Question of the day: To homebrew, or not to homebrew?
What kind of question is that??
Oooh, two questions at once!
Sorry, coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Question of the day: To homebrew, or not to homebrew?
Homebrew.
Simply because, ever since the 4th grade when the teacher read The Hobbit to the class over several weeks - it changed me forever. I wanted to be a writer and create fantastic worlds like Tolkien had. Shortly after, when I would be introduced to the world of Dungeons & Dragons - that gateway was blown wide open. Granted way back in 1st and 2nd edition, it seemed D&D was pretty much literally about dungeons & ... well, dragons were to be feared... but really it was all kinds of monsters! So while I crafted adventures that - yes, back then - had thin storylines - I was, however, creating my own world. I'd made gods and history for this fictional world that my players were going to be playing in! As I got older, and D&D changed as well, I've gone deeper and deeper into stronger storylines and development of characters throughout the adventure (focusing on their backgrounds, and talking to players to see what they wanted to do in the game and how I could try to make it happen). With 5th Edition - and especially D&D Beyond - I have amassed pages of homebrew items and creatures as well.
I've said it before; when you're a writer and hand someone a short story, they will say "Oh, I'll read it and let you know."
When you're a painter, they get an instant reaction because of the visual.
Being a DM, allows me to paint with words - because as I weave the adventure, move the story, my players are reacting immediately.
So knowing adventures I am crafting, based on the world I've created, and hearing their laughter and awe - I may never be a published writer, but as long as I have this, my heart will be happy.
Question of the day: To homebrew, or not to homebrew?
I have a thousand pages between the setting and the player's rules.
I strongly suspect I am Godot at this point.
Ok, coffee is in me...
So, um, Homebrew. Not even "take an existing setting and make it my own" -- no, I mean, straight up, outright, nuts to oaks homebrew.
And I don't give a damn about the rules if they get in the way, lol.
Most of the time I will craft the world to fit snugly but maybe very tightly into a set of rules -- the MSHAS game even had a complex and broad world that had a history stretching back 100 years that was a breakaway from our own. My Paranoia game even got a whole set up on a malfunctioning moonbase on Titan. I create Wyrlde for the first time in 1975. It was five years later that I did the first version of it for D&D. I have done about 35 different worlds, but the throughline was always Wyrlde, and the version I am working on now is essentially planned to be the last, to be the one that allows me to *stop messing with it*.
It is about the 10th in my current approach, where I drag my players together and get ideas from them, then go off and pound away to make them all work together. Like cooking, it takes all these different ingredients and my job is to make a meal for others that they will enjoy and that I can stand to eat, lol. Also like cooking, it is something I do for others, and something that gives me immense release from the other, external pressures of the world and life.
Someone described my stuff as a kitchen sink world, and i think that is fitting on several metaphor levels. At the same time, though, you can't say that Dorado is "just the wild west" or Durango is "just a gangster place", and neither of the look like how they started because of the long development process. The conceit, of course, is the Seven Cities of Gold, then expanded to include other Lost cities (Sibola is not just Cibola, but also Atlantis). Hence the tagline of "in the seven cities".
In those cases, the rules have always been changed to fit the setting, although I haven't always stopped from changing the setting to fit the rules like I have this time. And the biggest challenge here was that I had to abandon all the stuff I loved when I was a kid -- the books like Tolkien and Moorcock and Vance and more. I laughed when I saw the inspirations for AD&D in 1e, because I had already read -- by 14 -- every single one of the books on that list, and most of them several times. I could identify where everything in the game came from if it was out of a book on that list.
And most of them had already found a home in my Wyrlde that didn't know games like this existed, so a place that they could and that I could do more than dream or daydream in, was a pretty awesome thing. And it ultimately set me on the course I followed -- I have always needed to understand other people, and this led me to the things that ultimately made understanding people into my life's work. I can say that D&D helped me understand why it was that when I was called the n word for the first time I thought they meant a football player.
In any case, it is absolute homebrew, and I am never afraid to include the fact all rules are optional for a DM in doing so. And yes, I am mighty proud of Wyrlde, lol.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Question of the day: To homebrew, or not to homebrew?
Homebrew. As I said before, my next campaign will have a bunch of homebrew rules, including subraces/lineages like the Snow Elves and Swamp Gnomes. Even an entirely new Snailfolk lineage. Aside from that, I also allow homebrew of any kind, so long as I get a chance to review it beforehand.
Question of the day: To homebrew, or not to homebrew?
If I may, I think a better way to put the question would be, how much and what do you homebrew?
