Like Doc, I am still working with the original game world I developed in 1987. My current (PBEM) game is set about 20 years later that my first (Face to Face) games. The new campaign involves basically a second generation of adventurers (some related to the first). And basically a fair chunk is a swipe from various sources (Harn, Lord of the Rings, Greyhawk, etc.) and the rest original.

Regards,
Old Man

@baz king – We just had a baby, so for me these days it comes down to “Worry less about little stuff, spend my limited time on the important stuff.” This philosophy is an outgrowth of that — I’m glad it works for you!

@DarknessLord – Given the differences in approach between BW and D&D, I suspect you’d develop your world in some surprising directions after making that transaction — regardless of which direction you went. That sounds like fun.

I never really thought about the whole not system specific aspect, even if I did let a player run a MAID game in the same canon as my current campaign. XD But the idea of running a full, say, Burning Wheel, game in the same world that your last D&D game took place in, would have stuck me as ridiculous up till this point, but it seems like an interesting idea…

As noted, prep-time isn’t wasted because elements can always come into play later on. It’s also easy to juryrig your elements to be used as needed. Maybe you’ve written up a dirty cop you want the players to have to have a sit down with – but they bypass the cops and go to the FBI. No problem – now he’s an FBI agent. Making the change can be seamless because you haven’t stitched the NPC into the rest of the background too much.

I do wonder how the modular method gets passed the hodge-podge trap, though. If you’re creating elements as they grab you, what has changed? More broadly, is there a way to create modular elements independently and at-will, but make sure that, when placed, they connect in an internally-consistent way?

On the other hand, I gave up on those sweeping worlds because so often only I would care about any of the history or other details. This approach is much less time consuming and much more practical.

Sorry. Newbie here, so I kinda get excited easily.

I make homebrew settings on a regular basis, and I’m also working on one right now, in fact. I agree with a large chunk of what you wrote here…Okay, pretty much all of it. Perhaps it’s just my GM style, but I prefer to do pretty much the same thing: create homebrew settings that, while I might’ve designed them for one system, they can be easily transported to another system with a minimum of work. They’re also (usually) genre-neutral, easily usable with any kind of story.