I only stockpile ideas in my head, which means the most of those ideas come and go. Or sometimes, I adapt them as part of whatever I'm currently running:).

The only reason not to share them is that I'm usually too lazy to type them out;).

I periodically empty my stockpile here or on Google+, like I did a couple of years back in this thread.

And yeah, good ideas all around.

Good thread, tenbones.

I use a notepad app on my phone for jotting down ideas when they strike me.  Ideas come from novels, dreams, movies, meeting a someone with an interesting quirk, etc.  Often they are just a thread that turns into a descriptive encounter or a backdrop . . . but occasionally it turns into a setting or campaign.

Sometimes when visiting a place, I notice something striking and take a photo.  When in Maui I saw a really cool tree with a large gaping hole surrounded by gnarly roots.  I took a photo, printed it in sepia tones, singed the edges with a match and used it as a prop in a COC campaign.

I brainstorm new premises for campaigns and convention one shots, jotting them in a notebook or word doc. I'm generally not shy about sharing them, but I sample dozens of ideas before that one takes hold. Frex (and semi-repost from TBP):

Theme: Mythic supers
System: M&M 3e
Gist: A Runaways style game mixed with Lightning Thief: The players are all mortal bastards of evil gods (Hel, Hades, Set, etc.) who have finally united to throw down the rulers of the heavens. Now they have cast their gaze on Earth. Only you can stop them.

Caesar! That's a great idea!!!!! Definitely swiping the concept and I'll put my own spin on it (which means it will sit in my endless of folder of possibilities). that's a real beauty!

And I remembered an adventure idea I had for the 4 colours system:).


The players are playing a street-level campaign in New York, and none of them actually have strong superpowers (only powers coming from Equipment, skills and super-stats are allowed).

However, a regular fire-throwing superhero who's also able to fly, has gone insane. He now believes if he can open a nuclear reactor, his power would multiply by orders of magnitude, and he wants to be able to take on Galactus single-handedly for reasons his own.

Sure, an unfortunate side effect would be to kill lots of people, but he regards them as a sacrifice for his ascension.

Now you have to track him down before he decides "the stars are right" and he flies for the nearest nuclear plant;).

I stockpile campaign ideas within a bunch of OneDrive folders. Some have just a single .txt file of collected ideas, while others have all kinds of maps, notes, homemade character sheets, gameplay cheat-sheets. Some of the ideas have been around for 10 years, and others have been around for just a few months.

The only one currently occupying my brain-space is a Classic Traveller campaign set in a homemade setting, which is basically non-3I, out on a frontier where a few pocket empires battle for resources and there's a lot of uncontacted, failed-colony, or outright-dangerous worlds to explore.

Some of the ideas I wonder whether they'll ever see the light of day, or if I'll have players that are interested in them. Will I ever run a stone-age fantasy-horror campaign using Elric! rules with an injection of spirit magic, Serpentmen-occupied ziggurats, and minor mythos beasties? Not as high on the priority list as running Cthulhu Dark Ages or Dark Streets.