Creating Homebrew Content in RPGs! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.พ. 2017
- Homebrewing can be inspiring and fulfilling, though very challenging. Matt Mercer lays out a few tips and tricks for creating the best homebrew content you can.
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Matt, I wanna be like you when I grow up. I am 30.
xD
OMG same
590 people agreed with this comment
Halfway there!
Young Blood want to be this beautiful man.
Half of homebrew weapons be like:
Rotten potato on stick.
Dmg: 12d12 piercing + 3d8 poison...
Balanced
Plus an additional 1d4 for it's dual improvised/martial weapon status
The rotten tomatoe stick is truly a weapon to be feared theres only ever been one weilder of such a powerful artifact though i no not his name
@@ShattaTheCharmeleon No one man should have such power...
If everything is op, nothing is op
@@freepalestine2434 CAST IT INTO THE FIRE FRODO
I just tried making my own class called an Echo, A Wizard who (using his final spell in his last life, was able to reincarnate himself) However in his final moments he preformed the spell wrong and when he was brought back in his own body he found that he couldnt cast the spells that he used to. Basically if he sees a spell he can copy it and other dope shit like that. I was feeling pretty good about this class and I thought it would go pretty far. Until I got caught up on Campain 2 of Critical Role and found out that Matt had already created such a thing. What a goddamn legend
Which class may that be?
@@diegomorales7290 echo knight
@@diegomorales7290 not a class, but this was the backstory for mollymauk. The echo knight is a fighter that uses echos and is very different
@@atlaszurumno?
We need a video on story/world creation. I'm starting an original campaign soon and could use some tips!
Keegan Brittain Establish a good lore and basic world politics. The first campaign I DMed was a custom world and having an idea of the world of ideas of various nations let me quickly react to the improv of the players.
The 5e DM's guide does such a good job of helping you do this. The old editions' DM guides seemed to talk mostly about just making dungeons and stuff.
Matthew Colville has a great series on running a dnd game where he goes in-depth on how to make an interesting world for your players.
I would say keep it to what you know about RPGs as a whole. Don't go too out of your comfort zone with it but always keep your players on their toes, because they will do the same thing to you.
google "Microscope rpg"
One time in a campaign where I was playing a wizard, the DM gave us a very large amount of downtime. Most of the players just decided to take up a new language or two, but I had different plans. It was a high level game, so I asked the DM if I could create my own spell, similar to great wizards like Mordenkainen. We talked it over for a long time to make sure it was balanced, and he actually let me do it. One of my favorite moments in D&D is seeing a player in a different game casting the spell that I had added to the world
I want "really fucking powerful" as a gif lol its wonderful. Also had no clue I would get upvoted hello world!
KingCreepa I second this notion
indeed
Ok I have the document please write your name on it to have
Really fucking powerful
Become a gif.
KingCreepa I'm sure it will be soon enough.
Sam needs a screen shot for T-shirt.
you are by far my favorite person the planet matt keep on being a great DM!
is it DM or GM? what is the difference?
GM is more like the general term. "Game master". DM instead seems to be the D&D term for the same thing. "Dungeon master". So there's no difference, just different names for the same role in different systems.
NtkStve gm means game master and DM means dungeon master. gm is used for games other than dnd . where DM is used specially for DND
DM means Dungeon Master, which is the copyrighted term used in D&D. GM just means game master, which as far as I know is just a broader term. Other games use the terms "referee," or "storyteller," but it's all the same job.
Dungeon Master (DM) is a term for a D&D Game Master
Matt Mercer is a God-tier DM
Calamity Cannon he's also working with God players... that are all actors. they deserve most of the credit, that's what I think. he's great but his players are amazing
TRUE
I really wish they would cross-reference this series with things going on in Crit-Role. I get the desire to have the two things be their own projects but using stuff like the making of Percy's gunslinger class in this video to show the thought process and approach to design would be really interesting and help with explaining. You also get some cross promotion for the show. I dunno just a big fan of anecdotes being used to solidify ideas. Just saying.
I LOVE how elaborate the set is getting, it's super immersive.
Good advice. I would add: when modifying existing rules, which would affect the choices the players already made in the game, be as open as possible about it and explain to your group, why you feel the change is necessary (maybe they can suggest an alternative). If you still change the rule and the players still feel that it limits their options, allow them to change their character build until they are satisfied.
Creating classes is a huge pain in the ass. I don't recommend any new DMs doing it until they've used a bunch of the classes and understand how to set one up properly. That being said; building a class is awesome and is extremely fun but a pain, so expect to pull out some hair every once in a while.
