Seriously, though, do you prefer homebrews?

[AegisEversoaring]

No kidding. I'll raid everything from Forgotten Realms to Different Strokes, and like a mind-less monkey, I scoop out those elements with a spatula and slap them into my own "homebrew." I'm not above stealing a good idea, nosir!

I agree totally...my campaign world is "homebrew" but it is more akin to a "stew"...I've stolen everything from previous campaigns run by other players, established settings, other games such as Magic the Gathering, to television shows and real life events.
Some of the best gaming plots come right out of the newspaper.
As another DM I know is fond of saying, "The best ideas are often someone elses..."

Vaughn

 

[dshai527]

I also must include myself in the "homebrew" catagory. I have ran the same world for over 10 years now, and it all started with a small tower on the edge of civilization. I will read anything to gain "inspiration" for my world and how to progress it and add to it. So far about 112 years have past since the world began and many things have changed due to character actions, or inactions as the town of Hornsboro will atest to. I have only used one module in this time, and that was Sunless Citadel to get used to 3rd ed when we changed over.



As a player almost all of the DM's I have been under have used Box sets though.

 

[Oogar]

Ah, but why do I run Homebrews? I don't want a player saying "Uh uh, that wouldn't happen in (Insert Place), and even if it did (Insert powerful NPC) would stop it."

We may be a bit on the silly side as a group, but I really like to know more about the world then the players. I want the players to learn about the world, and I would like them to create it with me (in part). That is my DM style.

I'd play in pretty much anything, "the game is the thing" to misquote W.S.

 

[Desdichado]

Congratulations, Joshua. Is that for real?

Not that I know of! It seems to be a bit of a running joke lately, though. Still, I'll be checking my mail this weekend for sure!

 

[roytheodd]

I'd been out of D&D for a while and I used Kingdoms of Kalamar to sort of vault me back into the gaming chair. I've got a homebrew around the corner because they are the worlds of choice, but boxed settings do have use to me when I don't have time to fix up my next world.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I love making maps.

Hey, want some maps?

Yes

 

[The_Gneech]

My experience has been that one D&D setting is very like another. For all the mighty warring that goes on about them, FR and Greyhawk and most of the homebrews I've played in feel pretty much the same, it's just a matter of what names are on the map in this particular scenario. Yes, there are some differences when it comes to PC races and so forth, but at best, they are variations on a theme.

Low level wizards all know magic missile. Mid level wizards all know fireball. High level wizards all know wish. Rogues open doors and disable traps. You start by fighting kobolds, then go on to goblins, graduate up to bugbears, etc., until you're fighting beholders, mind flayers, and adult red dragons, and so forth.

Right now I'm using a "disposable homebrew" for my game, because I had a neat idea for an alternate history for the drow. Once this particular game is over, and my alternate drow history has been explored, I'll probably dump the world and use GH or FR for "regular" D&D, and probably dump D&D in favor of some other system (Hero, maybe) for gaming in my primary homebrew setting.

-The Gneech

 

[Bragg Battleaxe]

I run FR but I think of it as mine. I mean, almost every NPC is mine. I rarely use the more famous NPCs from the setting for more than cameos. I also don't do alot with the Uberplot that the novels portay except as background. I think campaigns about the PCs are best, so I keep the scale down to what intrests them. So, even though I run FR, I would say 75% of what happens in the game is my own doing.

 

[Dakhran the Dark]

Homebrew mostly...

My current campaign is homebrew, with some elements borrowed out of published campaigns and sourcebooks, as well as inspirations drawn from novels. However, sometimes you just can't get the usual crew of gamers together for a campaign game, and the players you have available want you to run a one-shot, or a summer game. For something like that, I find it better to use a boxed campaign, usually FR. Of course, I'll use my own adventures and plotlines. I've used maybe one canned adventure in the last 10 years...

 

[barsoomcore]

My experience has been that one D&D setting is very like another. Low level wizards all know magic missile. Mid level wizards all know fireball. High level wizards all know wish. Rogues open doors and disable traps. You start by fighting kobolds, then go on to goblins, graduate up to bugbears, etc., until you're fighting beholders, mind flayers, and adult red dragons, and so forth.

Hee. You need to listen more carefully to the homebrew campaigns that get described on this board. Mine certainly doesn't fit your mold -- no wizards, no kobolds, no dragons, no bugbears, no beholders, no mind flayers. No clerics. No elves. No halflings, dwarves, gnomes or orcs. No druids, bards, barbarians, rangers, paladins, monks or sorcerers.

But whatever.