How much to you use premade campaign settings?

[braveheart]

So every time that I have GMed I have made sure to take the time to make my own unique world, I often borrow from different lores and some of my favorite video games but the overall world and it's history are original. So how often do you use a campaign module vs. homemade campaigns?

[Comet]

At the moment I'm running Lamentations of the Flame Princess (a D&D clone that leans on horror, weird fantasy and an early modern setting) with a world that is by and large my own creation. The geography, nations, gods and such are of my own making. I decided to only use published adventures as the primary source of adventuring excitement, though. The ones produced by LotFP are top notch and running pre-made adventures really lets me get into the mindset of a neutral referee with no expectations about where the adventure should go. Plus making all these non-related and sometimes wildly different adventures fit into my simple yet thematically focused setting is a lot of fun!

I've also been thinking about running RuneQuest in Glorantha. Because Glorantha is just that amazing.

[Knaight]

I basically don't, though there are a small handful I've been tempted to use, and a larger handful in which I basically took their core concept and implemented it my way.

[Lappy9001]

I've only significantly used one: Eberron. Running a game with a pre-made setting can be a lot of fun; it supplies your players with a lot of material to work into their character concepts, and it saves you time on having to build up an entire world from scratch. That said, exactly how much you want to rely on pre-existing material is up to you and your group. Simply by way of having an adventure in the world, you're going to have a different experience, so don't see a campaign setting as a straightjacket that your game must fit into, but instead as a very useful tool to help you run the game.

Also, if you do use one, read up on as much as you can; it will seriously help you out later in-game. (And I very much recommend Eberron, for what it's worth. Definitely not for everyone, though).

[BWR]

I run established settings almost exclusively. Where are so many good established settings with tons of work put into them that it's far easier to find something I like with most of the world-building done than try to work out my own version which will probably be inferior and require a lot more work. I may very well expand upon existing settings if I want something new, I may very well alter them to one degree or another but the meat and bones of the setting will be pretty solidly canon in most cases.

[Kiero]

Varies a great deal. Our last D&D game was set in Icewind Dale/Forgotten Realms. Our current 13th Age game is in an entirely homebrewed setting, Acrozatarim (http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Acrozatarim). Our recurring break game is set in the Mass Effect universe, currently at 2185. We played Dresden Files in our native Bristol.

We've got a strand of historical, or historical-based games; our backup game is Victorian horror-supers, we've played historical Mage: the Awakening and I ran a straight historical ACKS game.

[Milodiah]

The only premade campaign setting I've ever used is primarily "the real world", with the stuff that Delta Green and/or Call of Cthulhu inserts into it.

My D&D setting uses the Greyhawk gods, but that's pretty much it. I pick and choose the races I want in it, create the societies and nations from scratch, make the physical world from scratch, etc. etc.

Nice thing about it is that my players aren't (yet) playing as stereotypical well-traveled adventurers. A lot of the setting is unexplored by most of the cultures in it, and the parts that haven't been fully fleshed out in distant places can simply be chalked up to characters' ignorance of the subject.

[sktarq]

Mix an match.
Usually when I have used a pre made setting it has been edited. Mostly in the fluff-getting enough food to major cities and the like.
I'd say mostly recently a twist on RW places via World of Darkness and others.
But for DnD for example. 50 % homebrew, 40% heavy homemod of Eberron or Ravenloft 10 out of the box.

[Milo v3]

I would like to, but none of my players have any setting books and if I'm the only source of information in regards to the setting they're in I may as well just homebrew the setting to begin with.

[*.*.*.*]

I really like running spelljammer/planescape games, so I will typically use premades. I like using premades because all of the info is out there, all the players and DM are on equal footing on the base knowledge of the setting. I have yet to play in a homebrew setting that is even a tenth of detailed as one of the big settings. My only issue with premades is the tendency of players to take secondary setting info (Ex. Novels and Video Games) so seriously.

[Honest Tiefling]

I would like to, but none of my players have any setting books and if I'm the only source of information in regards to the setting they're in I may as well just homebrew the setting to begin with.

This, and they don't tend to want to read the books in the first. And I cannot say I am fond of many DnD settings, through there's a few I need to go over.

[jedipotter]

So how often do you use a campaign module vs. homemade campaigns?


I have always used a campaign setting, but then everything else is ''homemade''.

[prufock]

Rarely. The only one I can think of recently is Alpha Complex for Paranoia. I'm planning a Justice Legacy game in the DC universe, but it's 2029 and mostly homemade changes to the existing setting. My D&D 3.5 games are all homebrew settings, and I've run some games within a fictionalized version of the real world.

Oh, and Star Wars!

[EccentricCircle]

I pretty much exclusively use settings of my own devising. World building and setting design is one of my main hobbies, and D&D is a good way of sharing that with others. I think the only games i've run in their established world were things like Star Wars and Rogue Trader, where the world is an essential part of the game, but I generally don't find such games as interesting to run, so have only done a few one shots.

That doesn't mean that I ignore all campaign setting books though. I read a vast number of setting sourcebooks and draw inspiration liberally from everything. I'd just far rather put my own spin on things and weave ideas into my own world.

