Someone would run a game in "your" world, that you could play in? I just seem to end up fleshing out portions of the world, and really wishing I could play in them, but I DM most of the time, and the rest of my group seems to prefer either APs or the "default" PHB setting. And this after my group has our own private Wiki with most of my world published for use. Oi.
Nah, I don't have the time/inclination to create my own setting (I use Pathfinder), but I can see where you're coming from.
If I went through all the trouble of making my own gameworld, I'd like to play in it, too, and as a player, not a GM.
Of course, it would invite someone else to take the setting and change it...
yeah, and I'm kinda fine with that. I think that may be the biggest part of it from another's perspective, the fear of "breaking" the setting.
(odd that this got moved, but ok)
I run a campaign with my friends that is over 3 years old now. I've made multiple feats, base classes, prestige classes and spells for them and the NPC's to use.
Until you wrote it, it never occurred to me that I may never get the chance to play an agent, a brawler, a philosopher or an aristocrat using my designs.
Ignorance is bliss :(
Until you wrote it, it never occurred to me that I may never get the chance to play an agent, a brawler, a philosopher or an aristocrat using my designs.Ignorance is bliss :(
Oops. sorry to bust that bubble mang :(
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I've actually run adventures in a couple other people's campaigns.
The first was in the 90s. One of our gaming buddies with his own world (we all had our own worlds) introduced us to one of his NPC BBEGs in an adventure he was putting us through. . . . When it was my turn to DM (we rotated) I asked that Player if I could use his NPC BBEG (I liked it alot) and he said Sure, so long as I used the country that NPC was in -- so he gave me some more of his world info and I came up with the adventure to run.
The second was only a few years ago. I had joined a new group after I moved and entered into someone else's campaign world. I joined the campaign during the second half of a campaign and after only a few sessions that DM was really interested in me starting a campaign as DM after his campaign finished. . . . Well, the other Players in that group were mostly newbies who had only played in that DM's campaign world. So I just learned a bit more about his campaign and then started a campaign there when we finished the old campaign.
In a homebrew campaign several years ago, one of my player's expressed interest in DMing for the first time, in my world. I agreed--I never got to play a PC, back then--and she chose a little-developed portion on the map, detailed the heck out of it (towns, people, customs, monsters, etc.), and ran an adventure she created.
She did a really good job, especially having never DMed before! It was definitely interesting seeing my world through the creative perspective of someone besides myself.
When we concluded her adventure (it took about a month, real-time, to complete), she thanked me for the opportunity and asked me to continue DMing the campaign I had been running previously (she missed her PC!). She liked DMing, but felt it was way too much work.
My only complaint about the whole experience? Since I was only playing one character instead of the whole rest of the world, I felt like I wasn't "doing enough", lol.
@SuperTKO: I know, right?
Don't get me wrong: I've loved GMing over the years and had a great time doing it. But, it would be nice to play a PC more often.
I've done a little PbP--and that is pretty close--but for the most part I'm pretty much always the GM. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it just is.
On the bright side, after a couple players in my group ran (largely single-shots) as GM, they had a new respect for all the work that I've put into it, for the players' enjoyment. They didn't want to continue running, lol . . . but such is life!
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Someone would run a game in "your" world, that you could play in? I just seem to end up fleshing out portions of the world, and really wishing I could play in them, but I DM most of the time, and the rest of my group seems to prefer either APs or the "default" PHB setting. And this after my group has our own private Wiki with most of my world published for use. Oi.
Yes, it would be fun to experience at least once, I'd probably be too critical though.
After playing in and running games for 17 years, I've learned that the only person who will ever run the game you really want to play, is yourself.
I spent years developing campaigns that none of my players cared about as much as I did. Slowly, over time, I've stopped trying to design the perfect campaign for myself and started trying to really determine what sort of things my players respond to.
Now I have more fun running than playing. My players seem to prefer my games to other DMs'. I invest a lot of time into making the game into something that is as close as possible to what my players would think of as the ideal game and I am rewarded with player loyalty and enthusiasm.
I kind of doubt I'll ever get to play in a Planescape game or in any of the Adventure Paths that particularly appeal to me, but it's okay, my DM expectations are probably way too high now.
A friend guest GMed my game 30+ years back, I played a regular npc. Had a blast! Got several insights into the ongoing storyline I had not thought of.
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I had a friend DM a campaign in my setting once (still a developing setting both then and now). I let him make up stuff as long as it didn't blatantly defy already established canon (of which there wasn't a lot) and it ended up good. I had only run one campaign in the setting before that (got to 10th level), but it was enough for people to become familiar with a couple main locations I had created, which the next DM ran with for another 10-level campaign.
EDIT: Interestingly enough I had (without ever having seen any Pathfinder setting material) created a kingdom named Varicia in my setting (note the differing spelling).
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I understand where your coming from, I am the sole DM for my group and the only other that would DM probably wouldn't be super great as he would just let us all walk over him(or his world)....
