How do you, personally, think of new campaign premises?

How do you, personally, think of new campaign premises?
How do you come up with something that actually clicks instead of just ripping off a game or move you liked that you think you could emulate?

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I just rip off games or movies. The trick is to do several at once so it becomes such a jumbled mess that no-one can tell what the original source material was.

I take time I should spend on other issues and dream and doodle and take notes for a while until reality calls. rinse and repeat till there's something you can consolidate.

whether my stuff is truly original is questionable.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired by something

Writers have been writing variations of the Odyssey, Illiad and Anabasis for thousands of years now. I made a game about a space station that was a much more grounded than Space Station 13 and dealt with heavier themes but I openly admit I was inspired by all the wackiness of space station 13.

Writers are usually inspired by their real life experiences, even sci fi writers.

>music playlist on shuffle
>first song inspires your setting
>second song determines your party
>third song determines your bbeg

What is the game about?
>How do the mechanics support this?
>How does the game reward players with what it is about?

If you find a measure of incongruence between your answers to questions 1 and 2, make question 2 the following.
>What do the mechanics imply the game is about?

I start by building the world. I draw a bunch of factions on a piece of paper and I draw lines between them, and then I start adding descriptions to the lines of how the factions relate to each other. After than I start working on "timelines", things the factions are accomplishing that may be disrupted or advanced by the players (or ignored). This allows the campaign to progress in a more organic and sandbox fashion.

Start with a setting from a movie or game. Toss in a different movie or game entirely and flesh that out into a campaign. It practically writes itself.

The only hard rule is the PCs can't be the protagonists of the movies, that's just lame.

>>Wall-E
PCs are a mix of robots (great stats, behavioral limitations) and hoverchair humans (useless, but can order the robots) re-colonizing a post-apocalyptic Earth. Is it empty? Fuck no! Mad Max that shit!

>>The Untouchables
The PCs are a special team of hardboiled cops trying to shut down bootlegging, because the aliens from XCOM are fucking with the booze to some nefarious end.

Works have different tones (comedy, tragedy, horror, etc.) different structures (mystery, hero's journey, setup/punchline, etc.) different high concept premises (big central ideas like what drives a twilight zone episode) and different milieus (all the stuff of genre and worldbuilding - a western has different stuff from noir or swords and sorcery).

Once you know that, you can make unique combinations even though the individual parts have been used. High concept premises and interesting milieus are what people imagine when they talk about originality, but understanding tone and structure are what really make a work tick. Running a workplace comedy through an Eastern Roman Empire setting is going to feel original even though neither workplace comedies nor the ERE are new. Using some of the more fantastic elements from the Secret Histories would make it technically qualify as fantasy, but it would be nothing at all like Tolkien because you didn't start there.

Part of the issue you're going to have with RPGs is the limits of the system. Some games are really not for mysteries, not for action, etc. Not a fault of the system, as it's good for each game to have a point of view. But you run the risk of running Pirate D&D after Hobbit D&D after Conan D&D after fucking Oz D&D. Mashing up two milieus/concepts isn't as interesting as giving a milieu/concept a new and specific tone or structure. And using the same tone/structure again and again will get old no matter what coat of paint you slap onto it.

this

I start out by throwing together media I enjoyed and fit the themes I want to work with.
And then I just let it gestate and rot and mutate for ages. This allows the campaign or setting to be altered in small ways, making it look more unique. Also, these slow changes make it easier to make new connections to other media, growing the inspiration you've used for the campaign/setting.

Also what these lads say.

first think for yourself what you want your party to face, after having general idea of what form of evil your party will face take several settings from media and thrust your idea into it, if it clings continue on turning it world into your own

I tend to avoid coming up with a large overarching plot or BBEG until my players have made their characters.

One that's done, we dedicate most of Session Zero (or I do it myself if it's going to be a short campaign) and try to tie all the characters together through backstory, goals, etc.

Then it just develops naturally from there, I rarely have to *really* think about where the story is going. The players make it through playing, though this obviously requires more proactive players at your table.

This tends to work best when the players don't know that you're GMing this way. Sorry if this is vague.

