Inspirations

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

I've been holding a question to myself for a number of weeks now. I've been curious about what people have been using as inspiration when they make Fated, adventures, campaigns, or Fatemaster Characters. If you have an answer, please post it as I'm curious about what kinds of different media might show up. If this thread gets some attention, I'll likely post some of my own inspirations. Thank you in advance for any cooperation in answering my questions, and I apologize if this thread becomes nothing more than spam.

[Mike Wallace]

I wanted to lure my players away from D&D, so I've tried to flavor my TTB games to be more distinct. Instead of just wandering dungeons, they're Private Investigators. I want to keep them playing, so I'm tweaking one-shots and writing my own to feel like episodes of a TV series, with a core cast of supporting characters that the adventures revolve around, so they always feel like there's something to invest in outside of just having a payday. As we go I've quietly planted seeds to involve them in ever-bigger events. Recurring characters will keep the party on their toes, as the city steadily changes around them. 

[Bakuriel]

Inspiration with Malifaux can come from practically anywhere, depending on how you typically draw inspiration for your games, but if you want a rather fun way to get into the Malifaux spirit, I'd suggest looking up podcasts that are imitating or recreating early 20th century radio serials, like The Shadow. Through the Breach is an episodic adventure set in the early 1900's, and campy old radio shows are the sort of thing you'd likely be hearing over the aethervox in any given area in Malifaux. Most of them keep to the spirit and tone that a good TTB adventure wants to have, and they keep to a very similar pace, as most radio serials didn't want to use the "to be continued" too often for fear of losing listeners. That would be my suggestion.

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

In my game, I’ve been running off of three inspirations that at first don’t sound like they belong together. I’ve been using Peaky Blinders as a bit of a backdrop with what is essentially a gangster story but with elements of Bioshock and Bloodborne adding interesting flavour to the places I have set up.

[Qualvanda]

I've been using a lot of books that I've read as inspiration for events and storylines, and just translating it into something that fits into Malifaux. Characters can come from anywhere, I've done characters based from previous adventures, to video games, based on a single line in a song or even based on someone I know IRL. 

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

Maybe I should rephrase, I’m not looking for general places to find inspiration, I’m looking to see what specifically others are using as inspiration. I’m not looking for radio shows, I’m looking for “This Radio Show”

[Qualvanda]

In that case, my current campaign is a twisted amalgamation of the book "The lies of Locke Lamora", and the movies Ocean's Eleven, and The Gangs of New York.

My players are in a small gang that does heists, and sometimes turf wars between other gangs

[ZeketheKid]

My players are halfway through a campaign essentially inspired by "Evil Dead", set inside a French Colonial mansion deep in the Bayou. I even created Deadite-themed NPC's, traps and Conditions, as well as a Swarm of Disembodied Hands Minion. More than likely once this part of the campaign is over I'll share stats and stuff in the Player Creations page.

[Gnomezilla]

On 11/27/2018 at 9:40 PM, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

I've been holding a question to myself for a number of weeks now....

...You are using words I simply cannot understand.

 

I have every intention to run TtB as a less-than-serious Paranoia mash-up (The Guild wants you to be happy. Any other factions are beyond your security clearance.) and will probably borrow its scenarios whole-cloth.

[Mike Wallace]

On 11/29/2018 at 4:46 PM, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

Maybe I should rephrase, I’m not looking for general places to find inspiration, I’m looking to see what specifically others are using as inspiration. I’m not looking for radio shows, I’m looking for “This Radio Show”

Specifically, I've drawn inspiration from The Dresden Files novels (which I guess draws inspiration from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series), the video games Blood, Silverload, and Darkwatch, the comic book character Jonah Hex, the works of HP Lovecraft, any kind of Steampunk, and my own imagination which is really weird.  

Also there's the Deadlands RPG, but no one seems to bring it up so I'm not sure if it's taboo to mention it on the Wyrd Forums. :T 

[SaveVersus]

1 hour ago, Mike Wallace said:

Also there's the Deadlands RPG, but no one seems to bring it up so I'm not sure if it's taboo to mention it on the Wyrd Forums. :T 

While I was reading the Corebook, I kept coming back to, "This is Deadlands with steam," which I'm totally okay with.

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

3 hours ago, Mike Wallace said:

Specifically, I've drawn inspiration from The Dresden Files novels (which I guess draws inspiration from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV Series), the video games Blood, Silverload, and Darkwatch, the comic book character Jonah Hex, the works of HP Lovecraft, any kind of Steampunk, and my own imagination which is really weird.  

Also there's the Deadlands RPG, but no one seems to bring it up so I'm not sure if it's taboo to mention it on the Wyrd Forums. :T 

Realistically, you could just tweak Deadlands a little bit and have it be a prequel to Through the Breach. Or you could transplant Through the Breach into Deadlands and just use soulstone as Ghost Rock.

I think no one talks about it because of how similar the settings seem to be, but no one wants be the guy who addresses that minor elephant.

[Mike Wallace]

1 hour ago, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

Realistically, you could just tweak Deadlands a little bit and have it be a prequel to Through the Breach. Or you could transplant Through the Breach into Deadlands and just use soulstone as Ghost Rock.

I think no one talks about it because of how similar the settings seem to be, but no one wants be the guy who addresses that minor elephant.

I'm mostly being facetious about Deadlands. The similarities are there, but I think everyone has come to accept the obvious and are probably just rolling their eyes at us for bringing it up like we're the first people to do so. 

[solkan]

3 hours ago, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

Realistically, you could just tweak Deadlands a little bit and have it be a prequel to Through the Breach. Or you could transplant Through the Breach into Deadlands and just use soulstone as Ghost Rock.

I think no one talks about it because of how similar the settings seem to be, but no one wants be the guy who addresses that minor elephant.

Deadlands the RPG—Nothing important or worth knowing about exists or happens outside of the U.S.  😜  And history diverges in 1863, about when the Wild West is recognizable.

Malifaux—Set off a magic nuke in Santa Fe in 1787.  History diverges immediately, with the First World War in 1803.  And then the setting quite deliberately skips forward to 1906, when the Wild West is pretty much stopped (the territorial expansion across the continent doesn’t happen) in setting. *

Note that I write this as someone who bought Deadlands when it came out, loved it for being a weird west Western RPG; and when Malifaux came out Malifaux was very solidly “nightmares and Victorian Steampunk”.  I don’t think I saw anything that looked like a cowboy or a Wild West Town, Malifaux had a lot more of a Southern vibe to it, or basically “You know, if we had access to an alternate magical dimension, we’d probably end up treating it like Australia.”  😧

*. Disclaimer:  Mason’s been avoiding admitting many details about the state of the US in alternate 1906, and a lot of the admitted details are fairly recent with the TOS material coming out.  But it’s established that Mexico still extends up the west coast, and Texas didn’t happen because the Guild has Breach Town (Santa Fe) and a route to the gulf.  San Francisco is Mexican in 1906.

Is that a big enough elephant gun?