Are these forums the homebrewiest?

[Eldan]

This forum really only misses one homebrew aspect, and it's the one I would probably need the most... adventures. Seriously. I can write a half-way functioning campaign world, my NPCs are probably good enough, but somehow, I'm totally unable to make a working adventure. It usually takes the PCs half an hour to get stuck before the entire thing breaks down when I write one.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

There are the Base Class contests by Lord Gareth and the Potpourri contests by DaTedinator.

Have a link?

Remind me and I'll enter.

You got it.

[Oslecamo]

This forum really only misses one homebrew aspect, and it's the one I would probably need the most... adventures. Seriously. I can write a half-way functioning campaign world, my NPCs are probably good enough, but somehow, I'm totally unable to make a working adventure. It usually takes the PCs half an hour to get stuck before the entire thing breaks down when I write one.

Well the problem it's that more than anything else in D&D players will try to break the adventure. They'll do unexpected things, ask questions to wich you don't know the answer, and part of being a good DM means being able to deal with that.

So for homebrewed adventurers you would need to do one of the following.
-Assume the DM can improsive stuff in the fly to fill holes, wich means it has high chance of geting stuck anyway.
-State everything and anything on a 100 mile radius of the aventure so whatever the players choose to do it's covered, ending up with an encycplopedia that few people will have patience or time to read.
-Make just a few paths, and the players can't get away from them no matter what they do due to mighty enemies/ immovable obstacles, wich can easily end in railroading.

But meh, I may give it a shot anyway. Sounds like a good challenge!

[Zaydos]

Wasn't there a vote up an adventure thread once? I think I saw one, but I never payed much attention to it (I prefer to make my own).

[Vaynor]

Perhaps. Yet somehow I feel this is almost entirely in jest.

Also, I'll point out that, while we're not elitist about being good, we do have some very good homebrewers. They're just nice about it, and willing to help people who are new to the hobby. Being non-elitist doesn't mean we can't acknowledge the people who really know what they're doing.

Probably best to let the topic die down. That said, I think we're all safely within the non-elitist zone here, although this is as far as I'd go. We're just offering our opinions on who we think are good homebrewers.

I'm aware that it's in jest. However, there's a very big difference between saying a poster is really good at homebrewing to saying that the poster is better than another poster at homebrewing. Like you said, probably best to let the topic die down.

[Knaight]

Still, as long as there isn't an attitude of "that person is a better homebrewer than you, no criticism from you", its not worth worrying about. I would be a tier 6 or so homebrewer*, but when I point out flaws in Fax's work I don't get verbally attacked by everyone for criticizing him. Besides, the tiers seemed to have more to do with quantity of work than quality.

*At least in regards to D&D, here.

[Eldan]

Well the problem it's that more than anything else in D&D players will try to break the adventure. They'll do unexpected things, ask questions to wich you don't know the answer, and part of being a good DM means being able to deal with that.


But meh, I may give it a shot anyway. Sounds like a good challenge!

My problem is that even if I have a city statted out (I often do), have encounters and dozens of NPCs planned and improvise everything else, the PCs never seem to be able to get to the end of my own adventures, but do it quite fine if I take a pre-made one and rewrite it extensively by adding two dozen new NPCs and a lot of new locations.

[Fax Celestis]

but when I point out flaws in Fax's work I don't get verbally attacked by everyone for criticizing him.

Flaws? My work is flawless what are you talking about

No, in all seriousness, I frequently miss stuff that I shouldn't, by mere virtue of focusing too much on the complex bits that I forget the little stuff. Case in point: I forgot the proficiencies line for the warlord 3.0 when I posted it.

[Glimbur]

Have a link?

Sure. The base class challenge is in voting at the moment, but there's the current contest. In case Gareth is reading this, I feel that next time a shorter time frame would be helpful... it's easy to procrastinate and we can keep up a faster pace than this contest required.

The potpourri contest is also in voting. It has less of a history than the other contests, but I think we have seen some really cool stuff come from it.

[Vaynor]

Sure. The base class challenge is in voting at the moment, but there's the current contest. In case Gareth is reading this, I feel that next time a shorter time frame would be helpful... it's easy to procrastinate and we can keep up a faster pace than this contest required.

I think my attempted class shows this perfectly. I had so much time I didn't worry about it, then never actually finished it.

[Knaight]

Flaws? My work is flawless what are you talking about

The missed question mark at the end was a nice touch. And of course your work is flawless, I'm part of the editing process.

[Gralamin]

I'm not saying it's not exciting anymore or anything, but not of lot 4e HB, but really, it's better here than it is at WotC's; man the Homebrew is dead there, with all the Chicken Littling from Essentials, and the really odd holier than thou attitudes of posters for trying to break the mold.

