D&D 5E in search of inspiration

[pukunui]

Hi guys,

I'm currently running two fortnightly 5e games. One is a Tyranny of Dragons campaign, the other is an episodic campaign made up of short encounters and adventures from various editions and sources. When I'm working with published material, I'm generally OK. It gives me a framework, and I feel comfortable modifying it to taste.

But every now and again I want to add something of my own - or my players do something unexpected - and that's where I'm starting to feel like I'm fresh out of ideas.

In my role as a graphic designer, when I feel like I need to top up my well of inspiration, I can go out and look at magazines and book covers and billboard ads and whatever else. I feel like if I wanted to do the same thing as a DM, I'd need to read more fiction, watch more movies, play more CRPGs, and so on ... and I'm just not sure I've got the time to do that.

So I'm wondering: Where do you guys go to get ideas? What sorts of things do you look at for inspiration? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you manage your time so that you're getting the most bang for your buck?

That is to say, what do you do when you just feel like saying, "Well, I got nothing"?

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I've no particular source of inspiration and I'm a game designer. More often than not, I have the best ideas either when I'm taking a bath, sitting on the toilet or lieing in bed and can't sleep. These situations have no source of inspiration, they are just situation where I have nothing better to do and nothing else to worry about, so my mind is more free.

That being said inspiration can come from anything. You don't need to read books to get inspired for a P&P game. A single fantasy picture can be enough to get your brain cell start to think of a whole world or story. The story will be fleshed out as you go.

Many of my ideas also come from playing games or watching a movie. Especially when they are like "It could have been good if not for all these flaws", then my brain starts rattering and imagining how to get rid of the flaws while keeping the strong points.

Occassionally I also let myself just being inspired from a community. Like I take all the suggestions and wishes I ever got and make a game that's basically made only from these.

 

[akr71]

...
So I'm wondering: Where do you guys go to get ideas? What sorts of things do you look at for inspiration? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you manage your time so that you're getting the most bang for your buck?

That is to say, what do you do when you just feel like saying, "Well, I got nothing"?

By reading internet forum threads by somebody named [MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION]

In all seriousness, reading through other's ideas and questions here (and formerly on the WotC forum) are/were very useful in jump-starting my creativity. Not in a "that's cool, I'm stealing it" way, but like "that's cool - I don't think I could make it work for my players, but I could do this..." kinda way.

As for managing my time - my wife is a nurse and works a lot of night shifts. So I go a lot of my adventure writing/modifying in the evenings when she is at work and the youngest kid is finally in bed. Unfortunately, that is not really advice as much as it is a lifestyle adaptation...

 

[thalmin]

Read the descriptive texts (the fluff) of any monster in the 5e Monster Manual. Almost every one of them has given me not just encounter ideas and adventure ideas, but also campaign ideas.

Also, look at fantasy art, especially early Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazzine covers. What story is the artist telling? How did the participants arrive at that stage?

 

[Artifact]

I watch a lot of sci-fi movies and TV shows (and little else ). I tend to pick up on trivial things to use as story ideas.

For instance, there's a race in Doctor Who, called the ood. In one episode/story, the ood were viewed as 'willing' for servitude, willing to be ordered around'; the ood couldn't look out for themselves, and without orders, eventually died.

This gave me an idea for how to handle warforged in one of our campaigns: As captives, who allowed the misconception that they were 'willing' to stand, until they could revolt against their dwarven masters. Set up quite a backstory of racial hatred in the campaign.

= = =

In another example: I was watching an episode of Star Trek Voyager. There was a species (the kobali) who reanimated corpses as a means to propagate their species. Needless to say, this caused conflict with the humans.

This gave me an idea: That 'dark devas' (evil devas) in our 4e campaign, might use dead bodies in their process of reincarnation. It was a detail that never came to the forefront in our games (no evil PCs) but which added some nice texture to the setting.

Anyway, that's kinda how my mind works .

 

[Bawylie]

Imagine an arrow. On the back end (the non-pointy end) you write "Start." On the pointy end, you write "End."

Then, you draw a perpendicular line that bisects your arrow. And on that line, you write "Conflict."

You have 3 categories of things to write. Beginnings, Goals, and Obstacles. Where obstacles and goals intersect, you have conflicts.

When your players do something you don't expect, make this sketch. Identify where they are and what they want. Then purposefully frustrate it.

Put something in the way.

"But what? Brad! What do I put in the way?"

Time, distance, antagonists, physical obstacles, allies with conflicting goals, costs, other sexy opportunities that might sidetrack them.

Pick one. Pick another. See if they combine well.

You have, already in your head, a library of obstacles you've read, seen on TV or in film, overcome (or not) in real life, and heard tell of in stories. Use these.

See, inspiration is a kind of mood. And sometimes it strikes and that's neat. But you can't wait for lightning to hit you before you create stuff for your game. You're a DM, and in the end, this means you must work. And since you must work, I advise you to draw upon those talents an skills that have the largest payoff for the least investment. As a default. And then add such tweaks as seems best to you.

Identify goals, set obstacles. Rely on genre expectations, and subvert them only sparingly (let's not Shyamalan here). Use what you know. Put in some work, screw inspiration.

 

[PnPgamer]

movies, games, other dm's... stealing is everything.

 

[Bawylie]

Let's play Little Red Riding Hood.

I'm playing little red, you're the DM. You know my goal - I'm taking a picnic basket of goodies to my elderly grandma.

Now you've identified my goal. What obstacles might prevent me achieving it?

 

[Artifact]

The best advice I took away from the (4e) DMG: "Tips from the Pros: Don't be afraid to steal ideas from books, movies, and other sources for your personal use. The DM's job is to entertain, not to be original." --Andrew Finch

 

[Psikerlord#]

I think just see more tv shows/movies/read more cool books. Plenty of inspiration out there. Once, after a flight I had with lots of cloud cover, I made an adventure about visiting a cloud kingdom. Inspiration comes from everywhere!