How (Often) Do You Use Modules? Revised!

[Mouseferatu]

Wow. I, too, am surprised by the poll results. Granted, as others have pointed out, ENWorld has an unusual concentration of DMs and die-hard gamers, but it still seems odd. This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that polls--on ENWorld and elsewhere--show that a majority of DMs prefer to run their own homebrew worlds.

So we have a surprising number of people who play in their own world, but prefer pre-written adventures. Interesting indeed.

 

[Akrasia]

... So we have a surprising number of people who play in their own world, but prefer pre-written adventures. Interesting indeed.

Adapting a module to my homebrew setting feels like making that module 'mine'. In contrast, designing adventures for a prepublished setting feels like working for someone else ...

It is hard to explain, but for some reason designing the 'big picture' campaign stuff (history, religion, etc.) feels more important -- even though the players are most directly affected by what happens to them in any given adventure.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I use modules a lot more recently than I did when I had more time to write my own stuff, but I do enjoy customizing them -- adding in spells, feats and monsters from other books, and adapting the plot and setting to my campaign world or the published setting I'm using.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Mixmaster]

I use modules primarily as I've gotten older. Less time to prep and there are some GREAT mods out there that it would be a shame to not have my players enjoy them as much as I do reading them and the props from the EnWorld members.

Caveat: I do make minor (very minor) modifications and add some of my ideas to spice up the fun.

Right now, I'm running the Coin Triology (Kenzer), but they are at a junction where a tough decison needs to be made. They need to speak to somebody that has some vital info. They travel to Blasingdell, a boom town to speak to Baron Athlon. He helps them and asks if they need to make some money. If so, he hires them to go to.............The Forge of Fury (WOTC).

 

[ozyr]

I don't really find the results of this poll surprising at all. Many folks just don't have the time to create their own adventures (we have real lives outside of gaming). Myself, between work, gaming, running two websites, and other activities, I find little time to create my own adventures. My campaign world though, is my own creation - with some borrowed bits from other source material...

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

Simple. Players outnumber DMs. So for every "Complete Munchkin" or "Races of Blandness" book, there are many more potential buyers than there will be for a "Deep Dark Dungeon of Deviltry" module.

Also, there are a lot of free adventures now.

However, all the marketing studies show that the DM buys many more books than players, and spends more money on the game overall. Appealing to the DM is the most important thing when kicking off a new campaign setting, selling a new game, or making the game more popular.

By the way, this support for the DM is the major reason why D&D is more successful than many other games --- D&D is one of the few games (CoC is the other one) that has enough adventure support that a DM can run many years worth of games without having to write his own adventure. Lots of other games eschew adventure support and don't even provide a starter adventure, which frequently lead to them not even being played once (certainly, they won't be by me!)

 

[Altalazar]

I love modules, and if I had a bunch of good ones, I'd use only modules, but I selected the mix half and half because even with the modules, I make modifications to fit them into my overall campaign. Nothing beats a good module, I think, though I've had some very memorable adventures that were wholly home-brewed.

I simply don't have time to create the details and cool stuff you can find in a good module on a regular basis - and even when I do have time, I often find inspiration in modules. I've taken just the maps from a module to use, or used just one area (maps and descriptions) or even whole modules, but altered in various ways - its all good.

I enjoyed running the original 3E series of modules - a good series does most of the work for you - I only had to make minor tweaks to fit it all into my standard campaign world.

 

[the Jester]

I occasionally use modules. When I do, I almost always heavily modify them.

 

[TerraDave]

Wow. I, too, am surprised by the poll results. Granted, as others have pointed out, ENWorld has an unusual concentration of DMs and die-hard gamers, but it still seems odd. This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that polls--on ENWorld and elsewhere--show that a majority of DMs prefer to run their own homebrew worlds.

So we have a surprising number of people who play in their own world, but prefer pre-written adventures. Interesting indeed.

And I may be on the more extreme end of that...but I am not surprised to see I am not alone.

Part of this is history...back in the day, WG didn't get a lot of support and the "known world" of B/E D&D emerged slowly. The general idea was it was your world, but here are all these great modules to use in it (and some of them where truly great). Later however the support for worlds proliferated even as the quality of mods declined.

World building also taps a different skill set. A good adventure gives you a lot of detail you can use, even as you modify by adding, subtracting, and most importantly modifying things on the fly. World building is big picture oriented, and lets you come up with (or in my case modify) your own lands, history, religions etc.

In fact I think world building is why a lot of long term DMs become and stay DMs...but for there world to be active they have to play and run adventures. And if time is limited, it is nice to have something on the shelf.