and Luke Skywalker. The Popol Vuh. Anything Gene Wolfe has touched.

(Can you tell I'm getting a Dark Sun character together?)

Edit: OH YEAH ALSO ORIGEN

AND WHAT BURROUGHS CALLED THE "SEVEN SOULS" OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BELIEF

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

 

[Umbran]

Current inspirations include...

The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, by Gregory Keyes.

A swath I'm cutting through the Marvel Comics universe...

"The Court of the Air", and a couple other steampunk-ish works...

A few bits written by Charles De Lint and Neil Gaiman.

These are, unfortunately, not settling into a single, focused gaming work of my own. They're more pulling me in a few different directions at once, which is less constructive.