Your campaign -- Hangups with generic material

[Psion]

I was wondering what those of you who run homebrews or other non-mainstream (i.e., non FR/Greyhawk) worlds might be having with supposedly campaign neutral d20 system fantasy material or general D&D material? For example, do creatures, magic, and cosmology rules unique to your world cause you problems when using such material.

For me it's lycanthropes. I decided long ago there would be no lycanthropes in my game world ... the moon goddess destroyed them. But it seems like everyone and their dog wants to use wererats and the occasional werewolf.

 

[Crothian]

My biggest problem is with the races. I have only one dwarven race, 3 elven races, 4 human races, a half elf race (not just the j=kid of an elf and a human, they actually have a society and everything), and 3 canine races. Few of these are like the typical fantasy stereo type. So, when I use published adventures I always need to alter NPCs and racial information in them.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

My biggest problem with lots of "setting neutral" material is no matter how neutral it appears to be the designers always do something like throw in a new major race or tech level or magic that is far from neutral.

One example is Bluffside with the odd bird creatures that are a rather big component of the city.

 

[Desdichado]

What I'm most likely to mess with are the magic rules, so stuff on that doesn't help me much. I don't much use published adventures, though, so I can't say that it's necessarily been a hang-up.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

For me it's how stuff figures in thematically and their impact on the game ecology.

Example Thematics - Gnomes. What are these guys? Elfy-Dwarfs? Halflings that are crummy rogues? Annoying humans? I don't get 'em. Ergo, they go.

Example Ecology - Giants. What do these things eat? Four times as much as human? Cripes, they'd strip the land bare! And don't get me started on dragons. Sure, I understand that "it's just fantasy" and "it's just a game", but I have to figure out how these things fit. And if I don't bother, I may as well use a patchwork world like the FR (nothing wrong with that, mind you. Just because I have hang-ups doesn't mean everyone has to).

And I agree, the extended were-creatures are silly. What's next? A were-kangaroo?

 

[kenjib]

"generic" d20 fantasy is not usually really generic. It's more D&D generic rather than d20. I'm not all too fond of the default D&D flavor (which is anything but generic fantasy) so most of the general D&D stuff is so-so for me.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

What's next? A were-kangaroo?

Dude! Say what you will, but that kangaroo in the old WB cartoons was a nasty piece of work. I'm actually strangely fond of this idea...sort of, in a "that's so wrong, it just might work" type of way.

Best,
tKL

 

[kenjib]

Hehe. Weren't there were-kangaroos in one of the Howling movies?

 

[drquestion]

Too many monsters. Other than undead and outsiders encountered in their proper settings, I tend to use monsters quite sparingly. I don't mind putting the PCs up against monsters that are chosen to match the feel of the campaign once in a while, but I'm not big on constant encounters with seemingly random monsters. Too many adventures fall into this category, in my opinion.

OTOH, I'm always happy to use new magic stuff, as long as I feel like it's balanced. If you stick with core magic, the players are likely going to know exactly what's coming at them ("oh great, another fireball"). Using magic from other sources adds an element of mystery. Plus, since there are already rules for it, you can answer the questions of players who just HAVE to know how they can do what the NPCs did.

 

[Kilmore]

You can use the "generic" material AND the homebrew material. The world's a big place, especially some gaming worlds that are dyson spheres, ringworlds, hollow worlds, infinite planes, etc.. In the case of were-creatures, there may be a part of the world where the lycanthropes were protected by the moon goddesses' squishing. This was probably done by a diety that thought lycanthropes were nifty. Now you've not only explained why there's now were creatures in your world AND created a little inter-diety conflict. Using an example in my world...

Elves. I have one enclave of elves in my world that is plunk in the middle of a big human empire. They have developed a relationship with the humans over the last few centuries and is possibly the most "civilized" of elven lands. These are the default elves straight from the D&D book.

Other elves have different peculiarities about them, and do not get along too well with their kin. There are differences between these "specialized" elves and the common ones found in D&D (what those differences are, I'm still figuring out).

Finally, it's your campaign. If it's you say no fuzzy people, no fuzzy people. And if you have made up a game world that other people are using, let them DM the way they see fit. It's their world while they're running it. Just disclaim that the way the other guy does it in your world is NOT necessarily what you're going to allow in your campaign. I've been there. I've seen cities pop off the map.