Hell yes. I run a homebrew setting, and I will steal anything from anywhere. My favourite is using ideas from other people's homebrew. Like if a UA-camr or podcaster talks about their game and I like something they did, I'll totally adapt it to my game. If I like it, I will find a place for it.
I am creating a homebrew campaign setting in a world that nobody's ever done before and I'm gonna be honest. It's super overwhelming and super exciting.
Absolutely! I've been homebrewing campaign settings since the beginning. What I love about it is the randomness of what can occur when you do this kind of thing. And you're dead-on when it comes to sandboxing vs. railroading, they are both equally good and bad depending on how and when you're using them. Both can make a genuine D&D campaign a failure or a success if used improperly, vs. not using either at all. I like how you mentioned conflict, and not just bringing in the big bad boss, but also their minions. One of the most poorly planned parts of the main bad guy, in my experience, is their minions. I've never had a hard time totally improvising a campaign, it's always come naturally to me. However, I'm far from the greatest DM/GM on the planet. Over 40 years later, I'm still learning and growing as a DM/GM and it's been a blast. Fantastic video and topic. Thank you again for taking the time and sharing so many ideas. Yes, I'd love to see a video series on how "you do it!" I can't wait!
Solid tips. I'm glad you touched on the railroad vs open world situation. I always see posts online where people basically imply that railroading in any way is equivalent to a terrible game. If someone wants a fully open world they can play a video game. As a human, it is not possible to create compelling stories on the fly. It's cooperative storytelling, not "the players decide the story that will be told." they have agency, yes, but in my tables we have an agreement that the best sessions are ones the DM had has time to plan for and flesh out. - Innkeeper Vase Odin
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I agree, railroading is considered this horrible, horrible thing, but in truth there are times when it is called for. As with anything in life, it only becomes an issue if it is used to the extreme. :)
Yah, me too! They're actually easier to produce as well. No overlays, post-production or effects. Well, not as much anyway. Just me editing out an hour and a half of me rambling incoherently :)
Great video Bill. Your absolutely correct. I like to pull from the old AD&D modules and adapt it to whichever Edition setting my players are in. This is my way of paying respect to the great writers like David "Zeb" Cook, Ed Greenwood, Len Lakofka, Frank Mentzer, and the others from the TRS days.
Agreed! Playing in Middle Earth is basically the ultimate Dungeons & Dragons trope. I think it is what every new player envisions during their first few sessions! :)
You should have a look at The One Ring rpg system that these books were based off, it's a wonderful system that can bring Middle Earth to life even more. The 5e book does a very decent job of transferring to the world to our D20 system though.
As someone who began his homebrew world circa 1991 or so, I agree with what you're saying here. I began with a Mediterranean size sea and a major port city (adapting the Rock of Bral into a planetside city named Bralt, some dwarf and goblin occupied mountains a few day's travel away and knowing there was an Australia size continent far to the East. Everything else grew from there. Needing a place to drop a module, or a culture has caused the world to grow. I've stolen so many ideas to put in there - Venger lives in my world. That island continent I mentioned is where Ravenloft adventures take place. The Red Wizards of Thay are simply the Red Wizards in my world. Halflings are semi-feral, Dark Sun-esque people. "Rome" underwent a civil war and is two split nations now. How many adventurers die or strike it rich or just grow too weary to keep adventuring in 20 years? How many clerics are recognized by their church and promoted or gain a following? I want my world to grow and feel alive. I also want to incorporate those amazing moments of gaming that a group remembers and jokes about periodically. To accomplish this, I also run (or write) on different periods of time. So some PCs from 1994 games are now NPCs who are retired adventurers, running shops, taverns or lording over lands. Sometimes what a player did in timeline A is referenced back again in timeline B or C. When creating a new campaign set in a certain timeline, I may or may not let the players know before gameplay begins. I do give them the current year (and month or date if relevant) once the game begins. And even after nearly 30 years of playing and writing about that world, I still have HUGE sections of unexplored map, places I've sketched out ideas where players have never gotten - there's a higher technology region based on the Southern Continent of Pern - no player has ever found reason to suspect it's even there. There is an area roughly the size of Africa that separates my main campaign setting from the furthest tip of that mainland, designed so I can add more as I go.
