| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ozreth |
Posted - 01 Nov 2011 : 21:54:24
Aside from the obvious (loving the lore, novels etc) what keeps you running the realms rather than creating your own world?
Part of me really wants to start up a homebrew world and see what it can grow into, another part of me just wants to stick with the realms. I can't really put my finger on why though. |
| 29 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Nicolai Withander |
Posted - 17 Dec 2011 : 00:33:56
To me... its simple that I want to explore the world. I want to have visitied every nook and cranny of Fearun. I want to see the lowest dungeon and the highest mountain peak. I want to battle the faulest thing this world can produse and then some.
I just want to be a part of a world, that so many love and enjoy.
I can only come up with one other setting that can rival it, and that is the setting of J. R, R Tolkien! |
| Mystic Lemur |
Posted - 16 Dec 2011 : 05:30:57
Why reinvent the wheel?
The realms already has everything I need, and plenty that I don't. I like that whatever type of game I want to run, I can pick a region and the flavor is completely different than the last.
In the past, I would pick a country and set my game there, making up the details along the way. Then I would read the actual lore and it would be much cooler and more detailed than what I had come up with. |
| LSCatilina |
Posted - 14 Dec 2011 : 03:28:34
I use FR basically because it's a paradigm of the heroic-fantasy stuff with all its bases and "clichés" that can be used both "realistically" or sarcasticly. Plus, the number of ecosystems and cultures avaible is very helping.
I admit to make some corrections that are contradictories to official lore (making antic cultures as Mulhorand, Chessenta, more culturally developped than Ancient Egypt or Ancient Greece) but as my own worlds are quite different (High-Middle-Age based, and Post-Apocalyptical Fantasy) |
| Kryal |
Posted - 13 Dec 2011 : 23:17:53
Homebrew settings have a way of being a bit unconsistent in story as it progresses, that is unless you plan very carefully. Not everyone has the time to build his own world and it's alot easier to pick up the realms and just try to adapt to the setting and adapt the setting to your own needs. |
| dwarvenranger |
Posted - 10 Dec 2011 : 13:42:54
It feels like home to me. No matter how much I wander about in other worlds I always come back to the Realms. Of course my Realms is somewhat different than the official version, but I suspect that's commonplace. So I guess the question is rather, why would I play in a homebrew instead of the Realms? |
| Alisttair |
Posted - 08 Dec 2011 : 02:15:10
I love the familiarity of the people, gods and locales. Playing somewhere in my home campaign and then visiting it in a novel I read or a video game I play. All the shared things of the realms is part of what makes it so special above homebrew for me. |
| Faraer |
Posted - 23 Nov 2011 : 16:09:20
The main reason is that it gives me the experience of exploring an otherworld partly external to my own imagination, let alone ego. The Realms, specifically, offers me a pleasing mixture of familiarity, affinity and otherness. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 20 Nov 2011 : 18:31:20
Time for both me and my players. Time for me because I can pick up the campaign setting and just use it. Of course, this does involve me putting in time keeping up wiht the setting, so some would say that could be time spent developing my own.
Time for my players because I can give them some excerpts from books (if necessary) and they get the idea of the campaign setting. But, considering usually when I do a campaign most of my players have an inkling about the realms it just makes things faster.
Compare that to I had another DM who wanted to do a home brew campaign. I asked "who can my cleric worship" only to find out he didn't have all the details... just the gods names and their portfolios. Similar issues came up when I wanted some city backgrounds in order to develop a character history. From a player standpoint, its nice to be able to not have to bother the DM and just look through the books to figure out these basic things. Was I upset with this DM for not putting in the effort to develop his own world? Hells no. Was I upset with this DM for not realizing his own personal time constraints and making due with an established setting? Yes... I wouldn't have been upset with FR, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Golarion, or even the sword & sorcery campaign world (forget what it was called, but it was a nice 3rd party setting)... I may have had to buy some of the reference material, but I'd have gladly done so in order to play in an orderly campaign. |
| ErskineF |
Posted - 19 Nov 2011 : 19:15:54
What got me into the Realms was flipping through a Volo's Guide and realizing that it would take me over a year using all my spare time to write up that much material. That said, I have never been entirely satisfied with the Realms as written, so I'm constantly tweaking it. I've warned my players in the past that I run a non-canon realms, so not to make assumptions about historical events or NPCs. |
| The Arcanamach |
Posted - 19 Nov 2011 : 13:49:49
I mostly take ideas from other settings and put them into the Realms (modified to fit where applicable, of course). My Realms uses all of the maps, kingdoms, NPCs, etc. of 2e/3.5e, but with many overtones found in Dragonlance, Birthright, Greyhawk, Mystara, and now Eberron. Ive even adopted elements from the Inheritance cycle, Middle Earth, and other settings. My Realms has the advantage of a homebrew in many ways...but with most of the major work done for me.
