How to do a homebrew?

[Tauric]

Okay, so on another post my "why homebrew" post I got some good advice about how to get players to accept changes to the established canon. One piece of adive, oft repeated, was do it gradually. Another was limit handouts, as players rarely read them.

What I would like to know now, is how to make players aware of changes.

F'rinstance, say I want to use some of the cosmology & pantheon from Book of the Righteous, some races from Arcana Unearthed, and some classes from Oriental Adventures. However, my players only own the PHB.

Do I photocopy the relevant pages from each book? This would just amount to a massive handout, albeit one they better read if they want to play.

Do I schedule a session so everyone can read the books? This could be complicated if there are parts of the books I don't want the to read (BotR).

The example I set here is pretty simplistic, because only three books are involved, but since there are so many supplements, and many have maybe one class or race I like, compiling them would take a lot of energy and time, which could be better spent designing NPCs and such.

So again, I turn to the worthies at ENworld for advice.

 

[Nightfall]

If you're going to use handouts, use a lot of pretty pictures. This way they will be in awe and might read it.

 

[Darkness]

Just type up a list with the names, maybe adding some basic details - whether it's background info and other text ("Piratecat is the god of three-legged felines. His clerics pray for their spells right after supper.") or rules stuff (feat XY gives: "+1 racial bonus vs. boredom").

 

[Nightfall]

("Piratecat is the god of three-legged felines. His clerics pray for their spells right after supper.") .

And low there was a great rumble in the sky and the people were sorely afriad. Then a came a voice from the heavens "Fear not people! I, Nightfall, have come to give you all the wisdom of the gods! So make sure you listen when I tell you stuff!"

-- Writings a heretical sect.

 

[shilsen]

And low there was a great rumble in the sky and the people were sorely afriad. Then a came a voice from the heavens "Fear not people! I, Nightfall, have come to give you all the wisdom of the gods! So make sure you listen when I tell you stuff!"

-- Writings a heretical sect.

And lo, a voice spake from the heavens! "The Original d20 god is the one god, and diaglo is his prophet!"

More seriously:

I wouldn't make the players read a huge amount which may not matter for all of them. Just type out a short description of each of the classes and races, and if a player wants one then provide that player with the extended info. As for the deities, make something similar (what wuld be in-character knowledge) and have everybody read it. Only a character whose cleric worships a specific god would need to read up on it in detail.

 

[Umbran]

The example I set here is pretty simplistic, because only three books are involved, but since there are so many supplements, and many have maybe one class or race I like, compiling them would take a lot of energy and time, which could be better spent designing NPCs and such.

Do not undervalue time spent prepping up your game world.

For example - compiling them would probably save you time in the long run, even if your players never saw the compilation. A compliled list of all the stuff you are using means that you don't have to reference all those other books. No more flipping through 17 splatbooks to find the details you want. You can have it there, all in one binder ready for your perusal.

 

[DMScott]

Generally what I do is make up a full booklet with the full description and rules for the races/classes/whatever I'm allowing, then make up a couple of small handouts for the players. My small handout for the races would be a chart with the stat adjustments and a notes column with other changes (darkvision, spell-like abilities, ECL, that sort of thing) and a paragraph on each race with a quick appearance/culture description. For the classes, it'd be a couple of short paragraphs on each one, one to put the class in campaign context and one to give an idea of their role in rules terms. If a player gets an idea as to what they want to play from that, I can hand them the new info they want right away; if anyone says "I want to read all the detailed stuff", then no problem, they can have it.

Gods and religions would be another short handout. Again, my main concern is getting the game rules out to the players, so it's just a list of gods with their alignments/domains/etc. and a quick paragraph on each religion.

In the past I've tried just bringing the books that included whatever classes etc. I'm using, but I found that I had to bring too many to each session, particularly since sometimes I was only using a few pages of a 200 page book. Even now I bring more stuff than any player will ever see, but that's the nature of having a homebrew.

 

[Tonguez]

cosmology & pantheon from Book of the Righteous,
List of Names, Alignment and Domains - give more detail after they choose

some races from Arcana Unearthed
Short description and stat adjustments. Also a note on how and where they fit in your world (eg Gnomes are the dominant race and are responsible for building both the Golden road and the City of Emerald)

classes from Oriental Adventures
Photocopy or full stats and abbreviated description

The Local Setting
Desription of the local area including culture, sites of significance, sociopolitical structure, known threats and interesting facts the characters should know.

eg You begin in the City of Emerald a magical city apparently constructed entirely of green crystal. The center of the City is dominated by the Royal Palace where queen Ozma reigns.

You are part of the City militia (as all adults in the city are) and have been assigned to protect the walls due to recent threats from the Dark Witch and her minions

 

[MarauderX]

I don't know if you want to lend them your books, but that might be the easiest way if they express interest in another race/class, whatever. Otherwise it gets a bit overwealming to have to run copies of extra stuff for the players that are interested. You could also have them arrive early to get through the essentials before everyone else arrives so that the other players still have a sense of mystery about the other PCs.

 

[nopantsyet]

My personal and bound to incite flames opinion is that you should ignore the ones who said to reveal information gradually. Withholding information as a strategy will result in frustrated players. They will care less because they will feel like no matter how brilliant they are, they will never learn anything faster they your caprice dictates.

The point I think many people miss when they run a nonstandard homebrew is that you have to provide a working system. You can't just arbitrarily change things and then force-feed that to the players. Again--the road to frustration.

I'm running a homebrew with a very convoluted government. It's a cross between a parliamentary republic and a socialist protectorate based on aspects of several renaissance governments as well as enlightenment political philosophy. As pointed out by many people, I could provide a ten-page handout explaining the government that, if it was read in entirety, would likely be forgetten in equal entirety. Or I could reveal it gradually, as recommended by others. And bit by bit, over months of play, the players would finally come to understand what the government is and how it works. But they would not remember everything, most likely forgetting the important things and only remembering the peculiar things.

Instead, you have to present information in a manner that justifies its significance and has in-game meaning to the players. In this case, the players decided they wanted to find out about ships expected in port. So they were advised to inquire at the Ministerial, the main government building. Once there, they were compelled to wade through a maze of bureaucracy which gave them a glimpse into how things actually work within the government, how it views its citizens and interests, etc. In fifteen minutes of roleplaying, they understood more about the government than they would have gotten from any other means. But more importantly, they had a reason to care. They learned that there are vast resources within the government, however it is not an efficient organization, and its interests are not necessarily aligned with yours.

An added benefit was that they got more of a sense of the feel of the homebrew world than any amount of flavor text could ever provide.

What I'm driving at is what many people seem to be missing. Context. For any information to be learned, there has to be a reason to learn it, a reason for it to be available, and a price to be paid for the learning. If you are missing any of those things, you're just dangling a carrot in front of your players and calling them mule. But if there is sense to your system, if there are explanations for the existence and availability of information, if there is meaning behind the information itself, your players will learn more, and more importantly, they will value and retain what they've learned.

Plus, learning by experience allows them to make their own value judgements of the world, which will get them involved and, in many cases, interested in changing or participating in it.