How Much Borrowing Is Too Much?
Recently in a game session, our characters encountered a room with a magical energy pattern drawn on the floor. As anyone who is familiar with Roger Zelazny’s Amber books knows, sure enough once a character stepped on the pattern he had to complete the pattern and every step was a test of willpower. Once the pattern walk was completed, the character was able to teleport the group as desired. I should point out the game setting is not the world of Amber.
While I don’t fault the GM for borrowing an idea, I do think this particular encounter is a poor example of borrowing. Before I get any further, please understand that these concepts can apply to an encounter’s design, a campaign plot, or even a particular character’s background. With that out of the way, my point is that when you borrow an idea and it is a distraction to the other players or where their out of game knowledge would be too useful, you have borrowed too much and too directly.