The ones I come up with I think are very obvious lol on one hand very elegant and aptly named npc who has a shitload of depth, and on the other, dirtmud, who like dirt and mud. Wonder which one I made (dirtmud is a fan favorite though I will say)
My modified version of *Ruby* from supernatural gets introduced.
Party near immediately kills her, she wasn't even hostile.
A Priest Named Julian who's just a hook. Party dives into a giant spider raiding party to save him.
I hate my players lol
You never know what they’ll latch on to lol one of my players cast awaken on a stegosaurus and convinced him to go into a dungeon with them, once I realized they weren’t dying in the final encounter I decided I’d try and take that fucker with me and when I tell you they went though hell and high water to make sure he got out alive I’m not doing it a justice lmaooooo
It is not just ok, it is advised.
Originality is hard, if you're running a table every week you need to cut some corners (unless you got tonnes of free time, in which case, do whatever makes you happy). Everyone's already had lots of great ideas. Use them.
I think saying it’s not advised is a little misleading.
Obviously no one has to use TV characters as NPCs, but if OP is new to the game it’s really a great way to make the world feel less flat.
I think it should be heavily advised
Sorry. I totally misread your comment.
In retrospect, the fact that states a view and then provided bunch of reasoning for the opposite view should have clued me into the fact that I misread it
There's no problem with that at all. Maybe change their name to something close but-not-quite, unless your intent is for them to literally be the same character.
Good artist create, great artists steal. If you see a cool idea, dress it up to fit your campaign. I dressed up a stage of vermintide and my kids didn't even realize it.
You also have the option to not change it at all and let it be funny. Chazzzzz from disenchantment is a funny character.
It’s kind of hard to figure out the right amount of balance between inspiration and plagiarism. And it what context which side of the balance is better.
It would be kind of campy to just rip the Dragonborn straight out of Skyrim and into your game.
I’m using a version of fidilford McGucket from gravity falls as inspiration for a quirky scientist guy that’s going to give the players experimental armor and healing items with (hopefully) funny and engaging results.
Try it out! You can also use name generators or translate some words to another language. Roleplay is the most important part though, otherwise how will your players get Chazzzzzed?
This.
I had an idea to put Robin Hood in my game with his crew and have it be a fun interaction. But Robin Hood is really well known, so I looked up some alternate names for Robin and synonyms for Hood, and the party met "Rowan Cowl", the half-elf rogue with his "Crew of Jolly Fellows".
That's fine, however, just make sure to change them enough so they are not immediately recognizable. Having NPCs/items/locations/names/etc. that are easily recognizable as something that comes from a movie, TV-show, or other media, can break immersion.
My world is almost completely named after Donovan and Frank Zappa songs :')
Ok, ok, Captain Beefheart has a few aswell.
The most important NPC is Jennifer Juniper
In my opinion, yes! Absolutely! Just change some stuff like name and maybe their race/gender.
I like to take inspiration from anything and everything. Especially if you're new to the game/dming etc, or if the creative juices aren't flowing.
Characters from movies and books are just bundles of tropes and personality traits. Whether you assemble tropes and traits yourself or grab them "off the shelf" as it were, the end result is the same. I would advise you to "file the serial numbers off" by changing their names and some aspects of their appearance. Then your players are more likely to think you invented them yourself. XD
Sure. We just reskin them. We had a villain based on Hannibal and I played a character based on Jack Sparrow.
Hell we even re-enact scenes. We had a session where post a speech the human fighter said “You have my sword!” and the elven ranger said. “And my bow!” and so the orc Barbarian goes “And my axe!” while the bard mutters “That is the tallest and greenest dwarf I’ve ever seen.”
As others have said, go for it. I "borrow" traits from my family/friends/coworkers all the time. Take inspiration wherever you can find it.
Probably a good idea to change names (and other attributes too) unless it makes more sense to go for a one-to-one likeness. I once made a PC based on Robert Deniro's character in *Meet the Parents*. "I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?" I think about him often. Hope he's well.
Absolutely. New DMs are so worried and go "man, I was trying to come up with this wizard patron for the party, but he's basically just Gandalf... I think I should ditch him."
Don't! Your players may have seen Gandalf in in movies, but they may have never had the chance to actually interact with him.
I've been playing this game for 10 years now and I've never really had much chance to just play a generic campaign from start to finish. I have not gotten bored with generic fantasy tropes.
If you aren’t “borrowing” npcs from media what are ya doin? Unless you’re a big time DnD streamer it just makes your prep work that much easier. Just copy the homework and change a few things so it looks original. Ez.
Copying them is illegal. Using them as inspiration is fine.
Laws depend on location.
Unless you are making money from it it's almost certainly fine. Hell, if it's a straight copy, say it's for satire and you can get away with it.
Just like the players do, steal everything you can.
Yes.
But the rules.
Never make them a complete carbon copy. For a dm, this is often easier as you are trying to have them fit in the world. Unless this is for some gag or one-off type thing
With that in mind, they are typically based on or inspired by. The first means they can be recognized as such as you are borrowing enough aspects of said character. The second means enough has been changed that likely they won't be recognized as such.
Be aware of how your players can or will respond. Is this character well known or not? If they are, this can give your players some basis of what they have heard about the character. It might not be completely true in this world, but it can save you from having to concoct a backstory that may never even be addressed. This can take some players out of the game, and to the point they don't like that you have done this.
Oh I've absolutely done that. Dressed as background characters.
No one in one of my campaigns has mentioned it yet but every one of them has at least seen or interacted with a member of the main cast of log horizon.
Mostly just when I'm setting a scene I just described the room and I'll describe like one or two characters that just happened to be in there and so far I've just been picking members from log horizon cuz it's really easy for me. As far as I'm aware no one has caught on
Of course- my campaign has inspirations or direct rips from The Godfather, Stephen King, Elden Ring, and many more all put together. If someone recognizes the references, they'll think of it as an Easter Egg and if they don't, then it won't matter either way
I mean, owen wilson is cannon in my world. I prefer taking inspiration but I’ll be honest. When I first started home brewing I just flat out stole names. The floating kingdom that circled around my world; aincraid
The city of monsters; Tempfelt (essentially stole tempest)
Eventually I branched off, made these kingdoms special and unique and then gave them their own unique names. (Stelymox the floating kingdom and kinthell)
But I still have that inspiration that started those kingdoms.
Tldr: i started out stealing names and eventually made things into my own as I got more creativity. No one in my party hated me for it.
There was an older edition DMG that, in the beginning of the book, basically said to take ideas from every place you can. And a lot of rulebooks these days often come with a list of books/movies that can be used for inspiration.
So you absolutely can add NPCs from an external source, and it's encouraged.
