After 30+ years of DMing I am finally successfully using pre written adventures at the table. I have used them before now, but the key here is "successfully." Any time I tried to run and adventure, or worse an "Adventure Path," I chafed against it and did it any way but "successful."
5e has changed that. I am not sure it's actually a 5e thing as opposed to a time thing and format thing (I run a lot more on FG than I ever have). But in either case it is now that I am quite suddenly understanding how to successfully run pre written adventures.
The key to that success? Throwing stuff out.
The first 5e Adventure where I really got it was Dragon Heist. Terrible adventure but great set-up and source material. I ran it IRL for the regular group that's been together for years now with most of us taking DMing turns. I realized early on the adventure was poorly written -- um, where's the "heist" -- but there was a lot of really good material there.so instead of doing the unsuccessful thing I did with Storm King's Thunder -- namely sticking to the script no matter what -- i decided that I would toss anything in DH that didn't work for me or my players. It was a revelation.
More recently I have been running Descent into Avernus. Taking those lessons from DH, I have liberally ignored hug swaths of Avernus. Characters forced to work for the flaming fist? No thank you. Long extended 2nd level dungeons with repetitive encounters? Nuh-uh. Silly celestial elephant? No f-ing way.
There's a lot of chaff in the published adventures and the key is to identify it and cut it mercilessly. Now, the chaff isn't the same for everyone. I bet some folks LOVE Lulu. That's awesome. Keep her. But those folks might also HATE the Shield of the Hidden Lord (which I loved) and decide to ignore it. They should.
Somewhere along the line I realized I did not have to run the adventure as written or keep everything in it. Again, it feels silly after running D&D for so long but I guess you can't have experience doing anything if you don't actually do it.
Anyway, long story short: even "bad" pre written adventures can be good if you cut out the crappy parts.
5e has changed that. I am not sure it's actually a 5e thing as opposed to a time thing and format thing (I run a lot more on FG than I ever have). But in either case it is now that I am quite suddenly understanding how to successfully run pre written adventures.
The key to that success? Throwing stuff out.
The first 5e Adventure where I really got it was Dragon Heist. Terrible adventure but great set-up and source material. I ran it IRL for the regular group that's been together for years now with most of us taking DMing turns. I realized early on the adventure was poorly written -- um, where's the "heist" -- but there was a lot of really good material there.so instead of doing the unsuccessful thing I did with Storm King's Thunder -- namely sticking to the script no matter what -- i decided that I would toss anything in DH that didn't work for me or my players. It was a revelation.
More recently I have been running Descent into Avernus. Taking those lessons from DH, I have liberally ignored hug swaths of Avernus. Characters forced to work for the flaming fist? No thank you. Long extended 2nd level dungeons with repetitive encounters? Nuh-uh. Silly celestial elephant? No f-ing way.
There's a lot of chaff in the published adventures and the key is to identify it and cut it mercilessly. Now, the chaff isn't the same for everyone. I bet some folks LOVE Lulu. That's awesome. Keep her. But those folks might also HATE the Shield of the Hidden Lord (which I loved) and decide to ignore it. They should.
Somewhere along the line I realized I did not have to run the adventure as written or keep everything in it. Again, it feels silly after running D&D for so long but I guess you can't have experience doing anything if you don't actually do it.
Anyway, long story short: even "bad" pre written adventures can be good if you cut out the crappy parts.