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

[Cerubus Dark]

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.

My god I hope your joking.

If your not your a moron, if you are its still not funny.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I usually run my own stuff 99.99% of the time. Rare is the dungeon crawl in my campaign.

On the other hand, if I'm just looking for some fun stuff like Dungeon Crawls or time is at a premium, I have no problem pulling out the old Dungeon magazine or the latest adventure from Necromancer/Goodman/etc... to save time and have fun.

At the end of the day, the question is, "Did we have fun today?" If the answer is no, try again. If the answer is yes, keep going.

 

[undeaddan]

Published adventures smack of Communism

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.

Yeah cuz those lazy DMs just sit there at the end of the table snoozing behind their screen.

I hate those b*****ds

 

[jinx crossbow]

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

Sorry I dont understand your question!
You could also ask:
Is it cheating for a GM to use a published Rulebook?

If you have a source for your RPG which advances your playing in any kind, its ok.

 

[Uller]

(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.)

No. In miniatures gaming, if you haven't sculpted the molds and cast the mini's yourself (and then painted them), you're just pretending. Actually playing the game is secondary.

That's just goofy. Being able to run a published adventure well is no easy task. I find running a published adventure doesn't cut down on my preperation time that much (sometimes it even increases it). It takes a lot of work to read through the adventure, think about how your players' PCs will fit into it and approach it, possibly modify it to fit your campaign and your groups' tastes, etc. etc. I often feel uncomfortable winging stuff in a published campaign because I worry about contradicting some important detail that I've forgotten or overlooked and will come up later.

 

[Katowice]

Using a published adventure is not cheating. When I use a published adventure, I still have to change 25% of it (on average) to fit into my campaign. I run a Forgotten Realms campaign (since 1989) and most published adventures (Dungeon Mag included) don't use the setting. Sometimes I replace the NPC's with ones from my own campaign or even change the actual setting. Some adventures are good to use even for just the setting info and NPC's.

 

[Buttercup]

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.

You must be either joking unsuccessfully, or trolling. I can't tell which.

The players have to show up and roleplay one character. All they need is the PHB or SRD, a character sheet, some paper and a pencil.

I have to own all the books, the counters or minis, the battlemat, the DM Screen and a bunch of other odds & ends. I have to be thoroughly acquainted with all the rules, and with everything that has gone before. I have to roleplay all the NPCs and be ready for anything the PCs might decide to do. If a published adventure can help me with that, it's all to the good.

I use published adventures as starting points, but my players have never, ever done things the way the book (or I) expected them to. I spend between 8 and 10 hours preparing for each session, if I'm using a published adventure. If I'm not, the time can double. Since I have a full time job and a full time life, I don't really have that much time on a consistent basis.

Lost Soul, how many times have you DMed a campaign?

 

[Buttercup]

What's Bugaboo? I've never encountered this word before.

Is it an insult or is it praise or is it something else entirely?

bug·a·boo n. pl. bug·a·boos

1. An object of obsessive, usually exaggerated fear or anxiety: “Boredom, laziness and failure... These bugaboos, magnified by imagination, keep [the workaholic] running” (Dun's Review).
2. A recurring or persistent problem: “the bugaboos that have plagued vision systems: high price and slow throughput” (Lawrence A. Goshorn).
3. A former poster on Eric Noah's 3rd Edition News website, the precursor to EN World, who delighted in elaborate trolls. Many of us oldtimers wonder if he's still here, posting under an alt.

Seriously, the accusation leveled against you is so silly and wrong-headed that some people here are having a hard time believing anyone could possibly say something like that. No one intends to be mean to you. They just wonder if you are teasing.

Similarly, LostSoul is probably teasing, because everyone who has played even once realizes that DMing is a great deal of work.

 

[WizarDru]

A former poster on Eric Noah's 3rd Edition News website, the precursor to EN World, who delighted in elaborate trolls. Many of us oldtimers wonder if he's still here, posting under an alt.

Wonder, nothing. We outright assume.


If using a published module is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

 

[Sir Elton]

I keep telling myself: "Who cares if I used published adventures on occasion. Indeed, who cares if I used published adventures ALL the time! The aim of the game is to have FUN, right? And not all of us are professional writers, or on fire in the creative department 100% of the time."

What do others think?

It's not cheating. In fact, adventures are published for you to use. When Atlantean Press (my imprint) becomes more of a reality, I plan to publish certain adventures through it. I don't consider it cheating if somebody used them. I'll be publishing them because they are there to be used. Published adventures are meant to be written as open for the GM to change and alter as they saw fit.

Adventures written in such an Open format allows the players to direct their story through their own choices. Oops, I'm digressing. In any case, your safe, dead. This guy is basically an oppinionated person who is trying to force his own way of doing things on you. So, don't let it get you down, and don't feel dejected or rejected because of what this guy said.