What do you steal from published settings?

[Stormborn]

When homebrewing I have realized that there is no reason to reinvint the wheel. If a published campaign setting has something I think fits I just steal it whole and work it out to fit. Might be inidivdual races, might be nations, cultures, or locations. What have you "stolen" from a published campaign setting and made fit into your homebrew and how did it work out?

 

[der_kluge]

I'm not much of a setting whore. So, I don't own a lot of setting stuff.

My CS of choice is the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, but I'm using the Gods (not all of them!) from Forgotten Realms.

So, I guess in that sense, I stole the entire pantheon from FR.

I can't recall stealing much from anywhere else, but then, I don't own many CS's, like I said.

 

[theemrys]

Don't know if this really applies since I use the setting but for me it's the Kingdom of Kalamar setting. If I was to go home brew, I'd definitely pull their pantheon of gods as well as the hobgoblins from that setting. As it is though, I like to use the setting for whatever I'm running.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I've borrowed Thay and the Circle of Eight and mushed them together...in my homebrew the Circle of Eight rules Thay.

I've also borrowed thematic concepts from Eberron...Rakshasa villains and far realms influences.

 

[Voadam]

City of Ptolus and Lothian Theocratic empire from Banewarrens. Gaen Lightbringer and Demon God from Demon God's Fane. Greyhawk gods. Greyhawk map. 1e Roleaids Dwarves undermountain kingdom of Ostohar with King Hoarfrost. 2e planescape lore on Acheron and Outlands, city of Rigus. Dwarven pantheon from someone else's homebrew campaign on the web. Warforged and living spells from Eberron as civil war developments, the silver flame witch hunts turned into Lothian ones. Al' Quadim genie info. Forgotten Realms mechanical bits like harper mage prestige class adjusted for the campaign. Amber and Wheel of Time for creepy descriptions of shadow walking.

In another campaign I used Dragonlance gods and World of Warhammer Chaos gods for the pantheons of one of the major races.

 

[TessarrianDM]

Waterdeep, Undermountain, the deities, and the concept of self-ruling "dales" from the Forgotten Realms. The Temple of Elemental Evil from Greyhawk.

All have worked out well. Waterdeep is the PC's base of operations, they began their adventuring careers in Undermountain, and moved on to deal with the Temple (the completion of which has been pre-empted on both sides by an interplanar invasion).

 

[Murder of Crows]

Some of the Forgotten Realms pantheon. The cities of Hollowfaust and the Grey Citadel from the Scarred Lands setting. The city of Corvis from the Iron Kingdoms setting. The Wolfen race from Palladium.

 

[sckeener]

I recently switched to the Gazetteer of the Known Realms (Dungeon Crawl Classics #35)
using the Wilderlands of High Fantasy for some of the city details

I highly recommend the combo!

Regios, Spell Thematics, and the Order of Hermes from Ars Magica
Vampire Clans and Ghoul families from White Wolf
Sigil and Factions from Planescape
Organizations, Nobility, religion, BBEGs from Ptolus (basically all of Ptolus....)
FC1 and the demonomicon articles in dragon
Iuz from Greyhawk
Daelkyr, Changelings, Shifters, and artificer from Ebberon
Sha'ir from Dragon Compendium and Al Qadim
Shelzar, City of Sins, from Scarred Lands
Ancient Kingdoms Mesopotamia by goodman games
Sanctuary, the place, some of the history (Thieves World)
BBEGs, and the Black Company from the Black Company
Shadowmagic, Skullport from Forgotten Realms
Thrikreen and merchants from DarkSun

That is just some....
of the above I think the Regios and Spell Thematics from Ars Magica are usually the biggest difference people notice in my games...the fact that there are places of power in the world where magic works differently (Regios - think Planar Touchstones turned up to 11) and that all the spells look/sound/smell different than what the players are use to (because they are unique to the spell designer) creates a different atmosphere at the table.

If I could get spontaneous casting from Ars Magica I'd be very happy....but as of yet I haven't been able to get my player's mentally to accept some the offered conversions

 

[Robert Ranting]

My homebrew borrows liberally from a good number of sources.

Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved is the basis for my setting. While I don't use the Lands of the Diamond Throne, I built my own setting around the races, classes, spell system, etc. The Akashic Memory, the Green/Dark dynamic, the Totem Animal Spirits, and the forsaken verrik god Xyphon all play important parts in the setting. The Dramojh, however, do not exist in my setting.

WarCraft From Warcraft, I borrowed the cosmology (the Emerald Dream (the Green), the Twisting Nether (the Dark), the Titan Creators, the Five Aspect Dragons), as well as two ancient civilizations (the Amani Empire and the Spider Kingdom of Azhol'Nerub), and a number of races and monsters (Dwarves, Blood and Night Elves, Tauren, Jungle Trolls, Nerubians, Nathrezim Dread Lords, Infernals).

Rokugan The Nezumi are one of the most common races in my setting, having been uplifted in a magical accident in the relatively recent history of the world. In a brief oriental campaign, I had a Nezumi Magister/Magepriest PC (think Doctor Strange via Redwall) who believed in the whole "racing tomorrow" legend. Most of the time, however, my ratlings are similar to those in Rokugan in name only. I have my own homebrew stats for them, and culturally they run the gammut between The Rescuers and Warhammer's Skaven.

Scarred Lands I use the Revised Creature Collection 1 rather frequently in my campaigns. In my first campaign, the BBEG was a High Gorgon who lead an alliance of various serpentfolk races based out of the Lost City of the Asaathi, which I placed in a convenient jungle area.

Official WotC D&D Settings I have in the past used monsters from MM1-3 as well as the Fiend Folio, which means that my party has encountered creatures from all the various old TSR settings. Dark Sun's Thri-Kreen, Spelljammer's Neogi, and of course the Yuan-Ti of the Forgotten Realms. Undoubtedly there are more setting-specific monsters that have become generic in 3rd Edition. I have also borrowed quite a bit of fluff from PHB2, The Complete series, and the Environmental series.

Ptolus My current campaign is an adaptation of the Banewarrens adventure, set in the city of Ptolus. Currently, the entire plane of Praemal is a sort of pocket dimension within my homebrew setting, but by campaign's end, I intend for it to be incorporated physically into the larger world. Chaositech has also found its way into my adventures, although I've yet to use it extensively.

The Books of Eldritch Might, Roguish Luck, etc. Classes, spells, items, and locations detailed in these books have helped flesh out details of my setting.

Sorcery and Steam While not a setting unto itself, this Legends & Lairs series book has a lot of advice and sample organizations for Victorian Steam Punk games that I have made use of. My Urban campaign relied heavily upon the Freeman Clinic and the Hope's End Orphanage.

Robert "Stealing from Many Sources is Research" Ranting

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Ashtrays.