Inspiration!

Why inspiration is important

Inspiration can help in so many aspects, whether it be a new monsters, a unique magic item, a character idea, or even a massive influencing factor of a campaign. Not only does working in a bubble keep you from learning about new concepts and ideas, but it also will make your games appear to be stale after your fellow players have played a few games with you. It's important to spice things up and add fresh elements from a variety of influences.

Don't wait for inspiration! Find it.

You might think that you can just 'wait' for inspiration, but as a writer, painter, 3D artist, and even game designer; the idea that you can wait for inspiration is laughable. You need to look for it, revisit old movies you've seen, read new books, check out mediums you've never explored. If you're about to run a tabletop game set in space, watch some science fiction tv shows or revisit some loved movies. What you draw on is also a very personal matter. However, don't be afraid to move outside the genre.

You can take plenty of inspiration from a fantasy series and bring it into science fiction game. Immortal alien race? Maybe they're similar to Elves in how they view humans. You want to spice up your next D&D adventure with something a little more creepy? Watch some horror movies, and see what sort of stuff you can bring into your game. Anything new that you can bring to your table, will likely help others enjoy the game a whole lot more. While this advice is mostly directed towards GMs, I think this can work for players too if applied correctly, which brings me to the next part ...

Soak, Analyze, Disassemble, Collect.

The thing about inspiration is it's an interesting process of 'soaking' information in. This refers to reading, watching, any kind of consumption of media. Pay attention through the whole thing, or binge through a large bulk of content that's similar, it will start making you think about the subject matter more and more.

Next you analyze it, while consuming, take mental notes (physical ones if you'd like), and try to keep your eye out for subtle hints. This could be foreshadowing, tone, acting, direction, or even just the highlights of the subject that really made the piece interesting.

Disassemble all of that. Now that you've spent some time looking at your chosen subject, try to tear it apart. Why was that scene so fascinating? What made that character so compelling? How did the lighting and atmosphere effect the scene? Think about every aspect you can, and feel free to just take some time reflecting on it periodically, this sort of thing isn't always something you sit down to do. Watch a movie on the weekend, think about it for a week and let it 'settle' in your mind. The really interesting parts will begin to show themselves, and what you didn't care about will probably fade into the backdrop of forgotten information.

Collect what's left. Take all of the stuff that you disassembled, and judge whether it can be used for your tabletop game. Lighting effects can help establish tone, consider how that could be used in descriptive text, or even as props (colored light bulbs anyone?). Interesting characters can be broken down into character aspects that can be used later on to enhance an NPC. It could be a strange mannerism or speech impediment. It could be a personality quirk, or an extreme version of one. Narcissists aren't exactly fun to be around but they can make for incredibly interesting NPCs. Store all of these ideas somewhere, to be picked up and used later. It will help immensely when you feel like you've run out of ideas.

Keep notes!

I like to think that everyone should carry around a pocket sized notebook and a pen, and this is another one of those reasons. You may at any point, need to take a quick note before it escapes that little noggin of yours. If you don't like carrying around extra physical objections, there are plenty of ways to take notes with your phone. Mindly, is an app I've been using for a while now, and has a really interesting system to take notes with; I'd highly recommend checking it out. The main reason I like to have some way of keeping notes however, is simply that ideas will always seemingly come at you when you least expect them.

Some might disagree with my sentiment, in fact I believe Stephen King even argued that the best ideas will always stick with you so there's no point in writing it down. However I think that writing notes has an interesting effect that is more about retention in memory. Writing notes down has been shown to improve the odds that you're going to actually remember the idea. So you don't even have to actually look through them ever again, but it's really up to preference.

Implementing your ideas

At the end of this whole process, you should hopefully have a repository of notes. I'm a messy organic person, so I like to keep things that way. It works for me, but it might not work for you. Consider what kind of organization system works best for you, as an individual, and apply it. You may make lists based on what category the item falls into, maybe you make a list of items based on what type of game you'd like to see them in, etc. It's all up to you.

I also have to stress that when you implement ideas, don't be afraid to ditch some aspects for the sake of the game. Horror movies and games often have terrible endings that leave everyone involved either dead or feeling like their world has completely collapsed, that might not be so fun for players. It'd be great to throw them through a dungeon filled with dangerous monsters, dark corridors, and a thick atmosphere that feels like they're about to swallowed whole by the dungeon itself. However at the end of the day, they're going to come out the otherside, stronger, and relieved to finally be out of that hell hole. Nobody has to die to make it feel creepy.

And remember, your content is only as strong as the inspiration that you steal from! I fully believe to be a GM, or any kind of artist, you've got to steal from as many sources as you can and mix it into a big melting pot.