Game Masters, There's Nothing New Under The Sun (So Don't Stress About It)

There is a fear I have seen among a lot of writers out there. In short, it's a desire to make something genuinely new and different the no one has seen before, which is driven by a fear that someone will accuse their work of being derivative, or of simply being too similar to other stories that have been told before. And, for some reason, this fear seems to affect Game Masters (particularly newer Game Masters) to an even greater extent. They worry their players will guess their twists, figure out their inspirations, or that once they get a bit of insight they'll be completely uninterested in the game because it won't be new or fresh anymore.

Now, I don't often turn to the bible in situations like this. Not my faith, not my book. With that said, though, I'd recommend Ecclesiates 1:9 for advice. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

I'll be damned... it's right in the book.

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Seriously, Just Embrace It!

There are a lot of Game Masters who likely laughed, shook their heads, or rolled their eyes at the introductory paragraphs. I've lost count of the number of people who are all too happy to list the books, movies, and even other RPG settings they've stolen their ideas from, talking about the various NPCs, locales, and plot arcs they've snagged from other places to make their own Frankenstein creatures to serve up to their players.

And in some cases the GM had wider, deeper, or older tastes than the players, so nobody realized the campaign, world, etc. wasn't spun entirely out of whole cloth. However, most of the time realizing that a Game Master took inspiration from a particular property (or even an entire part of history, for those who know that Game of Thrones is based on the War of The Roses) doesn't ruin the experience for the players... because it's not about being utterly and completely unique in a way that no one has ever done things before. It's about providing your players an experience that's unique to them and which has your signature style on it.

Put another way, think of your campaign as a grilled cheese. Everyone knows what a grilled cheese is, and everyone has probably had them dozens of different ways over their lifetime. Now, you might make yours in a slightly different way that some people (maybe your cheese is spicy, maybe you use mayo instead of butter to ensure the bread is toasty, perhaps you like to put bacon bits in it, whatever it is you do), but others are going to take one bite and it will be instantly familiar to them. That doesn't mean they stop eating the sandwich, especially if you prepared something they like in a way that is fresh, delicious, and which is served up on a platter to them.

Case in point...

I've got plenty of examples in my own catalog where I embraced the inspirations for a particular project. My elevator pitch for The Curse of Sapphire Lake is, "The love child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th," after all. And fans of classic action movies will quickly recognize the inspiration behind my Army Men mission module Assault on Outpost 13, since even the title is an homage to the film Assault on Precinct 13. My Sundara: Dawn of a New Age fantasy RPG setting completely does away with the convoluted multiplanar structure used in Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons, opting for a simpler, more streamlined system of the material world and the Prim, which I explained in Gods of Sundara... and it's going to look very familiar to any fans of the Warp in Warhammer 40K as far as structure goes.

Hell, even my World of Darkness supplement Evil Incorporated just looked at historical atrocities (and modern ones) committed by corporations and billionaires. The introductory fiction even has a veiled call-out to the owners of Hobby Lobby who (at least allegedly) paid a ridiculous amount of money to terrorists in the Middle East to purchase stolen relics which they kept in their own homes.

Now, I'm far from unique in this aspect. Zon-Kuthon, from Pathfinder is clearly heavily inspired by the cenobites of Hellraiser, but not only that, the nation that worships him is steeped in winks and nods to Melnibone, the nation from the Elric novels by Moorcock. The same can be said of the supposedly cursed kingdom of Valyria from Game of Thrones, for the record. There are references all over our games to works by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, to say nothing of Tolkien. And that's before we get into the copious use of world mythology, and great works of fiction like Arthur and his knights of the round table.

So while a particular game might have a different flavor, or a unique twist on things (such as a medieval fantasy game where you have to investigate the Cthulhu Mythos, or recreating the Trojan War as a starfaring space battle using mech combat), the inspirations are going to be present. There is always going to be a story that came before you, or a character someone else has seen, that bears some similarity to what you're doing at your table. More importantly, if you spend all your time focusing on what you don't want your game to be, then you're going to define it by what it isn't, rather than what it is.

I'm not saying you should shamelessly copy someone else's homework and just change a couple of the names around (I'm looking at you, Games Workshop). However, if you're tying yourself into knots worried that your players are going to figure out that your particular order of cavaliers is based on Lancelot, or that they're going to guess the plot twist for the traitorous noble because he's basically Count Dooku with a bastard sword, don't sweat those kinds of things. Instead, focus on the presentation and preparation for your game.

Everyone has had a grilled cheese before. Just make sure the one you serve them is perfectly crispy, melty, and delicious, and everyone will probably enjoy it!

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