In short, you don’t. Kind of by definition, if you home brew you ignore established lore. I keep the monster stats the same because that’s more about game balance between characters and enemies. But after that, I do what I want. I don’t “have” to use anything. I’m not sure what you mean by limits and settings. Any limits that exist can be ignored — the only real limits are the one you create. As far as settings, they don’t matter at all. The fact that toril and eberron and ravinca might exist somewhere out there has no impact on my game. Unless I want to add in a world-hopping element, they don’t come up.
Xalthu pretty much summed it up. For occasions where you might feel the need for a monster that doesn't exist or have stats already, you can almost always reskin an existing monster if you don't feel confident in creating one from scratch.
You can do anything with "official source materials", & "Official settings" aren't as hard to work in as people make them out to be.
But there are people who try to take draconian measures to keep official settings as close to canon as possible(because they're scared stiff of disrespecting the intent a 2nd-party author or 2, despite said authors only having their standing due to WotC inheriting bad contracts).
Playing in an official setting is valid, but fomenting communication issues & distrust w/the players by playing whack-a-mole w/the banhammer isn't as valid as it seems on the surface IMO.
Q2. "For instance, how do you make monsters unique for your campaign when you have to use what’s already established with its own lore and stats?"
A2:Flavor is free, and describing an individual monster as having, for example, a local nickname from a worried village, or a grisly scar on its flank, helps make encounters a lot more meaningful w/o impacting prep time too much.
Q3:"As for the world itself, how do you establish its structure and lore within the game’s own limits and settings?"
A3:Prep, Notes, and having a trusted human who isn't your player check over your lore, & help you make sure you're consistent & logical.
Final:I hope this format helps. I'm trying it out, so what I'm saying/addressing is clearer, compared to other posts I've made. & no, it isn't gibberish at all. You're good.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Some good answers, thank you. As for unique monsters, one idea I had was mechanical beasts being used by a mad artificer to terraform the land and harvest resources for experimentation
Aside from the obvious description, what should be done to make them standout combat wise? Maybe the same stats as the normal beasts, just with an additional special attack, or maybe some resistances
Some good answers, thank you. As for unique monsters, one idea I had was mechanical beasts being used by a mad artificer to terraform the land and harvest resources for experimentation
Aside from the obvious description, what should be done to make them standout combat wise? Maybe the same stats as the normal beasts, just with an additional special attack, or maybe some resistances
Have them be more tactical in their behavior. Use their abilities in ways that indicate that they're either smart or are being controlled by something that is.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Some good answers, thank you. As for unique monsters, one idea I had was mechanical beasts being used by a mad artificer to terraform the land and harvest resources for experimentation
Aside from the obvious description, what should be done to make them standout combat wise? Maybe the same stats as the normal beasts, just with an additional special attack, or maybe some resistances
You could also give them features that mechanical creatures would have that their biological counterparts don't. Perhaps, since they are harvesting resources, they can burrow and have a burrowing speed. Maybe if they are part metal they are resistant to fire or immune to poison, etc., maybe they have special attacks. Also, if they are meant to be indistinguishable from regular beasts on sight you might only reveal these a little bit at a time.
If I kept the same deities used in DnD (those listed in the Ds and Player’s Handbooks), but used lands and continents not in the books, would that be breaking immersion too much?
Come up with a clear definition of what you consider "Homebrew" cause i think using the mechanics of the PHB but your own world, lore and gods is 'doing it without homebrew' but others wouldn't agree. The Definition of Homebrew can be very varied depending on who you ask.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
If I kept the same deities used in DnD (those listed in the Ds and Player’s Handbooks), but used lands and continents not in the books, would that be breaking immersion too much?
No. I’ll let you in on a secret. No one actually uses setting books as written. Literally no one. Everyone makes adjustments to make the setting fit their group and what their group thinks is fun. The D&D police will not raid your game. I promise.
If I kept the same deities used in DnD (those listed in the Ds and Player’s Handbooks), but used lands and continents not in the books, would that be breaking immersion too much?
No. I’ll let you in on a secret. No one actually uses setting books as written. Literally no one. Everyone makes adjustments to make the setting fit their group and what their group thinks is fun. The D&D police will not raid your game. I promise.
