How RPGs nearly killed my creativity (and how I got it back)

[Kid Socrates]

I kinda cheat a little, as far as the gaming books go. I own the old 3.0 books, d20 Modern, Unearthed Arcana, the really old Planescape box set, and Eberron, plus a PDF or two. I'm about to grab the 3.5 books from a local store for $60 for the three of them. My roommate, however, buys a fair amount more book-wise than I do, and so I can snatch stuff from him. My old roommates bought EVERYTHING.

I love reading gaming books, including setting books -- I've read Eberron cover to cover, and I'll still break out Planescape and read about it. I play occasionally in an Eberron game, and I've done sme Greyhawk gaming in the past as well. But I'd absolutely hate to run a game in one of those universes.

I love reading about other settings, but when it comes time to do some game planning, I can't work in anything but my homebrew, just because it's so much more fulfilling. And my gaming creativity comes more from non-gaming resources (mythology, some video games, that completely awesome 1000 non-rpg sites thread here that I keep marked, and mine regularly) than it does from other games. Not everyone has time to write thousands of words on a setting, so those books do come in real handy for them.

Plus, they're fun to read, and sometimes that's all I want to really do.

-Matt

 

[Wraith Form]

Personally I don't particularly love detailed settings books, things like the Judges Guild Wilderlands series back in the day were good for me: maps with geographical features and settlements, but very little detail other than name, population and resources and the DM encouraged to alter things for their own campaign. Got to admit what worrys me most about the FR is the tendency of some people to treat published material as canon, rather than a basis to work from.

I haven't used Judge's Guild stuff in particular, but I know what you're saying. I have to say I'd like a few little seeds of ideas for those settlements rather than just a name and a few stats--I can't work from an utterly blank canvas, but I can extrapolate (and other big fancy words) off of a few hints, suggestions, etc. of activities that are happening in the area.

Then again I haven't DM'ed in several months (years?!?) so I'm not desperate for encounters.

I also enjoy reading the books just for fun, so while I don't require much for DMing, I still buy the books just the same.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I've bought far more 3.x material than all of my 1e and 2e stuff combined (not counting Dragon mags) and there is more that I want. Sure...I know I'll never use it all and my players buy almost nothing beyond their PHB or the occasional splatbook, but I like the stuff. Some folks do meth, some get tattoos...I'm a D&D 3.x junkie.

 

[The_Gneech]

What's weird is that when I started my 3.5 game, I decided I was gonna go for "as much pre-written as possible" in order to avoid having to spend hours and hours preparing each game session. Dungeon adventures for me all the way, baby!

And then ... I get a neat idea for a scenario ... and I'm back at the #&$*@ computer creating my own again.

I am essentially writing (and running) my own version of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, set in a version of Bissel that vaguely resembles the Living Greyhawk one.

*cries*

Why couldn't I just use the perfectly good version already written by Monte Cook? Why couldn't I just use the Living Greyhawk stuff instead of drawing my own maps and adding all kinds of personal touches? Why did I spend all that time coming up with interesting NPCs and subplots for the characters to get involved with at the Guild of the Arcane Path, instead of just sticking to the dungeon?

Why do I do this to myself?

-The Gneech, slave to the campaign

 

[Von Ether]

This gets a bit "ditto" from me. Really, my experiences run completely contrary to the original poster's. All my gaming decisions are based on my time constraints - which are rather significant.

For me, it's all about the time (or lack of it).

Truth be told, the only reason I have d20 around is because it always gets people to my table. There are other gaming systems that fit my personal time constraints and personal style better, but lots of players have a smaller comfort zone than I. No slight on DnD, I just don't have time to master it like other systems. I really feel for guys who say they have no time and want to run a superhero Hero game.

On that note, I'm seriously considering GR new Advanced Beastiary book since it provides 100 templates and a sample critter to go with every template. Sounds like a way to adjust critters on the fly and give them theme at the same time.

On that note, a recent WotC web article "Solution by substituion" suggested renaming spells to save GM's time and expand spell lists for villians on a theme. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/bs/20041224a)

 

[drakhe]

Why I have a library of stuff.

I understand where your comming from. If you like to create worlds, the prefab is going to hamper you. Myself on the other hand...

Here's my reasons for buying lotsa books:

- Tha Collection

I simply like books (any kind of book about a subject that I'm attracted to).
After seeing the libraries of fellow gamers who are longer in the hobby than I am, the
awe inspiring stories and exclamations like "I got all 1ed stuff" or "I own all gazeteers"
and the raising of DnD3e, I decided that I would collect alle WOTC Dnd stuff, just to
be able to say one day, when the next generation of gamers asks me about gaming
in my early years, that I own all DnD3e stuff (yeah I know, sounds .... but what the
hey...)

