Homebrewers, where do you borrow from?

What setting is the most useful for homebrewers?

  • Greyhawk

    Votes: 20 12.9%
  • Forgotten Realms

    Votes: 31 20.0%
  • Oriental Adventures/Rokugan

    Votes: 11 7.1%
  • Scarred Lands

    Votes: 7 4.5%
  • Dragonstar

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Kingdoms of Kalamar

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Iron Kingdoms

    Votes: 5 3.2%
  • Freeport

    Votes: 6 3.9%
  • Dragon Magazine settings

    Votes: 3 1.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 70 45.2%

Settings-wise, I don't do much borrowing. For my current one, most of it was already put together - the basis at east - ages back. I draw some inspiration from Planescape, maybe a tiny bit from the Scarred Lands, but mostly the material I have borrowed comes from books - in particular Perdido Street Station.
 

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I pull from a few places, although I generally modify anything I pull so much it isn't funny.

One of the oddest places I get stuff from, tho, is Disney movies. That's right, Disney movies. Take the Atlantis movie, for example - I plan on using their alphabet and grammar and such for a psionics language (assuming, of course, it's not just a bunch of new sounds and pictures overlaid on the English language and grammar).

Mainly, though, I watch out for mistakes and try not to repeat them.
 

I steal far far more from novels than from any published RPG stuff. Steven Erickson especially is making my head explode. I'm torn as to wether I should finish the new one or work on my campaign, it keeps stirring up more ideas. I always read him with my ideas notebook by my elbow.
 

Multiple sources, but most of which weren't included on the poll.

More of less, it's a mix of a lot of CPRGs, some myth & literature, a few campaign settings, & even a bit of anime & toy lines from my childhood.

My deities are a mixed-up hodge-podge pulled from various mythologies, modified/shaped as to how I wish to use them. For example, the war god Nuadyr bears a horn, a powerful red sword, & has a silver prosthetic right hand. Nuadyr is derived from:
*An amalgamation of the Norse gods Tyr & Heimdall, & the Celtic God Nuada Silverhand.
*His red sword, which also acts as his holy symbol, is derived from the Piers Anthony character of War. The silver hnd is from Nuada, & the horn is from Heimdall.

The campaign world, especially a lot of the place-names, towns, and some NPCs are derived from CRPGs like Ultima (mainly 4-7), Times of Lore, Might & Magic 1 & 2, Bard's Tale, the Zork series, Windwalker (for my OA-based stuff), etc. (as well as from Gauntlet). For example, the capital city in my setting is Skara Brae---the city in Bard's Tale as well as 1 of the cities from the later Ultimas, influenced by such great cities as Lankhmar, Waterdeep, & Greyhawk. The holy symbol for the Light God, the most popular of all the deities, is an Ankh.

And, lots of bits & pieces fit in as well. My players will have to face the Dragon Knights, 5 evil fighter/sorcerers who ride a particular chromatic dragon & wield certain magics. For example, the Red Knight rides a red dragon, uses combative/fire magics, & resides in a volcanic mountain range. The Blue Knight rides a blue dragon & resides on a desert isle. The White Knight & his white dragon dwell on the frozen plains, the Green Knight & dragon are based in a forest, & the Black Knight & dragon are based in a swamp (gee, wonder what I borrowed from in this case? :D ). They'll also have to deal with a potent lich who dwells in an ancient pyramid, bearing a potent staff topped with a ram's skull (a No-Prize for the person who figures out who this guy's derived from).

I decided to leave my really serious development of a setting for my writing (since that setting is quite different from D&D), & go with something a bit easier, & a bit more fun, for me to develop. Besides, my players may pick up on some of the influences, but not all of them (which leaves plenty of surprises for the campaign).
 

very little from the above except for cruchy bits.

Mostly I borrow ideas from novels, console games, music, computer games and any other odd inspiiration that pops my way
 

actually I borrow absolutely nothing from settings, I do however get inspiration from places like novels, music, folk lore, legends etc, but borrow nope.
 

"Ya bloody well can't borrow mw that's for sure. Some days I think mi'lord must be the most hated man in all the world. The flamin' lush wouldn't make it through a day with out me testin 'is food and drink. Makes me wonder what he pay all the guards for?"


My DM pretty much runs nothing but his homebrew, so I steal from nearly every good campaign setting, rule book, and novel i get my hands on for expanded rules and character concepts.
A practice my DM seems to a have taken to heart as well since he has to adapt all the stuff the other players and I throw at him.
 

Settings...?

I almost never borrow from published campaign settings. I get most of my ideas from movies and video games (tons from Final Fantasy).
 

My campaign ideas are primarily my own or drawn from non-published, online, or non-d20 sources, but I use some source materials (spells, prestige classes, monsters) from GH, Scarred Lands, and FR*.

* - Well, of course. I used things from a variety of sources in 2e, but all of a sudden they are all FR in 3e... genasi, aasimar, etc.
 

Some lord of the rings, lots and lots of anime. My campaign has a villain based of Vamdemon, an NPC race based off the Kato(From Monster Rancher, and many other similar things. Monster Rancher is a very heavy influence. My character looks the part of an anime character, and even archetypes like having cats as allies and small characters being the most powerful occur in my campaign
 

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