How you get your ideas and/or inspiration

[PersonMan]

I recently saw a very interesting homebrewed monster and effectively built a campaign skeleton plot around it. Suddenly, I think of how others get their ideas. Do you just spontaneously think of something? Do you decide to stat out a cool picture, or do you find a niche that you need a new monster to fill?

Personally, I often browse through some pictures, find one that seems to be saying 'quick, I need stats! Wouldn't this be cool to throw at your players?' and then stat it out. I was wondering how others did it, and decided to ask the playground. The way I end my posts always seems...Sort of...just gah. Yay secret message!

[boomwolf]

Well, for classes I go thinking "What would I want to play?"

For monsters I go "What would be a decent challenge/scare the crap outta me."

For areas/dungeons/settings/etc I think "What basic materials do we have, who is around, and what happens when the guys around start using the stuff around."
I'm usually inventing a really screwed-up environments to make high level adventures, and logical ones for low level.

[PersonMan]

Interesting...Thanks for contributing. Another lacking post-ending. Sigh.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Typically, there's a little spark. It's either spontaneous or happens when I'm watching/reading something and take one teeny tiny idea, then it just expands from there, like a fire.
For example, an artifact I made some time ago was Basatan's Arm (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110561). That was inspired by a spark from this picture (http://www.demotivateus.com/posters/lobster-knife-fight-demotivational-poster.jpg), and developed in about... 8 seconds in my head. Granted, it didn't get to the final version until I'd taken in all the reviews, but I had the idea just happen and made it.
It follows kind of a chain for me, like one idea hits the next and the next, sometimes branching off into several ideas at once and kind of like a tree just going off in my head in a few seconds. Most of the time though, it isn't a finished idea, the initial fire just makes the skeleton.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Personally? I tend to browse other people's homebrew or sites like Deviant Art during my spare time, and I randomly check out homebrew or type in search keywords that I find interesting.

Occasionally, one of these sparks some vaguely related idea in my mind, and I grab it and run. My Restless Troubadour class, for example, was spawned out of seeing an image of a violin with a skull on it. My Hoard Golem came from a story of a DM hiding a mimic in a treasure pile. The Empyrical Cantatrice came from Plato's philosophy, a creation of Vorpal Tribble's, and the concept of astrology.

So it's random, but always based in something I've seen, heard, or read.

[Moofaa]

A lot of my ideas are inspired by others works. Typically I find something I like, such as Lord of the Rings, and find all the things I didnt like about it.

Star Wars is a good example. I liked the setting, the characters, the story, the technology...but I didnt like some of the goofiness and lack of blood, guts, and "realism", characters that were too good, evil never wins, etc.

And thus I created a whole new campaign setting that actually doesnt resemble Star Wars at all. Theres not even Jedi. But the inspiration and motivation were born from it.

[Knaight]

I get things from boredom and little tiny sparks of inspiration that usually stem from me criticizing something. For instance recently my brother was playing a character with 2 axes in a video-game, I noticed that the character wasn't doing anything that really took advantage of it, so I created a whole new combat system focused on realism for Fudge. Mostly, I still need to do some tweaks and make an example weapon list.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Like everyone else, there's always a spark. I look at/hear of something and think "Hey, that would be cool in D&D...waitaminute, I can do it myself!" *scribblescribblescribble* Also, my D&D group of 14 lives with me in my dorm and we're always making D&D jokes and references, so often a sarcastic remark will be quickly turned into homebrew (though none of those many creations has made it to the boards because they're too full of in-jokes and/or have ridiculous premises).

[Doc Roc]

10 Stare at the page until I start to get really angry.
20 Type a sentence.
30 Delete it.
40 Type a sentence. Keep a couple words, delete the rest.
50 NOOP
60 GOTO 10

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

10 Stare at the page until I start to get really angry.
20 Type a sentence.
30 Delete it.
40 Type a sentence. Keep a couple words, delete the rest.
50 NOOP
60 GOTO 10

Yeah, there's also a lot of that.

