From D&D to Utopia and Lancer, here is how a decade of homebrewing taught me the mechanics behind tabletop systems.
I was first introduced to Dungeons & Dragons when I was attending a pre-K and elementary private school called "Wheels of Life." They are long gone now, having closed in 2014, but while they were open, they had a D&D club for the bigger kids. Unfortunately, I was six at the time, so I didn't qualify, but man, I was jealous. I saw my brothers playing it and would sometimes even sneak into the room to see what was going on. It enthralled me, so I spent hours learning everything I could.
Later in life, during my attendance at Whatcom Middle School, I got my first taste of blood. I was able to join a before-school club and I actually DM’d for a group of four. It was electric. It was a homebrew campaign set in a small colony of islands tormented by a god of rags. I took loose inspiration from Slavic folklore to create a species called The Cloathen. They are created by burying a stillborn baby mummified in cloth. On the day of what would be their 18th birthday, they awaken as a Cloathen: a spirit made of cloth with the baby still inside. It is able to move its baby body around inside, and usually acts like a hag or an imp.
The story's BBEG, however, was no hag. It was ancient, and over time it grew wiser, larger, and more powerful, until eventually it took hold of the small community, but it was stopped just in time by our brave party. Forgive me, but the only player character I can remember was a tiny Kenku barbarian that was a one-foot-wide pom-pom. What creative middle schoolers, right? That game was limited by 45 minutes in the morning, so we only got so far. I believe it ended with a chilling scene where they were hiking down a snowy mountain hiding from our BBEG menace, transporting the remains of an ancient warforged they heard might have knowledge of how to stop him. It was fun!
I left Whatcom in seventh grade and joined Explorations Academy, where I stayed until late high school. That meant I had to say goodbye to that campaign, but thankfully I was quickly able to find a new one, though I unfortunately had to sacrifice the position of DM. For that game, I played an early build for the ooze, i was a monk with a homebrew subclass made by the YouTuber Pointy Hat: the Way of Flesh. That happened to be the game where I met my now-girlfriend, which made it incredibly special.
As that section of the campaign came to a close, it was my turn to DM again. I decided to add a new system to the equation: the newly made Utopia TTRPG. We played a couple of campaigns with the system, including a story set in the coincidentally named "Utopian City of Dreams." It was a steampunk island that held a lot of opportunity for the unfortunate, but was almost impossible to leave. Everything was perfect enough until the city's government opened a hole to the Fey Realm, and the nobles and constructs were secretly taken control of.
This was where I really got into my groove more than anything. It was a group of five, not counting me, and I was able to make some of the most brutal homebrew creatures that kept combat interesting, along with plot twists that had my players fearing what I might make them feel next.
This streak of running campaign after campaign keeps going to this day. I'm currently learning a new system, the Lancer TTRPG, and GM'ing for a new group. We are telling a story of psychological manipulation, ancient gods, and secret organized cults. I have never followed a story that wasn't homebrew, and I always keep things interesting.