GM Inspiration, Week 2
This week’s GM Inspiration flows logically from last week’s post, but it moves out of the realm of fantasy and into the realm of reality. While it cannot be denied that fantasy pictures stir the soup of GM thought processes with a mighty +4 intellect-bearer spoon, there is also (at least for me) a fantastic source of inspiration to be found within photographs of our world, both past and present. One of the best sites in the world for this sort of inspiration, IMHO, is National Geographic. I am a long-time subscriber to the magazine and will likely be until I stop moving (possibly even after that event, depending on subscription runs… 
…) and have, since my childhood, been drawn to the brilliant stories and stunning photos within its pages.
But how, you might ask, could one use this in gaming?
Consider:
- Describing the view of the pastoral countryside to the PC’s as they travel from one destination to the next…(or its genteel inhabitants
- The panorama of an unsullied, mysterious shore of a newly discovered country…
- The rising up of an entire town against (or for) the PC’s…
- The strange, magical infection of the waterways of the PC’s beloved home (less the diver, of course)…
- The shocking and grisly work of the PC’s hated necromancer arch-rival… (or perhaps his unassuming lair)…
- the mystic dance performed by shamans to summon a creature of the savannah…
- the desolate and eerie landscape of an alien world, plane, or demi-plane…
These are just a few of the many, many, many pictures that can be found on NG’s Post of the Day page. To me, it is a nearly limitless and ever-replenishing source of inspiration. Just think about the extended application if one was to run a D20 Modern campaign! Moreover, if you run out of pictures there, there’s always the Weekly Wallpaper feature that NG puts out. Again, some of these are just hands-down, eye-popping butes! Just imagine the look on your player’s faces when you put your blood, sweat and tears into describing the blasted, alien landscape that stretches out before them and then slap this baby on the table! What’s more, imagine the jaw-droppage when you reveal that this is, in fact, a very real place!
Good Gaming! 
Using pictures for inspiration or as visual aids is always a good idea. In this case, you could take it one step further by cropping out the NG info that appears at the bottom of some of them, which anchors them in reality and makes it a bit harder to think of them as alien landscapes, etc.
Comment by Martin Ralya — November 12, 2005 @ 9:06 pm
I could not agree more, Martin! Or, alternatively, if you have a D20 Modern or Future game, then that tie to reality might be just what the GM ordered!
Comment by Administrator — November 14, 2005 @ 7:09 pm