If you get into the mechanics of the game And you DM, you've probably tried homebrewing a class, a sub-class, a race, a spell, etc.
What vexes me is how to convince players to try out your homebrew without bribing them or giving them something that is obviously much more powerful than the RAW options. Any tips about presentation or ways to "highlight" homebrew without limiting your players' choices so that they feel they Have To play the homebrewed stuff?
All magic items I hand out in my adventures tend to be homebrew. Likewise, I'll often pepper my worlds with homebrewed spells from the DMG workshop section.
I've literally never had an issue with convincing players. Now granted, I don't mess about with homebrew classes or subclasses...personally I feel it's too variant to be able to create a strong balance...but likewise, I frequently limit and restrict class, race and subclass options to suit the theme of the game. If the Humans are going to be the antagonistic race of my world I might limit access to humans for example.
So, I'd probably handle it as I'm 'pitching' the world to my players. 'In this particular city you find a high number of wizards, paladins, and bards due to the various schools. The school of bards has a bit of a heirarchy and right at the top is this [insert homebrew subclass]'. Basically make it part of the world building. If they go with it great, if they don't...well keep it on the books so to speak for the future.
As an alternate - give the players a prologue set in the world with premade characters (we DMs really don't utilises premades and prologues often enough sometimes) from your homebrew. This might allow them to see your homebrew in action and make an assessment based off of that. It's low risk as it doesn't affect their main characters, can give a sense of the world they're inhabiting, and allows the players to warm into the campaign.
If you are interested in playtesting then get folks to run a one shot using the specific options you want to test.
If you want folks to play with the homebrew options then you basically need to present the information, ask questions, chat about it, accept feedback and the fact that folks may or may not choose to play with it. Some folks may not like the theme in the homebrew, or the feel of it, or perhaps they will think it a bit underpowered or not offering enough variation to be interesting compared to the base options.
Your best bet is probably to see if you can get folks chatting about it and see what they think of it in an open way so that they don't feel you're going to get mad at them or their character for saying your homebrew needs work or pointing out problems. It can be tough to accept comments and criticism on something the creator often thinks is perfect the first time around. However, without that, it is far less likely that folks try playing it.
The other issue with un-playtested homebrew is that you won't figure out if it is over or under powered or needs changes until it actually gets played and used in a game. This can mean that you'll have to adjust or change it mid game which can be an issue for a player that just wants to play a character whose abilities are defined and aren't subject to change.
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If you get into the mechanics of the game And you DM, you've probably tried homebrewing a class, a sub-class, a race, a spell, etc.
What vexes me is how to convince players to try out your homebrew without bribing them or giving them something that is obviously much more powerful than the RAW options. Any tips about presentation or ways to "highlight" homebrew without limiting your players' choices so that they feel they Have To play the homebrewed stuff?
All magic items I hand out in my adventures tend to be homebrew. Likewise, I'll often pepper my worlds with homebrewed spells from the DMG workshop section.
I've literally never had an issue with convincing players. Now granted, I don't mess about with homebrew classes or subclasses...personally I feel it's too variant to be able to create a strong balance...but likewise, I frequently limit and restrict class, race and subclass options to suit the theme of the game. If the Humans are going to be the antagonistic race of my world I might limit access to humans for example.
So, I'd probably handle it as I'm 'pitching' the world to my players. 'In this particular city you find a high number of wizards, paladins, and bards due to the various schools. The school of bards has a bit of a heirarchy and right at the top is this [insert homebrew subclass]'. Basically make it part of the world building. If they go with it great, if they don't...well keep it on the books so to speak for the future.
As an alternate - give the players a prologue set in the world with premade characters (we DMs really don't utilises premades and prologues often enough sometimes) from your homebrew. This might allow them to see your homebrew in action and make an assessment based off of that. It's low risk as it doesn't affect their main characters, can give a sense of the world they're inhabiting, and allows the players to warm into the campaign.
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If you are interested in playtesting then get folks to run a one shot using the specific options you want to test.
If you want folks to play with the homebrew options then you basically need to present the information, ask questions, chat about it, accept feedback and the fact that folks may or may not choose to play with it. Some folks may not like the theme in the homebrew, or the feel of it, or perhaps they will think it a bit underpowered or not offering enough variation to be interesting compared to the base options.
Your best bet is probably to see if you can get folks chatting about it and see what they think of it in an open way so that they don't feel you're going to get mad at them or their character for saying your homebrew needs work or pointing out problems. It can be tough to accept comments and criticism on something the creator often thinks is perfect the first time around. However, without that, it is far less likely that folks try playing it.
The other issue with un-playtested homebrew is that you won't figure out if it is over or under powered or needs changes until it actually gets played and used in a game. This can mean that you'll have to adjust or change it mid game which can be an issue for a player that just wants to play a character whose abilities are defined and aren't subject to change.