Homebrewing

Do you brew at home or use store bought material? What's your approach? Any advice for beginners? Stories of success or monstrous failures?

It took me three attempts to write something I actually enjoy.

It was simply out of frustration at not having found a system that convinced me in all these decades, not even with homebrewed details.

I have a bit of a problem leaving systems and settings alone. I've modded, house ruled and straight up ported settings and systems to make things work for games I've run.

Traveller had a robust online community supported by mailing lists and the occasional website in the 90s which continued for about a decade before more official, centralized forums came about. There were gaps in the rules and plenty of people created rules to fill those gaps or offered modifications to existing rules that people felt improved things. After a while, I found that I didn't want to buy any more Traveller rulebooks because I was happy with the mix of homebrew and published rule sets that I had.

Traveller didn't offer a lot of setting info when it first started. There were several adventures published, but these were one-off types. The game was really open sandbox back then, so it encouraged GMs to create their own adventures, which I eagerly did. Later on, the Imperium took shape and the official setting for the second edition (MegaTraveller) embroiled everyone into a multi-front civil war. Having already created so much material for my group of gamers, I didn't feel like having my corner of the galaxy getting steamrolled, so I made modifications to the events that transpired.

Advice? Well, if you play enough games, you know from experience what works best for you. Tinker with some things here and there and see what they do. As for campaign settings, there are a few open sandbox type games on the market now that offer GMs the tools to build your setting. Kevin Crawford's Without Number books are the first that come to mind, but there are plenty of others. Right now, he's working on just such a book entitled The Book of Unnumbered Worlds which is a systemless design book. It had a successful KS, and will probably be available before the end of the year.

You know I be home brewin.

Settings, rules, I've done like 5 different entire systems over the years.

I have actually built two systems. One was my attempt at a Star Wars RPG, shortly before West End Games debuted their d6 masterpiece. When theirs came out, I abandoned work on mine in favor of using theirs. The other was a fantasy system that was somewhat more complete. It was developed for a novel I was writing, but I have since lost the manuscript and the notes on the system.

My current homebrew is Jenneria, which is a work in progress that was started many years ago. It was originally a "home" for modules that weren't tied to a specific setting (generic modules, hence the name Jenneria), but has grown over the years into a campaign on its own merit. Jenneria uses the Pathfinder 1e rules as a base, but with several tweaks from third parties. It has been through four rulesets (BECMI D&D, AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e, and AD&D 3.5/Pathfinder.

For those that create custom settings - how much do you prepare / write in advance? Broad stroke and then fill the blanks as the game starts or detailed write-ups for majority of the locations, groups, etc just in case players end up interacting with those (and to world-build, I suppose)?

Custom settings always start big for me. I work out the major themes and changes from other will known settings for reference/contrast. But then I define a small starting point to start the story and fill in the middle grind as needed. I'm rarely organized or patient enough to fully define a setting before putting it in use

Sometimes it's just one idea- one city, one "thing" and then you build a whole game off that-- I did one that was just "a game in an Arthurian style based in a castle" and it built out slowly from there. Another time it was a specific city with 9 guilds, and I did a quick and dirty map showing some locations in the city on a yellow pad.

But my main setting I've been working on, writing in, and running in for over twenty years- played AD&D 2nd edition, DND 3.5, Pathfinder, and 5th Edition in it over the years, and played in many locations for a lot of games, plus the novels I am working on for it, so it has a ton of detail which is hard to generate quickly.

My current homebrew, Jenneria, started back in the days of AD&D 1e as a place to set all the modules that didn't have a specific setting (generic, hence Jenneria). It was a hodgepodge of places on a map that I just added to when I got a new "homeless" module. Over time, I started to actually develop the world and setting, incorporating ideas of my own with material from others. Now it is a full campaign world, with history, pantheon, and all the trimmings, and still growing and expanding.

I had an idea for an alt-setting, but I'm struggling (or rather somewhat anxious) to commit to it, because it seems like there is a mountain of detailing that needs to be done before a game can start. Don't want the world to feel like a movie set, where they build the front wall of the buildings, but there is nothing behind it, no substance.

Are you thinking of a whole world or just a small part of an existing one?

I think your world will do fine. Nobody would really hold it against you for it not being a 100% complete work. Odds are, you'd be the only one to notice any holes or cracks in the setting so don't be so hard on yourself!

Start small, with a single village as the characters' home base. Write it up in as much detail as you think you will need. Write up brief descriptions for nearby countries, just enough to get a feel for them, then detail them further as you need them. Expand as you go. Don't be afraid to enlist your players' help ("tell me about your home culture"). For a pantheon, it is sufficient to start with a handful of names, portfolios, and corresponding domains. Don't worry about who is related to whom right now (unless, of course, brainstorming sparks an idea). That happened in my own setting, when I was inspired to create Faith, Hope, and Charity, the triplets (they are demipowers).

I Agree with all the above, especially if you are on a frontier land.. depending on the levels of travel and communication, many people only know their own culture and nation. Just pray your 1 out 2 local gods and pay the tax man to let your village prospers and be left alone.
If you want to work in a city or larger society then you may need more details (depending on the players you get). Some players are fine with a facade of reality.