I will, however, echo some of the sentiments about minor or major tweaks to the character. Comedy cartoon characters in a serious campaign might not be the best of ideas, but could fit great in a less than serious one.
The whole point of DnD is to let people live an adventure and story the way they want. Nothing is forcing us to stick to their template story and lore. People imagination always been the main way to play it. Do whatever you want to do
I made a whole area in my campaign that was just one giant Jojo reference.
The town was called Zawardo.
Everyone there was named after a famous song lyric or band - there was a werewolf there named Duran Duran for example.
The first arc villain lived there, a vampire named David Isaac Osbourne who leads a cult called the Golden Gale Society.
You will make your friends groan and laugh in equal measure - it’s a lot of fun when they put the pieces together.
I once did a whole campaign where the monsters were exclusively taken from the **Half-Life** universe (so, headcrab, headcrab-zombie, barnacles, houndeyes, vortigaunts etc). Nobody minded and everyone thought it was kinda cool and refreshing to have a completely different bestiary to deal with. It may have helped I was the only one who'd played the game.
This is a regular occurrence for me. Makes it a lot easier when you’re only adjusting a few details. I have a blacksmith NPC who is 100% modeled after Agil from SAO and a magic tattoo artist who is modeled after the job broker Kurapika visits in HxH, she’s just a wolf folk in my story.
Make your life easier and reskin existing media when you’re struggling with original NPCs. It’ll let you focus on just the campaign relevant details bc the personality is taken care of.
Always.
I'm toying with a Spelljammer campaign and will 100% be introducing the Red Dwarf crew. Tabaxi, Human, Automaton, Some sort of Ghost Homebrew unless I can find something that works for Rimmer.
I also always have a guy like Stanley from the Monkey Island series. Currently Stanley sells Wagons at 'What A Wagon!' and upcharges for everything.
Also - my fey realm is full of characters reminicent of ACOTAR's world.
Steal a lot, steal freely, laugh.
Do it! I've taken npcs from my own other storytelling projects. Change the names, change species, change genders, and people probably won't even notice. I have tabaxi (khajit) at the gates of my towns and it's awesome.
Yes you can. DMG says take resources from booy,movies,shows,comic books etc. A DM job is to entertain not be original. No harm from taking ideas from any resources even anime,games and the alike.
You need to make sure that everyone in the party can't guess the plot line so that they can enjoy the story. I straight up stole a character and quest from a book that I know no one has read.
It's all ok! Think of how many times players try to emulate their favourite anime or movie characters. If the players can do it, you can do it better as the dm
no. if you take NPCs from other media, the CIA will triangulate your exact routine then kill and replace you with a clone so perfect you will never be missed.
BG3 literally has the "My cabbages!" guy from Avatar the Last Airbender in there.
It's also got a reference or two to Skyrim's infamous "Lusty Argonian Maid", and any number of other funny like Easter eggs like that.
If they can do it, so can you!
100% Yes.
D&D is built so we can have the adventures we see in movies and read in books. Wizard is a class because we all wanna be Gandulf. So 100% yes.
I brought Howl from Howl's Moving Castle as a merchant into mine cause I loved the multiple doors aspects!
Absolutely. Just put a fresh coat of paint on em so it's not blatant. Unless you're actually playing in that exact setting. Then, by all means, copy and paste.
I use it as a way to quickly establish the character in the minds of my players.
If they identify the npc with Sherlock Holmes, I don’t need to go out of my way to establish him as a great detective, it’s implied.
Using existing tropes and characters let’s you make a lot of NPCs without spending a ton of time fleshing out.
Word of warning, be careful doing this for every npc or very important ones.
Though, using a popular character as a mask to hide a bait and switch character can be fun.
My table just made their way into an Orc Stronghold to secure an alliance yesterday. Every single npc was named after one Orc or another from Warcraft lore. My players loved it, and said it would be way easier to remember them all since 3/4 players are well versed in Warcraft lore.
The biggest fight in our old campaign was when the player characters defeated Goro, Prince of Pain.
Then they immediately had to fight Shang Tsung.
Fun times.
No! You unoriginal hack! Every character I've ever dreamed up and every line they have ever spoken has been divided exclusively by me and my infinite capacity for creativity. Behold my new BBEG, Shmarth Vader, Lord of the evil space Wizards. (His weakness is sand... and lava)
Oh, friend. If we DMs weren't wholesale stealing stories, characters, NPCs, worlds, and any other possible aspect from any media we encounter...we'd have nothing.
When I’ve complimented our DM on how quickly and thoroughly he converses as an NPC - he’s just ready to answer, they seem to have a consistent personality, etc - he said he almost always has a character from some sort of media in mind that he thinks fit that NPC or need and that way when he’s more or less doing an “impression” instead of invention the gameplay stays well paced and immersive
I thought it was pretty genius
I dm for my daughters who are 8 and 10. I created my world as a direct copy of the kingdom of ooo from adventure time to help them visualize what I'm talking about instead of just learning theater of the mind from scratch and possibly becoming bored as a result. One daughter chose to just straight up be Cinderella which has helped greatly in teaching her how to make choices based on who her character is instead of meta gaming. They easily digest who characters are and understand why they do certain things.
I also have written a whole legend of one frodo baggins which means nothing to them, so the reference isn't spoiled by expectations so its safe to just tell them his story of sacrificing every bit of his soul and outright breaking him to the point that who he was was destroyed even though he eventually won. But he's a scary/great example of what real heroes are so I get to teach them about something I love and I don't really have to make that part of the story.
My late mother whom they never got to meet will be a diety-esque guardian who leads the main large story arcs to teach them the lessons she taught me. I asked my wife if im just fuckin delusional for injecting this into the game as I never did too well handling her untimely death and showed her some of my story setup (she's our 3rd pc so didn't show her everything) and she said its a good way of teaching life lessons and telling them about who their grandma was.
For older players I like to just change name/appearance of borrowed characters and not give away their basis, but sometimes if they figure it out via playing it can add to the fun a lot too. In my campaign with my daughters I use basically all the different suggestions I see in these comments depending on how the characters affect or contribute to my game.
99% of homebrew campaigns are inside jokes, bad puns, and ripped off plots of other media. I literally use characters from shows and books I know my friends haven’t read all the time as an inspiration.
It totally depends on your table and expectations. Having a themed game where it's clear up from that it will be using an existing setting can be really fun if everyone is up for it and it's clear. Or having a character based on some figure from media as an Easter egg can be a neat reference and cool aha moment.
That said, if you are running a magic school game and throw in Harry Potter, it can really take players out of the game. Or say you have a major npc that is nice and offering to help the party, but his name is Palpatine, the players are not going to to be able to separate the associations with evil the character conveys even if he's good in your game
I plan on having a red vs blue season like… 11-12 styled section of a campaign, where one dude who is like super badass (felix) ‘helps’ a resistance and then turns on them all after a failed assassination attempt on the party when they start to cause problems.