I've got something in the works for 4e. There is no point in making classes in the power system anymore, in my opinion, since it is covered so well by the existing classes. This means that homebrewers should push what the system is capable of, and that is the entire point of the class I'm currently working on.

[Ceiling009]

Well, the way the powers system works, is that while a lot of archetypes are covered in the base classes through phb1-3, is that the front loading is what changes. And role mechanics, and how wacky you get with that.
- Like a ranged defender?
- Melee Controller?
- or weird leaders?

Classes it seems are notoriously difficult in 4e, most due to the 70+ powers you gotta make to even contemplate making a single class. Anyway, I feel that at least the 4e folks here at least try. At other boards, it's more or less a lost cause.

[Realms of Chaos]

He always makes up really cool new mechanics, which leads to unbalance, but is very interesting.

WEEEEEE, I'M UNBALANCED!!!!

[Lix Lorn]

As long as no-one starts saying I have a reputation...

[DragoonWraith]

And now I have Chrissie Hines stuck in my head.

[Symmys]

I wish I had a group so I could use some of the awesome homebrew on these boards...

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I wish I had a group so I could use some of the awesome homebrew on these boards...

There's the online RPG part of these forums, which, in my experience, often allows homebrew work.

[Zaydos]

I know I'm more likely to allow homebrew from these forums than say D&D wiki. There are multiple reasons such as:
1) it is written legibly and normally has all its abilities actually rendered in a way which is readable.
2) the PEACHing process tends to make it much better balanced.
3) There's a decent chance I've read it already and don't have to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how it can be broken because I've already done that.
4) A lot of it is so cool I want to see it used.

Also now I'm wondering if I have a reputation...

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

I know I'm more likely to allow homebrew from these forums than say D&D wiki. There are multiple reasons such as:
1) it is written legibly and normally has all its abilities actually rendered in a way which is readable.
2) the PEACHing process tends to make it much better balanced.
3) There's a decent chance I've read it already and don't have to spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how it can be broken because I've already done that.
4) A lot of it is so cool I want to see it used.

5) The D&D Wiki is a synonym for "poorly balanced with little quality control."

*one man's opinion*

[Temotei]

5) The D&D Wiki is a synonym for "poorly balanced with little quality control."

*one man's opinion*

That sort of fits in with number two, but...yeah. Poor D&D Wiki.

[DragoonWraith]

There is that other Wiki, the dungeons.wikia one, which is significantly superior to the old one. I haven't really perused the site, so I can't really speak for the balance/quality of everything on it, but at the least I know the admins were pretty aggressive about quality control ("You need to rewrite this; it's almost unreadable. If you don't at least acknowledge the problem and state intention to rewrite it, we'll have to delete this article in a week" or something along those lines). I know I did get some pretty solid PEACHing on the stuff I posted there.

[Fax Celestis]

There is that other Wiki, the dungeons.wikia one, which is significantly superior to the old one. I haven't really perused the site, so I can't really speak for the balance/quality of everything on it, but at the least I know the admins were pretty aggressive about quality control ("You need to rewrite this; it's almost unreadable. If you don't at least acknowledge the problem and state intention to rewrite it, we'll have to delete this article in a week" or something along those lines). I know I did get some pretty solid PEACHing on the stuff I posted there.

There is the other other wiki too.

[DragoonWraith]

Heh, I've never gotten any PEACHes there.

[Samm]

There is the other other wiki too.

That is neat. I wonder when I'll have made enough homebrew to deserve a place on that....

[DragoonWraith]

It's not merit-based, you just have to ask...

[Samm]

It's not merit-based, you just have to ask...

Maybe when it gets too large to fit in my signature.

[watsyurname529]

5) The D&D Wiki is a synonym for "poorly balanced with little quality control."

*one man's opinion*

Hey, I have stuff on there that I tried very hard to make balanced. Some of which comes from these forums because I posted them in both places.

Otherwise, yes, there can be quite a bit of... let's just say low quality items...

[Reverent-One]

They've redesigned 90% of 4e edition just two years after the launch, meaning unless you pay their monthal online subscrition to get the updates errata the new products will be incopatible with your old 4e material.

I'm only touching this one because it's a blatant falsehood I see way too much. For the record, the updates/errata/whatever you want to call them are completely free. This link takes you to the complete updates for every book. You only need to spend money to get things like the character builder and the online rules compendium.

[Jogi]

This forum really only misses one homebrew aspect, and it's the one I would probably need the most... adventures. Seriously. I can write a half-way functioning campaign world, my NPCs are probably good enough, but somehow, I'm totally unable to make a working adventure. It usually takes the PCs half an hour to get stuck before the entire thing breaks down when I write one.

I agree. No adventures here. Im with this fellow: I wish I could write good adventures. I'd post them ^^!