Chicken or egg question

[The Shaman]

This one is for all the homebrewers out there: Do you build a campaign setting to work with a particular game system, or do you create a campaign setting and then find a system with which to play it?

A month or two ago I started working on a campaign setting for d20 Modern - the more I fleshed it out, the more I realized that the existing AdCs would need to be supplemented with campaign-specific versions, a couple of new starting occupations, a new equipment list including stats for over a dozen new weapons, and several skills and feats that would need to be added or modified. I was looking at an awful lot of work to get this off the ground - I started working on a dozen AdCs, with plans for at least three others and four PrCs as well, prepared the first draft of the weapons list, and created a new starting occupation. I estimated I had about 20% of the work done needed to start the game.

Then last week I began rethinking the campaign and how I wanted it to play, how it should "feel" to the players, and I realized that I might be better off using Mutants and Masterminds instead - instead of AdCs and PrCs I could use character archetypes (that could be tweaked to reflect the individual player characters as desired) with no need for additional skills or occupations. The feel of the campaign wouldn't change noticeably - I could opt for the grimmer, grittier variants in the M&M rules to get the proper combination of action and danger. Within a day I had all of the character archetypes sketched out, completed three of them from soup to nuts, and started a list of potential adversaries.

When I created my pulp adventures campaign, I went through a similar process - I originally considered using d20 Modern and the Pulp Heroes minigame from Poly. However, I opted for M&M for this as well, largely because I didn't want to use the MSRD magic systems - they didn't have the right feel for the campaign setting I was creating: Vancian fire-and-forget magic is too rigid, too predictable, and incantations aren't the stuff of fast-moving adventure.

Now I wouldn't want to run all of my games using M&M - I'm quite happy with the campaign setting I created for my Modern tabletop game, I wouldn't consider running my now-inactive Western game without Sidewinder: Recoiled, and I have two more Modern "mini-games" in my personal creative pipeline.

To answer my own question, I think sometimes the setting best fits a particular game system, and sometimes I think the game system inspires a the campaign setting. How about you?

 

[Hand of Evil]

build a campaign for use with a system.

 

[diaglo]

build a campaign to use with OD&D.(1974)

 

[Desdichado]

Campaign first, then I go look for system stuff to make it work.

However, the two are usually done in close concert, and I'm not as picky as I could be in terms of what I allow for mechanics. And certain elements of the campaign certainly are driven by mechanics that I see.

Currently, though, I don't use a "system" per se, I've cobbled together a system from various d20 games, including D&D, Midnight, Call of Cthulhu, Arcana Unearthed, Unearthed Arcana and more.

 

[Teflon Billy]

My few attempts to follow HoE's advice (Build a campign for use with a system) have been unmitigated failures.

Except for my Mutants and Masterminds setting, that one rules. But honestly, it's superheroes. Same with my Spycraft Setting...it's today's world, only with a ton of secret societies.

I've had much better luck getting a setting together that holds my interest and allows me to maintain (at least my own) verisimiitude and work with the system that most of my players are familiar with. I've used D&D to try and model something like a Black Company series, or A Game of Thrones, without much luck due to PC power creep. My D&D games tend to just devolve after about 6-8th level.

Though Green Ronin's new Black Company product looks like it might solve all my problems.

 

[GlassJaw]

Hmm, good question. I would probably say a little of both. I tend to have very broad ideas but they usually don't start coming together until I decide on a system.

I've had the idea for the campaign I'm working on now for a long time. But it didn't really begin to take shape until I got my hands on Grim Tales. The system influenced the campaign in some respects but the fundamental "fluff" was always there.

I'm not sure if that helps you at all but I definitely think having a system in mind helps. The nature of certain systems will certainly influence what you are trying to "accomplish" with the campaign itself.

 

[Wombat]

I, too, have done a little of each.

One world I created I tested (before having gamers actually in it) with three different systems and finally settled on RuneQuest (with alterations) as the best fit for the power levels, style of magic, and the like. Other times (such as my current campaign) I knew that I wanted to use a specific system (AU-vision of D20, with alterations) and I knew that the world would fit with that.

I like to know that the world and the system will work together in a complimentary fashion; I have only had 1-2 gamers drop out over the years due to switching systems. Most of the people I game with have little problem with learning a new system; they tend to trust me as a GM, which makes me feel very lucky.

 

[Henry]

For my homebrew, which I still occasionally work on, the World came first, kinda like Faerun to Ed Greenwood, but I molded it to fit D&D's conventions when I started using it. Even when I was dreaming up the game world, I was thinking about certain things being expressed in D&D terms, so even then the waters were a bit buddy on this point.

Nowadays, any game world I develop for play use, I do so with full knowledge of what system I'll use for it, and plan accordingly.

 

[Amaroq]

My most recent campaign setting, I started with D&D, and said, 'what does epic magic imply'? But by the time I was done with it, it was a world fairly different from that described in the core rulebooks, and I wandered off to adopt some other options and modifications to the 'core' system to better fit the world-view which I had in mind; it wound up very 'home-brew'ey.

So.. both?