Starting to collect books and offcourse starting to enjoy the greatest hobby in the
world, I ventured beyond DnD3e and bought loads more stuff (WFRP, Alternity,
Pendragon, L5R, 7th Sea, Deadlands, Slain, Star Wars, D20 Modern, Spycraft, ...)
A collection indeed.

- Tha Library

I also like to be creative, but my creativity needs a certain amount of input to work.
I have trouble creating something from zero. I mean realy starting from nothing. I'll
happily create a new gaming system, but I'll use a dozen existing core rulesbooks to
pick up all the juicy bits and mold them to my own liking. So I collect a library of
sources to help me kickstart my imagination. A small analogy will better explain.
Miniature gaming: I LOVE IT! The game that is. I love to field a large army and play
a battle. I even don't mind losing a battle, if it was a good battle. I don't mind
my guys taking a beating, as long as it's an entertaining game. (I mainly play orcs.
Animosity rules. It's usualy the goblins in my army that draw the short straw against
the orcs. GOOD! I hates the goblinz. Da orc is tha prime spesies! Waaaaaaaagh!)
Oeps, sorry for digressing, my point: I like to play battles, I don't like to paint miniatures.
My creativity is the tactics I use, the roleplaying I do when my orcses gets beaten...
It's just the same with card games. I like to play MtG & NR, but I don't like deckbuilding.

Well, that's just me. I guess creativity comes in many forms...
Actualy, a small confession: At times I'm thingking that all these books sitting on my
shelves are a waste, but then the little collector devil hovers closer to my left ear and
whispers the mantra of the collector: "Must have more books.... Must have more books..."

 

[scourger]

yes, less is more

Yeah, I learned this lesson with AD&D and just relearned it with d20. In my AD&D game, it was great with just the core books + Dungeon. Then, some of the brown (splat?) books crept in. It was good at first to have a few more options, but it got out of control. Thank goodness I never used any of the Player's Option stuff. I was much happier when I took my AD&D game back to the core.

I kept my 3.0 D&D game at the core. I used the 3 books plus the D&D Gazetteer. One of my biggest challenges was that I had a player who was a Greyhawk fanboy from way back. But, he did loan me the excellent book Greyhawk, The Adventure Begins. I had less use for the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Again, I ran a few adventures straight from Dungeon adapted to my version of the Greyhawk World. It was pretty good.

The lesson came later for all the other d20 stuff. I had to buy, read and get rid of a lot of other d20 books. Some were great. Most were not. I was and am intrigued by using the d20 rules to play in other genres using the D&D game. I still really like Omega World, Judge Dredd and Star Wars (technically its own game, but I like it). I even added mutants, judges and jedi in my current Shackled City game--along with aasimar paladin straight from the MM. It really works for me, and the players like it, too. The DragonStar StarFarer's Handbook is a great book, but it deosn't work as a game for me. I guess you have to go through a lot of sand & rocks to get a few nuggets of gold.

Fortunately, I never got into other d20 games: Modern, Cthulhu, Wheel of Time, M&M, etc. What I'm looking for now are good modules. They can be core d20 (by that I mean D&D) or a variant that allows me to run it with a game I already like (I'm hoping Slavelords of Cydonia will fit this bill with Omega World/Judge Dredd/Star Wars). But I do not need any sourcebooks or campaign settings (unless bundled with an adventure).

To me, sourcebooks exploit the market; modules grow the market. I hope to effect a market correction by restricting my purchases to adventures--and only the best ones at that.

 

[Altalazar]

Orthodoxy Smorthodoxy. I've always used setting books and even adventures more as inspiration than canon. I've always felt free to change things, large and small, at my whim, and generally just incoprorate things into my own unique world.

So having the books doesn't force you to memorize them or use any of them.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with just chucking the books and making it all up yourself from some small kernel of Greyhawk. It is always more fun to make up stuff than to just read and memorize.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I have noticed that some Forgotten Realms fans are really obsessed with what is canon and what is not. And if you do not adhere to it, then you are not a true Forgotten Realms fan.

 

[Corinth]

I have noticed that some Forgotten Realms fans are really obsessed with what is canon and what is not. And if you do not adhere to it, then you are not a true Forgotten Realms fan.

That's easy to explain. They don't see the Realms as a toolkit, but a single-piece entity; the Star Wars community has the same problem, as does any property with a strong following and an equally strong canon. It's also the problem that historical gaming must deal with.