Why do you homebrew? or Hombrew blues

[Jürgen Hubert]

1) Why do you create your own settings?

Because I want to publish and sell it eventually.

2) Why do you use your own homebrew settings rather than using a published one?

Because I can't sell the latter.

3) Am I still homebrewing if I'm borrowing elements from other settings?

No setting is ever completely original, so getting inspired by the works of others is completely normal. What needs to be avoided in my case at least (because of the publishing thingie) is copying large portions outright. But nevertheless, seeing how others do things allows me to come up with ideas for my own world - usually twisted and changed beyond recognition as this inspiration bounces off other ideas already in residence in my mind.

4) If your homebrew setting is so vanilla that it's practically indistinguisable from hoardes of other such settings, then why bother creating it?

Since I don't write it for myself, I try to avoid that. I always include a strong theme that makes my setting distinct from others.

 

[Scribble]

For those that homebrew...why do you? I see so many vanilla homebrew fantasy settings...why bother? Why not use a published vanilla D&D setting?

Well, it's fun in some ways... Like writing, or painting, or anything creative really... You're making something that wasn't smething before you made it... It might be a lot of work, but still... As for the vanilla ones there are lots of people who paint bowls of fruit... But they still do it.

Is your setting so unique that it hasn't been done? What keeps you from just simply using a published setting?

My current world I'm working on isn't super unique... But it's exactly how *I* want it.

Other worlds tend to have a few things that just don't fit right for me. Sure I could change them, but shrug, why not make my own world up.

Presently I have a campaign that only uses 1 god. (although unknown to the characters there may be others..) Which effects the entire campaign setting a good deal...

I also tend to forget a lot from pre published campaign settings... With my homebrew, I seem to remember everything that's happening... I guess cause I made it happen..

I also use mainly pdfs and stuff I've transferred to word files to write my adventures... My homebrew sits along with my various rule books on a USB flash drive... All the maps and documents and npcs and magic items and everything are all filed away on that drive... It's normally in my pocket, so I can use it anywhere... It's nice... If I wanted to do that with a published setting I'd have to retype almost everything anyway, so why not put the effort into something of my own?

Finally, I'm not always a fan of how everyone knows just about EVERYTHING about published settings... I like the sense of wonder players have when they, along with their characters trapse into unknown territory, or meet up with a new group or organization that they have no idea about...


Do I steal ideas? Heck yeah!

I really like most of the organizations in the Secrets and Societies book from Scarred Lands... I've ganked a few. Rename them, change a few things to mold it to my own campaign... But a good deal of the crunching and fluffing (err that sounds bad...) has been done already.

But I think thats normal for every "art" form out there... If you're into movies you'll notice filmmakers tend to "nod" to eachother all the time.

 

[Farland]

I homebrew, like many others, as an outlet for creativity. I think that a homebrew doesn't have to be wild-and-crazy-unique to be good. Many players want standard fantasy that they can immerse themselves in, and a good homebrew can offer that. Plus I don't think a homebrew is necessarily less detailed than setting published by a corporation. There are several homebrews on the net that are as detailed as most published settings.

 

[Kid Socrates]

1) Why do you create your own settings?
2) Why do you use your own homebrew settings rather than using a published one?
3) Am I still homebrewing if I'm borrowing elements from other settings?
4) If your homebrew setting is so vanilla that it's practically indistinguisable from hoardes of other such settings, then why bother creating it?

1) There is little that brings me the same joy as the joy of creating. I love sitting down and just making something. It started with Legos, continued with... Legos, and, well, still continues with Legos. I'm 24 and I still go buy Lego sets and make big space pirate castles. But! I love creating a world, and the people in it, and the little details. I adore creating things.

The other reason is that there's no published Final Fantasy setting.

2) I use my homebrew because there's no published Final Fantasy setting, and I wanted to run a Final Fantasy game in a world akin to Final Fantasy VIII's. So I used the d20 system for the rules, simplified a lot, and spent two years designing a world and plot threads. I use it because if I didn't after all that work, what was the point?

3) Of course I'm homebrewing despite using influences from other settings. No one else has published Matt Bowyer's Final Fantasy Omega Setting, have they?

4) I don't think mine's vanilla, so I can't answer for me, but I think it still comes down to "It's mine!" If I say there's a corner shop that sells flowers so I can introduce a new NPC who is robbing the flower shop because his wife's held hostage by a crime syndicate, I can. If I were going to do this same thing in, say, the city of Baldur's Gate, I might have a player who knows that the flower shops are HERE not THERE, and there's no WAY that the Thieves Guild would hold someone hostage for those kind of rewards, as evidenced by page 68 of this novel...

It's a lot more freedom, and a lot more fun for someone like me.

 

[Dragonbait]

I have been going thru this creative dry spell. For a long time I have been using published settings. I have a busy life and it's easier to use the stuff that someone else has done. Lately though I've gotten the urge to make a homebrew world again. However while I have a basic idea I keep wanting to borrow from other settings(wow race X looks cool), then I think if I'm borrowing so much from published setting X then why don't I use published setting X and forget Homebrewing. That and combined with the fact that a lot of things have been done. What can I put in my homebrew that isn't already done in Published setting X (or Y or Z for that matter).

