Yep; I think of them as very comparable to fanfic. Except that they don't have a name. They were never exchanged widely like fanfic, because the interest was usually limited to a small cluster of gamers with a shared history, and often, a lot of the rules details were never written down. (Core rules were written down; details and fixes that came up in play might not be added.)
It's possible that individual gameworlds also compare to fanfic; I'm considering how to mention those at fanlore. ("Gameworld" can mean either the official published version or the gamer-created setting. Or a mix, which was very common.) Everyone had them but very few got any use outside of a particular group of gamers. Some evolved into published settings; gaming doesn't have the same hassles of fanfic when trying to "go pro." (It's got some; they have to file off the trademarks. But they can get a lot of mileage out of "no infringement intended; this is not an official product of [company].")
Some of the "homebrews" became games-that-got-sold; the late 90s' access to desktop publishing programs and printing tech made a swarm of tiny gaming companies spring up out of nowhere. And mostly flop miserably, because "all our gamers loved it, and so did the four guys I ran it for at GenCon" doesn't actually translate to public interest.
*flails*
Is nifty complex topics and I'd love to see more of it at Fanlore and feel all weird being the only person (at least that's what it feels like) adding content to these topics! Eep!
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Re: homebrews
It's possible that individual gameworlds also compare to fanfic; I'm considering how to mention those at fanlore. ("Gameworld" can mean either the official published version or the gamer-created setting. Or a mix, which was very common.) Everyone had them but very few got any use outside of a particular group of gamers. Some evolved into published settings; gaming doesn't have the same hassles of fanfic when trying to "go pro." (It's got some; they have to file off the trademarks. But they can get a lot of mileage out of "no infringement intended; this is not an official product of [company].")
Some of the "homebrews" became games-that-got-sold; the late 90s' access to desktop publishing programs and printing tech made a swarm of tiny gaming companies spring up out of nowhere. And mostly flop miserably, because "all our gamers loved it, and so did the four guys I ran it for at GenCon" doesn't actually translate to public interest.
*flails*
Is nifty complex topics and I'd love to see more of it at Fanlore and feel all weird being the only person (at least that's what it feels like) adding content to these topics! Eep!