Homebrew to Published?

[nyrfherdr]

Barsoomcore,
I would wait for the World Guide. It's shipping to stores now.
I talked to Matt Wilson and there won't be a ton of new material for the Roleplaying game, although there will be some.
The Warmachine game will continue to expand the world.

Anyway: I wouldn't worry about it. As soon as you start the game, it becomes yours. I've played in many Greyhawk games and they all were a little bit different. I've played in a couple of FR games and they were different.

Even our favorite ICON... Col. Pladoh makes this point. Once the characters start interacting they will change the face of the campaign. Which is exactly what you want.

Let me give you an example. I was one of the biggest fans of Dark Sun there ever was. I ran that world for years. When they revised the setting I was excited by the new material, but really pissed at the changes. But the players didn't know or care, even the ones that read some of the novels. My Dark Sun world was different than TSR's.

I think CANON is over-rated.

Game ON!
Nyrfherdr
Only the most intense DM's will worry about

 

[WayneLigon]

I know most people who play D&D do so in a published setting. Are there any homebrewers around though, who picked up a setting and ran a campaign in it? What was your experience like? Was it fun or painful or did you end up homebrewing the whole thing anyways?

I usually run a homebrew setting. I have used both Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms at various times in the past, and I'll probably use Blue Rose's Aldea in the future. I just use what's written, change anything I can't live with (especially if it just seemed silly), and go from there. I don't really worry about what future supplements say or don't say about anything.

I probably would not run a published setting if there were people in the gaming group that knew the setting backwards and forwards and expected me to cleave to the letter of the published material.

 

[barsoomcore]

Thanks, folks, for the ideas and commentary.

To address fu's question a little more seriously, I'm really short on time these days and it's affecting my gaming a lot. I feel like I'm not giving my Barsoom campaign enough attention which is unfortunate, especially as it moves into the closing season. I'm considering trying a campaign where tons of material is already created for me.

I really love a lot of the details of the Iron Kingdoms, the way clerics work, the way mechanical stuff works, the unique creatures that still feel like a full world's worth of monsters and stuff. The Monsternomicon remains one of my favourite purchases of all time, and has gotten a lot of use in Barsoom.

It's the first campaign setting I've seen that even sparks my interest. But I'm still not sure how to run a campaign in it.

My campaigns tend to be the "Story of the World" (there's whole other thread in that), in which the historical forces of the world come to a head and bring the PCs to a position of unique significance in the history of the world itself. At the end of the campaign, the world has been saved and it will never be the same again. My campaigns tend to be about the transformation of the world itself, a transformation brought about by the actions and decisions of the PCs.

Can I do that with a published setting? I'm not sure. We'll see.

 

[Desdichado]

To address fu's question a little more seriously, I'm really short on time these days and it's affecting my gaming a lot. I feel like I'm not giving my Barsoom campaign enough attention which is unfortunate, especially as it moves into the closing season. I'm considering trying a campaign where tons of material is already created for me.

I'm not entirely sure I understand that sentiment. To run a published setting requires more work than I'm used to doing, actually. Sure, I'm not making up the world, but that's easy compared to learning the world. For IK you've got two 400 page campaign books, plus the Lock and Load book, the Monsternomicon and the three modules, all of which have important campaign details in them. For good measure, you probably also ought to read Warmachine and Warmachine: Escalation (at least the fluff portions, which are considerable) as well.

And you can't just read it, you have to know it before you can even begin to play. It seems a bit like preparing for your Final Exam on a relatively complicated class before you can even start.

If time is an issue, how does studying up on Iron Kingdoms help you? Seems that --if anything-- it'd take even more time to prepare.

 

[barsoomcore]

Well, I already know Monsternomicon backwards and forwards, and Lock and Load as well. I'm very familiar with the broad strokes of the setting, at any rate. I won't even bother with the Warmachine stuff, so there's just the Character Guide (which I've been through once) and the World Guide, if I decide I need it.

I don't need to know it perfect, I just need to know it enough to be able to bluff. My players don't know a thing about it, so that gives me some leeway. What I'm finding right now is that in order to develop adventures for my party on a weekly basis, I'm needing to develop huge chunks of background material, which is really slowing me down. If the background material was already in place, I'd still have to read it over -- but for me that's much less intellectually taxing than inventing it.

I'm getting really worn down running Barsoom, and I'm just coming off an extended hiatus, and heading into the final season... But I'm just EXHAUSTED after every session. I mean, I come home from the game session and just sit glassy-eyed on the couch for an hour. It's fun, but it's tiring and it's requiring levels of investment from me that I'm not sure I have...

Maybe you're right and this will turn out to be just as wearisome. But I've never tried it before, so I reckon I should give it a whirl and see if it's my thing.

It's your thang
Do what you wanna do
I won't tell you
Who to sock it to

 

[DaveStebbins]

I don't know why there is this sense of "it's published so I can't mess with it" I feel the same thing at times with the FR and Iron Kingdoms games I run (well I haven't actually started the IK game as I was waiting for the fluff book).

Yeah, I've had that feeling too. It's usually quickly replaced by the "I bought it, I can do anything I darn well please with it!" feeling.