what inspires you to create the designs/art you do?

for me, it's mostly fond memories of pen and paper games.

[img]graemlins/1druid.gif[/img]

-manikus

Historical figures and events. But then I never actually finish making any adventures so perhaps they are not that good an inspiration...

Also books, but the difficulty is giving the players choice and freedom to adventure the way they want while still adhering to the story in the end. I guess it makes the game a bit linear.

i understand the dilemma. i haven't finished anything on the adventure part yet, so maybe it's inspiration to keep trying... :D

i'm a big fan of mythology, but have hesitated to use any, because i don't want to be so limiting. but what happens if the player chooses the 'wrong' thing. for example, to use some babylonion mythology, what if the player, playing as marduk decided to help tiamat instead of destroying her? i suppose it could be interesting, but isn't where i'd want the adventure to go.

[img]graemlins/1druid.gif[/img]

-manikus

I have a good answer for this, use what you want. Use the newspaper, use fantasy novels, Use real life. If you want to follow someone elses world try to follow it as best as you can. I read this trilogy of books where this guy existed in the "real" world like you and me (or at least you... :rolleyes: ). He had leprosy, and he kept entering this fantasy world thru accident. Anyway, the world had an awesome array of character types (there were these warriors named "chords" who would fight with nothing but a piece of rope, and these (can't recall the name of them...) deadly martial artists who were the kings bodyguards...)

SilentThief

Another place to search 4 inspiration could be other peoples games, take one of the spyro the dragon games for example. the idea behind that game is you are the last surviving dragon trying to release the others of dragonkind from imprisonment at the hands of "Gnasty Gnorc".
What if you found yourself to be one of the last remaining humans (or dwarves, elves, ect) fighting to keep the extermination of the race from happening...
Or how about Super Mario? Funny as that may sound, there WAS a Super Mario RPG. So what could you get from that??? how about magic mushrooms (no joke) that give you special abilities...

Just some ideas from a mind with too much caffiene (or a ption of alertness, whichever you prefer...)

SilentThief