Who Actually Has Time for Bloated Adventures?

[UngainlyTitan]

D&D culture shock is real. I've never met a player who actually preferred to be playing in an "official" module.

It is funny because now that I think about it neither have I. When I started everybody home brewed, probably because, in Ireland in the eighties game store were like hen's teeth. So I home brewed and only when I burned out in the 3.5 era (which I realise now, was as much a 3.x thing as a me thing) I restarted in the 4w era but running published material. I prefer it, being a reluctant DM at best and my players are happy with the material.
Sorry, wandered off point there, but I have no personal history with the TSR published classics but so many here have and play and run published material that I have come to consider it normal.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Yes 5e advice is poor. In 5e APs I would often just bring in the nearby enemies to a fight once one is started and would only hand tune the boss fights.

It's not poor; it's EMPOWERING! 4E has taught WOTC that DMs don't want rules regulating how the game is played. They want FKR style games where DMs are free to take the game wherever their judgement takes them!

 

[TwoSix]

It is funny because now that I think about it neither have I. When I started everybody home brewed, probably because, in Ireland in the eighties game store were like hen's teeth. So I home brewed and only when I burned out in the 3.5 era (which I realise now, was as much a 3.x thing as a me thing) I restarted in the 4w era but running published material. I prefer it, being a reluctant DM at best and my players are happy with the material.
Sorry, wandered off point there, but I have no personal history with the TSR published classics but so many here have and play and run published material that I have come to consider it normal.

Yea, I definitely think it's both region and era specific. I never played 1e or Basic, all of my teenage friends and I cut our teeth on 2e. There was very much a stigma against running published adventures; the assumption was that a "real" DM would make up their own. I went to college about 300 miles away from home and that same attitude was still in effect there.

Coming into this forum and realizing exactly how prevalent module running is was an eye-opening experience for me all those years ago. If I hadn't been on forums discussing D&D, 5e's focus on big published adventures would have flummoxed me.

 

[Lanefan]

2. Players don't want to play my homebrew anyway. You can sell players on trying the latest Pathfinder AP or Curse of Strahd for 5e. Playing an original adventure written by me? They're not interested.

Interesting. Most players IME only care about what system you're using; and once play begins, ideally they can't tell the difference between you running a homebrew adventure and a canned one. (assuming in-person play here)

 

[BrokenTwin]

The only official D&D 5E campaign I've ever heard people advocating for is Curse of Strahd. Every other one I've heard people discussing the merits of, but few actually seem interested in playing them. Pathfinder APs seem a lot better received in general, those there's definitely hits and misses there as well. But they appeal to a very specific style of play that requires a lot of prep from GMs compared to more emergent gameplay styles.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Interesting. Most players IME only care about what system you're using; and once play begins, ideally they can't tell the difference between you running a homebrew adventure and a canned one. (assuming in-person play here)

My players can tell -- they consider premade adventures to be a lot less deadly.

 

[billd91]

My players can tell -- they consider premade adventures to be a lot less deadly.

Pre-mades usually have better maps than I can make.

 

[billd91]

Yea, I definitely think it's both region and era specific. I never played 1e or Basic, all of my teenage friends and I cut our teeth on 2e. There was very much a stigma against running published adventures; the assumption was that a "real" DM would make up their own. I went to college about 300 miles away from home and that same attitude was still in effect there.

Coming into this forum and realizing exactly how prevalent module running is was an eye-opening experience for me all those years ago. If I hadn't been on forums discussing D&D, 5e's focus on big published adventures would have flummoxed me.

It seems to have been a pretty crazy patchwork. A LOT of people obviously played many 1e adventures back in the day and that's got to be a major reason so many of them figured into top adventure lists well into the WotC D&D era. Experience with them was, at least for a while, widespread.

And that might tie into a reason that some player groups are far more inclined to play published adventures rather than home brew. They want to participate in the common touchstones of the broader D&D community. Adventures are something of a lingua franca, a common tongue, between gaming groups. Even though every adventure plays out somewhat differently each time it's run with a different group of people, there's a common tie that binds us together

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pre-mades usually have better maps than I can make.

All maps look the same soaked in the blood of player characters.

 

[Retreater]

It's not poor; it's EMPOWERING! 4E has taught WOTC that DMs don't want rules regulating how the game is played. They want FKR style games where DMs are free to take the game wherever their judgement takes them!

For me, 5E is in this liminal design space. Some things are oddly specific. Others completely not discussed, with no real guidance on how to make judgment calls. The "DM fiat" rule is printed in the DMG, which players don't read (and heck, most DMs don't read, either.)
I felt plenty empowered in TSR-era D&D. I even felt more empowered in 4E because the judgement calls were fewer and farther between, and I knew there was a solid game system behind me to back up my house rules. 5E is more like a Jenga tower.

Interesting. Most players IME only care about what system you're using; and once play begins, ideally they can't tell the difference between you running a homebrew adventure and a canned one. (assuming in-person play here)

Oh, no. My group wants to see the book, held aloft so they can point at Tiamat and tell their friends that they are fighting this specific villain and feel a part of the tradition of other gaming groups.