Doesn't matter the source - what's really pumping you up for gaming? Movies (old/new), books, music? Weird ideas you can't shake? History? Other TTRPG's you don't even play?

What doing it for you right now?

Right now I have this thing for stone-age era history, and Meso-American history. It's really been seeping into my head. jhkim's Meso-American inspired game sounds cool, and it dovetailed with a bunch of my current reading interests. I've been reading up on the Mayan, Olmec and Toltec cultures. It's kinda dovetailed with my interest in the Plains Tribes of Indians as well.

Another odd connection is the whole Ancient Apocalypse topic with Randal Carlson and Graham Hancock. I own most of Hancock's books, and they're really fun reads, and great lube for thinking about worldbuilding (or in this case world destroying).

Warhammer Fantasy is still rattling around in my head. Nothing specfic. I just like the world. And I'm always gorging on 40k lore... both of which are odd as I have yet to actually play either of them.

Bible Fanfiction.

No, seriously, it's a thing a friend pointed me to when I outlined "The World Before" idea I posted on the Bronze Age thread.

Weird ideas are what is inspiring me these days. I have an outline completed and have started the first draft of a really nice adventure. Originally, I was just doing it for myself but I floated it by a couple people and they are urging me to self-publish. Honestly, I don't think it is worth the work to do that, but it has been getting the juices flowing. Like wake up at 6am on a Saturday levels of exciting...

I am currently running a Dragonlance game, but using a 2d6 system instead of 5e. That has been going really well. Our next session is this weekend. I run Dragonlance like it is supposed to be, very dark and oppressive.

My own research.

Since I've finally nailed down what I think I want to do for writing my own system/setting, I've been doing more research into East Asian philosophies, myths and cultures from the time of antiquity up to about the time of the Ming Dynasty.

Since my current home game is set within this world, it's giving me hooks to use with my players.

Conspiracies related to the Crusades.

For me it's anime, specifically chainsaw man. Great show, and it's inspired me to make my own game inspired by it and Paranoia. I've also been researching ancient writings. There is some crazy shit out there if you know where to look.

Quote from: tenbones on January 06, 2023, 03:38:30 PM
Doesn't matter the source - what's really pumping you up for gaming? Movies (old/new), books, music? Weird ideas you can't shake? History? Other TTRPG's you don't even play?

What doing it for you right now?

Right now I have this thing for stone-age era history, and Meso-American history. It's really been seeping into my head. jhkim's Meso-American inspired game sounds cool, and it dovetailed with a bunch of my current reading interests. I've been reading up on the Mayan, Olmec and Toltec cultures. It's kinda dovetailed with my interest in the Plains Tribes of Indians as well.



Another odd connection is the whole Ancient Apocalypse topic with Randal Carlson and Graham Hancock. I own most of Hancock's books, and they're really fun reads, and great lube for thinking about worldbuilding (or in this case world destroying).

Warhammer Fantasy is still rattling around in my head. Nothing specfic. I just like the world. And I'm always gorging on 40k lore... both of which are odd as I have yet to actually play either of them.

So have you seen this: https://goodman-games.com/store/product/jungle-tomb-of-the-mummy-bride-dcc-compatible-print-pdf/

I haven't played it yet, but it's got a cool vibe.  It would fit good with the old Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan module.

Quote from: Hzilong on January 06, 2023, 05:36:05 PM
My own research.

Since I've finally nailed down what I think I want to do for writing my own system/setting, I've been doing more research into East Asian philosophies, myths and cultures from the time of antiquity up to about the time of the Ming Dynasty.

Since my current home game is set within this world, it's giving me hooks to use with my players.

Any particular historical setting or dynasty?  Or are you going to mash things up?  I'm a historian of Asia myself so I've got quite a bit of Asian stuff in my homebrew setting, but it's just AD&D/Castles & Crusades.  Just can't find an Asian game I like enough to switch over.

As for me, a few weeks ago I had the itch to check out The Ruins of Undermountain.  Not sure why.  I've got and played plenty of other mega-dungeons.  But I read a few reviews, watched a couple youtube videos and decided to go all-in.  I bought the original boxed set on ebay, got a few of the other 2e supplements there and through drivethru, and then even picked up the 5e Dungeon of the Mad Mage.  So now I'm going to mash all these things together, add my own stuff, convert it all to Castles & Crusades and create a ridiculous mega-dungeon campaign that we'll surely never finish.  But I'm just liking the fun of having a framework but also the freedom to add whatever I want, bringing in monsters, magic items, etc., from pretty much everything I own.

