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GMs, how do you get your inspiration for your campaigns?
Topic Started: Jan 24 2017, 11:34 PM (1,797 Views)
OniLink64
Pokémon Trainer
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Having a hard time coming up with concepts for a setting. How do you guys do it?
Edited by OniLink64, Jan 25 2017, 01:10 AM.
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Kian
Pokémon Trainer
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I've DMed a few one shots, not quite a campaign yet, and not in PTU, so my insight might not be too valuable. But what I do, first, is determine "why" am I DMing.

Generally, when I get the itch to DM, it's because I have some 'what if' question floating around in my head and answering that question provides a hook for an adventure. But lets say you want to DM because you want to play pokémon, someone has to do it, and you drew the short straw. In that case, start with something basic. For the setting, just use one of the games. You have about five different setting to use, ready made with plenty of materials online describing each place following the games. Just read through bulbapedia.

You don't HAVE to make a custom setting of your own. If you want to play a tabletop version of the videogames, then do just that. Choose a gen, and start with a straightforward league run. Even a campaign following a group of trainers in one of the default regions and just trying to reach the rank of champions is taxing on the DM. You don't even need to have an evil team to thwart. With a few rivals to challenge them as they go and a couple of local complications per town for variety, you already have an enjoyable campaign that will last for a pretty long time.

I only go deeper when I already have things that I think I could do better, or that I'd like to see done differently. For instance, how do the pokéballs work? That's a question that only needs to be answered if it's relevant to your campaign. If you don't know how to answer it, then don't. The games didn't, and they do alright.
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rybackgaming
Pokémon Trainer
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What Kian said, I'm kinda bad at writing custom settings, so I've made ones based on the Anime and the Manga. Anime one is planned up to the Misty fight. I just take out very specific things that reference Ash and the crew and take the basics of the episode. Add a few rewards here and there (Samurai gave the players Silver Powder for helping them find his Metapod, for example).
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Professor Scamander
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Pokémon Trainer
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As somebody who does a lot of setting building, it mostly comes for me from inspiration. What would a medieval Pokemon world look like? How could I blend ideas from [insert inspiration book here] into my world? What would happen if Vivillion Powder took the place of gunpowder? How would prehistoric people interact with pokemon and what would their religion be like? Then I go from there.

There's also two main theories of setting building.
1) Inside Out
Start small, and do only what you need to (maybe a country/region name) but focus on only what you need. What town will the players start in? Who are the major figures? What's happening? You can build out from this and expand the region as you need to and there's a sense of discovery and flexibility. I've only done one setting like this, but the game has turned out phenomenally, and me not having a plan has led to some really interesting places.

2) Outside In
This is what I do (mostly). I start big picture and create a vibrant setting in its entirety. I cram as much detail and flavor and room for conflict as I can in, Then I present it to my applicants and see what they're interested in. This is a ... time intensive way to do things. I oftentimes spend a year developing them before they ever see play.

Or just ditch making your own region. Use one from the games/manga/anime. Or beg/borrow/steal somebody else's setting. There's quite a few great settings out there. Off the top of my head I can think of a few new regions that are fairly traditional, at least two medieval ones, and a grimdark setting. While you should definitely ask before using, most setting creators love it when other people use their work, and you can see which parts inspire you. God knows I do.

Edit: Another way to go are thinking about genre instead of setting. Basically what kind of game do you want to run? While it's medieval themed and has a lot of setting specific influences, This Page has some ideas about 'Game Seeds' (basically genres/topics). While its missing quite a few that are relevant outside of medieval campaigns, one of the seeds might spark your interest whether the game be medieval or not.
Edited by Professor Scamander, Jan 25 2017, 04:06 PM.
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l33tmaan
Pokémon Trainer
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For my campaign so far, I just started the party out in REAL LENTIMAS TOWN in ACTUAL UNOVA, paid attention to what my players had created and seemed to enjoy, and I slowly moved it farther and farther away from what I would call a "usual" pokemon game (get all 8 badges and become chimp) into a more occult tale. I still use the real locations from the games for inspiration when it comes to wild pokemon and items to give, but it seems to work so far, especially since one of my players never played B/W2.

I even recreated the entire valley that Lentimas Town was in and made it my own - now everyone makes crafts from the ashes of the volcano and relies on solar power and animal husbandry to get by. It's rather quaint.
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The Black Glove
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A Man Of Heart
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My number 1 reason inspiration for campaign concepts is the prefixing phrase "Wouldn't it be cool if-".

"Wouldn't it be cool if Persona were different kinds of Pokemon?"
"Wouldn't it be cool if Pokemon invaded the real world?"
"Wouldn't it be cool if Pokemon took place in a medieval society?"

I also do a lot of "crossovers" that take Pokemon and apply another setting to it. I have notes lying around for campaigns featuring everything from Persona to Doctor Who.
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Eisen
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Pokémon Trainer
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Random ideas expanded upon as far as interest takes me.

Setting building is easy for me. Maintaining the attention necessary to run in those settings is where I snag.
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rybackgaming
Pokémon Trainer
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@The Black Glove, I would LOVE to do a Persona-style campaign. Have you got any groundwork on it? If not, can we brainstorm it?
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Lockdown
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I SEEE YOUUUU
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The Black Glove
Jan 25 2017, 06:43 PM
My number 1 reason inspiration for campaign concepts is the prefixing phrase "Wouldn't it be cool if-".

"Wouldn't it be cool if Persona were different kinds of Pokemon?"
"Wouldn't it be cool if Pokemon invaded the real world?"
"Wouldn't it be cool if Pokemon took place in a medieval society?"

I also do a lot of "crossovers" that take Pokemon and apply another setting to it. I have notes lying around for campaigns featuring everything from Persona to Doctor Who.
That's about how my latest two games have gone. The first one is Fallout Mon, which is over a year old now and only just getting out of the first week of in-game time (albeit some of that is due to long stretches of break time for RL stuff). The other is new, and is a One Piece inspired setting. Figuring out how to mesh and merge the two settings in either case has kept me involved and interested.
Edited by Lockdown, Jan 25 2017, 07:15 PM.
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Dark Shadow
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Reploid
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Sometimes it just as simple as taking a grab bag of (sometimes stupid-seeming) ideas, plucking up a setting, and throwing stuff at the wall. That's how my first game started, and now, over a year later, it's still going strong here.

Basically my thought process went like this:
"I want to run a game."
"I really like and know Hoenn, I'll run it there."
"A gym crawl wouldn't be too hard, let's do that."
"What's some cool stuff I want to add in? Oh, hybrid Pokémon, those are cool, let's add those in."
"Oh, yeah, and [plot spoiler stuff that I haven't got to yet], that'd be great. Throw it in."
"How about a tournament to kick things off?"
And so forth.

Not all ideas are winners, but throw enough stuff at the wall, and, as long as you have a great group of players, you're gonna find something that everyone likes. :D

So, in summary: Just find an idea that you like, and try finding a way to run that. :P
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