Current Inspirations?

[JoeGKushner]

So what is everyone drawing vibes for their characters and games?

I've been digging on some graphic novels and manga lately as well as some miniatures although I've been too busy painting and assembling them as opposed to sitting down and thinking about what type of encounters I could use them for.

Others?

 

[Crothian]

I'm running Freeport so Call of Cthulhu is there. The Freeport books have been good to read and they do offer inspiration. The city is being run as dark and mean so Thieves World is an influence on that.

 

[Woas]

The court scenes from Law & Order (original series, with Sam Waterston).

 

[Desdichado]

I'm running Freeport too. The basic premise was borrowed from The Hangover, which is inherently pretty silly, obviously. Despite that, I'm playing the setting fairly straight; it's the situations that are zany. In fact, I've darkened Freeport up considerably; hybridizing it with Five Fingers, and mixing in a bit of every other fantasy WHoS&V (wretched hive of scum & villainy... I'm trying to coin that acronym lately) that I can think of, including Thieves World, Hawk & Fisher, Scuttlecove, a bit of Paizo's stuff (Absolom and Katapesh, mostly, but I'm scheduled to double check Riddleport, Khorvasa and a few other places to see if there's anything in there to steal too.) And of course, the prototype of all fantasy WHoS&V, Lankhmar itself.

The characters... I don't know where their inspiration comes from. Let's just say... they fit in quite well with the rest of the scum and villains.

 

[Barastrondo]

My current D&D game is built on a foundation of Gormenghast + Jim Henson's Labyrinth + B4: The Lost City. There's some Terry Gilliam, China Mieville, Guillermo del Toro and Garth Nix sneaking in and around, too, though that depends on the guild-clan or district in particular. Oh yeah, and Cities of the Underworld. I frequently run games where a place is as significant a character as any NPC, but this particular game is even more zealous about the principle.

 

[Wormwood]

Sadly, my current game (I should say *our* current game, as we rotate DMs) is the Scales of War.

My *next* game, however, is a direct rip-off of Firefly and the A Team; the PCs will be wrongly-accused outlaws, forced into a life of smuggling in the the lawless archipelago at the edge of the "great empire". They will right wrongs, punish the wicked, and eventually seek to clear their names and bring righteous justice to the heart of the entrenched, corrupt power elite.

Well, that or we'll just kill orcs and stuff.

 

[renau1g]

Make sure that their ship has got a bad@$$ spoiler on it

 

[Piratecat]

My current games take place in and around an aging empire, so I've got all sorts of Roman and political history inspiration going on (I <3 the podcast Hard Core History, for instance). I've also learned some really fun design lessons from Dragon Age that are currently influencing my adventures.

Damn it, if anyone had told me that modeling bureaucracies and socio-political breakdowns was eventually going to be key in my D&D game, you can bet your ass I'd have paid more attention in history class!

 

[weem]

I'm getting a lot of inspiration from artwork lately - in fact, it got me inspired enough to make a sight devoted to D&D inspiration (mostly art, but some other stuff too - see my sig).

Someone here at ENW suggested I check out a specific trilogy by Terry Brooks based on the campaign I had in mind at the time, and that series has been a great inspiration as well.

 

[RefinedBean]

I'm currently designing a short-term game (1-3 months of play) that mixes elements of the Master and Commander series with a horror movie.

Still need to pick a system for it, though. Unknown Armies is a contender.