your homebrew - what's your motivation?

[GlassJaw]

There have been a few threads on homebrews lately and I wanted to ask about people's motivations for embarking on the journey that is the creation of a homebrew.

I have started the journey many times but have never completed it. And I think one of the main reasons why is that at some point in the process, I always come to the same realization:

I wanted to create a homebrew not necessarily for the sake of my player's enjoyment but because I had an idea I wanted to develop.

I will pause a moment to say that I have the utmost admiration for those that can devote themselves to creating their own homebrew world. Like I said, I've never had the fortitude to stick to one idea and finish it. But this brings me back to the above statement about doing it for myself.

No matter how much work I put into a homebrew world, I never felt it made a huge impact on the overall fun the group was having. I've been in some groups where they would have just as much fun playing modules as playing in a world completely of my own creation. That's certainly not to say they wouldn't enjoy the world I had created but after a while I would lose interest because I would always end up feeling the same way:

It just wasn't worth it.

Most players (unless they've done it themselves) don't realize the time required to be a "good" DM, nevermind creating your own homebrew on top of it. Even running modules can require a good amount of prep time. Regardless of how this may sound, I am certainly not bitter. When I have done it, I loved creating homebrew worlds. But with time being so valuable, I currently don't see the added value of the time spent on a homebrew compared to the fun factor of actual gameplay.

So once again, what's your motivation? Is it to get your setting published? Is it for the love of creating? Is it for your players? Are you indepently wealthy and don't have to work so you need something to do all day? (that was a little joke )

 

[Desdichado]

Love of creating. Homebrewing has always been one of the primary motivators for my interest in D&D and roleplaying games in the first place, not to mention GMing.

 

[Gez]

Love of creation, too.

A place to experiment with ideas, both of setting and of rules, without the constraints of canon.

 

[hong]

Homebrewing has always been one of the primary motivators for my interest in D&D and roleplaying games in the first place, not to mention GMing.

Yeah, I drink beer while GMing too.

 

[el-remmen]

Yeah, it is the act of creation itself - while i hardly have the time any more, in the past I spent so much time creating whole areas of Aquerra I still have never had a chance to run an adventure or campaign in - but I am top-down kind of creator (in fact I eschew the "start with one place and make it grow as the need arises" approach to world-building) and I feel that every piece influences the other in a range of ways from subtle to overt and overwhelming and the GM should have a view of the big picture when creating.

Anyway, the sense of immersion and depth will always be more consistant and satisfying running in Aquerra than if I were to run in any other setting - there is always more to be created/detailed and a good setting is never really done - because even as you run campaigns in it it grows and changes based on the acts of the PCs.

Sure it is a lot of work, but it is fun. . . (my being an amateur historian/anthropologist/sociologist - I take great pleasure in building cultures, customs, sets of laws and taboos, etc. .) so why no do it?

 

[pdkoning]

I second 'the act of creation'.

And of course I find it fun to write my own ideas regarding 'my world' down.

 

[Akrasia]

I like being the authority on the campaign setting.

The only 'published' setting I ever ran was Middle-earth (for MERP, during the 1980s). And I only felt comfortable doing that because I knew Middle-earth like the back of my hand.

The 'creativity' thing is also definitely part of it, too.

 

[fusangite]

For me, creating fantasy worlds is a thing of intrinsic value. I love doing it. However, there is an ulterior motive for my latest world: it's another way of researching and testing stuff that will be part of my doctoral thesis.

 

[Insight]

Hmm... my most obvious motivation for creating my current setting was that my group was starting a D&D game and we decided to go homebrew as opposed to published.

Also, I had some ideas kicking around that I had used to a certain degree in past campaigns, and some new ideas I wanted to try out.

I ended up taking my submission for the WOTC campaign setting search and morphing it into what we are playing now. It's changed quite a bit since then of course.

 

[der_kluge]

I think Akrasia has it - it has to do with the knowledge of the system.

I've never really been comfortable running something like say FR, because I always felt like I didn't know it well enough to do it justice. I've use a lot of the supplements, but never stuck with FR canon. When you run a homebrew, and you don't know something, you can't really be embarrassed because you didn't read the books, or didn't know, it's because you haven't thought it up yet. And that's different somehow. I'll leave that to the psychologists to explain it.