What's more important: core rules or adventures?

[Yesway Jose]

They say that the iPhone is cool, but it wouldn't be what it is without the App Store.

A new video game console can be cool, but won't sell until there's a good game selection.

I played Call of Cthulhu long ago, not because I cared about the system so much (although it was easy and worked), but because I thought the adventures were awesome.

At WoTC, why is there so much emphasis on the optimal D&D rules, and so little emphasis on making an award-winning adventure module?

I know that there's not a lot of money in publishing adventures, but if you heard about the Most Amazing Adventure Ever, wouldn't you want to play or at least think about playing it, despite the system?

Imagine if George R.R. Martin contributed to a new adventure... wouldn't that drive sales of 4E or Pathfinder or Song of Ice and Fire RPG? (OK, wishful thinking, I know that the RPG market is too small for famous authors, plus they might not understand the medium)

Anyway, we have the various operating system, so where are all the cool games that help to sell the system?

(I expect a plugin for Zeitgeist below)

 

[Nagol]

Each system is attempting to emulate a genre/feel. Each offers unique level of support to scene framing, tropes, conceits, types of obstacles, and expectations for how the PCs interact with the world.

Generic or system-less accessories don't sell. The generic adventure especially suffers from not being able to play to the strengths/avoid the weaknesses of a single system. A typical obstacle in one game may be impassable in another or barely noticable as the system in play hand-waves that problem away.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

A great published adventure or two wouldn't hurt D&D sales, but I probably wouldn't buy it.

I write my own adventures that I run in my home brew campaign, and I don't buy things for the sake of having more stuff, so there's not much appeal for me.

So good rules are much more important to me than good published mods, good PR, or whatever the newest shiny thing is.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Anyway, we have the various operating system, so where are all the cool games that help to sell the system?

Game rules aren't really an operating system. They serve a similar purpose in some sense, but there are two large differences. One, your gaming rules exist explicitly for recreation (which is a use but not the fundamental purpoes of the computer). Second, the rules are accessible to the average person, unlike computer programming, which is a technical discipline that most people don't understand.

The rules of D&D are tools to make your own adventures. Published adventures are useful for people who don't have the time or ability to create their own, but they are not a default part of the roleplaying experience (unlike games for your console, which are kind of essential). However, even when people use a published adventure, many will modify it substantially and improvise during play.

As compared to the computer analogy, asking why a roleplaying game company doesn't produce adventures is more akin to asking why a car company doesn't drive your car to work for you. Sure, some people take taxis or use public transportation (or walk or bike), but those who buy a car do so because they want to drive it themselves, where they want to, when they want to, the way you want to. Many people buy DMGs and Monster Manuals and Corebooks because they want to run their story, in their style, with their material. Cars are freedom. So are rpg rules.

At WoTC, why is there so much emphasis on the optimal D&D rule

I know that there's not a lot of money in publishing adventures, but if you heard about the Most Amazing Adventure Ever, wouldn't you want to play or at least think about playing it, despite the system?

No. I don't have enough game sessions to get my own ideas out. I own over 50 D&D books and have only ever owned one adventure (received as a gift) which I only skimmed briefly and never considered running. I only ever played part of one published adventure, and it was not an experience I would care to repeat. Even an adventure the quality of a great novel or movie would not catch my attention in the least, I wouldn't read it or even consider buying it. Realistically I doubt many such adventures exist. This gaming style is likely true for others besides myself.

 

[Croesus]

They say that the iPhone is cool, but it wouldn't be what it is without the App Store.

A new video game console can be cool, but won't sell until there's a good game selection.

Your analogies are a bit flawed. Buyers of iPhones and iPads don't usually write their own apps, and indeed, may not be allowed to by the hardware and usage restrictions Apple applies. A better (though still flawed) analogy would be to a programming language - which is more important, the language or the programs others write for it?

The answer, of course, depends on the buyer. If I write my own programs, the language will be more important - does it meet my needs, do I know how to use it well, and so on. If I don't write my own, then the programs will matter more - do those meet my needs, do I know how to use those well, and so on.

RPG's are basically toolkits. They don't require adventures, because most GM's create their own. Published adventures may add value (even programmers buy other programs), but they are optional. RPG's may someday reach a point where the majority of participants use commercial adventures, but right now, it's primarily a GM = Programmer situation.

 

[Yesway Jose]

I appreciate the response so far, but in my sphere of experience, my friends don't have much time to make 100% homebrew adventures, and almost always purchase published adventures. Sure, they'll customize it, but they'll still use adventures as a basis.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Adventures are my favorite RPG product, and I prefer them over rulebooks and toolkits. While I seldom use an adventure precisely as written, adventure products do speed up prep time and help me with new ideas.

Apparently, though, there aren't enough consumers like me to make it a great business model, or at least that's the conventional wisdom. I guess I can see that. Since GMs are maybe 1/5th of the gaming group population, and less than 100% of the GM population will buy and use a pre-published adventure, you potentially reach a much larger customer audience if you instead publish rulebooks that can be used by players and not just GMs.

 

[wingsandsword]

At WoTC, why is there so much emphasis on the optimal D&D rules, and so little emphasis on making an award-winning adventure module?

Probably because lots of DM's don't use modules. Most DM's I know either don't use them, or don't use them often.

Over the years I've found using pre-written modules limiting and stifling. They may be interesting to mine for creativity, but all the games I've run the ones the players seem to love are the ones I run for myself.

The rules create a platform that the DM can use for whatever he wants to do with the setting.

The iPhone/app store analogy has a problem, every DM can make their own adventures, not every iPhone user can code new apps.

 

[Dunnagin]

You have a couple of answers already:
Modules/Adventure Paths are not that profitable
People enjoy creating their own worlds/adventures

I would think that, if a system was designed to be a bit more simplistic and modular, then people could create (program) their adventures more easily. Unfortunately, of the two leading D&D style games out today... I find one overly complex for world building and DMing on the fly... and I find the other has a built in assumed flavor and rules which seem overly abstracted.

So I sorta make my own rules, and modules, and worlds.

 

[Elf Witch]

I think both are important. As a DM I often incorporate published adventures into my campaign. One of the reasons I am switching to Pathfinder is because they have written some excellent modules and adventure paths.

I miss Dungeon more than I do Dragon sometimes. While Dragon gave good fluff and I do love Fluff , I used Dungeon for my games more often.

A well written adventure can really help a newbie DM learn how to build their own adventures.