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Xeratos
2013-07-06, 02:20 PM
It seems like almost everyone here has their own homebrew setting in various states of (in)completion. My question is this: what is it about the already published settings/rule sets don't you like? What drives you to invest time into such a massive project as crafting a game from scratch? It would certainly be simpler and much less effort to house rule some changes to an already existing system, yet so many people (including myself) want to design something from the ground up. What are your reasons for doing this?

Eldan
2013-07-06, 04:56 PM
There's nothing I explicitely dislike about most settings. Some are very good.

Personally, I just like writing. And I can't write fiction at all, so I write descriptions. That's the basis of it. Everything beyond that is just getting an idea that hasn't been done yet.

The Rose Dragon
2013-07-06, 05:08 PM
Two reasons.

1) The need: Unfortunately, if you have a personal setting, and if you are not willing to hack a generic system, you are unlikely to find a published system that fits the setting you have in mind. A lot of systems come with assumptions about the kind of game that they can run, and you might not want the whole package. For example, by the time I was done hacking Mutants & Masterminds for a wuxia setting, I had already reached about forty pages of alterations, exceptions and additions. It would have been much easier to write forty pages of wuxia rules instead.

2) The want: Sometimes, you just want to work the game theorist in you. I worked on at least three dice systems just to see how the probabilities would work and what kind if games I could do with them. There was nothing wrong with the other systems I had, I just wanted an alternate, and I had one by the time I was done. Now one of those dice systems has become my go-to convention game.

DoomHat
2013-07-06, 05:21 PM
There is no such thing as Best, at least not in a general sense.
People develop their own RPGs for the same reasons chiefs try new recipes and painters use a variety of tools.

Different things work for different genres for different reasons according to different tastes.

Deepbluediver
2013-07-06, 08:39 PM
...What are your reasons for doing this?
It's a combination of factors:

First, I prefer to play in a reasonably balanced setting, and 3.5/PF is far FAR from that. Obviously there is a degree of choice between player freedom (it's tough to play James Bond and Thor in the same game) and mechanical balance, but I like at least having the option to build characters of roughly equal power levels, and for their not to be traps of such extreme variance.

Secondly, I find the creativity involved to be fun. Reading what other people write, modifying, and adding my own little touches is an enjoyable process. I used to write fanfiction, too.
Even if no one ever uses any of my fixes, I would still do them just for that alone.

Next, tying into the previous point, I like making things work. I get the same feeling of satisfaction when I'm working with something mechanical. Seeing it all come together and run smoothly gives me a deeper feeling of satisfaction, like I've accomplished something long-term, as opposed to just patching the existing structure.

Finally, posting fixes and homebrew on a forum, and discussing them with others who do the same makes me feel like part of a community. When people say things like "hey, I really like what you did here", or "this is an interesting concept but what about..." it can very satisfactory and inclusive.


Those are the main points, I think, as best as I can articulate them. At least for me; I'm sure other people will offer their own explanation.

valadil
2013-07-06, 09:57 PM
Why homebrew?

I'm a creative person and I like making things.

I've gamed since I was 12. I'm 30 now. That's a lot of time playing and a lot of time GMing. Obviously I enjoy the hobby, but it's hard for me to get excited about playing a new RPG. Writing a system on the other hand is new ground for me to discover.

Quantity. By which I mean I've come up with a lot of rules ideas. The one that got my current system started replaces dice with bidding tokens. I could gut D&D and use this instead. But I've come up with a lot more mechanics along the way. I've got attributes that increase as they're used. I've got an encumbrance system that makes it matter where you stash which item without ever asking you to total the weight of your backback. I've got different attack types for each attribute to encourage balance over minmaxing. I've got enough rules that it's actually less work to fill in what's missing than to rewrite D&D to work with what I've got. (Of course I don't expect all of the ideas to be good. I figure if 10% of them are, I can keep those and graft them onto another system. Testing these rules in a single homebrew RPG lets me try them all at once instead of starting up a new campaign each time I want to test drive an idea.)

Curiosity. I'm probably not good enough at this to have done it professionally. I'm okay with that. But I'd like to find out just how good I am at it. Anyone can sit around and think they'd make a good game designer, but one has to actually design a game to find out for sure.

Xeratos
2013-07-06, 10:36 PM
Secondly, I find the creativity involved to be fun. Reading what other people write, modifying, and adding my own little touches is an enjoyable process. I used to write fanfiction, too.
Even if no one ever uses any of my fixes, I would still do them just for that alone.

I can definitely get behind that one. Probably so can everyone else. I too like to write, and I've found that I actually enjoy crafting a setting far more than a new ruleset, but I've been annoyed by d&d's ... ahem... issues... enough times that I started compiling my own set as well.


Curiosity. I'm probably not good enough at this to have done it professionally. I'm okay with that. But I'd like to find out just how good I am at it. Anyone can sit around and think they'd make a good game designer, but one has to actually design a game to find out for sure.

Me neither, but wouldn't that be great? I wonder how one gets into a career in table top game design?

Rephath
2013-07-08, 12:26 PM
The major reason people homebrew is because they like homebrewing and don't feel like building a new system from scratch. Or they get an idea that won't go away until it is written down and shared. It's a creative impulse. But there's a reason you'll see it more in D&D.

One of the problems with D&D is it's a very rigid system. Let's say I want to play a paladin who has the swords of justice and mercy that he dual wields. But paladins can't dual wield. So I have to multiclass as a ranger and that's a pain. Or I can cobble together some rules that allow for the Paladin of Two Swords.

Now, let's say I want to be a 4e Warlock, but who gets her powers from an ancient dragon. I need to write up a whole new pact path.

In systems like Dresden Files Fate, each new element exponentially expands what can be done in the setting, since players are able to combine special abilities to form their own characters and homebrewing is easy. In D&D, new elements linearly expand what is possible. So, adding a homebrew for a dual-wielding paladin doesn't add any possibilities for anyone else. So homebrews are difficult and don't add much so there's always room for more.

BWR
2013-07-08, 01:32 PM
What makes the best food?

Personally, I love tinkering. I haven't yet sat down to make my own system. I don't think I could if I tried, at least not one that wasn't a clone of something else. But I love tinkering. I love tinkering, adding on, removing, revamping, reworking, tweaking, adjusting, redesigning and remodeling.
Even when I decide to run things by the book, house rules come creeping in. Like mosquitoes, there's an annoying whine, then an itch that must be scratched.

The most work I've done so far was a classless/levelless variant of d20. It worked fairly well.
Runner up was a revamped Force system for Star Wars d20. The original and revised systems were interesting enough, but too limited, and I detest the skill and Force systems of SAGA, so I just adjusted the Revised system with a healthy helping of d6 SW. Now, Force users were powerful, not so limited as Revised, but not able to do everything.

For the most part, it's a combination of minor annoyances in the various systems, ones I can usually live with but would like to change, and gaping errors which really make a mechanic overpowered or too weak compared to what I feel it should be.