But anyways I have had the "I want to be a player..." blues and to solve this I alway play an npc in my game, this can be super fun, at least for me cause I have no problem not meta-gaming cause of my ocd of theatrics about playing true to a concept character ^_^ (As a side dm note playing a party npc you can hook the party with any adventure hook EVER even if its NPC: Hey guys look a dungeon!I'm going in to search around!)
I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones. I started playing D&D when I was 8, and started my campaign setting (Stonehelm) when I was 16. Over the years it has grown, transformed, and deepened in culture, details, specs, and the like (I'm almost 36). I've played with primarily the same group that whole time, so we've all seen my world grow and evolve, both from my own doing, and the results of campaigns, and my friends' interjections of PCs, NPCs, and flavor. We've pretty much used only my world, and infact, my one friend used it when he moved away, and did a bucnh of campaigns in it for a completely different group (who loved it)
Along the way, I've incorporated PCs, NPCs, and adventure story lines into my world to create a rich historical background which to draw adventures and characters from. At one point we even moved the timeline of the world ahead 200 years to make a new time setting in which to ceate new characters, villains, etc, and yet draw upon those we had used, played, or created from ther previous 200 years.
From there, there has continued to be new parties, hooks, characters, and villians which have also been incorporated. My world is now an conglomeration of my base ideas, geography, demographics, etc., intertwined with the ideas, PCs, and story lines from about 50 different campaign adventures, and 30 odd players.
Initially, I was the main DM, or I coDMed with another friend. But over the years I've had about 5-6 of my friends do the DMing, some being long drawn out campaigns. My friends were able to experience my world enough to know it well enough that they could then, quite easily, do their own Adventures in which I could become one of the players, sit back, and enjoy the fruits of my years of labor in developing my world.
I've fleshed out my world sufficiently in some areas that much is set in stone, but there is also lots of unexplored areas, or only generally developed areas in which my friends can continue on and expand my world by injecting their own ideas and flavors. It's definately been rewarding and enjoyable watching others enjoy my campaign world as much as I did.
Wow that's great for you!
***jealous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!***
Once I was able to, but it was long before my world was really fleshed out. I had a friend who wanted to DM but hadn't played in a long time so he wanted to play a little again before he ran to refamiliarize with the rules. Afterward he ran a campaign in my world and every time a question came up of would this be in the reagion or would this exist he'd ask. He also used all my specific house rules. I always say that it was the best player experience I had.
Sadly, now that the world and rules and all I've done is more defined.. no takers. Like fire nova, I ran an NPC once and it was great. I made him a bard with mainly just the story/world flavor. History, geography, at least 1 in each local, etc.. No Arcana, Religion, or Nature (mainly used by players as monster knowledges) and all he ever did in combat was bardic music inspire. I liked that I could interject world knowledge through him, as almost more of a sight-seeing guide than as a core group member.
I would still prefer to get to fully play in my world other than a few one-shots a friend ran, where I just used his character.
One time i just drew the outlines of a map made one place for the players to start and then made it up as i went drawing in new topograph and cities as they went to them it turned out to be a pretty expancive world.
Hahaha, I read the thread title and expected to see people sharing tricks of the trade for making your own beer...
Hahaha, I read the thread title and expected to see people sharing tricks of the trade for making your own beer...
Ha, yeah I saw that as a possible interpretation :) mmm, beer...
Excellent insights all.
And @ Lightbringer- +1 to the jealous :)
One thing that got me into D&D was that my brother incorporated an island and race I'd been working on for a book into his game world, so naturally I played the race and had quite a bit of fun as it. However, I've been working on the same steampunk campaign/setting for over a year now and I've always thought it would be fun to play in the world but I honestly think I would need to get a little more expansive on customs of the different homebrew races (the only race from the PHB I used was Humans), what it was like before the creation of firearms, expand a little more on the deities (instead of just listing their names, domains, favored weapons, and holy symbols), etc. etc. etc.
I occaisionally cheat a bit since in the last 15 years I almost always GM...I make an NPC who is part of the party that I run almost like a PC. I always use an NPC class, albeit tweaked ones, so I dont overshadow the party. My favorite was in an Ebberon campaign where I made a Gnome Magewright with a bandlolier of wands and an Adept with the Sun domain (in Ebberon adepts get one domain). Since the 3.5 Sun got improved turning and Adepts dont turn, I used my mighty GM powers to substitute turn undead for the Adept's familiar.
The Magewright would basically hop in when the PC's were down to half their HP, usually helping the PC's but getting trashed in the process and the Adept replaced the cleric the adventuring party lacked.
In a D20 vampire Campaign I ran (Hombrew with Besm-20 rules). I had this 900 year old vamp NPC who was a 10 year old when turned. She began as a villian, but the PC's turned her into an ally. So I got to play in my own custom campaign setting. She was more of a supporting character--kind of like Wesley in Angel, important but always overshadowed by the vampire warriors--but I did get to actually role play her more than most NPCs.