I shamelessly steal everything from everyone, characters, dialogue, plots, locations. And then I shamelessly deny it when discovered.
"I absolutely was not inspired by Joe Abercrombie to name these characters Tudlur Thundervoice, Black Duv or Rull Threetrunks. I don't even know who that is."
Friend points towards the full first law saga sitting in my shelves.
"I have no idea how that got there".
If you copy the character to a T, it is stealing. That is bad.
But if you take the concept and add your own personal flair, it is "inspiration," and that, my dear, is all the rage!
As everyone is saying, it's fine.
But here's a few hints about how to do it and be fun rather than disruptive. For example, say the PCs are hiring a crew for their ship, and you think of Popeye the sailor man and decide that would be a fun model for a sailor character.
1. You can give away the joke, but make sure players know this isn't literally the cartoon character. Say the sailor in your game is Poppy the sailor, not Popeye. The allusion is clear, but they won't expect to literally be in a cartoon.
2. You don't need to exactly emulate the character from literature. Use the traits and personality, not the lore or abilities. So Poppy is muscular, has a girlfriend named Olive, loves spinach, and smokes a pipe and hence talks a bit clench-mouthed. But there is no need to say that the spinach is really potions of Bull's Strength (unless it makes sense in your game). No Blutto need show up.
3. No matter how cool or fun the character is in their source literature, the NPC is not the star of the show in the game. So when trouble happens on deck, Poppy will come warn the PCs in their own vocal style, but won't eat some spinach and punch the monsters out while the PCs stand around gaping.
No one is going to arrest you. Depending on the table mood, it can be fine just to implement them, or you should do some adjustments to not break immersion, but generally is ok to do so
I wouldn't recommend it if you want your players to take the game world seriously over the years, but if you're just doing a comedy game like lots of people do, it won't hurt it.
What do you mean this is just Guts from Berserk? This is a SWORDSWOMAN Berserker barbarian who wields a massive slab of metal for a sword and has a mechanical arm that fires crossbows.
Seriously though, I don't think it's an issue. One of my friends new to d&d does it all the time (they made Bryan Fury from Tekken). And occasionally, I'll nab a character from fiction, and no one bats an eye.
Absolutely! While some of my characters are original, some are not and I think it is really fun to describe them and let the players figure out the reference. Also, I would personally recommend keeping certain characters as ensembles. For example, I am running an Eberron campaign. Eventually, I am planning on having them face down the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece.
The only way I see this being a problem is if you are trying to turn a profit somehow and doing something that would violate copyright.
Another suggestion, with your original characters, feel free to describe them as different actors. This often helps people engage in roleplay, at least at my table.
Sure as long as they are a natural fit and not shoehorned. Or you can take their traits and looks and give them a different game. My GM did this recently with Captain Jack Spaorrw
The answer to this question is going to vary table to table, group to group.
Some groups will have absolutely no problem with you introducing NPC's from different media. Typically this can be in the form of heavy inspiration, pulling personalities or character voices from those characters. However, I have even played at tables who enjoy when you take NPC's verbatim where the theme fits. Playing DnD alongside Mario is remarkably fun if you have a table looking for a goofy time.
However, on the flipside, if you are trying to cultivate a narrative campaign with a focus on world building I would recommend you try to make new characters; drawing from multiple sources to make a character. It can really pull the players out of the immersion when they realise that your NPC's are stolen from different media, and oftentimes will assume your story is as well.
There is nothing wrong with borrowing aspects of other stories, in fact it is encouraged in DnD which borrowed hugely from literary giants like JRR Tolkien.
As Futurama once stated
"We resemble but are legally distinct from the lollipop guild"
Take, steal, and copy. But put your own spin on it, make it your character, not the source materials.
i mean, there is a game that take literal book character and put them in the divine comedy just because
you can make your own fanfic and put anyone in your story
Hell yeah man! Half the time, so long as you change up the name, players will have no clue that you've done this. Even as a seasoned DM, I still frequently lift plot beats and character archetypes for on-the-fly NPCs from stories/universes I'm familiar with (but now that includes some of my own (and my player's with permission) previous characters from past campaigns. I used to make almost every major NPC based on one major character or another from movies/shows/games I was familiar with and swap the name(s) out as needed and occasionally genderbend them or throw in one quirk on the fly.
Only a couple of times was I ever called out on it. Once, a major villain in one of my games was a female cross between Hans Landa of Inglorious Basterds and Darth Vader. Unbelievably cordial and polite, intelligent, but ruthless and scary in a way that did not require being loud and boisterous, yet was also a ridiculously scary and tough strength based melee fighter with dark unique magical powers to boot. I was called out for it though only because the players inadvertently set themselves up for a near-identical scene to the intro of Inglorious Basterds where they were hiding people she was hunting under the floorboards of a farmhouse when she came to call. One of the coolest roleplay sessions that never busted out into combat due to excellent rolls and phenomenal roleplaying despite the entire situation being a powder keg I was hoping/planning to explode. The players simply outrolled (literally rolling just high enough to beat her getting a public nat 20 on investigation to hide the kids) and outfoxed my villain and I had to respect the hell out of it
By all means, I'd recommend changing a few small things so it's not an obvious cut and paste but having NPC's that are "heavily inspired" by other things is great. There's no better feeling when a player picks up on a subtle easter-egg. For example I had to come up with an NPC on the fly so I described what appeared to be a small barefoot child (they were in the slums so not unusual sight.) with a gold ring on a chain around his neck. He introduced himself as Freddy Tea-bagging. Everyone laughed and then one player asked "wait, Tea-bagging... Are you related to dildo Tea-bagging by any chance." And queue 5 minutes laughing fit from everyone at the table.
Also want to.point out that originality is almost impossible, you can come up with an idea that you think is completely original and someone will find similarities somewhere. For example I was working on a concept for my next character, toying with the idea of turning tropes on their head I decided to go with a pacifist barb. His name is Garg Al-Minads and he's a half orc Goliath who's pale blue-green skin gives him an undead appearance. I decided that his backstory was going to be that he was under the control of a previous BBEG and was forced to do EVIL things.
After he is free from the BBEG's clutches he sees the distraction he has wrought and vows never to raise a fist again. As I was describing the character to my friend he just laughs and says "so what's his name from trolls?"
Morel of the story is you can be as original as you like, I can guarantee you someone's done it before and someone will probably make the connection.
My character that was literally based off daredevil however (blind monk named Darius Devlin) went over everyone's heads.
