RPGaDay - Day 26 - Favorite Inspiration for Your Game

I've talked about my inspirations from some online games, mainly Star Trek and City of Heroes. I think that leads into a discussion of some easy places and sources of inspiration.

• IP settings like Star Trek and Star Wars certainly benefit from cross-pollination. I'm digging into The Old Republic for the first time in a long time and many of the NPC's and missions are quite steal-able for a tabletop game. The same goes for various Star Trek Online missions. Sometimes even a simple screenshot can provide both inspiration and illustration - a planet, a ship, a building, a ruin, an opponent - maybe it all starts with the visual thing.

• Beyond the games there is also a large set of books and other media too. I'm catching up on Star Wars Rebels with Apprentice Who and if that's not all about a PC adventuring party I don't know what is. With Trek there aren't any new shows on TV right now but there are several online Trek series that come up with some pretty interesting stuff. It's always been fairly easy to me to pull in characters, objects, plots, or concepts from all of these that inspire you and turn them into something new. 

• Supers is another genre that benefits from the vast universe of material out there. Tv shows, movies, comic books, novels, online videos - there is so much there you can find almost anything. Obligatory Moment of Silence for City of Heroes here ...

Crossover!

I'd say that's where my main inputs and outputs of inspiration are. The genre I run most, D&D type fantasy, I don't really look to other sources. I am not sure why, it just works differently for me. Part of it might be because I've been immersed in it more and over a longer period of time than these others. Part of it might be that  I run a lot of published stuff too. Regardless, it's working for me right now.