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Waker
2017-07-01, 02:00 PM
I started playing D&D a few months after 3rd ed came out. Since then I've spent countless hours adventuring, planning sessions and wasting entirely too much time on certain forums. Despite the fairly large number of available classes and ACFs, I still find myself occasionally longing for something more. Times where I think "This particular class could have been handled better" or "Why aren't there more..." which leads me into the uncharted depths of homebrewing.
Though I could be wrong in this assumption, I think the majority of DMs at some point or another create their own settings even if that do borrow many elements from published sources. Houserules are another aspect of the game that are often just assumed to present at any table. Outright creating new races, classes and other mechanical features though is somewhat less common. Part of the stigma could be associated with homebrewing sites that lack a robust community dedicated to helping each other edit their work. Still others might have stories where a player/DM unveiled some poorly written monstrosity that paid no mind to the concept of balance. Fears about how homebrew classes abilities might combine with the enormous quantity of existing material are also common. Whatever the reason, many gamers lack enthusiasm to allow homebrewed material at their tables.
This leads to many problems, but one of which is when I find some really cool concept and now can't play it. Sure, I can always run at as a DM, but it isn't quite the same compared to being a player.

Before I go any further, I should explain what this thread isn't about. If you hate homebrew, wanna talk about horror stories of the time someone wrecked a game with homebrew or anything else, then this isn't the thread for you. On the other hand, while we are gonna talk about homebrewing, this thread isn't meant to be a request page for soliciting help constructing classes or whatever. If that's what you are looking for, your best bet is to actually go into the Homebrew section.
What the thread is about is talking about some of the thought processes that go into homebrewing/worldbuilding, what motivates you and if you wanna talk about any works in particular that you would really like to play.

I'll start off by asking what sort of things catch your attention when you are looking for homebrewed content?

Cluedrew
2017-07-01, 02:16 PM
Original Systems

I am more on the side of specialized systems, in that a system specialized for a particular type of game will handle that game better than a generic system (and better than a different specialized game expanded to cover a different area). So I love finding system that is tuned for something really weird. Also homebrew systems tend to be a bit smaller and so you can pick them up faster. Some of them are terrible, but those usually are unfinished and you can pick those out quickly.

Geigan
2017-07-01, 02:34 PM
From the perspective of 3.5, mostly as a player.

-Stuff that lets me expands on subsystems I find interesting in new and exciting ways. Homebrew ToB disciplines for instance, along with additional initiator classes. New invocation using classes tend to be somewhat interesting. A handful of others.

-Entirely new subsystems that are well thought out and have their own internal coherency, assuming the GM is willing to go along with it. A lot of things SirPercival has ever produced for instance.

-Ways to play things that are not normally available/viable options. Monster classes tend to be the big one here. +0 LA races aren't typically necessary, as 3.5 had more than enough of those.

-Very rarely, things that expand overall options or negate restrictions that the GM agrees are nonsense. Redone versions of certain feats/spells/etc. There was this one sort of trait subsystem that my group was fond of that added little commonly necessary ability score switching mechanics to a lot of builds that I lost the link to in the recent MinMax switch.

As a GM there's not much stopping me from already homebrewing things to suit my tastes amongst monsters/challenges, but you have to be careful about perceived fairness between player options and GM options sometimes. I would argue that creating/adjudicating mechanical features to make certain challenges more interesting is almost required amongst GMs to break up mechanical monotony occasionally. This is less common if you're used to adventure paths where various little challenge subsystems and mechanics come into play, but it's still nice to occasionally add your own spice to otherwise tepid encounters.

Recently I have to admit I've stopped looking at homebrew entirely, as my group's switched to Pathfinder and we didn't want to overcomplicate the new system with all the additional content. We already allowed complete 3.5 backporting and are generally tolerant of most 3rd party content, so I doubt we'll see much more at my table for awhile yet until things get stagnant again. Not that I have anything against homebrew personally. I still appreciate having gotten to use that content freely for a time, and I expect it will happen again later at some point.

Yora
2017-07-01, 02:36 PM
My approach to custom rules is that I am not running a system, but I am running a world using an adapted version of a system.

