D&D 5E I can’t seem to DM written adventures.

[overgeeked]

I run a lot of play-by-post here on ENWorld, and the thing I lament the most is offering to run a few of the 5e Hardcovers. At the pace of PBP, I estimate the average 5e HC will take me 10 years to complete. I'm already 6 years into Tomb of Annihilation, which I started just before that book came out (with an intro adventure).

This is me, in a long way, trying to say: I am 100% with you that "shorter is better".

Location and event-based modules would be perfect for PBP. I won't make that mistake again (I hope).

Damn. That’s…wow. Good for you for being committed to completing the module.

I’ve heard people say it’s about one month of PbP to equal one hour of real-time play. Would you say that’s true?

 

[Bill Zebub]

There's a bunch, but check out Hot Springs Island, Neverland, or even smaller adventures like Winter's Daughter. If you watch the Questing Beast YouTube channel, he does reviews of a ton of adventures and you can see which ones you prefer.

Neverland is amazing.

Also check out Kelsey Dionne’s two Skyhorn adventures.

 

[Redwizard007]

So it's not just me. That's good to know.

I still find value in published modules, but its usually just ripping out the main plot and structure. Everything else gets tossed right in the garbage can. Sometimes it's because my parties tend to be a little overpowered, or the encounters are a littleto vanilla, other times the monsters or locations don't fit my setting, but I can't remember ever using an adventurer as written, and every time I try it goes off the rails pretty quickly.

 

[rgoodbb]

So, some good OSR stuff to look at listed here so far:

• Dark of Hot Springs Island
• Neverland
• Winter’s Daughter
• Kelsey Dionne’s 2 Skyhorn adventures

Also to watch the Questing Beast youtube for adventures

While we are here, anything else spring to mind or is there already another good list somewhere?

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I pretty much exclusively DM official modules. For me it's just interesting to experience the story together with the others (I also never read much ahead).

Though I probably would never DM a third party campaign.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have to admit I am fascinated that so many people do this, as I've been running RPGs for 34 years now and never done this. I'm probably "doing it wrong" lol.

It just feels like too much effort to keep reinventing the wheel. But then I've always been a bit lazy!

But I have had issues, especially with longer WotC adventures, in understanding the authorial intent. Just why have they done it that way, and how do the expect it to play out? I called some of that out in my commentary on CotN. WotC tend to describe the what, but leave out the why. I was re-reading an old Gygax adventure a couple of months ago, and that was full of authorial voice, usually along the lines of "this should cause the PCs to die horribly, mua ha ha".

What I do like in published adventures is when they are drawing on a cultural databank that is different to my own, as in Radiant Citadel.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

But I have had issues, especially with longer WotC adventures, in understanding the authorial intent.

I think this is often my issue with WotC stuff - sometimes it seems it was written by space aliens re: intent.

 

[dave2008]

Neverland is amazing.

Also check out Kelsey Dionne’s two Skyhorn adventures.

I've heard good things about her work (and I backed Shadowdark) so I will add those to my list

 

[M_Natas]

You are definitely not alone. The official adventures are ... not my taste as well.
And I can't see why a lot of people praise like the lost mines of phandelver. I played that as a player but it was quite obvious it gave our Newbie DM a lot of trouble. Stuff was disconnected and random and not well thought out. And definitely deadly in the hands of inexperienced DMs.
Stormwreck Isle seems the way better introductory Module. It looks easy to run in comparison to all the other adventures. And I got a lot of the adventure books. But even the anthology books... it always feels like homework trying to run them. I'm way faster if I homebrew the adventure and world from scratch.

 

[Oofta]

It just feels like too much effort to keep reinventing the wheel. But then I've always been a bit lazy!

Which is funny, because I don't run mods because I'm too lazy! I run the same campaign world, reusing locales and old lore modified by previous campaigns because it's easier. I can think up different overall factions and goals while I'm taking a shower, jot down some notes and spend a few minutes with a random name/NPC generator and I'm most of the way there. I never get too worried about detailed maps because exploration is mostly TotM and the most work is flipping through the MM (or DDB, now) to find the appropriate monsters that would be a challenge.

Meanwhile running a mod I have to actually understand the whole thing, write notes, remember where references are. It's far, far more work to run someone else's stuff than my own. There are only a handful of plots for campaign arcs. Off the top of my head there's rescue, escort, loot, defend, investigation/mystery, the hunt. As a DM I just change the set dressing so I'm not really reinventing much of anything.