How Grilled Cheese Broke My Deadlock

And no, this hasn't becoming a cooking blog I promise. ;)

What happened is simple, I read an excellent book ,Great Grill Cheese by Laura Wirlin in case you were wondering which enabled to finally master the grilled cheese sandwich.

After I finally made a nearly perfect sandwich I had a moment of Zen came to a realization that would enable me to make great adventures.

How?

Simple... Look at the problem a new way .. My problem was the sandwiches were not cooking the way I wanted them too .. The solution I learned in the cook book was to take an extra step and plane the cheese so it cooks quickly enough to keep the bread just right

Say I apply the same basic idea, add another prep step find a a new solution to this problem

I've run out of ideas and I have no idea how to come up with new ones and I can't borrow fantasy ideas without everybody will catching the references ...

A tough nut eh?

Well suppose that you add an extra step and change the idea twice before you run it ...

This muddies the waters enough that, so long as you are careful, they players won't figure out the borrowing and resort to bad cliches



For example, 4 vague ideas come up that I'd consider borrowing, from Sci-Fi to Manga then to Fantasy

#1 Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles
#2 Star Trek
#3 Battle Star Galactica
#4 X Files

They become

Invincible Robot Girlfriend Cameron

Astronaut Space explorer Force Go!

Lost Home Struggle against the Robots

and National Phantom Police


Now I reconvert them to

A Chosen one with a Guardian Golem fro another time (the distant past)

A group of Spelljammers on a Mission of Exploration (in true Japanese style drop the military aspect)

a caravan fleeing an army of the demons lead by shapeshifters (Ogre Magi, and other sorts make the demons less spiritual and less physical)

and last a group of Crown Investigators exploring magic crimes in a world that no longer much believes in magic with a bureaucracy to contend with (which gives it an Anime flavor)

rip off a few favorite episodes and viola, instant campaign...