Edit: Spleling
I don’t understand how cereal box puzzles would translate over to DnD.
I also don’t know about ripping off movie and TV characters and just swapping out the names. I suppose it depends on the character, but I feel like this is the easiest one to tell that it was “stolen”.
Using Pokémon descriptions for monsters is aces though, even if you use the older mons. I think Monster Hunter monsters would also translate over pretty well.
Yeah the puzzle one might be tough but the rest are pretty good
The TV characters thing is also one that’s kinda meh
See I think the tv characters idea is great. You’re not going to literally imitate them. But you also don’t need to build every single NPC from scratch and method act lol. Sometimes I’ll go “alright this dude is basically Barney Stinson” or whatever in my mind and then just let it roll.
And even if you do create “original” characters, it can be extremely helpful to imagine your fantasy casting for them to aid in your roleplay. This big guy is John Goodman, that suave rogue is George Clooney, the gnome over there is Jim Carey.
I also don’t know about ripping off movie and TV characters and just swapping out the names. I suppose it depends on the character, but I feel like this is the easiest one to tell that it was “stolen”.
You wouldn’t put them wholesale into a game. For example, you’d mentally label an NPC as a ‘Spock’ and play him as intellectual and logical. Another as a ‘McCoy’ and play him as compassionate, emotional, and a bit of a catastrophiser. Obviously, you wouldn’t use them together as the crew of a ship (along with a ‘Kirk’ and a ‘Scotty’), that would be a bit on the nose. And you wouldn’t steal characters’ history or catch-phrases, you would just use the core of the character as a shorthand for personality, as a guide for how they might present themselves, think, and interact with others.
There’s no reason, say, a fantasy city council couldn’t be run by:
- a ‘Hannibal Lecter’ (brilliant, urbane, lover of the finer things)
- a ‘Lesley Knope’ (energetic, rules follower)
- a ‘Sarah Connor’ (determined, uncompromising)
- a ‘Stringer Bell’ (confident ambitious, maybe with a secret past)
- a ‘Dr. Gregory House’ (cantankerous, confrontational, cynical)
While reading this comment I had the thought of a stoic warrior type that was very much an outsider to the society he was mostly operating in but very open to learning about the things that are new to him. Occasionally he would really embrace some part of that culture and make his own references to it.
I’d probably call him Jaxson and get away with it until he said indeed.
Mazes, riddles, color coordinated pictures, I think the cereal boxes point is actually a good idea for a kernel of a puzzle.
This post just made it very real to me how I could DM a game.
Cool cool cool
As a forever DM, it’s pretty fun to DM and I think everyone should give it a shot
Especially if you enjoy the roleplay aspect, you get to roleplay so much
I do like roleplay, I write stories for fun already.
How did you get started?
During a game of Star Wars d6 rpg i ran a group through basically the train job episode of firefly (that was in solo 12 years later) and they did not realize it until we were watching firefly together. I also ran them through the cloud city plot from ESB while they were on cloud city.
That’s what I mean though. If they are even somewhat aware of the characters you are borrowing from, they’ll know the NPCs are rip-offs, regardless of a name swap. I feel like you would have to do more than just change their name. Perhaps combining characters to make 1, or modifying character traits so they’re not 1:1.
I suppose it also depends on whether or not your players care about that sort of thing though, and if you as the DM don’t come clean about your shenanigans when caught.
I think the prior reply explained it best though. You’re not literally copying and pasting a fictional character into your world and just changing their name. You’re using good characters from fiction and copying their tropes into your world. Because those tropes work and they exist for a reason.
In any work of fiction, including building a TTRPG world, it is assumed you will be borrowing inspiration from other sources. I can’t imagine having to try to come up with 100% unique characters and ideas to run for my players. I’ve had lots of instances too where I come up with something I think is original and a player asks “oh wait, is this inspired by X?”
Point of the ramble being: everything has been thought of to some degree—it’s how the applications are used in your world that make them unique. Plus when we encounter a character that reminds us of an existing really good one, I think it makes it easier/more comfortable to get into a good RP mood with them. And even more fun when you do subversions of their existing character.
Did you memorize all the Dora the Explorer plotlines? Should they switch to Go, Diego, Go?
The dungeon layouts from malls and subways is just stupid. Just placing rooms is not a meaningful portion of the work in designing a dungeon. If you want to steal one, there are so, so many already designed for TTRPGs already and available freely.
Personally I find the room layout the hardest part so stealing a layout helps me jump off
Laying out traps, secrets, monsters, etc is the easy part
Now area maps are a whole other ball game though, my players have been exploring Idaho now for 2 years and no one has caught on yet.
If you don’t identify at least 10 pop culture references every session in my games, you’re either not paying attention to the game or have no culture.
be me
enter dungeon
consult magic talking map
run strait to hot lava pit
band tee shirts and leather with studs everywhere
electric rabbits appear
yell Trix are for kids
Need names? Whip out a map and start using placenames.
Example; I zoomed in on a random spot in London
Allen
Brown
Bury
Leanenhall
Billter
Fenchurch
Creechurch
Mitre
Asperior
Sino
Kentro
Aioi
Ardent
Weightman
