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So you think you have an original Idea?
Well sometimes you may be right.
Most of the time, you'd be wrong.

You know sometimes you think you have an orginial Idea for a chapter then you find out some bloke who didn't do a simple google search make an entirely new chapter
Too Show what i am talking about I am talking about the Storm Crusaders my chapter that I believed to be an original idea.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/xenos-hunters/wikis/storm-crusaders-rules (Death Watch Group.)
Compared to mine...
http://warhammer40kfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Storm_Crusaders
Now I had no idea the other one even existed but comparing the dates of my original journal back in 2009, The Newer one was made in 2010. The wiki page for the Storm Crusaders (mine) was made recently due to the fact I didn't know i could add some chapters to it.
Though just to compare the two chapters.
The Differences (These are all information from both wikis kinda funny how different the two chapters are lol)
Storm Crusaders (Deathwatch)
Homeworld: Desert Planet, Mid-evil,
Strength: 600
Colors: White and yellow
Traits: Skilled Riders and we stand alone
Geneseed: Black Templars
No Pyskers, No Techmarines
Culture: Barbaric
Captains, 10
"Battle-Brother is considered to have the Lightning Reflexes Talent. "
Friends of the Adepta Sororitas, Help the Ordo Xenos

Storm Crusaders
Homeworld: Jungle World, Technological Wonder
Strength:3,700
Colors: Dark Green and Black
Traits: Trust your Battle Brother, and we are without number
Geneseed: Unknown, Most Likely Imperial Fists
Lots of Pyskers, Lots of Techmarines
Culture: Based Heavily on the Knights Templar and the Knights of Normandy
Captains, 31
"Battle-Brothers Considered to have strong muscle features"
Agreement with Ordo Malleus to give them potential recurits for other chapters. Are also used as to fight if the grey knights cannot come
One of the Few Chapters that know of the Existence of the Grey Knights. And also used the Alpha Squadron as assassins of anything the Ordo Malleus wish.
Have Cut ties with the Ordo Xenos, very few storm crusaders are within the

Similarities
Marines of Both Chapters are famed far and wide for their skill with the blade as well as their leadership under fire.
Enemies of The Eldar,
The Symbol
(Thats it)

Well my rant is over. And my idea was original took me a while but I redid everything a couple years back original they were stupid just read it on the chapters of the forgotten.

Doesn't it piss you off when you find out that the name of your chapter or character is already being used? And especially when someone doesn't take the time to do a simple google search?
Not saying i was pissed off, just a wee bit flustered that someone forgot to do that.
Though someone here on dakka forgot he changed his chapters name, which i said i understood and it was fine,

anyone have any examples of their misfortunes with original ideas?
DO you do what i do and go around the internet first to make sure your ideas are well established and are original. I know i spent 3 months just research ideas for the chapters.
Though I take everything to the extremes mostly lorewise.

I once was in an Internet argument, acting the tough guy as usual - in real life I'm really wimpy - and I ended one of my posts with something like, "May whatever gods you believe in have mercy on you, for I shall not," which turned out to be shockingly similar to something someone else had said at some point in history, despite my writing it off the top of my head.

That was annoying to find out that it wasn't original. It was creative though, it's just that someone came up with it before I did too.

Pouncey wrote:I once was in an Internet argument, acting the tough guy as usual - in real life I'm really wimpy - and I ended one of my posts with something like, "May whatever gods you believe in have mercy on you, for I shall not," which turned out to be shockingly similar to something someone else had said at some point in history, despite my writing it off the top of my head.

That was annoying to find out that it wasn't original. It was creative though, it's just that someone came up with it before I did too.

Huh?
Are you trolling me or is that absolutely true and you got angry at someone from around 300 years older than you?

Asherian Command wrote:

Pouncey wrote:I once was in an Internet argument, acting the tough guy as usual - in real life I'm really wimpy - and I ended one of my posts with something like, "May whatever gods you believe in have mercy on you, for I shall not," which turned out to be shockingly similar to something someone else had said at some point in history, despite my writing it off the top of my head.

That was annoying to find out that it wasn't original. It was creative though, it's just that someone came up with it before I did too.

