Homebrewers: How Publishable is Your Brew?

[Lord Mhoram]

I voted: Another GM could use my stuff in their game, though it'd need tweaking if it was being published.

Now, this is answering for my Fantasy HERO game, but I have something like 300 spells, and my magic system done, races, professional packages, Map, history, and other mechanical bits. There would be 2 things that would need to be done to make it publishable...
More NPCs and monster, and more details on the Cities in the settings.

I would also have to remove stuff, because while a lot of my stuff is at publishing quality (I've been published in the HERO E-zine a number of times with stuff I use in my game) a fair amount of it is stuff I converted from other systems - my magic system is strong riff on Rolemaster's. So I'd have to make some changes to make it a little more different.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Yet another vote for...

It could be since I'm in the process of writing it all down and organizing it, but it borrows, steals, plagiarizes and otherwise mutilates non-OGL IP all over the place (The Circle of Eight are the rulers of Thay and are secretly manipulated by an immortal Rakshasa).

Also, another case of "Who would want to publish/buy it?" It is generic fantasy designed to entertain my players and accomodate most everything D&D related I get my hands on. So, in terms of marketability, it is way too generic and "vanilla."

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm way too free-form at the table to have anyone take my ideas and run with them for very long. I'd much rather drop a few adventure seeds and run from there.

 

[Rabelais]

My current group operates in what I jokingly call Forgotten Eberhawk. We shamelessly beg, borrow and steal what we like from other campaign settings.

I've been developing a small area of "Forgotten Eberhawk" that isn't currently publishable, but could certainly be used as a seed for a pretty large Adventure Path.

It's a v3.5 Apocalyptic Lower plane invasion setting that takes the "hungry and exhausted" tone from Twilight: 2000. "Taren's Ferry" would make a nice Adventure Path, though perhaps not a full campaign setting

 

[Toben the Many]

My d20 Future stuff was pretty much almost publishable. I wrote up alot of backstory in an organized fashion, dropped in pretty pictures, made charts, stat blocks, equipment lists, etc.

However, all of the pictures I used were grabbed right off of the web somewhere and were very much copyrighted. Some of my buds wanted to assemble it into a web book, but I said, "Okay, but we would need some original artwork." And...that's when it fell flat.

BTW, making the background history files for my game into something really pretty that my players could hold onto was tremendously successful. They actually read the backstory that I invented for my world. They actually knew and understood the equipment lists. Best of all, it doesn't really take that much time. You just grab a picture off of the web, drop it into the document and you're done.

 

[Arkhandus]

I honestly don't know what to vote. I keep a lot of my world-notes and such in my head, and there are some things I write down that are only little blurbs or something and are really just meant to remind me of a fact I hadn't gotten around to writing down earlier (like general details on a particular city or culture or whatnot).

But on the other hand, I try to be reasonably complete with most stuff, and plenty of my material would be more or less useable as-written. Frex, most of what I've thought up so far for my Rhunaria setting is actually written down, and that which I haven't written down yet is generally just supposed to be 'secret DM facts' about the setting, that I either haven't decided the exact nature of yet (like the nature of deities and spirits in Rhunaria; I have a few different scenarios in my head for what/how I could reveal it if the players actually wind up in such a place as to try learning that kinda fact) or just don't have the time to finish brainstorming and detailing yet. 'course, about half of my Rhunaria material isn't even online yet because I haven't gotten around to finishing enough minor details to feel like posting it all just yet.

 

[Drowbane]

"Writing? What mean writing? Thog like pretty pictures...."

No, my homebrew doesn't have any picture either...

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

I am actually in the process of writing an entire campaign/game world now, and am doing some serious research for it... with designs of publishing it for others to use.

 

[CanadienneBacon]

I have a complete setting. There is no way it's publishable, though. I've cribbed WAY too much from too many sources other than my own imagination. I like history a little too much.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I went with "Another GM could use my stuff if I worked on it...much of it's in my head, right where it's needed"...

But publishable? No. I mean so much of it is blatantly stolen from literary sources that think I'd be in debt/legal trouble forever.