And even if you set out to run them as written it takes about three sessions before your players have done something that changes the setting to the point it’s no longer lore are wtitten
If I kept the same deities used in DnD (those listed in the Ds and Player’s Handbooks), but used lands and continents not in the books, would that be breaking immersion too much?
Do your players even know the details of the D&D settings to notice you're using the PHB gods out of their setting? (Also, the PHB doesn't really have a setting.)
If you don't want to go to the work of making a pantheon up from scratch, starting from the extremely brief details in the PHB will work. And if you're making the gods actual players in your game, you're going to have to do the work to fill them out anyway.
A thing I'm fond of doing (when doing the D&D-style eclectic pantheon) is to have players make up their own gods.
A thing I'm fond of doing (when doing the D&D-style eclectic pantheon) is to have players make up their own gods.
This is really good advice. Letting players create content really helps them get and stay invested in the world.
I do something similar where I’ll have a list of gods as, kind of, starters, and if a player wants one that’s not in the list, they add it in. Also, I usually don’t do much with the religion besides name it. When there’s a cleric in the party, they get to fill in the blanks if they want — what’s the church look like, when are the religious observances, etc.
A thing I'm fond of doing (when doing the D&D-style eclectic pantheon) is to have players make up their own gods.
This is really good advice. Letting players create content really helps them get and stay invested in the world.
I do something similar where I’ll have a list of gods as, kind of, starters, and if a player wants one that’s not in the list, they add it in.
Same -- I make up a few gods that ought to exist for the worldbuilding I've done, and most everything else is a blank canvas. If a player doesn't want to make up a god, I'll make one for them.
I have also taken to having gods that are explicitly not of a particular species, and then all the species, including humans, have their own pantheons that can overlap with the general-use gods. (Everyone has their own death god, their own trickster god, etc.)
(Similarly, humans have their own language that is separate from Common. In my current game, there's a god of, among other things, trade, who is responsible for Common existing and being spread everywhere.)
As others have said - first, what do you actually mean by “homebrew”? If I take the owlbear stat block as written but have a the locals call it a hawkbear is that homebrew or local world building? If I have a LN goddess of magic but don’t call her Mystra, is that homebrew or world building. If you are creating a world of your own that distinction is very important. Even if you are working a modified official setting ( as I do) it’s a key question. At some point you will almost certainly add some sort of homebrew into your world whether it’s new monsters, items, spells, etc. but generally lore changes are not considered homebrew only stat block changes/additions unless you are working with a published setting then your lore changes could be “homebrew” so you need to try to make sure that they are story driven so the changes become organic to your world.
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Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
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Something I’ve been curious about is how DM’s manage to create original worlds while still working with official source materials
For instance, how do you make monsters unique for your campaign when you have to use what’s already established with its own lore and stats?
As for the world itself, how do you establish its structure and lore within the game’s own limits and settings?
I’m sure this might all just be ridiculous gibberish, but it’s just a thought I had
In short, you don’t.
Kind of by definition, if you home brew you ignore established lore. I keep the monster stats the same because that’s more about game balance between characters and enemies. But after that, I do what I want. I don’t “have” to use anything.
I’m not sure what you mean by limits and settings. Any limits that exist can be ignored — the only real limits are the one you create. As far as settings, they don’t matter at all. The fact that toril and eberron and ravinca might exist somewhere out there has no impact on my game. Unless I want to add in a world-hopping element, they don’t come up.
Xalthu pretty much summed it up. For occasions where you might feel the need for a monster that doesn't exist or have stats already, you can almost always reskin an existing monster if you don't feel confident in creating one from scratch.
Trying something new here:
Q1. "Something I’ve been curious about is how DM’s manage to create original worlds while still working with official source materials"
A1:There's "official source materials"(statblocks, classes, subclasses, etc) & then there's "official settings"(Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Planescape, Spelljammer, etc).
You can do anything with "official source materials", & "Official settings" aren't as hard to work in as people make them out to be.
But there are people who try to take draconian measures to keep official settings as close to canon as possible(because they're scared stiff of disrespecting the intent a 2nd-party author or 2, despite said authors only having their standing due to WotC inheriting bad contracts).