My campaign is not a D&D campaign but an Ancient Lands campaign using a customized version of the B/X edition of D&D.

Waker
2017-07-01, 08:12 PM
Original Systems

I am more on the side of specialized systems, in that a system specialized for a particular type of game will handle that game better than a generic system (and better than a different specialized game expanded to cover a different area). So I love finding system that is tuned for something really weird. Also homebrew systems tend to be a bit smaller and so you can pick them up faster. Some of them are terrible, but those usually are unfinished and you can pick those out quickly.
What are some examples of really weird systems?



-Entirely new subsystems that are well thought out and have their own internal coherency, assuming the GM is willing to go along with it. A lot of things SirPercival has ever produced for instance.

-Ways to play things that are not normally available/viable options. Monster classes tend to be the big one here. +0 LA races aren't typically necessary, as 3.5 had more than enough of those.
These are some of the big reasons for me. Finding something new can be a lot of fun. I do also like finding those times where the brewer improves upon an existing system. An example of some of my favorite homebrew is Kellus's take on Truenaming (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?90961-The-Way-Words-Work-(or-Truenaming-that-doesn-t-make-me-cry-myself-to-sleep-at-night))
Not to mention that finding some ways to play a concept are really tricky. Sure, I can play a T1 class while ignoring 90% of the class features and take a couple odd feats to complete my concept by mid level. Or I could just play a homebrew class that does it at level 1.

Cluedrew
2017-07-01, 08:25 PM
My favourite weird rules system is Roll for Shoes (http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/438050). The entire rule system is composed of 7 rules and leads to the most dynamic characters I have ever seen.

Waker
2017-07-01, 08:47 PM
My favourite weird rules system is Roll for Shoes (http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/comment/438050). The entire rule system is composed of 7 rules and leads to the most dynamic characters I have ever seen.

Saved for later reading.

Mendicant
2017-07-02, 12:41 PM
My approach to custom rules is that I am not running a system, but I am running a world using an adapted version of a system.

Ditto. I homebrew classes, races, feats and whatever else in order to fit the system to the setting as much as possible, though the system inevitably informs the setting as well.

Darth Ultron
2017-07-02, 02:00 PM
I'll start off by asking what sort of things catch your attention when you are looking for homebrewed content?

*Missing things that should have been made already.

*I really like the more simple things with nice twists to them, like a spell that makes a door transparent for one round so you can see what is behind it.

*Things that stick to the game rules without breaking them and don't require whole new subsystems to use.

*Things with a good amount of detail.

BWR
2017-07-02, 03:57 PM
I very rarely look at other people's homebrew but do a fair amount myself with the intent to run it as GM or just as an intellectual exercise. Most of what I do boils down to altering existing material to make it more to my liking or converting stuff from older editions, with very little genuinely new stuff. I used to do a lot more of that too for a couple of systems but there is so much stuff in Pathfinder (the system I run the most) that I rarely need to do more than tinker. The one really big original (if heavily inspired by other things) work I did was a Force system for SWd20R, which turned out moderately well if my players' feedback is to be believed.

I cannot recall much by the way of homebrew I've done as a player. Mostly, I respect the GM's wishes on how they want to run the game and don't want to bug them overly much with this new 'cool' thing I just thought up. In fact, certain house rules aside, the only instance I can think of off hand of homebrew I asked for was a custom instrument that could turn into any other instrument, with the self-imposed restriction that it could only be used for its intended purpose - no creating an organ and dropping it on people.

Waker
2017-07-02, 09:11 PM
I very rarely look at other people's homebrew but do a fair amount myself with the intent to run it as GM or just as an intellectual exercise.
Amusingly enough, despite the fact that I have brewed several classes, I never have actually used any of them. I have used a few other brewers works for NPCs though.


In fact, certain house rules aside, the only instance I can think of off hand of homebrew I asked for was a custom instrument that could turn into any other instrument, with the self-imposed restriction that it could only be used for its intended purpose - no creating an organ and dropping it on people.
But...dropping pianos on your foes is a time-honored tradition! Surely all those old cartoons haven't led me astray.