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

[AverageMojito]

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 voted primarily homebrew. When I started GMing with 2e, I had little to no access to modules (I don't live in the US), so adventures had to be written by me (and the others GM of the group) and I guess it just became "the way we play it".

I've found many modules interesting, old and new, and often mine ideas from them, yes, but rarely an entire story or dungeon/location per se. Mostly ideas. What I don't like at all are Adventure Paths. There is close to zero chance I'd run one. It's just too much time spent with one single thing.

Also, I do use published settings half the time, but the poll is about modules, so I guess an adventure written by me that takes place in a published setting fits as homebrew for the purpose of OP.

All things considered, I'm torn between 3 and 4 from Jacob's list. I rarely use anything but ideas from published modules, so perhaps a 4 is more how I do it.

 

[Bupp]

Total MacGyver mashup.

My current game started with When a Star Falls, though I completely changed the Tower, and plopped it into a town I got out of a Raging Swan Press supplement, but I replaced the town map with a Dyson Logos one. I've added in some homebrew encounters, as well as a few one page dungeons, or things out of Kobold Press' Prepared!

Back in the heydey of the magazine, I ran a game almost entirely out of Dungeon Magazine.

 

[payn]

I didnt really get into published adventures until about 2009 with Pathfinder. I ran many of the PF1 era APs. Though, I would often add, subtract, change around things to fit my needs better. I would put myself on the hybrid scale.

 

[Hex08]

When I was younger and had more time on my hands, more hombrew than not but now it's mostly published stuff.

 

[TerraDave]

Modules in a homebrew campaign world.

I mostly homebrewed for years. In the decade were I played the most frequently, I ran maybe 6 adventures, two of which were just for a few sessions--and 1 was from Dragon (not Dungeon) magazine.

Now its modules. They have tricks, twists, and details that I would never imagine, and I like the shared experience, at least of the good ones.

That does mean mostly modules published in the mid 1980s or earlier. One advantage of all that earlier homebrewing is that there are still more to discover. But, there is good stuff from later. Forge of Fury and NeMoren's Vault from 3e both have 5e versions. There are parts of Strahd's outside the (converted) castle that are pretty good. And I am sure, of the several hundred modules published over the last 30 years, that there are other examples.

 

[gamerprinter]

That does mean mostly modules published in the mid 1980s or earlier. One advantage of all that earlier homebrewing is that there are still more to discover. But, there is good stuff from later. Forge of Fury and NeMoren's Vault from 3e both have 5e versions. There are parts of Strahd's outside the (converted) castle that are pretty good. And I am sure, of the several hundred modules published over the last 30 years, that there are other examples.

But what about the modules created by old guys like me, that were playing since 1977, but didn't publish anything until Pathfinder and Starfinder. Sure, my stuff was published in this century, but since I never buy anybody else's modules, I have the same twists, add-ons, and creative approach you might not expect - I just didn't choose to publish until 35 years later...

 

[pogre]

I used to run more published stuff when I switched to 5e, but I have a player in my campaign that runs every WOTC published adventure and AL module. That leaves me almost entirely homebrew these last couple of years - although I do slip in some 3rd party adventures from time-to-time.

 

[Oofta]

I run a homebrew campaign exclusively for my home games. I used to run public games frequently, but for various reasons took a break and then covid hit.

For me it takes less effort to run a home campaign than to run a published one. I think about factions and motivations while doing other things, then I just have to jot down a few notes. I also enjoy the creative aspects of coming up with new stuff. A published mod? I have to read it, understand it, take notes. Then people never follow the expected path anyway.

I used to buy mods now and then thinking I would steal things from them, but it turns out I'm too lazy.

 

[werecorpse]

I read lots of adventures and am inspired by them. I use published adventures and expand upon them. Part of it is my interpretation, my take on the villains motivations etc. Taking an idea and making it more to my taste etc. I alter almost everything but it’s hard to know how much % wise.

I once ran the Paizo adventure path The Crimson Throne after which one of the players said he was going to run it for a different group. He borrowed it from me and after a couple of weeks came back and said that despite having the whole set and the associated supplements it was like reading a bare skeleton of an adventure.

 

[Ancalagon]

I'm currently running the Drakkenheim campaign and it's pretty good. I'm a bit leery of 3rd party stuff, but this is top notch stuff.

I've also been running a lot of old 2nd ed stuff I have on hand that converts well to 5e. Perhaps the best of that lot that I have is the Gates of Firestorm Peak.

My really heavy homebrewing was done using warhammer 2nd ed as a system, but in a created world that was a fantasy pseudo-earth (yeah, not the most original, I know). I'm not sure if it was good but it was well researched.

Perhaps the most comfortable I've been with homebrewing was Yoon-Suin, which is a campaign setting designed to assist you building your own campaign, I've ran a campaign and blogged extensively about it.