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I'm curious. I'm anticipating being able to get back to D&D fairly soon, and I'm building up the opening for my own campaign. One of the key elements of this campaign is somewhat looted from a book I read the first half of a while ago, and I thought it was pretty cool, so I adapted it for my own purposes.

It got me wondering - how much of peoples campaign writing involved "liberating" ideas from books, movies etc? I'm including a deliberate reference to one of my favourite movies into a little part of it, to see if the players get it (and if they do, it will make them somewhat more frantic as they will anticipate what is coming!)

potential players, don't read the spoiler!



obviously this is more of an easter-egg kinda event, not a key plot device.

So, has anyone else looted plots, or added snippets like the above to the game for the amusement of their players?

All the time. It is part and parcel of the course.

I am playing a Monster of the Week game right now set at Miskatonic University in Maine. They have no real idea what the significance of that setting is.

There’s a D&D podcast called the Adventure Zone, and they had this one story arc that took place in a lich’s demiplane. Said demiplane was a fantasy game-show, complete with gaudy multicolour lights, wheels of fortune, and electronica music. Since then, a good number of my villains have used some variant of this “game-show” aesthetic.

Pulled a lot from DC/Marvel comics too. The “shared universe” idea was a good framework for handling NPCs. While the story would be centered on the party, the NPCs would be heroes of their own stories too. These NPC “quests” could impact the world, and subsequently the world of the party as well. It also gave the NPCs history and conflict which developed over time. Helped make the world feel a bit more alive.

More than I can count. In our DnD campaign, we've stolen bits from various realplay podcasts.

We used a Groundhog Day style time loop mechanic that was used in The Adventure Zone to create kind of a Edge of Tomorrow scenario. The players were thrown into an extremely improbable to survive scenario, and the only advantage they had was a magic item that triggered when their hearts stopped to jump them back to the beginning, and they were allowed to "do the thing the same way" and use the result of a roll they'd made in an earlier loop.

so the final loop went down and it was something like

We start

The rogue dodges the first attack from a round where it didn't hit his armor class
The druid takes the entangle from earlier that got 3/4 of one group of enemies
The ranger takes the Hunters Mark+Crit on the one un-entangled enemy to oneshot him
The fighter throws a stone to trigger a trap they stepped into before from a distance, hitting an enemy waiting in ambush behind a door

etc. I think we did five loops. there was some frustration after the first one, but after the mechanics were explained, the players got hyped for it.

Literally everything at all times. If your not stealing your probably doing it wrong.

As an example, one of the major Empires in the world I built over 20 years of playing D&D is called the "Ican Empire"

I initially stole the name from a Magic the Gathering card I had from when I was a kid. Specifically this one: Icatian Infantry

I didn't want to just use the word "Icatian" so I slimmed it down to "Ican" and the people that live in the empire are a member of the 'Iconi" tribe of peoples who migrated from the north and conquered the old Dwarf Empire that had lived in those lands previously.

The things you steal don't have to be big, but stealing and re-purposing is a tool all DM's should use. This is just an example of a simple use of it. When it comes to story ideas I find small indie games and cheesy mobile games that attempt to have some kind of story are a great resource. Stealing from them is the best as no one really know where the idea comes from so I can fake being original.

The good ones borrow. The great ones steal. If its a good idea, use it. If you can update and improve do that too. Mix match and adapt.

Ideal, I feel somewhat better about the bit's I've... ...appropriated for my campaign plans!

Also, we recently stole the general plot structure of "Final stronghold of a declining empire that keeps the war raging outside the walls a secret from its citizens" from one of the seasons of Avatar the Last Airbender, because it made for an extremely neat plot twist.

As a DM, it is standard practice. When i picked up a Piers Anthony book (Juxtaposition, I think?) and it had the same plot points as a campaign i played years prior, I chuckled a bit to myself and knew why the DM in that campaign had always been my favorite DM for a reason - he made the stories so much more than just the module we were playing..

Loot away. Stitch together your campaign from whatever you want. Everybody does it, and is encouraged to do it. Well, I think everyone is encouraged these days to buy the pre-packaged stuff, but why Ed Greenwood's Magical Realm is the chosen setting, I don't know?

Have you not heard of the infamous Appendix N from the original Dungeon Masters Guide? It is a list of some of the books the game's creators used for inspiration. There is even a version of it in the current DMG, although it is Appendix D.

An example of such borrowing would be the D&D magic system. It is taken from the magic system Jack Vance created in his Dying Earth- Cugel the Clever stories, albeit it has been modified a bit these days. The old magic item, the Ioun stones are also taken from that series, and apparently included in the game with Jack Vance's permission. Oh,if you ever wonder how the name came about, Vecna is an anagram of Vance.

Edited to clean up the grammar and syntax and for clarity.

White Wolf used to include a very extensive list not just of their inspirations but anythingthat even remotely fit the theme of the game in question to help inspire you. That list included books, movies, comics, music.. They were like "Vampire The Mascaraed is a game that is essentially about these themes. Go watch/read/listen to these to get you thinking along those lines."

 Lance845 wrote:
White Wolf used to include a very extensive list not just of their inspirations but anythingthat even remotely fit the theme of the game in question to help inspire you. That list included books, movies, comics, music.. They were like "Vampire The Mascaraed is a game that is essentially about these themes. Go watch/read/listen to these to get you thinking along those lines."

But not only do White Wolf copy everything, they try to trademark the folklore they use. And to go further claim copyrighht on player and GM additions using their game engine.
Hypocrisy is sadly a major part in how IP is handled.

Ultimately very little is new, and gamers should be aware that there are a limited number of plots, a basic list of seven and an expanded list of I believe thirty six, which are combos of the original seven. All workable plots are based on these elements and they have been copied for millenia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots