RPGnet Columns
05-25-2004, 12:46 PM
Post originally by Sam at 2004-05-25 11:46:16
Converted from Phorums BB System
As with cooking, the key is not the ingredients, but what you do with them. You aren't going to create any new raw materials, but you can put them together in unique ways. Any time you discover a story that blows you away, it isn't the plot that's new, or even the characters--it's how they are put together. Take _The Matrix_, for example. There's not a single element in that story that hadn't been done before. Just off the top of my head:
* Hero that doesn't know he's something special? Star Wars.
* Machines taking over the earth and enslaving mankind? Terminator.
* The use of a virtual world? Check out any cyberpunk novel.
And of course, each of these antecedents was built of components from earlier works. None of the elements were new, but the _way_ those elements were put together was unique and mind-blowing.
Please forgive a bit of shameless self-promotion--I am the "Sam" referenced in this column, and a couple years ago I wrote an article called "Gaming the Bard" for Sabledrake magazine. It discusses using Shakespeare as campaign fodder. It might be a good resource for GMs having a hard time coming up with something new, and the principles I outlined can be generalized to many other sources.
Salvatore "Sam" Falco
http://www.salvatorefalco.com/
Converted from Phorums BB System
As with cooking, the key is not the ingredients, but what you do with them. You aren't going to create any new raw materials, but you can put them together in unique ways. Any time you discover a story that blows you away, it isn't the plot that's new, or even the characters--it's how they are put together. Take _The Matrix_, for example. There's not a single element in that story that hadn't been done before. Just off the top of my head:
* Hero that doesn't know he's something special? Star Wars.
* Machines taking over the earth and enslaving mankind? Terminator.
* The use of a virtual world? Check out any cyberpunk novel.
And of course, each of these antecedents was built of components from earlier works. None of the elements were new, but the _way_ those elements were put together was unique and mind-blowing.
Please forgive a bit of shameless self-promotion--I am the "Sam" referenced in this column, and a couple years ago I wrote an article called "Gaming the Bard" for Sabledrake magazine. It discusses using Shakespeare as campaign fodder. It might be a good resource for GMs having a hard time coming up with something new, and the principles I outlined can be generalized to many other sources.
Salvatore "Sam" Falco
http://www.salvatorefalco.com/