Seriously, though, do you prefer homebrews?

[BluWolf]

I run boxed campaign worlds when I need a break or breaking in a new group.

I prefer to run my homebrew.

 

[Jeph]

Personally, I only use homebrew settings....

And a homebrew classless level-based thingy.....

And a homebre magic system.....

and a homebrew parry system....

And a homebrew....uh.....thing.....yeah.

-Jeph

 

[Storminator]

Well, if I was a smart merchant trading goods from the river overland to small towns and villages, I'd move my base of operations directly to the warf and then move the goods around the city to the roads connecting it to the outside, bypassing entry and exit fees to the city proper. If all the merchants start doing this, wouldn't the population move away from the city to the warf?

Well, that's the normal course of action, so there must be a very good reason that hasn't happened. If I were a smart adventurer I'd figure that out straight away!

PS

 

[Tiefling]

Well, that's the normal course of action, so there must be a very good reason that hasn't happened. If I were a smart adventurer I'd figure that out straight away!

PS

Good point . So what would convince the populace to stay? A magical spring of healing hidden in the city? A persistent plague or monster infestation that, for some reason, is completely localized to the warf? A threat of death by the paranoid and tyrannical rulers?

 

[Torx]

I personally only run homebrews (or more specifically - one homebrew). I find that I like keeping players on their toes. They have a pesky habit of buying the same books as I do (or in my current players' cases - they each singly own twice as many as I do). There's a certain sense of exploration that you don't necessarily get with a published setting. I find that this sense of exploration is crucial for a good game. Or at least a good game that I run

The other side of that coin is the argument for familiarity (which most people are more comfortable with) in published settings. But I find that running strings of campaigns in the same homebrew eventually garners the same results. Nothing's better than a player fondly remembering a city or an event from a game three campaigns back a few years ago. You just can't get the same feel from boxed sets.

My 2.35782 Yen

 

[Agamon]

Both are feasable, but homebrew is just so much more enjoyable. Of course, this is when talking about D&D...

D&D is very homebrew friendly, one of the reasons it's so popular. I wonder how many people play Call of Cthullu, Fading Suns or 7th Sea with a homebrew setting? Possible, yeah, but do people do that? Changing the setting to a game where it's basically burned in would be a waste of effort when you can just change games...

 

[Wicht]

I've done both in my many years of playing, but as I really prefer making my own adventures, I find I do not have the time to do that AND worry about the big picture. So I tend anymore to use prepublished settings and make them my own. This frees me up to worry about plot, dungeons, villains, etc. without worrying about borders, oceans, gods, etc.

I much prefer microcreation to the macrocreation if you know what I mean.

 

[Someone]

Creating a homebrew world is a hard work, but you´re sure you like it all. Anyway, I often change published settings so much that I wonder why I have not started from scratch, so it´s not so much work.

My players also like homebrew better. They´re tired of elves, dwarves and halflings dancing happily in the forest.

 

[jollyninja]

yup, i usually take the published setting and then have some kind of major war or something that changes it to fit the mold of what i want in a campaign world at that given time. my scarred lands campaign is going to begin with chardun giving the calastians some outsider aid and a massive army of devils churning up the world a little. woo. i feel like causing a million fictional deaths.

what does that say about me when i read the scarred lands campaign setting and think "not dark enough yet."?

 

[Xarlen]

Actually, my world is 70% FR, 30% Homebrew. I like a lot of the realms (Geography, Modifed Pantheon), but I mess with some stuff.

I'd love to run a Scarred Lands with a little FR thrown in, or an FR with a Scarred Lands' Feel (FR after several great wars).