Because everyone does at least a little, I think. Even running published adventures, everyone but the greenest of DMs will add a bit of flair to the adventure or incorporate a character backstory which is a kind of homebrewing. And any table that’s played for more than 3-4 sessions ends up with house rules, which is another kind of homebrewing. So I find it tough to imagine someone posting here not having done something at some point
For me, I homebrew worlds and adventures, also magic items. But I usually don’t mess with spells or subclasses.
Side by side with tortles, would be the slowest moving party... :D
Only if the harengon doesn't take a nap.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Side by side with tortles, would be the slowest moving party... :D
Only if the harengon doesn't take a nap.
I love that you kept the joke going!
Wait, there was a joke?
Sorry, my 7th level Grung was busy pulling a thorn out of a Leonin's left foot, and it was very touch and go there. Especially with the Aarakocra looking at me like lunch. Could have been worse, there might have been an Owlin there...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Side by side with tortles, would be the slowest moving party... :D
Only if the harengon doesn't take a nap.
I love that you kept the joke going!
Wait, there was a joke?
Sorry, my 7th level Grung was busy pulling a thorn out of a Leonin's left foot, and it was very touch and go there. Especially with the Aarakocra looking at me like lunch. Could have been worse, there might have been an Owlin there...
Feeling froggy are you? Well, this thread has gone completely Kenku - I mean, coocoo - and is totally for the birds! :D
All right - new question (because it's almost 4am and I've not fallen asleep yet) - What is the biggest heartbreak your character experienced (besides their own demise)? Was it the demise of another character? An NPC? A weapon or trinket lost forever? Let's hear it.
aside from NPCs, I have never had a character experience heartbreak. Well, except the dying kind.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
All right - new question (because it's almost 4am and I've not fallen asleep yet) - What is the biggest heartbreak your character experienced (besides their own demise)? Was it the demise of another character? An NPC? A weapon or trinket lost forever? Let's hear it.
Come to think of it, in don't believe I've ever played a character who experienced much heartbreak. Unless you count Errich Tosscobble, my first character, whose adventuring career came to an abrupt end after I lost his character sheet lol
Oh no hold on. A while ago, I was playing Curse of Strahd with a couple others. I had this dwarf barbarian who became a gladiator after his daughter was killed while he was out drinking. He never got to fulfill his goal of absolution, for his party was brutally consumed by a 10-foot tall bush monster, before he met with the same fate.
All right - new question (because it's almost 4am and I've not fallen asleep yet) - What is the biggest heartbreak your character experienced (besides their own demise)? Was it the demise of another character? An NPC? A weapon or trinket lost forever? Let's hear it.
I am currently playing a character who has an unrequited love for another PC. Does that count.
Oooh, two questions at once!
Sorry, coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I think to homebrew
BEANS
BOTTOM TEXT
The answer to hamlet or who ever’s question: 42
BEANS
BOTTOM TEXT
Homebrew.
Simply because, ever since the 4th grade when the teacher read The Hobbit to the class over several weeks - it changed me forever. I wanted to be a writer and create fantastic worlds like Tolkien had. Shortly after, when I would be introduced to the world of Dungeons & Dragons - that gateway was blown wide open. Granted way back in 1st and 2nd edition, it seemed D&D was pretty much literally about dungeons & ... well, dragons were to be feared... but really it was all kinds of monsters! So while I crafted adventures that - yes, back then - had thin storylines - I was, however, creating my own world. I'd made gods and history for this fictional world that my players were going to be playing in! As I got older, and D&D changed as well, I've gone deeper and deeper into stronger storylines and development of characters throughout the adventure (focusing on their backgrounds, and talking to players to see what they wanted to do in the game and how I could try to make it happen). With 5th Edition - and especially D&D Beyond - I have amassed pages of homebrew items and creatures as well.
I've said it before; when you're a writer and hand someone a short story, they will say "Oh, I'll read it and let you know."
When you're a painter, they get an instant reaction because of the visual.
Being a DM, allows me to paint with words - because as I weave the adventure, move the story, my players are reacting immediately.
So knowing adventures I am crafting, based on the world I've created, and hearing their laughter and awe - I may never be a published writer, but as long as I have this, my heart will be happy.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
It was Hamlet and is this a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference?
Ok, coffee is in me...
So, um, Homebrew. Not even "take an existing setting and make it my own" -- no, I mean, straight up, outright, nuts to oaks homebrew.
And I don't give a damn about the rules if they get in the way, lol.
