The Campaign Builder's Guild

Alright folks, I'd like your opinions here.  As a community of world-builders, I come seeking your advice.  I have settings I would like to build, ideas with which to craft worlds, but one question holds me back from embarking on such endeavors.  "Do I want to publish?" rings through my head at the start of every project.  So, in the interest of moving past this step, I come to you, my peers, for the answers to some simple questions.

Do you use material other than Core and Homebrew in your settings?

Do you intend to publish your world(s)?  Why or why not?

How many supplements do you have?

Do you feel restricted by the need to avoid "Product identity" material?

What does it mean to "publish?

Thanks so much for your time.

1)???
2)Here? Yes. Elsewhere? Not yet, at least.
3)Never enough.
4)???
5)??? I don't mean to make money on Diis Manibus. For one thing, it relies heavily on the supplemental books. For another, I didn't really write anything new into the game. No new races, classes, spells, anything. Okay, unique revolvers and a gunslinger PrC. That's ALL though. So... I intend to make it public, maybe even on paper... but I wouldn't feel right making money on it.

1) No
2) Yes
3) I used to buy them. Now they sit and collect dust. You want an exact count?
4) That's like asking if an author felt restricted by not being able to use someone else's writing. >_>
5) To release a legal, polished version of your work that can be used in itself. (For settings)

1. Yes.  All the time.  In fact, there ain't much "Core" about my settings.

2. No.  Publishing honestly isn't something that ever crosses my mind unless someone else brings it up.

3. Three or four.  Don't use them, though.

4. Nope.  I like to keep as much originality as possible, so Product Identity only helps keep me thinking for myself.

5. To put your own material, something you worked so hard pouring your blood sweat and tears into, in the hands of the  The Man.  That's right.  The Man.  Once you publish, you're in his hands.  Swallowed by the fell tarterian beast of the corporate hegemony!  Don't be fooled.  It's out there, and it's hungry...

1) Yes I do: I use most WotC books that I own, no FR or Eberron books. I especially favor the Genre books (Heroes of Horror/Battle), the Environment books, the Completes, and the Races. Many of these books are used primarily to generate ideas, though I especially love new crunch. I attempt to use new feats to gauge my own feats, and occasionally modify them to fit into my feat trees.

2) I'd like to publish my setting eventually, because my setting is the home of my future novels. I don't know if my setting will sell, so it might be mostly a publicity stunt to get my books' word out.

3) Supliments ... too many. The stack is about 2 feet high, and that doesn't include the books my other gamer friends own which I have pretty reasonable access too.

4) Product Identity ... yes I do. I haven't used PI monsters in my games because most of my games are aids in writing for me; my first game will be one of my novels. Because everything I've created for my setting in game is for my setting in prose, I try to keep to originality. That and I like consistancy, and see no reason to use gobs and gobs of monsters; I prefer humanoids and other advancable creatures, as well as classic monsters.

5) To me, publishing means formally putting one's work out for the consumption and scrutney of your target audience. I consider my MP system to be published, as I have webspace for it and an OGL license page.

I hope my words have helped you. Mind you, this only really applies to games ran in my setting: I currently have 3 games in the works or in play that aren't in my setting (one is a Red Hand of Doom game, the other is a Tome of Battle game, and the last will be an XPH game). In those, I use the default material as much as possible.

Quote from: Natural 20Do you use material other than Core and Homebrew in your settings?

Do you intend to publish your world(s)?  Why or why not?

How many supplements do you have?

Do you feel restricted by the need to avoid "Product identity" material?

What does it mean to "publish?

Thanks so much for your time.

Yes.
Already published the first part.
One is out, another on the way for Altvogge.
Not a bit.
Have it available in print or PDF form for anyone to buy/download.
You are quite welcome.


And by the way, I recommend lulu.com as an POD service.

Do you use material other than Core and Homebrew in your settings?

No. I definitely wanted to avoid such material for [linl=http://juergen.the-huberts.net/dnd/urbis/]Urbis[/link] - Urbis was never intended to be a "rules-heavy" setting (the Core Rules are quite complex enough), and I liked the intellectual challenge of working with the Core Rules only.

Do you intend to publish your world(s)? Why or why not?

I do intend to publish Urbis. That was the plan from the beginning when I wrote the first summary for the WotC Setting Search in 2002, and so far I've written about 100,000 words for it. I don't expect to get rich from it, but it is work I enjoy, and I might get some additional bragging rights in the RPG community for it.   ;)

How many supplements do you have?

I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

Supplements for Urbis? None, obviously - since I haven't published it yet. However, I might do some additional "city books" for it once it gets published, since such books wouldn't involve as much effort as the main book (perhaps 32 pages each).

D&D Rules Supplements? Unearthed Arcana, Deities & Divinities, Manual of the Planes, and the Expanded Psionics Handbook. I have resisted buying any of the "Complete" and other books which are essentially little more than lists of feats, prestige classes and spells - most game rules bore me.

D&D Supplements in general? A huge stack of Forgotten Realms books dating back all the way to AD&D2E, every Eberron supplement published so far, as well as large amounts of Planescape, Birthright, Dark Sun, Ravenloft books and the main books for Iron Kingdoms, Midnight, and Ptolus.

Gaming books in general? Several shelves full, including the majority of all GURPS books ever published (more than 150, I think), all Blue Planet books, plenty of stuff for Call of Cthulhu, Heavy Gear, Shadowrun, Jovian Chronicles, and several others I have probably overlooked at the moment...

Do you feel restricted by the need to avoid "Product identity" material?

Since I don't use any "Product Identity" other than my own, no - though it's a pity I couldn't use mind flayers and yuan-ti. But I think I created acceptable substitutes.

What does it mean to "publish?

For me, selling it at RPGNow. Perhaps one day it might actually see print, but I'm not holding my breath for this one.

Quote from: Natural 20Do you use material other than Core and Homebrew in your settings?

Do you intend to publish your world(s)?  Why or why not?

How many supplements do you have?

Do you feel restricted by the need to avoid "Product identity" material?

What does it mean to "publish?

Thanks so much for your time.

not at the moment, but due to my lax skills at working with crunch, i may or may not imcorporate some.
not really. i dont see the need. im working on xiluh almost entirely for the joy of seeing a creative vision of mine come into existance. even if it never gets played in, im still satisfied knowing its there.
so far, just the eberron setting. i plan on having many, many more. that is, MANY more.
i dont really see avoiding "product identity" material as a "need". i avoid it by my own choosing, simply because i dont want trademarks infesting my creation.

last, but certainly not least:

pubÃ,·lish (PUB-lish)
v. pubÃ,·lished, pubÃ,·lishÃ,·ing, pubÃ,·lishÃ,·es
v. tr.

   1. To prepare and issue (printed material) for public distribution or sale.
   2. To bring to the public attention; announce. See Synonyms at announce.


v. intr.

   1. To issue a publication.
   2. To be the writer or author of published works or a work.


youre very welcome :)