Huh?
Are you trolling me or is that absolutely true and you got angry at someone from around 300 years older than you?

That is absolutely true.

And I wouldn't say I was angry at them. More just annoyed in general because I figured no one would believe I came up with it off the top of my head, and would call me a liar.

I dont believe you came up with that off the top of your head, I believe you plagiarized it from General George S. Patton, but thats okay, because I think you did it subconsciously...

I've often wondered about this myself, as many times I myself have come up with something only to realize after the fact that its not original, likewise I've seen others do it. I think a lot of the time what happens is we see or read something, perhaps only in our periphery, but for whatever reason it doesn't 'stick' in our conscious mind. Its registered in our subconscious, but for whatever reason it never fully makes the transition into conscious thought. Then one day, we come up with an 'original idea' drawing on our subconscious memory for inspiration...

chaos0xomega wrote:I dont believe you came up with that off the top of your head, I believe you plagiarized it from General George S. Patton, but thats okay, because I think you did it subconsciously...

I've often wondered about this myself, as many times I myself have come up with something only to realize after the fact that its not original, likewise I've seen others do it. I think a lot of the time what happens is we see or read something, perhaps only in our periphery, but for whatever reason it doesn't 'stick' in our conscious mind. Its registered in our subconscious, but for whatever reason it never fully makes the transition into conscious thought. Then one day, we come up with an 'original idea' drawing on our subconscious memory for inspiration...

While that's possible, it's impossible to prove one way or the other.

thats why its just a theory of mine

Well it really depends on the idea. My chapter seems to be original so far at the very least. Have not encountered the name or the colors anywhere... yet. But if it is some small thing. Like a conversion idea I came up with and I find that kind of conversion somewhere it isn't that big of a deal. Finding a chapter with the same name as mine I might be like "Oh man. Now I have to rename them." or something (and end up not renaming them).

My Chapter fluff is no longer viable since it went back to 1st ed. It was Vikings the 12th chapter long before the released an exhaustive list. They were a pure Jump pack marine force, all squads including tacs and devs had Jumppacks. They all also had hafted weapons for assault as back then a st4 hafted weapon was as good as a chainsword for half the price. Not that I used HTH much, I would just drop in close enough to drop grenades on everyone. It worked great.

144th Carpathian Imperial Guard Light Infantry. No way there'd be a planet Carpathia, that'll be..wait..Kryptman went there and caught Genestealers? FUUUUUUU!

I was repainting my marines to try and come up with my own chapter. they were blood angel soo i was like hey i just repaint some parts black. when i was done I realized I had turned them in to red corsairs.

It's not 40K related, but when I was 15 I came up with a really cool idea for a story about teenage bike gangs in a futuristic, semi-post-apocalyptic Tokyo, some of whom had psychic powers.

The next week I saw Akira.

They did it better.

I was thinking about a flying rat once after a game of magic (which involved giving a rat flying).

The next second a pidgeon slammed into my window. Nature bested me.

I called my hivefleet jormungandr, and then the new codex came out and they used it.

This happens to me a gak-ton, more likely outside the 40k realm.

40k wise: I made a Space Marine chapter that was banished to a desert Death World and called them the Desert Raiders. Unbeknownst to me the IG already had Desert Raiders.

Outside 40k: I was thinking of how to put a modern-day cold air intake into my classic car and it turns out a few companies like Spectre have been all over that for years now....

I hate it when that happens.

I painted my Chaos Space Marines blue with bits of green and Silver and Black trim. Then I saw Alpha Legion colors.

That crap happens to me all the time. Sometimes I think I end up with an idea that I heard of in passing before, sometimes it comes from a source that I have never heard of before.

I've come to terms with it. If I later find out I stole something from somewhere, I consider where it came from. If it is an obscure source that my audience is likely to have never heard of, I go ahead and use it anyway. If it IS something I am likely to get called on, I revise enough to make it different.

Of course, I never steal something (intentionally or not) if I'm submitting the idea for school, work, or if I'm being paid for it. That would be plagiarism.

But since this mostly tends to happen to me when I am designing plots, locations, or NPC's for a role-playing game campaign, I just let it slide. It doesn't have to be original for my players to like it.