D&D Homebrewery Guide - Precedent

Precedent: An earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances.

What Is Precedent?
As part of our quality standards, we assume that the objective of a work of homebrew is to be compatible with the official core book rules content of its given edition of the game. To that end, anything that is being made for the game must be considered in comparison to that core rules content, and nothing else.

If we were to compare new homebrew to other previously existing homebrew, you can easily begin to slowly drift away from the original mechanical balance of the core rules. When designers stop working within the context of their original system, you get a number of issues arise such as power creep. By requiring content to be considered in the context of only the core rules material, we are ensuring that we do not generate such issues in our homebrew.

Precedent is the system of unwritten standards that core rules content represents. For example: No Simple Weapon deals 2d12 damage, so a Simple Weapon that does deal 2d12 damage would be running contrary to that precedent. Now, that does not mean you are restrained to just replicating the core material, it simply means that the mechanical aspects of your homebrew should be in-tune with it.

Also included in precedent are the design standards and guidelines provided by the developers. These standards and guidelines may have been published in a wide variety of forms, including core books, magazines, pamphlets, press releases, interviews, podcasts, web pages, and even twitter posts. This piecemeal release of design standards is done primarily because the developers work for a company, and they need to protect both their copyrights, and their development methods, in order to maintain competitiveness in the market. As a result, it is pretty much impossible to keep track of official design standards, due to their incredibly informal method of release.

That said, where standards are released in an easily accessible form, such as monster design guidelines in a Dungeon Master's Guide, we will make every effort to point those out to you, and even make them available if possible. Regarding those standards which are difficult to access, or were released in a form which nolonger exists, we will make every effort to incorporate those standards into the design guide they are most applicable to.