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

[Doug McCrae]

For those who've run into the same feeling, is there any technique you use to shake the feeling off?

Time pressure.

 

[hong]

Time pressure.

I'll second that!


Hong "does his best work at 2 in the morning" Ooi

 

[hong]

Hong "does his best work at 2 in the morning - in bed" Ooi

Hmmm.

 

[Someone]

If after much work you finally come with something that's both good and original, be sure that in afew days you'll find out that it's already done.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I used to suffer the same issue, which is part of the reason I started the "Homebrew" thread. My solution over the past few years has been that I've come to the realization that if my players are having fun, and I'm having fun, what does it matter if its original or not? If someone has already done the work, who am I to deny them that accomplishment by not using it? Another defining moment for me: Realizing that even if I were to closet myself away and create my masterpiece...I'll have wasted all that time because the odds of my getting paid to do all that are absurdly low. Better to support the people who do get paid to do it and get on with my life and my gaming.

 

[Ry]

I used to suffer the same issue, which is part of the reason I started the "Homebrew" thread. My solution over the past few years has been that I've come to the realization that if my players are having fun, and I'm having fun, what does it matter if its original or not? If someone has already done the work, who am I to deny them that accomplishment by not using it? Another defining moment for me: Realizing that even if I were to closet myself away and create my masterpiece...I'll have wasted all that time because the odds of my getting paid to do all that are absurdly low. Better to support the people who do get paid to do it and get on with my life and my gaming.

(Emphasis mine)

In reference to this very good advice, I'm trying to do a campaign setting that is just me jamming elements from lots of different sources together into one ubersetting. See the link in my sig.

But if anyone else has a brilliant method for escaping the originality-perfection brain disease, I'd love to hear it!

 

[Ry]

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.

This is also taken to heart for the new setting - although I'm more of a red wine man, myself (and cheap red wine at that).

 

[gizmo33]

But if anyone else has a brilliant method for escaping the originality-perfection brain disease, I'd love to hear it!

I think, like all brain diseases, your options are:
1. medication
2. re-examining your values and trying to find a reason why you'd want to do things differently.

Get in touch with your basic need to be happy, and IME that will motivate change if it needs to. If your players don't enjoy the alien setting, then try to focus on balancing their needs with your own. Discover, examine, and focus on the things you might like about a more conventional setting. Otherwise, if you and your players are having fun, why not just embrace the compulsion?

 

[jmucchiello]

In reference to music composition, Igor Stravinsky said, "Good composers borrow, Great composers steal." Using others' ideas is not a bad thing. Poorly executing others' ideas is bad. Don't worry about the source of the idea. Worry that you execute it expertly.

To continue quotations, let's try Tommy Edison, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Ideas are a dime a dozen. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if you had a class that could fire a magic blast at will? That's an idea. It is a great idea. The Warlock is its execution. Is it a great class/execution of the idea? Well, that's not the point of the thread. The point is, if you think you can or cannot make a better Warlock you should not be limited by the fact that you got the idea from someone else. It should only be limited by your ability to execute the idea greatly.

(I feel like I'm writing a self-help article.)

 

[Brazeku]

Above all else, I would recommend getting inspiration not from genres or fiction, but from the real world. Especially genres, avoid them.