Creating my own world would just be too time consuming with work and family obligations...but if I had the time I would probably work on a small setting and see if it would grow from there. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 19:05:58
Okay, but I was actually talking about Nentir Vale (a series of products I like, BTW, but I am partial because of the gorgeous map).
You are saying that is what you have been using? That you found that was precisely what you needed? It was designed for the DM who didn't want to develop an entire campaign world or invest in one, and you sounded to me like the perfect candidate.
That was what I was wondering I was right about, is all.  |
| Marc |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 18:05:41
It is true what you said about the PC's going in the other direction, I've seen that happen, tough a long time ago. Just explaining that I know what goes around the town and it is not a railroading type of campaign. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 15:32:13
So then I was correct?  |
| Marc |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 11:40:44
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
You should at least have an idea of whats around the town, because no matter how hard you try, they will want to know at some point. Its been my experience that the harder you try to keep them 'on track', the harder they will fight it and march in the other direction.
If that is indeed your plan, I would suggest Nentir Vale - you can expand easily outward from there, and there is plenty to do nearby. It can be retro-fitted to nearly any other setting. It doesn't matter what edition you run either - you are just looking for backdrop, and that region is perfect for your needs, regardless.
Too late, we already played over 50 times in that campaign, it is sandbox, meaning you can extend the main story as long as you want and insert a lot of other side adventures. I picked the ones with a frontier feel that usually start in small villages, they will make what's around the capital. In addition to that, the realm that the PC's build is surrounded by the Border Kingdoms and the River Kingdoms of Pathfinder. North of them is Ashanath, west across the sea is the Vilhon Reach, east of the kingdoms are Ustalav, Karameikos of the Known World, and southern Varisia of Pathfinder, and to the south are free coastal cities and Illyria of Midgard (probably, nothing is published about this country yet). The PC's agreed that the town will remain their base. Four members of the party are spellcasters, I can't wait to see how the town will change after a few decades with magic because I think that not even Eberron had enough details about everyday magic. |
| Farrel |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 11:37:56
I think I agree with Halidan.
Do I use my own material, yep.
Do I consider it as good as the established lore, nope.
I think one of the reasons that I visit Candlekeep is to try and see what other people think, I often find it very useful reading other people's points of view as it sets me off, creatively speaking.
Everybody has their own ideas. Quale is quite correct in saying that even though there's a vast amount of lore for the Realms, there will always be things that you either don't like or doesn't fit with their personal interpretation.
There are alot of instances where someone has thought of, or suggested something, that I would probably never given much thought to myself, that's why I love this place.
One of the things that troubles me is when people ask for help and then rally against anything that they don't think fits with their own, personal, view on the subject... If they take that attitude, why even bother asking?
I've asked for help plenty of times, i love hearing other peoples views and opinions but i'm aware that we're all different. In my own campaign i've asked for ideas and suggestions and had very limited responses (the responses I have received were fantastic and i'm extremely grateful to the scribes). |
| Zireael |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 09:48:39
What about writing? I've loved FR for years, but recently I've decided to adapt my stories into my own world, so that they could be 'original work' and not 'fanfic'. Of course, the world is inspired by the Realms... discarding what I don't like and reworking the rest. |
| Quale |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 08:57:47
I don't choose one over the other, there's not enough Realms material not to use homebrew (and other worlds as well). |
| Nilus Reynard |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 04:33:42
quote:
Originally posted by Farrel
I've not the talent or time to do homebrew world building.
I would have to say that this applies to me as well. The world I attempted to create just didn't grab the attention of the gaming group that I was playing with. They humored me for a few games before it became quite apparent that they were not enjoying themselves, so we went back to FR campaigns with a smattering of Dragonlance games every now & then. |
| Halidan |
Posted - 03 Nov 2011 : 00:16:15
quote:
Originally posted by Ozreth
That's all fair. Although lets say you HAD the time to invest in your own setting/lore/etc? Would you find it more rewarding and enjoyable?
Honestly, I would have to give you a yes & no annswer. Yes, I love creating my own lore and given unlimmited tim, I'd probably create a lot more of it and it would get beter with time.
The No part come in because I would still be the only one writting lore and adventures for my homebrew. I'd have no one to share ideas with and bounce ideas off, and no ideas that I could expand and take in completely different directions than the initial author intended.
So even with unlimited time, I'd still run the Realms. I'd probably try and become a Realms information guru like Wooly and Markustay. But I'd stick with the Realms. |
| Farrel |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 19:04:27
I've not the talent or time to do homebrew world building.
I leave that to the amazing Mr Greenwood. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 18:14:55
I go with the general consensus: I've not the skill to make a world nearly as well realized as the Realms, and it's a great fit for what I would do, anyway. |
| Varl |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 17:46:53
quote:
Originally posted by Ozreth
Aside from the obvious (loving the lore, novels etc) what keeps you running the realms rather than creating your own world?
