# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games >  Wierdest inspiration for campaigns.

## Pauly

I recently watched Charade a movie from 1964 starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn and I totally plan on ripping off the plot. Its a premise that can be put into any genre any setting and one of the easiest movie plots to convert into a RPG that Ive ever seen.

Anyways it got me to thinking of the time I ripped off a Marx Brothers movie for the plot if a Traveller module for a convention many years ago. The movie being Monkey Business. It was a two session module run with 2 GMs.
The set up is the party is going home in disgrace from a failed mission penniless and shipless. Theyve stowed away on a star liner. On the star liner are two gang bosses who [for plot reasons] have no weapons or hired goons. The party [for plot reasons] get split into two groups and half run into the first gangster and the other half run into the second gangster.
The gang bosses [for plot reasons] declare war on each other and each hire half the party as muscle.
The first half of the module had the players staging fake assassination attempts, show downs and the like as the gangsters pay bonuses for taking out the other guy/saving their life.
The second half of the module had each gang boss tell their crew  that the rest of their gang is going to meet them at the docks. The players then realize that they somehow have to get off the star liner with their money and without either gang murdering all of them

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## King of Nowhere

there is a quite famous italian youtuber making funny science communication videos. his flagship project is a series of videos dedicated to different animals, where in each video he explains how much the animal sucks and its life is miserable - very over the top, for comedy purposes.

this inspired the main villain of my campaign: Alice, the crazy nymph. as a nymph she has a strong connection to nature, but unlike her sisters she doesn't see the world through rose-tinted glasses, and she realizes exactly how much nature sucks and how much suffering it entails, and how virtually all creatures live horrible lives of drudgery, pain and slow death. She decided that the logical solution to that is to eradicate life completely, and a freak magic accident gave her enough power to give it a good try.
when interacting with the party, she often brought about examples from that youtuber as for how everything would just be better off dead

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## Easy e

I enjoyed the movie charade a lot.

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## Kurt Kurageous

Did a campaign based on the facts surrounding the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald set in the world of the Dresden Files.

Did a campaign arc based on the conflictes represented in the movie Casino Royale.

Written and run a campaign based on pre-Christian Ireland.

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## Ionathus

My first ever campaign was based around an infestation of magical fire seeds that adhered magically to your skin and burst into flame if broken open. A wizard did it, obviously, and the party had to find a solution.

This plot was informed directly by how badly I hate burdock.

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## farothel

I once had a session of my Alternity tangents campaign where they went to a tangent where cats were intelligent and walked upright after a nuclear calamity.  Basically the backstory of Red Dwarf's The Cat extended to a full planet.  And the names of the cats they interacted with were taken from the Musical Cats.

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## animorte

I had one that was basically a League of Legends map scaled up massively. There was the dangerous jungle full of various monsters, the massive river, and weaponized structures. The party needed to gradually weaken a few of the structures enough and gather intel to bring down the enemy stronghold. They were obviously met with resistance and sometimes had to defend incoming raids on their own structures.

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## Easy e

I played a campaign of Shadowrun based on the Mighty Max cartoon and toy line.

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## VonKaiserstein

Years ago, I played in a Streetfighter STG campaign. So I was playing a Nazi cybernetic/robotics experiment that had been captured by the Russians and continued (just a Tuesday in Streetfighter). After escaping, the campaign devolved into a series of organizations trying, and often succeeding in capturing the NAZ1000 and disassembling it or reassembling it in turn. Think ultraviolent Short Circuit, if Johnny 5 had been a Nazi superweapon improved for the entirety of the Cold War by the Soviets and then unleashed on the far future of 1995.  It was absolutely amazing.

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## sktarq

Florida Man/Carl Haissen Books (which are based on Florida man/florida crime blotters)  

They were vampires assigned to preserve the masquerade in Miami....it was fun.