I also set all of my games in the same continuity, albeit spread over multiple eras, continents and in the cases of a couple of campaigns, planets. By having things in the same world I can draw on elements i've created in one game to inform others, and since i've been developing that setting for over a decade now my long time players get the occasional reference to things their previous characters did, or knew about.

[Kiero]

I should add, even when we use pre-written campaign settings, we never use modules (ie canned/pre-written adventures).

[Calen]

I have run one campaign set in the Halo universe, everything else has been home-brewed.

[GungHo]

I steal ideas and things. For example, I liked the androids, warforged, and other "magitech" items in both Eberron and Pathfinder, so I adapted them into my own campaign. I'll file off serial numbers, but if someone asks me, "hey, isn't this 'really' a warforged", I'll confirm that yeah, It's "really" a warforged, but they're also "really" playing a Thrall, so lighten up.

[Angel Bob]

Never. That is to say, I never use a premade campaign setting out of a campaign book. I always develop my own continents, regions, villages, kingdoms, sometimes even pantheons.

However, I do use the sourcebooks' material on other planes and the Underdark, because it would be such a shame to let all that wonderful and fantastic worldbuilding to go to waste.

[Palegreenpants]

In one of my first experiences DMing, I used the Forgotten Realms. However, after gaining some experience, I found that I could create a vastly superior experience in a setting of my own creation. Of course, using a totally original setting with almost no reference to stereotypical D&D themes was a big issue with the players. Now, though, it is excellent.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

In D&D I use the Forgotten Realms setting and with new players I run classic modules so they learn that reference point (I'm about to kick off Desert of Desolation with all new players). With experienced players I create my own plotlines and modules.

In most of GURPS (excepting Supers) I am all homebrew.

[Narren]

I've done both. I enjoy creating a campaign setting, but I have to admit that my two most successful campaigns took place within the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance campaign settings. My players enjoy reading the vast amount of material that's available for both and finding some way to incorporate it into the game.

[HolyCouncilMagi]

Dragonlance is exclusively the only pre-made setting I'm ever willing to use, and only after significant filling-out of details on my part. None of the other settings are really up to snuff in terms of inherent story potential and the desired themes I like to have in my games. Then again, I don't usually run games, and I've never really made a setting that truly stood up to my own standards, either... I'm not good at worldbuilding. :smalltongue:

[mephnick]

Never. That is to say, I never use a premade campaign setting out of a campaign book. I always develop my own continents, regions, villages, kingdoms, sometimes even pantheons.

However, I do use the sourcebooks' material on other planes and the Underdark, because it would be such a shame to let all that wonderful and fantastic worldbuilding to go to waste.

I'm the same. I use my own continents/countries etc, but keep the underdark and other planes from D&D.

I'm not wasting time designing an underground or cosmos when they're already there and might hardly get used. I'm busy enough filling my kingdoms and wilderness.

[Zalphon]

Never have I run a pre-made. The most I've ever used is the core deities and races to make it simpler for players.

Edit: And Underdark/Planes.

[Aidan305]

Once I would have used my own setting when running a campaign. These days however I prefer to take existing material and modify it to suit my needs.

[Brookshw]

The only one I generally use is Planescape and that's because it's so open ended, and even then I don't mind taking a chainsaw to parts when they're inconvenient to the campaign I'd like to run. I used to have fun running DS and FR but ultimately ended up feeling they crippled my freedom to do what I wanted with the campaign world unless I wanted to change them to the point I may as well not be using them. For non D&D systems such as Shadowrun they're generally not as bad, comes down to the system and what it supports to some extent.

[BrokenChord]

They're pre-made... By me. :smalltongue:

That is to say, I make my own settings except in the explicit case that a group of my players wants to try a setting they heard about, but I don't make one per campaign. I like to flesh out my settings to the point that they're usable for an extremely wide range of campaign types. And once that's done, well, why not run a bunch of campaigns? I don't get when people use one-off settings unless they're improvising the setting as they go along.

[BeerMug Paladin]

I just mostly make my own campaign settings and I have never run a module of any kind before. Obviously with things like Call of Cthulhu, the campaign setting is largely inherent to the game. It's kind of default to the game. The only question is when in time you are running things.

In fantasy worlds, when I get an idea for something interesting, it's best handled in its own campaign setting anyway. Partly because I'm not familiar enough with the various settings out there and partly because my ideas probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense in any already established setting.

Plus, I like coming up with interesting visuals and concepts for settings. That's a big part of the fun of it.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

In addition to Pathfinder organized play, which of course is set in Golarion, I've run one campaign, a Star Wars campaign. Most games I've played besides that have been: one homebrew Pathfinder game, one World of Darkness, one Palladium Fantasy, and currently a Rolemaster. The first was the only one not in a campaign setting. The campaign I am cooking up now is a mix of homebrew and Golarion: While it takes place in the same universe, it is set on a completely new world of my own making. Taking stuff from Golarion and putting it on my world is part of the plot.

[Forrestfire]

I generally alternate between grabbing bits and pieces of established settings (the Great Wheel first and foremost), making up a setting, or running in one. I'm currently DMing two games in custom settings, one in Eberron, and a planned one in Greyhawk, so I guess I use a general mix.