Staffing Inspiration Resources

[anthrxmilkshake 86]

Alriiiighty. I have contemplated quite a while in posting this particular discussion. I wanted to make sure I could word it in a way that didn't invite a heated debate. Lol.

 

As many of you know when joining sites, and making them, a number of things comes into play when you are creating/writing species, locations, powers, etc. etc. Things like Demons, Witches, Warlocks, Sorcerers, Werewolves, Vampires...these all have extensive pre-established lore in hundreds of books, movies, roleplays, poems, video games, etc. 

 

When you were creating your species breakdowns, powers, guides, and lists, what sort of inspirational resources did you use? Are yours loosely based on a book, or show? Did you do extensive research in wiki and other sites? How much of it did you twist to make it your own, and how much of it is a mashup of other resources?

 

Linking some of those resources here could be extremely helpful for anyone looking for them, too, so feel free to provide links to some of your favorite power sites, wiki's, show sites, etc. 

[Death Kitten 200]

In Star Trek, Memory Alpha is the best source. It's a wiki that's fan maintained about hard canon (TV & Movies). That so many passionate people are striving to keep it updated means that it is generally a timely and accurate resource for all things Trek. Having that resource means I can focus my time on the details that makes my game stand apart from other Trek games. For those who are a little more loose about what they want to include in their Star Trek games, there is MA's sister site: Memory Beta which is about all the soft canon stuff (books, games, etc). Because it isn't as tightly curated as hard canon, soft canon tends to be riddled with contradictions ­— both with itself and with hard canon sources. I find that cherry picking what sources I want to use from soft canon to be the best bet.

 

When I need things that aren't Trek, I tend to pull from a lot of inspiration sources: I search Wikipedia and various news sites for current technology, I save writing prompts and spark pieces to pinterest for later use (I have a board for my game, I have boards for many of my active characters, and I have a board for tabletop rp prompts), that way I have one place I can go looking through later when I'm looking for something new. This has an added bonus of Pinterest also suggesting things other people have pinned that are similar to what I already have, giving me a regular stream of fresh material to consider.

 

One good go to resource is tabletop RP resource books. They're already designed with creative story telling in mind, so they're offered up in terms that can make them easy for you to translate to a written RP. One of my players wrote up and modified the old World of Darkness Werewolves into a custom race for my game, adapted to better fit in with the Star Trek setting. I also tend to take inspiration from pop culture, and give IC credit by actually having my characters say they were inspired by whatever the pop culture source was.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Death Kitten