When does inspiration strike you?

[DungeonmasterCal]

I've done the same thing. My longest running and best campaign ever was built around the ambitions of the player characters. It started out small and ended up epic!

 

[francisca]

Ok, no more Hijack. Sorry all. Old home week is over.

I have a confession to make. Sometimes I steal my inspirations from the players. I have even scraped a couple of planned senarios in favor or what the players thought was happening because it was more fun that what I actually planned. One of my fellow DM's often tosses out a few random clues and waits to see how the players put them together and that becomes the adventure.

Perhaps 20% of my game is pre-planned, the rest is entirely generated by playing off the actions of ther PCs.

It's the only way to fly.

 

[fusangite]

Another one for the shower....

I'm thinking now of the geek version of American Beauty: "Here I am, designing my next D&D campaign in the shower. This will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here."

 

[Scotley]

I'm thinking now of the geek version of American Beauty: "Here I am, designing my next D&D campaign in the shower. This will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here."

Actually, I have started a few days like that..

 

[shilsen]

I'm thinking now of the geek version of American Beauty: "Here I am, designing my next D&D campaign in the shower. This will be the highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here."

Just remembered a personal example of getting inspiration for the game from anywhere. I was reading Corneille's "The Cid" a few days ago, and over the course of ten minutes, I alternated between applying Aristotle's "Poetics" to the play and converting one of the characters to a warforged NPC in my Eberron game (and developing a plot point off it).

 

[fusangite]

Just remembered a personal example of getting inspiration for the game from anywhere. I was reading Corneille's "The Cid" a few days ago, and over the course of ten minutes, I alternated between applying Aristotle's "Poetics" to the play and converting one of the characters to a warforged NPC in my Eberron game (and developing a plot point off it).

I prefer the moments when these sorts of things are not alternating tasks, but are the same task.

 

[shilsen]

I prefer the moments when these sorts of things are not alternating tasks, but are the same task.

Me too, but my group just doesn't dig hamartia like I do. Such is life.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Inspiration usually strikes when I'm in the shower or doing exercises. Occasionally before I go to sleep.

I can seek it out thru reading (usually non-fiction), making lists of possibilities or deliberately making random connections - dice rolls, opening the MM or dictionary, words on slips of paper in a bag, the generators at Seventh Sanctum, etc.

Bizarrely, reading rpg message boards isn't a very good source of ideas for me. Though that 'fiendish infestation' encounter was cool. Got too much pride to just rip it off, mind.

 

[Dogface]

Usually at a moment when I can't do anything with it. The 72d of 96 samples is not the time to be struck with inspiration.

 

[Sir Elton]

Rather than hijack a thread about whether or not you write your own adventures I figured I'd start a new one.

Is there a certain time, place, or situation that reliably gets your creative juices flowing? When you need to brainstorm to create an adventure is there something you do every time to get yourself in the creative process?

Personally I find that I come up with most of my ideas on my 45 minute commute to work in the morning after I've had a double esspresso. I generally leave the music off but I have found that listening to Metallica's Black Album gives me inspiration when planning out combat scenes.

What about you?

Inspiration hits me over the head with a big mallet whenever and wherever I am. Recently, I gained inspiration while playing Jak and Daxter, Jak II, and watching Jak III being played.