How often did/do you use modules in oAD&D?

[Agamon]

About 80%. I didn't start writing my own stuff until I started a serious campaign late in high school, and even then I used a lot of published stuff.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I used published adventures when running about six... maybe seven times.

Some of the other folks in the groups that I played in used published modules more often than that (using either a variable mix of published / homebrewed stuff or running strictly from published adventures).

Nowadays, I scavenge bits and pieces of published adventures to use in my homebrewed campaigns, but rarely use an entire module in one go.

Later
silver

 

[molonel]

I'd say 60 or 70 percent. I put 70 percent in the poll because that felt more right.

I'd also say that the modules had a wider influence on 1st Edition gaming than merely how often they were played. They also sculpted how many DMs made their OWN adventures.

 

[RFisher]

Wow. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect the results to be so flat. Interesting.

Back in the 80s we used purchased modules approximately 2/3 of the time but, significantly, even our home-brewed adventures slavishly followed the TSR module format

I'd also say that the modules had a wider influence on 1st Edition gaming than merely how often they were played. They also sculpted how many DMs made their OWN adventures.

These are good points. I've said before that I think the modules did us a disservice in some ways. In other ways, though, I think the game was a bit incomplete without them.

But how they influenced each DM likely varied widely. Until you look at an analysis like Quas' (or the one on dungeon layout/paths--I regret who did that one is escaping me at the moment), you might have completely missed certain aspects of the modules, & thus those aspects may have not influenced your homebrew adventures.

Even among those who did play lots of modules, the effect of different aspects seem to vary. Some groups missed a lot of treasure while others managed to sniff out every cp. (Which probably has as much to do with how the DM interpreted the ease of finding it as it does the party's determination to search for it.)

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I used modules about half the time. Rarely did a module get used without modification, though, unless I was running it as a stand-alone, separate from the main campaign. Treasure was one of the things I often modified.

(Incidentally, I used the XP for gold and magic items, and I also used the training and 1-4 rating system from the DMG.)