Do you care if it is a premade adventure?

Last night after the usual weekly game, finishing up The Necromancer's Apprentice (DMing from dummies book), and debating whether I should do Necromancer Game's Crucible of Freya (or make up the follow up to Wizard's Amulet my self), I faced this question. Do you really mind if the DM made the adventure or not?
I have been running quite a few adventure modules lately, and was thinking if maybe my players would get more out of the game if I made the adventure solely for them. Then I started thinking harder about it, and they are really having a blast even though I didn't make it. The reason I care so much about this question is not because I don't want to make my own, but I am planning to do a Savage Tides AP soon.

So do you care if the DM made the adventure himself, or if someone else did it?

Mitchbones said:

So do you care if the DM made the adventure himself, or if someone else did it?

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Yes, I do. Not all DM's can write good aventures. For that matter not all published RPG writers can either. Also, writing an adventure and successfully running one you wrote verse one someone else wrote are different sets of skills as well. One is not automatically better then the other, but I do care what my DM is doing.

No (but yes)

This is from the DM side of the table, as I have played very little by comparison in many years gaming. Maybe not right now, but you will get good in time at customizing even published modules to tailor them slightly to the players and thier PC's. As you read a published adventure, be looking for those little plot hooks, loopholes, and ambiguities that seem to relate somehow to a PC's life, goals, or whatnot, and make it so. I've been lucky enough to DM for the same core group of players for 26 years, and I have found that they DO seem to get more enjoyment and get more involved when there are direct ties between some adventure events and thier long terms goals, but it doesn't seem to matter if I have written the adventure myself or just retconned some things into a published module.

As far as my limited view of a player goes, I don't care who wrote the adventure as long as it's good. Both homebrew and publishers create good and bad.

Adventure plot and presentation are far more important to me than whether or not it is premade or DM made. If the DM can present said adventure in a skillful way and I am having fun then so be it. The bottom line for me is having fun.

Crothian said:

Yes, I do. Not all DM's can write good aventures. For that matter not all published RPG writers can either. Also, writing an adventure and successfully running one you wrote verse one someone else wrote are different sets of skills as well. One is not automatically better then the other, but I do care what my DM is doing.

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I agree with Crothian, but would add that it totally depends on my DMs strengths. I'd prefer to see him stick mostly to what his strength is. But either way, I expect a mix of the other...maybe 70/30.

I think that running published adventures can be better or worse than one that the GM has written himself. It depends on a number of factors.

Firstly, some published adventures aren't that good. Some are very railroady. Others don't account for things like the use of Teleport or Fly, even though the PC's should have access to it given the level of the adventure. Some others have big plot holes in them and others just plain don't make sense!

Secondly, the GM has to make sure that he is familiar with the adventure before he tries to run it. Some GM's assume that pre-written means that they don't have to have read it before they try and run it for the group. Wrong! In my experience it generally makes for a bad experience trying to play through an adventure that the GM hasn't taken the time to actually prepare.

Thirdly, unless it is a one-shot, the GM should at least make an effort to try and link the adventure into the on-going campaign. Otherwise it can make for a very jarring campaign as the PC's go from one totally unrelated adventure to the next.

Having said all that, when I GM I generally only run pre-written adventures. However, I do add a lot of my own stuff on the side or throughout the adventure to help link it into the campaign. I also find that as the characters develop we spend more time doing things that aren't part of a published adventure.

Olaf the Stout

Don't care in the least.

If the GM is good, then he can most likely take a bad module and make it better, or take a good module and make it great. If the adventure is well written then it may help an inexperienced GM.

Cabled makes a good point.

Prewritten can get good adventures but make them your own. Add things for the players, tweak them if you have to. Add links to other adventures and if you know what you may be running in the future drop hints for it. For example if you know your next adventure deals with a merchant house's caravan, make one passing through the village the character are in currently.

Doesn't matter to me, as long as the adventure is entertaining.

Customizing an adventure to fit the group and the campaign is a talent. Personally, I don't know if I have this talent, as I've yet to run a published adventure. But my main DM generally creates all the stories and plot hooks, and then uses modules for the dungeons. It works beautifully. He changes the dungeons to suit the group, and customizes the plots to suit the adventures he wants to use.

I would rather see a well-adapted module than a shaky homebrewed dungeon. However, I would rather see almost any homebrewed dungeon at all than a module that made heavy use of railroading or was way out of synch with the group.