I'm curious as to what other players and Gm's read for their inspiration.

My first choice for 40k or other scifi/fantasy is the Grand Epic DUNE. Just love the conspiricies, and flow of Space/Time Precience...

The original Rogue Trader, don't know why I seem to get so inspired that book (maybe it reignites my youthful imagination).

Dune has heavily influenced my interpretation of 40k, as I feel it's an example of Space Fantasy done really well, and usually when I need to fill in the gaps for something GW's left open in the fluff I just think "What would happen in Dune?"

As for my own sources, I can't say I've read any books recently that give me inspiration, but I have found the game Deus Ex very useful, and am currently bouncing around in my head something to potentially spring off Dead Space [evil GM snicker].

From video games, Metal Gear has been an inspiration to some of my adventures.

Movies: Aliens says it all, Terminator (Salvation in particular), literary incorrect DUNE and the minis series DUNE and Children of Dune, Chronicles of Riddick and Pitch Black, are just a few I can think of.

I am actually starting to go for older SciFi "short stories" from authors who have nothing to do with 40K. "Small used books" are rather cheap to get a hold on via internet and the format (short stories) ensures that you can read through in a short period of time.

Bought my first short story collection (german provider: Ullstein) to read "Sandkings" from Georg R.R. Martin but read "StoneCity" first (different author; me thinks) While not great as a story, it gave me some helpfull inspiration for "leftover ruin city" on an imperial colony and some new alien races (proberbly more usefull to a RT-Gamer)

Best of all, I got a view more names, place descriptions and/or items I can throw on my npc without to much risk that my players are familiar with them.

Do you mean besides black library books?

If not I'd highly recommend Eisenhorn and Ravenor omnibus. Also Rogue STar and Star of Damocles have some nice descriptions for space ships if you happen to be on those.

Titanicus is another good one.

Video games and movies are helpful, but I think the biggest thing that helps me get the imagination flowing for an idea is music.

My campaigns tend to be a bit more "epic" in that I treat the Acolytes as heroes or main characters rather than expendable redshirts. My method for brainstorming is much different from that of the rest of the GMs of our group. I sit down and dedicate my time to listening to music and imagining in my head what a moment in my campaign would be like if it were a movie or video game with that music playing, and set up a series of these sequences with filler in between.

As an example, from this song(www.youtube.com/watch) imagining a situation in my head with this music playing, I came up with a hostage situation on a hive world, with the hostages being about 3/4ths up the side of a very large building. One of the hostages is an individual who is absolutely critical to their investigation, and the forces assigned to deal with the situation(which in this case would be more akin to specially trained Stormtroopers than Arbites/Guardsmen as it is a delicate, high risk situation) can't be trusted to get this person out safely, so the Acolytes, whether through gentle persuasion or simply outright demanding, are to tag along with the rescue team. For the sake of being a dramatic GM, the team would rappel down the side of the building, smash through the side of the building and clear the floor with a secondary team who enters from the stairway, with the Acolytes racing against the "police" to get to the hostage.

This probably won't work for everybody, but you never know what might help.

Obviously just about anything that Dan Abnett wrote. Eisenhorn in particular, but since he is easily the author that has had the most influence on the "life in the Imperium outside the battlefield" you pretty much can't go wrong here.

Sandy Mitchell and the other Black Library authors. Yes, Abnett is one too, but he earned his own mention.

Dune by Frank Herbert. All six books, not just the first and most famous one! His son Brian Herbert has some pretty good novels now too based on his father's (extensive) notes.

The Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith. Arguably the sci-fi series that started it all, this is simply MADE of awesome! It has been out of print and a royal pain in the butt to find for a long time now, but SciFi Book Club re-issued the series a few years ago in double-omnibus format (original was 6 books).

Tom Clancy. Pick any fiction book that he wrote himself (not the ghost written crap spinoff stuff) and you are set. If the author is "Tom Clancy" it is good. If It says "Tom Clancy's" then hesitate, as he did not write that one.

Not technically in book form, but if you have access to the "Military Channel" on your cable or satellite then you are in luck. Just watch it. You WILL get inspiration and ideas for any 40K themed game. In particular, the WWI documentaries are priceless. You are also on the right track if the words "Roman" or "Russian" appear in any way.

Likewise, odd little gems of ideas can be found in little margin notes, flavour text and any number of other minutia in the various Warhammer 40K books and codexes.

The Alien/Aliens movie series. YUM!

Pitch Black/Riddick movies.

More anime than I care to document.....

Iron Maiden. The band. The best **** band EVER! Check out the lyrics on a few random songs. Bet you get a game idea or two....

David Drake. He has written more books than the mafia! Not all of them are really 40K appropriate, but some of them can be adapted pretty well. That and no matter how weird the premise and setting, he makes it AWESOME!

ZillaPrime said:

Iron Maiden is a great choice for inspiration. Another band I like is The Crüxshadows. They're songs were/are heavily influenced by mythology and such; their older stuff being a bit more melodic than their more recent compositions.

Drake's Hammer's Slammers series is quite good. Bridgehead and Forlorn Hope are a my favorites for his stand alone stuff. If I recall correctly, there's an anthology of Cthulhu related stories which he both provided the foreword and an entry to; can't remember, nor find, the name.

-=Brother Praetus=-

One reference I'm missing from the above list is China Mieville. His sci-fi series of books are awesome in setting and feeling. It is a big dark universe where humans are small-fry. Strange pseudo science and conservatism abound.

Perdido Street Station, The Scar (that as a bonus inludes an item that is very much like a Halo device...) and The Iron Council are the books that are most obviosly 40k inspiration. All his other works are most excellent for their stories and creativity.

I just watched Pandoram, that was a killer movie with tons of tidbits for inspiration, adding to my movie list would be that and Alien series, and Event Horizon...

Netherek said:

**** you beat me to it! Event Horizon is good inspiration for Space Hulk games or anything to do with the Warp.

Also, Hellraiser moves or books is very good inspiration for Daemons and other Warp entiites.

Pandoram is imho, a very good inspiration for a spacehulk adventure. I don't want to give anything away as it's very well done, a definate must see...