I never lacked for the next thing for them to do....just said "what caused THIS to be what is made public"

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## Yora

I'm currently taking a lot of ideas from fantasy videogames from the late 90s and early 2000s. Thief, Icewind Dale, Gothic, Wheel of Time, Arx Fatalis, King's Field, and so on.

Not exactly weird, but by now this is a very oldschool-retro type of fantasy.  :Small Big Grin:

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## Bulhakov

"Monster of the week" episodes of various fantasy and urban-fantasy series (Charmed, Supernatural, Hercules, Xena, Batman and Batman Beyond) worked great for a couple Vampire adventures.

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## Tanarii

All my campaigns use this weird inspiration called: not based on a movie or book plot.  Because those generally make for terrible railroad "campaigns" at best.

I look for inspiration in setting or events to design either adventure sites and actual campaigns.  I look for inspiration from organization concepts for Big Bad Evil Organizations.  Those can be real or stolen from books or movies, but honestly it's best to just steal the idea them direct from work someone else has already done for an RPGs.  :Small Amused: 

I can see Episodic TV shows with "adventure of the episode" vaguely working.  But it'd need to be very loosely inspired.  But since my favorite shows were Futurama and Family Guy, I've never bothered.

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## SimonMoon6

Here are a couple of mine:

(1) * Marvel's New Universe*. Back in the 1980's, Marvel decided to create a new line of comics devoted to a new universe with new characters. It was a modern day realistic Earth where all of the characters were powered up by a mysterious "White Event". At least, they were supposed to be. Some writers didn't get the memo, so you also had things like an extra-dimensional vigilante (who had to be retconned later) and a guy given his powers by a mysterious alien (which also had to be retconned). 

The fascinating part to me was the comic D.P.7, in which many of the characters were still figuring out their powers, not knowing exactly how they worked or what exactly they could do. So, I made a game with a mysterious "Black Event", after which the PCs got powers. The players only got to make the non-powered version of their characters. They had no idea what their powers would be except that they were told that the more useful their non-powered character was, the less useful their powers would be (and vice-versa). And the PCs had to slowly figure out their powers. One guy had mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum (but really only knew he could do stuff with light), one guy could time travel but only to a point in time and space where one of his ancestors lived (and he only ended up doing so by accident when in danger), and one guy had phenomenal power over matter, capable of telekinesis and, to a lesser extent, transmutation.

(2) Jack Chalker's *Midnight at the Well of Souls* and to a lesser extent DC's *Green Lantern: Mosaic* and maybe a bit of Marvel's 1980's *Secret Wars*.

Those inspired me to create a game in which there was a "mosaic" world, created from pieces of other worlds. In each piece, the rules of reality were completely different. In one area, high technology worked, but not magic. In another, magic worked but not technology. Another area allowed special abilities only if you had sung about those abilities. And so forth. It wasn't so cut and dried though. In addition to generic fantasy and generic sci-fi, there were more specific settings: monster movie horror, fairy tales, Greco-Roman fantasy, martial arts competition, kids cartoons, and so forth.


There was a lot more to the game, but that was the setting.

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## Pauly

> All my campaigns use this weird inspiration called: not based on a movie or book plot.  Because those generally make for terrible railroad "campaigns" at best.
> .


Most books and an even higher percent of movies are told from the POV of the protagonist, which locks the plot into their POV. Books and movies are generally a bad source of plot inspiration, I think most gamers would accept that as true. Settings are what most people take as inspiration from books, films and videogames. 

The reason why _Charade_ works as a plot that can be transplanted into a game is that the protagonist (Audrey Hepburn) is essentially a passenger and weird stuff she cant control happens to her. _Monkey Business_ (the Marx brothers film, not the Marilyn Monroe one) works because it is a genuine ensemble piece from the start and the plot is an excuse to setup the Brothers unleashing chaos.

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## Tanarii

> The reason why _Charade_ works as a plot that can be transplanted into a game is that the protagonist (Audrey Hepburn) is essentially a passenger and weird stuff she cant control happens to her.


