A Growing Appreciation of Modules

[Grogg of the North]

I have noticed something about my gaming habits over the last few years. I've come to appreciate modules more and more. Perhaps it's because when I first started to play D&D my DMs wrote everything themselves. And that's what I learned to do. And so, I turned my nose up at those pre-written modules. And then I joined a D&D group where we played part of the Shackled City AP and ... I liked it. A lot. I even wound up running it for another group years later and it was a hit. Now that my eldest is starting to play D&D, and free time is at a premium, I find myself using prewritten modules more and more. They're not perfect* but I've found them to be a good starting point. Change a villain here, tie in some backstory there, and we're good to go!

So I'm just wondering who here has had similar experiences as myself. Or have you, kind reader, sworn of anything pre-written for good?




*Module: A large monster lives in this room.
Me: But how does it get out? How does it hunt or eat?
Module: shrug
Me: But that makes no sense! Rewrites

 

[aco175]

I have done more of that myself. I no longer work on developing a game world and just play in FR since it is developed already and I can still work on local items as needed. I has a side campaign that turned to the main campaign and went with the elemental evil adventure. There was some side adventure I wrote, but a lot stayed with the published adventure.

The next campaign is likely the Essentials box with another campaign set in Phandalin. I will write some stuff and side quests, but a lot will be based directly. I like having this and will likely continue.

 

[Fenris-77]

Your experience and mine are similar. I use published stuff for games with my kids. I still sometimes write my own, but I'm more of an OSR guy for that, so there's not a lot of rules baggage. Even then, I will quite happily steal bits, scenes, NPCs or whatever out of published modules to use in my own stuff. Why reinvent the wheel every time?

 

[overgeeked]

I've had roughly the same experience, along roughly the same trajectory. Early days with D&D and swearing off modules, then getting older, having less time, etc. I tend to use modules as starters, fill out the NPCs with more motivations, goals, rivalries, and the like. Wind up the PCs and let them loose in the sandbox. For my other main game, Call of Cthulhu, I'm using modules more often. I still have to rewrite stuff, customize it to my group, etc, but it's more module heavy for sure. There's something like 40 years of adventures and the latest edition is fully backwards compatible. It also seems harder to come up with a good mystery and/or horror scenario than your stereotypical snatch & grab of D&D.

 

[Stormonu]

I used to love writing my own material, but my time has been overtaken by too many other real-life activies to have the time and desire to do it anymore. Right now, I'm struggling to put together a "5-room" adventure for my PCs for use in the VTT; something in the past I might whip up in a single night.

 

[TheSword]

I think sometimes when we write our own stuff it comes with our likes and prejudice. It tends to fit what we’d want. If your gaming group is the same as you then that works.

My suspicion is that the new modules scratch some itch’s that home written stuff doesn’t. Maybe because they are written collaboratively, or have been through play testing. I never would have thought to put something like Chwinga in a game for instance but my players love them.

I always remember as a DM how nice it is to read and discover something new too. Then translating that for my group. A module encourages you to learn a bit, and push your boundaries.

Ive found the process of the set up for Roll20 easily helps me learn the module, and is a very good process for editing anything I think is too strong/too weak, or needs expansion.

 

[corwyn77]

I've never been one to create campaigns 100% myself. I'll either use a premade world and let the players more-or-less sandbox it (FR, Harn, Banestorm, Deadlands) or I'll have a canned campaign/adventure path and fill it, needs be, with side stuff suited to the specific PCs.

I really like the Savage World Plot Points for this - They provide a main campaign, and usually enough "Savage Tales" that I can pick and choose the ones I want, or let the PCs wander where they want and just pick something that is set nearby, and still have plenty of room to fit in character-specific stuff and even tweak the main plot some.

 

[R_J_K75]

Think I'm the opposite here. When I was young, in Junior High and High School, & probably even before that in elementary school, I ran both modules and created my own dungeons. There was no thought given to any long connected campaign. After a break, I started playing again in the mid-90s, I ran more modules and supplemented them with a few adventures I'd written myself. Nowadays and for the better part of the last 10 years I've run very few modules. I've found my attention span for reading is pretty limited and my reading comprehension isn't the best anymore either. So by the time I search for a module of suitable level, read it two or three times if its even worth running, and modifying what I need, its just easier and quicker to write my own. I retain the information better and because we don't play for more than 3 or 4 hours every other week it would take us a long time to get through even a short module. I don't prep anymore than 3 or 4 scenes at once.

 

[Imaculata]

I have huge issues running modules. The moment I see names of cities or characters that sound dumb, I cast them aside and write something myself. I have a very low tolerance for that sort of stuff. If I don't believe in what I'm reading, and if it doesn't evoke images and an atmosphere, I can't get invested, and don't see why my players would care either. Plus the moment I'm annoyed by the design of somebody elses map, it just wants to make me draw it myself. At which point I might as well do all the rest.

To me, working on an adventure is 50% of the fun; the other half is running it. So by using another person's writing, I feel like I'm robbing myself of half the fun. Plus most of the time I feel like I could do a better job at it. I'm not saying I'm a better writer, but I like my own writing better.

 

[ccs]

I like modules just fine. Always have.
Sometimes I can use them pretty much as-is, some times I need to make some changes. Some I just ignore. Some I've simply plundered for ideas & their maps....