Plots/ Cool stuff stolen from Fiction for your Campaign

[Gez]

My biggest idea theft IMC was grabbing the Plane of the Ethereal Void from Ultima, and making it the Ethereal layer of the Astral Plane.

Otherwise, I'm taking small things from here and there; usually subtle enough to not be noticed by my players. Most of them have read nigh as much books as me, and seen more movies! Don't want things to be too blatant, otherwise the whole session gets derailed with jokes and references about the inspiration source.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Man, almost forgot about my last SL campaign.

I was reading Black Company.

I was watching the anime, Berserk.

It was a mercenary campaign for the ages! Due to general time constraits though, most of it took place on the eastern side of Ghelspad but man, it was a blast!

Ended in a TPK because the party was exceptionally stupid. One guy was running around opening chests looking for items and failed a save vs Fort and died, another guy, a 15th level cleric, didn't memorize dispel magic and a 13th level necromancer killed him. Another guy was overconfident in his Fort roll and didn't use any action points (and these were high powered action points that let you get a result of natural 20) and missed his save vs. Finger of Death. Others were fireballed when the wizard, using a fly spell and invisible, cast a maximized fireball at them.

Brutal man... simply brutal...

But fun up to that point.

 

[Psion]

I was watching the anime,

That reminds me:

Princess Mononoke and Record of Lodoss War have seen many inspired outtakes in my game. Thinks like living forests that are aroused by your anger, animal spirit-gods, and the like.

 

[The_Universe]

I have used the Talion from Michael Stackpole's book Talion: Revenent, with a little bit of modification.

Other than that, I can't say I've stolen anything but broad themes from stuff I read.

 

[TracerBullet42]

Well, it's not from a book, but I thought about ripping a pretty cool idea from the tv show "Alias." They had a series going where some "next generation weaponry" was being developed and they need to find it.

To make a long story short, the "next generation weaponry" were children with proper dispositions being raised to be "super spies."

Translated to D&D, I imagine a group of "dark dwarves" working on some "next generation weaponry" that the group of heroes would eventually discover to be human children (probably sorcerers or something...)

Could present some interesting conflict...

Just an idea...

 

[humble minion]

Not 'fiction' per se, but my Star Wars campaign features a large, muscular action vid star who is running for high political office with the backing of sinister Corporate interests. Darien Skye is without doubt the most hated NPC in the game, even though the PCs have only met him once (at a swanky Senatorial cocktail party), and only spoke to him briefly.

The PC Jedi tracked down a complete set of Darien's vids* to watch over long hyperspace flights, as a 'know your enemy' thing. The rest of the party blame this for the fact that he is heading towards the Dark Side fast enough to make Anakin Skywalker's head spin...

* Including the classic 'Death Prince of the Jedi', 'Starfighters of the Fire Planet', 'Guardsman', and his newest smash 'Lightsaber of Vengeance'...

 

[Bill Scott]

Being a HUGE fantasy comics fan, I have based literally dozens of adventures off of various Conan and Warlord books. On the modern front, I have had a campaign based off from the Sliders tv show

 

[Jupp]

I included the subtle knife from the "His Dark Materials" trilogy from Philip Pullman in a campaign. It was a very interesting way to do plane hopping. It was before I introduced the Infinite Staircase and Sigil to the players. BTW I highly recommend those books to everyone. A great read they are.

I also ripped the Dark Savant from the Wizardry computer games series. This guy was too good to miss as a powerfull arch-enemy

The last thing I used was Pennywise from Stephen Kings IT. But I converted him into an evil jester that drove through the worlds (via portals) with his own circus of death and terror to bring the evil seed to everywhere he built up his circus tent.

 

[Berandor]

I had Riddick appear in my campaign. I also use themes and minor details from many different sources, but the Riddick thing is the only literal translation that comes to mind.

 

[Eosin the Red]

So now I'm dying to know. What did you do with the "King" himself?
In my campaign the King was actually an aspect/Avatar of Death. Which really bothered the Paladin and Cleric when the couldn't turn the "large skelton in a black robe"

He was one of the high servants of Synchronicity. I pegged his as a necromancer...1st ED 15th level or so.