Homebrew How did you get into making content?

[Verall]

how did you get into making content for A5e?

 

[foxblade]

how did you get into making content for A5e?

professionally or for your games only?

 

[Steampunkette]

how did you get into making content for A5e?

Read the rules. Fell in love. Thought that some systems and levers could be used in more places, started expanding them.

On of the first things I thought up was this idea of subregional material, because the Urban environment didn't have Sewers as a thing (at the time). And it occurred to me that there are situations where you might want to get from one end of town to the other through, or hide in, the sewer network.

(This was before the game released, and I didn't yet understand that the Regions were meant to be 'takes multiple days to cross' concepts rather than doing day-to-day region divisions of a map)

After that it was the "Fortunes" system to make a business/organization leadership structure with fortunes, upkeep, and employ as levers in a "Journey as Wealth" structure where you had Fortunes Activities much as Journey Activities.

Then there was Journey to the West Marches which was specifically made to break down the Journey System into a Hexcrawl mapping structure with rules and guidelines about the size of regions and explanations of how they could be nested within each other in order to create a 'topographical map of danger', where Tier 3 and Tier 4 regions were essentially mountains while Tier 0 is essentially plains and Tier 2 is "Rolling Hills". (It made plenty of sense in my head!)

This, of course, was all -before- A5e released and I only had access to the Journey System blog posts.

Annnnnd then Timespike noticed me and reached out and encouraged me to try to do something for ENPublishing.

 

[Verall]

professionally or for your games only?

Professionally, self published or official. Though please feel free to share even if it’s homebrew table rules

 

[foxblade]

Professionally, self published or official. Though please feel free to share even if it’s homebrew table rules

Well, i am working on my first publication presently, but I got into it by sharing my ideas in the various A5e discords and then I got noticed by the 3rd party community. I also tried to carve out a niche as one of the data gremlins.

 

[Faolyn]

There was open space that needed filling.

 

[xiphumor]

how did you get into making content for A5e?

Out of curiosity, why are you asking? Are you looking for ways to get started yourself?

As for me, I had been homebrewing my own stuff for O5e for a while, and when A5e came out, I saw the space to reinvent a lot of design space that O5e already had filled, which got me really excited. Eventually, I submitted some pitches to the GPG, and was thrilled to get my first commission, Exemplars of the Academy!

Before too long I was chatting with several of the other designers in the space over discord and asking them for advice. About a year ago, I decided to stick my toes in the water with my first self-published product, The Arcane Exterminator. Secrets of the Selkies followed a few months later, and then I lead the team that wrote Venture Forth as a giant group project.

I'm now working on a much bigger project, Wild Magic Reimagined, which I hope to bring to Kickstarter in Q2 of 2025. There's a lot of work to do on that, only part of which is the actual writing, but I'm chipping away at it in the background here!

 

[zombusey]

how did you get into making content for A5e?

Much like @xiphumor I had been tinkering with the 5e ruleset for my home games for a bit, and my husband and friends all encouraged me to submit some of my stuff to the Gate Pass Gazette. I admittedly didn't have much confidence going in, but the cervid is the heritage that proverbially launched a thousand ships in terms of the A5e content I've created since then. The seven GPG articles that I've published since gave me the confidence to engage more with the 3PP community, at which point I was encouraged by @Timespike to take the plunge and publish things on my own--he's a fantastic enabler on that front!

Over this past year I've published four books: Toil and Trouble: The Kitchen Witch Archetype & Hearth Magic for Every Witch; Paradigms of Skill: Expanded Skill Criticals; Hearth & Home: Cozy Cottage Origins for A5e; and my most recent release, Bloody Heretics, which includes the new bloodblade class. I also contributed to Venture Forth, which as previously mentioned was a big group project.

If you're considering jumping into the pool yourself, don't hesitate to reach out to other members of the 3PP community and ask questions. Every release brings with it new lessons and tips and tricks that we learned along the way, and I know I'm more than willing to share what I've learned! If diving into self-publishing right away is too daunting, keep your eyes peeled for the next pitch call for the Gate Pass Gazette. It's where a lot of us got our start, and for good reason. It's a great way to find your voice and the sort of content you like to make

 

[Verall]

Much like @xiphumor I had been tinkering with the 5e ruleset for my home games for a bit, and my husband and friends all encouraged me to submit some of my stuff to the Gate Pass Gazette. I admittedly didn't have much confidence going in, but the cervid is the heritage that proverbially launched a thousand ships in terms of the A5e content I've created since then. The seven GPG articles that I've published since gave me the confidence to engage more with the 3PP community, at which point I was encouraged by @Timespike to take the plunge and publish things on my own--he's a fantastic enabler on that front!

Over this past year I've published four books: Toil and Trouble: The Kitchen Witch Archetype & Hearth Magic for Every Witch; Paradigms of Skill: Expanded Skill Criticals; Hearth & Home: Cozy Cottage Origins for A5e; and my most recent release, Bloody Heretics, which includes the new bloodblade class. I also contributed to Venture Forth, which as previously mentioned was a big group project.

If you're considering jumping into the pool yourself, don't hesitate to reach out to other members of the 3PP community and ask questions. Every release brings with it new lessons and tips and tricks that we learned along the way, and I know I'm more than willing to share what I've learned! If diving into self-publishing right away is too daunting, keep your eyes peeled for the next pitch call for the Gate Pass Gazette. It's where a lot of us got our start, and for good reason. It's a great way to find your voice and the sort of content you like to make

Thanks for sharing

What is the pitch call like? Do they ask for open submissions on anything? Or give the scope for each issue?

 

[zombusey]

Thanks for sharing

What is the pitch call like? Do they ask for open submissions on anything? Or give the scope for each issue?

There will be a post here announcing an upcoming pitch call with instructions for how to get your email on the list. That post will also typically have a list of what they're looking for the most (archetypes, subsystems, heritages ect.) to help get your creative juices flowing. Then you'll get a second email saying that the pitch calls are open, at which point you send in your 200-word elevator pitches (I recommend doing 2-3 your first time). If your article is selected, the editor will reach out to you with due dates for your draft and your final draft and what issue you'll be in. Definitely a painless process overall!