Homebrew Designing My First...Thing

[LordEntrails]

Do it!
Don't over prep.
Things like your encounters and locations should be flexible until they are used. i.e. an ambush site could be almost anyway. A tavern. A handful of key NPCs. All could be anywhere or used for a hundred different things, until your players encounter them then as far as they are concerned, the Dusty Nail was always in the fishing village they encounter, that was always in that location, until you rolled on the random hex table

 

[GothmogIV]

Thank you, friends. All really helpful. I sat down yesterday and started banging away at it.

 

[Andvari]

Just make sure to abandon it when you are about 50% done so you can start making your own role-playing system instead. Then you will have hit peak GMing.

 

[Scribe]

Just make sure to abandon it when you are about 50% done so you can start making your own role-playing system instead. Then you will have hit peak GMing.

Excuse me, I don't remember providing that update on my "progress" last year.

 

[Andvari]

The Basic DM has run an adventure or two, probably official adventures, or even mediocre, homebrewed adventures that everyone still enjoyed, and for the most part, survived.

The Expert DM has gone beyond "read the module", and has not only run adventures, but is already taken the players into the first campaign. Encounters are improvised, the wounds from early disasters having healed.

The Companion DM already has at least one campaign wrapped up, whether published or custom. And is already working on the next adventure. Prep has become routine, notes, maps and other material carefully sorted to liking, easily laid out in a familiar pattern before the session begins. Prep almost feels like coming home and the players like a family.

The Master DM hides away in a remote cabin, working to craft a brand new world from scratch. This DM spends weeks and months building and mapping one adventure location after another, stocking them with monsters and treasure, brilliant mysteries and memorable characters. The players ask when the next game will be, but the DM offers only an enigmatic smile, staring off into an unseen horizon obscured by the room's walls. After a particularly creative weekend, the DM might hints at something in the works, internally reflecting upon the innovative combat rules of the now 50+ page rules document, in which are written all details of a semi-original homebrew role-playing system. Time passes, players and the DM laughing and reminiscing over past heroics, like grizzled veterans sharing a drinks at the local establishment. The DM cannot help but wonder how the new game and campaign, perpetually halfway converted to this incredible new game system, will be received upon its final reveal.

The point is, the Master DM doesn't run games. That is only for beginners.

Do not dwell on the elusive Immortal DM, already running full-fledged campaigns in their finished system. Such alien beings cannot be explained in mere writing, and that is probably for the best (shudders).

 

[Reynard]

The Master DM hides away in a remote cabin, working to craft a brand new world from scratch. This DM spends weeks and months building and mapping one adventure location after another, stocking them with monsters and treasure, brilliant mysteries and memorable characters. The players ask when the next game will be, but the DM offers only an enigmatic smile, staring off into an unseen horizon obscured by the room's walls. After a particularly creative weekend, the DM might hints at something in the works, internally reflecting upon the innovative combat rules of the now 50+ page rules document, in which are written all details of a semi-original homebrew role-playing system. Time passes, players and the DM laughing and reminiscing over past heroics, like grizzled veterans sharing a drinks at the local establishment. The DM cannot help but wonder how the new game and campaign, perpetually halfway converted to this incredible new game system, will be received upon its final reveal.

The point is, the Master DM doesn't run games. That is only for beginners.

Okay. This is funny.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do not dwell on the elusive Immortal DM, already running full-fledged campaigns in their finished system. Such alien beings cannot be explained in mere writing, and that is probably for the best (shudders).

I did two in-store games with this guy. I do not recommend.

 

[aramis erak]

Not by me. At least, not up until now!

First thing to understand: There are over 11,000 RPGs already in print; the odds you're doing something new are incredibly low.