Kaipyro67ALT as someone who's designed a Shaman Spirit, I can only imagine that classes are worse than just something equivalent to a cleric's domain
Yeah, I only recommend doing it once you have some experience behind the rules and classes; even then getting everything to feel like it's worth having, but not overpowered, can be a challenge, but when you pull it off it feels awesome!
Yeah, I've designed a couple classes for a campaign one time. I designed one and it took me several hours just to figure out what the the person gets at the various levels. Then the tweaking began. My god the tweaking...
I find a good way to organize/start is figure out how the other class in the system are designed. Often you can see the design elements that are shared and varied between the classes to base off of. Normally they keep some things consistent, like in 5e you get archetypes and 3 level as an easy example, but going deeper you can figure out things like how much damage marital classes should do at certain levels or spell power per level. Now, this of course depends on the system itself being balanced, but good way to start.
What about Races, guy in my campaign wants to play a sentient Giant Spider (which is a CR1 creature in 5th edition so nothing too powerful), what would you guys suggest to do design wise?
DUAL SHEILDS
Brook Harpham I once actually tried that, but my DM didn't let, but he did work with me to make a single greatshield fighter tank.
basically braum from LoL
+Ayad Polis One of these days I have to design a greatshield/tower shield. After checking-out some historical TH-camrs, they're not nearly as cumbersome as one would think. -Nerdarchist Ryan
Yes you CAN Dual wield shields in my game. Just like in those Samurai Jack episodes... :)
Dual shield cleric so you can cast spells from behind your AC of 22
I love it when Jotaro explains to me how to create homebrew content.
I’m going to be a GM for the first time, creating my own story. I’m honestly feeling overwhelmed and nervous about it. I’ve never done anything like this before. Your videos are helping to allay my fears.
How'd it go?
I've been expecting a new episode of this series for so long! Thank you!
"Pizza and back rubs"
Matt probably tests his content on Marisha :)
Taliesin, come on.
Sam if he’s desperate
#mattmercerisbestdmever
I say Matt and Chris are pretty close.
Perkins? Oh yeah.
Chase Champion naw man, Kat Kuhl from Campaign Podcast
Link please? Never heard of it.
oneshotpodcast.com/category/podcasts/campaign/
Thank you Matt (and Team) I look forward to these videos very much, and appreciate the time invested in making them and also the quality insight from them. Good Job Great Video.
Thanks for doing stuff like this Matt (and Geek & Sundry), I find many who are interested in DM'ing but fearful of being ripped apart by the players. Helping to recognize and how to handle the pitfalls and foibles can really give someone courage to be a great DM.
Great new setup, lighting and color balance for the video. It looks so much more professional from that standpoint! Thanks for the tips :)
These have been extremely helpful! Keep up the good work!
I always love how excited he says, "Critical Role."
Nice, well done video. Fair and easily grasped concepts, presented in a funny and enjoyable way. Thanks to Matt, and crew for this video!
Really needed this video. Really upped my confidence in my homebrew. God bless you.
Some crazy shit. My long time pal and I just started drafting our own campaign, the same day this video came out! I'm very glad this series is continuing!
Great to see these back on!
One homebrew idea I have is a smoke sword specific to my character's race(which is also homebrew) that has the ability to combust into flames upon heavy combat.
For a game I ran one of my players wanted to be a "mad bomber" type alchemist who could make essentially C4 charges to blow down obstacles. What we originally came up with was super complicated and overdone, but with another player's help we managed to condense it down to one dice roll and a standard action that took up an alchemist discovery instead of like 6 rolls, 2 turns, and a couple feats.
That tip about condensing is HUGE, simpler is almost always better in this kind of game.
They really shouldn't have given Alchemists explosives at Level 1. Level 6 yes, but NOT Level 1...
Veng3r Maybe flashbangs and simple fire spreading, like a molotov cocktail? Not so much explode-y, just fiery. Flashbangs definitely require mercury. Since you're going the alchemical route, thermite (for locks and the like) would be an interesting addition later on... 5e already has lighters, but he might be able to consult a dwarf to make one that lasts longer than an hour. Best of luck!
Thanks for the advice Matt! I was feeling overwhelmed, but thanks to guys like you and Projared, I'll be able to play soon! :D
Love these Matt, keep up the good work!
Digging the new set, looks really good ^_^. Thanks for keeping this series going, by the way, can't get enough of these tips.
Today, I was home brewing some new content for my newly started group. I come home and you have uploaded a new DM on it. Thank you Matt Mercer, thank you.
