Homebrewers: Huzzah!

[Jezrael]

I'm wonking with the Talislanta 4E rules, and brewing up a new setting to go with them. So far I've got the Isle of Kandril setup as a valley oasis roughly the size of Australia, ringed by mountains in the midst of an ocean size desert.

As usual the "Big Cataclysm Thingy" just happened and people are trying to rebuild. Mine was enslavment of all races by otherworldy things and eventual rebellion.

Trying to work in ka, khef, and ka-tet from the Dark Tower series in, but since they haven't been fully explained yet...well I'm winging it. I'll probably also set up my Cosmology similar to the Towers (multiple layers on a central spoke, anchored by the Beams), although so far without the Crimson King angle.

Coming along nicely so far, I work on it when I have time here and there.

The best thing I find to do is just set aside 5 minutes every day to brainstorm ideas, then flesh 'em out when I have time. It's how I came up with one of the countries having freedom of the press.

There are 5 artifact printing presses, anyone using them must tell the truth as far as they know it, so they are basically useless for propaganda and therefore largely useless to the government. The country's Intelligence service makes sure to cover up any "newsworthy" stories before the reporters get there.

All because I brainstormed "How do the people of Country A have freedom of the press"

 

[Quickbeam]

I agree with barsoomcore on several key points:

1) The internet has helped our group's homebrew campaigns tremendously by allowing for additional feedback and ideas. I'm not sure how much of what we do is modified from something we've seen posted and how much is original anymore, but who cares?

2) Creating your own setting doesn't have to take hours.

3) And like several people have noted, the best aspect of homebrew campaigns IMO, is the lack of player knowledge influencing character actions and choices.

Homebrews = good

 

[Psion]

Re: Fawning?!

I'm not like arcady, I just have my tastes rather refined.

I know, I know. You don't try to make lame claims to the effect of "my setting is superior as a matter of scientific fact" (If I reposted some of Arcady's rants from his days on the RPG-create mailing list, you would see how ludicrous the idea of Arcady lecturing anyone on "scientific fact" is. BID...)

I'm just trying to sound off "for the rest of us"!

Btw, Psion, any chance you'll get around to reviewing Arcana, Soceities of Magic?

Is it OUT? Nichole Lindross said they would put me on their mailing list, and I also asked through the FLGS, but have not received anything from either channel.

 

[KDLadage]

Any chance you will get around to reviewing Umbragia's two finalized products; and the third once it graduates from the 0.0.x releases?

 

[Psion]

I thought I was the only guy to get suckered by Starshield.

I didn't get suckered into it. I did get annoyed that they had the audacity to print a project very similar to one I was doing (in typical pipe-dream fashion, of course, but still.) I was working on a project with many very similar underlying assumptions called Imperium Arcane. I am glad to see theirs flopped, though!

I may yet still resurrect Imperium Arcane under Dragonstar rules.

 

[Mouseferatu]

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.

Having created numerous homebrew worlds, I can assure you that it doesn't really take all that much time, if you approach it properly.

A lot of people try to have the entire world mapped out and planned ahead of time. They want a Forgotten Realms-sized atlas, they want to know the name of the mistress of the captain of the king's guard in a kingdom so far away that the party won't visit it until they're 17th level.

And that's fine for some people--I've done it before myself, for previous campaigns--but the truth is, it's unnecessary.

In my current campaign, I created the names of the local kingdoms, a few important cities, and a few important NPCs. I made notes of names and stories that I needed for the specific plots that I had going. And that's it. No maps. No complex histories. Just enough that I could play the first few games, and answer any basic questions.

Everything else, I make up as I need it. Once I've made it up, I keep track of it, of course--you don't want to change the world on the players--but until I need it, I don't bother creating it.

But if you do it right, your players will never know the difference. When they reach the kingdom of Kannalai, and have a meeting with Duke Tibault, it doesn't matter to them if you had Kannalai and Tibault planned from day one, or if you're creating them as you go, so long as you're realistic about them.

 

[Psion]

Any chance you will get around to reviewing Umbragia's two finalized products; and the third once it graduates from the 0.0.x releases?