The work involved in making your own game world is much greater than picking up a Realms product and reading it. I've always wanted to make a homebrew world, but time is the unfortunate buzzkill. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 16:08:24
You should at least have an idea of whats around the town, because no matter how hard you try, they will want to know at some point. Its been my experience that the harder you try to keep them 'on track', the harder they will fight it and march in the other direction.
If that is indeed your plan, I would suggest Nentir Vale - you can expand easily outward from there, and there is plenty to do nearby. It can be retro-fitted to nearly any other setting. It doesn't matter what edition you run either - you are just looking for backdrop, and that region is perfect for your needs, regardless.
As for the Realms, I would like to elaborate a bit further: I used to run Greyhawk, and I loved it, but when I discovered the Realms, I realized a LOT of my work had been done for me. There was enough history for me to work with, and yet, enough empty spots for me to fill-in with my own stuff. It was the perfect springboard.
As time went on, many of the centralized empty spots were filled-in, but certainly not all, and either way, you can always change what you don't like - your own version always takes precedence over published lore. That's the beauty of FR - it's whatever you need it to be. GH was like that, but it just didn't have the depth.. the level of 'richness'... that FR has.
This is why I think GH should have been the default 4e setting. It was used as the default setting for 3e, which should have been FR, considering the number of products released for both. They got it backwards, IMHO.
EDIT: And this thread just gave me a great idea for a product line of DM accessories. |
| Marc |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 10:16:02
Simply I have no talent and time to write anything that good. The world I run is not the Realms, it has a lot of other worlds mixed in, and my friend did most of the work on that. Now in the Kingmaker campaign I'll start slowly with one town, but it depends on what the PC's will build. |
| Seethyr |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 00:40:46
Basically it's because I'm terrible :-P
In all seriousness though, I just can't compete. I feel like my Maztica stuff is by far my best, but that is only because Douglas Niles actually researched Aztec and Mayan cultures and then wrote some amazing material that I was only able to expand on. I could never do what he, Ed, or any of the other authors can do. If I could, I'd be getting paid for it.
On the flip side though, I have a talent for CHOOSING what my players are going to like the best. I can also pull together a variety of settings and bring it all together in a cohesive working world. I think that's what makes me a good DM.
IMO, there are very few worlds as wonderful as FR, and barely any with the sheer volume of detail. I could never compare. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 00:29:43
Why not both?
Are we not supposed to take the published Realms and make it our own? I know mine is very different then the official one (I have moved entire nations around!), and I know many others here have made major changes as well. Even people who make few changes of their own will still diverge from the canonical one at some point.
I look at published settings the same way I look at modules - they are merely a basis for our own ideas to take shape; a 'short cut', if you will. I know some very rare folks who merely use the maps and none of the lore (on other sites, not this one). |
| Ozreth |
Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 00:09:12
That's all fair. Although lets say you HAD the time to invest in your own setting/lore/etc? Would you find it more rewarding and enjoyable? |
| Halidan |
Posted - 01 Nov 2011 : 23:59:40
Having more people than just myself adding to the lore of the world. I like the interplay of having a communal sandbox to work in - it allows me to take other peoples ideas, see if it fits with MY version of the Realms. So, I can either use it (if it fits) or change/discard it if it doesn't. It also free's up boatloads of my time. When the 2E FR hardback came out, I was running both FR and my homebrew world and I really like what the hardcover did for 2E clerics. So, I started creating a write-up of my homebrew gods, using the model set forth in the 2E FR Hardback. It was a mamoth project - especially considering my world has only 12 dieties that PC's can worship. It got done, but took many months, mostly because I was traveling heavily for work and had a wife I wanted to spend time with when I was in town.
Eventually, I dropped my homebrew game and just ran Realms. I'm glad I did, because a couple of years later, Faiths and Pantheon's came out and I about died of pleasure - here were Gods all laid out with lore, sample dogma, locations of temples, priestly rankings, and even sample clerical garb! I could have never done all of that for the 12 gods of my homebrew. Thank AO that Julia Martin and Eric Boyd did it for the major Realms dieties. And two more books came after those. I was like a man drownding in beer - swimming hard for the bottom and not caring if I ever came up.
Basically the Homebrew/Realms decision comes down to two point for me - my lack of time to sit down and wrtite excellent lore and adventurers, and the availability of other people to get ideas from and bounce ideas off in forums like Candlekeep. FR wins on both points. |
| Rhewtani |
Posted - 01 Nov 2011 : 22:22:05
Well, when you hit this crossroads you're deciding between spending a lot of time becoming a Realms expert or spending a lot of time making sure all your pieces fit together to make a cohesive world.
I ran homebrew for, let's call it 15 years, with heavy borrowing from the Realms. Meanwhile, I was playing in a Realms campaign and reading the Ask Ed threads, so it really was just a matter of time before I realized that 'Temptation of Elminster' is probably better than anything I'm gonna throw together while working 50 hours a week. |
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