Playing in an official setting is valid, but fomenting communication issues & distrust w/the players by playing whack-a-mole w/the banhammer isn't as valid as it seems on the surface IMO.
Q2. "For instance, how do you make monsters unique for your campaign when you have to use what’s already established with its own lore and stats?"
A2:Flavor is free, and describing an individual monster as having, for example, a local nickname from a worried village, or a grisly scar on its flank, helps make encounters a lot more meaningful w/o impacting prep time too much.
Q3:"As for the world itself, how do you establish its structure and lore within the game’s own limits and settings?"
A3:Prep, Notes, and having a trusted human who isn't your player check over your lore, & help you make sure you're consistent & logical.
Final:I hope this format helps. I'm trying it out, so what I'm saying/addressing is clearer, compared to other posts I've made. & no, it isn't gibberish at all. You're good.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Some good answers, thank you. As for unique monsters, one idea I had was mechanical beasts being used by a mad artificer to terraform the land and harvest resources for experimentation
Aside from the obvious description, what should be done to make them standout combat wise? Maybe the same stats as the normal beasts, just with an additional special attack, or maybe some resistances
Have them be more tactical in their behavior. Use their abilities in ways that indicate that they're either smart or are being controlled by something that is.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
You could also give them features that mechanical creatures would have that their biological counterparts don't. Perhaps, since they are harvesting resources, they can burrow and have a burrowing speed. Maybe if they are part metal they are resistant to fire or immune to poison, etc., maybe they have special attacks. Also, if they are meant to be indistinguishable from regular beasts on sight you might only reveal these a little bit at a time.
If I kept the same deities used in DnD (those listed in the Ds and Player’s Handbooks), but used lands and continents not in the books, would that be breaking immersion too much?
Come up with a clear definition of what you consider "Homebrew" cause i think using the mechanics of the PHB but your own world, lore and gods is 'doing it without homebrew' but others wouldn't agree. The Definition of Homebrew can be very varied depending on who you ask.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
No.
I’ll let you in on a secret. No one actually uses setting books as written. Literally no one. Everyone makes adjustments to make the setting fit their group and what their group thinks is fun.
The D&D police will not raid your game. I promise.
And even if you set out to run them as written it takes about three sessions before your players have done something that changes the setting to the point it’s no longer lore are wtitten
Do your players even know the details of the D&D settings to notice you're using the PHB gods out of their setting? (Also, the PHB doesn't really have a setting.)
If you don't want to go to the work of making a pantheon up from scratch, starting from the extremely brief details in the PHB will work. And if you're making the gods actual players in your game, you're going to have to do the work to fill them out anyway.
A thing I'm fond of doing (when doing the D&D-style eclectic pantheon) is to have players make up their own gods.
This is really good advice. Letting players create content really helps them get and stay invested in the world.
I do something similar where I’ll have a list of gods as, kind of, starters, and if a player wants one that’s not in the list, they add it in.
Also, I usually don’t do much with the religion besides name it. When there’s a cleric in the party, they get to fill in the blanks if they want — what’s the church look like, when are the religious observances, etc.
Same -- I make up a few gods that ought to exist for the worldbuilding I've done, and most everything else is a blank canvas. If a player doesn't want to make up a god, I'll make one for them.
I have also taken to having gods that are explicitly not of a particular species, and then all the species, including humans, have their own pantheons that can overlap with the general-use gods. (Everyone has their own death god, their own trickster god, etc.)
(Similarly, humans have their own language that is separate from Common. In my current game, there's a god of, among other things, trade, who is responsible for Common existing and being spread everywhere.)
As others have said - first, what do you actually mean by “homebrew”? If I take the owlbear stat block as written but have a the locals call it a hawkbear is that homebrew or local world building? If I have a LN goddess of magic but don’t call her Mystra, is that homebrew or world building. If you are creating a world of your own that distinction is very important. Even if you are working a modified official setting ( as I do) it’s a key question. At some point you will almost certainly add some sort of homebrew into your world whether it’s new monsters, items, spells, etc. but generally lore changes are not considered homebrew only stat block changes/additions unless you are working with a published setting then your lore changes could be “homebrew” so you need to try to make sure that they are story driven so the changes become organic to your world.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.