Playing D&D: Homebrew or Published Setting? Why?

Doc_Klueless

Doors and Corners

• Feb 17, 2018

• #1

When you play or run a game of D&D, do you homebrew up your campaign setting or use a published setting? Or are you one who takes from Published to use in Homebrew or vise versa?

I find, for myself, that it really does depend on whether I'm running the game or playing in the game. When I run the game, I usually prefer to use a homebrew just due to the Lore aspect. That is, I know the lore of the world because I'm making it up.

However, when I play, I like playing in published games as I can read up on the lore and feel more immersed in the world.

How do you feel/do this? And, more importantly, why?

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2018

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Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Feb 17, 2018

• #2

Homebrew, most of the time. It's how I've always played D&D, and it's what D&D is to me.

 

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

• Feb 17, 2018

• #3

A bit of both. I lean on published settings so that players have a baseline understanding - when I say “Darksun campaign,” most folks know for the most part what to expect. But within that Published setting, I tweak and customize and make it my own. My default setting is based loosely on 4e’s Points of Light setting, but I take a lot of liberties with it, so anyone familiar with 4e will recognize the world in broad strokes, but may find specific details different than they expect. Same goes for when I run Dark Sun or Eberron or whatever else. The bones are the same, but some of the finer features are a little different.

 

S

Sunseeker

Guest

• Feb 17, 2018

• #4

I tend to dislike the established lore, so I make my own, and thus, prefer homebrew. None of the published settings ever quite sat right with me.

 

Doc_Klueless

Doors and Corners

• Feb 17, 2018

• #5

Something brought up on another board where I put up this question is that some users like to rip parts out of Published settings to use in their Homebrew settings. So, in essence, a mixture of both. I missed this third option when I did my OP. Gonna go throw that in there.

 

Arilyn

Hero

• Feb 17, 2018

• #6

Don't have lots of time, so I usually use a published setting, but we put our own twist on it. I like the 13th Age world because it gives me a map and some settlements, but the details is up to the group.

 

OB1

Jedi Master

• Feb 17, 2018

• #7

Home-brew material plane in the published multi-verse is the way I typically run and also the way that most of my DMs run as well. On the occasion that we run a published adventure, it's whatever the setting is for that.

 

cmad1977

Hero

• Feb 17, 2018

• #8

Both.

 

Satyrn

First Post

• Feb 17, 2018

• #9

My table uses a homebrew setting as far as the map went. But we still play in the implied setting.

Like, you could say that in 3e we played in a Greyhawk with a different landscape, and in 4e we played in a different region than Nentir Vale. But the gods, the flavor, the feel, the races, etc, were taken from the Players Handbooks.

That makes more sense in 3e and 4e, where there was definitely an implied setting, but now that 5e doesn't actually use any one setting throughout the core books, I guess the answer is definitely Homebrew.

. . . I'm not actually sure what Pantheon we're using - other than to say "all of them, or none of them, just drawing in whatever gods get mentioned in play. "

 

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

• Feb 17, 2018

• #10

Doc_Klueless said:

Something brought up on another board where I put up this question is that some users like to rip parts out of Published settings to use in their Homebrew settings.

Click to expand...

Or vise versa - some folks (myself included) start from a published setting and just tweak it a bit here and there.