Read it before you run it?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Do you usually read all the way through a module before you run it?

Yes. Mostly just to satisfy myself that the PC's actually can handle it - or be aware of what they can't handle - understand how the traps work, how much loot there actually is (or isn't), etc. I came to this philosophy from one specific incident of one specific module.

I was a player in a 1st edition game and the party was going through G3, the Hall of the Fire Giant King. We'd marched right through it much like we had G1 and G2 since we had a very large and capable party that was heavy with fighters. We'd finally gotten into the main treasure room and we were doing our Standard Operating Procedure, with multiple thieves checking for traps, removing any they found, opening locks, and then having the high-hitpoint fighters do the actual OPENING of chests just in case a deadly trap had been missed, because thieves were typically NOT the ones best suited to actually EAT the traps that would go off. Anyway, the DM was reading down the list of some nearly twenty chests/containers, one at a time, and stating the contents of each. THEN without breaking pace he reads aloud the note at the END of that section...
"These locks cannot be picked... by... thieves... Ah crap... and must be opened by "bending bars" or Knock or Magic Missile spell."
The DM was beet red with embarrassment, self-loathing, frustration, etc. for having missed one of the few opportunities to GENUINELY challenge the party after what had been, up to that point, not all that intense an effort.

We tried to make him feel better about it at the moment by telling him we'd have lynched him with such a lame-arsed fiat declaration that locks simply were IMMUNE to being picked. The most we'd have settled for is to apply a penalty to chances of success. Simply making thieves utterly useless at Job#1 for their class would have meant immediate mutiny. But we all knew he'd blown it in a HUGE way for no other reason than he'd never bothered to actually READ it and make himself aware of what our party was facing. He might even have pumped up the challenge in some fashion - and SHOULD have.

Of course it became one of those infamous incidents that players never forget - and never let YOU forget. I never wanted to be That Guy. Of course I still am That Guy every once in a while because when you know you're the best at what you do you get overconfident and sloppy sometimes.

Is your answer different if it's a mega dungeon with like three hundred rooms?

I don't use mega dungeons. Not since about 2005 anyway. They made ABSOLUTELY no sense to use under 3rd Edition when every 13 or so rooms is another experience level. Even under 2nd Edition they served little purpose in any game I used them in (such as the Ruins of Undermountain) and players tired of them quickly as a pointless grind - and this was among players who lived to clear every room of every dungeon of every living thing and every glint of treasure.

 

[GMMichael]

Do you usually read all the way through a module before you run it? Is your answer different if it's a mega dungeon with like three hundred rooms?

What I'm hearing is, "do I need to read the Curse of Strahd before I run it?" The answer is no. My recommended bare minimum is to read what you expect to need for one session, plus one extra encounter if things move fast. You'll be able to provide more immersion if you read more, you'll be able to spend time with your kids if you read less.

My preference with a module is to read enough to be able to answer all player questions. Strangely, I usually find myself over-prepared. Luckily, the players generally don't ask, "what's in room 243 of 300?" At least, not until they've entered room 239 or so...

 

[Lanefan]

I read all the way through if for no other reason than to see how everything interacts, or could interact if it was a living breathing environment instead of a series of set-pieces as so many modules seem to be these days. And I can find what bits I want to tweak, change, ignore, augment, etc.

It also gives me at least one chance to pick up on any glaring mistakes, editing errors, and so forth - but those are usually really good at hiding until I'm actually running the adventure; only then do I notice that there's a write-up for a room 29 that isn't anywhere on the map...

Lan-"the Hardy Boys' book "The Disappearing Floor" comes to mind here"-efan

 

[Voadam]

It varies, I usually try to read the whole thing, particularly for short ones. For longer ones I read the overview parts and what we are getting up to immediately. I ran the 1e Temple of Elemental Evil and only read through Hommlette, Nulb, and the Moathouse with a little skim of the Temple itself, which was good as I was able to weave in Temple plots from the beginning but they never got into the temple itself, they eventually decided to head off to Greyhawk and the Wild Coast and I could adjust fairly easily. In the third Reign of Winter AP module I was fairly pressed for time and only read a couple rooms ahead of the party in their large dungeon but it worked out fairly well, despite lots of opportunities for the route to change completely based on map choosing.

The summary and overview are very important for me to start thinking about how I will change things for plot and campaign theme reasons as I invariably do.

 

[Celebrim]

Do you usually read all the way through a module before you run it? Is your answer different if it's a mega dungeon with like three hundred rooms?

I try to read the whole thing.

Actually, the true answer is I try to get a pdf that can be converted to text, and then edit the whole thing to suit my taste.

Or in the case of X1: Isle of Dread, which in theory I'm currently running, the inspiration is so loose between the module and what I'm running, that I just do away with the text entirely and write all my own stuff.

 

[JonnyP71]

I normally skim read the whole adventure through once, then download a pdf version or scan the original, print out a 2nd copy, and staple it all together in chapters. Then I'll thoroughly go through each chapter, making notes and highlighting the most important text. I'll also make extra notes and amendments if I have ideas for more side plots, or parts on which I can expand.

(one reason why I prefer the old style 32 page booklets - my printing costs are lower!!)

 

[pemerton]

Lan-"the Hardy Boys' book "The Disappearing Floor" comes to mind here"-efan

Somewhat off-topic - but there's a book I haven't thought about for over 30 years!

On-topic - I don't run megadungeons, but do use modules from time-to-time. I tend to read/adapt a particular chapter (which may be an episode, or a location, depending on the module) and so read that. If there's another chapter that I'm not planning on using (or at least, not planning on using yet) I won't normally bother reading that unless it looks interesting for its own sake.

 

[S'mon]

Do you usually read all the way through a module before you run it? Is your answer different if it's a mega dungeon with like three hundred rooms?

I only skim it. I try to read the pages I'll be using next session properly ahead of the session, but
have been known to run a module without having read it.

Edit: When that module is G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief and is 8 pages long, it's a sign of GM burnout & me needing a couple weeks off.