Homebrewers, where do you borrow from?

[Knightfall]

Greyhawk - not really, although I use some of the D&D pantheon gods in my Homebrewed world*.

Forgotten Realms - same as with Greyhawk but a lot less gods and more class, feat, and spell stuff.

Oriental Adventures - only the basics, classes, prestige classes, spells, and equipment. Ok, I admit, I bought Creatures of Rokugan too.

Freeport - I love Freeport. Best city concept I've seen in a long time. As a result, Freeport exists on my Homebrewed world*.

Dragon Magazine (settings) - um, which settings are you referring too? Are we talking things like those Shannara articles? If so, then no. If you mean, the Dark Continent articles and the like from older mags, then yes. (I'm more likely to pull info out of a Dungeon Magazine, especially older ones or ones with mini-games. Shadow of the Spider Moon rocks!)

Other - Al-Qadim [Zakhara], Dark Sun [thri-kreen, critters], Gary Gygax's Necropolis [Khemit], Living Imagination's Twin Crowns [Parma], Mystara [Karameikos], Piratecat's Spira [Dylrath, Eversink, spells], Sepulchrave's Wyre [spells], the Jester's Cydra [classes, domains, feats, spells].

[EDIT]
I use a couple of spells from Relics & Rituals so I guess that means I've borrowed from Scarred Lands.

* World of Kulan. Also see my World of Kulan Yahoo Group.

 

[LGodamus]

I borrow everywhere and anywhere a good idea rears its head....

 

[Nifft]

Long day. Sillyness.

There is some sillyness up with which I will not put!

-- N

 

[DaveStebbins]

As far as campaigns as sources, as they put up more previews, I'm surprised how many ideas within my homebrew originated with my exposure to the Wilderlands Campaign from Judges Guild some twenty-[cough cough] years ago. Now I can't wait for the boxed set to come out next year.

 

[Ferret]

I borrow from where I can; alot is made up, the stuff must come from somewhere though.

 

[Pants]

The next campaign world I'm designing is using a lot of ideas from the Morrowind world. Particularly the dwarven aspect, wherein the dwarven mines represent big factories filled with steam powered machinery (that is still functioning after long periods of time), robotic guardians and the like.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Though I haven't released any of my homebrew stuff on EN World besides general house rules, I generally make stuff up. When I do borrow, I borrow from literature, film, and history. I just start brewing away.

Some of my favorite sources Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Myth, Viking Myth and History, Egyptian Myth and History, The Bible (Some would call this Jewish Myth and History), Japanese myth and history, and many films and fictional books based on the latter.

Then I smatter all of the above with some of my own ideas, though coming up with a truly original idea is rare (that old "everythings been done under sun" thing always screws that up).

Brew, brew, brew away mixing and matching, plotting and hatching.

 

[nopantsyet]

Nowadays when I look for inspiration, I use Earth. It's a well-known, but little-used setting. It's nothing extraordinary, but the hook is that everything actually happened. You've got to believe a lot of time has been put into this one. though it could definitely use some editing.

Seriously, I used to use numerous campaign settings and works of fiction to get my mind going and try to think up original stuff. Lately, I've moved to non-fiction. It turns out that it's often as fantastic, even without the presence of the overtly supernatural. I try to choose works of a scholarly nature rather than popular non-fiction, as it tends to be more clear in terms of the veracity of various information. Not that it matters for the game, but I like to take accurate notions, then bend them to fantasy.

 

[Scarbonac]

I will cheerfully rip anything from anywhere, be it almost any RPG, novel/short story (Fantasy, SF, Mystery, Western, Technothriller, Horror, Historical or Quasi-Historical, "Literature", Humorous, et al), film (any), Theatre, TV show, cartoon/anime, comic book, non-fiction (histories -- I have an NPC based on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, of Little Round Top fame, for example -- popular science stuff, a la The Dinosaur Heresies, anthropology & archaeology writings, etcetera), crypto-histories -- Chariots of the Gods, 12th Planet, etcetera), cryptozoology (which is more like reading scientific journals for DnD ), poem or even news-articles & music-videos, and pile-drive it into my game.

 

[alsih2o]

my money says a lot of those votes for "other" are votes like mine. they represent the "anywhere and everywhere" majority

but i gotta say, bob dylan-

Seven Curses

Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck.

Old Reilly's daughter got a message
That her father was goin' to hang.
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand.

When the judge he saw Reilly's daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin', "Gold will never free your father,
The price, my dear, is you instead."

"Oh I'm as good as dead," cried Reilly,
"It's only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all.
Get on your horse and ride away."

"Oh father you will surely die
If I don't take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I will have to stay."

The gallows shadows shook the evening,
In the night a hound dog bayed,
In the night the grounds were groanin',
In the night the price was paid.

The next mornin' she had awoken
To know that the judge had never spoken.
She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin',
She saw her father's body broken.

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:
That one doctor will not save him,
That two healers will not heal him,
That three eyes will not see him.

That four ears will not hear him,
That five walls will not hide him,
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him.