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

[DumbPaladin]

You shouldn't do this as a DM for exactly the reason you stated: any players learning that the DM ripped off the idea in its entirety from somewhere else are likely to find their entire memory of the event cheapened significantly.

No, I never steal other peoples' ideas and pass them off as my own. I'm more than happy to say that an episode of TV show X or a book I read gave me an idea to do something, because there's nothing bad about homage at all. I've never felt it necessary to steal an idea in its entirety; what's creative about that?

I'm very creative ... so I just have no need to do this. If other people think they do have a need ... I feel badly for them, because they don't.

 

[Stormonu]

The whole of D&D is unabashed theft from other sources, and I participate whole-heartfelt in futhering this game. If asked, I'll gladly reveal my sources, but half the fun is seeing if the players can figure out where I got my latest "great adventure" or whatnot was inspired by.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Do I steal ideas for my game? Yep, all the time.

Do I try and pass them off as my own? Nope. If my players ask I am more than happy to tell them where I got my ideas/inspiration from.

Do I generally give them my own twist to file off the seriel numbers or to tie it in better with the current campaign? Of course. While I may steal ideas from elsewhere, you still need to customise them so they fit in with the game you are running.

Olaf the Stout

 

[wedgeski]

All the time. For my games I've been inspired by, and downright stolen, just about every type of IP you can imagine. I won't take credit for someone else's work if directly asked though ("wow that encounter was awesome!", "yeah, check out so-and-so's story hour on ENW for more").

The day my players pay me a decent salary, allowing me to quit my job and devote all of my working hours to building and running their game for them, will be the first day I consider it a problem.

 

[UnknownAtThisTime]

I realized the DM used this character in his game as if it was his own creation. The memory of that campaign became amazingly lame to me after that revelation. I lost a lot of respect for that DM.

Are you telling us that you believe the DM named a wyrmling Mushu and was trying to pass that off as his own idea? Mulan may not be the most popular cartoon ever made, but it is still a Disney cartoon. I would be really surprised if he truly was trying to pull a fast one and take credit for creating Mushu and his traits. "Loosing respect" for the DM seems .... overblown?

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think anybody who has ever run a published adventure/module has ripped off somebody, no?

I have stolen liberally from literature, TV and movies over the years and often try to create NPCs based on interesting characters from TV, even if it is totally unrelated to the fantasy genre, i.e., the pompous noble cleric named Emerson, loosely based on Charles Emerson Winchester III, from MASH.

However, I do give credit when it is due – i.e., I did not reveal who Emerson was based upon until later; and when I ran a published adventure with a few twists in it that were based on what a fantastic old DM of mine ran in the late 90s, I did give him credit for it, and in fact, I said it was an homage to him and the fantastic campaign he ran. (I even called him & asked his permission beforehand.)

Granted, I did not steal the campaign opening adventure 100% from him, just like he did not run the published adventure straight up, either. I had to adapt things to my gaming group and 3.5E, while his group was bigger (9-10 players regularly) and it was 2E. However, the big twist after the published adventure was basically from his idea, though the campaigns went in a totally different direction after that.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Are players entertained by the characters and game situations the DM provides? Yes? Then it's all good.

Is the DM PUBLISHING these things for profit? No? Then it's all good.

By DEFINITION ripping stuff off means you claim it as your own.

 

[CharlesRyan]

You know, basically it's a two-part question: Do you steal?; and Do you try to pass it off as your own?

The consensus on question one seems to be "yes," and you can count me in on that.

The second question is the tricky one: How much do you inform your fellow gamers of what you're stealing. At one extreme, in the OP's case, you lift concepts, names, and even lines of dialog, and let people believe you came up with them. Personally, I think that leaves a bad taste in people's mouths (as it did for the OP).

At the other extreme, you draw inspiration from outside ideas, which you then aggressively adapt and reskin to fit your game. Then (if you're me), you might mention the source concept to the other players, because you don't want to use it if they're going to make connections that would become spoilers.

It sounds like the OP's bad experience with the first extreme has soured him to the entire idea.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Are you telling us that you believe the DM named a wyrmling Mushu and was trying to pass that off as his own idea? Mulan may not be the most popular cartoon ever made, but it is still a Disney cartoon. I would be really surprised if he truly was trying to pull a fast one and take credit for creating Mushu and his traits. "Loosing respect" for the DM seems .... overblown?

Agreed - while Mulan was not a huge success, it was still a popular movie, especially among girls (and for parents with girls). Plus, it was Eddie Murphy doing the voice of Mushu, not exactly an obscure actor, and a prelude to his turn as Donkey in Shrek

 

[Oryan77]

I'm talking about completely 100% using a major component from another source without changing it in any way so it is your own. As I said in my OP, I am not talking about simply using an idea for inspiration. I'm not that crazy to think that we're going to be original in everything we do.

There is a big difference between making Boolpidldle, the Gnome with an odd speech pattern, and Yoda, the green Gnome with an odd speech pattern.

Same thing with a plotline. If I go on an adventure to find a lost artifact and I encounter various traps, and it is a race against time because the antagonists are looking for the same artifact, that's cool. But if I'm looking for the Lost Ark, and I encounter a giant rolling stone ball trap, and I fall into a pit of snakes, and the antagonists are Nazis, then I'd rather play a different game. That's just being lazy and it doesn't get me excited about the campaign. Maybe that's just me, but I would not be able to take the game very seriously.

If the DM told me, "Hey, I want to DM a recreation of Indiana Jones." then I could probably let it slide (although I'd rather not play that). But if the DM didn't say anything and passed some content off as his own (without changing anything to make it somewhat his own), and then I find out it was a ripoff; that just kills the coolness of the campaign for me.

"Loosing respect" for the DM seems .... overblown?

Maybe so, but I've seen players get outraged over much less. So if I'm being overly dramatic about this issue, I'm fine with that.
Finding out some scenario that I found interesting was just a ripoff of a Disney cartoon was just a let down to my memory of the game. I was disappointed to find out just how unoriginal the DM actually was being. He couldn't even change the characters name? I'm not 12 years old, I don't want to help you play out a Xena episode. But if your adventure was inspired by a Xena episode, then let's game! That's all I'm saying.