A comment/confession

[TheGM]

But the key, IMHO is that they have to be able to sum up an interesting plotline in a page or two - like someone said, no novels - and then get into some interesting encounter areas. It's a big job, but doable.

I own many modules I never finished reading and will never make my campaigns. I have to have (a) a campaign in that game system and genre. (b) a basic desire to play the module. (c) a place in my world and campaign to fit it in. And (d) the time to customize it.

I honestly write more than 90% of my modules from scratch.

 

[Herobizkit]

I come from the other side of the fence, myself. I read through many modules found in Dungeon and I don't usually finish them because, well, they're too dang *long*.

I miss the old school modules -- you know, the ones that had a map, room descriptions, and why the area/dungeon is there. I find that today's modules have too much backstory. Backstory, I can do myself. I don't need to know NPC motivations, either... making up NPC dialogue is my best tool.

This stems from the fact that I don't often have time to play, and when my player gets antsy for stuff to accomplish, I have a "plug and play" dungeon ready to go.