Inspiration.... not Perspiration

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of DMing, when not falling back on published adventures, is inspiration.  It can be extremely challenging to come up with fresh ideas regularly, and to order, and that is especially true for someone such as myself, who has issues with a wandering mind - which goes where it wants to be, not where it *should* be, and does so when it chooses.  This is one reason why I love running ready made adventure modules.  But that cannot always be the solution, as there is so much bland dross out there.  Plus, coming up with something yourself that works can be extremely rewarding.

I'm running a 2E AD&D sandbox campaign at the moment.  It's a secondary game mostly, used to plug the gaps and change the pace between main 1E sessions.  Sandbox games, by their very nature, are a challenge - there needs to be enough material prepared to ensure the world is consistent, and much needs to be improvised around that basic framework, and even the most open of sandboxes needs to have some underlying goal or theme in order to tie it all together.

Thus I need inspiration on a regular basis.

Now I love music, dark, introspective, moody music.  It's not to everyone's taste, but it gets my mind in the desired place.  So, for my inspiration for the 2E game I decided to base the theme, the hooks of the various adventures, and some of the game imagery on the lyrics of a band I listen to - a lot.  A band who sprouted from the Goth scene of the 80s, who developed from Goth rockers with a brash, crude sound into a highly accomplished unit creating epics reminiscent of Pink Floyd's 70s peak.  Throughout though, their lyrics were inspired by mystical and occult themes - Sumerian mythos, Aleister Crowley, Cthulhu.  Frequently pompous and overblown, but always interesting, this band is the Fields of the Nephilim.

Carl McCoy - growling frontman of the Fields of the Nephilim

The setting for the campaign is 'Summerland', the name taken from the Nephilim's 11 minute epic "Sumerland", one of the highlights on their seminal Elizium LP.

Scenario 1 - Secrets (1986 - Returning to Gehenna EP, reissued on CD version of 1st album - Dawnrazor)

He rides on the crest of a wave, His anger running out,
He acts as if the same way As I ride across town to town,
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I forgive you follow me
I'll forgive you
I'll forgive you
I've seen the hardest men fall,  I've seen them crawl
Secrets I know where no-one can find them
Behind the darkened door

It's far from their best work, written and released 4 years before they found their more polished sound - Returning to Gehenna was their 2nd EP, and McCoy's vocals were a work in progress.

Investigating a missing Halfing, the party found a deserted Druid camp and a blighted forest.  Deep within that forest, the source of the blight was found to be a tainted stream.  The Druids were discovered, their minds affected by an unknown influence (their babblings were inspired by the Nephilim track "Trees come down").  The stream flowed from a cave entrance - and at the back of the cave was a black door.  To pass the door, a PC had to utter 'I follow'.  On doing so he heard the word 'I forgive' - but that PC would now become a follower of an ancient Goat Headed Fertility God, taken from Wiccan/Pagan beliefs.  Angry at a new religion being brought to the land, the God would now be placated somewhat, having gained new followers, and the blight would be lifted from the Forest.

The campaign would then continue with 'For Her Light'...