Is it cheating for a GM to use a published adventure?

[Caliban]

You are still Bugaboo, and I am STILL waiting for my severed head of Eric Noah.

That's who this reminded me of...

 

[GreyShadow]

(They also equated it with miniatures gaming. They said that 50% of the fun was playing, while the other 50% was painting them. Those who didn't paint their minis, were only pretenders.)

Real miniature gaming, you start with a block and carve your own.

Your not cheating using published adventures. This person might have well as said, your playing 3e? That's cheating. Real gamer's make their own games!

I use everything.

 

[dead]

Real miniature gaming, you start with a block and carve your own.

Your not cheating using published adventures. This person might have well as said, your playing 3e? That's cheating. Real gamer's make their own games!

I use everything.

ha, ha, ha!

Very true.

 

[Stormfalcon]

Naaah...it's not cheating to use published adventures. Then again, my own preferred way of using them is to toss them in the proverbial blender ("Hmmm...let's see what happens when I substitute the dungeon they gave me in this adventure with the dungeon I rather liked in that other adventure...") It's a nice little hedge against players who do cheat by looking at the stuff ahead of time. At the very least, it keeps players on their toes...

 

[MerricB]

Is this the same person who accuses anyone who doesn't start at 1st level of cheating?

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Cheers!

 

[Sanackranib]

your player is a moron if he thinks that its cheating to use a module - especially one thats been reworked. its not like we are 10 years old any more RL does make a lot of time demands and writing your own adventures is a time consuming process. if you have reworked it then good for you - you have tailered it for your game and your pc's. now run it well and thats all thats required. its all about haveing fun anyway . . .

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Yes. If the players have to do the work at the table, roleplaying and everything, then the GM should do his part and actually sit down and write and adventure for them.

(D/T)roll

The guy bashing you is an idiot

Amen to that.

Next time you see that guy, say hallo to him from me, he's a clueless idiot.

Some people have fun writing their own adventures, campaign settings, rules. Others like to focus on player interaction. I've been in games where the DM was winging the whole show, and the adventures weren't any good really. But there were the right people on the table, and I had at least as much fun just interacting with them and watching their characters being unleashed on the unsuspecting world as I had with any well-written self-made adventure.

Of course, you need good players for that. Seems that the guy who bashed you is a lousy roleplayer and no fun at all, and needs these elaborate adventures (where you work 5 hours for every hour of play time)...

 

[Gothic_Demon]

However, just as there are excellent public servants, there are, of course, excellent players... but not a single one would ever put in as much effort pre-game as even the single worst DM.

I have to say that I have three players: 2 of them (who do all their character work at my house) have spent a combined 8 hours preparing character backgrounds, histories, styles, personalities and images. They have character sheets with over a dozen pages and have probably written 5000 words each. The guy who doesn't create his characters at my house is normally pretty busy as well, and I can expect a few thousands words on his character sheet to.

That's far more effort into a single character than many DMs adventures I've played. But they are a rarity. (No, I'm not selling them!)

 

[drakhe]

Now hold on...

Yes. If the players have to do the work at the table, roleplaying and everything, then the GM should do his part and actually sit down and write and adventure for them.

As both a player and a DM, I'd have to disagree. Everybody is free to his opinion and I respect that, but your statement is totaly wrong. Using a published adventure means a lot of work as well. You need to read it, understand it, work out the encounters (a lot of adventures provide just the main plot line, and mabe a list of monsters for an encounter, but you still need to work out the tactics. Otherwise it would get boring very fast). And unless you wan to trail-road your party down the main plot line, you need to be prepared to allow and ad-lib sidetrecks and alternative routes to the final goal. Using a published module may on ocasion be even more dificult then writing your own. Writing your own adventure, you know all there's to know about it, while in a published module you often have to guess what the writer meant.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

It is impossible for a GM to cheat.

Not true, a GM could cheat its called loaded dice. Or throwing a 3lv party against a terrasque armed with only toothpicks or something like that.



As far as using published stuff, do it use it and bastardize the heck out of it for your games. I do, and as I get my new setting ready I plan on using all sorts of sources for ideas on adventures. Heck one guy has a nice little website that has plot ideas on almost every monster from the MM. I took the time to copy that to word found out its over 100 pages of pure goodness. (i'll make it a PDF when I have time, er if I have time.) Heck in my new world the Tyrg (I think thats how its spelled) from the new dungeon with Castle Maure are going to be pack animals native to that world.

Just beat that looser over the head, and say okay mister smarty pants YOU BE DM and watch him cower back to his spot as a player.