Funny how this video came up just when I'm creating/adjusting the D&D 5E races, classes and achetypes to match my campaign world.
Great tips, Matt. Thank you very much.
I can't focus on what he's saying, just on how good his voice sounds
As someone that is writing a LOT of homebrew content for my campaign this was helpful and informative. Thank you.
This was actually really helpful. I DM a game of 5e D&D for my family, with a campaign I imported from my first foray into DMing with my high-school friends. Unfortunately 5e didn't give me a good option for an evil paladin beyond an Oath Breaker, which was the exact opposite of what I needed. I needed a paladin for an evil deity, not a paladin who broke his oaths. I'm still working on that homebrew class, and I'm hoping this villain for my party works out, but these tips are certainly helping me streamline the class. Thanks Matt!
So damn charismatic! Is it Thursday yet! YES IT IS!!!
I made a campaign called Blessed Curse, where each PC got a curse, such as vampirism, living wood, steamborg, or Demonic. Each had their own reason to get back to normal, such as eventually the living wood would fit and die, the steamborg can't use fine tools in his jobs. Feel free to use these and give ideas, thanks!
I would recommend posting these somewhere for people to use in their own campaigns.
This is real cool! Knowing my players, they’d find a way to turn the curse into a blessing. Maybe this was the intention of the campaign, methinks?
Yes, a new season!!
I've started playing a few months ago, and though probably not the best idea, I started with a homebrew race and class. Not ones I created, but simply ones I found on the internet.
Now that I watched this video, I can clearly understand the steps when going through with making a homebrew mechanic for DnD, and so I now have a new appreciation for how hard it must be with making homebrew stuff, which is beautifully amazing to think about.
Thanks to Matts helpful GM tipps i could really improve my homemade rulesystem and worlds/stories i have written.
A lot of things i figured out by trial and error and with the knowledge i had from my own experience, but without his tipps it wouldnt have been so extensive and fleshed out like it is now.
Its of course not on the scale of a "Das Schwarze Auge" or Dungeons and Dragons rulesystem but its quite extensive and it works for all my GM needs and the needs of my players.
So thank you Matt, wholeheartedly on behalf of my players and me of course, you are the coolest person i know (internet "knowing") :)
I like that you have mentioned this, Matt. I have a Star Wars campaign that I am running and have created a few homebrew aspects that I use in it. I am going to doublecheck them now using these tips in mind. Thank you for the advice.
Really glad this has launched again.
As always, thank you, Matt!
I like watching you more than the other dudes who just record from the camera on their laptop. And the DMing with Vin Diesel has set the standard high for the rest of us. I found it helped me to let other players know that I was a level 1 DM and asked for their patience.
sobersportsman VIN DIESAL PLAYS? I NEED TO SEE THAT! WHERE CAN I SEE THAT?! A little excited right now.
I was working nonstop for homebrewing missing details for Plane Shift: Innistrad. Amazing timing.
Yay a new episode!
It was funny to watch the cutting live... as you were able to refer to the background for the information required.
My god literally not ten minutes ago I was forced to start a home brew for my friends and this could not have come at a better time. Thank you so much Matt & Co.
THEY ARE FINALLY BACK HOORAY
literally just finished a homebrew sessiom with a new player haha.
love you mercer!
Never stop making these. I fucking live for them.
I really love these videos, so helpful
This helps a lot. I’m homebrewing an entire new class with a very different spell system than what’s already been done
Very much Step 6. Had a ton of help with the Wizard's forum. Like for a wererat infection or some time travel related items.
This came just in time, Matt! The sorcerer in my current campaign has been itching to add to the number of spells they can choose from. Thank you!
Just be warned that having a limited number of spells to choose from is one of the well-balanced downsides to choosing a Sorcerer over a Wizard. You need to be careful about letting a Sorcerer player have more spells.
Thank you for the advice. I'll keep that in mind. :)
mercer is honestly goals
I occasionally dabble in home brew features for 5e. They have been posted on my website and on my TH-cam channel before. It is a lot of fun to do.
Please do a world-building episode!
You can't stop liking this guy!
YAAASS I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS
New set looks great!
Thanks for this Matt!
I homebrewed a Revolving Carbine Rifle w/ a simple scope. The rifle was D10 damage since it was shorter than a Musket so I didn't want to use the D12. It fired six shots like a standard 🔫. The scope was a metal tube w/ crosshairs etched on 1 of 2 lenses inside the tube. I got an advantage on perception checks using the scope, crit on a 19 or a 20 and if I scored a critical hit, got an extra 1D4 for a precision shot. (Precision shot damage did not double on a scored hit).
