Homebrewers: Huzzah!
WSmith
First Post
In all my years playing, Almost every game I was in was the DM's creation. There were only two exceptions. There was a time I used Greyhawk. However, it must have been my DMing style, cause it never seem liked the BG info got in the way.
Then more recently, I had considered using FR, in particular the North. Geographically and Climate wise, it closely resembled the homebrew I was working on. So thanks to the free download, I started fleshing out some stuff. The campaign was to be based out of Neverwinter, (mostly becasue the players had once played the old version of NWN on AOL). I must come from the same school of thought as Chairman_Kaga, cause the only REAL background I use is what is in the older 1e box, (actually I have it as PDF.) Anyway it never got off the ground. But if it does, I will certainly not use all that detail BG info that is out today. Plus, Drizzt and Elminster, if they do exsist, my players will never see them.
Then I started reading Old One's Faded Glory Story Hour. That has to be one of the most appealing, detailed settings I have seen not published. I started reading more like Barsoomcore's and Plane Sailing's. It inspired me to think outside of a typical fantasy world, forget the FR thing, bite the bullet, and finally put some elbow grease into my homebrew, because customized worlds are what I grew up on.
Then more recently, I had considered using FR, in particular the North. Geographically and Climate wise, it closely resembled the homebrew I was working on. So thanks to the free download, I started fleshing out some stuff. The campaign was to be based out of Neverwinter, (mostly becasue the players had once played the old version of NWN on AOL). I must come from the same school of thought as Chairman_Kaga, cause the only REAL background I use is what is in the older 1e box, (actually I have it as PDF.) Anyway it never got off the ground. But if it does, I will certainly not use all that detail BG info that is out today. Plus, Drizzt and Elminster, if they do exsist, my players will never see them.
Then I started reading Old One's Faded Glory Story Hour. That has to be one of the most appealing, detailed settings I have seen not published. I started reading more like Barsoomcore's and Plane Sailing's. It inspired me to think outside of a typical fantasy world, forget the FR thing, bite the bullet, and finally put some elbow grease into my homebrew, because customized worlds are what I grew up on.
I'd write a story hour, but I've been sitting on my campaign for about a month now. (Lousy, good-fer-nothing, "I got things to do", players )
I like high-magic/fantasy, but my players like the dark, down-to-earth feeling. So what do I do? Regulate magic. That's right. Wizards are licensed and sorcerors are illegal. As are druids (though it's mostly prejudice). Clerics are rare, because (a major plot-line) the gods left the world a long time ago.
Oh, and did I mention everyone in the world died, along with the world having been completely vaporized by volatile magicks? And then rebuilt by a mad Archwizard? I didn't? Wow.
Oh, and a young woman has just stolen an artifact that can destroy gods. And there's a giant void in the north that corrupts everything it touches into demons.
I like it where there's a lot of crap happening and the player's are in the middle of it.
-Basil
)I like high-magic/fantasy, but my players like the dark, down-to-earth feeling. So what do I do? Regulate magic. That's right. Wizards are licensed and sorcerors are illegal. As are druids (though it's mostly prejudice). Clerics are rare, because (a major plot-line) the gods left the world a long time ago.
Oh, and did I mention everyone in the world died, along with the world having been completely vaporized by volatile magicks? And then rebuilt by a mad Archwizard? I didn't? Wow.
Oh, and a young woman has just stolen an artifact that can destroy gods. And there's a giant void in the north that corrupts everything it touches into demons.
I like it where there's a lot of crap happening and the player's are in the middle of it.
-Basil
Grim
First Post
I to have a modified version of FR. Elminster and all the other super-high level characters dont exist. It doesnt make sense for the heros of the campain to do heroic thing when Elmisnter can just blink and wave his hands to fix ANYTHING. So he isnt there. And most of the gods faired a LOT worse through the time of troubles, and most are still recovering, so only some (IE, the ones I like) have regained their former powers. Like Bane, Lolth, and Mask. In fact, you can read about my campain in my story hour. Just follow the link below
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Holy Bovine
First Post
I would love to be able to write a homebrew campaign but the biggest thing that prevents me is time. I simply don't have enough. I'm envious of all you people who get to create your worlds from the ground up. Looks like the best I'll ever do is using published settings and modify them to my liking. I usually write my own adventures though and I find this can really give you ideas to develop and expand the campaign world.
Oh yeah if any player in any campaign I was running said anything about my campaign not being true to canon i would laugh him/her out of the room!
Oh yeah if any player in any campaign I was running said anything about my campaign not being true to canon i would laugh him/her out of the room!
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
Fawning?!
I admit to a certain...fanatism. But does that mean I hate everything else that's presented to me? Hardly. I mean I like d20 as whole for the love of Orcus! I mean I'd love to see a campaign setting where a Doomringer clashes with a White Robe, or a Embermage tries to match wits against a Arcane Devotee and his psonic bred mephit. Or even better, a couple faceless square of against a Shadow Adept. If has SL gods, fine. If it doesn't, I'll adjust fine. I'm not like arcady, I just have my tastes rather refined.
If you guys want to home brew, that's perfectly alright by me. I just don't care to try to do that myself. Why? Because I'm already WAY to busy doing OTHER projects that help to further what I consider the ultimate homebrew, the Scarred Lands. Arcady though, just buys stuff. So I ask you give that some consideration when you weigh my...exhuberant behavoirs against that of Arcady, a man I'm sure many of you find a little...intractable.
Btw, Psion, any chance you'll get around to reviewing Arcana, Soceities of Magic?
