Pre-designed world Vs Starting from scratch

[DonTadow]

A problem that keeps me away from running any popular setting as is is player knowledge. Its the reason that eve nwhen i use a setting i usually gut it of all but mundane information.

When i first dm'd i tried running faerun, only to find it boring because the players knew more about the world than i did. I tried an eberron one shot but again, the players knew more of the worlds mysteries than i did. With a homebrew, you can create the rules of the world and tailor it towards where ever you're trying to get to.

 

[Drawmack]

Can I say both? I have played homebrew in the past, I've also played licensed but heavily modified, and right now I'm playing Freeport - pretty much right out of the book. Except, this week I'm running an adventure that involves an insane asylum so I had to add that into the city. I've already placed Freeport in Gothos.

However, I decided to use Gothos because I was planning on building a horror setting for d20 and Ravenloft is not the feel I was going for. However, when I read Gothos I was blown away. It was almost as if they had read my mind.

Also only about 1/3 of the world is actually fleshed out so I have a lot of places left to stick homebrew if I choose to.

As for the person who said that it's more work to run published, you're wrong. The reason is that I do not have to know the whole world any more then you have to flesh out your whole world. I read the books once through like I'd read a novel before playing and then I study the parts relevent to the next session. It takes a lot less time then homebrewing does.

 

[Kularian]

My homebrew is still "on the pot" as it were.

See, my friends and I started w/ Greyhawk, the generic fantasy setting. But as time went on, we wanted a little more 'color' to the 'generic.' So over time, I've been adding in elements of a homebrew world that I'm working on, Aritria. First it was the layout of the world, with the continents in their proper order. Then the PHB races were associated to the specific locations they were supposed to be. My next trick is to take out most of the PHB races and put in the Aritrian Races, (of which there are 9). Afterwards, the class system will undergo some modification, probably, and then any other tweaks and such will be done.

So my Homebrew is still under construction, but it's being used in the meantime. I've never run any of the prepublished settings, though a friend of mine ran us through a WoW game. That was pretty fun. Anyway, I prefer the homebrew with the following analogy:

What tastes better? Mom's Home-made pie, or the frozen kind from Wal-Mart?

 

[Gundark]

Well I have to say that at first I Homebrewed (HB) and borrowed from other settings like a bandit. then 2 things happened. 1 I got busy and didn't have the time, 2. The group didn't seem to care if use a HB or a published settting (PS). So I went to PS.

I was never really satisfied using PS, they never really totally completely had what I wanted.Then I had a neat idea for a HB and so now I am back to making a HB setting (and still borrowing from other settings). I guess I enjoy the process, even if the group doesn't care one way or the other.

 

[Desdichado]

As for the person who said that it's more work to run published, you're wrong. The reason is that I do not have to know the whole world any more then you have to flesh out your whole world. I read the books once through like I'd read a novel before playing and then I study the parts relevent to the next session. It takes a lot less time then homebrewing does.

No I'm not. Clearly you're doing it wrong, plus I also clearly started that sentence with "For me." You can't possibly have any idea what is or isn't more work "for me."

EDIT: Less flippant and more seriously--that's a load of bunk. I don't need to flesh out very much at all to run; only enough to get me through another session or two, as I stated already. If it's not a skill that comes to you naturally, you should check out Ray Winninger's series of Dungeoncraft articles for a step by step methodology for homebrewing that requires very little development work at all. I'm not quite as stripped down as he recommends, partly because developing stuff is fun for me, so I go ahead and do more than he recommends as strictly necessary--but I very much stand by my assertion that homebrewing is considerably less work than running a published campaign. Especially a published campaign that your players could also be familiar with, and especially especially if you have the kinds of players that are going to be bothered with you getting things "wrong" about the setting.

 

[Drawmack]

No I'm not. Clearly you're doing it wrong, plus I also clearly started that sentence with "For me." You can't possibly have any idea what is or isn't more work "for me."

Fair enough, but for me "You're wrong"

EDIT: Less flippant and more seriously--that's a load of bunk. I don't need to flesh out very much at all to run; only enough to get me through another session or two, as I stated already.

Yes, and all I need to really be familiar with are the overreaching ideas of the setting (usually one chapter of the book) which I assume you have already designed for your world and the POIs/Characters and such my PCs will interact with in this week's game. I do not have to know everything there is to know about Freeport, I simply have to be well versed in those things my player(s) will interact with this week.

If it's not a skill that comes to you naturally, you should check out Ray Winninger's series of Dungeoncraft articles for a step by step methodology for homebrewing that requires very little development work at all.

I have worked on the Living Bluffside project and on an on-line setting known as Backara. I have also designed two homebrew settings for myself. I know how to do it and find it great fun. However it takes me a lot longer to build homebrew then to run packaged.

