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

[HiLiphNY]

Laff - Cheating!?!?!?


In that case, I must be a major scumbag! In the last 5 years, I have ONLY used pre-prepared modules and such. I lead a busy life; I work on Wall St., have a wife and daughter, and tend to drink on the weekends. This all combines to preclude any sort of self-penned world or adventure-writing.

My hat's off to those who do create such masterpieces of homemade goodness, I just ain't one of them!

 

[Henry]

Anyway, I was bashed recently for using published adventures in my game. I was told that I was not a "true" GM if I could not write my own adventures EVERYTIME. This person said: "50% of the fun of GMing is running the adventure; the other 50% is writing them".

CHECK HIM IMMEDIATELY; he's probably cheating at his dice rolls and looking to cover the fact up by accusing you.

Seriously, if someone seriously told you that, they obviously don't understand the true goal of a DM. A DM's true goal is not to write complex adventures, or be perfectly prepared, or be a flawless automaton.

A DM's Goal is to challenge and entertain the other players. By whatever legal means necessary.

You could probably take out the "challenge" part, but to me, the main thing that fosters entertainment is pushing the players a little, and making victory uncertain. If the players have to work a little bit (combat strategy, puzzle-solving, roleplay) to attain a goal, they are happier when they DO attain that goal.

So, your job is to challenge, and entertain. If a module can help you do that, if a TV show, if a movie, if a freakin' PUZZLE ON THE BACK OF A CEREAL BOX will assist you in this task, then more power to you.

(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.)

*Sniff* OBVIOUSLY a Warhammer Elitist.

 

[Henry]

My god I hope your joking.

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

Let's please go without name-calling.

 

[francisca]

Cheating? Hardly.

Mmmmmm. Time for one of "Francisca's Wacked-Out Analogies" (TM).

Do you like to eat steak? If you don't raise your own cow, slaughter it, age it, butcher it, season it, and cook it yourself, you are one lazy griller. Repent you cheating, illegitimate, son of a hamster!

Seriously. I could do all the legwork to raise a cow, etc.., but I just want a steak. So I go to the butcher and buy one, season it, slap it on the grill. If it's a poor quality hunk of meat, I find another butcher. If I under or over cook it, that's the chef's fault.

Like meat, you can grow your own adventure from the conception to final execution. Some people like that, others don't. There is nothing wrong with either approach as long as the players *and* the DM have a good time on gameday. And like a good steak, a good adventure can be ruined by a poor DM, no matter where it came from.

edit: Darn it! Now I'm hungry!

 

[Desdichado]

Dude! I wonder where I can get a steak this time of the morning...

 

[hong]

Dude! I wonder where I can get a steak this time of the morning...

You think YOU have a problem? It's 1:30 am here in Austria! Everyone knows the meat trees don't drop their fruit until at least 7 am.

 

[francisca]

Dude! I wonder where I can get a steak this time of the morning...

Denny's? Steak and Eggs?

 

[Desdichado]

When it really comes down to it, NONE of us would really even know how to play this game properly if Gary Gygax hadn't had the foresight to crank out Keep On The Borderlands all all the rest of the early modules as a template.

What the heck is playing the game "properly" anyway? As far as I'm concerned, the Keep on the Borderlands style of play isn't "proper", it bores me to tears. Gygaxian puzzle and trap solving and dungeoncrawling wasn't even fun when I was in junior high in the early 80s, and that was when it was new and "exciting".

 

[jerichothebard]

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.

That's the single most ludicrous argument I've heard.

Let's look at a quick comparison of duties, shall we?

DM:
-Creates campaign setting
-Creates map of campaign setting
-creates theology and pantheon for campaign setting
-creates cities, kingdoms, and terrain for campaign setting
-creates magic items, artifacts, legends, history of campaign setting
-creates NPCs for campaign setting - often hundreds of them.
-plays NPCs
-Tracks NPCs' progress, status, activities, on screen and off
-runs combats with PCs, in which he/she controls ALL of the NON-player characters
-adjudicates PCs' actions in combat
-adjudicates PCs' actions out of combat
-creates plot arc of campaign setting, including villian goals and aspirations
-purchases RPG products and supplements - PHB, MM, DMG, and usually many others
-purchases dice
-creates handouts and props for adventures
-creates maps for adventures
-creates adventures
-shows up to play, usually bearing a boat-load of books, papers, and gear
-frequently supplies snackie-cakes

Player:
-shows up
-creates a character
-plays character
-eats snackie-cakes




And you're telling me that the DM has a responsibility to write adventures, because the players are doing the work?

Hogwash.


jtb

 

[WizarDru]

-eats snackie-cakes

Steak?
Snackie-cakes?


Dang, now I'm REALLY hungry.

Waitaminnit! Lucky me, It's LUNCHTIME!

Yay.


hong, what's DQQM, or is that just leet speek for 'doom'?