Any chance? Yes. But admittedly a small chance I'll be able to do so as I am currently swamped. I had almost got to the point this weekend that I had no complimentary products in my house that I had not reviewed (excepting the ones that I have decided I am not going to review... someone sent me a supplement for a setting I don't own...). Then two more arrived on Monday, and someone else keeps asking me if I got his in the mail...

 

[Tuerny]

My setting, Vadaris, is something I truly love and cherish, other settings can capture my interest and fancy, but none of them hold it long.


Individual regions vary greatly and range from the typical quasi-medivel and oriental, to more unique blends of various cultures and traditions.

The premise behind the setting is that the entire world is in fact a finite, but growing plane made up of various adjacent realms that are each embodiments of a different great spirit. The harshness or hospitability of the region depend on the spirit's opinion of mortal races and can range from friendly, fertile river valley spirits to the hateful spirits of a particularly deadly desert.

In addition to the powerful great spirits there are also countless lesser spirits who are embodied by individual mountains, streams, rivers, or forests. These are generally neutral to mortal races but can change their mind easily if they are placated or ignored.

Some regions have slumbering or imprisoned great spirits, where the mortal races have called upon powerful gods, who are typically abstract representations of fundamental forces of the universe, to protect them from the "demons" of the world. They typically have to do this through their powerful supernatural agents. Either incarnates (celestials and fiends) or demigods.

Demigods are a special case. They are powerful, unique beings with their own goals and such that either travel through Vadaris establishing power bases and attempting to tap into the hidden eldritch power of the land or serving some divine patron or another. Many wish to attain true divinity, others have more intricate or lofty goals. One of them genetically altered giant lizards to create a servant race of psionic geneticists who after almost three thousand years tried to aid him in his attempt to capture a powerful force of destruction know as the Oblivion within a pinnacle. It worked, but not how the Grand Amorphya (the demigod) would have liked.

ergh, I have gone on long enough.
You get the idea, at least on the mythic level.

 

[barsoomcore]

Everything else, I make up as I need it. Once I've made it up, I keep track of it, of course--you don't want to change the world on the players--but until I need it, I don't bother creating it.

This point is SO important that I want to reiterate it. Plus I like the sound of my own voice. Er, type.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING! You just have to convince your players that you do. And we, as DMs, know how easy it is to hoodwink players.

Seriously, it is greatly to your advantage to not have everything worked out ahead of time. First off, it lets you get started MUCH sooner. How many people do I know who keep going on about the campaigns they'd run if only they could get all the details written down? (Three, if you're curious) Secondly, if you develop the world all by yourself, in isolation, you only have your ideas. If you start including the players before you've finished every little thing, THEIR input will increase the depth and complexity of your campaign immeasurably. Third, and most important, the less-developed your campaign is, the more room you have to manouever. If everything's already detailed, it becomes very difficult to juggle things when you need to correct for some unanticipated problem.

The key to fun and successful DMing is having a canvas to operate on that gives you enough detail to draw the players in, but is vague enough to let you improvise as you need to. It's a fine balance, to be sure, but I think that if you have to weight to one side or the other, pick vague. You can always make up detail, but you can't take back what's already been laid out.

 

[Nightfall]

Well my sources...

Is it OUT? Nichole Lindross said they would put me on their mailing list, and I also asked through the FLGS, but have not received anything from either channel.

Well Nicky DID say she was sending off copies on the Green Ronin forum on Mortality's site. That was a week ago today, or may be a little less. Btw, Sarg Krag has a pretty interesting/cool setup with his Aedon campaign setting. You might want to email her back and see what's going down with that. I haven't seen it in my stores, BUT then again my gaming store just got the SL DM's screen like two weeks AFTER it was released.

I know, I know. You don't try to make lame claims to the effect of "my setting is superior as a matter of scientific fact" (If I reposted some of Arcady's rants from his days on the RPG-create mailing list, you would see how ludicrous the idea of Arcady lecturing anyone on "scientific fact" is. BID...)

I'm just trying to sound off "for the rest of us"!

I getcha. Like I have said earlier, you people do what you like. Just have fun with it. And no, my setting isn't superior, just in my mind, as fun if not more so in SOME areas, than others. Superior the Scarred Lands is not. It's just a place I enjoy a lot and I'm glad others do TOO.