NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MechaPilot" data-source="post: 7160471" data-attributes="member: 82779">I see people attempting to draw a "homebrew" vs "official product" distinction, but the arguments for that distinction are non-persuasive to me.Litterally every D&D product or resource is homebrew in that's it's produced by fans of D&D, many of them having decades of experience with the game (Note: I will continue to use homebrew to refer to things made by non-publishers, because that's how I see it's typical usage).  That some of those fans happen to work for WotC changes nothing.  Mearls et al have, generally, made a quality product in 5e, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, in some cases, homebrew material is of a higher quality and is less prone to abuse than official material.  When a player wants to use a new option at my table, I don't care if the entire staff of WotC held it aloft on a mountaintop and blessed it like Simba from the Lion King, I'm going to review it before allowing it because WotC is just as fallible as the next person.  To their credit, I usually have no problem with upwards of 90% of the options they present.This is equally true of settings.  Whether a setting comes from WotC or someone else, what matters is that it's interesting, fun to play in, and has its own character and feel.  There's literally no point to making a setting that's "FR, plus X, Y, & Z."  They might as well just make an FR sourcebook or an FR article with X, Y, & Z in it and save the wasted time of making up a setting around them.I have two homebrew settings of my own (Tenesia, and Wildwood).  One day, I'd love to see them published.  But, if I were given the choice of publishing Tenesia with the PHB races or keeping the races it has and not publishing it at all (or only publishing it in a free or pay-what-you-want PDF) I'd choose the latter every day of the week.  The altered races are a huge part of Tenesia's identity in that they feed into the themes of the setting.  The same is true with Wildwood and the changes in that setting.And yes, I know WotC is trying to make money on their settings and I'm not (though I'd love it if I could).  However, art (and writing is an art) requires some element of creating something different and taking a risk that some people might not like it.  If you don't create something different, then the whole thing becomes a gray morass where innovation and original thought is subverted in the name of doing what's safe.  That's how you get art that obeys all the tired old tropes and doesn't surprise you or make you think.</blockquote>

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