Using the scope in combat came w/ a consequence. You have tunnel vision because you're looking down a small tube & can't see what's going on around you. Enemies have advantage on attack rolls against you until the start of your next turn.
Great video Matt
Matt, I want your book! Even if I'll never run a full campaign, I want to spend days and days slowly absorbing your whole world.
Matt's Back!
Just yesterday a player in a Pathfinder game we're starting threw together a Succubus bloodline for their sorcerer using abilities from different bloodlines.
Based on that, I recommend that you consider asking other players in your game if they think your content is fair and balanced. Normally one or more of the players in the group will be better at the mechanics of the game (and others better at the background lore, and others at role-playing, ect), and can point out areas where your content may be unbalanced.
And if they get it wrong, well, then it's everyone's fault for not catching it early ;)
The Existant One The Party who screws up together, stays together.
Matt Mercer just needs to make an entire how to DM playlist!
I was looking for reviews on my homebrew archetype. It’s a barbarian archetype called the Crusher. Their only weapon is a massive, 9ft long sword that takes half a level of exhaustion to swing. The attacks are as follows:
Spin: pretty self-explanatory. You spin, and any enemy within reach takes 1d10 slashing damage.
Slam/Shockwave: you slam your sword down, creating a shockwave that shoots out thirty feet in the direction of the sword’s point, pushing enemies ten feet back. Anyone hit directly by the blade takes 1d10 slashing
Launch: swing your sword upwards to launch any enemy hit by it ten feet into the air, taking appropriate fall damage.
Rage: consumes all remaining levels of exhaustion. Swing sword wildly, dealing 2d12 damage to anyone- including allies, who are hit.
love your guy's content and Matt is funny as hell as always. I wonder what would happen if Sam (Scandlen) would do if he had the opportunity to make one of these videos.
that is an amazing background
"Or a willing friend who is willing to work for pizza or back rubs."
I get the feeling he's talking about Marisha. XD
That golden dragon waggling about triggers me so much.
Cheeki Breeki so a toy dragon wiggling on a table makes you have a complete mental brake down...?
Rhys Causon If it were only were that but the dragon was simply the setup and the box waggling was the finisher.
Or that mimic that is just twitching over in the corner...
I'll make it worse for you: the box on the other side of the table too.
Damn you! I only saw the box until I read your comment!
Great example to learn from
One of the quickest "shortcut" methods for getting a feel for homebrewing, if taking all these steps feels a bit too much to jump into or otherwise seems too intimidating, is to try taking an existing thing such as a spell, and "reflavor" it by tweaking aspects of it such as the duration or damage type.
Say, for example, that wizard's staple spell, Magic Missile. Instead of a projectile of arcane energy that deals Force damage on impact, you can "homebrew" a spell by modifying it to deal Cold damage, and voila, you have a new spell, Icy Darts. Or make it deal Necrotic damage and call it Rot Bolt. You get the idea. It's a nice way to get a feel for how things work before taking the full plunge.
New Player Here, i really REALLY wanna make a "Mercenary" Class that is all about fighting dirty and their main concept is "Debuffing/Cheating" against the enemy as much as possible, taking one of the principles of battle to heart "Seek Victory, not Fairness" and these are great advice!
THANK YOU! I thought it was discontinued!
Top tips as always. Matt is a weapons class DM
I'm a simple man. I see Mercer, I hit like.
The best advice I see here is..... Write/Reduce, Write/Reduce, Write/Reduce. Honest, I love to create, whether its making custom content for something like Warcraft, D&D or even writing a paper for a class that I have no idea what direction to go. In all of these, I find the best way is to get it all out and keep skimming and adding and tweaking. When I write a paper, there is no rough draft per se. I pour my thoughts out. Condense them into categories, flip sentences and topics around between them, rewrite everything again with no form, and repeat until I feel that everything is succinct enough to compile into a rough draft... which is kinda the 50th rough draft. This works for creation too, especially with characters. Pour it out, cut the junk out. Fit abilities and things into the levels you want, rearrange, add something, do it all again. Maybe I'm just ADD, but that works so F'ing well for me. Then, def ask the internet how they feel.
I once added, playing with friends, a "stress" mechanic, where after failing certain rollcheck or in specific situations (like the group is being followed and they can feel it) the stress builds up. Reaching a certain amount, player's action became more hard to perform or had weird result. It kinda worked well, and it even adds some funny moments and role playing hint.