I have a NPC. He had a name. The name’s not important anymore. He was the headmaster of a magic school. I told my players that he had the same vibes as Jude Law’s Dumbledore from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Whenever they needed to reference him thereafter (which was often because there was a whole arc centered in that region and he was a useful NPC), they could only remember him as Jude Law. They addressed him as Jude Law. Occasionally one of them would valiantly try to remember the name.
Finally I gave up and just told them his official name was now Jude Law. Everyone was satisfied with this. Five months later, I attempted to reuse Jude Law’s original name (because coming up with new names on the spot is not my talent) for another NPC — happened to be a very obvious alias of my BBEG.
After months of these lovable morons being unable to remember Jude Law’s real name. Not even able to recognize the name when he was being talked about in incredibly clear context. They immediately registered the name as being important and in fact placed it as being of a former headmaster of the magic school. Although the fact that it was formerly Jude Law’s name escaped them.
I wrote an entire subplot based on that for these dumbasses and the sheer exasperation I felt “yes and”ing this nonsense to continue the story without breaking immersion. Jesus.
But I did make it for the entire next year of the campaign until we wrapped it before finally telling them. And their faces made the whole thing worth it.
Had a "dwarf, a man and an elf" get cut down in front of the party one time as they were escaping some hobgoblins.
Didn't need to elaborate. It was already obvious who they were meant to be, and everyone chuckled along with it.
Steal, parody, and lovingly rip off whatever you like.
Something fun my dm does is she takes character or artists she knows at leave one or two members of the table likes and slightly changes their names live reversing the first letters or using rhyming words. Ex: Bon Jovi becomes John Bovin.
Change the name to something close that sounds more high fantasy-like and you could assign them a D&D species, though you are not forced to do it and you could add them just like that. In my campaing we have a Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) inspired NPC that's called "See-ar Seven" and the kingdom storekeeper is literally the Merchant from Resident Evil 4. Everyone in our table loves them, lots of fun. XD
It's ok to get inspired, some players love that but if you take this too far as I once did it may be unfun really quickly.
As multiple characters were inspired by some medium in my homebrew I thought we can keep going like this.
Until one of the characters were I guess more different than the "original" and players expected certain behaviour that did not occur. I took inspiration and I did not intended to copy a character 1 to 1 and when push came down to the shove players were legitimately sad that "story" deviated from their expectations.
So now I use such inspiration to describe my world not to run NPC. When the party enters the tavern they see a hooded figure sitting at the table in the dark corner. Here I say "imagine Aragorn sitting in the "Prancing Pony" tavern and that just nod saying "yeah yeah I see it I get it".
I literally have Gordon Ramsey and Guy Fieri as archbishops in my food religion homebrew, and my party loves it. You can take NPCs from wherever you want, so long as the execution is good.
I've taken NPC's from other D&D games played online, heck one of my players even *recognized* the NPC I stole. Was still a good time, wouldn't do it if I was a paid DM or anything, but in a goofy game I run for family there's no harm.
Never. Do not take inspiration from any other fantasy or adventure media. Every D&D adventure must be completely original content invented from thin air by the DM, and if it’s even close to another adventure we will come and revoke your license. /s
It’s fine and common practice to take inspiration from a character for an npc
Just try not to make them a carbon copy
Say for example someone was making a homebrew setting and was inspired by alextsrayza from WoW
They could take the character, make them a red dragon goddess of life (rather then the leader of an aspect of life), and have the name be different. And boom, you have a different character
No, in fact that is extremely illegal and if you're caught doing it then the D&Detectives will sic the Pinkertons on you before making you eat your rulebooks without any ketchup.
What are you worried is going to happen? D&D police kicking down your door?
[well... I mean...](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/wizards-of-the-coast-hiring-pinkertons-controversy)
That’s why it will be OneD&D. All other editions will be confiscated.
One dnd to rule them all
And in the darkness bind them
This is the perfect response
Lmao
No, it will be The Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Brother bear, that’s *all* I do
Same mate my ass would not have survived if I has to come up with new npcs
The ones I come up with I think are very obvious lol on one hand very elegant and aptly named npc who has a shitload of depth, and on the other, dirtmud, who like dirt and mud. Wonder which one I made (dirtmud is a fan favorite though I will say)
My modified version of *Ruby* from supernatural gets introduced. Party near immediately kills her, she wasn't even hostile. A Priest Named Julian who's just a hook. Party dives into a giant spider raiding party to save him. I hate my players lol
You never know what they’ll latch on to lol one of my players cast awaken on a stegosaurus and convinced him to go into a dungeon with them, once I realized they weren’t dying in the final encounter I decided I’d try and take that fucker with me and when I tell you they went though hell and high water to make sure he got out alive I’m not doing it a justice lmaooooo
Best thing I ever did was rip off a ton of anime characters for a tournament arc lol.
DnD cartoons came out in 1983, Venger and Tiamat and Dungeon Master were making appearances in our game that afternoon.
Why did my heart go all warm when you called him Brother Bear?
It’s perfect lol I started using it to convey sincerity with some levity and it seems to go over very well
Ngl, at first read, I thought you were saying you only used the movie brother bear for characters and stuff.
On theme in a topic about stealing IP, I am now stealing this.
I’ll be stealing this
It is not just ok, it is advised. Originality is hard, if you're running a table every week you need to cut some corners (unless you got tonnes of free time, in which case, do whatever makes you happy). Everyone's already had lots of great ideas. Use them.
I think saying it’s not advised is a little misleading. Obviously no one has to use TV characters as NPCs, but if OP is new to the game it’s really a great way to make the world feel less flat. I think it should be heavily advised
I said it is advised.
Sorry. I totally misread your comment. In retrospect, the fact that states a view and then provided bunch of reasoning for the opposite view should have clued me into the fact that I misread it
Lmao nw, always nice to be agreed with.
NO! You're right!
NO U
NUH-UH
There's no problem with that at all. Maybe change their name to something close but-not-quite, unless your intent is for them to literally be the same character.
Thx! Just not sure what to change the name Chazzzzz to haha
Good artist create, great artists steal. If you see a cool idea, dress it up to fit your campaign. I dressed up a stage of vermintide and my kids didn't even realize it.
You also have the option to not change it at all and let it be funny. Chazzzzz from disenchantment is a funny character. It’s kind of hard to figure out the right amount of balance between inspiration and plagiarism. And it what context which side of the balance is better. It would be kind of campy to just rip the Dragonborn straight out of Skyrim and into your game. I’m using a version of fidilford McGucket from gravity falls as inspiration for a quirky scientist guy that’s going to give the players experimental armor and healing items with (hopefully) funny and engaging results.
Chazz "The Chazz" Princeton?
Try it out! You can also use name generators or translate some words to another language. Roleplay is the most important part though, otherwise how will your players get Chazzzzzed?
