Home brewed games or GM brainchild?

[dmariz18]

Which do you, players and GMs both, prefer? Home brewed games where the setting and the game is completely the brainchild of the GM, home written games in a pre-existing setting, or an out of the box/book game published for purchase?

[Fyraltari]

No-one in my group has the chops to come up with a setting from scratch, so I'd say the last one by default.

[Cikomyr2]

I like a setting that can be shaped by the players actions, and not feel to be in a video game world where stuff is scripted a certain way.

So a homebrew world by default, but a pre existing setting where the DM has the balls to break canon is also good.

[Tarmor]

As mostly GM and only occasional player, I'll go with the second or the third option. I count the second being the best, but as a GM, time constraints mean an "out of the box" game can be a lot faster to setup and easier to run.
The first option is great, but it takes a heap of work and still has to appeal to the players.

Currently I'm running a major Pathfinder campaign set in a corner of the Greyhawk world. I've written a heap of my own material as background and legend that fits in with established Greyhawk lore, and the main dungeon is all my creation. I spent perhaps a year writing material before we started playing, and I'm still writing as we go. Since we've played much less in 2020, I'm getting further ahead of the players again. Thankfully, I'm the sort of person who happily writes heaps of background stuff that my players might not see or care about in normal games, so I'd probably still be writing even if we didn't play this campaign.