Hi all.

I am curious if any of you use a setting (world for game play) that is not any of the published settings (going all the way back) for D&D? That is, a whole and complete creation of your own. And then I am curious about the broad kind of setting you use.

I only got active on forums this year, and I have seen a lot of posts about world creation and the like. So just curious.

For reference, I have only ever played in original worlds, save for a very limited experience because the modules were just too cool.

I know some folks run more than one campaign, but I am interested in your main one.

I use a semi homemade version of Mystara.

Same as IamSposta. I think this poll is missing what might be the most votes option, which is homebrew or modified version of an official setting. At least from my own experience, that seems to be the most popular. 

Yeah, I expected that, but I think of it as still using the published setting.

It’s tough to answer because I can’t see “something I created”, and “inspired by book, tv, etc”. as separate things. It’s more or less impossible to create something without being influenced by other stories. Whether consciously stealing bits, or unconsciously. Even if you do the opposite, you’re responding to an influence. 

THere, added a second poll with the expanded answers, lol.  I hate giving my player's fits ;)

Pure homebrew, aside from porting in occasional published adventures from sources like Candlekeep Mysteries for side quests and diversions

Although, the "world" the party is in is just one big island about the size of Great Britain that's been cut off from the rest of the world by magical means, and the current campaign arc could end with that magical barrier being stripped away, so I might have to decide if I want to plop them into an otherwise pre-existing realm or not

I'm playing in multiple campaigns. Two are completely homebrewed, with only passing reference to D&D settings (largely in terms of some of the pantheons available, and some passing references to the Feywild). The third is a homebrewed version of a published setting not available for 5e, with updates not only to statblocks but to some core elements of characterization. Plus a mini-campaign that probably could be considered set in a published 5e setting? If not, a slightly homebrewed version.

There's degrees of homebrew.  WotC's own semi regular polling asks this with those degrees taken into account.  Many folks homebrew their game worlds, but use the Monster Manual and MMM, or something from Kobold Press etc.  Few bother to design everything which if I've followed the OP enough seems to be their definition of homebrew.  And of course, the cardinal advice of the one thing a DM should learn is stealing.

In my own game, I consider the world homebrew in that the geography is entirely mine and there's a few things in terms of character options, monsters, etc. that are my own creation.  But I also make heavy use of the MM and MMM and Volo's and Mord's, and the great wheel cosmology is approximately how the planes work.  I also pull stuff from third party presses.

The difficulty with a completely home-brewed world is time in design and time in learning curve until fun can actually be had.  If a DM is presenting an entirely new geography, and bestiary, and cosmology, and character options, that's a lot of orientation.  Some folks do it, but when I pop into my local game store to do a one shot or west marches style venture using my game world, the fact that I can name drop Tiamat or what have you, I spend more time playing and less time teaching (and I say this as someone who actually really enjoys regularly teaching the game to new players, who learn better through playing).  

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

The difficulty with a completely home-brewed world is time in design and time in learning curve until fun can actually be had.  If a DM is presenting an entirely new geography, and bestiary, and cosmology, and character options, that's a lot of orientation.  Some folks do it, but when I pop into my local game store to do a one shot or west marches style venture using my game world, the fact that I can name drop Tiamat or what have you, I spend more time playing and less time teaching (and I say this as someone who actually really enjoys regularly teaching the game to new players, who learn better through playing).  

I think there's an assumption here that both the DM and the players are already familiar with official settings and would need to learn something new for a purely homebrewed one. If someone is brand new to D&D, the learning curve is the same either way.

I actually found it much easier to create my own geography, cosmology, pantheons, etc. as a new DM rather than having to study up on how it works in someone else's world. But I have a long history as a writer and this came naturally to me. 

Superficially Forgotten Realms adventures - supplemented with a slapdash collection of western fantasy tropes from movies etc. to fill in the large blanks in our setting knowledge with lazy cultural shorthand we can all quickly grasp. For example orcs might be described to a newcomer as "like those green baddies from the LOTR movies".

In our case the setting is little more than a backdrop for players while we make each other laugh and do cool stuff, so we don't sweat the philosophical details too much.

 Edit 1: Typos, formatting.

Quote from MidnightPlat >>

There's degrees of homebrew.  WotC's own semi regular polling asks this with those degrees taken into account.  Many folks homebrew their game worlds, but use the Monster Manual and MMM, or something from Kobold Press etc.  Few bother to design everything which if I've followed the OP enough seems to be their definition of homebrew.  And of course, the cardinal advice of the one thing a DM should learn is stealing.

In my own game, I consider the world homebrew in that the geography is entirely mine and there's a few things in terms of character options, monsters, etc. that are my own creation.  But I also make heavy use of the MM and MMM and Volo's and Mord's, and the great wheel cosmology is approximately how the planes work.  I also pull stuff from third party presses.

The difficulty with a completely home-brewed world is time in design and time in learning curve until fun can actually be had.  If a DM is presenting an entirely new geography, and bestiary, and cosmology, and character options, that's a lot of orientation.  Some folks do it, but when I pop into my local game store to do a one shot or west marches style venture using my game world, the fact that I can name drop Tiamat or what have you, I spend more time playing and less time teaching (and I say this as someone who actually really enjoys regularly teaching the game to new players, who learn better through playing).  

   

 

Eh. My definition of Homebrew is pretty much anything not in the rules, lol.

But I am looking to see what the overall take on complete creations is and all that. 

You are dead on about the time it takes and the impact of having to bring folks up to speed.  I strongly value the ability to name drop tiamat and her ancient foe Bahamut., for exactly that reason.  I describe it as making things unfamiliar but not too unfamiliar.  It underlies the principles of the dungeon crawl set up we are doing right now.

The new place, not so much, lol. Hence the reason for a god awful book of lore that still leaves me way too much wiggle room for improv (and maybe would be useful to others).

Thinking back to 1984 I have never used a world created by someone else. 

I also don't keep the same world all the time. 

The group I am playing in right is actually the first time I have played in official setting.  Forgotten Realms. 

However, there have been times I have played in or ran modules from an official setting.