Is there a cure for the originality/perfection brain disease?

[Ry]

Spawned off of the homebrew thread.

I keep having this urge / compulsion to make my campaign world and game storylines totally original, not use any outside material, and so on. I mean, I LOVE (and own a lot of) D&D, and I don't have a lot of time for writing a game world. I kind of get a "wow, what a hack I am" feeling, which is dumb because I know I take my games in cool directions and the players are getting what they want.

I'm can't be the only one who gets this. For those who've run into the same feeling, is there any technique you use to shake the feeling off?

 

[Dirigible]

Lobotomy?

I suppose you could try and make yourself realise that there's no such thing - that every 'original' idea you have is the product of a dozen sources you've consumed, digested, and reconstituted in a different form. Once you've accepted the Spirit of Plagarism into your heart, stealing ideas more overtly should become easier.

 

[BlackMoria]

Seriously...

Trying to be original and innovative is alot of hard work, particularly if you want to design your own world.

Unless you got the time and the ambition to work on it, it is going to come across as lacking the spark you seek. And since time is a factor you say you don't have in abundance, then any attempt to do lip service to your quest of originality is going to further offend your sensiblities.

I suggest that you take whatever published material you have at hand and just retcon aspects of it - such as removing an organization and replacing it with your original creation. Or completely redo a town or a small country. As the campaign develops, continue to delete and refine at your leisure. Over a space of a campaign, you can add alot of your own original personal touches.

The next campaign, keep the world and refine some more and so on. Eventually, the published campaign world you started with will have more original elements in it than published elements and you are on your way.

And if that doesn't help, whenever you get that feeling like a hack feeling, start with a six-pack of your favorite brew and imbibe until the feeling goes away.

 

[Land Outcast]

Some quote by some writer (not by Oscar Wilde, of that I'm sure):
"They're not new words, but then, which are?"

That made for my acceptance of repetition.

 

[00Machado]

In an old Dragon or Dungeon editorial, Eric Mona pointed out that the familiar makes game/campaign/adventure accessible. It's hard to convey something totally original in a gaming environment, and while borrowing plots, or riffing on cliches makes for bad fiction, he suggests it makes for great gaming. I tend to agree.

 

[Nifft]

Lose the attention span. Drugs may help here. The only sure-fire way to think you're original is to forget that you're copying stuff.

(Seriously: "Simpsons did it!" Don't worry about being original, worry about being good.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[jdrakeh]

YEShttp://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=196881. Be warned, however. Sometimes bad, wrong, fun can be horribly addictive

 

[LostSoul]

I'm can't be the only one who gets this. For those who've run into the same feeling, is there any technique you use to shake the feeling off?

Focus on the fun.

 

[carborundum]

The last time I tried something that seemed TOTALLY original was about fifteen years ago when we tried Skyrealms of Jorune. We really really tried to get into it but it was just too difficult to relate to so many weird (I mean original) things and after a week we were back to D&D or Rolemaster or whatever!

I'd recommend having things that are analogous to some RPG/ genre staples even if they still have your own twist. Letting the players get some sort of handle on the world without too much work means they can also get busy on visualising their character and how it fits into this new place.

 

[Mallus]

If you made your game truly original it would no longer be recognizable as epic fantasy.

As for your disease, I prescribe gin.