Campaign Settings: Do you stick to the plan?

[MarauderX]

For those of you who use campaign settings (FR, Dragonlance, Warcraft, etc.) do you play by the setting's rules or do you supercede the laws of the land in favor of 3.5 or your houserules?

 

[shadowlight]

I almost always use my own campaign settings, but I do enjoy taking ideas, maps, adventure hooks, etc. from published settings...

Even when I've tried to run a "by the book" Forgotten Realms adventure, we ended up veering off into our version of the world...

 

[ThirdWizard]

I run mostly Planescape, which about 75% has to be made up. Which is one reason I love it! I thought about running a FR game, but I've never read one book and I don't want players getting frustrated. I know my players wouldn't actually complain that it wasn't the same, but it might be confusing and they might not get into it as much. Ah well. Planescape is good enough for me!

 

[Cbas10]

My campaign takes place in the World of Greyhawk. Most of the background material (nations, intrigues, etc) that applies to my storylines come from the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer, but the vast majority of the smaller details are homebrewed. I am not anal about tracking all the historical aspects of what has been published in previous Greyhawk books, so I will invariably deviate from what Greyhawk experts claim "was published in such-and-such book fifteen years ago."

 

[BluWolf]

I have tinkered with the D20 mechanics so much now with my campaign world that I really don't want to GM in a "standard" setting.

I don't mind playing in them. I just can't run them.

 

[Nightfall]

I use alot of the varient rules in SL, especially with arcane spellcasting and druids not being able to worship gods.

 

[Wombat]

I never feel fully comfortable in other people's worlds (...other than Alpha Complex...), so all campaigns that I run are by my own design and creation.

I can't stand metaplots, I don't like most pre-set worlds, and I really enjoy world-building, so I guess that's just the way I'll go

(edited)

Oh, and I alter the rules to fit the feeling I want in the world, everything from dropping and adding classes to changing feats to heavily editing spell and monster lists.

Again, feels more personal that way

 

[Castellan]

I thought about running a FR game, but I've never read one book and I don't want players getting frustrated.

Don't let that stop you. I'm running a Forgotten Realms game and haven't read any of the novels. Instead, I incorporate things from other books I've read, including other campaign settings and d20 supplements. I have one player that avidly reads the FR novels, while none of the others do. That one player knows "my" Forgotten Realms is different from what's in the book, and yet he still gets excited when I incorporate things he's read about in one book or another.

Ultimately, I don't want my players' world being unduly influenced by novelists. I try hard to keep the world mostly player-driven, and keep out things I think are "silly" (i.e. The City of Shade, or nearly anything incorporated in the world since the Time of Troubles stuff).

I'll concede that a lot of people wouldn't like "my" world, but my players do, and I think that's what's important.

 

[Nightfall]

Again, feels more personal that way

Or you could be like me and have your VERY own NPC in the world. Cause Bl'ayne Nightfall is da shizzle!

 

[Kanegrundar]

I take bits and pieces from all my D20 books to add to my largely homebrew-based world. Mostly I use places sites to fill in the blanks.

Kane