I'm not quite as stripped down as he recommends, partly because developing stuff is fun for me, so I go ahead and do more than he recommends as strictly necessary

This is probably my problem with homebrewing. I love it and time just seems to melt when I start to homebrew. So sure I do not need 10 pages of backstory about the inn and its owners but I just get so caught up writting it that by the time I realize I've got 10 pages it's too late the time has already been invested.

--but I very much stand by my assertion that homebrewing is considerably less work than running a published campaign. Especially a published campaign that your players could also be familiar with, and especially especially if you have the kinds of players that are going to be bothered with you getting things "wrong" about the setting.

I have been lucky not to get any players that are familiar with the worlds I wish to play in before playing in my games. Mind you I don't use any Wizard's settings, which probably helps in this department. For example right now I'm playing in Freeport set in Gothos. For me playing published is less work overall. After all which takes more time reading 10 already balanced classes or designing 10 balanced classes.

 

[SiderisAnon]

Players Can Make Homebrew More Work

I generally homebrew. I have been talked into running an established world once or twice over the years, and I always end up with problems where the players know something about the world that I don't or THINK they know something about the world that I don't, and so confusion or other problems result.

A brief foray into a Forgotten Realms campaign run by another DM last year really showed off this problem. A number of players had read fiction books set in the Forgotten Realms which the DM had not seen. So, they thought their knowledge was canon and were acting on it, only to end up with completely different results. Plus, the DM assumed we all knew as much about the Forgotten Realms as he did, so people like me who have never read any of the RPG or fiction books ended up hopelessly lost in detailed geopolitical conversations between those who knew the world well (which really sucked when completing the adventure required detailed Forgotten Realms knowledge).

When I homebrew, on the other hand, I only "create" as much as I need for the next session or two, with a few vague details of what's going on beyond that, and I don't have to know material nearly as well, because hey--if I say something is a certain way, then it is. I've never understood the comments that I've heard for years and years that DMs don't homebrew anymore as they get older because it's more work.

I don't believe that homebrewing itself has become more work. From my experience with the players I know, it's that the players' expectations of what a setting will provide that are making homebrew more work. Some of the players have gotten spoiled by the published settings with half a dozen RPG books and often multiple fiction books. They want to run out, buy them, and study up on the world so they know what to expect. With a homebrew, you shouldn't need to detail what's over the horizon until you need it, but if the players start feeling the world is not detailed if they can't look up the political situation in a far off country every time they feel like it, it can cause problems.


And before anyone makes the comment: I brought up the whole concept that their characters would have no information. The problem was players who have a need to know everything there is to know, every book, every web enhancement, everything. For them, the fun was in knowing far more than their characters could. (Which included reading every Wheel of Time fiction book when another DM started at Wheel of Time campaign.) I like mystery in the game and I love having the unknown. I think that enhances the world. So, we play in different groups now and that works.

 

[Desdichado]

Woah there--I'm not talking about designing classes. I'm talking about designing settings and to me that means soft aspects of the game. I don't particularly like game design, but I like "soft" setting design, and there's enough rules in print from all the bazillion sources out there that I don't have much need for rules design as part of homebrewing.

If you're doing much of that, then yeah--I can see that taking a lot of time. More than I'm willing to invest.

 

[DonTadow]

As for the person who said that it's more work to run published, you're wrong. The reason is that I do not have to know the whole world any more then you have to flesh out your whole world. I read the books once through like I'd read a novel before playing and then I study the parts relevent to the next session. It takes a lot less time then homebrewing does.

Wow thats kind of an arrogant response. Yet I have heard many people say the same thing as j-dawg and myself. I don't run published because of the amount of work it takes. Thats why i just gut it and take what i want add most of my own. When you're doing a published you have to learn the system and certain parts if you want to run it well. I take pride in running games and i refuse to go in not knowing all i can for the players sake. With my homebrew, because its all created by me i can tell them things and they have a definitive answer. There is never a question about the setting that i have to go and look up because my familiarity with it is very intimate, as opposed to a published setting which is foreign at the onset.

Now, the best thing to say is in your experience you have found published settings easier. In mine I have not.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't believe that homebrewing itself has become more work. From my experience with the players I know, it's that the players' expectations of what a setting will provide that are making homebrew more work. Some of the players have gotten spoiled by the published settings with half a dozen RPG books and often multiple fiction books. They want to run out, buy them, and study up on the world so they know what to expect. With a homebrew, you shouldn't need to detail what's over the horizon until you need it, but if the players start feeling the world is not detailed if they can't look up the political situation in a far off country every time they feel like it, it can cause problems.

And to me, it's the player expectations that make NOT homebrewing more work. I have to make sure I know the setting well enough to answer who knows what kind of questions if they get asked. If I'm homebrewing I either know the answers because I made it up originally anyway, I make it up on the spot and take a note so it's consistent later, or I can easily come up with a plausible reason why the player's character wouldn't have access to that information anyway, so it doesn't matter.