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"Inspiration" For Your Games

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SirDelta

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« on: <07-23-11/0144:32> »
I don't know about you guys, but I thoroughly enjoy taking various existing stories, and playing through them.

For example, my most recent game my friend and I are doing  will basically be Resident evil 4 except with Shadowrunners.  We're going to ultra-rural Spain, and blasting parasite ridden villagers.

So, what do you all use as your "inspiration" when you can't think of an original game?

Crash_00

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« Reply #1 on: <07-23-11/0222:18> »
Oh wow the list is so long.

Well there was the run into an underground facility for Raincoat Corp, a corporation designing biowarfare weapons, to extract a scientist after an accidental virus leak. Of course after the scientist believed he was mostly safe he tricked the runners into a confrontation with one of his experiments to test its potential (RE 1/2/3)

The run through a corporate HQ building (Datadyne) to steal an experimental isotope and return it to the Johnson. To add to the theft of the idea, there was a hole in security on the roof, but the isotope was in the basement levels. (Perfect Dark on the 64 1st Mission)

A run to break into a corporate owned villa and extract a man. (As above 2nd Mission)

A run to initially infiltrate a nuclear disposal site and secure a classified nuclear armed battle mech that has been secured by terrorists. (Metal Gear Solid)

The runners are hired to disrupt a game show being shot at the west renton mall. (Mallrats)

The runners are hired to kill eight men in Portland and deliver their heads in a duffel bag to the Johnson. (8 heads in a duffel bag ish)

The runners are hired to kill a trideo star, but realize during their attempt that the start is actually a very clever ruse put on by the director. (S1m0ne movie)

The runners are hired to look into and solve a fifty year old case. (Cold Case)

E.X.P...E.N.D...A.B.L.E.S. Expendables, Expendables (sung to the mickey mouse club tune). The heroes are hired to pull a very high paying, very public run, that is really only a distraction for the Johnsons real job. After all, he won't have to pay them if they're all dead  8) . (Age old Johnson double cross)

The runners are hired to keep tabs on a stuffer shack clerk and everyone he contacts for an entire day and report back to the Johnson. (Clerks)

The runners are hired to destroy a new SOTA Knight Errant security drone that has become glitchy. (Robocop)

The runners are hired to save the president without his or the secret services' consent. (24)

The runners are hired to pretend to take out a group of bad guys on the NewsNet roof with guns firing blanks in high action movie flair. Unfortunately, the bad guys have real ammo and are being lined up  as the good guys in a news shoot. (Last Action Hero ish)

The runners are hired to rob a corporate armored truck during a script transfer. The Johnson has provided getaway in the form of an inflatable boat in the nearby sewer system. ( This )

The runners are hired to protect a mark that is attending a game convention without his knowledge and without shutting down the convention. (Every Game Convention I've Been To)

The runners are hired to find and destroy a book that contains records the Johnson does not want to see light. (An episode of Human Target)

The runners are hired to find and neutralize a target that has been exposed to a deadly virus who will become infectious (and likely cause an epidemic) in approximately 24 hours. (Zombie Flicks/24)

Those are just a few I can think of.  8)
Movies, Music, Books, they are all my inspiration.

Mystic

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« Reply #2 on: <07-23-11/0820:58> »
Real life is mine. As much crap as I've seen on the job. Yikes. Not to mention I have gotten inspiration from various "fine upstanding citizens" to use as NPCs.
Bringing chaos, mayhem, and occasionally cookies to the Sixth World since 2052!

"Just because it's easy for you doesn't mean it can't be hard on your clients"-Rule 38, The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries, Schlock Mercenary.

Walks Through Walls

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« Reply #3 on: <07-23-11/0942:54> »
I have pulled from several movies. Including Diehard(the first one), James Bond movies, and many others that names escape me at the moment.
I also use books that I read and twist them to fit into the shadowrun world.
I also look through the newspaper and see what sparks an idea. Have also pulled some ideas from music. Operation Mind Crime by Queensryche comes
right to mind.
These all give me the seed which I then twist and twist again.
I also look at the general types of runs and think how could I change this and make it more interesting or unexpected or both.

For my monthly group the last couple adventures I have the main plot overview synopsis for me to write/form from then I list twist#1, twist#2.....
sometimes I only decide to use some of them sometimes they all go in. Then I think of twist on twist#1 etc.
The world I run is complected and interactive. The characters actions have results be it good or bad so I also get ideas from the character's actions.

Hope this helps
"Walking through walls isn't tough..... if you know where the doors are."
"It's not being seen that is the trick."

Walks Through Walls

Crash_00

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« Reply #4 on: <07-25-11/0020:34> »
I have no idea how i left this out, but I almost always do a run in every campaign based off of the movie SWAT. If you haven't seen it, then the concept is pretty much this. A big time criminal gets caught by Law Enforcement and while they are carting him through the media frenzy at the station he yells that he'll pay a large sum of money to be freed.

The runner's have to break the guy from custody (they do it during transport in the movie) while also thwarting sabotage from other runner groups and sabotaging other runner groups. After managing to extract the guy from custody, they have to get him out of the country.