DMs: Do you play run modules?

[Luce]

Play running-DM using a published adventure to run a game for himself, including creating and running multiple DMPCs. Some parallels to the “Choose your adventure” style gamebooks prevalent in the 80s and 90s.

Some reasons in no particular order

1. There is only so much time for gaming, and while RL emergencies should takes precedence when I had set aside a time for rpg I would like to use it one way or another. In other words too long of a break can discourage me from a game or lure me to a new shiny.
   
2. There are too many scenarios/modules out there that I could not possibly use them all in my game. So I play run some. Why do that in the first place? Well...
   
3. Picking tricks and ideas. Each DM eventually develops his unique style, but that style need not be rigid, sampling different different authors adventures (Dungeon magazine was especially good source for that) may not be as good as sitting on their table but still can give you ideas. For example, it may seem very obvious that having 1 level adventure tie in the players into the setting is a very good idea, but it took an adventure about a kidnapped PC elf's uncle (“Visiting Tylwyth” Dun 77) to show me that when I first started DM-ing.
   
   
4. Practice. When I usually run a game there can be a lot of distraction so I tend to concentrate on moving the plot and top down description. Play running offers me a non pressure way to concentrate in other aspects such as room description from 1st person point of view. After all there is no problem if it initially takes me more them five minutes to come up with description of a monster layer. With practice that time will be reduced. How is that different regular adventure building? Well, it is supposed to be more active scenario where the DM also tries to emulate the reaction of the established DMPCs while striving for some consistency with the existing scenario.
   
5. Just reading modules can be dull and boring, even the very good ones. Some time back I sat down to re-read some of the my most memorable scenarios. And I realized that while the writing is important what really make them stand out in my memories ware the players' actions and reactions.
   
6. Sampling settings. Related on #3 above but this time seen through different lens. I have not run a Ravenloft or Dark Sun campaigns, but thanks to Dungeon I do have some exposure to them.
   
7. Experimenting with rules. New rules are often promoted by having a tie in adventure or three. If you are unsure how they will look and feel in play, well you can play run those adventures or you can run an previously play run adventure with the new rules and note the differences. Time consuming I know, but sometimes a good balance between banning or accepting new rules whole sale.
   

Not that there are not some pit falls
1. It can be time consuming. However in my experience it is often the case not that we can not spare time, just that scheduling so 5-6 adults' free time overlap can be hard. When I cannot sleep I read a book, other times I play run a side trek or short adventure.
2. The self practice can help, but one should not fool themselves to believe that is exactly like the real thing. I alike play running to kill house gun training, mimics better the real conditions then a outside range, but still not the same as when somebodies is actually shooting back a you. Player can and will get creative.

Your thoughts?

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't run a lot of publicized adventures, but I try to playtest my encounters before I have my players play them. Sometimes this is simple, as the encounter consists of one or two monsters and some traps/terrain obstacles. Sometimes it is more complex, such as when I have multiple monsters or I have very large, night-spanning encounters planned.

Most of my players leave their sheets here so I can practice with what they've actually got...but you're spot on that players can get creative, and the fact that I'm not them means I'm less familiar with their character and how to run it to the best of it's abilities. Nor can I really play tactically with other players since multiple combined strategies are usually much more interesting than a single one.

I agree with you on all your points, there's a significant difference in experience between reading, planning and playing, and a single individual with a normal set of obligations doesn't always have the time to do everything beforehand....which is why I throw a lot of my planning to the wind because hey, players can and will get creative.

But hey...I do my best.

 

[Water Bob]

I got one foot in each bucket. I like published adventures for the ideas and the pre-designed characters (NPCs take a lot of work!). The maps, stories, and situations are nice too. But, I rarely run a published adventure as-is. Many times, I'll take part of one adventure, make up something new for a time, then connect in another part of another published adventure.

Then again, when I'm feeling inspired, I'm apt to just create my own stuff from scratch, sans any published stuff except for maybe source books that are designed to help you create your own stuff (like rules to create a town and such).

My current campaign is set during Conan's Hyborian Age. All the PCs are Cimmerian Barbarians. We've been playing a couple of years, finished our first storyline (more like an adventure--we can't play all the time), and they've never ventured out of Cimmeria.

So, my game has specific requirements. If I use a published adventure, it's got to be adaptable to Conan's universe. I usually throw out most of the magic and all of the magic items. I replace humanoids with humans from other Cimmerian clans (planning on throwing in some Picts and Vanir, too). The adventure has to work well with a mostly wilderness based campaign--no big cities, few towns, and I don't want to over-do underground dungeons. This means that I can't use 99% of the published adventures out there, both in print and not.

