D&D 5E Published Campaign Setting or Home Brew?

[meomwt]

I'm still using my From the Ashes boxed set as the basis of my Greyhawk games.

There's lots of good stuff in there, plus I can pull additional info off the interwebs (with Google-fu, you can find stuff left behind from the Living Greyhawk campaign which can be put to good use).

It does help, of course, that my current campaign (T1-4, Temple of Elemental Evil) is firmly rooted in Greyhawk!

 

[Gnarl45]

What do you do? Why do you use a published setting? If so, which one? Why do you do your own?

I do both. I like playing in Ravenloft, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms. I really like the 16th and early 17th century and none of the published settings fill that niche so I made my own.

 

[AriochQ]

I do both. I like playing in Ravenloft, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms. I really like the 16th and early 17th century and none of the published settings fill that niche so I made my own.

In my Greyhawk campaign, I tweaked the world such that the Sea of Dust/Dry Steppes area is Middle Eastern/Arabian in flavor and The Scarlet Brotherhood is similar to Late Germanic culture. Personally, I think starting with a published setting and then tweaking is the way to go. But, if you play weekly a homebrewed setting could work nearly as well. It just takes so much effort to generate the world, who has time with job/family/etc? Even things a simple as place names can seem a chore when time is your most valuable resource. I would rather use that time designing a kick butt adventures and local flavor.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

(snip) It just takes so much effort to generate the world, who has time with job/family/etc? Even things a simple as place names can seem a chore when time is your most valuable resource. I would rather use that time designing a kick butt adventures and local flavor.

This is all so true.

Place names - or any names for that matter, including those of the PCs - can make or break the immersion factor. It's much more efficient to contract that out, so to speak, to a campaign setting. (Yes, I am making a case for outsourcing. )

 

[Mercurius]

Homebrew. In fact, I don't think I've ever run a published setting, except for brief flirtations with Talislanta and Ars Magica, but those weren't D&D.

As far as what is most popular on EN World, my guess is that would be Greyhawk. Why? Because En World folks are as old as dirt ;D. Seriously though, I did a "setting tournament" a year or two ago, with 32 settings. I believe Greyhawk won in the finals over Planescape. FR didn't make the final four - it was defeated by Planescape in the round of eight. There were maybe 100ish votes per round, but I think the results were relatively representative of ENWorld.

 

[Gnarl45]

In my Greyhawk campaign, I tweaked the world such that the Sea of Dust/Dry Steppes area is Middle Eastern/Arabian in flavor and The Scarlet Brotherhood is similar to Late Germanic culture. Personally, I think starting with a published setting and then tweaking is the way to go. But, if you play weekly a homebrewed setting could work nearly as well. It just takes so much effort to generate the world, who has time with job/family/etc? Even things a simple as place names can seem a chore when time is your most valuable resource. I would rather use that time designing a kick butt adventures and local flavor.

I don't think anyone can blame a DM for not having the time to make his own campaign setting. It really is a lot of work!

 

[Mercurius]

I don't think anyone can blame a DM for not having the time to make his own campaign setting. It really is a lot of play!

Fixed

 

[sunrisekid]

We transferred our 4E campaign, set in Nerath, to 5E. Basically, the Nerath map with lots of home-brew filler. Currently I am running the players through HotDQ re-named to Nerath places.

 

[Gilladian]

I've been playing DnD for nigh on 40 years. I've been running my campaign world for 30 of those. Yes, it has gone through massive changes as my tastes and my capabilities have changed, and as editions have forced changes - GRRRR.... I still resent losing the 2nd edition priest spheres - I never thought 3e domains were different enough, and 5e needs a good few more domains.

But yes, it is work and I freely borrow from many other sources - I scrape off the serial numbers and only use the bits I like, but I make use of a lot of sources. I doubt anyone would say they never use another source of ideas or material in their homebrew, and they'd be liars if they did.

On the other hand - no, designing your own campaign is NOT work, it IS play. You can remove a LOT of the work from yourself by judicious borrowing, too. For example, I use real world geography for my campaign. I have a world atlas, and I found a map of the US that had a bare minimum of "real world" stuff on it (it's got lines for the US states, and lake/ocean names printed on it). Combine the two with a weather atlas, and I can pick a campaign region, decide what sort of nation is in the area, scan a section of the map into the computer, drop it into my painting program, add roads and city/town markers, boundaries and a few other symbols, and be ready to start adding text names in 2-4 hours time.

Names aren't hard, either. For a new region, pick a country/language. Use your atlas or a google site, and generate a list of 20-50 city names, river names, etc... in a half hour you'll have all the names you need. Name NPCs from that area with the same language, and voila, instant compatibility.

But if you don't LOVE doing all that, then by all means use a campaign setting. Nobody will hate you for it. It's just where you put your energy. I tend to use (lightly to heavily modified) premade adventures. I'm not terribly good at original plots. I hate designing combats, though I like running them. I'm good at tweaking, though, so that's what I do. Do what works, not what you think other people expect you to do.

 

[Erik42]

For years I played in Greyhawk, first using the thin, light gazetteer, then the box set (1983ish?). Even though it was a published setting it felt pretty homebrewed simply because over the years me and my players took the setting and made it our own.

Now I have finally left 1E behind (for the moment - in my mind it is still 'real' D&D and all these later editions merely schemes to sell more books) and decided to get with 5E (it was easier to find players as my old group has scattered). I created a pretty detailed homebrew that was an adaptation of a fictional setting I have used in some writing. I spent about a year getting it together and launched it about 6 months ago. So far it has been pretty well received and everyone seems to be having fun. It has been a lot of work though.