homebrew vs. printed worlds

[Bagpuss]

So do you 'Homebrew' guys actually ever buy any D&D/D20 product past the core rules?

I also don't understand how not using 'homebrew' say using the Forgotten Realms setting and published adventures means Drizzt and Elminster are bound to show up at the drop of a hat, we've been playing in the FR setting for 7 years off and on and none of my characters have seen or heard of him.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

So far, we have used Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms in both cases. I've used the published stuff for inspiration, and made up the rest or stole from other sources (in the last campaign, I've used the Hastur Mythos for a mini-campaign...).

Of course, now I'm going all-homebrew with Urbis.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

So do you 'Homebrew' guys actually ever buy any D&D/D20 product past the core rules?

Oh, sure. But I think I speak for a lot of the others when I say its mostly for inspiration or for "reference". For example, I picked up Seas of Blood and I liked a lot of the ideas. Sea travel isn't central to my campaign though. So it'll stay on the shelf until the PCs go on a long sea voyage, then out it will come so I'll have a minimum of preperation time.

I also don't understand how not using 'homebrew' say using the Forgotten Realms setting and published adventures means Drizzt and Elminster are bound to show up at the drop of a hat, we've been playing in the FR setting for 7 years off and on and none of my characters have seen or heard of him.

They're hiding under the couch. Trust us.

 

[ninthcouncil]

In the past I've gone with homebrew (for D&D anyway - I wouldn't run, say, Runequest anywhere but Glorantha, as the game is so much more intimately associated with the world in that case). Recently though I'm inclining towards using published worlds, simply for the convenience, especially when the groups I play with are club-based and tend to be orientated towards shorter campaigns. The additional work involve in homebrewing becomes less attractive when you might only get half a dozen 3-4 hour sessions a year out of it.

 

[Psion]

Homebrew all the way, bay-be!

I am also a theif, though. There is a lot of good material to be stolen from in published campaign settings. In fact, the reason I don't like FR is that I think that it is too many ideas stuffed together illogically. Some of those good ideas, when extracted and put in a much less crowded, more logical context, actually have a lot of potential.

So do you 'Homebrew' guys actually ever buy any D&D/D20 product past the core rules?

Silly question! Of course. Some d20 stuff is made for us! Take the sourcebooks like Bluffside and Urban Blight, which are pretty much designed to be dropped into existing campaigns, or products like Mercenaries or Book of the Righteous, which are campaign building-blocks.

And, as mention, I also liberally borrow from settings I find interesting.

(I am having trouble right now deciding what to do with Bluffside. I initially had it slated to be dropped in on my "other continent" on my main game world, but am thinking that it might fit best in a new world I am planning.)

I also don't understand how not using 'homebrew' say using the Forgotten Realms setting and published adventures means Drizzt and Elminster are bound to show up at the drop of a hat, we've been playing in the FR setting for 7 years off and on and none of my characters have seen or heard of him.

1) Consider yourself lucky. Many FR modules have elminster or other major characters as catalysts, patrons, or involved in some other important way.
2) Even if I don't ever use these entities, I feel very constrained when running such a game. I can use them in any meaningful or risky way for fear that a latter supplement will contradict my DMing decisions what to do with them and make it useless. Better by far, IMO, to have your own significant NPCs that you can interact with in realistic ways.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

2) Even if I don't ever use these entities, I feel very constrained when running such a game. I can use them in any meaningful or risky way for fear that a latter supplement will contradict my DMing decisions what to do with them and make it useless.

Which FR supplements (to use just one example) feature any NPC in such a major way that the supplement will be invalidated if you alter them?

Frankly, I mostly use these people as background color. In the last campaign, Elminster didn't appear at all, and Khelben Arunson only made a short appearance to buy one of the Nether Scrolls from the PCs...

 

[Tonguez]

So do you 'Homebrew' guys actually ever buy any D&D/D20 product past the core rules?

Yeah I got Moongooses Sahuagin cause it called them Ponaturi (just like I do) and Spycraft

I main two problems in my case is that my campaigns don't follow the Western Europe Fantasy of the standard settings and so most stuff doesn't work without major revision

eg my current campaign is set in Mythic Polynesia
in the past I had a campaign set in Medieval cum Antediluvian Afrika, before that the Yuan Empire -a Mongol Empire inspired setting (20 yrs after Ghenghis Khans death) and another set in 16/17th Century Earth with Magic, Fey and Monsters (but only 'Human' PCs)

The closest I've ever got to a 'standard' setting (besides the Slavic Regions of the Yuan Empire) is a campaign in which PCs were agents of the Church and sent out on Holy Missions.

 

[Tsyr]

Pretty much a total homebrewer here, though I have used DL, Greyhawk, Loream, and Kalamar, all at one time or another, and probably will sometime in the future again. Normaly just for brief games, though.

And yes, we do buy other products... or at least I do... lots of them, actualy. Not many settings, unless they have lots of new rules, and not many adventures (since they normaly won't fit my world)... But I've bought tons of books. The difference being, I buy for the crunch and ignore the fluff, so to speak. I could care less about the stories and stuff, as long as the mechanics are well done and interesting. The Sov. Stone books, the Slaine books, etc... All setting books, yes, but I buy them pretty much just for the mechanics. And all the "Quintesental XXXXX", "Big Book of XXXXX", "XXXXXX Compendium", etc, books I can get my hands on.

The only thing I have never homebrewed, and probably never will, is Sci-Fi... I use Fading Suns for Sci-Fi, and probably always will, unless something REALLY eye catching comes along to wrench my love from Fading Suns.

 

[Desdichado]

So do you 'Homebrew' guys actually ever buy any D&D/D20 product past the core rules?

Dude, yeah! Isn't that what most D&D/d20 stuff is for? Building blocks for homebrew?

That's how I treat it anyway. Not that I have an absolutely friggin' huge collection, but I've got a lot of books, and I use all of them from time to time.

 

[Nightfall]

Re: spells

so has running in hollowfaust helped you to come up with any new Necro spells?

what about varient on monster summonig undead summoning
1-9?

Actually it's interesting you mention that. One of my players is a Hollowfaustian Necromancer. When he reaches 8th level, I plan on having him design his own spell or magical item.

Nothing yet on variant summonings, but I plan on offering that soon. If nothing else I'll have summon undead stuff as an option to my player. (I prefer to keep undead intelligent, to keep players off balance.)