Placing pre-written adventures in your world

[Altalazar]

When I am using modules, I make them fit wherever I want them to in my world, usually by changing the geography in the module, though truth be told, that is almost never necessary. My world map is very high level, so there is room for variations at the level of "zoom in" one finds in most modules anyway. I tend to place the locations where it is convenient based on where I know the players are in the world right now, so it is seamlessly part of the campaign.

 

[Liolel]

Even though I dm a homebrew I have somewhat of a problem placing pre-written adventures in. My homebrew is a vast archipelago and the problem comes when a module requires a vast overland trek (as there aren't any islands that take 2 weeks to journey across without ever seeing the sea), or a detailed specific pre-made large outdoor area is required (because most such areas don't have the ocean and any sides in them and there's only so many islands that can be huge.

 

[Crothian]

If a campaign setting and adventure are related (or from the same vendor), do you ever worry about whether there is already an 'official' place in the world for that adventure, and go off to the message boards or vendor website in search of it? If there is an 'official' spot, are you likely to use it?

I would try to place it in the official place if I can get the party there. But if I get a great module set in a place the party isn't near, I'd just place it where I wanted it.

If you have to place the adventure yourself, do you often spend significant time looking over the map trying to match the terrain features in the adventure to the terrain features in the world to make it fit?

No, I just get it close to the right terrain. Maps do not have to be accurtate and I perfer it when they are wrong in some details especially if the players have two mapos on the same area that differ.

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

No, I wouldn't be worried about that.

 

[Voadam]

If a campaign setting and adventure are related (or from the same vendor), do you ever worry about whether there is already an 'official' place in the world for that adventure, and go off to the message boards or vendor website in search of it? If there is an 'official' spot, are you likely to use it?

If I know about it then yes. I did this a lot when I was doing Greyhawk in 1e and Ravenloft in 2e.

If you have to place the adventure yourself, do you often spend significant time looking over the map trying to match the terrain features in the adventure to the terrain features in the world to make it fit?

Not significant time. Usually the ones I'd use that were not already located somewhere were specific location neutral, only requiring something like "when on a boat on a sea voyage" so I dropped it in when they crossed the Nyr Dyvv in Greyhawk.

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

My brother did the opposite of this, he set his city of Ptolus from the Banewarrens on a post-apocalyptic greyhawk world (greyhawk gods are old religion, Ptolus is current dominant one) with Ptolus over Greyhawk on the map. He weaved the settings together so even one of the evil noble factions in banewarrens are descendants of the Scarlet Brotherhood and have their heraldry. I haven't figured out yet where Nightfang spire is on the map yet but I'm sure it is somewhere.

My homebrews were usually when the party were in an established area and did something unexpected ("we are in greyhawk city, let's break into the crypts at night to see if there is anything worth looting!") or built off existing elements (Let's see Nulb is described as a hive of villainy but not much detail, I'll create some low level villains and villain groups they can tangle with, hmm, some rival gangs scrabbling for turf is a good place to start).