Creating Homebrew Content in RPGs! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer) 

Matt, I wanna be like you when I grow up. I am 30.

Half of homebrew weapons be like: Rotten potato on stick. Dmg: 12d12 piercing + 3d8 poison... Balanced

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

I want "really fucking powerful" as a gif lol its wonderful. Also had no clue I would get upvoted hello world!

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

We need a video on story/world creation. I'm starting an original campaign soon and could use some tips!

Matt Mercer is a God-tier DM

you are by far my favorite person the planet matt keep on being a great DM!

I love it when Jotaro explains to me how to create homebrew content.

I LOVE how elaborate the set is getting, it's super immersive.

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.

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.

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.

DUAL SHEILDS

"Pizza and back rubs" Matt probably tests his content on Marisha :)

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.

I always love how excited he says, "Critical Role."

#mattmercerisbestdmever

I've been expecting a new episode of this series for so long! Thank you!

Great new setup, lighting and color balance for the video. It looks so much more professional from that standpoint! Thanks for the tips :)

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.

Nice, well done video. Fair and easily grasped concepts, presented in a funny and enjoyable way. Thanks to Matt, and crew for this video!

These have been extremely helpful! Keep up the good work!

I can't focus on what he's saying, just on how good his voice sounds

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!

Really needed this video. Really upped my confidence in my homebrew. God bless 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!

Love these Matt, keep up the good work!

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.

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

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.

Great to see these back on!

Digging the new set, looks really good ^_^. Thanks for keeping this series going, by the way, can't get enough of these tips.

As someone that is writing a LOT of homebrew content for my campaign this was helpful and informative. Thank you.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Never stop making these. I fucking live for them.

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 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.

So damn charismatic! Is it Thursday yet! YES IT IS!!!

literally just finished a homebrew sessiom with a new player haha. love you mercer!

As always, thank you, Matt!

This helps a lot. I’m homebrewing an entire new class with a very different spell system than what’s already been done

It was funny to watch the cutting live... as you were able to refer to the background for the information required.

Yes, a new season!!

Matt Mercer just needs to make an entire how to DM playlist!

I was working nonstop for homebrewing missing details for Plane Shift: Innistrad. Amazing timing.

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 really love these videos, so helpful

Really glad this has launched again.

"Or a willing friend who is willing to work for pizza or back rubs." I get the feeling he's talking about Marisha. XD

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!

THEY ARE FINALLY BACK HOORAY

mercer is honestly goals

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.

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.

Please do a world-building episode!

I occasionally dabble in home brew features for 5e. They have been posted on my website and on my RU-vid channel before. It is a lot of fun to do.

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.

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.

That golden dragon waggling about triggers me so much.

YAAASS I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS

Yay a new episode!

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 ;)

New set looks great!

THANK YOU! I thought it was discontinued!

You can't stop liking this guy!

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.

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!

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.

I'm a simple man. I see Mercer, I hit like.

Matt's Back!

Great video Matt

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.

Top tips as always. Matt is a weapons class DM

that is an amazing background

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.

2:38 😂😂😂 REALLYFUCKINGPOWERFUUULL!!! I did not expect to laugh that hard. Thank you for all of your advice, it's helping me greatly!

Matt Mercer your the best i wish i could GM like you and your PC's are sooo lucky :D

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

Thanks. I was thinking about homebrewing flight for one of my characters.

Great example to learn from

i love matt and everything, but guys, that lighting and video is sexy as hell, nice job!

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.

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.

I did something similar to this once during a casual DM session (everyone was new... so it was just meant to be quite light-hearted and fun while everyone messed around and enjoyed themselves) the group I was DMing for were from an Anime and Manga Society so I decided to do a little unique spin on it and make it more oriental themed in both characters and races, most of them were fairly copy-paste though. (instead of Goliath's it was Oni's for example. ) Even managed to make a unique race too... the 'kitsune' sure it was imbalanced as hell but it was fun, the main gimmick being that they would start off initially weak, but achieving certain things would allow them to grow more tails which increased in strength... effectivley early on they'd be the 'diplomat' of the party (Kitsune... 'charm' goes hand in hand) and would later become a powerful mage. Was certainly a very fun session though ^^

There is also a podcast and forum called the dungeon masters block that is super helpful as well

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

I'm getting interested in D&D and I want to be a player and a DM. Yet while playing in someone's campaign I would use that to craft a homebrew so I could run a homebrew later. Yet I would start homebrew within officially established worlds, then create new demiplanes or realms connected to the original setting. After that create brand new material planes. As someone who wants to be a video game dev homebrewing stuff seems like a great way to get into game design.

Melf! Hahaha! According to WotC's official D&D podcast, Melf was the character of Gary Gygax's son, Luke (I believe). He wanted to make a spell that would allow him to get in and melee a wizard. So while his acid arrows would deal a small amount of damage and interrupt spells, he could melee them down.

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.

Yeah I made a homebrew and posted it to the DND Reddit I ended up getting a lot of negative feedback but I used it to rework it to make it more balanced.

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.

D&d wiki was very helpful with home brew races.

In the 3.5 campaign I'm playing in right now, I accidentally came up with the idea for 1/day "Ultimate" abilities we could use and our DM liked it and said all of us design one for our characters and the party cohort. Beyond that, I've worked with my DM to make a custom template for my previous character that died freezing a horde of Fire Elementals as well as the town they were in. Homebrewing can be great...or it can blow up really hard.