My favorite tweak was in Anima Tactics, polarizing a team mate's sword who was fighting barefooted opponents after it had rained. So air was already ionized or whatever anyways, i don't remember physics anymore, this was years ago, plus water on the ground, so he basically tasered the guy he was fighting.
Thanks. I was thinking about homebrewing flight for one of my characters.
2:38 😂😂😂 REALLYFUCKINGPOWERFUUULL!!! I did not expect to laugh that hard. Thank you for all of your advice, it's helping me greatly!
As someone who has made items and feats and spells and two (almost three) full subclasses and am a pretty experienced player, I thought I knew what I was getting into when I, with help from a couple of friends, started writing up my own class. Let it be known, sh*ts tough. I’ve been working off and on on it for three days and have only like the first 3-4 levels fully done. 4 of the 5 or 6 subclasses are mostly fully theory crafted, all thats left for those subclasses is deciding the actual level progression and finalizing a few different abilities. Wish me luck y’all, I’m hoping to have this first write up done in 2 weeks to see if I can get approval to play it in a short/serious set of interconnected one shots.
There is also a podcast and forum called the dungeon masters block that is super helpful as well
Matt Mercer your the best i wish i could GM like you and your PC's are sooo lucky :D
As a gm/dm whose only campaigns are hombrews(albeit using existing franchises ) creating the new class and characters is quite fun even better when you create factions like I have a transformer campaign and if a character has a elemental affinity it's because they became a disciple of Unicron . Or they may get approached by the order of the matrix and become a hunter of those under unicorns will.
I once came up with a "gravewalker" death alternative class that lets you create a bond with a ghost (yes its literally a class based on shadow of mordor)
it would be built around creating your own fighting presence
Mostly you first get the ability to get 1 truthful answee from someone you either surprise or got tbeir hitpoints below either your constitution or your strength modifier.
It could later create elemental AOE damage with an ability which are all based around consuming an enemies life force which you then use aa fuel for any of your abilities(or it drains itself completely when you rest)
Subclasses are the Undeniable, the Corrupting Trickster and the Dread Lord
The Undeniable creates Fanatic mindless Followers once finishing your "Interrogate" ability that would not hesitate to jump in a pit of spikes if it makes it easier for you to cross it.
The Corrupting one gains some rogue features and can use interrogate twice per turn if not detected coming out with very self aware followers that can still act independent and are indistinguishable from other people in that sense
The Dread Lord drains a victims entire life force when interrogating only to raise them again as an undead servant for as long as you are alive. Instead of elemental damage all dread lords abilities instead deal necrotic damage
In other notes it acts like a revenant if a revenant had no goal. Gets health back and doesnt really die
His blood hunter homebrew is really great
Matt, I'd like your opinion on a thing, specifically, a homebrewed luck system.
It's Rolled like any other stat, 4D6 drop 1, and can have applications in very specific events, but at any roll, once per day, a player can choose to attempt to roll for a chance at a reroll, the roll + mod must be 18 or higher in order to successfully get a new roll, however, when they get a successful roll, this new roll takes it's place for better or worse
D&d wiki was very helpful with home brew races.
I couldn't stop staring at the hourglass, watching it jump around just makes me imagine someone coming to flip it every so often during the shoot.
2:39
Goblin +Lvl 2 Fighter for Action Surge +Lvl 2 Wizard (School of Lore) Spell Secrets *Substitute Force for Fire +Lvl 10 Sorcerer (Any Fire Dragon Ancestry) Elemental Affinity - Fire *adds Charisma Mod to Damage +Lvl 6 Warlock Radient Soul *adds Charisma Mod to Damage +20 Charisma
Magic Missile.
I have come to realise, that in the same way I’m scared to salt my food, I have become scared of seasoning my homebrew with power. My forest hybrids are cool in that way - they aren’t to overpower. Hah. My paranoia really did serve me right in the end
My only significant homebrew content that I'm ever going to send at my players is a gauntlet crossbow (which is just a combination of multiple pre made items) and a "mutant" class where you roll new class features every few levels on a d% table
We homebrew our entire game, rules characters, enviroments and everything. It's a daunting task, but for my specific set of RPing friends, it fits exactly what we want out of role play. Because it's the same group of us every time, we don't really have to worry about anyone minmaxing for power and can amend rules on the fly if they don't work the way intended without feeling like we're cheating, because they were designed to be flexible from the get-go. Still haven't gotten it perfect, but that's half of the fun for me.
more please!