This Reddit post Do the GMs/GMs out there ever steal story elements from things you know your players don't watch/read for homebrew campaigns? reminded me of a story.

The Mid-90's

About 20 years ago, I was trying to create a post-apocalyptic RPG. I ran my friends through many games. I had never been able to play my own system because I was the only one who would game master.

One day, I was hanging out with a friend, and he asked if we could play my game. I refused to GM and begged him to run me through an adventure. I had been GMing him on a campaign for nearly a year.

He came up with all the usual excuses. He had never done it before. He wasn’t creative. It wouldn’t be as good as my sessions.

I kept pleading. Finally, he agreed.

I didn’t care that he had never GMed before, but I was a little worried. When I was younger and no one would GM, I had “forced” others into the role of game master. It rarely went well.

However, this session was incredible.

My Post-Apocalyptic Dream Session

His story was classic post-apocalyptic. My character had to defend a peaceful town with an underground spring from a crazy cult-like gang.

My friend had everything. A town populated with quirky NPCs. A love interest for my character. A cool villain. His storytelling was great. He had complications along the way and a great climax.

I was floored that he could come up with all this spontaneously.

I thanked him and told him it was one of the best sessions I had ever played. He seemed a bit embarrassed by my praise.

The Mid-2000's

Flash forward about 10 or 12 years. I was researching post-apocalyptic movies for a screenplay I was writing. I got my hands on a treasure trove of 80’s PA films, so one day I fired up a film called World Gone Wild.

About 10 or 15 minutes into the movie, I started laughing. There was the town. There was the water source. There was the villain and his cult followers.

My friend had used the movie as a template for his session and ran me through the entire thing.

Did it lessen my appreciation for the session or my friend? No way. I was even more impressed.

World Gone Wild is a great 80’s PA film that is certainly worth watching if you are a fan of the genre. I think it helped that he chose to use it for the session. It had enough meat to carry the story, unlike other PA films.

I laughed harder because of the irony. I can’t even count how many times I’ve run sessions that were rip-offs of movies, novels, or TV shows.

My players would say I was so creative and clever. They would say they could never come up with stuff like that on the fly. I would accept their praise sheepishly.

Great GMs Steal

The moral of the story is never be afraid to steal or borrow ideas from movies to use in your RPG sessions. Your gaming group shouldn’t care as long as the session is fun. Also, never be afraid to GM. We are not as creative as you think.

My friend passed away two years ago. My RPG had languished in boxes and on old hard drives. I dusted it off, changed the system completely, and released it. It is dedicated to him.

It is listed as “Pay What You Want” on DriveThruRPG. Grab a copy, it’s called ANARCHY.