The Community Approved Tome of Homebrew [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

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qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 05:03 PM

I've had an ambition for a while, to combine all the achievement and insight of the community into a single document, that can be trusted by your average dm.
This could include both homebrew and fixes, rewriting the flawed rules and classes studying and voting on the most popular homebrew. The final work could even be put into a professional looking pdf modeled after the formatting of the core books.

Sadly I'm not the best person for the job, I'm merely coming forwards with the idea. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

/As a related note, a well developed, community based sandbox map would be amazing given the talent I've seen.

Silverbit

2013-03-20, 05:25 PM

qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 05:32 PM

There can be a differentiation between core additions and more variant additions. Tossing in the gramarist next to the rogue might not go so well.

FreakyCheeseMan

2013-03-20, 05:40 PM

>_> I'd actually say that E6 is already it's own well-respected thing, and should be left that way; unless I'm reading things wrong, it isn't the same as what you're proposing.

So, it strikes me that there are a few things needed, for this to happen in a workable way.

First, we need our own website to host this stuff - I'm imagining it as a wiki, along the lines of the SRD.

Second, we need a thorough accreditation and review process, to make sure that we're not accepting even more broken, poorly-worded or disruptive stuff. There's a ton of home brew generated - I'd say we only want to accept the creme of it, something along the lines of 1%.

Alternatively, we could accept everything, but have a rating system: Five Star Homebrews would be only the ones that are best-worded, reviewed and play-tested, and accepted by the overwhelming majority of the community. Four star would cover stuff that was still good, but perhaps pushed the power envelope a little too hard, broke from the established rules in too many ways, or had simply not been tested and reviewed enough to make five star. Three star content would still be good on its own, but might have unintended and nasty combinations with other content, homebrew or otherwise.

DMs would then be able to say "I accept everything four star or above", based on their level of flexibility.

qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 05:51 PM

I hadn't thought of the tiering. I was thinking homebrew would be nominated and then voted on through yays and nays.

Tiering would be helpful, but I think only the better works should be included. Maybe two tiers, your 4 and 5. Or if there is something worth including that's not deserving of a 4 or 5, some sort of disclaimer explaining the problem and potential abuse.

As for rule fixes, someone could nominate either the rule or the fix, alternatives are proposed, voting voting, entered.

I'm really hoping someone will take this off my hands and run with it, because I feel most others on this forum could do a much better job than I.

FreakyCheeseMan

2013-03-20, 05:58 PM

I would suggest calling the rating system other than tiers - since we probably will want to list tiers as well.

Kane0

2013-03-20, 06:13 PM

A rating system sounds like a good idea.
If you want some content to whet your appetite check the CCCC in my sig below, it's got a lot of fixes you can sort through if you like.

Roncorps

2013-03-20, 06:47 PM

The good thing about something like that, as a Wikia, is that every thing can be discussed independently. You got a good way to archive the homebrew, but you get a good way to archive discussion about all that too.

But I must ask, would something like that would be like DANDWIKI, but without all the crappy homebrew ? Something more pro ?

Grod_The_Giant

2013-03-20, 06:51 PM

There was also Morph Bark's homebrew tier compendium. That might be a good place to start.

qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 10:09 PM

Does anyone know how to incite the masses towards such a goal?
Is anyone more of leader than I? I'll be unavailable for the next week anyway.

If anyone is interested, I urge you to set up a wiki and maybe use this thread or another to ask for submissions. We already have several compendiums and the best known items are balanced already. I'll be of more use once I'm back, I'd just really rather this didn't die in one afternoon.

Morphie

2013-03-20, 10:13 PM

Can we post here our houserules as well?

qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 10:21 PM

Yes, no reason not to. Whatever voting process that's devised should sort things out as long as we have enough voters for the entries.

Grinner

2013-03-20, 10:34 PM

I hate to be such a Negative Nelly, but I don't see the wiki idea working out too well. Having a review process is fine in theory. However, I suspect that not enough people will participate or won't exercise enough objectivity to give much meaningful feedback. It's hard enough to get PEACHes here as is, nevermind another site.

And let's face it, most of the stuff here is forgettable. How long until the wiki gets flooded with Monk and Fighter fixes?

A PDF compendium, on the other hand, is definitely something I would get behind.

qazzquimby

2013-03-20, 10:39 PM

Do you have an alternative?

The idea, and I'm not sure how to implement it exactly, is for people to nominate the very best monk and fighter fixes and some kind of comparative voting to occur. Like I was saying it's important there are far more voters than entries.

If you have ideas on how this could be put together please speak up.

Vauron

2013-03-20, 10:53 PM

Someone mentioned Morphbark's Homebrew Tier Compendium, so I'll put forward another 'lets put together a homebrew collection' attempt. Back in 2011 Realms of Chaos tried to make a gallery of homebrew (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188088) where people could put forward homebrew as being noteworthy. While it eventually ran out of steam, there were a fair number of nominations, so it could provide a starting point of content for your attempt at a "Tome of Homebrew".
For that matter, you may as well include Morphbark's compendium while you are at it.

Grinner

2013-03-20, 10:58 PM

Well...since no one here is getting paid to make homebrew, there's no clear hierarchy. Therefore, no one has the authority to make any definitive calls regarding whether something should be included or not.

Unfortunately, the egalitarian approaches (i.e. design by committee) rarely produce quality results and never do so quickly. Usually, they devolve into bickering until quality leadership takes the reins, if ever.

I think that one of our senior homebrewers, and just one, (maybe one of the guys behind Legend?) should comb through the archives, pick out the quality stuff (balanced, well-developed, and very flavorful). Then, the selections should be handed off to another person for typesetting, preferably someone possessing knowledge of LaTeX or willing to put in a lot of time with a desktop publishing program.

Edit: Asking for nominations could work too, maybe. The homebrew would still need to be vetted, and ideally not through a committee.

Also, the authors should probably be contacted, and there's also the issue of licensing...

Randomguy

2013-03-20, 11:07 PM

I suggest adding this monk fix (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150122&page=9).

Morphie

2013-03-20, 11:16 PM

We use a rule for each class hitdie that goes as such:
- Instead of using d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12 to calculate hit points, we use 1d4, 1D4+2, 1D4+4, 1D4+6 and 1d4+8. It's a small adjustment but it helps to keep a above-average hit points score of the party.

The Wizards and Sorcerers still have their d4, but maybe we'll start using 1d3+1, who knows :smalltongue:

qazzquimby

2013-03-21, 11:30 AM

Thats true but i wasnt actually suggesting a comittee, unless I misunderstand you. I was thinking a simple public voting process. "Do you believe this addition is balanced and interesting? If not please explain. If you do not feel qualified to judge the balance please withhold your vote." or perhaps a scale of 1-5 as a vote.
The entrees with the most votes, or the highest voted rule alternative is taken in. There's not much room for bickering.
Again if anyone feels like please starting a wiki and making some pages for entrees. It would be better to keep the entrees few, don't drop in compilations. We already have 200something views on this thread, there should be attention enough to start out. Someone please do this?

qazzquimby

2013-03-27, 02:42 PM

Oh I'm back, startled at the progress.

I'll make a wiki this afternoon.