Very good points, especially about modifying the pre written modules and borrowing tropes. Also, I might rant a bit, but I grew very tired with the term "homebrew". Back in my days (lol) it wasn't a "homebrew" campaign or world, it was YOUR campaign. Homebrew was the norm. Mind, I'm not saying that playing pre written stuff is worse, just that calling your campaign "homebrew" sounds like it's not ACTUAL DnD. I fell like people are so obsessed with RAW and official supplements, instead of just, you know, roleplaying and having fun. But maybe I spend too much time on reddit.
Thanks for watching! :) And fair point! Trust me, I believe in rulings, not rules. That was my point, to not be obsessed with RAW and official supplements, rather to treat them as source books to choose from. Take what you like and toss the rest, but it's easier to persuade when you speak the same language :) So, forgive my use of the term homebrew ;)
I am developing my own settings. One will be a Post Apocalyptic Science Fantasy setting, think mutants, cyborgs, androids and even sorcerous cabals. The other is a Post Apocalyptic medieval fantasy with elves and the like. Both will be hex crawl sandbox campaigns. I think that you are slightly wrong about sandbox campaigns. Just because players can go wherever they want there are still rumors of potential threats. In my mind a proper sandbox simply gives you a foundation to build upon. I am going to have a 48 x 48 hex map. But I don’t have to detail the whole map. Just the main features - a few lines. There will be 12 adventure locations of note spread around the region. I can drop something new depending upon how the adventures progress. If I roll a sizable monster encounter it means a lair is nearby but there are still 12 actual firm locations be they dungeons, Undead haunted tombs, bandit strongholds or even a Dragons lair. Most of the newer lairs that are discovered will not expansive in size. They may simply be a temporary encampment of a Orc or Mutant raiding or war party. Sure there is a lot of prep, but I have time. Much of the text will be informed by my map details. Unless you pacify a given hex new threats will appear. I am extremely intrigued by hex crawls and how you can incorporate firm locations and potential adventure seed rumors to flesh out things. Since I am using OD&D as my system base, you only use random encounters at night. Most hexes won’t trigger an encounter unless you fall in them at your allowed movement. On foot you can travel 3 hexes, by light horse 10 hexes, depending upon terrain featured in the hexes. A mountainous hex without a trail or road the person on foot would travel a single hex in a day, whereas the party on horse will instead go 7 hexes; unless it passes through other rough terrain hexes. That is if you are exploring then you can go twice that number. Toss in getting loss it should be fun. But you are correct there is no wrong right way to play. If after the initial campaign I and my group decides hex crawl is not really our thing we can shit to something else.
Thanks so much for watching, and sharing your world! It sounds fantastic! I agree with you about sandboxes by the way. I am absolutely not against them, I was trying to convey that for first time world builders, a true sandbox can be a bit much. It's much easier for first-timers to create a mini sandbox campaign with a few hooks and a few places of interest to explore, as they are able to build out the rest as they go :)
RollStats Agreed it is best to start small for anyone new to the hobby. I am 47yo and have years of experience as a player and as a GM. I also have the free time at the moment to do the hard work needed. In fact after I get my new computer rig and art tablet I will be creating new maps and creating my own charts. If there is interest I may do professional quality maps as commissions.
I just got strahd dying to run it love the video you are absolutely right brother i do that a lot for d&d taking from lore are monsters are world an make it my own
Yes I steal ideas all the time. I run in the Mystara world from way back in AD&D and still run it now in 3.5. I add things I like and dismiss things I don’t. Had to resubscribe wasn’t getting notifications.
That's the way to do it! It's your game after all! And that's the beauty of a TTRPG, it can be whatever you want it to be :) Thanks so much for watching, and thanks for subscribing! You're the best!
@@RollStats I like Eberron as it already is since it has more hooks then a aircraft carrier full of fishermen. Still the second anyone starts to game even in established game worlds they become a bit home brewed. It can't be helped with the players and GM together changing the world as they go along. I liked Eberron a lot for showing a fantasy world can evolve.
