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My group goes by the 'roll for everything' and or point buy. Pretty much you can look at the array and if you'd prefer the point buy set up you can run with that instead. Does a good job of making sure everyone's on a pretty decent plane and helps a lot for if you want to run a character+class that doesn't line up stat wise. (Why yes, I will be a half orc druid or a Goliath Rogue because I want to)
 
Homebrew campaign I'm in that is the longest running of the campaign's I'm currently in has about ~5 sessions left, we just hit level 13. Nearly had close to a TPK the last session destroying our BBEG Dracolich's phylactery. There was a curse on anyone who damages it and it went off hitting everyone when we destroyed it. My Wizard was the only one to pass the save and took a long rest in the now empty underwater dungeon to prepare Remove Curse so everyone could get out without Sending for help from our town. :V

Took Simulacrum for one of my spells since I have the money to afford it and had a second spellbook from another player who retired his Wizard character so I can do some shenangians with DM allowance. Also took Finger Of Death because I couldn't think of anything else good to take.

Really surprised how much mileage I'm getting out of Wall Of Ice so far, was insanely useful so far. Particularly last session where 2 out of 3 of the enemies in the encounter were pinned down pretty well by me dropping it to lock them in with a Vrock our Warlock summoned. And lost of control of so it forced it to focus on our enemies because of it.
 
So a question, how does one go about homebrewing a setting to a functional point?

I'm really thinking about trying to run a wild west'ish setting, or at least knock it into another. If anyone watched 'Cliffside' it's kind of like that sort of vibe except with more magic and magical weirdness to cover for less guns. Crossroads being a sort of place where the world is a bit...weird. Gods hang about, people actually get brought back from the dead to serve them (or

Eugh. I have a lot of ideas and it's honestly just refluffing things and trying to make a setting where it feels more (and less) like it makes sense in the context of adventurers being...adventurers. That and I want something other then high fantasy. I think on the whole I just want a skeleton that I can get people on board with and improvise most of it from there.
 
Dream Logic said:
So a question, how does one go about homebrewing a setting to a functional point?

I'm really thinking about trying to run a wild west'ish setting, or at least knock it into another. If anyone watched 'Cliffside' it's kind of like that sort of vibe except with more magic and magical weirdness to cover for less guns. Crossroads being a sort of place where the world is a bit...weird. Gods hang about, people actually get brought back from the dead to serve them (or

Eugh. I have a lot of ideas and it's honestly just refluffing things and trying to make a setting where it feels more (and less) like it makes sense in the context of adventurers being...adventurers. That and I want something other then high fantasy. I think on the whole I just want a skeleton that I can get people on board with and improvise most of it from there.
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Personally for me it's always been a combination of

A: a lot of thinking things out and writing them down until I am happy with the core concept
B: playing in it an making stuff up on the fly
 
Dream Logic said:
So a question, how does one go about homebrewing a setting to a functional point?

I'm really thinking about trying to run a wild west'ish setting, or at least knock it into another. If anyone watched 'Cliffside' it's kind of like that sort of vibe except with more magic and magical weirdness to cover for less guns. Crossroads being a sort of place where the world is a bit...weird. Gods hang about, people actually get brought back from the dead to serve them (or

Eugh. I have a lot of ideas and it's honestly just refluffing things and trying to make a setting where it feels more (and less) like it makes sense in the context of adventurers being...adventurers. That and I want something other then high fantasy. I think on the whole I just want a skeleton that I can get people on board with and improvise most of it from there.
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Depends on what you want out of it and how much you want the "basic" D&D experience to fit.

Haven't seen Cliffside, so just going off of "D&D in the wild west" ideas... and with no system specified I'm talking 5e because that's my favourite.

