noffham
Explorer
I have to admit I am like Al Mahdi, I take a published setting and then use what I like and throw out what I don't, and throw in things I do like. Its a large part of why I love modules so much. They can fill in a lot of locations I don't like with adventure sites I do like. Then I home brew things that the setting or modules can't give me.
So then you do run in a home brew setting?
Once you change things to your taste you're not running the "published setting" anymore, it's now your version of the setting. I suspect that most, if not all, of the "I hate homebrews" crowd are actually doing that.
Frankly, I think it's the DM and not so much the setting that causes most of the issues discussed in this thread. Good DMs make good games,
poor DMs make Synnibars.