@@ChromeDragonBastion Changing the world as you go along is key! It helps with immersion, and makes your players truly feel a part of the world you are building together! :)
I run a home brew sandbox world where there was a major war among the good and evil gods with the neutral gods getting caught up in it and had to defend their worshipers from being dragged in to the war but they failed . The followers of the gods faught against their rival clerical orders causing wars to break out all over the continent and during the gods war when the evil gods decided to come down to the material plain and destroy the continent breaking it up into thousands of islands and in the center of all those island is the red rift which is a massive whirlpool stained blood red . So now the gods being in a weakened state they are no longer able to materialize in the material plain physically but only in spirit . They can still grant spells to their clerics and depending on how many followers a God had in an area determines how powerful that God and wether they are a demi-God with only a small ammount if followers to a major God with many followers . So the God of justice in one region might be a greater deity but in another region his powers are weakened to him being a minor God or even a demi-God in that location . The biggest island is about half the size of the U.K. and the smallest ones are no more then a few miles long with many being 30-50 miles in length and width I use about 20 tables of d100 random village , town and city events that happen off screen that I roll on once an in game month and write down . It brings my world alive and adds plots and hooks to work from that the player can get involved in if they choose to do so
Hey StatRollers become a Roll Stats Insider here - mailchi.mp/d99430d18fe4/rollstatsinsider
Hell yes. I run a homebrew setting, and I will steal anything from anywhere. My favourite is using ideas from other people's homebrew. Like if a UA-camr or podcaster talks about their game and I like something they did, I'll totally adapt it to my game. If I like it, I will find a place for it.
That's definitely the way to do it! :)
I am creating a homebrew campaign setting in a world that nobody's ever done before and I'm gonna be honest. It's super overwhelming and super exciting.
So much great advice! Sorry to see so little recent content. As a new DM I’m gleaning lots of practical tips, thanks!
Absolutely! I've been homebrewing campaign settings since the beginning. What I love about it is the randomness of what can occur when you do this kind of thing. And you're dead-on when it comes to sandboxing vs. railroading, they are both equally good and bad depending on how and when you're using them. Both can make a genuine D&D campaign a failure or a success if used improperly, vs. not using either at all. I like how you mentioned conflict, and not just bringing in the big bad boss, but also their minions. One of the most poorly planned parts of the main bad guy, in my experience, is their minions. I've never had a hard time totally improvising a campaign, it's always come naturally to me. However, I'm far from the greatest DM/GM on the planet. Over 40 years later, I'm still learning and growing as a DM/GM and it's been a blast. Fantastic video and topic. Thank you again for taking the time and sharing so many ideas. Yes, I'd love to see a video series on how "you do it!" I can't wait!
Thanks!
Too true! I love tweaking pre-made content when I’m running in public play spaces. It keeps things fresh for even my veteran players. Great video!
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Solid tips.
I'm glad you touched on the railroad vs open world situation.
I always see posts online where people basically imply that railroading in any way is equivalent to a terrible game. If someone wants a fully open world they can play a video game. As a human, it is not possible to create compelling stories on the fly.
It's cooperative storytelling, not "the players decide the story that will be told." they have agency, yes, but in my tables we have an agreement that the best sessions are ones the DM had has time to plan for and flesh out.
- Innkeeper Vase Odin
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I agree, railroading is considered this horrible, horrible thing, but in truth there are times when it is called for. As with anything in life, it only becomes an issue if it is used to the extreme. :)
I like these more opinion/conversational videos.
Yah, me too! They're actually easier to produce as well. No overlays, post-production or effects. Well, not as much anyway. Just me editing out an hour and a half of me rambling incoherently :)
Great video Bill. Your absolutely correct. I like to pull from the old AD&D modules and adapt it to whichever Edition setting my players are in. This is my way of paying respect to the great writers like David "Zeb" Cook, Ed Greenwood, Len Lakofka, Frank Mentzer, and the others from the TRS days.
Thanks, THAC0! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I borrow hooks, ideas and plot lines all the time! It makes my world better, and my life easier! :)
Adventures In Middle Earth is so good! I absolutely love how they made that for 5e. It really does give the feel of a low magic game.
Agreed! Playing in Middle Earth is basically the ultimate Dungeons & Dragons trope. I think it is what every new player envisions during their first few sessions! :)
You should have a look at The One Ring rpg system that these books were based off, it's a wonderful system that can bring Middle Earth to life even more. The 5e book does a very decent job of transferring to the world to our D20 system though.
I started my Players in the Hero's Guild from the Fable game!
Awesome! How are they liking it?
@@RollStats So far so good ! I used Teleportation to travel from city to city. Each City or town has a teleportation pad.
@@ITSACRITICAL That sounds awesome!
