In the end, it will be your face, what a cliché.
My sources of inspiration are varied, so I really appreciate this blog post because it gives me the opportunity to share a little bit of what I love so much about life.
I especially seek to focus on the literary world and other role-playing modules when I set out to create a new adventure, because I believe that creativity is simply a recombination of what already exists, of what is known. Originality is just jargon that means nothing in reality. When I created a module based on one of the islands from the Forgotten Realms setting, I wanted to make my own version of a story that many others have already touched on... The Shadow Over Innsmouth
So, taking elements from the story and mixing aspects of the official setting, he created a kind of mystery that I think combines well with different aspects of the story, although the beginning is more like the old Simbad films.
In the case of my adventure "Diamond", the main inspiration was the film Three Days of the Condor. It fits perfectly with the world of Eberron, specifically the city of Sharn, which has a corrupt air reminiscent of Al Capone's New York. Huge skyscrapers, criminal gangs that dominate the black market, corrupt authorities. Everything provided in Sharn combined effectively with the story, but I preferred to give it a more personal touch.
The adventurers live alongside a group of actors who have become the sacrificial pawns in the schemes between the city's criminal gangs. After spending time with the actors, the adventurers return to the theater to find the poor actors turned to stone and broken into dozens of pieces.
The group flees, asks for help, but everyone turns against them. If they manage to stay alive long enough, after the third day the persecution ends and one of the killers tells them to stop worrying, the new boss has them off the hook.
Fear, persecution, paranoia, and ultimately indifference in a city corrupt to its very core.
And in regard to the most recent adventure, which I still don't dare to release, the inspiration comes from Goya's black paintings, seeking to ensure that each of the rooms in the dungeon contains magical traps that are directly related to one of the paintings.
A half-submerged dog, despair, a room slowly filling with mud. If you want inspiration, it could be...
The random results of today random rolls inspire me to talk about the novel Vahtek, written by William Beckford in 1782, its an epic narrative of ancient times that features several characters and creatures that can easily be added to our games.
In Vahtek, we are presented with another example of the typical fable of the inevitable punishment that sinful and evil people will suffer. However, the way in which the characters' actions are carried out and the wealth of lore shared about the Muslim faith the Middle Eastern cultures and their mythology greatly enrich the reading experience. Additionally the narrative is carried out in a lighthearted manner, allowing us to travel between actions at a rapid pace.
Personally, I loved it.
The story offers a variety of lessons. On the one hand, its structure appears linear but is deceptive, since before the halfway point it seems inevitable that the narrative will come to an end. but that does not happen. The main character fails, and upon failing, must take a long and arduous detour to try again to succeed in the main mission, something quite common in role-playing games, where secondary plots repeatedly steal the players' attention in the middle of a campaign and sometimes strayaway from the path never to return.
In the story, the protagonist is a completely fickle character, guided by his selfish desires, which explains why he seems to be stumbling around the region where the narrative takes place. I think that adds a lot to a certain human factor; people do that throughout their lives, having a plan, a goal, and then stumbling around everywhere.
A variety of creatures and brief descriptions of impressive settings are another element that can be easily drawn from Vathek. Some examples:
-The Caliph and Nouronihar beheld each other with amazement, at finding themselves in a place which, though roofed with a vaulted ceiling, was so spacious and lofty, that at first they took it for an immeasurable plain. But their eyes at length growing to the grandeur of the objects at hand, they extended their view to those at a p. 138distance, and discovered rows of columns and arcades, which gradually diminished, till they terminated in a point, radiant as the sun, when he darts his last beams athwart the ocean. The pavement, strewed over with gold dust and saffron, exhaled so subtile an odour, as almost overpowered them. They, however, went on, and observed an infinity of censers, in which ambergris and the wood of aloes were continually burning. Between the several columns were placed tables, each spread with a profusion of viands, and wines of every species, sparkling in vases of chrystal. A throng of Genii, and other phantastic spirits, of each sex, danced lasciviously in troops, at the sound of music which issued from beneath.
-He then conducted them into a long aisle adjoining the tabernacle, preceding them with hasty steps, and followed by his disciples with the utmost alacrity. They reached at length a hall of great extent, and covered with a lofty dome, around which appeared fifty portals of bronze, secured with as many fastenings of iron. A funereal gloom prevailed over the whole scene. Here, upon two beds of incorruptible cedar, lay recumbent the fleshless forms of the preadimite kings, who had been monarchs of the whole earth. They still possessed enough of life to be conscious of their deplorable condition. Their eyes retained a melancholy motion; they regarded each other with looks of the deepest dejection, each holding his right hand motionless on his heart.
The writing style makes my legs tremble, which reminds me of an obvious but brilliant piece of advice:
-every storyteller, DM, or person interested in conveying stories should read widely and read all kinds of literature. By expanding your inner world, it becomes easier to provide meaningful narratives about all those adventures and battles we have stored in our heads.
First entry. Sooo I hope I understand the dynamic of this edition, although it seems that all the suggestions accompanying the #RPGaDAY2025 are focus on promoting creative sharing between the blog´s that wish to participate.
That's how I understood it, that's the dream.
Patron is the figure that accompanies you and provides something to satisfy the approach that your gaze wants to convey to the player or reader. You chose the Patron or at least accepted it. That's how it works.
That's how it should work, but sometimes we are ungrateful and refuse to acknowledge our creative influences. No one wants to seem unoriginal, even though most of us understand and know full well that originality is little more than a buzzword.
On other occasions, it is impossible to express gratitude. We currently consume such a massive and inhuman amount of cultural content that it is truly impossible to clearly recognize each of the influences that surround your work.
So for now, I just want to acknowledge the artists and projects that most often gain notoriety on my X profile. I save and share them because I want to take elements from their work to include in future modules.
They are surprising, incredible patterns of creative thinking.
The use of collage gives me a slight sense that I can do it. I lack basic drawing skills, but I like crafts, and although almost everything is done digitally, making certain elements by hand adds a certain charm.
The big lie lies in art that seems simple and may not be technically complex. Perhaps, but the truth is that I don't know how to do it. However, it seems achievable. For now, I must focus on filling the blank pages with lines and patterns, little by little.
The illustrations as a whole make me notice a pattern that repeats itself within one of the baroque elements defined by Omar Calabrese. I am referring to the labyrinth, chaos, the je ne sais quoi.
These patterns are one of the elements that help me define my journey through the world of role-playing games and writing in general. The campaigns, the accumulation of adventures, the events that unfold chaotically at the table between snacks and dice, have no end. They wander and propose false endings, since inevitably a new game will appear.
The labyrinth is the pattern that has remained unchanged over the decades, life itself. With a minotaur chasing us like a tyrannical time, a white dragon descending from the skies to cause the first tpk of a group of players, or the elderly mother asking for money out of nowhere at the worst possible moment.
However, RPG's have that certain something...je ne sais quoi. Where the exact pattern of routine, sports, conflicts, and many other spaces are broken, similar to cinema and video games, but with its own particular twist.
There's something special about this hobby, I think, something I don't even find in theater, the simulation of simulation, something strange.
But back to art.
Medieval art inside books authorized by the church, their decorations, the lack of three dimensions in most of the illustrations. Perfect, without a horizon, without apparent volume, they draw just like me, so I go with the story that I can do similar work.
And the truth is, I can't. But they inspire and encourage me a lot.
Whatever it is, I keep filling the blank page with lines, and once the blank page is covered with the different patrons of lines, then it's time to fill another page. That's how it is.
Drink and move forward, your other faces await you. With each step you take, you will change, although the period of time between one sett...
