Welcome back, fellow world-builders! Ready to go even deeper down the rabbit hole?
If you thought finding adventure inspiration in your daily commute was eye-opening, wait until you discover what your own brain has been cooking up while you sleep. In Part 1, we explored how the external world feeds our creativity—now let's dive into the wonderfully weird internal landscape of dreams, the fascinating people around us, and those beautiful moments when Mother Nature decides to shake things up.
Buckle up, because we're about to get really creative.
Your Subconscious is a Better Storyteller Than You Think
Let me tell you about the dream that changed my entire approach to campaign design. I was running through a library where all the books were floating three feet off the shelves, and the librarian—who was somehow both my fifth-grade teacher and a dragon—kept insisting I needed to whisper even though everyone else was having full conversations at normal volume. When I woke up, instead of dismissing it as "just a weird dream," I wrote it down.
That floating library might just become the Ethereal Archive in a future campaign! And it really helped to flesh out the location, having seen it with my mind's eye already..
Dreams don't follow real-world logic—and that's exactly what makes them perfect for tabletop adventures. Your sleeping brain is constantly generating scenarios that would never occur to your waking, logical mind. That anxiety dream where you're late for an exam in a class you forgot you were taking? That's a time-sensitive quest with shifting objectives. The stress dream where your house has mysterious extra rooms? Boom—magical mansion with secrets to uncover.
Daydreams count too. You know those moments when your mind wanders during boring meetings or long car rides? Those "what if" scenarios your brain spins up are often more creative than anything you'd deliberately try to craft. What if that person walking their dog is actually a spy using the pet as a cover for surveillance? What if the construction project downtown is a front for something much more interesting?
Here's my secret weapon: I keep a "dream journal" app on my phone (okay, it's just the regular notes app, but "dream journal" sounds more mystical). The key is capturing those fleeting details immediately after waking up, because dream logic evaporates faster than morning mist. Even just a few phrases like "talking elevator that only goes sideways" or "marketplace where everything costs memories instead of money" can spark entire adventures later.
The NPC Factory All Around You
Every person you encounter is basically a character sheet waiting to be adapted. I'm not talking about literally copying people—I'm talking about taking those little quirks and mannerisms that make someone memorable and amplifying them for dramatic effect.
You might take your mail carrier, for instance. Maybe this person has delivered mail to your neighborhood for years, and they know everyone's business. They wave at specific houses, skip others entirely, and somehow always know when someone's on vacation. In your campaign, this might become Cedric the Courier—a halfling information broker who uses his mail route as cover for gathering and selling secrets.
The coffee shop regular who always orders the same complex drink and sits in the exact same spot? That's a wizard with very specific ritual requirements. The neighbor who obsessively maintains their garden could be a druid protecting a dimensional gateway hidden among the roses. That coworker who somehow knows everything about everyone might be running an intelligence network from their cubicle.
The beautiful thing about drawing inspiration from real people is that their behaviors already feel authentic because they are authentic. You're not trying to invent believable quirks from scratch—you're just taking existing ones and giving them fantasy implications.
And don't forget about antagonists. We've all encountered petty tyrants—the boss who micromanages everything, the HOA president who measures grass height with a ruler, the person who argues with service workers about expired coupons. These personality types, scaled up with actual power and magical abilities, make for incredibly satisfying villains because players recognize the archetype immediately.
When Nature Crashes the Party
Mother Nature is the ultimate improvising GM, and she's constantly throwing curveballs that no amount of planning could anticipate. Once, a thunderstorm hit while I ran a session of The Dark After, and instead of calling it off, we lit candles and decided the thunder was actually approaching giants searching for us in the dark. It was an exciting session, with atmosphere provided by the nature herself..
Weather isn't just atmosphere—it's plot.
That sudden fog rolling in? Perfect cover for mysterious figures to appear and disappear. The unexpected thunderstorm that knocks out power during game night? Your characters are now navigating by candlelight while something stalks them in the darkness. The unseasonably warm day in winter? Maybe the seasonal courts are at war, or a fire elemental has escaped containment.
Animals are natural storytellers too. A friend of mine once watched a murder of crows systematically dismantle his bird feeder, working together with what looked like military precision. After he shared it with me, I designed an entire organization of Kenku spies for an urban fantasy campaign. The stray cat that keeps showing up in my yard despite not belonging to anyone? Obviously a familiar keeping tabs on the neighborhood for their wizard.
Even mundane natural events can transform familiar locations into something magical. Picture your players' usual meeting spot (the tavern, the guild hall, whatever) during a flood, a blackout, or under the light of an unusual celestial event. Suddenly, the familiar becomes strange and full of possibility.
The key is being present enough to notice these moments when they happen and imaginative enough to ask "what if this was intentional?"
Your Creativity Toolkit: Catching Lightning in a Bottle
Here's the thing about inspiration—it's incredibly fleeting. That brilliant idea you had while walking the dog? If you don't capture it within about thirty seconds, it's gone forever, replaced by thoughts about what to make for dinner or whether you remembered to lock the car.
I've learned this the hard way approximately one thousand times.
The "Weird Ideas" vault: I keep a constantly-running note on my phone titled "Campaign Sparks" where I dump anything interesting I encounter. Recent entries include "Why does that house have so many garden gnomes?" and "What if the Joneses don’t really care if I’m keeping up – what if they’re just worried I’ll discover what’s hidden under the basement?'" Not all of these will become adventures, but some will, and I'll never know which ones unless I write them down.
Visual inspiration matters too. That interesting architectural detail, the way fog looks rolling over the lake, the expression on someone's face—sometimes a photo captures something that words can't. I've built entire encounters around interesting lighting or the way a swinging sign creaks on an abandoned street.
Voice memos are your friend in those moments when even typing is too much effort. I have dozens of rambling voice notes that start with "Okay, so what if..." recorded while walking, driving, or resetting our 3d-printers. Some are coherent, some are nonsense, but buried in that collection are the seeds of my best adventures.
The Adventure is Already Here
The most liberating realization I've had as a GM is that I don't always need to invent interesting stories—sometimes, I just need to notice them. They're happening all around us, all the time. That couple having an intense conversation at the grocery store, the mysterious package delivered to the wrong address, the local news story about something that "can't be explained"—it's all raw material waiting to be transformed.
Your players don't need another generic dragon in a generic castle. They need stories that feel real and strange and surprising, stories that make them think "I never would have thought of that." And the best way to give them that is to draw from the endless wellspring of weirdness that is actual life.
So here's your homework (and mine): Pay attention. Be curious about the small mysteries around you. Wonder about the stories behind the details you usually ignore. Ask "what if" about the ordinary moments that might not be so ordinary after all.
Quick creativity boosters for the road:
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Set a phone reminder to notice one weird thing each day
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Take a photo of something that makes you curious
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Ask friends about the strangest thing that happened to them this week
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Check local Facebook groups for wonderfully bizarre community drama
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Keep a notebook by your bed for those middle-of-the-night "what if" moments
Three questions to ask yourself:
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What's the most mysterious thing in your daily routine?
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Who's the most interesting stranger you've encountered recently?
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What familiar place would be completely different under unusual circumstances?
Your next legendary campaign is probably hiding in tomorrow's coffee run, next week's weird weather, or tonight's dreams. All you have to do is be ready to catch it when it appears.
Happy world-building, and may your campaigns be ever-strange and wonderful!
Got your own weird inspiration sources? I'd love to hear about the strangest place you've found adventure ideas—drop them in our general-geekiness channel on Discord! https://discord.gg/nCEwmRtK9e