By: Green
One of the biggest blockades that prevents people from making their own material in TTRPGs is the feeling that they will not be able to create something original. As students, we learned that one of the biggest sins in the writing realm is the act of plagiarism (second only to the misuse of the comma). I’m here to tell you that, in the case of TTRPGs at least, plagiarism is both rampant and encouraged.
I do not mean, of course, the most literal application of plagiarism. I do not condone the dishonest theft and usage of someone else’s material. Do not buy a premade adventure path, change the names, and sell it as if it were your own. Other than that, the sky is your only limit.
The adage “there is nothing new under the sun” is not entirely accurate, or at least, it is not interpreted correctly. It’s less to mean that anything anyone creates is always based on some other existing material and more that human beings have existed for so long and have been telling stories to one another that most stories that could be told, have been in some way, shape, or form. However, making stories, especially when you are taking inspiration from existing material, should be looked at as applying a lens to the light of our sun. It doesn’t matter that there’s nothing new under the sun because of our ability to look at those things in different orientations and different lighting. The best example of this in all of Media is perhaps Seth McFarlane’s “The Orville.” “The Orville” is a parody show of “Star Trek” that, over its three seasons, has become some of the best “Star Trek” content in the last two decades. It is not made worse because it is an inspired work and actually does many things better than its muse.
Most of us are not Seth McFarlane, of course, but that’s less important for TTRPGs (if it was at all). Your players don’t expect material at the level of a professional, because that’s a ridiculous standard, and TTRPGs aren’t books. The thing that makes the stories we tell over dice and figurines so special is the fact that we are all working together on the story at hand. Our buy-in and contributions elevate the stories we make beyond anything we can read.
So, how should we take inspiration from the material around us? The answer to this question is complicated and is inherently variable between systems. Something like D&D inherently takes inspiration from the works of Tolkein, and a system like Fallout: The Roleplaying Game is inherently derivative. The best way to work the stories that you appreciate into your campaigns is to take one or two most interesting pieces of them at a time.
About the Author
Green’s been playing TTRPGs of one form or another since 2017. Only recently however has he branched out into game systems other than D&D 5e in 2022. He’s experienced Fallout: The Roleplaying Game, Animon, Konosuba, Shadowrun 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and the Transformers TTRPG. The bulk of the experience he’s had has been with D&D 5e, having the privilege to do quite a lot of GMing for 5e, including the creation of three homebrew campaigns, but not so much for the other systems. Interestingly, se has GMed more games of Fallout 2d20 than he’s been a player.
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