Weirdest Place You've Gotten Inspiration

[afrorooster]

I was just wondering where the weirdest place all the DM's got inspiration for a game? I was mowing our yard today, and got inspiration from the sound of the Lawnmower motor...
Whats the weirdest place you have gotten inspiration from?

 

[Jdvn1]

I think I get ideas from random places...

Music, stories, books... pictures books, even. I like to browse the photography section of the local bookstore because they have cool nature scenes. I also get inspiration from dreams and my own writing. I saw some car dealerships and some other interesting buildings and stylized them into major temples in my game.

EN World gives me ideas in a roundabout manner, sometimes. Someone said something that made me think, "Zombie Vermin would be an evil idea because they'd look just like normal vermin since they have exoskeletons..."

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

I described a dragon roar as a buzzsaw on sheet metal once.

 

[jonesy]

On a vacation in Spain I was watching these kids building a sand castle at the beach. It was such an interesting looking concept that I just had to take a picture of it so I could use it in a game. And then I placed it on a beach where these giant waves kept hitting it.

 

[Buttercup]

I get inspiration from all sorts of places.

-Riding the train, watching the world go by outside the window.
-Walking the dog in the park, considering the bizarre statue the Masons erected decades ago.
-Watching the penguins "arguing" at the zoo. I started thinking about what sort of culture flightless waterfowl might have.
-Although it's far from weird, I'm still getting inspiration from the photographs my husband and I took on our trip to England in 2003.

 

[Bront]

I've gotten several ideas from mishearing what players said to me.

I've had times when I'll let the players talk IC and pick their brains at the same time. It's amazing what fun ideas your players will cook up for you.

 

[Ghostwind]

I can find inspiration in almost anything I see or hear. The problem is remembering it long enough to write it down.

 

[pogre]

A musical - Oliver.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I got inspiration from a logging camp museum in northern Minnesota. Helped me come up with a massive forest of elves. The length of the forest ran across the continent. In the center of the forest I had humans fight a war for control of the woods. They eventually beat the elves and lumbered all of the wood from the area, thus dividing the elves into two nations and creating a great plains between them.

 

[Steverooo]

I once wrote an entire Shadowrun adventure based upon one of the drawings in the book... I later took that adventure, and described turning it into adventures for any other RPG. Later, I re-did the adventure for 2300AD (it's up on the web site in my .sig).

All that, from one drawing... I wonder what the artist would think, and what he was thinking, when he drew that picture...