Back in 90s, when there was a Blockbuster around every corner, my parents would take my brother and I to rent video games for the weekend. We would get a copy of Super Metroid and from the moment we powered up the Super Nintendo we knew we were in for an interesting experience. We didn't start a new game. We just played other peoples' saved games.
It was like waking up in the middle of a labyrinth without any recollection of how we got there. How many times have you pulled that plot on your players? We would explore the environment and try to find our way out. And fail miserably at it. We'd expend all of our resources or get stuck somewhere and end up getting killed in the process.
Zac Gorman's Magical Game Time - Video game nostalgia at its finest.
My favorite part of the process was discovering the different environments. Even if it led to my demise. It was my first experience in a dungeon and it left a powerful impression on me.
Many times, as world builders or dungeon designers, we have a narrow perspective on the process. We feel like we must constrain ourselves to a limited number of sources: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian, Elric of Melniboné, Lovecraft's Mythos, and Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Maybe it's out of some sense of purity? Those are well-trodden paths. Reduced, reused, and recycled ad nauseum...
Don't be afraid to use something outside of the realm of fantasy or paper&pencil. Interesting things happen when we take disparaging and dissimilar ideas and try to make them work in concert.
What inspires you? Leave some comments. Let's see what we come up with.
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