Homebrewing Habits and You

[Zaydos]

Wasn't exactly sure where this thread would be most appropriate, but I felt that since it was talking about habits and ways you go about homebrew this was the proper place to put it; let me know if I'm wrong (and I apologize ahead of time just in case)

So we're homebrewers here, or people who like homebrew, and that means we most likely have techniques and things we do when homebrewing. Things that, at least theoretically, help us to do so. So I thought I'd share mine and see if anyone wanted to share theirs. The habits we have when homebrewing, the things we do which help us, etc.

Personally I do a lot of the brewing when away from books, and (especially) internet/computer. Make me sit in the woods for a day and there's a decent chance I'll make 2 classes (Incarnation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?306621-So-you-want-to-play-a-god-%283-5-Base-Class-PEACH%29) and Courtier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?304975-Courtier-%28Base-Class-PEACH%29) to be precise). Largely it's an application of the principle that if I'm bored enough I will homebrew. At the same time taking a walk helps me think, and most classes involve at least some amount of walking in their creation (Jinnblood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?312765-Jinnblood-%28Base-Class-Contest-XIX-winner-PEACH%29) had the class and 50% of its invocations made on a single hike), so if I get stuck at a part of making a class I'll take a nice walk (or just walk the dog) and think it through.

Other things I do is drag my little brother off to talk to about the class, and even when he doesn't give advice (which he sometimes does) the act of talking about it makes certain things clearer.

Finally there's music, as this dragon (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9527850&postcount=392) might illustrate when it comes to actually writing it down, figuring out the fine details of abilities and wording, I tend to listen to a lot of heavy metal, and gather my books flipping from one to another looking up the closest official (or even Dragon Magazine) ability I can find. I have tried using other music (anime openings, 80s music, classical, violin covers of video game themes) but none seem to work for me as well as Heavy Metal. Even Blue Oyster Cult and their songs about Elric is less successful than Heavy Metal to get me actually working out the mechanics and hammering out the class, although BOC does succeed... although I never reposted that class from its contest iteration so don't have the link.

Another source of inspiration is Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, naturally. This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?226662-Born-a-Thousand-Times-%283-5-base-class-PEACH%29) was obviously inspired by Michael Moorcock but specifically came from The Black Blade, while most are not as clean cut or plagiaristic in their inspiration (for example Incarnation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?306621-So-you-want-to-play-a-god-%283-5-Base-Class-PEACH%29) was inspired by Zelasny's Amber series to some extent but primarily Van Vogt's The Book of Ptath and Dreamcraft (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?310533-From-my-dreams-my-shield-from-your-nightmares-my-sword-%283-5-Base-Class-PEACH%29&p=16274843#post16274843) I want to say had traces of Zelasny inspiration as well I can't say what it was).

So what about you all? Anything you've found helps you brew or is particularly good as sources of inspiration when you are in need of inspiration?

[mictrepanier]

I fill a gap ex; there is no rules to get a monster as race or just create a archetype for a genre not covered by PHB or DMG (ex: my musketeer or scout).

[Philemonite]

Personally I do a lot of the brewing when away from books, and (especially) internet/computer. Make me sit in the woods for a day and there's a decent chance I'll make 2 classes (Incarnation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?306621-So-you-want-to-play-a-god-%283-5-Base-Class-PEACH%29) and Courtier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?304975-Courtier-%28Base-Class-PEACH%29) to be precise). Largely it's an application of the principle that if I'm bored enough I will homebrew. At the same time taking a walk helps me think, and most classes involve at least some amount of walking in their creation (Jinnblood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?312765-Jinnblood-%28Base-Class-Contest-XIX-winner-PEACH%29) had the class and 50% of its invocations made on a single hike), so if I get stuck at a part of making a class I'll take a nice walk (or just walk the dog) and think it through.

