Mercurius
Legend
In the classic settings thread I was wondering about possible demand for a proper Forgotten Realms setting book. My sense has been that such a book was inevitable, that younger generations of players will want to see the whole world in which most of the story arcs are set, and certainly older fans of the setting would love an update. But now I'm not so sure.
What I wonder is, if 90% of the 5E player base are younger players (below 40, my definition of "younger"), how the "culture of campaigning" has changed relative to homebrew vs. pre-published settings and adventures.
In my almost-40 years of playing D&D, I have generally taken an approach of using a homebrew campaign and usually making up my own adventures. The older I've gotten, the more I've relied upon pre-published adventures, at least as starting points, mainly due to time and the fact that I prefer spending my prep time fiddling with world-building than designing adventures. I don't know the numbers, but I would guess that the split between homebrew and pre-published worlds among DMs I've played with is about 50-50, although most seem to rely on pre-published adventures over designing their own (maybe 30-70 or 20-80). Again, these are just wild guesses based upon my own experience.
What I wonder is how this looks among younger players. What is the current culture and most common approach? How many much younger DMs (say, <30, or those new to D&D via 5E) homebrew and/or design their own adventures? Do the vast majority, as I suspect, keep to the pre-published story arcs, with their implied micro-settings? (e.g. Icewind Dale, Chult, etc). I honestly have no clue, but that's my guess - mainly based on WotC's focus on story arcs and pre-published settings, with less emphasis on "build your own" books. Or is it not any different than in past editions and eras, where there's a mix of everything with no clear distribution?
And in a more general sense, how do you see this trend having changed over the years, both in the D&D community at large and within your own experience? Do people homebrew less?
What I wonder is, if 90% of the 5E player base are younger players (below 40, my definition of "younger"), how the "culture of campaigning" has changed relative to homebrew vs. pre-published settings and adventures.
In my almost-40 years of playing D&D, I have generally taken an approach of using a homebrew campaign and usually making up my own adventures. The older I've gotten, the more I've relied upon pre-published adventures, at least as starting points, mainly due to time and the fact that I prefer spending my prep time fiddling with world-building than designing adventures. I don't know the numbers, but I would guess that the split between homebrew and pre-published worlds among DMs I've played with is about 50-50, although most seem to rely on pre-published adventures over designing their own (maybe 30-70 or 20-80). Again, these are just wild guesses based upon my own experience.
What I wonder is how this looks among younger players. What is the current culture and most common approach? How many much younger DMs (say, <30, or those new to D&D via 5E) homebrew and/or design their own adventures? Do the vast majority, as I suspect, keep to the pre-published story arcs, with their implied micro-settings? (e.g. Icewind Dale, Chult, etc). I honestly have no clue, but that's my guess - mainly based on WotC's focus on story arcs and pre-published settings, with less emphasis on "build your own" books. Or is it not any different than in past editions and eras, where there's a mix of everything with no clear distribution?
And in a more general sense, how do you see this trend having changed over the years, both in the D&D community at large and within your own experience? Do people homebrew less?