I haven't seen the movie so I read the Wikipedia plot summary, and it just screams railroad.  Otoh Wikipedia plot summaries are usually pretty terrible representations of the actual movies.   :Small Amused:   So what is it about this movie that makes this fantastic to convert to a TTRPG with solid player agency, instead of them just going along for the ride?

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## Ameraaaaaa

> All my campaigns use this weird inspiration called: not based on a movie or book plot.  Because those generally make for terrible railroad "campaigns" at best.
> 
> I look for inspiration in setting or events to design either adventure sites and actual campaigns.  I look for inspiration from organization concepts for Big Bad Evil Organizations.  Those can be real or stolen from books or movies, but honestly it's best to just steal the idea them direct from work someone else has already done for an RPGs. 
> 
> I can see Episodic TV shows with "adventure of the episode" vaguely working.  But it'd need to be very loosely inspired.  But since my favorite shows were Futurama and Family Guy, I've never bothered.


See i didn't really borrow plot elements for my jujutsu kaisen game I'm currently running I'm just using the setting and having the pcs make characters in that setting. I got 2 to 4 bad guy groups in mind and i made them all up for this campaign. The only thing I'm really using is the setting itself and the power system.

Edit that's how i personally use inspiration. Though i don't mind the idea of people using plot elements for there games tho. I just prefer to use the setting itself as a canvas to paint my own ideas on.

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## Pauly

> I haven't seen the movie so I read the Wikipedia plot summary, and it just screams railroad.  Otoh Wikipedia plot summaries are usually pretty terrible representations of the actual movies.    So what is it about this movie that makes this fantastic to convert to a TTRPG with solid player agency, instead of them just going along for the ride?


My very rough Cliffs notes cersion of how Id set it up.

*Backstory* - can be exposition or result of investigation depending in how long you want to run the adventure for.
15 years ago 5 special forces soldiers stole a a small fortune that was supposed to go to the resistance. The soldiers got ambushed by the enemy after hiding the fortune. 1 was killed, 3 were captured and 1 escaped. The one who escaped came back and took the fortune for himself.
The guy with the money assumes a fake identity and lives a life of quiet luxury, marries a trophy wife while generally keeping hidden.

*Inciting Incident*
The wife goes away on a personal trip for a few day. She comes back to find their rented house stripped bare. The police arrive and tell ger her husband has been found dead. They tell her he sold the contents of their house in the last few days, but when his body was found they only found a bag with
(1) a ticket to a foreign country (2) his dairy of appointments (3) a selection of false identities and (4) a small selection if random personal items. No money has been found. The police have no leads or clues.

The wife is contacted by an officer of the states secret service. He tells the wife of the true identity of her husband. He tells her that unless she returns the money her husband stole the government cant help her. He also tells her the 3 remaining members of the team will think she is a part of her husbands conspiracy.

*Recruiting the players*
The widow approaches the players. She says she has no clue about her husbands identity and wants the players to protect her/recover the fortune. Depending on the PCs this may be done on promise of a reward, or with her last cash, or even out of the goodness of their hearts.

*Main NPCs*
Widow Can either be a complete innocent in over her head, or a femme fatale in in her husbands plans. She will keep her husbands personal effects in a safe place.

Evil Guys 1,2 and 3. The former husbands team mates. All are highly competent and highly dangerous. They have banded together on the basis that they dont trust one another and want to ensure that they each get a 1/3 cut of the fortune. 
Each assumes that one of the other 2 killed the husband.
They all ended up in the city after the husbands identity was made known to them. Possibly his picture was in a newspaper article, possibly they received a tipoff from their informant network, maybe the husbands anti-scrying protection got compromised - whatever you think of as the DM is appropriate for your setting.
They will try a variety of methods of getting information from the wife - burglary, tailing here, intimidation, seduction. They don't want to kill the wife as she is their remaining lead to the money, but they are ruthless. 

