December 2, 2024: You Take The Good, You Take The Bad . . .

A real quick-and-dirty way to get inspiration for your tabletop RPGs is "good, but bad." That is, you start with a premise of something advantageous to the heroes (or others in the campaign world), but couple it with something troublesome. You make the two aspects intrinsic to each other, such that you can't have one without the other.

For even easier inspiration, use two different GURPS supplements as the foundation or spark. So, for example, you might have:

• Mecha that can only be interfaced with and piloted by vampires, possibly inspiring otherwise healthy folks to turn themselves into the undead.

• Strange fantasy weapons that can only be purchased with special coins the adventurers have to track down.

• A new form of magic that – each time it's used – provides more arcane data for a shadowy organization.

I'm sure you can come up with your own good/bad combos; if so, please feel free to share your ideas on the forums!

-- Steven Marsh