I've been thinking a lot about homebrew worlds recently. I'm currently running a game in a homebrew world which has gone through one or two iterations already (and many more minor changes), and (after making the world bigger) the area in which we are playing is about 1/6th of the continent.
I'm also currently working on another homebrew, in my spare time. It's pretty much completely different. Different gods, races, themes, cultures, major geographical features, and so on. The first world was kinda classic(ish) D&D, while I'm trying some new things with the second one. Some themes from the first homebrew are still present in the new one, with some that I didn't fully explore gaining more of a focus.
I've seen on some threads here that some other people also have more than one homebrew world, so I thought I'd start a discussion about it.
Do you have more than one homebrew world?
Why did you make the second one?
How similar or different are the worlds?
Do you run different games in both worlds at the same time or has one world effectively replaced the other?
I look forward to hearing the responses. I think this could be interesting :)
Definitely a yes to the more than homebrew question!
To me there are various ways a D&D campaign can be run... "classic" fantasy, high fantasy, low magic, etc., and no one world can encompass all of these things.
As a DM who enjoys at different times and for different groups various different campaign types, I need more than one homebrew.
Mine include:
Greenstone = a "high" fantasy homebrew setting, basically a fairy-tale island for my kids' campaign (ages 11,11 and 8)... very simple plot (the evil Witch-Queen and the quest for six treasures needed to defeat her)... the island has a "rainbow" theme, with a colour for each realm:
Red = The Witch-Queen and the goblins of Bloodrock Castle
Orange = The dwarven realm of Deepheart
Yellow = The horesmen of Ruhn
Green = The elven forests of Llandor
Blue = The pirate isles of Narabar
Indigo = The giant realm of Nordheim
Violet = The human kingdom of Highcrest
Silverdawn = an expansion of Greenstone, looks beyond the island map to include several continents.... this is a sequel for the kids campaign, and uses the Drow War trilogy of adventures from Mongoose.
Goldenstar = a classic fantasy setting used as base for the DCC series of adventures for an adult gaming group... basically just a western continent with rumours of what my lie futher afield. Used for a "now and again" campaign and for good old fashioned dungeon crawls.
Black Coast = a low fantasy setting as a base for Freeport and its pirate adventures... I love Freeport, especially with the new sourcebook, but I didn't like the default world that Green Ronin made for the city, so created my own... again just one continent.
And yes... the colour theme has stuck throughout... my surname is Green, and a mate with the surname Stone helped on the kids' world, so Greenstone seemed cool. After that it just kinda felt right to stick with the colours...
... which is why I'm now eyeing out Goodman Games' uber-dungeon crawl Whiterock...
So many campaigns, such little time!
Definitely a yes to the more than homebrew question!
To me there are various ways a D&D campaign can be run... "classic" fantasy, high fantasy, low magic, etc., and no one world can encompass all of these things.
As a DM who enjoys at different times and for different groups various different campaign types, I need more than one homebrew.
Yeah, good point. That's sort of my thinking too. It strains things a bit trying to pack all types of fantasy into one world. It's cool that the colour theme has continued throughout yours. I've noticed that some themes survive even the most thorough changes and revisions in my worlds and become mainstays.
My first world, Syrinos, is one large continent with a different climate in each area, and pretty much standard D&D with some supplements and house rules. I've only run games in the plains/grasslands area so far, but there's rivers, oceans, mountains, volcanoes, etc. around there that I've used.
The one I'm working on at the moment is an island-based low-magic kinda one (more like, less magic items than lower spellcasting power) with a lot more house rules to change the basics, adding things like defence bonuses and so on (seeing as its uncommon to wear armour when there's so much water around).
Do you have more than one homebrew world? Yes; effectively five primesWhy did you make the second one? gm boredom :) to introduce new cultures that would have evolved differently or would not make sense in the current world; each prime material has different ecologies though there are some constants; some major dieties; elves; some worlds dont have dwarves and stuff like that to let the players choose a new setting.
How similar or different are the worlds? some major themes are the same; ie the Cuthulu mythos is invading everywhere; some worlds have no evidence found of it yet to worlds that are almost completely lost or are lost and must be retaken. In my game they are the prime movers for all evil and corruption of any kind; they also generate all magic and most of the powers ie demons/devils/dieties; there are only a handful of dieties that exist outside and independant of them and they generally dont have or need worshipers. Sorry, cant spell Cuthulu and never could :) sad; yes I know.
Do you run different games in both worlds at the same time or has one world effectively replaced the other? Well, all the worlds exist at the same time, but are on different time lines, meaning major events take place on one world but not necessarily on another. One of my worlds is the major setting that most adventures take place on; this is the world most players are experienced with and is built on the mythos from our past; ie, GrecoRoman/Egyptian/Persian/Chinese/American Indian/Scandanavian as most people like to play from one of these areas they play in that world; if you want something else you would be from somewhere else. The main playing group has been to two prime worlds and know of two others; they have brought a diety from one world back to their world and they imported one diety from their world to another world so player interaction has direct impact on events.
I look forward to hearing the responses. I think this could be interesting :)
The trick I used when I created my homebrew world was to make it infinite; it's more of a plane than a world.
Within certain guidelines, I'm free to incorporate and design as I see fit...
hmm, thought this thread would take off and get more action.
hmm, thought this thread would take off and get more action.
Same. Seemed like an interesting topic that others would have comments on. Hmm... maybe there's still hope?
In another thread I posted about why I didn't want to switch to Pathfinder yet, and - in a nutshell - it's because of the ties to my homebrew world and the history that's been built up there as we've played.
Thinking about it more though - part of the inspiration for this thread - made me realise something which should have been obvious: I don't have to switch and never come back to my homebrew, I can run multiple worlds. I could run my homebrew, Pathfinder, and my new homebrew (once it's done) and all would have different themes, feelings, and in some cases, even rules. This seems more appealing to me that plunking Golarion down as a new continent (or continents) in my existing homebrew world, especially when I'm using extra races (or in the case of the new homebrew I'm developing, using humans from the PHB and all the rest are homebrew races).
I've run at least 6 or 7 different homebrew worlds, with at least 3-4 different sets of players, depending on what me and the players were in the mood for. One was my longstanding Aviona campaign (ca. 1981-present, standard fantasy); another was set in the gritty, gang-infested urban-based city of Taiphar (more of a steampunk flavor); the Deimos campiagn features characters who were former operatives of an overrun nation, set in a Cold War-like border area; the Selinor campaign was like Robin Hood meets The Jungle Book; the Yath campaign featured a wilderness frontier (the characters were remnants left at the fort after the army pulled out); and we've run modern-era campaign arcs and even a diceless campaign in Zelazny's Amber universe. All of these had the potential to "bleed into" each other when one campaign ended or was set aside, but we wanted some of the characters to continue elsewhere. Abandoning the "Great Wheel" and adopting an Amber-like cosmology made this extremely simple to accomplish.
I inserted the Age of Worms into the Aviona campaign, as it was consistent with current events already in motion there; the new Savage Tide we'll probably keep in Greyhawk, unless the players want to make a homebrew out of it (if so, that's cool by me); and if (when?) I run Runelords, I'll probably use the setting as written by Paizo, just to try it out. Really, why tie yourself down?
Abandoning the "Great Wheel" and adopting an Amber-like cosmology made this extremely simple to accomplish.
For those interested, we allow a "Power Over Shadow" feat and an associated Shadow Walking skill, potentially allowing characters to move between campaign worlds. This grew organically out of our multi-campaign/Amber cosmology games; I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.