Several times I've gotten inspiration for adventures from the new series of Dr. Who. While the tone of Dark Heresy and Dr. Who are different, some villians from Dr. Who would fit right into the 40K Universe with just a little tweaking. Now you want see my acolytes pit themselves against a group of Daaleks, but a similar invention gone wrong would fit right in with the them of the Logicians.

In the past I've taken inspiration from Philip K. **** (in a game where a Mind-cleansed acolyte learned he had been mind-cleansed at least once before, and possibly once more before that). Currently, I'm thinking of modeling a campaign after Ringworld, wherein a massive artificial structure is discovered, and the acolytes will be part of a team sent to determine if the structure is a foul xenos relic that must be destroyed, or a wondrous artifact from the dark age of technology that must be studied and cherished as a gift of the Omnissiah.

I get inspiration from just about any source out there.

The new Dr. Who is great for ideas. I still have an episode from the first or second season bumping around in my head, the one where Jack Harkness is first introduced during W.W.II with that kid with the gas-mask, waiting for a grimdark coating. Some of the ideas and imagery from that one is just begging to be used! Every time I see Torchwood, I can't help but think of an Ordo Xenos cell.

Beyond that, various movies can inspire me, comics, books, music, other games (like CoC and SLA Industries). Ideas can come from just about anywhere and when they do, I just grab a hold of it. The other week, I was watching rewatching Apocalypse Now and now I have my group running through a warped version of it 40ked and cranked up to 11.

One of the things I love about the new Dr. Who serials is the foreshadowing. Now an rpg won't tie together in such a neat package, but I want to work some of that into my own campaign. One example is the way poster that read "Vote Saxon" appear all through out series three, and you suddenly realize who Saxon is two episodes toward the end. There's an example like that in all the serials of the new series from what I can tell. I just love the feeling when something simple turns out to have huge implications down the road.

I draw a lot of inspiration from here, as well as a wealth of movies I can't even begin to name. My brain is a sponge when it comes to films. Of all movies I love that influence my roleplaying I would have to cite the following:

The Warriors really is to me what a gauntlet of combats should feel like in an rpg. When the chips are down and everyone wants to pound your face in, all you want to do is get home. Never underestimate your roots and the strength of who you are.

Anything Luc Besson is involved in is solid gold and will be good at reminding a GM that the crazier things your players do can still be really entertaining and not disrupt the flow of the story.

Gremlins is awesome for a cool way to set up a plot. You give the players a few interelated and seemingly simple goals and then make it really hard for them to succeed. Better yet, each minor failure compounds quickly into a seemingly out of control situation. You let them make their own mess and then clean it up.

Finally anything with zombies and I'm sold, they're the greatest horror metaphor for the worst in all of us.

Some of the plot goals in computer RPG's give me ideas. Like KotOR 2. Picture the empty mining facility, with plague zombies. Theres inspiration for the scenario after i run Illumination.

Other then games, any of the 40k novels from BL are good for just "getting in the 40k mood".

For a less grim game, the TV series Chuck can work out. Image some poor Adept that gets ahold of a irreplaceable database of the Inquisition's gathered intelligence - and has it implanted in his mind. Play around with it so that the info can't just be removed without corrupting it, and you can have some fun.

Comic books make another good source of inspiration. Warhammer 40K comics make a good place to start, but comics which take place in otehr universes will do just as well. Imagine a villian who wants to match wits with the Inquisitor the acolytes serve. He wants to hurt the Inquisitor on a personal level, and he chooses to strike through murdering every member of the Inquisitor's network he can find. The Batman villian Hush is a good example of a character who hates his enemy on a personal level.