  • First, tell your players, see what they want to do with that, if they have character ideas. You mention wanting a framework first, but for a lot of folks "wild west" is a bit of a framework already. Come up with a name for your town, a few local "powers" both in town and outside it, and a first adventure idea (easy off-the-top: clearing bandits out of a mine a nearby town depends on, apprehending some thieves hiding out in the hills nearby, arriving in town to find there's a (CR-appropriate) gang running the place and the party bands together to drive them out because the sheriff can't or won't, etc.)
  • Related to the above, figure out if the players will be lawmen, ranging guns for hire, just people exploring the land and moseying on from town to town, etc. Make sure people are on the same page, whether it's you deciding or having them vote, so you can make sure to prep the right kinda game.
  • Most of the backgrounds can be refluffed a bit to fit, or you can pick and choose a dozen from all the different sources that give the right overall feel you're looking for. Classes, spells, and races all potentially work just fine.
  • Maybe use some kind of renaissance weaponry, let guns be a thing even if not super common? Or have them be common, maybe let people trade out crossbows in equipment lists for pistols/rifles if they want to.
  • Heavy armor tends to be expensive, and everything else can fit into a western look pretty easily... even heavy armor is close enough to work, probably.
  • Eberron in general has some decent ability to do noir-like stuff and I imagine you could repurpose a lot of it to a frontier.
  • Take a good look at races and maybe mix the humanoid "monsters" into the NPCs in town as well. Or at least don't do the standard "these people are evil" thing, it's not great normally but in a western it veers into looking bad real fast. No need to cut anything, probably, unless you want it to be all human/human-adjacent folks for some reason.
  • If you really want a "desert" feel to things maybe look up rules for heat and exhaustion and let players know water will matter. Or don't, if that doesn't seem fun!
  • Pick some gods, or make your own! At least one god for each Cleric option to worship. Can be one all-encompassing being, one for each portfolio, or dozens with different combinations of things. Doesn't really matter, just have something there.
  • If you've got access to Ghosts of Saltmarsh, they do a good job of setting up a single town and giving character and flavor to each of the different downtime options. You could always do the same if you want them focused on a single town and ranging out as adventure comes calling.


There's different levels of functional, of course. Some folks like their settings to be publish-ready before running the first game. But I think even the stuff I outlined above is probably more than you'd need to have. You can do factions/patrons if you want, I did, but it's not like having strict rules for that stuff is essential.

To put it another way: most of what you're adding is set dressing, when it comes to homebrewed settings for a single group. You can make a bunch of substantive changes if you want, but most of what you need to do is reframing what things are so that the options are still present despite that... and players can do a lot of that work. It's not actually all that different from just running a game in your own fantasy setting, so don't worry too much about it.
 
Dream Logic said:
So a question, how does one go about homebrewing a setting to a functional point?

I'm really thinking about trying to run a wild west'ish setting, or at least knock it into another. If anyone watched 'Cliffside' it's kind of like that sort of vibe except with more magic and magical weirdness to cover for less guns. Crossroads being a sort of place where the world is a bit...weird. Gods hang about, people actually get brought back from the dead to serve them (or

Eugh. I have a lot of ideas and it's honestly just refluffing things and trying to make a setting where it feels more (and less) like it makes sense in the context of adventurers being...adventurers. That and I want something other then high fantasy. I think on the whole I just want a skeleton that I can get people on board with and improvise most of it from there.
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rogthnor said:
Personally for me it's always been a combination of

A: a lot of thinking things out and writing them down until I am happy with the core concept
B: playing in it an making stuff up on the fly
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Click to shrink...
Pretty much this. There will be times you'll want to put heavy justification into what you're writing, especially if it's a facet of the world you expect the players will want to dive into. And sometimes you can just say "You know what would be cool? Viking Dragonborn."
 
So far i've only gotten one reply.
Not sure how useful it will be though
gingerale Today at 6:07 AM said:
Take an existing adventure that has the right feel and refluff everything. I've made a far north wilderness module about a space dragon into an urban adventure with a weirdo in a tower. Mechanics were the same.
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Ok thanks for the help!

Guns are totally a thing 'cause seeing the gunslinger class was actually what made me want to make the setting. There's a classic 'Technology takes more time to be accepted by reality then magic' thing going on to justify why they're not so big. Coincidentally if any player wants to fluff it out, I'm totally going to have 'you essentially use magic and or contract with spirits or gods' as a viable way for them to fluff it if they go into the class. Because I really want a setting where I can call someone a Gun-Mage/Witch/Shaman/Priest.

The setting is a bit weird on species. There's outright Dryders, actual insect people are a thing (ala Hollow knight), sometimes Death just let's people live (as Undying frankenstein types running on latent magical energy) in exchange for a nebulous favor that may or may not ever be called in (it can literally range from 'buy me a drink' to 'save the world'). Standard races are all there with the addition of being a Wraith who was brought back by a specific god or patron (Ironically enough there's a gentleman's agreement that no one can do it for their most important people and that they have to be hands off with them once they do it, so most actually have no affiliation with their patron). So you can be a glowing spirit person or a skeleton on fire if that's your thing, or just be yourself again.

Coincidentally I'm running the idea of 'Wendigos' as being an actual thing to try and help avoid 'X is inherently evil because they were born that way'. Like, you have to actively choose to be one(though not necessarily by cannibalism)...even if you can be forced into circumstances that make refusal extremely difficult. Some range for not being awful...but you have to work for that and almost everyone eventually fails. I don't think there's much in the way of 'proper' natives other then the spirits and elementals.

