D&D ideas from pop culture

[interwyrm]

I recently watched an Emilie Simon music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JlTi7e8EQU

If you don't feel like watching it, I'll explain. She starts out naked, and is then covered in green plants, representing spring. Then she becomes summer, then autumn, then winter, and then she 'dies' and returns to her naked state like when she started spring.

It gave me the idea of a campaign world where the only deities are The Four Ladies. I'd forget about clerics and alignment in this case, and then assign a few domains to each of the four ladies. Spring might get healing, summer sun, winter cold, and death, etc.

 

[Zander]

I don't know if this qualifies as pop culture, but around 1990 I created an adventure for my homebrew in which the characters had to face perils based on the real world, western Zodiac. IIRC Gemini was an ettin.

 

[interwyrm]

I like that idea Zander, I think I may have to snatch that somehow.

 

[Imruphel]

I thought about something similar where the four seasons were also linked to a specific energy/elemental type and also one of the four "extreme" alignments (LG, CG, CE, LE).

I think it went something like this:

Autumn- CE, Earth, Acid
Winter- LE, Water, Cold
Spring- CG, Air, Electricity
Summer- LG, Fire, Fire

Perhaps Spring and Summer should have their energy/elemental types swapped?

 

[Tonguez]

Nice video

As I was watching a story developed in my head

The Four Ladies are Sisters with Winter the eldest and spring the youngest.

One day the Sun came courting Sister Winter but she rejected him and left his love unrequited. It was thus that the sinsiter and jealous Sister Autumn (to whom I personally would give the Death Domain) came whispering words of anger and vengeance to fuel his hurt.
And so in revenge the Sun seduced the youngest Sister Spring claiming her as his prize for no-other reason than to spite Sister Winter. Upon hearing this Sister Winter released her rage (domain: Destruction) and in doing so brought grief and desolation to the World.
It was the idle, funloving, daydreaming Sister Summer who consoled Winter )Domain:Nurture), she alone would stand up against the rage of the elder sister, easing her sisters grief and assuaging her anger (Domainrotection).
Thus the balance was restored and the Sisters remain in there places and in there cycle

 

[Space Coyote]

I'm not sure if this is entirely what you are talking about, but my friends and I have frequently used other sources for D&D campaigns or adventures. I used parts of the movie Time Bandits for the finale of my very first campaign. A friend used the movie Legend for his campaign ending (even used sound clips from the movie). I've had adventures based on fantasy novels like Lloyd Alexanders Black Cauldron.

 

[Dragonbait]

I know I have done these things before (used pop culture for ideas for games), but I wanted to give props to the posters here for some of the great ideas.

 

[Turanil]

It gave me the idea of a campaign world where the only deities are The Four Ladies. I'd forget about clerics and alignment in this case, and then assign a few domains to each of the four ladies. Spring might get healing, summer sun, winter cold, and death, etc.

You could download the "Liber Mysterium" aka "The Netbook of Witches", as I believe it would fit perfectly in this setting. Just follow my sig. below (to download it).

 

[Edheldur]

I've used a lot of songs (Power/Heavy Metal songs, particularly Dio) as a basis for some adventures/quests/campaigns.

 

[Chaldfont]

I've learned alot from action movies and good TV that I've used in my games.

In Media Res: Start the campaign off in the middle of a fight/chase! (Lethal Weapon)
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer: The PCs have to join up with their arch-enemy to get the job done (Farscape)
Travel the World: Adventures take you to the four corners of the earth (Indiana Jones, James Bond)

I've also learned a lot about keeping a long-running campaign going from shows like X-Files and Buffy. I create an open-ended overarching plot that's general enough that I can make references to it in any adventure. Then I alternate adventures that have nothing to do with the main plot (like X-Files' monster-of-the-week episodes) with ones that drive the main plot forward (black oil! oh no!). If you keep the main plot open, you can use published adventures without much work--just change an NPC/macguffin here and there to fit your plot.