How many of you have your own Homebrew game system?

I was just wondering how many ENworlder's have designed thier own game, more or less, from the ground up. Or maybe it started as aome house rules for one system and has grown and changed so much as to be unrecognizable to that system.

Why did you design new rules?

How long did it take?

Did you ever want to publish it?

Did you every actually run the System?

If you don't play it anymore why not?

Was it specific to a Campaign world/genre/book series etc...?

What's your Favorite Color....?

Later

I have, yeah, but I never used it. d20 does pretty much everything I need it to, and it's easier to find players for.

That said, my current d20 game is certainly a monstrously chimeric kitbash from dozens of sources. It is specific to the setting I'm running it in, though.

Joshua Dyal said:

I have, yeah, but I never used it. d20 does pretty much everything I need it to, and it's easier to find players for.

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^
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Yeah. That.

When I was in about grade 8, my family took a 7 week trip across Canada. During the trip I 'designed' a very simple mechwarrior-ish wargame to play with my brother (long before I ever discovered minis wargames, D&D, or hell, even mechwarrior). I drew an entire sheet of hex paper. Does that count?

--Impeesa--

[edit] Misunderstood the question and wasted alot of my own time.

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I've made a few simple system. They are usually on the fly for some specific type of setting or game style for a one shot. They are invariably played without paper, pencil, or dice so rely on coin flipping, cards, or something weirder (whatever is available) for resolution. They are too wacky and simple to even think about publishing.

I was just wondering how many ENworlder's have designed thier own game, more or less, from the ground up.

Starfarer:

http://members.tripod.com/~hawk_wind/sfrpg/Starfarer.html

Why did you design new rules?

After Traveller failed me with a number of insults (TNE, T4, GT), I decided that I was going to have to take writing the "system that would succeed Traveller" into my own hands.

How long did it take?

It was always an on-again/off-again project. I had tinkered with different spins on the rules and doodled on notepads for years. My first efforts to put everything down in a usable electronic/printable format took probably a year (again, sporadically).

Did you ever want to publish it?

Yes.

Did you every actually run the System?

Yes.

If you don't play it anymore why not?

I never finished it to my satisfaction. I never did finish the worldgen and shipgen, and had a lot more work to do on the character templates (as it was, it was just a point build system like GURPS, which I consider insufficient by my own standards.) I did make a fair bit of progress though. I sort of quit on it after D20 came along. I realized I like playing games more than I liked designing them, and I sort of bit off more than I could chew.

I still like some of the design peculiarities of Starfarer, and some may even make it into some d20 work I am doing.

Was it specific to a Campaign world/genre/book series etc...?

No. It was intended as a generic toolkit to use for space adventure games. I did work on a setting to go with it calle Guild Space, but it was never ready for prime time.

What's your Favorite Color....?

Pink... no, blue! Aaaiiiiiiiiigh!

Joshua Dyal said:

I have, yeah, but I never used it. d20 does pretty much everything I need it to, and it's easier to find players for.

That said, my current d20 game is certainly a monstrously chimeric kitbash from dozens of sources. It is specific to the setting I'm running it in, though.

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I'm with Joshua on this one -- I'm more of a "kitbasher" than a true innovator. I did create an original system once, but it was cumbersome so I went back to retooling basic games, whether this be Ars Maigca, D20, RuneQuest/BPR, or HarnMaster.

Heck, I'll let someone else do the system-level heavy lifting so I can concentrate on making the world more interesting

Shallown said:

I was just wondering how many ENworlder's have designed thier own game, more or less, from the ground up. Or maybe it started as aome house rules for one system and has grown and changed so much as to be unrecognizable to that system.

Why did you design new rules?

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I wanted a system with a different feel of magic.
- magic based on the element (air, earth, fire, water, spirit, aether, nether, force) where the people attuned to the element could channel them and weave effects. (inspired by wheel of time)
- races with an elemental affinity (air, earth, fire, water, spirit).
I kept human for spirit, all other race flushed.
- New races:
al'taran small avianoid,
fae'ranan medium felinoid,
roc'kan large rockman,
sali'naran medium amphibian.
- The classes I kept:
barbarian,
fighter,
rogue,
monk
- New classes:
noble,
mystic (best progression for magic but d4)
warlock (medium progression for magic but d6 and more skill point)
warrior mage (worst progression for magic but d8 and martial weapons)
woodman (my version of a ranger without magic)

Shallown said:

How long did it take?

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About 1 year, but I was inspired by ENpublishing Element Of Magic, after a rocky start.

Shallown said:

Did you ever want to publish it?

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Not really.

Shallown said:

Did you every actually run the System?

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Ya. I ran a game with 4 players for 1 year, 2 game per month.

Shallown said:

If you don't play it anymore why not?

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I got tired of fine tuning my system and creating games. Now I'm running a game from a modules.

Shallown said:

Was it specific to a Campaign world/genre/book series etc...?

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My homebrew world.
But I was inspired by WOT and many other book I read of course.

Shallown said:

What's your Favorite Color....?

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The one that fits my mood at the moment.
Right now deep blue is good.

Home brewing...

I've done this twice. One was an attempt at a new RPG, the other was an amalgam of D&D and the World of Darkness...we called Darkness & Dragons.

Why did you design new rules?

The first was an attempt an online partner and I made at creating a publishable new RPG, in the mid 90's. The other was also collaborative effort for the sake of my gaming group at the time (also mid 90's) who refused to play anything AD&D.

How long did it take?

A few months for the new RPG, maybe a couple of weeks with Darkness & Dragons since we weren't so much creating as adapting.

Did you ever want to publish it?

The first yes, Darkness & Dragons, no.

Did you every actually run the System?

The first, no...it never got past the development stage. Darkness & Dragons I ran for a couple of months worth of a sessions which were actually quite succesful. The PCs and the setting were D&D based using Storyteller rules, but I simply used existing World of Darkness resources as my monster manual.

If you don't play it anymore why not?

Lost the notes foe both after moving several times.

Was it specific to a Campaign world/genre/book series etc...?

The first was desinged to be "generic" fantasy. Darkness & Dragons was tailored slightly to my homebrew D&D world I had spent the previous years working on (and was really my impetus for doing the thing...I wanted to find a way to use my homebrew world and still not "force" AD&D on my players).

What's your Favorite Color....?

Blue...not wait, green...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!

Q

Shallown said:

I was just wondering how many ENworlder's have designed thier own game, more or less, from the ground up.

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Raises hand. I've completed at least one. Maybe two.

I've currently got probably a dozen abstracts for systems sitting on my hard drive. There are a few drafts that I seriously work on when I get the itch.

Shallown said:

Why did you design new rules?

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Wanting to try out different ideas.

Shallown said:

How long did it take?

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All my gaming life.

Shallown said:

Did you ever want to publish it?

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It's nice to dream...

Shallown said:

Did you every actually run the System?

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The one I'd consider complete enough to playtest was finished just about the time my college group was breaking up because everyone was leaving town. I may not have a copy of it anymore.

Shallown said:

If you don't play it anymore why not?

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If I found a copy of that one, I don't know if I'd want to play it today, as there are different ideas I want to try out today.

I used to design towards making the perfect system for me. These days, I guess I don't think there's a single perfect system for me, so I don't really envision anything I might complete becoming my one system of choice.

Shallown said:

Was it specific to a Campaign world/genre/book series etc...?

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In the past, I always aimed to not be genre specific, although I usually didn't try to tackle all the genres at once.

These days that's less true. I tend to be more genre specific than I used to be, & even a bit setting specific.

Shallown said:

What's your Favorite Color....?

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Blue. No...