Police Detective Inspector plod thinks unsolved murders are messy and wants to tie up and resolve the murder case. He will be reduced to following/investigating the wife due to other leads drying up.

BBEG Is the fake state secret service agent who warned the wife. He is actually the 5th member of the team who got left for dead but didnt die. He organized of EG1,2 and 3 to find out about the husband. He wants the money and revenge on the team mates who left him for dead. 

Optional NPC - Cary Grant Actual state secret service agent. Infiltrates the EG 1,2and 3 group posing as brother of BBEG who wants in on the cut. Wants to recover the money for the government.

*Plot*
Following the clues from the diary will lead the players on a wild goose chase.

As the players investigate the clues from the widow EG 1,2 and 3 will approach the widow to try and get information from her. 
When the party find and confront EG 1, 2 and 3 they will offer to work together to recover the money. Close proximity and police surveillance should discourage the players from killing of The EGs.

The fortune is actually hidden in the non descript personal items in the husbands personal effects. In the movie it was rare stamps affixed to a letter addressed to the wife, but whatever fits your setting is fine.

The BBEG will attempt to keep the widow distrustful of the PCs and EGs by feeding her information. The BBEG will try to pick off the EGs one by one if an opportunity presents itself to get one in their own.

_Climax_ 
The final hint in the diary will lead the group to a location which reveals the nature of how the treasure was hidden (a stamp market in the movie). This reveal will cause BBEG to kill off EG3, and then have a confrontation with the party seeking the treasure.
Optional - Mexican standoff with the BBEG, Widow (femme fatale version) and Cary Grant.

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## farothel

In my Star Trek campaign, the characters were pulled back in time to ancient Egypt.  With them was the Caitian assistant chief engineer, who was mistaken for the goddess Bastet.  During their stay there she went into heat and that brought about the change of Bastet from a more warlike aspect (taken over by Sekhmet) to a gentler aspect as a goddess of love and fertility.

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## not_a_fish

> I had one that was basically a League of Legends map scaled up massively. There was the dangerous jungle full of various monsters, the massive river, and weaponized structures. The party needed to gradually weaken a few of the structures enough and gather intel to bring down the enemy stronghold. They were obviously met with resistance and sometimes had to defend incoming raids on their own structures.


I'm really curious how well this one worked.  Did your group notice the inspiration? Did you have different parties (or npcs) in different lanes?

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## animorte

> I'm really curious how well this one worked.  Did your group notice the inspiration? Did you have different parties (or npcs) in different lanes?


Thanks for asking! I was actually proud of myself for maintaining the inspirations secrecy for almost half the way through considering most of us had played LoL together. It went from level 1-10 (sorry, not appropriately levels 1-18  :Small Tongue: ) and lasted the better part of a year.

The shopkeeper was actually the inner circle of the kingdom. Westward.The nexus was the barracks and military training center.Massive walls stood around the outer circle of the kingdom. With three exits: North, East, and South.The entire party of PCs somewhat resembled 1-2 actual Champions.Very small scouting parties of NPCs (or sometimes the PCs) would act as wards.The party would travel to different lanes when they received news of a particularly strong force gathering to overtake a structure (counter-ganking). Or taking the initiative to do some flanking themselves when certain areas looked vulnerable.News or clues leading to magic items from within the deep forest protected by native creatures (blue/red buff in the jungle) were often worth following when they had time.A few times later on there would be a heavy force on one side and hints of infiltration somewhere else (back-door) that would cause the party to consider splitting up.There were some spell scrolls to represent summoner spells: Teleport, Flash, Ghost, Heal, etc.Brush was basically any form of environmental advantage: actual shrubbery, trenches, swamp, etc.

I think the main give-away was legend of two big beasties that would reside along the massive river going from mountain to ocean that required an army to defeat/befriend for control over more land (rift herald/baron in the north; dragon in the south). Fog of war might have been a consistent clue as well.

