D&D (2024) Article on Adventure Hooks for Bastions

[DarkCrisis]

I was going to ask the same thing, as I'd doubt many people would be buying books they don't intend to ever use

Intend? Sure. Actually end up using?

I spent so much on 3rd ed official and unofficial stuff…. Now I just buy the core 3 and an adventure I plan to run and then sale right after.

 

[dave2008]

Not saying you're wrong, but do you have something to back that up with?

WotC released the survey info on this fairly early in 5e, something like 8 years ago IIRC. I can't remember the specific numbers, but at the time homebrew campaigns were more than all the WotC/TSR settings combined (so over 50%). However, I don't necessarily thing that survey is relevant today, so I am not going to bother trying to find it. D&D has added so many new people that it could have easily changed the numbers quite a bit.

I will say that in the 30 years of playing D&D I have never played in an official setting and I have run less than a half-dozen published adventures. However, since 5e I have been buying quite a few adventures, I just don't run them. I steal ideas, encounters, traps, etc. and use them in my setting / adventures instead.

 

[DarkCrisis]

WotC released the survey info on this fairly early in 5e, something like 8 years ago IIRC. I can't remember the specific numbers, but at the time homebrew campaigns were more than all the WotC/TSR settings combined (so over 50%). However, I don't necessarily thing that survey is relevant today, so I am not going to bother trying to find it. D&D has added so many new people that it could have easily changed the numbers quite a bit.

I will say that in the 30 years of playing D&D I have never played in an official setting and I have run less than a half-dozen published adventures. However, since 5e I have been buying quite a few adventures, I just don't run them. I steal ideas, encounters, traps, etc. and use them in my setting / adventures instead.

I’ve never not played in or ran a published adventure except back in 2E.

And most of the time the game was set in Faerun.

 

[dave2008]

@DarkCrisis , I couldn't find the WotC survey info, but I found this Slyflourish poll from 2023:

While homebrew still has the lead, it has declined since the WotC survey. So maybe not the majority, but it seems like a substantial chunk still run homebrew settings. It seems like adventures are even more likely to be homebrewed (from 2020 poll):

 

[dave2008]

I’ve never not played in or ran a published adventure except back in 2E.

And most of the time the game was set in Faerun.

FYI, I found the article I thought I was looking for (2015), but it was only about popularity of official settings. The one with the homebrew settings must have been older, before 5e and maybe even before 4e. So, not particularly relevant today IMO.

 

[aco175]

I was thinking of having bastian events as more filler one-shots. Maybe a player cannot make the game night or a player wants to DM something. Maybe as a break from the main campaign to go and use the 1-2 level NPCs to do something fun or cool and not world shaking.

If the Pcs are coming to 9th level and the bastian would auto-boost to something cool, maybe the digging for the new wing uncovered something that needs attention first.

 

[kigmatzomat]

On the homebrew/published front, I know several gms who buy adventure to cannibalize. The game I'm in now is a synthesis of Ghosts of Saltmarsh, Princes of Apocalypse, and Courts of the Shadowfey.

The maps and most of the npc names/titles are the same, though I understand a lot of them got massive rewrites to make the combined plot work. Plus, you know, changes to account for those darned players.

So I have no idea how you'd classify that.


Back to bastions, while I'm still not hyper enthused about the bastions as written, the concept of "use the chamberlain/guard captain/acolytes as a built in alt game" is a pretty solid concept that counts as a win for the 2024dmg in my book.

 

[Nefermandias]

Because the majority of tables don't play published adventures

Do we have a source for this claim?

 

[PurpleHazy]

Looking forward to adding Bastions to my play. The hooks will be helpful.