D&D General Do You Run Published Adventures, Homebrew Adventures, or Some of Both?

[Ringtail]

A little bit of both, but I realize that my homebrew adventures tend to be somewhat straight forward.

So I like to take pre-written adventures that have more unique scenarios in them and adapt those ideas to my games, but customize them to my liking. Sometimes other people just have good ideas you would never think of. But I still get the flexibility of a homebrew game.

Also I find them enjoyable to read.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think this is more common than we think, and doesn't fit neatly into either category of purely "published" or "homebrew". Homebrew, to me, means something purely original of your own creation. So I would not consider piecing published materials in a different order or arrangement as homebrew. Maybe we should have some more distinctions in the poll, like:

1. Published as written (i.e. out of the box, official).
2. Published with some modifications (i.e. tinkerer).
3. Mix-and-match materials from multiple published sources (i.e. revised or reimagined, aka "MacGuyver")
4. Completely original (i.e. homebrew).
5. Mix of the above.
6. Something else not listed (please explain).

I'm a MacGuyver all the way. For me a lot of my fun is not inventing things out of whole cloth, but instead figuring out ways to connect disparate things together into a cohesive whole. Taking something like Gates of Firestorm Peak and then surrounding the Peak with all manner of other modules, adventures and starting town to create a fuller plotline, hooks, and story leading up to the eventual invasion of the mountain. Or running Curse of Strahd but expanding it by incorporating plots, maps, and events from Expedition To Castle Ravenloft, and the 4E Fair Barovia module.

Using a baseline campaign as a foundation and then adding to it is so much easier and more able to have longer-term reveals than what I'm currently doing in my Theros game where I'm laying the tracks in front of the train as the players decide what they want to do.

 

[el-remmen]

1. Published as written (i.e. out of the box, official).
2. Published with some modifications (i.e. tinkerer).
3. Mix-and-match materials from multiple published sources (i.e. revised or reimagined, aka "MacGuyver")
4. Completely original (i.e. homebrew).
5. Mix of the above.
6. Something else not listed (please explain).

By this metric I am a MacGuyver.

It is the whole premise behind my zine HOW I RUN IT.

 

[aco175]

I tend to mix lately (5e). I started with the LMoP box for a campaign and then used that shell and homebrewed a 2nd campaign from that. I'm finishing the 2nd box (DoIP) with several side-quests that are homebrew mixed with the given quests.

 

[Musing Mage]

I like a mix. I try to weave things together, so will adjust modules to suit things going on in the world, or adapt to a setting etc.

Right now, both of my 1e groups are in modules based on the hooks laid out and direction they chose. My 5e group is in a setting wherein there are hooks to various modules to be found, but they are currently on a homebrewed path based on the choices they have made.

 

[Charlaquin]

I primarily run “published adventures” but I modify and customize and hack them so much they might as well be homebrew. Mostly I use the published adventures as a starting point for ideas and then build my own thing from that.

 

[Burnside]

5E, 80% pre-published, 20% homebrew. Most of the pre-published stuff I lightly or heavily re-work.

As a kid playing Basic, 1E, and 2E from ‘85 to ‘94, I ran pretty much 100% homebrew. I very rarely have seen 1E or 2E pre-written stuff that I would want to run.

 

[el-remmen]

I very rarely have seen 1E or 2E pre-written stuff that I would want to run.

The exact opposite of my experience. I have rarely seen post-2E things I'd want to run (actually, when it comes to modules I am all 1E/BECMI, and only dip into 2E Dungeon Adventures, not the modules).

 

[Helldritch]

A mix of both, but I heavily modify published adventures. And the old of my own that I use again, are heavily modified so that they will fit the party (more or less) doing the adventure.

 

[kenada]

I run a mix, though I’ve tended towards homebrew after running several Pathfinder APs. My current campaign is homebrew (exploration-driven sandbox), but we just did Halls of the Blood King because it made sense as a location on my hex map. It’s unlikely though that I’d run any traditional adventures just because they’re too curated for their own good (too focused on telling a story rather than creating one).