DIY GMs?

[Varianor Abroad]

Interestingly atypical sample. I bet this would see different results on Wizards boards or elsewhere.

For the record, I am a do-it-yourself, even when I DM for my daughter. Though it is hard and I have been tempted by the occasional off the shelf thing....

 

[shilsen]

DIY here. I run a 3.5e Eberron game (see sig), but I create all my adventures myself, change setting information to suit me, use house rules to modify the system, and so on.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm a DIY GM.

After running a nearly-pure homebrew for 2 years (which imploded for non-gaming reasons), I took some time off to recharge.

I've been designing my latest D&D one since mid-2006, and don't expect to finish until later this year or early next.

I've also designed a few other campaigns in parallel (like a D20 Modern "War of the Worlds" campaign, and a Modern Fantasy campaign with elements from Neil Gaiman, Simon Green and others for use with D20 Modern/Urban Arcana/Dark*Matter or Mutants & Masterminds), but they are for other genres, and my current game group doesn't play anything but FRPGs, so they're not likely to see the light of day anytime soon.

 

[Greg K]

I am a DIY GM.

I create my own settings and adventures. I also houserule a lot of material incluiding content from the PHB.

 

[airwalkrr]

In general, I run published adventures pretty much as written. However, I tend to make modifications to include new rules to make the fights a bit more challenging. For example, recently I used the Spell Compendium and Draconomicon to make some of the dragons in a published adventure a bit more challenging since my players have pretty powerful characters.

I used to write my own adventures from scratch and occassionally use published adventures as side-treks or if they just happened to fit my campaign, but lately, I have had less time for such endeavors so I have to let professionals do the writing for me right now.

 

[WhatGravitas]

What can I vote?
I do own stuff, if I'm time-pressed, I adopt some prepared stuff, sometimes I pilfer published material for plot, statblocks or maps, sometimes I'm doing all on my own.

I'd say "No" (and voted), but I never adopt written stuff as written, I usually change more than just "fit it into the campaign" - I change monsters to suit my style, insert plot twists, change endings/beginnings... what can I say?

 

[Aeric]

At least half of the enjoyment I get out of DMing is building plots, NPCs, and worlds/settings. Sometimes I use existing settings and/or adventures as jumping-off points, but after that I write my own material. I get bored quickly running modules, no matter how well written they are; my AoW campaign died a crib death for that exact reason.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Cannot answer the poll, a bit simplistic

As far as campaign worlds go, yes, I design a lot of them for myself and heavily modify any that I ahppen to get involved in. I redo monsters, and occasionally even a magical item.

But I do not change or add base classes, skills, feats, prestige classes, spells or most of the crunch (WOTC stuff), I don't even touch 3rd party stuff.

So which answer?

 

[mcrow]

Cannot answer the poll, a bit simplistic

As far as campaign worlds go, yes, I design a lot of them for myself and heavily modify any that I ahppen to get involved in. I redo monsters, and occasionally even a magical item.

But I do not change or add base classes, skills, feats, prestige classes, spells or most of the crunch (WOTC stuff), I don't even touch 3rd party stuff.

So which answer?

You fit under "yes".

Most every session you GM seems to use stuff you either made up yourself or heavly modified.

 

[Wombat]

When I started gaming, there weren't any pre-written adventures or worlds, only three little books (and Greyhawk about a month later). As such, I was thrown back on my own ideas from the very beginning.

Once I started seeing the adventures that other people created I found that 9 times out of t10 I disliked them -- too many strange traps that made no sense, too many bizarre dungeons with no purpose or point, and too much emphasis on "kill it and take the loot" as opposed to developing a character. As such, I developed a distrust of most pre-published adventures and gaming worlds.

So, after 30+ years of gaming, I am happy to say that my best games have come from my own fetid imagination, no matter what the system.