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## Isikyus

> My very rough Cliffs notes cersion of how Id set it up.
> 
> ...


That's very cool! You've got me thinking of running it as well now. An investigation game needs a good twist, and hiding the treasure like that is excellent.

For myself, I have used a few weird things for dungeon layouts. The best I've actually run was a villain lairing in an old zinc smelting plant -- lots of chimney passages, and a safety interlock-based puzzle.
I've also drawn one based on a Minecraft house (tree farm, nether portal, etc.), and a bandit cave laid out like a diagram of the inner ear. I'm also thinking of using an computer chip layout as a dungeon - one day...

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## Pauly

> That's very cool! You've got me thinking of running it as well now. An investigation game needs a good twist, and hiding the treasure like that is excellent.
> 
> For myself, I have used a few weird things for dungeon layouts. The best I've actually run was a villain lairing in an old zinc smelting plant -- lots of chimney passages, and a safety interlock-based puzzle.
> I've also drawn one based on a Minecraft house (tree farm, nether portal, etc.), and a bandit cave laid out like a diagram of the inner ear. I'm also thinking of using an computer chip layout as a dungeon - one day...


Basically its a hunt for hidden treasure, with a twist BBEG. The 3 obvious evil guys each have their own agendas and are working together out of necessity which opens up the possibility for any of them to strike out on their own. Cary Grant provides additional layers of misdirection, as well not knowing if Audrey Hepburn is a damsel in distress or femme fatale. And it all has to be done under the nose of the local p9lice.

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## Hagashager

I once made a Beholder villain inspired by Ariel of the Little Mermaid fame.  
🎶 "I wanna *see* where the people are..." 🎶 in that gutteral, garbled voice Beholders usually have.

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## Spore

Cayden Cailean - the Golarion god who stumbles his way into godhood drunkenly. He is just such a cool addition. It is neither lolrandumb humor nor does he not work in serious tones of a setting. My next goal is to set up a campaign about a downtrodden community held down by an evil borderline tyrannical lumbering company, besieged by dwarves, fey, kobolds, salamanders and whatever we can come up with. 

There is despair, hopelessness and bad vibes all around, and I want the heroes to be the beacon of light and fun that brings a ray of sunshine to this community, maybe later the world. They'll basically choose their flavor of fun though. If they want brooding serious characters, they can have them. If they want to play lighthearted dumb comic relief or pure innocent white knights they can too.

I feel the actual idea of an Caydenite trying to open a tavern in a corrupt society is enough of a hook for a whole game until at least the wizard can start recruiting divine beings and/or teleport more or less at will.

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## SpoonR

One I havent had a chance to run yet, for an all mindflayer campaign. Mash together x-coms council person and half-life grey man as your boss, and make the PCs the baddies (sorta). 
PCs were modern day-ish operatives who got kicked through a dimensional gate, get stuck in mindflayer bodies, and have to do spooooky stuff in D&D universe to protect/heal their home universe from getting wrecked by another group of mysterious invaders.

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## Pauly

> Cayden Cailean - the Golarion god who stumbles his way into godhood drunkenly. He is just such a cool addition. It is neither lolrandumb humor nor does he not work in serious tones of a setting. My next goal is to set up a campaign about a downtrodden community held down by an evil borderline tyrannical lumbering company, besieged by dwarves, fey, kobolds, salamanders and whatever we can come up with. 
> 
> There is despair, hopelessness and bad vibes all around, and I want the heroes to be the beacon of light and fun that brings a ray of sunshine to this community, maybe later the world. They'll basically choose their flavor of fun though. If they want brooding serious characters, they can have them. If they want to play lighthearted dumb comic relief or pure innocent white knights they can too.
> 
> I feel the actual idea of an Caydenite trying to open a tavern in a corrupt society is enough of a hook for a whole game until at least the wizard can start recruiting divine beings and/or teleport more or less at will.


I think you could draw heavily on Jackie Chans Drunken Master films for some more inspiration.

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