Most of the time I will craft the world to fit snugly but maybe very tightly into a set of rules -- the MSHAS game even had a complex and broad world that had a history stretching back 100 years that was a breakaway from our own. My Paranoia game even got a whole set up on a malfunctioning moonbase on Titan. I create Wyrlde for the first time in 1975. It was five years later that I did the first version of it for D&D. I have done about 35 different worlds, but the throughline was always Wyrlde, and the version I am working on now is essentially planned to be the last, to be the one that allows me to *stop messing with it*.
It is about the 10th in my current approach, where I drag my players together and get ideas from them, then go off and pound away to make them all work together. Like cooking, it takes all these different ingredients and my job is to make a meal for others that they will enjoy and that I can stand to eat, lol. Also like cooking, it is something I do for others, and something that gives me immense release from the other, external pressures of the world and life.
Someone described my stuff as a kitchen sink world, and i think that is fitting on several metaphor levels. At the same time, though, you can't say that Dorado is "just the wild west" or Durango is "just a gangster place", and neither of the look like how they started because of the long development process. The conceit, of course, is the Seven Cities of Gold, then expanded to include other Lost cities (Sibola is not just Cibola, but also Atlantis). Hence the tagline of "in the seven cities".
In those cases, the rules have always been changed to fit the setting, although I haven't always stopped from changing the setting to fit the rules like I have this time. And the biggest challenge here was that I had to abandon all the stuff I loved when I was a kid -- the books like Tolkien and Moorcock and Vance and more. I laughed when I saw the inspirations for AD&D in 1e, because I had already read -- by 14 -- every single one of the books on that list, and most of them several times. I could identify where everything in the game came from if it was out of a book on that list.
And most of them had already found a home in my Wyrlde that didn't know games like this existed, so a place that they could and that I could do more than dream or daydream in, was a pretty awesome thing. And it ultimately set me on the course I followed -- I have always needed to understand other people, and this led me to the things that ultimately made understanding people into my life's work. I can say that D&D helped me understand why it was that when I was called the n word for the first time I thought they meant a football player.
In any case, it is absolute homebrew, and I am never afraid to include the fact all rules are optional for a DM in doing so. And yes, I am mighty proud of Wyrlde, lol.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Homebrew. As I said before, my next campaign will have a bunch of homebrew rules, including subraces/lineages like the Snow Elves and Swamp Gnomes. Even an entirely new Snailfolk lineage. Aside from that, I also allow homebrew of any kind, so long as I get a chance to review it beforehand.
[REDACTED]
If I may, I think a better way to put the question would be, how much and what do you homebrew?
Because everyone does at least a little, I think. Even running published adventures, everyone but the greenest of DMs will add a bit of flair to the adventure or incorporate a character backstory which is a kind of homebrewing. And any table that’s played for more than 3-4 sessions ends up with house rules, which is another kind of homebrewing. So I find it tough to imagine someone posting here not having done something at some point
For me, I homebrew worlds and adventures, also magic items. But I usually don’t mess with spells or subclasses.
I marinate in homebrew. Sometimes I rinse it off, but usually let it stick and see how it hangs.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Side by side with tortles, would be the slowest moving party... :D
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Only if the harengon doesn't take a nap.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I love that you kept the joke going!
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Wait, there was a joke?
Sorry, my 7th level Grung was busy pulling a thorn out of a Leonin's left foot, and it was very touch and go there. Especially with the Aarakocra looking at me like lunch. Could have been worse, there might have been an Owlin there...
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Feeling froggy are you? Well, this thread has gone completely
Kenku- I mean, coocoo - and is totally for the birds! :DCheck out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
All right - new question (because it's almost 4am and I've not fallen asleep yet) - What is the biggest heartbreak your character experienced (besides their own demise)? Was it the demise of another character? An NPC? A weapon or trinket lost forever? Let's hear it.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I cannot answer that.
aside from NPCs, I have never had a character experience heartbreak. Well, except the dying kind.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Yeah lol. They're effectively a modified tortle
[REDACTED]
Come to think of it, in don't believe I've ever played a character who experienced much heartbreak. Unless you count Errich Tosscobble, my first character, whose adventuring career came to an abrupt end after I lost his character sheet lol
Oh no hold on. A while ago, I was playing Curse of Strahd with a couple others. I had this dwarf barbarian who became a gladiator after his daughter was killed while he was out drinking. He never got to fulfill his goal of absolution, for his party was brutally consumed by a 10-foot tall bush monster, before he met with the same fate.
[REDACTED]
I am currently playing a character who has an unrequited love for another PC. Does that count.
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Boo.