I admit to a certain...fanatism. But does that mean I hate everything else that's presented to me? Hardly. I mean I like d20 as whole for the love of Orcus! I mean I'd love to see a campaign setting where a Doomringer clashes with a White Robe, or a Embermage tries to match wits against a Arcane Devotee and his psonic bred mephit. Or even better, a couple faceless square of against a Shadow Adept. If has SL gods, fine. If it doesn't, I'll adjust fine. I'm not like arcady, I just have my tastes rather refined.
If you guys want to home brew, that's perfectly alright by me. I just don't care to try to do that myself. Why? Because I'm already WAY to busy doing OTHER projects that help to further what I consider the ultimate homebrew, the Scarred Lands. Arcady though, just buys stuff. So I ask you give that some consideration when you weigh my...exhuberant behavoirs against that of Arcady, a man I'm sure many of you find a little...intractable.
Btw, Psion, any chance you'll get around to reviewing Arcana, Soceities of Magic?
Nightfall
Sage of the Scarred Lands
One thing I'd like to note further, I don't ALWAYS go cannon about my SL stuff. I mean if I had a choice between giving some of the necromancers of Hollowfaust feats from the PHB or from some where else, you can be DAMN sure I'd use some Lace Feats, some necromantic feats, and maybe even just a few from Tome and Blood. Not mention I'd probably toss a few Shadow templates to some of the Slacerian stuff.
BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
Psion,
I thought I was the only guy to get suckered by Starshield. I bagged the project when I read Hickman's book The Immortals where the author accidently reveals his opinion of artisic works by the unschooled ... which is excatly what he was pretending to solicit for SH!
Anyway ...
My homebrew site is in my .sig. As a caveat, I'll warn you that I'm thinking about publishing it so this message could be considered a little spammy. However, with the setting I hoped to address problems I saw in a lot of other campaign worlds:
1) The "you-can-do-ANYTHING-you-want!" issue. Of course I can do anything I want. I'm playing an RPG! But I see a lot of generic fantasy worlds that basically sit there and give nothing for a GM to fall back on. Hey, Dragonlance at least gave you draconians to kill. If the GM has to spend a lot of time making adventures, or if any generic fantasy adventure can be dropped in the world then the setting really hasn't done it's job.
2) Consistency. If there is an evil wizard there should be a reason he just doesn't wack the players. If there is a powerful good guy wizard there should be a reason he doesn't just lob a fireball at the orc camp instead of looking for adventurers to do it for him. If there are lots of dragons there should be a reason why they haven't gobbled everyone up. Players will ask these questions sooner or later. The setting shouldn't leave the GM saying "because that's the way things are, OK?"
3) Balance. If there is a new race or prestige class it should work with the setting AND not be overpowered. I've seen d20 settings where a fantasy race gets attribute bonuses with no corresponding penalties. Apparently, I'm supposed to make sure my group is 100% comprised of master role-players. The reality is that every gaming group has some role-players, some powergamers, and some casual gamers. So any added material should be involving, blanced, and interesting. Of the three, I've noticed that balance is the first to go.
But as I said, my solutions to these problems can be found within my link.
I thought I was the only guy to get suckered by Starshield. I bagged the project when I read Hickman's book The Immortals where the author accidently reveals his opinion of artisic works by the unschooled ... which is excatly what he was pretending to solicit for SH!
Anyway ...
My homebrew site is in my .sig. As a caveat, I'll warn you that I'm thinking about publishing it so this message could be considered a little spammy. However, with the setting I hoped to address problems I saw in a lot of other campaign worlds:
1) The "you-can-do-ANYTHING-you-want!" issue. Of course I can do anything I want. I'm playing an RPG! But I see a lot of generic fantasy worlds that basically sit there and give nothing for a GM to fall back on. Hey, Dragonlance at least gave you draconians to kill. If the GM has to spend a lot of time making adventures, or if any generic fantasy adventure can be dropped in the world then the setting really hasn't done it's job.
2) Consistency. If there is an evil wizard there should be a reason he just doesn't wack the players. If there is a powerful good guy wizard there should be a reason he doesn't just lob a fireball at the orc camp instead of looking for adventurers to do it for him. If there are lots of dragons there should be a reason why they haven't gobbled everyone up. Players will ask these questions sooner or later. The setting shouldn't leave the GM saying "because that's the way things are, OK?"
3) Balance. If there is a new race or prestige class it should work with the setting AND not be overpowered. I've seen d20 settings where a fantasy race gets attribute bonuses with no corresponding penalties. Apparently, I'm supposed to make sure my group is 100% comprised of master role-players. The reality is that every gaming group has some role-players, some powergamers, and some casual gamers. So any added material should be involving, blanced, and interesting. Of the three, I've noticed that balance is the first to go.
But as I said, my solutions to these problems can be found within my link.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
WSmith said:
Wow! Thanks a lot!
The Internet makes DMing REALLY different. I mean, in my previous campaigns, the only feedback I ever had was from my players -- which isn't always helpful. It's great to be able to talk with other DMs and share your ideas so easily. And steal ideas from other DMs.
Sorry, did I say that out loud?
I've never run a prepared campaign. I've used stuff from just about every campaign setting out there, but I just have so many ideas for things I want to throw at my players I can't settle with one.
To those who say they want to but don't have time: You don't have to set aside 8-hour blocks of time just to get things going. Keep a notebook and whenver you have an idea, just write it down in there. Before you know it you'll have reams of material.
I work full-time, co-manage an extremely complicated marriage, make short films, watch a frightening amount of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, blah blah blah... There's time. There's always time.
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