>How do you, personally, think of new campaign premises?
Well, I...
> instead of just ripping off a game or move you liked that you think you could emulate?
Oh nevermind

I consume media through every orifice and via every means till the right neuron fires...

>How do you come up with something that actually clicks instead of just ripping off a game or move you liked that you think you could emulate?

It's not a fucking novel. Come up with something that isn't 100% a ripoff of something else and it's fine. Players don't even give a fuck.

If you try to be too original they will get lost and will stop caring for your game.

Stop fetishizing originality, it's good but it's like this board is a constant contest to come up with """"original"""" campaign premises that hide behind being oh-so-different to mask a complete lack of quality.

>Instead of JUST ripping off a game or movie you liked that you think you can like

And

>Come up with something that isn't 100% a ripoff of something else and it's fine. Players don't even give a fuck.
>something that isn't 100% a ripoff of something else

The inquiry of the OP is how people make things that aren't complete boring knockoffs. Saying to "just do it" is a shallow answer.

There isn't any fetishizing originality. There's a distinct lack of anyone whinging about how to make an "ORIGINAL" game, OP included.

Also

>If you try to be too original they will get lost and will stop caring for your game.

Depends or not if your players like it or not.

Typically, I wait until I strike myself with a line of inspiration that makes me want to develop it. Examples include:
"What if we had mind-control beer?" for a silly campaign
"And I will strike you down with the hammer of Thor!" for a Shadowrun Winternight campaign
"Reality is the finest flesh, oh bearer mine. Shall we not feast?" for a Destiny campagin

From there springs a well of ideas about why that statement was made, who made it, to who, and what the world around it is like. It's about this stage that I introduce a game system as well, which is a great way to fill in a lot of detail without much work. If I add in D&D for example, it has the magic system and a set of expectations already there ie faux-medieval swords and sorcery. Then change it enough and make a map to suit my needs.

Over the course of a few weeks I daydream about it and fill in extra details here and there until I make something workable and introduce it to the players, but I never tell them the line until after the game (and indeed, sometimes more often than not the lines don't make it into the game itself).

Of course, I also like to rip off established properties because I can't into super OC do not steal very well. But no one ever catches onto the references unless I make it super obvious.

Ditto.

>Implying I don't blatantly and ruthlessly copy everything in my games from any and all media I can get my grubby hands on
Great writers steal motherfucker!

>lie in bed
>nothing to do, can't sleep
>think of a setting, the world, the continents, the races
>political structure, struggles for power, etc.
Is this a sign that I'm autistic?

For real, though. If you REALLY need to come up with something (NPC, power, questline, even a whole campaign) you WILL come up with it.

Easy, I rip off movies my players haven't seen

>I take time I should spend on other issues and dream and doodle and take notes for a while until reality calls. rinse and repeat till there's something you can consolidate.

Holy shit this. I think it comes from my shitty preparation skills.

I start with a basic political theme.

>kings?
>emperor?
>small tribes?

Then I toss in sketches of geography. And make the geopolitics fit the geographic map.

>a coastline capital?
>a narrow mountain pass?
>Guard posts on the 'frontier'?

Then...the rest pretty much fills itself in.

>instead of
There's your problem

Perfectly normal user.

I do the same.

Listen to power metal. Half the time it seems Iike they're based on campaigns the band must have run.

I mean..
>youtu.be/8-OzvIL4d2w
Boom, done. Dwarven Lords have the key to the resting place of the Sapphire Dragon. They task the PCs to take the crystal key to it's home to release the dragon so it may fly again and it's flame may allow their great forge to craft a blade against the evil wizard as fortold in a prophecy which the PCs will of course use as they have proven their worth in releasing the Sapphire Dragon.
You've got a road trip, a macguffin to transport, a villain to try and stop them, special loot and draconic magic as rewards.

This.
In my current campaign I've ripped off WoW combined with the Netheril from Forgotten Realms and added some Cthulu/Far Realms shit for shits & giggles.

Basic premise is that Elf civilisation uses so much magic they start breaking the weave, so they invent an artifact that's basically the Well of Eternity from WoW and Far Realms shit comes through...

If you come up with a whole campaign, then what you need players for?

>Depends or not if your players like it or not.
Protip: 93% of them don't give a fuck.