Non-standard fantasy/mythic influences

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What fantasy influences have affected your game beyond the typical list (high fantasy novels and movies, sword and sorcery novels, comics and movies, other roleplaying games)? I'm not looking for how Dr. Who influenced your game, but stuff still under the broad umbrella of fantasy, but just farther afield than Conan, Fafhrd and Elrond.

 

[Nyaricus]

The Redwall Series, by Brian Jacques. It taught me that a fantasy-furries campaign can actually be a good thing, and some of my different homebrew campaign settings feature Anthropomorphic "Manimals" quite a bit

A bit of LARPing (though we didn't call it this) as a young kid with sticks for swords, axes and spears and a bunch of friends at lunch on the play structure influenced it as well. A year later (when I would be 11-12) I would be introduced to D&D, which seemed a natural extension of this innocent lunch hours.

I was really into Star Wars when.... hmmm, I was 8-11 or so. Then I got into D&D, and that largely fell by the wayside (though I'm still picking up Saga Edition!)

I always used to read action-adventure-type stories as a kid, watch movies like Jurassic Park or Conjo, so the whole adventure bit seems like a very familiar genre to me.

cheers,
--N

 

[KrazyHades]

Gotta say my obsessive imagination made up most of it. When I was ~5-8 my cousins and I would play these imaginary, RPG-like, LARP-like games, with wooden weapons and whatnot. I was always the person running this, and it extneded naturally into my role as a DM. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the comics Calvin and Hobbes, the Far Side were also a big inspiration in ways, because they taught me to let my imagination loose.

My voracious reading is also really important. Outside of the "common" influences you've listed, I've been influenced by some dark fantasy by Anne Rice and Anne Bishop (but not overly so). I also enjoyed the HawkMage series from David B. Coe (when I was little).

 

[sckeener]

hmmm....What inspired me that wasn't actual gaming or fantasy novels/movies?

Once I got a hold of a teacher's signature stamp and stamped some hall passes. I would go to the library during classes I hated and read mythology books. That trick worked for 3 years.

Also visiting caves, deserts, forests, archaeological sites, etc usually inspired me, the wonder of strange environments.

Everything else I am thinking about involves novels or movies....

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Hiking inspires me a lot, actually. I caught myself a few times last summer, when I've climbed a headland over a rope, or stood by a glacier, or looked into a valley and thought "man, a ruined dwarven outpost would be awesome here!" Ditto crossing river gorges and trolls.

Edit to add: It's a...err, fantasy influence because my brain's always churning out how this or that could be D&Ded (dee-un-deed).

 

[sckeener]

I've been influenced by some dark fantasy by Anne Rice

Are you talking about her Sleeping Beauty trilogy?

 

[KrazyHades]

Haha, or Bishop's Dark Jewel''s Trilogy

 

[Ringan]

Most recently, books by Neil Gaiman and Akira Kurosawa films.

 

[Huw]

Peter Moorwood's Horse Lord series.

Real world Etruscan, Circassian and Tungusic mythology (not all in the same place - that would be too weird!). Currently trying to find some decent sources for Slavic and Berber/North African mythology.

 

[Tewligan]

Are you talking about her Sleeping Beauty trilogy?

No, that's the influence for a whole 'nother kind of roleplaying, and those dice aren't going to end up on the table. Yowza!