As someone who began his homebrew world circa 1991 or so, I agree with what you're saying here. I began with a Mediterranean size sea and a major port city (adapting the Rock of Bral into a planetside city named Bralt, some dwarf and goblin occupied mountains a few day's travel away and knowing there was an Australia size continent far to the East. Everything else grew from there. Needing a place to drop a module, or a culture has caused the world to grow. I've stolen so many ideas to put in there - Venger lives in my world. That island continent I mentioned is where Ravenloft adventures take place. The Red Wizards of Thay are simply the Red Wizards in my world. Halflings are semi-feral, Dark Sun-esque people. "Rome" underwent a civil war and is two split nations now.
How many adventurers die or strike it rich or just grow too weary to keep adventuring in 20 years? How many clerics are recognized by their church and promoted or gain a following? I want my world to grow and feel alive. I also want to incorporate those amazing moments of gaming that a group remembers and jokes about periodically. To accomplish this, I also run (or write) on different periods of time. So some PCs from 1994 games are now NPCs who are retired adventurers, running shops, taverns or lording over lands. Sometimes what a player did in timeline A is referenced back again in timeline B or C. When creating a new campaign set in a certain timeline, I may or may not let the players know before gameplay begins. I do give them the current year (and month or date if relevant) once the game begins.
And even after nearly 30 years of playing and writing about that world, I still have HUGE sections of unexplored map, places I've sketched out ideas where players have never gotten - there's a higher technology region based on the Southern Continent of Pern - no player has ever found reason to suspect it's even there. There is an area roughly the size of Africa that separates my main campaign setting from the furthest tip of that mainland, designed so I can add more as I go.
And I apologize for writing a book.
No worries at all! Great thoughts!
I only flesh out the important parts. Dungeons, monsters, npcs, and cities. Thats it. Everything else I wing it.
Sooooo valid! It just doesn't make sense to populate everything up front! You have no idea whether it will ever even e used! :)
If you really want to mash things up, Mike Myler's "Mists of Akuma" combines steampunk with Ravenloft and Oriental Adventures.
Stempunk, Ravenloft and Oriental Adventures! That is a setting I have to try! :)
Very good points, especially about modifying the pre written modules and borrowing tropes. Also, I might rant a bit, but I grew very tired with the term "homebrew". Back in my days (lol) it wasn't a "homebrew" campaign or world, it was YOUR campaign. Homebrew was the norm. Mind, I'm not saying that playing pre written stuff is worse, just that calling your campaign "homebrew" sounds like it's not ACTUAL DnD. I fell like people are so obsessed with RAW and official supplements, instead of just, you know, roleplaying and having fun. But maybe I spend too much time on reddit.
Thanks for watching! :) And fair point! Trust me, I believe in rulings, not rules. That was my point, to not be obsessed with RAW and official supplements, rather to treat them as source books to choose from. Take what you like and toss the rest, but it's easier to persuade when you speak the same language :) So, forgive my use of the term homebrew ;)
This is exactly what I do. I knew we were more alike than most DMs.
Hahahahaha! Thanks, Cujo!
I am developing my own settings. One will be a Post Apocalyptic Science Fantasy setting, think mutants, cyborgs, androids and even sorcerous cabals.
The other is a Post Apocalyptic medieval fantasy with elves and the like.
Both will be hex crawl sandbox campaigns. I think that you are slightly wrong about sandbox campaigns. Just because players can go wherever they want there are still rumors of potential threats.
In my mind a proper sandbox simply gives you a foundation to build upon. I am going to have a 48 x 48 hex map. But I don’t have to detail the whole map. Just the main features - a few lines.
There will be 12 adventure locations of note spread around the region. I can drop something new depending upon how the adventures progress.
If I roll a sizable monster encounter it means a lair is nearby but there are still 12 actual firm locations be they dungeons, Undead haunted tombs, bandit strongholds or even a Dragons lair.
Most of the newer lairs that are discovered will not expansive in size. They may simply be a temporary encampment of a Orc or Mutant raiding or war party.
Sure there is a lot of prep, but I have time. Much of the text will be informed by my map details. Unless you pacify a given hex new threats will appear.
I am extremely intrigued by hex crawls and how you can incorporate firm locations and potential adventure seed rumors to flesh out things.
