How you do anything is how you do everything. In the “Bring your Homebrew World to Life” panel held in the Hyatt Centennial I on Friday at 2:30 PM, professional game developers and Game Masters Amanda Hamon (Wizards of the Coast), RezMonk Walker and Robert Madison II (Obsidian Brews), and Eloy Lasanta (Renegade) shared the secrets to creating a successful homebrew.
For the uninitiated or those new to RPGs, a homebrew is any custom content, rules, or systems created by players or GMs rather than an officially published game system. While conventional wisdom suggests that if you’re stealing too much from another game, perhaps it’s best to play that game, but when you’re creating your own homebrew “bolting on” to your game is not only welcome but encouraged.
The opening volley from moderator Abby Plemons was essentially a thesis statement on creative work. In response to the question, “What makes a homebrew work?” the panelists inadvertently taught the audience the secrets to great storytelling.
Lasanta reminded the audience to incorporate what their players want to see in the world. “Make the world reflect things they are looking for,” he said. “Let the world reflect the characters.”
Hamon encouraged the audience to have a living, dynamic setting that centers the characters in the world.
Madison talked about teasing out the bits of history through the characters. Letting them define their own personal stories inside the context of bigger events, say a fifteen-year war that has been over for a decade.
And Walker’s goal was to connect the players to the presented worldview.
Every one of the GMs wanted the players involved. “The players need to collaborate.”
Session 0 is where they establish the groundwork for their larger worlds. When players feel bought into the world from the moment the game starts, they lean into that creative collaboration and become story telling partners, not simply passive players.
Each GM brings their own special sauce to the game. Hamon loves strange details. Walker utilizes every space and always fills his rooms with people. Lasanta uses time, often ignored in RPGs, as a game mechanic.
But playing with a homebrew is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes your players want to take the game in a different direction, and all those hours put into developing the world, the story, the history get tossed. At one convention, Madison led a game where the entire party side quested into finding the perfect wedding ring for an impending engagement. When that went well, they turned to planning the wedding, a task that included finding a suitable venue.
“Flexibility is super important,” Madison said as he mimed throwing his plans out the window.
The key to making a successful homebrew campaign is perhaps the pervasive theme of all of Dragon Con. Success is all about collaboration and connection.
