Question for Players: Commercial or Homebrew?

billd91 · Aug 23, 2008

I prefer whatever setting seems to be done well, both as a player and DM. Because I have relatively limited prep time these days, I generally prefer a published campaign, ideally one that's not over-defined (I do have enough time to do some prep, after all).

As a player, the main issue is well run campaign involving subject matter I enjoy (or at least doesn't annoy me). But I will say that any campaign can degenerate into masturbatory claptrap, dominated by the DM or player, and that's in no way limited to homebrews.
It just depends on what kind of pretentious weenies you play with. Delusions of gaming or literary grandeur will kill any campaign, whether homebrewed or not.

Darrin Drader · Aug 23, 2008

Treebore said:
So "in our experiences", IE games set it homebrews in which we actually played, masturbatory is a pretty decent, if crude, adjective to use.

OK, I agree that not all homebrews are created equal. For instance, I remember talking to one guy who was running a D&D game, again I think this was 2nd edition, where it was everything goes. By everything, I mean every possible thing you could think of. There were storm troopers and klingons. I don't know why. And as he described this focus deprived world that made no sense to me, I was glad that I didn't know him well enough to be invited into his game, because it sounded absolutely terrible, and about as D&D as Wheaties.

I have played in others that weren't so bad. One of the better ones I remember was a world that existed on another plane, though we didn't discover that until later.

The bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that homebrews are as diverse as the DMs running them. Some are extremely good. Others, not so much.

El Mahdi · Aug 23, 2008

How's this for muddying the waters. I prefer to "homebrew" an established campaign setting. I'll usually use FR, but I pick and choose the parts I like, throw out the parts I don't like, and import in parts I like from other settings or even things of my own creation. A fully fleshed out published campaign setting is too useful of an asset for me to ignore. I've never played in a homebrew setting that was ever as good as a published setting, and I definately don't have the chops or time to make a setting even close to what the published settings offer. (If I was a game designer and author like Darrin, it might be a different story.

) However, there is no published setting that is "exactly" what I want. So I tweak, and bend, and cut, and add, until it fits what I want.

Silvercat Moonpaw · Aug 23, 2008

El Mahdi said:
……there is no published setting that is "exactly" what I want. So I tweak, and bend, and cut, and add, until it fits what I want.

Same here, except that every single published campaign setting I run across has too many things wrong with it. By the time I cut out what I don't like there's barely any point in using it. But according to the feelings of people on this thread and all the advice for new DMs I've ever seen (I'm a new DM) I should use a published setting.

So what am I supposed to do?

Treebore · Aug 23, 2008

SilvercatMoonpaw2 said:
Same here, except that every single published campaign setting I run across has too many things wrong with it. By the time I cut out what I don't like there's barely any point in using it. But according to the feelings of people on this thread and all the advice for new DMs I've ever seen (I'm a new DM) I should use a published setting.

So what am I supposed to do?

Do a "Fork to new thread", give us what your looking for in a setting in outline format, and we'll see if we can match you up with a published setting or turn it into a "How to" thread.

Treebore · Aug 23, 2008

Darrin Drader said:
The bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that homebrews are as diverse as the DMs running them. Some are extremely good. Others, not so much.

True.

With "prefab" settings the quality seems more consistent and predictable. Still, I've seen some DM's screw those up too. Even me, with Faerun, but it was because two players wanted the novels, etc... to be "canon", and I refused. So in their opinion I screwed up the Forgotten Realms setting.

I had another player have similar issues with my Ravenloft setting, because I had Lord Soth in it.

Oh well, I may have screwed it up for them, but I sure wasn't going to screw it up for me, and I always had plenty of players sitting at my game table, so I must have done enough right for most people.

Hussar · Aug 24, 2008

You had a player have a problem with Lord Soth in Ravenloft?

I'm not huge on Ravenloft canon, but, I seem to remember Soth got sucked into the Demiplane of Dread for quite a while. There's a whole Dragon write-up about it in one of the Campaign Classics issues.

Whoa, that's strange.

I gotta admit though Treebore, you surprised me. I would have thought you would be a die hard homebrewer. Just goes to show...

I think the issue comes down on homebrews is that homebrews have no editors. There is no one looking over the writer's shoulder with a big stick to whack him upside the head when he tries something that he really shouldn't. So, in effect, there is absolutely no quality control on homebrews before it comes into play.

That can cause all sorts of issues. Sometimes homebrews are fantastic. Sometimes they are ... not.

Serendipity · Aug 24, 2008

Homebrew, every time. IMHO published settings tend to be either too expensive for everyone to be on an equal footing for or (more often) bland and colourless. (There are of course, exceptions in both cases. Generally the sort of GM who'd put forth some craptastic homebrew is someone I'd not want to GM a published setting either.)

Treebore · Aug 24, 2008

Hussar said:
You had a player have a problem with Lord Soth in Ravenloft? I'm not huge on Ravenloft canon, but, I seem to remember Soth got sucked into the Demiplane of Dread for quite a while. There's a whole Dragon write-up about it in one of the Campaign Classics issues.

Whoa, that's strange.

I gotta admit though Treebore, you surprised me. I would have thought you would be a die hard homebrewer. Just goes to show...

I think the issue comes down on homebrews is that homebrews have no editors. There is no one looking over the writer's shoulder with a big stick to whack him upside the head when he tries something that he really shouldn't. So, in effect, there is absolutely no quality control on homebrews before it comes into play.

That can cause all sorts of issues. Sometimes homebrews are fantastic. Sometimes they are ... not.

I have to admit I am like Al Mahdi, I take a published setting and then use what I like and throw out what I don't, and throw in things I do like. Its a large part of why I love modules so much. They can fill in a lot of locations I don't like with adventure sites I do like. Then I home brew things that the setting or modules can't give me.

As for Soth, he wasn't "original" Ravenloft canon, so therefore bad. Kind of like how the "Ashes" boxed set for GH is considered blasphemy by some, me being one of them. Then again I didn't do that Avatar crap to my Faerun Campaign either. They were not directions I wanted the settings to go in.

Oni · Aug 24, 2008

I think both have their merits.

As a player I like to have a lot of info on the world before the game ever begins. I like to craft a character that really fits the world, I like the character to have a sense of history (to me at least) before I sit down to play the first game. Published campaign settings give you this material to work with so that's a real plus to me. However I have played in a couple homebrews with enough info to have the same feeling of connectedness to the world.

With a published setting it's a fair bet that while it may not be superb it will most likely be at least ok. Homebrews are more of an unknown quality, I think they run a much wider spectrum of from wretched to absolutely amazing.

Published setting are more of a known element. If some says to me I'm going to run a Ravenloft/Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Planescape game I'm going to have a pretty good idea if the setting will appeal to me or not. If some says to me I'm going to run my homebrew land of Gadzooksthemadeupname, that doesn't tell me nearly as much what to expect. The flipside of that a homebrew might give you a chance to really play something new and novel that you haven't done before, or maybe not.