How to use pregenerated material for own inspiration?

Quickleaf said:

@plancktum
Ah, not being able to draw the red line. Yeah, in fiction writing there is an idea called "Kill Your Babies". I forget who first came up with it, by the idea is to be suspicious of your first impulse, examine what you've written objectively later, and apply a mean editing hand.

One of the really nice ways for controlling that tendency is using the "Fronts" from Dungeon World. Uh, there's a Dungeon World SRD for free on the net that describes what a "Front" is in more detail, but the gist is a discrete conflict/threat that the players will face. For a given adventure you probably only want 1 or 2 Fronts, and for a campaign 3-5 is about right. A good technique to self-edit is to say: Ok, I have # this many Fronts in my campaign and here's what they are... Any idea I come up with that doesn't fit into one of these fronts (or is clearly related to a PC or logically draws from last game session) gets the red pen. Cut it out.

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Nice. This solves one of my problems. Now I need inspiration for plotlines, write them down and then review them.

Quickleaf said:

If you're looking for recommendations of good adventures, I recommend any of the stuff by Open Design (Wolfgang Baur): http://www.wolfgangbaur.com/projects/ These tend to be really evocative adventure settings with plenty of hooks so you can bring the PCs in at various points of entry.

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I'm not sure, but can you buy them?

Quickleaf said:

As for "seat of your pants" DMing, which sounds like your strength, if you're playing 4e(which it sounds like you are), I've got a 4e DM Cheat Sheet designed just for that over here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?307923-4e-DM-Cheat-Sheet

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I've played 4e a while ago, now I'm playing 13th Age.

Quickleaf said:

As for "seat of your pants" DMing, which sounds like your strength, if you're playing 4e(which it sounds like you are), I've got a 4e DM Cheat Sheet designed just for that over here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?307923-4e-DM-Cheat-Sheet

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Very nice sheets!

plancktum said:

I'm not sure, but can you buy them?

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Yes, thru the KQ website store. Here: http://www.koboldquarterly.com/kqst...Path=5&zenid=28ef8d791165bec53ef695da264b2c73

I use quite a lot of pre-generated material in my game: for maps, for antagonists (both story ideas and stats), for encounter design, etc. I very rarely use the "plots" as published, though, because they tend to be very railroad.

This post explains how I adjusted some aspects of H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth for my game.

These posts explain some of the ways I adapted B10 Night's Dark Terror for my game. I also mixed in aspects of the module Speaker in Dreams (combining the cities from two modules - whatever it is called in Speaker in Dreams, and Threshold from B10 - into one location with features of both - the Baron from SiD and the Patriarch in B10 - thereby creating a political rivalry that the players could get pick up on and do stuff with).

These three posts give some indication of how I adapted P2 Demon Queen's Enclave, including incorporating elements from other modules.

As a final example, this post explains how I adapted bits of E1 Death's Reach to run a scenario set in Mal Arundak (described in The Plane Below).

If I had to generalise: cut cruft; combine encounters to make them more dramatic; and focus on (and build up) those elements that will actually speak to your players via their PCs.