I'm not quite sure how old the place is. Old enough that the place is starting to settle down (with cities even) but I'm debating on whether it should be long enough that there are actual nations/colonies or if it's just 'more weird organizations and groupings that interact and sometimes clash. Probably depends on whether I just settle with them being based out of the Town/City of Crossroads. If I keep it smaller scale then they'll be a work around that sometimes you can just walk off somewhere and end up where you need/want to be.

If they're not directly law enforcement or with a group then they'll almost certainly get sucked into things by choice or by luck. academic who needs an escort to the totally safe ruin, the mayor being kidnapped, a favor for a patron, your favorite bar being closed unless you get funds fast, having to stop the evil cult from summoning their dread deity of choice, stopping a war from happening, dealing with a debt to a dragon, etc..

God/Patron/Spirits list is going to be a fun thing to dream up. Going to go by titles because I am awful with names. 'The Lucky Lady', 'Death-Itself' (yes I am outright stealing that from Cliffside), and 'Sir Skeleton' (English Gentleman skeleton pyromancer) are on the list.
 
Dream Logic said:
actual insect people are a thing (ala Hollow knight),
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Hmm, Thri Kreen? Dromite?
Dream Logic said:
sometimes Death just let's people live (as Undying frankenstein types running on latent magical energy) in exchange for a nebulous favor that may or may not ever be called in (it can literally range from 'buy me a drink' to 'save the world').
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www.dmsguild.com

{WH} Awakened Undead! A character race with six subraces: Skeletons, Ghosts, Revenants, Ghouls, Mummies, and Necropolitans! - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

{WH} Awakened Undead! A character race with six subraces: Skeletons, Ghosts, Revenants, Ghouls, Mummies, and Necropolitans! - In cursed lands, forgotten tombs, and ancient temples to dead gods, the undead hold court, waiting to fell any traveller
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like this?

Dream Logic said:
Standard races are all there
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Hmm...
Eberron type Gnolls, and some Desert types of Kobold perhaps?

Desert based Lizardfolk, adapted to the heat and sand (burrow speed on sand?) with classic ones staying near an Oasis?
 
Krazyfan1 said:
Hmm, Thri Kreen? Dromite?


www.dmsguild.com

{WH} Awakened Undead! A character race with six subraces: Skeletons, Ghosts, Revenants, Ghouls, Mummies, and Necropolitans! - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

{WH} Awakened Undead! A character race with six subraces: Skeletons, Ghosts, Revenants, Ghouls, Mummies, and Necropolitans! - In cursed lands, forgotten tombs, and ancient temples to dead gods, the undead hold court, waiting to fell any traveller
www.dmsguild.com www.dmsguild.com
like this?


Hmm...
Eberron type Gnolls, and some Desert types of Kobold perhaps?

Desert based Lizardfolk, adapted to the heat and sand (burrow speed on sand?) with classic ones staying near an Oasis?
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Honestly I have no idea about anything past the basic rules. My group sometiems runs into weird things but it's normally a monster or construct of some sort.

I'm probably going to steal the aasimar or two souls stat blocks for simplicity with my players, Dryders would probably run with standard elf or some such and give them 'spider climb' as a once per short or long rest or have them have advantage on climbing. Give the insect people the aakroan or wood elf stat block for ease of use.

I don't have anything beyond the basic rule book and I'm not sure what my players have so I'm pretty open to 'hey I want this stat block/features, but I don't want to have my character BE this and I can fluff it out'.

The more I think of this the less it feels like the wild west and the more it feels like a sort of port/rail-road town where the ships/trains can come from wildly different places. I'm going to really try and nail down a setting identity so it's not just 'standard dnd but instead I have some weird/fun races'...then again that wouldn't be the worst either.

EDIT: Ok, honestly yeah. It's probably more likely to end up at 'pirates and privateers' the more I think about this.


grommile said:
Heavy armour can totally fit; if your Wild West setting can't accommodate the stunts of Australia's Ned Kelly, it needs work :)
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That and with early firearms, magic and tech catching up there's plenty of room for just wearing a bunch of metal. If a barbarian or monk can tank bare chested you can wear heavy armor damnit :p
 
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If you want guns but within a magical ecology, there are a number of means of being a wandslinger.

There's and old 3.5 item that was a six-shooter of wands around your wrist that you could draw any one of as a swift action, very Wild West themed.
 
I only had one good roll stats in order:

Everyone collectively rolls 3 sets of stats, rerolling one.