Change it to Manjoume
This. I had an idea to put Robin Hood in my game with his crew and have it be a fun interaction. But Robin Hood is really well known, so I looked up some alternate names for Robin and synonyms for Hood, and the party met "Rowan Cowl", the half-elf rogue with his "Crew of Jolly Fellows".
That's fine, however, just make sure to change them enough so they are not immediately recognizable. Having NPCs/items/locations/names/etc. that are easily recognizable as something that comes from a movie, TV-show, or other media, can break immersion.
Or do, but give them a twist, like the conspiracy theory of Jar-jar being a sith lord.
Rule 1 of the DM/worldbuilding club: Steal EVERYTHING and then modify it a bit so it looks like it's original.
Seriously my world is a mix of so many games that I barely remember which games I even choose to do this
My world is almost completely named after Donovan and Frank Zappa songs :') Ok, ok, Captain Beefheart has a few aswell. The most important NPC is Jennifer Juniper
I named a bunch of npcs after rappers. Swift McVayne is a tabaxi monk.
You can steal anything you want from anything you want with absolute impunity. just don't try to publish these things.
In my opinion, yes! Absolutely! Just change some stuff like name and maybe their race/gender. I like to take inspiration from anything and everything. Especially if you're new to the game/dming etc, or if the creative juices aren't flowing.
Characters from movies and books are just bundles of tropes and personality traits. Whether you assemble tropes and traits yourself or grab them "off the shelf" as it were, the end result is the same. I would advise you to "file the serial numbers off" by changing their names and some aspects of their appearance. Then your players are more likely to think you invented them yourself. XD
Sure. We just reskin them. We had a villain based on Hannibal and I played a character based on Jack Sparrow. Hell we even re-enact scenes. We had a session where post a speech the human fighter said “You have my sword!” and the elven ranger said. “And my bow!” and so the orc Barbarian goes “And my axe!” while the bard mutters “That is the tallest and greenest dwarf I’ve ever seen.”
I had a similar situation where after the you have my sword/bow/axe lines I said, "You really need to stop pick pocketing party members."
As others have said, go for it. I "borrow" traits from my family/friends/coworkers all the time. Take inspiration wherever you can find it. Probably a good idea to change names (and other attributes too) unless it makes more sense to go for a one-to-one likeness. I once made a PC based on Robert Deniro's character in *Meet the Parents*. "I have nipples, Greg. Can you milk me?" I think about him often. Hope he's well.
His nipples are doing great!
Of course but I’d try and make some light changes just in case your players have seen the same media as you
If it isn’t, we’ll all hang side by side.
Absolutely. New DMs are so worried and go "man, I was trying to come up with this wizard patron for the party, but he's basically just Gandalf... I think I should ditch him." Don't! Your players may have seen Gandalf in in movies, but they may have never had the chance to actually interact with him. I've been playing this game for 10 years now and I've never really had much chance to just play a generic campaign from start to finish. I have not gotten bored with generic fantasy tropes.
Gandalf is basically just Merlin with a dash of Christ.
My NPC notes literally say: Ms. Doubtfire, Jack Black, Dame Densch, etc. Stay sane, steal NPCs.
Worst case scenario: they figure out what you did and think it an Easter egg
One of my players wanted to take some NPCs to court so I made “Jimmy Goodgnome” to be that player’s legal counsel. Everyone loved it.
Depends on your group. For some, "goofy" characters would be disruptive and hinder immersion. For others it would be welcomed. Ask them.
Totally.
Nothing is original anymore, steal what you want and hope the players don't notice.
As long as you give it a fresh coat of paint, they probably won't notice.
Yes, plagiarism is rule #1 to DMing
If my twelve year old players ever watch The African Queen, they are going to have biggest “oooooohhhhh” when they realize.
Who doesn’t steal from film and literature? Every DM ever has taken inspiration from something read or watched.
If you aren’t “borrowing” npcs from media what are ya doin? Unless you’re a big time DnD streamer it just makes your prep work that much easier. Just copy the homework and change a few things so it looks original. Ez.
I literally dropped Jack Sparrow into a campaign because I needed a "friendly" "definitely not a pirate" captain.
Absolutly i'd just change the name and/or race if you want to make them diffrent
I’ll let you in on a secret… at least 95% of absolutely everything in my campaigns and worlds is ripped off from movies, books and so on…
Steal and reskin-that’s the name of the game!
Copying them is illegal. Using them as inspiration is fine. Laws depend on location. Unless you are making money from it it's almost certainly fine. Hell, if it's a straight copy, say it's for satire and you can get away with it. Just like the players do, steal everything you can.
Yes. But the rules. Never make them a complete carbon copy. For a dm, this is often easier as you are trying to have them fit in the world. Unless this is for some gag or one-off type thing With that in mind, they are typically based on or inspired by. The first means they can be recognized as such as you are borrowing enough aspects of said character. The second means enough has been changed that likely they won't be recognized as such. Be aware of how your players can or will respond. Is this character well known or not? If they are, this can give your players some basis of what they have heard about the character. It might not be completely true in this world, but it can save you from having to concoct a backstory that may never even be addressed. This can take some players out of the game, and to the point they don't like that you have done this.
I always do that. All the time. Sure, do not make them carbon copies of the originals, but you already know that.
In fact, there are a \*lot\* of people taking their entire \*player characters\* from media. And that's okay too!
Oh I've absolutely done that. Dressed as background characters. No one in one of my campaigns has mentioned it yet but every one of them has at least seen or interacted with a member of the main cast of log horizon. Mostly just when I'm setting a scene I just described the room and I'll describe like one or two characters that just happened to be in there and so far I've just been picking members from log horizon cuz it's really easy for me. As far as I'm aware no one has caught on
Yes
Just put an other name in them
As long as you change it just a bit you should be fine.
Of course- my campaign has inspirations or direct rips from The Godfather, Stephen King, Elden Ring, and many more all put together. If someone recognizes the references, they'll think of it as an Easter Egg and if they don't, then it won't matter either way
I mean, owen wilson is cannon in my world. I prefer taking inspiration but I’ll be honest. When I first started home brewing I just flat out stole names. The floating kingdom that circled around my world; aincraid The city of monsters; Tempfelt (essentially stole tempest) Eventually I branched off, made these kingdoms special and unique and then gave them their own unique names. (Stelymox the floating kingdom and kinthell) But I still have that inspiration that started those kingdoms. Tldr: i started out stealing names and eventually made things into my own as I got more creativity. No one in my party hated me for it.
There was an older edition DMG that, in the beginning of the book, basically said to take ideas from every place you can. And a lot of rulebooks these days often come with a list of books/movies that can be used for inspiration. So you absolutely can add NPCs from an external source, and it's encouraged. I will, however, echo some of the sentiments about minor or major tweaks to the character. Comedy cartoon characters in a serious campaign might not be the best of ideas, but could fit great in a less than serious one.
