The Media That Inspired Your Imagination

[ProfessorCirno]

Y'know I've had this game sitting on my shelf for years and two nights ago was the first time I got to play it. It's very different from any other CRPG I've run across (you can snap a guards neck without entering combat, really!?!), but I've gotten myself stuck in the moratorium (Can't quite figure out the "CENTER yourself" puzzle, and I'd hate to cheat by looking up a walk-through). Seems to be there's a bit of pixle-bitching to this game . Other than that, I really like it though.

I admittingly don't know what the "CENTER yourself" puzzle is. The moratorium - and really, all of the game - has no pixel bitching, either. Color me confused.

 

[steeldragons]

Though literature and movies definitely influenced and fueled my enjoyment of the fantasy genre (See The Orc Within's post for a list of...pretty much all of it), I'd add in there Superhero Comics (many many characters and plots were adapted for fantasy use .

But I think. looking back into the deep dark '80s where the D&D/fantasy spark first shone with the fire of a thousand suns...THE Medium that Inspired my Imagination, as the OP asks can be summed up in two words...

CAR...TOONS!

The Herculoids
Flash Gordon
Tarzan
Thundarr the Barbarian
Battle of the Planets (G-Force)
Superfriends (and "Challenge of the Superfriends" and "The Super Powers Team"
Blackstar
He-man
Thundercats
Silverhawks
Tigersharks
Smurfs
Spiderman & His Amazing Friends
Voltron
The Galaxy Rangers
The Bionic Six
I'll even give an honorable mention to G.I. Joe (a team of variously specialized individuals...yeah, I could work with that)
and, of course...the greatest cartoons of the 80's (ok, maybe not Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[SKyOdin]

For me, it is a complex mix of mythology, videogames (particularly japanese RPGs), anime, manga, and real-world history. While I have read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, I rarely use it directly for inspiration, and I rarely watch movies.

I couldn't even begin to list individual works, since even a single creation of mine is probably drawing upon dozens of works, including some I am not consciously aware of. As an example though, one campaign I as still in the early planning stages for is potentially drawing inspiration from a complex mix of Japanese and Western mythology, Seiken Densetsu, Golden Sun, Romancing SaGa, Breath of Fire, half a dozen other videogame series I can't think of off of the top of my head, as well as anime series such as The Twelve Kingdoms.

EDIT: Oh yeah, Dragon Quest is part of the mix. And Pokemon. I can't forget Pokemon.

 

[Greg K]

For fantasy it would be
1) Mythology

2) Tolkien: Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit

3) King Arthur: Once and Future King, Book of Merlin, and Tennyon's Idylls of the King

4) Other Novels: Dune, Dragonlance (first trilogy and the short stories in Dragon)

5) Movies
Beastmaster
Clash of the Titans
Dragonslayer
Excalibur
Heavy Metal
Ladyhawke
Sinbad (7th Voyage, Golden Voyages, Eye of the Tiger)

6) TV
Archer: Fugitive from the Empire (a.k.a, Archer and the Sorceress)

7) Cartoons
Dungeons and Dragons cartoon
Blackstar
Thundarr

 

[Whisper72]

Definately cartoons are up there as well, together with movies.

The various Tolkien books as well (including Silmarillion), and more recently my campaign worlds suffer from hefty influence from the various Black Company books (Glen Cook), the (already older and out of print) 'Liavek' tales (various writers in a shared world) and the Tales of the Malazan series and side books (Steven Erikson and Isselmont).

 

[CarlZog]

As a kid in the '70s, two sources fed me.

Edgar Rice Burroughs books
and
Errol Flynn movies

 

[Mallus]

If I experience it, I draw on it for inspiration.

Same here.

Everything from Trek, Tolkien, and Dune to screwball comedies, the poetry of Yeats, and pop songs (I'm thinking specifically of the Cure's "A Few Hours After This").

 

[Smoss]

My first ever movie I saw as a kid was Star Wars at the Drive-in theatre. My imagination was always thinking of things, though more from a sci-fi angle for a long time. Especially with other such movies I loved, like Dune.

In college, I was introduced to D&D. Since then I expanded my reading to include Tolkein, RE Howard (A personal fave), and the Dune series. I ended up enjoying "medieval fantasy" as an RPG more than any other.

In the end, my real inspirations for what I do now are Howard's Conan stories (Including the "Lovecraftian" bits), Star Wars, and Herbert's Dune series. It makes for an interesting sword and sorcery fantasy world.

Smoss
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Doulairen