Homebrew Guidelines & Review Process

Purpose of the Homebrew Workshop

The Homebrew Workshop exists to:

• Develop ideas collaboratively
• Identify mechanical, balance, and clarity issues early
• Reduce arguments during formal submission

Expectation:

Almost all homebrew should go through the Workshop before being submitted for approval.

You should only go to submissions directly if you are confident in the flavour, mechanics, thematics and balance of your homebrew from the start.

If you have doubts about any of those, go through the workshop first. The Submission channel is for final review, not first drafts.

What Belongs in the Workshop vs Submissions

Homebrew Workshop

Post here if your homebrew:

• Is a first or early draft
• Needs rewriting or clarification
• Needs balance discussion
• Introduces new mechanics, subsystems, or niches

Workshop posts must include:
Concept / Niche: What role, fantasy, or build does this fill?
Design Goal: What should this be good at, and what should it not be good at?
Current State:

• Rough draft (needs rewriting)
• Nearly complete (needs balance check)
• Complete draft (polish & edge cases)
• Link to the Homebrew

This helps reviewers give useful feedback instead of guessing intent.

Homebrew Submission (Final Review Only)

You may submit once:

• The workshop discussion has addressed major concerns
• The HB is readable, coherent, and mechanically complete

Submission must include:

• Stellar Coin (SC) payment link in market channel
• Link to the final Homebrew
• Link to the Workshop Thread where applicable

Feedback Standards

For Reviewers

Feedback must be actionable.

Not acceptable:

• "This is broken."
• "This is weak."
• "No."
• "I don't like it."

Required instead:

• What part is problematic?
• Why it's an issue (numbers, action economy, scaling, interactions)
• A suggested change or a clear explanation of the concern

Example:

"At level 5 this outpaces X feature because it stacks with Y. I'd suggest limiting it to once per turn or scaling later."
Blunt is fine. Vague is not.

For Authors

Submitting homebrew means agreeing that:

• Critique is about mechanics, not you
• Changes are normal and expected
• Rejection or revision is not a judgement of creativity

If feedback feels unclear, ask for clarification - don't assume bad faith.

Balance Philosophy

We balance homebrew for typical table play, not exclusively for power-gaming or non-power-gaming

That said:

• Power-gamer edge cases must be considered
• If something becomes game-warping when optimised, it will be addressed
• We will not cripple interesting design solely to prevent every possible exploit

Rule of thumb:

• If an optimisation is clever but reasonable - fine.
• If it trivialises encounters or invalidates other players - it needs fixing.
• This is a discussion, not a winner-takes-all argument.

Workshop Before Submission Is Not a Punishment

The workshop:

• Improves acceptance chances
• Reduces last-minute rejection
• Spreads design load
• Prevents repeated arguments

Skipping it often leads to more changes, more frustration, and more conflict later.

Voting vs Discussion

• Votes are a signal, not the whole process.
• Workshop discussion carries more weight than raw votes
• Votes without engagement do not override unresolved mechanical concerns

Submissions should reflect workshop feedback where applicable

SC Rewards - Clarified

When a homebrew is accepted:

• 2 SC is awarded to contributors who meaningfully participated in the workshop discussion
• 5 SC is awarded as above if the homebrew is a subclass

Participation is based on:

• Feedback given
• Suggestions made
• Balance analysis contributed

SC Reward Command

There's a command to get the list of participants to ping them for discussion rewards.

It uses the link to the homebrew workshop thread, the post for the actual submission and an optional boolean to say if it is or is not a subclass to determine reward values

/homebrew-discussion [link to workshop thread] [link to submission post] [subclass: optional]