Current Inspirations?

[Jack7]

My Elves are androgynous, bisexual, polyamorous and spend much of their time strung out on drugs. They will will wage wars against each other (using human mercenaries as proxies) over issues of fashion or aesthetics.

Hey, I've run into people like that...

someone or something's legal value is based wholly on how beautiful it is considered to be. Killing an ugly creature is not considered murder, while breaking someone's beautiful jewelery is a serious crime.

And like that...

They keep magically charmed people as pets and ornaments.

And that too.

Clav, are you sure your sources are entirely fictional?

So much hair.

I hope these elves have moustaches.

Thanks Snowy. Now I gotta pop another round of meds.

 

[maddman75]

Heavily inspired by TV shows. My Hunter: The Vigil game is a ripoff of Supernatural. When I get to play I often do the same thing. I would love to play a character based on Gaius Baltar from BSG or Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars.

 

[delericho]

My Eberron campaign was supposed to be a Western in fantasy dress. However, it seems to have become very much more Sword & Sorcery, influenced by Conan, Lankhmar and Cthulhu. Which is odd, but quite cool.

My WFRP was supposed to be a game of creeping horror, heavily influenced by Vampire: the Masquerade and Cthulhu. As yet, I'm not sure which way it's going to go - my PCs seem determined to stick to the back of the party with their eyes forever shut, burn all the books, and avoid magic items like the plague. This negates a lot of the potential for horror. Of course, it might turn into a Western in fantasy dress instead...

 

[jasonbostwick]

I'm plotting up a new campaign with a heavy Western vibe too.
Right now I'm looking at running it as a West Marches style sandbox game using WFRP3, but that might change.

I took a trip to the American south-west last summer and was really inspired by the terrain and the flora. The incredible amount of diversity in the Sonora and Mojave really stunned me - my only prior experience with a desert was in Nevada, just mile after mile of sagebrush and juniper.

I've been reading Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and the Glanton Gang seemed to strike me as a rather grim portrayal of what a typical D&D adventuring party would look like in the real world.

McCarthy's The Road was pretty influential too, and mixed with the videogame Borderlands made me want to incorporate some elements of a post-apocalyptic setting.

I recently read Mieville's Iron Council, which was basically a fantasy-western. The terrible environmental hazards of the Cacotopic Stain will definitely be a presence in my setting.

 

[jbear]

I've built Ravenloft's 'Griffon Hill' into my campaign. So a good dose of horror mixed in with fantasy.

It's funny how the smallest things, such as an unnaturally cold room at the inn can give such emotion and life to a game.

 

[Nagol]

Mine is inspired by the fall of Rome, The Wizard of Oz, and Things That Should Not Be.

The eastern porition of the continent is dominated by a large roman-inspired empire struggling to reverse its long slide into night.

The players have continually searched for remnants of lost glory

• old adventurer redoubts that have slipped back into wilderness,
• a xenophobic dwarven city that is being consumed by internal demonic corruption,
• the seach for Smaragdus, the lost capital of a Gnomish / Halfling mageocracy once reknowned for its gem mines swallowed by a forest that jealously guards its secrets,
• the former main temple of a major deity, abandoned, water filled and populated by abominations.

What's odd is the western half of the continent is much more upbeat. The players have never wanted to head that way though.

 

[Ahnehnois]

As far as how to construct a plot, I try to use an improvisational approach, while maintaining grad scale, like BSG.

As far as material, I'm running a maritime campaign, so I just rewatched Master & Commander to get some ideas for naval adventures and challenges.

There's also always a Lovecraftian streak running through there.

 

[Quantarum]

I've been rebuilding my old campaign world and I'm rereading Jarred Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel where he explains how circumstance rather than any inherent superiority allowed Europeans to conquer or influence most of the world. It's made me think a great deal about the dynamics of cultural interaction and the spread of technology and knowledge.
-Q.

 

[Snoweel]

circumstance rather than any inherent superiority

Who's to say luck isn't an inherent quality?

Either way, our circumstance is who we are.

 

[Oni]

Not running any games currently (though if I was it would definitely be pulling heavily from Zothique) so I'll do one of my characters.

Put all the following ingredients in a blender and you'll get one of the characters I'm currently playing

dwarf wizard
Junji Ito's Uzumaki
Iron Council's Jacob
Wikipedia entry on Hecate
The picture of Halaster Blackcloak from the FRCS
and the homeless guy, we used to call Dreads the Magical Hobo (insensitive bastards that we were), who used to roam around Savannah.

It's rare that I could so clearly outline the inspirations of a PC, usually it's more vague.