DMs: Do you alter gaming material before using it?

[Scarab]

I'm staring a Scarred Lands campaign soon (I've been saying "soon" for quite some time now...), but I use material from lots of other settings, so there is a bit of tweaking to be done.

I plan to start the campaign using the Witchfire Trilogy from Iron Kingdoms, so I had to come up with a feasible story for it and redesign the entire temple in episode 2, among other things.

 

[Oracular Vision]

what exactly is a tournament-level player?

Surreal

They have played in and won tournaments. That's right, they played for prize money and won four times in ten years. One year they beat 89 other 5 man teams playing AD&D at DragonCon, and won the $1,000 first prize. They tear up anything within 2 ECL's of them. I have had to throw all the encounter recommendations out the window. They are not unkillable, but they play smart. Some of the new players who were not on the team have been killed though. I average a player character death every two months or so.

 

[Painfully]

I think you are asking the wrong question. A good DM is going to make changes to assure continuity within his campaign world. So, the question of altering gaming material, if neccessary, is very much the responsibility of the DM.

When I review a new sourcebook for possible addition into my campaign, the decision to add any portion of it is based on my sense of campaign style and flavor. More often then not, I find the material too, "far out," to use in my campaign. Many of the PrC's could make for a unique villain or group of villains, but, I usually find myself just stealing their abilities and feats and possibly adding it to my next villain, rather than taking the class idea as a whole. I often try out any new feats the PCs want on one of my villains before deciding if I will allow it for the PCs

As for improving published d20 material--I simply don't add what I don't need. WotC is just as guilty of putting out bad material as any d20 publisher. I think too many DM's are trying to add new prestige classes and feats rather than focusing on a comprehensive and believable world in which to find adventure. For them, the campaign world takes second place to the new materials coming out, and that, for me anyway, makes for a poorly put together campaign world. Keep it simple or you'll be flipping through yet another sourcebook or printout.
It's the ideas that count most! New d20 material doesn't mean it's better than what ideas you might already have brewing in your head. After all, publishers are in it for the money, while DM's are in it because they enjoy creating dynamic interactive worlds filled with adventure, action, and excitement.


Bottom line--don't buy it, steal it (the ideas that is).

 

[BluWolf]

I chose the unusual option. Not that my campaign world is really that unusual or original (its not0. I just have a certain frame work I want to portray consistantly.
Because of this just about everything except the fighter and rogue has been modified.

I don't use published modules that much. I'll buy 1 or 2 a year in a pinch and i usually end up not using half of it. Its more or less inspiration fodder. I have rarely found any module map I like (speaking strictly on dungeons).

I would have to say the best moduel I ever bought for the money was Under Illefarn. Great Module.

 

[mkletch]

Only on the DM side of the screen...

I typically do not buy adventures, but I will use downloaded material. For my campaign, I try to maintain a certain flavor or feel. Also, I have a few new gamers. So, for a variety of reasons, I filter heavily, using outside material only for stuff on the DM side of the screen, and using only maps that I find in adventures (old or new, download or scan).

-Fletch!

 

[Rune]

Despite the fact that I run a very unusual campaign (see the sig), I usually find that I don't tend to change the rules much or disallow many of the options presented (although I do have my own setting specific rules, for flavor). This may be because I usually use only material from the core rules (and Oriental Adventures, the Psionics Handbook, and (behind the scenes) the Manual of the Planes) regularly. I have let players use feats from the various splat*books on a case-by-case basis, but, honestly, it hasn't come up much. If my players want a specific concept that isn't already well defined, I am willing to work with them, within the (very broad) parameters of my setting.