I feel like my first group fell for all of these problems except the second one. The main DM ripped off as much as he could, and while I understand taking inspiration or a simple outline from outside sources, he didn't add any originality to it, except maybe character names. All of the guest DMs had the same problem, except for one, but they grew out of completely ripping off other stories and went along with fusing old with new. I started out mostly ripping off other stories with a little of my own **** but I have since drifted away from high amounts of outside sourcing. I don't know why. It's just how I'm playing at the moment.