How do you use pre-made campaign settings?

[BiggusGeekus]

There has yet to be a campaign setting published that I didn't get one or two neat ideas from. They're like giant compendiums of spells, races, magic items, and monsters. And some of them are just fun to read through, like Midnight.




[spam]

That being said, I'm currently trying to dump a few of them on ebay

[/spam]

 

[MonsterMash]

I'm another that voted no 1, but really fit into a slightly different category. I use a published setting, but with fairly heavy modification. Also the setting I use (Wilderlands of High Fantasy) is a lot less heavy on canonical sources compared with FR.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Read it for inspiration, strip it for parts...

 

[hunter1828]

Should have been a choice for "I use pre-made campaign settings with heavy modification to suit my needs". But that's just one of my campaigns, the other is a home-brew with stuff from pre-made campaigns added in.

Hunter

 

[Theocrat]

Greyhawk is the Only one for Me!

Hi all-
I choose option 1, since I'm a Greyhawk fan, have been and always will be. And what Greyhawk fan doesn't use one of the three organzied backgrounds and add on what they need?
If your looking for more options, add the major settings, GH, fr, DS, DL, KoK, OA, SL, AU and maybe a few of the non-major d20 settings (TLG's, FFG's, so forth). Being a GH fan, and knowing the setting, here's some options for GH: GH one of the major timelines as is....GH one of the major timelines with homebrew input....GH one of the major timelines and supplements from fr....GH with a CanonFire.com inspired campaign thread....
I hope those help, at least with the Greyhawk aspect of the Poll.

 

[gideonn]

premade, but

I've always set my campaign in the world of Greyhawk mainly because it was the first one i could purchase which had full maps and geographic regions. Then i pretty much ignored the politics of it, and set my own villages in a suitable geographic area where the adventures i had in mind would fit.

When other ideas for adventure, or premade adventures, arrived, i would encourage travel to suitable geographic regions, either fleshing our an existing town, or making up a new one. As TSR developed Greyhawk, and as my gaming group developed viewpoints beyond simple dungeoneering some of the politics started to come into play.

And, as my players grew in wealth, stature and importance, their roles in the politics, military and other realms increased.

So, i relied heavily on premade at the start, especailly for the geography, but eventually it became our own.

 

[Scotley]

Do you use campaigns that are sold by WotC or any other publisher as they are, with only minor house rules changes? Do you take parts of different campaigns and mesh them into your home campaign? Or do you only use your own home campaign with the additions of generic, non-setting specific supplements?
PS I hope it goes without saying that you pick what the best answer is. I realize that there are nuances between these options, I'm just looking for a feel of the community.

I found I could answer both yes and no to each of the choices so despite your PS, I could not vote. Instead I have to say that I buy major world supplements--mainly from Wizards. I only play in them occationally when I am running on short notice or with an unfamiliar group or when too few of the regulars can show up for my homebrew. In those instances I usually play them with no or very little modification. However, 9 of 10 sessions I don't use them at all.
I have been known to borrow ideas from published settings, but I do not simply mix and match from various worlds. I usually borrow the more generic stuff like monsters, feats, weapons or ideas. I don't borrow npc's, maps, names, or major fixtures of the worlds. It would be very unsually for a player in one of my games to recognize anything, but monsters or feats from the published settings. I would consider a race or prestige class from a published setting if a player wanted it and I could justify its existence in my homebrew.
The third choice is closest to what I do, but I hesitated to mark it because we do use the published settings straight out of the core books for some sessions.

Scotley

 

[Nifft]

I follow campaign settings down dark alleyways, smack them over the head with my hefty book of house rules, and rifle through their pockets for good ideas. I'm looking forward to Ebberon for exactly this reason: to steal stuff from someplace that's core D&D but very much not FR or GH.

-- N

 

[nopantsyet]

Definitely pick and choose. I like to create the cities and governments and NPCs, but I like to draw on other settings for monsters, organizations, hooks. I usually take inspiration rather than taking the rules themselves. It's fun that way. I'm really into the Dark Sun stuff from the latest Dungeon.

 

[DragonLancer]

I use the Dragonlance campaign setting, but with a few changes. I changed the history to allow me to use Psionics, and I made some changes to more recent history to keep the flavour that the setting had prior to it going SAGA.

Personally, I prefer published settings over homebrews (As a DM that is. As a player I don't care). True, someone else has come up with the ideas and the background and all, but often those ideas are better than most that I can come up with.

I have tried making homebrew campaigns before, but I find them often to be too complex or just that I want to do so much with it that I don't know where to start. Hence, a published setting works better for me.