Definitely this. My mind never stops working, so I usually direct it towards homebrew, because the alternative is not pretty. I have a couple of systems I made because I was bored at work and had limited Internet access. I always have a notebook handy, to write down my ideas. In the last few months I filled two and a half notebooks since I had nothing else to do. I'm gonna go do some homebrew, because I'm getting bored again.:smallbiggrin:

[Vortalism]

I consider myself a terrible judge of balance when working in a vacuum, so I end up having to reference other people's work constantly to make sure anything I make is not too outrageous or underpowered.

Actually I tend to work much better as a brewer when I just take mechanics that I like, remix them into a certain class chassis, and experiment. It's kind of the same process I have when I use to work with music. Incidentally, for music I work best when listening to some good Deep House, in fact anything with a kicking bass and House-like is usually fine.

When I present my classes to people (all my brews are for personal consumption btw) I often put tags that make it resemble some modern house remixes. e.g. Fighter (XX (brewer remix) (ft. XX, YY, ZZ brewers) to keep track of the stuff that I end up repurposing lol

I'm terribly unoriginal... :smallfrown:

[nonsi]

.
I never brew just for the sake of brewing.
With me, it's always about the big picture. I'm, always working to add pieces that will allow the creation of any and all character archetypes that pop to mind (well, at least anything that could fit a setting that predates the discovery of gunpowder).
Being a software person, I always aim for more options that revolve around generic foundations (e.g. I came up with the idea of THAC0, Fort-Ref-Will saves (even used the same names) and race-class separation back in the days when my first group played BD&D and we only had the read & blue boxed sets. To my disappointment, they adopted the first but rejected the others).

I go over official materials, game supplements, 3rd party publishing and homebrew forums.
Whenever I find something that seems related to a character archetype in some way or another, I write it down. Then I contemplate where it can fit in.
Sometimes I have dozens of half-baked ideas written down. From time to time inspiration lands on me and an idea takes form into something more concrete.
Sometimes, while processing an idea (which can be during almost any daily activity), the answers to other ideas are revealed.
I constantly correct past materials of mine, always striving for more options and an optimum level of balance.
I also have no problem throwing away past works for better alternatives.

[Jormengand]

Usually, I go "Someone wants an X. How can I make an X?" or "There should be an Y. How can I make a Y?" or "Z doesn't do what I want. How can I make a Z which does what I want?"

For example, a contest asks me to make something based on the end of the world, and I make the Cultist of the Apocalypse. The Honour Guard came from me wanting a bodyguard PC class. The Base Prestige Classes and the Worldspeaker are obvious fixes, sure, but Momentum was what happened when ToB supremely disappointed me.

Some things are where I see something awesome and want it to be a thing - the game I'm currently making has a spell called Kinetic Bombardment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment), just because the idea seems so awesome.

[jedipotter]

So what about you all? Anything you've found helps you brew or is particularly good as sources of inspiration when you are in need of inspiration?

I avoid the books as much as possible at first. When I come up with the idea, I write it all down. Then go see how sadly lame the book version is.....but maybe get an idea or two.

It drives me crazy how ''combat focused'' everything is. The class will be ''elemental dreamer who dreams on the elemental planes'' and the first level ability is +1d6 elemental damage. Sigh.

[Glimbur]

Mostly, I get inspired by contests (particularly the PrC contest). Then I poll a group of friends for ideas, take the weirdest one, and make it workable. I also did some work with Incarnum because I like the system, and I honed that by conversation with my brother. Maybe I should enter more contests...

[Zaydos]

I fill a gap ex; there is no rules to get a monster as race or just create a archetype for a genre not covered by PHB or DMG (ex: my musketeer or scout).

Yeah; when you come to that little gap that needs to be filled it just begs for you to do so.


I consider myself a terrible judge of balance when working in a vacuum, so I end up having to reference other people's work constantly to make sure anything I make is not too outrageous or underpowered.

Actually I tend to work much better as a brewer when I just take mechanics that I like, remix them into a certain class chassis, and experiment. It's kind of the same process I have when I use to work with music. Incidentally, for music I work best when listening to some good Deep House, in fact anything with a kicking bass and House-like is usually fine.

