Pre-published or self-written modules?

[Stumblewyk]

The current thread asking about what the greatest published modules you've ever run was got me wondering - do most DMs/GMs here use pre-published adventures?

Maybe it was just me, but being a kid without a lot of expendable income when I was younger, I couldn't afford to buy modules. Heck, I could barely afford to buy D&D rule books. My friends and I would each buy one book and share them between us. I owned the Monstrous Manual, one guy owned the PHB, and another guy owned the DMG.

Anyway - as a result, I wrote all my own adventures. I started doing it in high school, and I continue doing it to this day (for the most part). I use pre-published modules when I don't have the inclination to actually prep a game for a group.

I'm wondering what the breakdown is for other DMs - How often do you use pre-published adventures, and what's the reason you do (or don't)?

Edit: I'm not implying any kind of inherent "superiority" in one adventure method or another. I have time and inclination to write, so I do it, even though I have the money to buy modules if I want them.

Also, if you rely mostly on improvisation or sand boxing, I'd call that self-written for the purposes of this poll. You're coming up with that stuff on your own.

 

[Morrus]

Pre-pubished for me. I simply don't have the prep time I had when I was a teenager.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I said I 'write' most of the modules I run

But 'write' is a vast exaggeration.

What I usually do it get up sets of encounters, and then wing the adventure. I know vaguely where I want to go, but how I get there is not very important at all. The players decide that.

But I tend to steal encounters from other modules to use, if I do not want to make things up myself.

Most of my current 'module' is encounters ripped from WotBS and refluffed.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Even with a family, it's not that I don't have or can't make the prep time, I just don't have the creative energy to invest in something that may or may not pan out over a period of time.

I used to write my own adventures all the time. But I started to realize that the only person who really gave a crap about any of it was me.

So now I run pre-written adventures almost exclusively. Of course I tailor aspects of those adventures for my PC's to keep them invested in whats going on. As a result even with converting things from 3.5 to Pathfinder using Hero Lab or on the fly it's still takes less time and energy than creating adventures from scratch.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I've never run a published adventure. To me, that would defeat the point of playing the game. I see it as a creative outlet and I try to improvise as much as is feasible, use the characters and the players input, and incorporate influences from anywhere I can think of.

That said, I don't really write adventures. Mostly I just lay down a few major plot points, stat up a couple of monsters, and make up the rest as I go.

 

[Smoss]

I've sometimes taken an idea or two from a published adventure, but never run one. I always write and run my own stuff.

I've tried to run a published adventure a few times and all it taught me is that published adventures don't cater to the kind of RP me and my friends like.

That and the annoying, gaping plot holes and weird railroad attempts. Could just be me though. Or very bad luck in finding good modules.
Smoss

 

[Whisper72]

Put me in the 'I'll steal, borrow and copy' parts from any type of published module, but never ran a module at all.

In the beginning, where I lived, adventures were rarely for sale to begin with, so there was no choice but to make stuff up.

Also, the campaigns I ran as DM never had distinct modules or adventures as such. Stuff just happened, and the PC's reacted as they will.

with players who rarely do what you think they will, most stuff just got 'created' on the fly.

The most fun we had was a massive marathon session which lasted 36 hours straight (no sleep...) for which I was the DM, for which I hade done no preperation whatsoever. Just took small notes during play based on ideas of my own or things the players said they were wondering about, make on the spot judgement calls and go from there...

 

[JediSoth]

When running a campaign at home, I use a mix of homebrew and published adventures. I usually have a meta-game framework in which I work in published adventures in between the really plot-important segments. I just don't have the free time to write an entire campaign from scratch these days.

When I run games at conventions, they're always 100% homebrew.

 

[IronWolf]

I run pre-written adventures. There are some really good ones out there and with constant pulls on my time they fit my schedule better.

 

[The Shaman]

I haven't run a module in decades, but I'm using some pre-published adventure material in our Flashing Blades game and I'm probably going to run a Boot Hill module this summer at a con.