How do you homebrew?

[Desdichado]

So, do you borrow most of your stuff from somewhere else, build it all from scratch, or something in between?

 

[arwink]

In between. It's all held together with thumb tacks, wishful thinking and sticky tape. It ain't pretty, but if you're lucky no-one notices what a mess it is from the outside

For the most part, I borrow a bits and peices and make up the rest. Very little is worked out in detail unless someone specifically asks about it, or I develop it for my website or some other form of low-key publication.

 

[Golandrinel]

Bah! Sorry misread and misvoted oin your poll.

I mean't option 2 not option 1. I like to create as much as possible form scratch but let historical events, rleigions and cultures influence my work.

 

[kengar]

To quote Bruce Lee, I "Absorb what is useful and discard the rest."

Most of my homebrew ideas are my own, but I will often borrow a cool idea or be inspired by an aspect of another setting or game (or book or movie, etc.).

 

[seasong]

Mostly, I build it from scratch. I always borrow stuff, but I almost always have to rewrite it to suit. And with the exception of my current story hour, I usually run my own homebrew roleplaying system as well.

With that said, I don't want to mislead - I'm referring to the construction process, not originality. In my story hour, Theralis is loosely based on pre-Sparta Sparta, for example, while Aglaonis (a nearby city-state) is based on pre-Athens Athens... and the gods are gender-bent & culturally modified versions of the Greek gods.

So while I'm not copying Greek culture, I am using it as my inspirational seed, and I'm drawing elements of pre-Greek society into the setting.

 

[Garmorn]

Your poll does not cover my option.

I write up lots of cultures trying to add something unique to each one. With your poll that would also imply that I do lot of changes to the basic D&D rules with I don't.

For rules I will use a few 3rd party rules if I think they fit, but I don't make up my own or modify any unless their is a very major problem. (I am terrible at noticing imblances and game breaking rules, classes, ect.)

 

[Psion]

Mostly from scratch. I'll shamelessly rub the serial numbers off of something I see that I like and reuse it in my game, but overall, the history and background of my campaign makes it difficult to use some imported things.

 

[Desdichado]

Your poll does not cover my option.

I write up lots of cultures trying to add something unique to each one. With your poll that would also imply that I do lot of changes to the basic D&D rules with I don't.

For rules I will use a few 3rd party rules if I think they fit, but I don't make up my own or modify any unless their is a very major problem. (I am terrible at noticing imblances and game breaking rules, classes, ect.)

I fail to see how that option is not covered. In fact, that's the option I picked for myself, essentially, one up from the bottom -- very few rules rewrites from scratch unless I absolutely can't find another option in third party or other optional material that does what I want. As for the setting itself -- the non-mechanical aspect of it -- that's a bit more difficult, so use your own judgement to answer the question. Personally, I don't know how original I'd say I am with that either, but I'm certainly not running a thinly disguised Forgotten Realms or anything like that, at least.