Since I am using OD&D as my system base, you only use random encounters at night. Most hexes won’t trigger an encounter unless you fall in them at your allowed movement.
On foot you can travel 3 hexes, by light horse 10 hexes, depending upon terrain featured in the hexes. A mountainous hex without a trail or road the person on foot would travel a single hex in a day, whereas the party on horse will instead go 7 hexes; unless it passes through other rough terrain hexes.
That is if you are exploring then you can go twice that number. Toss in getting loss it should be fun.
But you are correct there is no wrong right way to play. If after the initial campaign I and my group decides hex crawl is not really our thing we can shit to something else.
Thanks so much for watching, and sharing your world! It sounds fantastic! I agree with you about sandboxes by the way. I am absolutely not against them, I was trying to convey that for first time world builders, a true sandbox can be a bit much. It's much easier for first-timers to create a mini sandbox campaign with a few hooks and a few places of interest to explore, as they are able to build out the rest as they go :)
RollStats Agreed it is best to start small for anyone new to the hobby. I am 47yo and have years of experience as a player and as a GM.
I also have the free time at the moment to do the hard work needed. In fact after I get my new computer rig and art tablet I will be creating new maps and creating my own charts.
If there is interest I may do professional quality maps as commissions.
@@ezrabadbwest5178 It is definitely a ton of work! Definitely let me know if you start taking commissions :)
RollStats will do.
@@ezrabadbwest5178 Thanks!
I just got strahd dying to run it love the video you are absolutely right brother i do that a lot for d&d taking from lore are monsters are world an make it my own
Thanks, man! You're going to love Curse of Strahd! It is absolutely amazing!
RollStats yeah I even picked up the vampire minis that look like strahd
Yes I steal ideas all the time. I run in the Mystara world from way back in AD&D and still run it now in 3.5. I add things I like and dismiss things I don’t.
Had to resubscribe wasn’t getting notifications.
That's the way to do it! It's your game after all! And that's the beauty of a TTRPG, it can be whatever you want it to be :) Thanks so much for watching, and thanks for subscribing! You're the best!
Enjoying your videos. Would love to see a series on each of your home brew steps
Thanks, Alex! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll add the series to the list :)
Love Eberron, Hags ruling a monster kingdom.
Hahahahaha! Do you play in a homebrew, or do you use a pre-written campaign setting?
@@RollStats I like Eberron as it already is since it has more hooks then a aircraft carrier full of fishermen. Still the second anyone starts to game even in established game worlds they become a bit home brewed. It can't be helped with the players and GM together changing the world as they go along. I liked Eberron a lot for showing a fantasy world can evolve.
@@ChromeDragonBastion Changing the world as you go along is key! It helps with immersion, and makes your players truly feel a part of the world you are building together! :)
Some great advice here. About to start my own series on world creation as I start a new campaign world of my own. Awesome video dude!
Thanks, Grim! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I can't wait to see your series :)
Excellent, subscribed thank you.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for subscribing, I truly appreciate it! :)
Such great ideas as I am sure one day I will be dming this is absolutely super valuable advice.
Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
I run a home brew sandbox world where there was a major war among the good and evil gods with the neutral gods getting caught up in it and had to defend their worshipers from being dragged in to the war but they failed .
The followers of the gods faught against their rival clerical orders causing wars to break out all over the continent and during the gods war when the evil gods decided to come down to the material plain and destroy the continent breaking it up into thousands of islands and in the center of all those island is the red rift which is a massive whirlpool stained blood red .
So now the gods being in a weakened state they are no longer able to materialize in the material plain physically but only in spirit .
They can still grant spells to their clerics and depending on how many followers a God had in an area determines how powerful that God and wether they are a demi-God with only a small ammount if followers to a major God with many followers .
So the God of justice in one region might be a greater deity but in another region his powers are weakened to him being a minor God or even a demi-God in that location .
The biggest island is about half the size of the U.K. and the smallest ones are no more then a few miles long with many being 30-50 miles in length and width
I use about 20 tables of d100 random village , town and city events that happen off screen that I roll on once an in game month and write down . It brings my world alive and adds plots and hooks to work from that the player can get involved in if they choose to do so
Sounds amazing!
Right?
love the passion! great info here. I am attempting to DM for my kids but they seem to rather play fortnite 😅
Thanks Heath! Keep trying man! They’ll come around eventually 🤷♂️😊