When I present my classes to people (all my brews are for personal consumption btw) I often put tags that make it resemble some modern house remixes. e.g. Fighter (XX (brewer remix) (ft. XX, YY, ZZ brewers) to keep track of the stuff that I end up repurposing lol

I'm terribly unoriginal... :smallfrown:

It's the balance judging which makes me reference books so much; though I've started doing it less as I've homebrewed more (mostly because I've learned more specific spells and the like). But the style you describe definitely sounds interesting, and I may need to try something similar at some point... *thinking*

And I'll take a look at Deep House... first off figuring out what it is.


.
I never brew just for the sake of brewing.
With me, it's always about the big picture. I'm, always working to add pieces that will allow the creation of any and all character archetypes that pop to mind (well, at least anything that could fit a setting that predates the discovery of gunpowder).
Being a software person, I always aim for more options that revolve around generic foundations (e.g. I came up with the idea of THAC0, Fort-Ref-Will saves (even used the same names) and race-class separation back in the days when my first group played BD&D and we only had the read & blue boxed sets. To my disappointment, they adopted the first but rejected the others).

I go over official materials, game supplements, 3rd party publishing and homebrew forums.
Whenever I find something that seems related to a character archetype in some way or another, I write it down. Then I contemplate where it can fit in.
Sometimes I have dozens of half-baked ideas written down. From time to time inspiration lands on me and an idea takes form into something more concrete.
Sometimes, while processing an idea (which can be during almost any daily activity), the answers to other ideas are revealed.
I constantly correct past materials of mine, always striving for more options and an optimum level of balance.
I also have no problem throwing away past works for better alternatives.

I would expect most people don't brew simply for the sake of brewing (I do but I assume that's an oddity), and even a six year old will think of race-class separation when presented with the Red Box.

That seems a higher emphasis on prior research than I normally perform, which is interesting. It seems like a fairly efficient system assuming you trawl homebrewing forums often enough. It would help to avoid forgetting ideas. And correcting past materials is... something I need to work on :smallredface: Some I've kind of thrown away for better alternatives but some are archetypes which while mechanically my later works are similar to are not really repeated and others are just... form-shifter.


Mostly, I get inspired by contests (particularly the PrC contest). Then I poll a group of friends for ideas, take the weirdest one, and make it workable. I also did some work with Incarnum because I like the system, and I honed that by conversation with my brother. Maybe I should enter more contests...

I go more for the Base Class Contest, but yeah contests are a great source of get up and go to make something and even just thinking about possible things to make for different themes can get you some good ones (still need to finish the Reality Warper or Stealth themed class I have half finished). And weird ideas are fun, me and my little brother started talking about them once over chicken wings and I ended up making Dream Crafter (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?310533-From-my-dreams-my-shield-from-your-nightmares-my-sword-%283-5-Base-Class-PEACH%29&p=16274843#post16274843) from someone who always had the rope/ladder/tool they needed, and at some point elements of the Raksha from Exalted and Roger Zelasny entered into the mix... Roger Zelasny usually seems to get mixed into my homebrew at some point. >> Need to tweak a few things about that class like who/what you can make things directly onto
<<

Some interestingly different takes on things in here :smallbiggrin:

[Milo v3]

I have two processes, thinking through stuff to see what could potentially be made and trying to get a setting to work how I want it.

The first method is something like where I'll go through all the classes in PF, and write down all the ideas for hybrid classes I could think of and then try to actually make the ones not already covered. This generally takes forever to actually do though.

The second method happens when I try to write up a setting, and these settings generally deviate from the standard game like being effectively Sci-Fi, having homebrew races, being set for modern times, etc. The latest was a setting where there is no good, evil, chaotic, or lawful and the alignments were replaced by the elements. But, to do this, I've put making templates for Half-Ignan creatures and Terran simple templates so that the summoning spells don't have to be severely rewritten.