Once you've looked at published adventures through my glasses, you'd be amazed at how similar most of them are. The game should be called Dungeons and Dungeons. There's a set-up that provides a reason for the PC party to spend most of their time under ground exploring some deep, dark, creepy place. That's all there is to most published adventures, as the PCs move from one fight to the next.

"Wait, this morning we fought a wyvern. At lunch, we ran into a pack of trolls. Now, it's dusk, and you want me to crawl down in that cave and fight what?"

Conan's universe is a bit different from that kind of standard D&D fair. There's not near as many monster encounters--lots of human encounters, and more encounters with mundane animals like bear and wolves. True D&D-ish monsters do exist, but those are usually the feature of the adventure rather than just one among many encounters. So, yeah, when I use published adventures, I usually have to do a lot of cutting and re-molding.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I've done this before with adventures that I've written, just to give them a first test to see if they're relatively balanced.

 

[Stormonu]

Back in 1E, I generated a handful of characters and used the random dungeon guidelines in the back of the DMG to get some play experience. It was kind of fun, but I was mostly concentrating on grokking the rules and it certainly helped my DMing quite a bit.

I think I got those characters up to about 3rd level before a chute dropped them into a deeper level where they got torn apart by some demon. Go 1E...

 

[TerraDave]

Like Stormonu....I have done the 1E random dungeon thing.

Its an interesting idea...though the way information works is clearly different...hard to see exploration working the same way.

 

[Crothian]

I run a lot of modules. The biggest reason is for the shared experience. It is fun to talk with other gamers about their experiences through the same adventures. For my current group I made sure to run them through many of the classic 1e modules even though we were playing 3e. In [notranslate]Pathfinder[/notranslate] we've now gone through some of the AP's that many others are going through as well.

 

[howandwhy99]

I definitely playtest published modules I've converted, usually with the current PCs in the campaign I'm running. Now that doesn't mean the players will face those challenges or that I catch or think of everything, (I'd hope my players are more creative than that). But what it does is catch any mistakes I might have made as well as reveal areas of the module's design that are out of balance that weren't obvious upon reading. Actually putting yourself into a situation by playing a game just offers the situational point of view that nothing else quite can.

 

[Luce]

Thank you everyone for your replies.
I waited to recount my own experience so it does not to seem that I am pushing the tread in different direction.
First, before starting playing rpg I had several years experience with gamebooks. Some of those do have strong character development, rich fluff, continuity and enough branching factors as to create an illusion of choice. Some of my favorites are the Way of the tiger, Bloodsword and Lone Wolf series. From those roots I see nothing wrong with running the same adventure several times; each exploring different paths/solution approaches or even due to the luck of the dice having an unique experience.
Second, I learned to DM on my own for there was no more experienced mentor to get me started. While the adventure begins (2e) box and the 2e DMG have plenty of good advice it was Dungeon with its lots and lots of examples that help me smooth some of my storytelling rough edges.
Third, as many I started playing with a group of close friends. Those were people I literally knew half my life. We went to the same school, read the same books and hang out on a daily bases. It was very difficult to surprise them.
After few times they pick up the (hidden) plot in the first half hour or so I started to use almost exclusively pre-made modules. Once again thanks to Dungeon magazine for providing a cheap option. Then gradually started to customize the adventures more and more, introducing new plot twist, changing and expanding adversaries and NPCs.
Nowadays I run about 50/50 split between published and home made. While DM-ing is a great creative outlet, my RL limitations dictate that having a ready stack of play run can be a godsend on a busy week. But especially when players call the night of a canceled game and tell you that they are indeed coming since their game obstructing plans were just canceled. Or when some old game buddies drop in for the busy holidays and ask you to run a short game for their old characters.

 

[BriarMonkey]

I can't say I've ever taken this approach. But then, I rarely use published adventures or modules either.

If a module catches my eye, I will buy them - but solely for the purpose of taking them apart and using what I want in my own adventures. And to that end, I have never run up a test party to play through the thing on my own.

With the adventures I do write up for my campaigns, I will do some "math-temation" though. Since I am making the adventures for a party that I know, I'll run numbers and do some estimations on how encounters will play out - which tends to give me a decent idea of how things will work when the players get their hands on it.

But, as we all know, best laid plans and all that - I will adjust things on the fly if needed. And for that, pre-playing won't help too much.