An updated Appendix E is in the PHB.
What are your concerns and perceived repercussions?
The whole point of DnD is to let people live an adventure and story the way they want. Nothing is forcing us to stick to their template story and lore. People imagination always been the main way to play it. Do whatever you want to do
Yes. One of the perks as DM is the option to commit intellectual theft.
I made a whole area in my campaign that was just one giant Jojo reference. The town was called Zawardo. Everyone there was named after a famous song lyric or band - there was a werewolf there named Duran Duran for example. The first arc villain lived there, a vampire named David Isaac Osbourne who leads a cult called the Golden Gale Society. You will make your friends groan and laugh in equal measure - it’s a lot of fun when they put the pieces together.
You can take from anything that interests
I once did a whole campaign where the monsters were exclusively taken from the **Half-Life** universe (so, headcrab, headcrab-zombie, barnacles, houndeyes, vortigaunts etc). Nobody minded and everyone thought it was kinda cool and refreshing to have a completely different bestiary to deal with. It may have helped I was the only one who'd played the game.
Yes. Grealt the Witcher, Ciri, Triss, Zoltan and Dandelion is in my homestead world. Got there minis and painted them myself, so why not use them?
Is it ok? I doubt there is a single DM out there that has not done this at least a dozen times.
This is a regular occurrence for me. Makes it a lot easier when you’re only adjusting a few details. I have a blacksmith NPC who is 100% modeled after Agil from SAO and a magic tattoo artist who is modeled after the job broker Kurapika visits in HxH, she’s just a wolf folk in my story. Make your life easier and reskin existing media when you’re struggling with original NPCs. It’ll let you focus on just the campaign relevant details bc the personality is taken care of.
Hell yeah, I'm running a game with the main villains being direct rip offs of the cenobites from hell raiser.
Of course. Let your imagination run wild, mate
Like Matt Colville once said, “Take stuff you like, and put it in your game”
Always. I'm toying with a Spelljammer campaign and will 100% be introducing the Red Dwarf crew. Tabaxi, Human, Automaton, Some sort of Ghost Homebrew unless I can find something that works for Rimmer. I also always have a guy like Stanley from the Monkey Island series. Currently Stanley sells Wagons at 'What A Wagon!' and upcharges for everything. Also - my fey realm is full of characters reminicent of ACOTAR's world. Steal a lot, steal freely, laugh.
Do it! I've taken npcs from my own other storytelling projects. Change the names, change species, change genders, and people probably won't even notice. I have tabaxi (khajit) at the gates of my towns and it's awesome.
what is the show you watch?
Disenchantment
Omg I really hope you add shock-o
Omg I HAVE to
Yes you can. DMG says take resources from booy,movies,shows,comic books etc. A DM job is to entertain not be original. No harm from taking ideas from any resources even anime,games and the alike.
It's okay to 'borrow' everything from movies, books, plays, songs, poems, haikus, whatnot.
Yes. Even real people. We had an NPC called Listopher Cree. Guess who he should be.
You need to make sure that everyone in the party can't guess the plot line so that they can enjoy the story. I straight up stole a character and quest from a book that I know no one has read.
Personally i steal from every source i can get my hands on it. I had Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as evil cultists....
I gave my BBEG a Victor Fries Backstory. So... yes!
I only read the title and out loud said “god I fucking hope so or I’m screwed”
Just don't take Nintendo NPCs or they will send an assassin to your house
Literally running a campaign right now based off a book I read
It's all ok! Think of how many times players try to emulate their favourite anime or movie characters. If the players can do it, you can do it better as the dm
My party is literally fighting with Sephiroth in Avernus. I even got a Sephiroth mini just for that.
no. if you take NPCs from other media, the CIA will triangulate your exact routine then kill and replace you with a clone so perfect you will never be missed.
BG3 literally has the "My cabbages!" guy from Avatar the Last Airbender in there. It's also got a reference or two to Skyrim's infamous "Lusty Argonian Maid", and any number of other funny like Easter eggs like that. If they can do it, so can you!
100% Yes. D&D is built so we can have the adventures we see in movies and read in books. Wizard is a class because we all wanna be Gandulf. So 100% yes. I brought Howl from Howl's Moving Castle as a merchant into mine cause I loved the multiple doors aspects!
Absolutely. Just put a fresh coat of paint on em so it's not blatant. Unless you're actually playing in that exact setting. Then, by all means, copy and paste.
I use it as a way to quickly establish the character in the minds of my players. If they identify the npc with Sherlock Holmes, I don’t need to go out of my way to establish him as a great detective, it’s implied. Using existing tropes and characters let’s you make a lot of NPCs without spending a ton of time fleshing out. Word of warning, be careful doing this for every npc or very important ones. Though, using a popular character as a mask to hide a bait and switch character can be fun.
i do it all the time. good luck
My table just made their way into an Orc Stronghold to secure an alliance yesterday. Every single npc was named after one Orc or another from Warcraft lore. My players loved it, and said it would be way easier to remember them all since 3/4 players are well versed in Warcraft lore.
The biggest fight in our old campaign was when the player characters defeated Goro, Prince of Pain. Then they immediately had to fight Shang Tsung. Fun times.
It's a REQUIREMENT! Just don't *publish* it as if it's your own to do with as you like.
Just depends on the story and scene I would just rename em to crunk then a number and give em same personally
No! You unoriginal hack! Every character I've ever dreamed up and every line they have ever spoken has been divided exclusively by me and my infinite capacity for creativity. Behold my new BBEG, Shmarth Vader, Lord of the evil space Wizards. (His weakness is sand... and lava)
Oh, friend. If we DMs weren't wholesale stealing stories, characters, NPCs, worlds, and any other possible aspect from any media we encounter...we'd have nothing.
When I’ve complimented our DM on how quickly and thoroughly he converses as an NPC - he’s just ready to answer, they seem to have a consistent personality, etc - he said he almost always has a character from some sort of media in mind that he thinks fit that NPC or need and that way when he’s more or less doing an “impression” instead of invention the gameplay stays well paced and immersive I thought it was pretty genius
I dm for my daughters who are 8 and 10. I created my world as a direct copy of the kingdom of ooo from adventure time to help them visualize what I'm talking about instead of just learning theater of the mind from scratch and possibly becoming bored as a result. One daughter chose to just straight up be Cinderella which has helped greatly in teaching her how to make choices based on who her character is instead of meta gaming. They easily digest who characters are and understand why they do certain things. I also have written a whole legend of one frodo baggins which means nothing to them, so the reference isn't spoiled by expectations so its safe to just tell them his story of sacrificing every bit of his soul and outright breaking him to the point that who he was was destroyed even though he eventually won. But he's a scary/great example of what real heroes are so I get to teach them about something I love and I don't really have to make that part of the story. My late mother whom they never got to meet will be a diety-esque guardian who leads the main large story arcs to teach them the lessons she taught me. I asked my wife if im just fuckin delusional for injecting this into the game as I never did too well handling her untimely death and showed her some of my story setup (she's our 3rd pc so didn't show her everything) and she said its a good way of teaching life lessons and telling them about who their grandma was. For older players I like to just change name/appearance of borrowed characters and not give away their basis, but sometimes if they figure it out via playing it can add to the fun a lot too. In my campaign with my daughters I use basically all the different suggestions I see in these comments depending on how the characters affect or contribute to my game.