I've been interested in mashups of early dark ages, fairy tales, and early D&D conceits for some time now.  There's a fair amount of Celtic and Norse myths involved too.  So my inspirations have been rather varied:  Jack Vance's Lyonesse, some pseudo academic works on Norse magic and culture, re-reading E. R. R. Eddison (The Worm Ouroboros, and so on), Poul Anderson's the Kingdom of Ys, the Mabinogion, and bits and pieces of games/modules centered around B/X assumptions.  I doubt any single piece of that is strong enough to show a direct influence, but they are all there--along with a thin slice of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. 

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on January 06, 2023, 11:27:49 PM
I've been interested in mashups of early dark ages, fairy tales, and early D&D conceits for some time now.  There's a fair amount of Celtic and Norse myths involved too.  So my inspirations have been rather varied:  Jack Vance's Lyonesse, some pseudo academic works on Norse magic and culture, re-reading E. R. R. Eddison (The Worm Ouroboros, and so on), Poul Anderson's the Kingdom of Ys, the Mabinogion, and bits and pieces of games/modules centered around B/X assumptions.  I doubt any single piece of that is strong enough to show a direct influence, but they are all there--along with a thin slice of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

My current campaign is in a similar vein, so if I can recommend you some additional sources:

--The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (which are based on the Mabinogion, but are entertaining novels in their own right)
--The Averoigne stories by Clark Ashton Smith (More in the weird fantasy vein, but set in a very faithful medieval French setting)
--Ghost King and The Last Sword of Power by David Gemmell (a pretty interesting high fantasy retelling of the King Arthur story)
--Atlas of Magical Britain by Janet and Colin Bord (basically a big book of English folklore. This one I actually found in the bibliography of a Pendragon adventure, but its been an invaluable source of adventure ideas)
--The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson (the Discworld books themselves are pretty steeped in real-world folklore, and might be worth a read for you, but this book pretty comprehensively goes through all the real-world parallels)

Quote from: ForgottenF on January 06, 2023, 11:51:21 PM

--The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (which are based on the Mabinogion, but are entertaining novels in their own right)
--The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson (the Discworld books themselves are pretty steeped in real-world folklore, and might be worth a read for you, but this book pretty comprehensively goes through all the real-world parallels)

I think I've read all of Lloyd Alexander's fiction.  I know I've read all of Pratchett's fantasy, plus the collaboration with Gaiman, Good Omens.  I keep the touch of weird fantasy pretty darn light, though Tanith Lee is certainly an influence in my portrayal of some characters.  Oh, I left out Zelazny's "A Night in the Lonesome October", which I consider his best work.

It usually works the opposite way for me, where I set my mind on a particular theme/genre/tone for a campaign, and then go seek out inspiration material for it. I'll share this one, though, since it's kind of funny.

Recently, I was watching the old Thundercats cartoon with my kid, and for some reason it really inspired me to run a campaign in that very 80s style of post-post-post-apocalyptic science-fantasy setting. Source material for that kind of thing is kind of hard to find, outside of the world of animation (stuff like Heavy Metal and Ralph Bakshi's Wizards), but I've been reading back into the Vampire Hunter D novels, which (as I think I've said before) are an absolute goldmine of weird science-fantasy ideas.

Quote from: Persimmon on January 06, 2023, 11:12:40 PM

Quote from: Hzilong on January 06, 2023, 05:36:05 PM
My own research.

Since I've finally nailed down what I think I want to do for writing my own system/setting, I've been doing more research into East Asian philosophies, myths and cultures from the time of antiquity up to about the time of the Ming Dynasty.

Since my current home game is set within this world, it's giving me hooks to use with my players.

Any particular historical setting or dynasty?  Or are you going to mash things up?  I'm a historian of Asia myself so I've got quite a bit of Asian stuff in my homebrew setting, but it's just AD&D/Castles & Crusades.  Just can't find an Asian game I like enough to switch over.

Aesthetically, I'm aiming for early Ming Dynasty, since that was one of the cultural high points of Chinese history, with Han dynasty stuff thrown in as well. Also, cuz I'm dumb like that, I'm using references from Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Screw The Dream of Red mansions. I know it's one of the four classics but I hate that book). That's the core adventuring location of the setting, though, of course, there are other cultural influences especially outside the main Empire. I should note that my goal is not a straight up historic or fantasy version of history. I'm aiming at a setting that blends Asian, predominantly Chinese, philosophy and aesthetics with the high-ish fantasy of a setting like Greyhawk or Mystara.

I'll probably ask people here to roast some of my thoughts later on since ya'll seem to more or else's recognize if what I have is objectively stupid.

Free RPG's get me excited, as you just know those were made by fans for fans.  Pocket Fantasy, and Basic Fantasy for example, or Mini-Six Bare Bones.

Another set of games are rules lite stuff with rules that just make sense, even though it doesn't have much.  This would be Dungeons and Delvers Dice Pool or Pocket Fantasy again.   I like rules lite as I just don't have time to spend flipping pages for a rule I will only use one, boring the hell out of everyone whenever I do that.