"Ah, welcome! Would you like some crumpets? Tea, perhaps?"
Heh. Somehow I knew it would come to this. After going over my collection of pdfs and books, I realize that I have no other individual game I can write about that isn’t a D&D Campaign Setting or Exalted.
Because of that, I’m looking at perhaps one of the most common routes in running Fantasy RPGs: putting together a homebrew setting. Not that I’m saying that it’s absent in Sci-Fi games (psst, check out Zakharov’s Lost to the Stars) but I hear of it more from Fantasy campaigns.
Not that there’s anything wrong with Homebrew. In many ways, a Homebrew Campaign allows for several advantages:
- It’s Flexible – There’s no “Canon” so technically there’s nothing to break, and players have no other sources to quote to point out that you’re “doing it wrong.”
- It’s Scalable – The campaign setting is only as big as it has to be. No need to go past a certain boundary save for maybe a hint of more over there. The GM gets to focus on the important, immediate details.
- It’s rife with Plagiarism – Stealing from other sources is a time honored Homebrew staple. If you like a certain idea from some other source? Take it and incorporate it into your setting.
- It’s something you can share – Some groups exercise a group creation exercise, where GM and players throw in their favorite ideas into a setting and mix it up into something that people are happy to play in since they had a role in it’s creation.
Homebrew settings are also rewarding from a writer / craftsman’s perspective. A lot of GMs derive a certain satisfaction in coming up with their own setting, and many of them take the next step and try to marry it with a homebrew system or an existing ruleset like Savage Worlds or the other systems that are open to licensing.
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to having my own homebrew project. It’s still a ways off, but I’m happy with it, and I might drop a few tidbits of the setting now and then on the blog to see what people think.
Homebrew! I’d be stoked to read about your project. Homebrew’s the way to go I think
Homebrew… “only” talking about the setting here or even the rules set?
Hope you let us know more about your project soon!
Well, I’m sticking to the setting first. I think the ruleset is a whole other can of worms that I’m not sure I can handle at the same time. :p
Yay! Homebrew FTW!
I agree with all of your points, but what got me into homebrewing was actually that I never found a prefab-setting that ‘did it’ for me. Too much of this, too little of that, or vice versa. That and the flexibility.
IMO, if you use an industry setting, you tend to end up looking at the (proverbial) maps instead of navigating the terrain. Not to mention that there’s always at least one player in the group who will claim to know better if there’s a Canon to consult.
@ Harald
I had to basically kick a new player out of the group because he had a problem of telling me “what is and isn’t correct” with my Star Wars campaign.
Hey Torq,
Really? Man, I guess he was a rabid fan or something, either that or a very dedicated adherent to canon. I used to get that sort of feedback from people when I run an old, established setting too. Probably why I try to use settings that aren’t so well known. :p
Yeah, you know what they say… One born every minute
For my part, SW was the last time I went with a marketed setting, and I had no issues with it. Probably because I play with a really good group these days.
Still, I must say I like playing in my own world better. The GM-freedom is infinitely greater, and if I want something in the world, all I have to do is think it. A bit like being God, I’d say.