I'm in the same boat, Gundark. When I homebrew, it's because I want the setting to fit my tastes just right. Also, I love to create. I love creating races, cultures, legends, maps, and so on. When I run a published setting, I like to stay within the framework of the setting, using the tools that the setting provides without changing chunks of the world and timeline just so I can add in "Dragonbait's new anthropomorphic race of the week #12". It can be a mental challange for me, and I'm usually fine with that. Still, with a published setting, there comes a time when my personal tastes and desires deviate greatly from what is written in the book. This does not happen with a homebrew.

 

[sniffles]

Why cook a meal when you can microwave a TV Dinner?

The prepackaged campaign world, like the TV Dinner, might be serviceable if that's all you have the time or inclination for. But the meal you cooked -- if you have any skill in cooking -- is almost certainly better.

RC

I thought this analogy was just a little bit off, being rather too harsh on both microwave dinners and published settings.

A published setting to me is more like going to a restaurant for dinner. Someone else prepares the food for you and cleans up afterward. But you only get limited control over what you eat. You have to choose from a menu that may not have exactly what you really want, and the chef's opinion of how to prepare your dish may not jibe with the way you most enjoy that dish.

I don't GM myself, being both too lazy and too timid, but I do world-build. It's a fascinating exercise to try to create a world. I suppose it comes of having a certain amount of frustrated writer in the blood.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I essentially homebrew because I like to kitbash like a SOB. I still use a particular setting as my base in a sense (right now it's IK), but then I add in all the parts that I want from other settings and my own ideas. There's yet to be a setting that offers exactly what I want in a setting yet, so homebrew will be my option until the day comes where the perfect setting appears.

For instance, I use the feel and tech level of IK (mixed heavily with Eberron) as my base, then I add in elements from other games (some races of OA and Warcraft, classes from here and there) and find a place for them to concievably fit into my world. From there, I add elements that I want for the setting (corruption of Chaos, any specific PrC's, how religion works and the specific faiths, and so on) and start drawing up the world map. That way, the world is how I want it and I know more about it than anyone else at the table. No canon arguements at my table, dammit!

 

[seskis281]

4) I don't think mine's vanilla, so I can't answer for me, but I think it still comes down to "It's mine!" If I say there's a corner shop that sells flowers so I can introduce a new NPC who is robbing the flower shop because his wife's held hostage by a crime syndicate, I can. If I were going to do this same thing in, say, the city of Baldur's Gate, I might have a player who knows that the flower shops are HERE not THERE, and there's no WAY that the Thieves Guild would hold someone hostage for those kind of rewards, as evidenced by page 68 of this novel...

It's a lot more freedom, and a lot more fun for someone like me.

This is pretty much my problem with some of the more well-known settings - there's too much history, baggage and literature surrounding them that inhibits game-play. While not all players know everything, many really do know FR, Dragonlance, even Greyhawk (which I was devoted to for years). Try playing a Dragonlance campaign, my players WANT to meet and interact with famous NPCs from the books - then get picky on an differences I might play them from their conceptions... etc.

 

[Pbartender]

I thought this analogy was just a little bit off, being rather too harsh on both microwave dinners and published settings.

A published setting to me is more like going to a restaurant for dinner. Someone else prepares the food for you and cleans up afterward. But you only get limited control over what you eat. You have to choose from a menu that may not have exactly what you really want, and the chef's opinion of how to prepare your dish may not jibe with the way you most enjoy that dish.

Right... And sometimes, you really like that restaurant food, but a little something special's missing to make it exactly what you want... Maybe you add a bit of feta cheese to that pizza... or sprinkle some extra hot peppers on that General Tso's chicken... or perhaps you have to add a dollop of guacamole onto that loco burrito.

Other times... You want to cook your own meal, but don't have the time ot skill to make it perfect, so you take a few shortcuts... You use spaghetti sauce out of the jar, and add a bit of extra garlic, instead of making it from scratch... You spice that vat of chili with a packet of McCormick's, instead of measuring out the onions, cumin and cayenne perfectly... Instead of mixing up the pancake batter from flour, eggs, and baking powder, you just toss some Bisquick and water in a bowl with blueberries.

That's how I tend to homebrew... Start with a few published basics, and adjust them, and add to them to suit my, and my players', taste.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Well, I'd be the last person to claim that I didn't use some pre-packaged ingredients, either in cooking or in homebrewing! My world, for example, uses some of the classes from Arcana Evolved, the Court and Host rules from Goodman Games' Complete Guide to the Fey (which apply to elves and gnomes, among others, in that setting!), and so on.

In fact, I decided against trying to publish my setting because I decided that being able to steal what was good (i.e., not worrying about the OGL) was more important than whatever I might make off of it (which is a questionable gamble, anyway - YMMV! ).

As for viewing published settings at TV dinners or meals in a resteraunt -- either analogy is fine with me. It probably depends on the setting. There are many settings I would be happy to play in that I wouldn't feel right running....I've said before that I'd love to play a Sherlock Holmes/Indiana Jones crossbreed in Eberron! However, I wouldn't feel as comfortable running those settings as I would running a game in the Lakelands region of the Middle World.

RC