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

[ccs]

Definitely option #3.
I'll steal whatever bits of published settings I like & stuff them into my own world(s).
I'll take my own ideas & insert them into published settings & adventure paths/modules.

Sometimes what I'm running really really resembles FR, GH, Pathfinder Land, etc . Do NOT be fooled by this. I am not constrained or at all concerned with company provided cannon....

 

[Afrodyte]

In general, I homebrew because I choose setting according to the types of stories I want to play with rather than picking a setting and trying to squeeze my stories into it. If I do pick a published setting, it's often not one created for D&D.

 

[Tallifer]

I used to spend endless hours scribbling away at homebrew worlds, none of which were particularly interesting to anyone else it seemed. I even put off trying to run my own campaign for years, because I was not sure how to bring my worlds to life.

Finally, I just opted for running in Eberron, because it already had the work done, was somewhat recognizable, and it was one of the more appealing worlds out there to me.

Very quickly, I discovered that the easiest way to have a homebrewed world is simply to homebrew in an existing one. Races, monsters, locations, names, religions and politics I have all changed to one degree or another.

 

[aco175]

I played FR back in the late 80's mostly modules and some homebrew in FR. Later we played in a world by one of my friends that we all added to and had several campaigns in through 3e. In 4e we played some of the modules in Nentir Vale and them I was the DM and straight homebrew. With 5e we played LMoP and continued with homebrew in that setting around that part of FR.

My current campaign is what I would call a homebrew in the FR world. We continued the setting around Phandalin, but make up all the adventures. While I can use NPCs and gods of FR, we only use what we need and as the DM I almost guarantee that the PCs will never run into fantastic FR stuff like Drizzt and actual gods.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Home brew mostly, often incorporating DriveThruRPG modules that seem fun. I’ve also been running CoS with a small bit of homebree flair for one of my groups - which has been great. So, yeah, both. Either way, I am not concerned about canon, and am of the mindset that strict adherence to canon calls for more homework and less in-the-moment flexibility, hence reducing the level of fun at our tables. YMMV

 

[Sleepy Walker]

I use established lore, put the setting in the future, and then use it as a baseline. It is nice to draw from various editions of lore to get a general feeling for a spot. What areas are mined out, which cities are into slavery, where can somebody find cheap mercs/cut throats (luskan by the way), who worship's Bane openly, local laws, who works with adamantine, what policies are there on travelers, what opposition forces are there to choose from in that area, etc, etc, etc.

It just takes a lot of fiddly bits and makes it so I don't have to worry about it. It is established and lets me try to represent the area to the best of my ability. What is even better is that there are a lot of open and undocumented spots, so plenty of room for stuff I make myself. It is also nice that any ruin or previously destroyed location (fire tornado, rough stuff) can be easily occupied by orcs or hobgoblins, generating a danger zone for traveling and a quest line up to about level 15 (sheer numbers and unsafe resting conditions for days can be tough).

 

[ArwensDaughter]

Mostly published setting (Forgotten Realms). To be honest, I don't really think much about the setting beyond the given adventure. My time is limited, and world building doesn't personally appeal to me, at least not given the time restrictions I have.

There is one (rather sporadically played) adventure I DM that is closer to homebrew, although it would be more accurate to say I took a published setting/adventure and adapted it significantly. First, because some of the setting elements didn't appeal to me, so I ignored them and basically ran the adventures as though they were set in Forgotten Realms, but without worrying about changing place names and geography. Then, because my players ran completely off the rails of the purchased adventures (a series of one shots). They did so for reasons that made perfect sense for their characters, but that made the rest of the series useless. (Fortunately I was only buying as needed). That forced me to homebrew elements of the world in order to make their chosen quest possible.

 

[Caliban]

I prefer to run and play in Homebrew settings, but I play a lot of Adventure League because that is where the play opportunities are in my area.

 

[Zardnaar]

Generally homebrew.

 

[robus]

I’ve cut my teeth as a DM running the published adventures (in FR of course) but in future i want to take published adventures but move them to new settings (mostly inspired by M:tG planes). The FR is too unfocused for my taste it seems.