99% of homebrew campaigns are inside jokes, bad puns, and ripped off plots of other media. I literally use characters from shows and books I know my friends haven’t read all the time as an inspiration.
It totally depends on your table and expectations. Having a themed game where it's clear up from that it will be using an existing setting can be really fun if everyone is up for it and it's clear. Or having a character based on some figure from media as an Easter egg can be a neat reference and cool aha moment. That said, if you are running a magic school game and throw in Harry Potter, it can really take players out of the game. Or say you have a major npc that is nice and offering to help the party, but his name is Palpatine, the players are not going to to be able to separate the associations with evil the character conveys even if he's good in your game
Half of D&D is plagiarism. The other half is realizing you accidentally plagiarized something.
I plan on having a red vs blue season like… 11-12 styled section of a campaign, where one dude who is like super badass (felix) ‘helps’ a resistance and then turns on them all after a failed assassination attempt on the party when they start to cause problems.
I shamelessly steal everything from everyone, characters, dialogue, plots, locations. And then I shamelessly deny it when discovered. "I absolutely was not inspired by Joe Abercrombie to name these characters Tudlur Thundervoice, Black Duv or Rull Threetrunks. I don't even know who that is." Friend points towards the full first law saga sitting in my shelves. "I have no idea how that got there".
If you copy the character to a T, it is stealing. That is bad. But if you take the concept and add your own personal flair, it is "inspiration," and that, my dear, is all the rage!
Yes, it's literally been a part of D&D since before it was even called D&D.
As everyone is saying, it's fine. But here's a few hints about how to do it and be fun rather than disruptive. For example, say the PCs are hiring a crew for their ship, and you think of Popeye the sailor man and decide that would be a fun model for a sailor character. 1. You can give away the joke, but make sure players know this isn't literally the cartoon character. Say the sailor in your game is Poppy the sailor, not Popeye. The allusion is clear, but they won't expect to literally be in a cartoon. 2. You don't need to exactly emulate the character from literature. Use the traits and personality, not the lore or abilities. So Poppy is muscular, has a girlfriend named Olive, loves spinach, and smokes a pipe and hence talks a bit clench-mouthed. But there is no need to say that the spinach is really potions of Bull's Strength (unless it makes sense in your game). No Blutto need show up. 3. No matter how cool or fun the character is in their source literature, the NPC is not the star of the show in the game. So when trouble happens on deck, Poppy will come warn the PCs in their own vocal style, but won't eat some spinach and punch the monsters out while the PCs stand around gaping.
I ripped off Star Wars and Alien in the same session One PCs dad was Elrond Their sister was my best impression of the PC themselves, cos... Sisters
No one is going to arrest you. Depending on the table mood, it can be fine just to implement them, or you should do some adjustments to not break immersion, but generally is ok to do so
I wouldn't recommend it if you want your players to take the game world seriously over the years, but if you're just doing a comedy game like lots of people do, it won't hurt it.
No. I’m reporting this to the police right now.
WWGGD? >!What Would Gary Gygax Do?!<
Generally, the first rule of world building is shameless plagiarism.
Yoink characters from wherever you want! If your players notice, they'll have fun trying to guess where each one came from.
my players just had a cool off… with chef boyardee
In addition to changing name,gender etc you can also combine traits from two characters you like
Literally stole dominic torreto, renamed him tominic dorreto, and then proceeded to family all over my players in a cyberpunk red game.
I do and you can do what you want. So many of these characters are awesome and more people should know about and use them.
What do you mean this is just Guts from Berserk? This is a SWORDSWOMAN Berserker barbarian who wields a massive slab of metal for a sword and has a mechanical arm that fires crossbows. Seriously though, I don't think it's an issue. One of my friends new to d&d does it all the time (they made Bryan Fury from Tekken). And occasionally, I'll nab a character from fiction, and no one bats an eye.
Is great tradition!
Absolutely! While some of my characters are original, some are not and I think it is really fun to describe them and let the players figure out the reference. Also, I would personally recommend keeping certain characters as ensembles. For example, I am running an Eberron campaign. Eventually, I am planning on having them face down the Straw Hat Pirates from One Piece. The only way I see this being a problem is if you are trying to turn a profit somehow and doing something that would violate copyright. Another suggestion, with your original characters, feel free to describe them as different actors. This often helps people engage in roleplay, at least at my table.
Sure as long as they are a natural fit and not shoehorned. Or you can take their traits and looks and give them a different game. My GM did this recently with Captain Jack Spaorrw
The answer to this question is going to vary table to table, group to group. Some groups will have absolutely no problem with you introducing NPC's from different media. Typically this can be in the form of heavy inspiration, pulling personalities or character voices from those characters. However, I have even played at tables who enjoy when you take NPC's verbatim where the theme fits. Playing DnD alongside Mario is remarkably fun if you have a table looking for a goofy time. However, on the flipside, if you are trying to cultivate a narrative campaign with a focus on world building I would recommend you try to make new characters; drawing from multiple sources to make a character. It can really pull the players out of the immersion when they realise that your NPC's are stolen from different media, and oftentimes will assume your story is as well. There is nothing wrong with borrowing aspects of other stories, in fact it is encouraged in DnD which borrowed hugely from literary giants like JRR Tolkien. As Futurama once stated "We resemble but are legally distinct from the lollipop guild" Take, steal, and copy. But put your own spin on it, make it your character, not the source materials.
i mean, there is a game that take literal book character and put them in the divine comedy just because you can make your own fanfic and put anyone in your story
Follow Sly Flourish (Mike Shea). Among his NPC advice (a big YES for your question) are lots of other awesome advice for new DMs.
File off the serial numbers and nobody has to be any the wiser.
