I think it would be beneficial for DMs that own or create a lot of homebrew content to be able to sort or toggle on/off content within their campaigns. In my games, I have had several occurrences of my players using some homebrew items/spells that simply weren't ready yet and I would have to disappoint them and take time out of our game to say go ahead and un-prepare that spell, or that item was a test. I would like to be able to curate my collection of homebrew content and deliver it to my players when I'm ready to give it to them, without explicitly listing every single OK or not OK thing.
As for implementation, I feel that a solid UI would be too much to ask for. My suggestion is to add an option to the current homebrew item options; edit, share with community, delete. The new option may work best as a drop-down menu where you can select or de-select specific campaigns. I feel like this option may also be nice to include at the moment of creation or when you add homebrew content from the community. For content that a user already owns, a way to prevent the slog of combing through sometimes hundreds of entries would be to allow for the addition of a full column to the right of the entry along with the standard "select all" button.
I look forward to feedback on this idea as I feel I may not be alone in this. If this happens to you, I've added a poll!
To my knowledge, when more precise control over content sharing is made available, this very issue is planned to be resolved. (Also, the issue of seeing all other players' random homebrew they may have in their collection!)
For the time being, though: Whenever you create homebrew, it is automatically added to your collection. However, if you go to the homebrew creation (either in "My Homebrew Creations" or that particular homebrew's details page), at the bottom of the page there is an option to Remove From Collection. This will keep your homebrew in your creations, but will prevent your players from seeing it until you Add To Collection again. This does also prevent you from seeing or using it, so all testing needs to be done with the creation actually in your collection, but it's one way of preventing players from stumbling on it too early.
I utilize this method for the time being, while waiting for better content sharing control (which is on the way and DOES plan to address this exact issue!), and often create an item under an obvious "working name" while getting the functionality right. Usually that means preceding the name with an underscore, giving it a version of 0.x, and occasionally using an entirely false name and redacted descriptiong to begin with, in the case of special items or abilities I plan to grant to players. This way, even if they stumble upon it in the exact window I'm working on it, it's obvious to them that it's not a finished homebrew creation, and any in-game surprises will also not be spoiled. I only add it back to my collection when I'm satisfied with the result. Or, in the case of special creations regarding plot points, right before the player is set to receive this in-game.
Anything in your “Homebrew Collection” will automatically get shared with everyone. If something isn’t ready yet then “remove from collection” which will prevent them from ever finding it. You can still work on it by adding it to your collection to put onto a test character and then removing it from your collection again. (Once it’s on that test character it no longer needs to stay in your collection for that character to use it.) That way you can test things and work on them without your players accidentally finding them.
I think it would be beneficial for DMs that own or create a lot of homebrew content to be able to sort or toggle on/off content within their campaigns. In my games, I have had several occurrences of my players using some homebrew items/spells that simply weren't ready yet and I would have to disappoint them and take time out of our game to say go ahead and un-prepare that spell, or that item was a test. I would like to be able to curate my collection of homebrew content and deliver it to my players when I'm ready to give it to them, without explicitly listing every single OK or not OK thing.
As for implementation, I feel that a solid UI would be too much to ask for. My suggestion is to add an option to the current homebrew item options; edit, share with community, delete. The new option may work best as a drop-down menu where you can select or de-select specific campaigns. I feel like this option may also be nice to include at the moment of creation or when you add homebrew content from the community. For content that a user already owns, a way to prevent the slog of combing through sometimes hundreds of entries would be to allow for the addition of a full column to the right of the entry along with the standard "select all" button.
I look forward to feedback on this idea as I feel I may not be alone in this. If this happens to you, I've added a poll!
To my knowledge, when more precise control over content sharing is made available, this very issue is planned to be resolved. (Also, the issue of seeing all other players' random homebrew they may have in their collection!)
For the time being, though: Whenever you create homebrew, it is automatically added to your collection. However, if you go to the homebrew creation (either in "My Homebrew Creations" or that particular homebrew's details page), at the bottom of the page there is an option to Remove From Collection. This will keep your homebrew in your creations, but will prevent your players from seeing it until you Add To Collection again. This does also prevent you from seeing or using it, so all testing needs to be done with the creation actually in your collection, but it's one way of preventing players from stumbling on it too early.
I utilize this method for the time being, while waiting for better content sharing control (which is on the way and DOES plan to address this exact issue!), and often create an item under an obvious "working name" while getting the functionality right. Usually that means preceding the name with an underscore, giving it a version of 0.x, and occasionally using an entirely false name and redacted descriptiong to begin with, in the case of special items or abilities I plan to grant to players. This way, even if they stumble upon it in the exact window I'm working on it, it's obvious to them that it's not a finished homebrew creation, and any in-game surprises will also not be spoiled. I only add it back to my collection when I'm satisfied with the result. Or, in the case of special creations regarding plot points, right before the player is set to receive this in-game.
Anything in your “Homebrew Collection” will automatically get shared with everyone. If something isn’t ready yet then “remove from collection” which will prevent them from ever finding it. You can still work on it by adding it to your collection to put onto a test character and then removing it from your collection again. (Once it’s on that test character it no longer needs to stay in your collection for that character to use it.) That way you can test things and work on them without your players accidentally finding them.
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These are great tips, and it's good to hear that the problem will most likely be fixed in the near future! Thanks.