[GallóglachMaxim]

I tend to homebrew to indulge my archaeological/social/linguistic geekery, so most things come from something I've learned and want to add to my campaign setting, or if working on a new idea reminds me of something else that would fit in.

[Person_Man]

I have an elaborate homebrew world built on ancient Rome. Whenever I need inspiration for a new plot or enemy or whatever, I just read more history. It works very well.

Also, I the moment I saw your handle I started singing "My Evil Twin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpoBAaQF56o)" to myself. Hopefully people won't get us confused.

[Zeta Kai]

I recently saw a very interesting homebrewed monster and effectively built a campaign skeleton plot around it.

What monster so inspired you?

[Yora]

Star Wars is a good example. I liked the setting, the characters, the story, the technology...but I didnt like some of the goofiness and lack of blood, guts, and "realism", characters that were too good, evil never wins, etc.
True Star Wars fans hate Star Wars. ;)

(I'd say that it's probably really true that most fans love the setting, but know that the films are really dorky.)

[PairO'Dice Lost]

True Star Wars fans hate Star Wars. ;)

(I'd say that it's probably really true that most fans love the setting, but know that the films are really dorky.)

True Star Wars fans love Star Wars movies. True Star Wars fans love the Expanded Universe. True Star Wars fans despise the three recent movies that somewhat peculiarly bear the Star Wars logo despite been horrible movies at best and crimes against humanity at worst. True Star Wars fans are utterly convinced that George Lucas died years ago and an impostor has been running Skywalker Ranch and Lucasfilm since then.

[The Neoclassic]

The spark is necessary... I tend to record the vast majority of ideas I have. Most come to me not-very-formed at all. The few that I feel have the most potential or interest me most strongly, I flesh out. This leads to a lot of jumping around. Almost all of it is within my campaign setting, but luckily it's big enough that most ideas I get fit into it somewhere.

A lot of ideas come to me while reading on real world cultures or religions, or even during my classes. Others... no discernable rhyme or reason to how they came to me.

[Admiral Squish]

A majority of my ideas come from a half-thought concept or comment thrown off the cuff. A lot of them come from the roleplay forum. For example, I saw a thread about an organic culture. Now I'm working on a race of fungus-people that grow everything for their culture out of themselves, which evolved out of pondering how trolls regrow so fast.

[PersonMan]

What monster so inspired you?

The Annihalator.

Found here. (http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Annihilator_%283.5e_Creature%29)

I need to keep better track of my threads.

[Golden-Esque]

I recently saw a very interesting homebrewed monster and effectively built a campaign skeleton plot around it. Suddenly, I think of how others get their ideas. Do you just spontaneously think of something? Do you decide to stat out a cool picture, or do you find a niche that you need a new monster to fill?

Personally, I often browse through some pictures, find one that seems to be saying 'quick, I need stats! Wouldn't this be cool to throw at your players?' and then stat it out. I was wondering how others did it, and decided to ask the playground. The way I end my posts always seems...Sort of...just gah. Yay secret message!

I come up with my ideas in almost the exact oppisite way; I read sourcebooks. Many times, I'll end up finding rules or powers or something that makes me think "Man, player X would LOVE this!" And from there, I often end up designing a monster or whatever just because I know my players would have fun with it.

In the long run, the game is ment to be fun, and if something speaks to your players, it's bound to be much more fun then that Elf with the Aberration, Celestial, Fiendish, Lich, Demigod template.

EDIT: Ah ham Personman! The truth always comes out from the pinkish-brown Quote Box of the law!

[Fax Celestis]

40% of the time, I listen to music. 30% of the time, I see something else and think, "I could do that better". The other 30% of the time, I mis-hear something, get an idea, and run with it.

[Mulletmanalive]

As with Fax above, about 25% of the time it's: Lets see if i can do that justice...

40% of the time, it's from spitballing crap with my friends until someone says something and we start rolling...

Maybe 5% of the time, its from a picture

Most of the rest comes from my study of religion. No, i'm not going to discuss it; i use the term to define the whole body of myth that a culture has, plus what they actually think the myths and stories tell them rather than what you or i might read into them.

I'd imagine that the Ancient Greeks would think the way we read many of their stories was right funny...