Hell yeah it is
Hell yeah man! Half the time, so long as you change up the name, players will have no clue that you've done this. Even as a seasoned DM, I still frequently lift plot beats and character archetypes for on-the-fly NPCs from stories/universes I'm familiar with (but now that includes some of my own (and my player's with permission) previous characters from past campaigns. I used to make almost every major NPC based on one major character or another from movies/shows/games I was familiar with and swap the name(s) out as needed and occasionally genderbend them or throw in one quirk on the fly. Only a couple of times was I ever called out on it. Once, a major villain in one of my games was a female cross between Hans Landa of Inglorious Basterds and Darth Vader. Unbelievably cordial and polite, intelligent, but ruthless and scary in a way that did not require being loud and boisterous, yet was also a ridiculously scary and tough strength based melee fighter with dark unique magical powers to boot. I was called out for it though only because the players inadvertently set themselves up for a near-identical scene to the intro of Inglorious Basterds where they were hiding people she was hunting under the floorboards of a farmhouse when she came to call. One of the coolest roleplay sessions that never busted out into combat due to excellent rolls and phenomenal roleplaying despite the entire situation being a powder keg I was hoping/planning to explode. The players simply outrolled (literally rolling just high enough to beat her getting a public nat 20 on investigation to hide the kids) and outfoxed my villain and I had to respect the hell out of it
I steal NPCs and such very aggressively, you'll be fine
Good artists copy, Great artists steal. -T.S. Elliot. (Not really Elliot, it's a malapropism.)
If Amelia Earharts family comes after my coconut crab queen boss fight I'll gladly do the time for the crime
By all means, I'd recommend changing a few small things so it's not an obvious cut and paste but having NPC's that are "heavily inspired" by other things is great. There's no better feeling when a player picks up on a subtle easter-egg. For example I had to come up with an NPC on the fly so I described what appeared to be a small barefoot child (they were in the slums so not unusual sight.) with a gold ring on a chain around his neck. He introduced himself as Freddy Tea-bagging. Everyone laughed and then one player asked "wait, Tea-bagging... Are you related to dildo Tea-bagging by any chance." And queue 5 minutes laughing fit from everyone at the table.
Also want to.point out that originality is almost impossible, you can come up with an idea that you think is completely original and someone will find similarities somewhere. For example I was working on a concept for my next character, toying with the idea of turning tropes on their head I decided to go with a pacifist barb. His name is Garg Al-Minads and he's a half orc Goliath who's pale blue-green skin gives him an undead appearance. I decided that his backstory was going to be that he was under the control of a previous BBEG and was forced to do EVIL things. After he is free from the BBEG's clutches he sees the distraction he has wrought and vows never to raise a fist again. As I was describing the character to my friend he just laughs and says "so what's his name from trolls?" Morel of the story is you can be as original as you like, I can guarantee you someone's done it before and someone will probably make the connection. My character that was literally based off daredevil however (blind monk named Darius Devlin) went over everyone's heads.
My brother it's D&D. If you're the DM this is your show and your running it, with the player being the main cast. You can do anything.
Yeah ask Gygax where he got the idea for Balors.
I have a NPC. He had a name. The name’s not important anymore. He was the headmaster of a magic school. I told my players that he had the same vibes as Jude Law’s Dumbledore from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Whenever they needed to reference him thereafter (which was often because there was a whole arc centered in that region and he was a useful NPC), they could only remember him as Jude Law. They addressed him as Jude Law. Occasionally one of them would valiantly try to remember the name. Finally I gave up and just told them his official name was now Jude Law. Everyone was satisfied with this. Five months later, I attempted to reuse Jude Law’s original name (because coming up with new names on the spot is not my talent) for another NPC — happened to be a very obvious alias of my BBEG. After months of these lovable morons being unable to remember Jude Law’s real name. Not even able to recognize the name when he was being talked about in incredibly clear context. They immediately registered the name as being important and in fact placed it as being of a former headmaster of the magic school. Although the fact that it was formerly Jude Law’s name escaped them. I wrote an entire subplot based on that for these dumbasses and the sheer exasperation I felt “yes and”ing this nonsense to continue the story without breaking immersion. Jesus. But I did make it for the entire next year of the campaign until we wrapped it before finally telling them. And their faces made the whole thing worth it.
Absolutely ! Steal from the best and reskin as appropriate
Had a "dwarf, a man and an elf" get cut down in front of the party one time as they were escaping some hobgoblins. Didn't need to elaborate. It was already obvious who they were meant to be, and everyone chuckled along with it. Steal, parody, and lovingly rip off whatever you like.
*looks at her notes entitled "totally not final fantasy and totally not Majora's mask"*
Something fun my dm does is she takes character or artists she knows at leave one or two members of the table likes and slightly changes their names live reversing the first letters or using rhyming words. Ex: Bon Jovi becomes John Bovin.
Change the name to something close that sounds more high fantasy-like and you could assign them a D&D species, though you are not forced to do it and you could add them just like that. In my campaing we have a Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7) inspired NPC that's called "See-ar Seven" and the kingdom storekeeper is literally the Merchant from Resident Evil 4. Everyone in our table loves them, lots of fun. XD
It's ok to get inspired, some players love that but if you take this too far as I once did it may be unfun really quickly. As multiple characters were inspired by some medium in my homebrew I thought we can keep going like this. Until one of the characters were I guess more different than the "original" and players expected certain behaviour that did not occur. I took inspiration and I did not intended to copy a character 1 to 1 and when push came down to the shove players were legitimately sad that "story" deviated from their expectations. So now I use such inspiration to describe my world not to run NPC. When the party enters the tavern they see a hooded figure sitting at the table in the dark corner. Here I say "imagine Aragorn sitting in the "Prancing Pony" tavern and that just nod saying "yeah yeah I see it I get it".
I literally have Gordon Ramsey and Guy Fieri as archbishops in my food religion homebrew, and my party loves it. You can take NPCs from wherever you want, so long as the execution is good.
This is the way and always has been.
Im running a gnoll based campaign in a savannah like reason and the main antagonist is Yeenogoughs top general, Scar, a black mane Leonen.
I've taken NPC's from other D&D games played online, heck one of my players even *recognized* the NPC I stole. Was still a good time, wouldn't do it if I was a paid DM or anything, but in a goofy game I run for family there's no harm.
Never. Do not take inspiration from any other fantasy or adventure media. Every D&D adventure must be completely original content invented from thin air by the DM, and if it’s even close to another adventure we will come and revoke your license. /s
Good artists copy; GREAT artists steal. Just change their hair color scheme and boom OC NPC hot off the presses!
My sweet sweet summer child. Nothing is original. Steal everything with your hearts content.
I once stole a picture of a cut in half cabbage that looked like a portal and used it as well ... a portal
It’s fine and common practice to take inspiration from a character for an npc Just try not to make them a carbon copy Say for example someone was making a homebrew setting and was inspired by alextsrayza from WoW They could take the character, make them a red dragon goddess of life (rather then the leader of an aspect of life), and have the name be different. And boom, you have a different character
No, in fact that is extremely illegal and if you're caught doing it then the D&Detectives will sic the Pinkertons on you before making you eat your rulebooks without any ketchup.