What's so special about your homebrew?

[Rechan]

We might as well run this thread meme to its inevitable conclusion.

So, what makes your setting unique or special? What sets it apart from others for you*? Why would YOU use your setting, instead of another one? What over arching themes, or small little quirks, aren't in any other published setting?

*Even if two homebrew settings are similar, or built on similar principles, that doesn't make it any less unique to you, because you didn't steal it from the other guy and the other guy didn't steal it from you. So as far as your experience is concerned, it's probably unique.

 

[Amadeus Windfall]

Pretty much nothing really; I set my games in a pretty generic setting, and the only real reason I don't use a published setting is so that I can invent whatever I need for the plot without contradicting anything or copying an element of the setting already there. I turned dwarves into Australian stereotypes who live in pyramids on the plains (artificial mountains, y'see - their old homelands were typical dwarven mountains, but they migrated north away from that) and are renowned for their crocodile cavalry, but other than that I haven't really done much that's at all innovative or different from the norm.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Prevalence of draconic figures.

Dragons rulers, dragonborn and dragonspawn forming the majority. Most creatures have been crossbred with dragons/drakes/etc. Lots of draconic critters, be they spawn or drakes. Even horses are scaled with draconic features (as the norm).

This is current campaign setting anyway - I create a new one for each new campaign now. (Done 2 for 4E already).

C

 

[Asmor]

To paraphrase from Full Metal Jacket...

This is my homebrew. There are many like it but this one is mine.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well I dunno how unique mine are but I'll give some short snippet of the one I am working on right now:

It is set on a infinate plane which is the last refuge of a once powerful multiverse. All the people's of the verse settled here, refuges from their homes taken from them by what is simply called the Blackness.

The Blackness is actually the beginnings of a new multiverse that began to form out of the growing distances between the verses. It slowly began to eat away at and destroy the old verse, the "Blackness" is simply the border of this verse.

For a short while the refuges of the planes peacefully began to colonize this last seemingly impenetrable plane. Then the Blackness came, it came in the form of a seething and boiling darkness blocking out the sky. Chaos erupted and severed the fragile peace; war, genocide, cults to the Blackness all formed in this chaos.

Now a few years has passed and a uneasy truce has been passed across the various points of colonization. Now is a time of discovery, reconciliation, revenge and most of all seeking knowledge of the Blackness.

It is a setting where:

• All manner of race and creature from across every plane converge together in single cities, towns and across this whole plane.
• Advance science, magick and supernatural knowledge left-over from the old verse combine to forge new lives. Cities made entirely of rusted out Astral Skiffs, monolithic skyscrapers kept aloft with science and eldritch knowledge.
• A land of odd and unusual sights; the Blackness above with its tendrils and tentacles weaving down and seeping clean whatever it touches. Great cities plowing along the plains on a wave of tentacles coming from below and not above. A horizon stretching on forever with blackness above and only sliver of red light during the day and the waning moon at night.
• Conspiracy and treason are a daily afare. Many people believing each night is their last. Border conflicts, nights of carnal pleasure and murder mix with desperate delving into archives and gleaming the minds of those of old for a way to stop this doom.
• Once mighty Mega-Cabals of the verse now send research times to explore and understand this new universe, and perhaps work with the denizens that lay within.
• The mysterious changes in the plane, could the Blackness be seeping in, in other ways.

So yeah, that only scratches the surface really. It is mainly oriented around figuring out what the hell the Blackness is (PCs don't know it is a new universe), figuring out what the corporations are up to, exploring the new plane and deciding whether it is better to fight to survive or enjoy what may be your last days. Plus just cool looking places.

 

[Hjorimir]

This is my homebrew. There are many like it but this one is mine.

This.

 

[wolfpunk]

You can't play a human in my campaign.

All races and monsters have the innate ability to harness incarnum energy to shape soulmelds.

The entire world is set inside of the hollow core of an asteroid the size of the state of Utah that was pulled from the heavens by an ancient civilization. The ruins of that civilization serve as a massive dungeon underneath the asteroid.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As detailed in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-rules-discussion/255927-starting-new-m-m-campaign.html

I'm resurrecting a campaign I ran in Austin in the early 1990s. Its special (to me, at least) because its an amalgam of so many influences I can't name them all...and yet it still hangs together.

Originally a supers game set in 1900, I'm going to be running it 12 years after the events in the first iteration, and with an entirely different set of players.

Why? Because it marked my high-water mark as a DM- I really captured lightning in a bottle. I've never run a game that engaged the players' imaginations more than in this one. Quite simply, every player really latched onto the setting and its vibe and their PCs reflected this. Every last one was designed to be campaign appropriate, and, miracle of miracles, everybody brought their role-playing A-game to the table.

And I'm hoping to recapture the lightning.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Another aspect that sort of make my homebrew settings unique that isn't tied to any one setting (thus why putting it in a separate post) is recurring NPCs. They are usually the more bizarre ones, or quirky. Such as:

Cat. Cat is well not just one cat, but many, dozens of identical looking black cats spread across the city. You see, Cat is a hive mind creature of sorts, each cat speaks to the other and shares everything with the other. One speaks for all... But, like all cats each has their quirks (also doesn't help that more then 500 years worth of memory is stored inside a mind the size of a cats, can frazzle some nerves you know). Some speak in a accent, others got a nervous twitch, while a few only respond to bizarre code names and act in macabre or archaic ways.

There are few that can spot the difference between Cat and a cat (and gods help you if you don't say the capital "C" in Cat) but those that do are in for a treat. For the right price, usually information or some piece of arcane knowledge, maybe even a scratch behind the ear from a pretty lass. They will gain the eyes, ears and noses of Cat, you need to know something in the city, Cat will be able to tell you. Just remember, the "C".

 

[Keith Robinson]

This is my homebrew. There are many like it but this one is mine.

This made me laugh out loud Thanks