Then everyone picks one of those arrays, and then they can trade out stats for their character. It only works with (semi) mature people who don't bully the table into giving them all their 18s, but it does somewhat mititagte "one person rolls 13-14s for everything and one person has killer stats because loldice.

So the order is still relevant, and people actually picked a less "high" one because the party really needed that 17 WIS more than it needed the 16 STR and CON.

Biggest problem with rolling stats in order is that it will fuck peopel over and all that means is that, as generally people don't like getting fucked over, they retire their character until get something they can work with and enjoy.
That, or if the GM is an ass, they do things like put that 7 in CON, play an Elf and charge the group of orcs.

Above all, people should enjoy it, and most people don't really enjoy playing a commoner.
 
So, funny event from two sessions ago. As we near the end of the homebrew campaign I'm in our DM laments how the entire group was in a Curse of Strahd game run by a player who had to leave for a few months started months after this campaign had. Because the world in the homebrew campaign is a prison plane of existence similar to Barovia. :V
 
AuraTwilight said:
Honestly I'm still in favor of how Dungeon Crawl Classics does character creation. Roll 3d6 in order four times. Each player controls four level-0 classless nobodies at once. Whoever survives gains a class level and becomes your character, and you can bank the spares.

Can't say it doesn't immediately get you into the game's desired mindset.
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I don't think I could do that, I like to think about and plan my characters.
 
I'm considering a campaign in a setting themed around undead.

The Archwitch and her undead legions conquered the kingdom. Noble heroes stood against her... and failed. That was a hundred years ago.

Now, every village has a necromancer, renting out the use of zombie labour to pull the ploughs, build walls, and chop lumber, for an exchange of some of the crops. During the night, they're kept in sturdily-built stables or in a pit with the ladder pulled up, so when control lapses they're safely stored. A tithe of the bodies of the deceased is paid to the local lord, to be used as labour or stored for future resurrection as soldiers, should war come. Those who impress the now-called Gloaming Queen are raised to unlife as vampires, given land to tend to as a shepard would his flock; keeping the wolves at bay.

Things are... stable. Peaceful, even. The laws are harsh, but fair, courts resided over by iron-masked judges. The people do not starve. When other countries cast threatening glances towards the borders, speaking of crusades and holy judgement - the corpse legions mean that there's no draft to force the peasants from the fields into war.

But a problem has emerged. Without warning, the common undead are becoming violent, breaking free of control suddenly or not being able to be controlled at all. Crops are not being harvested, quarries unmined. People are being hurt, killed, by rogue undead. Something must be behind this. Something must be done.

Enter the players; agents of the Gloaming Queen, they must discover the cause of this instability and deal with it.



Technically it'd be an evil campaign, I guess; it's lawful evil, focus on the lawful, though the players are free to be as good as they desire. Happy people work harder, and don't foment rebellion so much. It'd use at least some of the altered weapons rules I've thought about before.
 
samdamandias said:
It was pretty fun using Thunderwave, because Ran Karasdotter is now Collateral Damage Woman. Do not use Thunderwave near breakable objects.
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Or do. Don't let society chain you down.

Strunkriidiisk said:
Pretty much this. There will be times you'll want to put heavy justification into what you're writing, especially if it's a facet of the world you expect the players will want to dive into. And sometimes you can just say "You know what would be cool? Viking Dragonborn."
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This is why my setting has:
  • Vampire Vikings
  • Wind-powered trains
  • Interplanar shortcuts
  • Adventuring as a reasonably viable career choice
  • The Astral Sea as a literal sea you can sail
Those were all "I think this is a cool idea" decisions.
 
I dunno where 3d6 roll down the line comes from. System Mastery tells me that gygax himself is on record as not being a fan for that and urging a "above average" rolling rule, like 4d6 drop the lowest.

honestly, realism just seems like a counterproductive endeavor in a game built around the notion of plundering ancient magical treasures guarded by Fucking Dragons.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
I dunno where 3d6 roll down the line comes from. System Mastery tells me that gygax himself is on record as not being a fan for that and urging a "above average" rolling rule, like 4d6 drop the lowest.

honestly, realism just seems like a counterproductive endeavor in a game built around the notion of plundering ancient magical treasures guarded by Fucking Dragons.
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Wait wait wait. what?! People actually do 3d3 rather then just 3d4? Hell, I've done it with roll seven sets drop whatever you want (because my group was/is a big believer in low stats can be fun).
 
3d3 and 3d4 was really confusing

But yeah, '4d6, pick 3, done 7 times, pick 6 to use' does seem like it would be a good way to as someonewho generally doesn't like rolling.
 
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