For me, “homebrew” is when you take anything published and adapt it to your version of the world. It’s maybe less counted when the world is ‘generic’ to begin with (as in, ‘the land has no specified name’) but once you give the world a name (Greyhawk, The Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, whatever you want to call it) and you alter it to any degree, that is homebrew.
I’ve always seen Homebrew as rules added to an existing system. Once you cobble together your heartbreaker and get it out there, even if it’s just a couple of copies run off on a copier at work or whatever (now perhaps released at Lulu?), it’s not quite so much homebrew as a new system that can now be homebrewed by others.
One way to look at it. I would not consider myself published. You can get it off my website, I have printed out frewer than ten total copies of the books.
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I’d consider homebrew to be unpublished as well. I might include the guy who moved a thousand copies (or hundred) to be published however. That is rather successful from my understanding of the RPG industry.
I also agree with @Wyrmwood that homebrew is applied to your material (either as a GM or a player in that game). Once it moves outside your group into a wider audience it more Third Party product or a hack.
Homebrew can apply to rules or settings. I don’t generally tout my settings as homebrew but they would almost all count as such. Was my spelljammer game homebrew? Well I made my own rules for spelljammer ships, reworked the original 2e spelljamming engine mechanics, made gnomes not a joke and adding in layers of lore. So yes.
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This is something I haven’t really given much thought to before. For me, Homebrew has always fallen into a couple categories:
- Customized Rules, typically at DM/GM discretion
- Customized Settings, typically written/created by the DM/GM.
Customized rules could include anything from “homebrew” races, created by the DM, to specialized rules for handling combat or, for example, rules for social “combat” interactions with NPC’s. They are typically created to add life or additional dimension to the game, or to streamline some facet of the game that DM has “found a better way” that works for them.
Customized Settings, I don’t think require much explanation.
As has been discussed in other comments, I think the main thing that sets “Homebrew” apart is that they are typically unique to the DM or person who came up with them and not published material, and therefore not widely available to the masses.
Homebrew settings and homebrew rules are two different things. I like homebrew settings.
To me homebrew settings are settings that do not follow canon. A little Greyhawk, a little FR, a little of this and a little of that.
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(special necro-upvote for Tennesee Bird Walk! One of my favorite songs from childhood!)
<voice=“whisper”>Chirp, chirp. 
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I agree. When I think “homebrew” I don’t think settings. Making your own setting is a inherent function of RPGs.
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Yep. I agree with that. You can use a pre-made setting, you will still quickly make it your own. To paraphrase the rules of war: "No published setting survives contact with the Player Characters.
I don’t know that homebrew means anything anymore. Published material used to have higher quality but with desktop publishing even fan made content can be amazing. If you limit it to publishing on drivethrurpg that means that a low quality D&D supplement counts but the Gamma World fan made GW5 and GW11 modules are not.
More importantly would I use published works over fan made content on a website. I don’t care at this point. As long as it seems balanced I would consider using it. My players didn’t care that I used a fan made lunar dragon in my game. They just remember that I had this dragon thing that spat out slimes.
This is a good point. the term “Published” the whole publishing world has turned upside down. Things like Drivethru, computers and DTP. You can make incredibly polished work (A good editor is worth all the gold you have.)
So I default to “Ark you selling it?” Pro even if a tiny one, or amateur. To be clear, neither of these is an indication of quality or the lack of same. Damn good writers have never made a cent, and some true hacks make a living at it. Life is not fair.
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Has it really turned upside down? I don’t think so. Just because we can upload a PDF to a site and receive money for it, doesn’t make it published. No publisher for one. But yeah, this hobby has always been hobbyist driven, good homebrew is good and worth using.
When is someone a publisher then? When did TSR go from homebrew to publisher? Is it if you commission artwork? Is it when you make print run? I’ve commissioned artwork and done a print run (not for an rpg product but just wondering what your criteria is).
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In the strictness sense, I am published. My game materials are available to people other than myself or my players. BUT, I give it away. I make nothing. This is by choice. One of the effects of running SF cons is you learn from the horse’s mouth the kind of shit that authors deal with. I noped out of that and TSR’s restrictions on what they would license. (The second edition license was half moral causes due to the Satanic Panic.)
Ergo: Anyone can be published. There are places that will print what ever merde you send them without comment. (Google had eight on the first page.) So I whittle it down to are you getting paid or not. When someone gives you money, it’s not a homebrew anymore.
As to the matter of setting vs system, I don’t really worry about settings, because most people do. Yes there are plenty of published settings to be had, some quite good and highly varied. The advantage to rolling your own is that no one can tell youy you are doing it wrong. Well they can, but you can laugh at them.
Rules are more germane to homebrew to my thinking.
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