Published or homemade adventures?

[Jolly Giant]

I'm curious; how many of the DMs here at EN-World use published adventues and how many write their own? If you could also drop a few lines about why you do things the way you do, that'd be great,

Personally, I love the creative process of making my own adventures. I tried running a published campaign once (RttToEE, because I usually like Monte's work), but I hated it. It felt like I wasn't really the DM anymore, I was just the guy who looked up stuff in the book. (To my relief, the campaign ended with a TPK the second session. I've stuck to writing my own campaigns ever since.

 

[Stormborn]

Usually homebrew. I feel much more successful and competent when I run my own stuff, although I do borrow heavilly here and there. I do, however, try some published stuff on occasion when it really strikes me.

 

[an_idol_mind]

I use published adventures a fair amount of time. In my experience, they usually end up being home-made adventures in the end, since I end up revising them heavily to tailor them to my own campaign.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I primarily do it on my own, but when it comes time to do site-based stuff, I look for a quality premade module, rip out its fluff, stick in my own, and I'm off to the races.

 

[The Lost Muse]

I love a good module in principal, but find them to be constraining on creativity, so generally try to use my own material at least 70-80% (although it usually comes in closer to 90-95%) of the time.

 

[Emirikol]

I usually read a Conan story and then adapt it to whatever adventure framework I have from DUNGEON magazine. We just ran AOW in the deserts of shem. Shadows of Zamboula was an excellent story for that one

I've written a few adventures completely too. You can find them online.

jh

 

[bento]

I've learned to use published adventures, but I make modifications to meet my group's needs. I just finished running my 4th Level players through a 1st level adventure in Dungeon 141 (Mask of Dreams). The plot structure and important NPCs remained the same while I changed out the monsters.

Right now they're getting ready to enter B4 - The Lost City, but I've gutted out the module. A few encounters have stayed the same while the majority have been radically overhauled. Love the module's idea (explorers going down in a multi-tiered pyramid with various groups fighting each other) but the hook needed to be changed.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I said "usually use published adventures" but it varies with the campaign. I'm running Red Hand of Doom at the moment in one game, using an adventure from Dungeon in another one and running The Banewarrens in my Lands of Intrigue game. This is primarily because of time pressures, but I've written my own stuff for both the Freeport and Lands of Intrigue campaigns. What I prefer to do is customize published stuff by adding bits and combining with other adventures as then I get to use my own creativity but a lot of the drudge work is done for me.

Cheers


Richard

 

[+5 Keyboard!]

I voted 50/50. I usually use both equally. But then, some of the ones I write myself end up getting published. So, does that make it 50/50 still?

 

[Wye]

I always use published adventures (and for the last year I've been a Paizo slave and loving it), though not necessarily as written. I may change things here and there (specially treasure) and adapt a few NPCs if I have another lesser story arc I want to play out. Otherwise, I don't have the time nor the talent to write my own adventures from scratch; kudos to anyone with the talent to do so.