Why don't you buy modules?
- Thread starter Treebore
- Start date
Aethelstan
First Post
I find that most modules are too long and end up being a chore to finish, both for players and DM. I think some designer equate length with "value" i.e giving the buyer more bang for his buck. Most mods follow a single plot premise from start to finish (find x, save y or defeat z) but often take a looong time getting there. If too many sessions are devouted to a single plot, some players (mine at least) tend to lose interest or focus. I personally find mega-modules like Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil mind-numbing (please, no flames, I'm a Monte fan in general).
The second issue I have with modules is that I can not resist tinkering with them. Alter the plot hook, insert different monsters, delete whole sections, etc. By the time I'm done, I often have only bits of the original left.
The second issue I have with modules is that I can not resist tinkering with them. Alter the plot hook, insert different monsters, delete whole sections, etc. By the time I'm done, I often have only bits of the original left.
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Jolly Giant
First Post
I've only ever seen 3 modules that appealed to me enough for me to want to try to run them. Two were freebies from WotCs webpages, the third one store-bought.
The two mini-modules from WotC I melded together; mixed them into one and ran them in one session as a sidetrack-adventure in a longer campaign. That was ok. This was shortly after the release of 3rd edt, my experience with RPGs was limited to playing in ONE campaign for a few months, so I downloaded EVERYTHING I could find on the web! I was already DMing my first campaign in my homebrew world, and I needed all the inspiration and input I could get back then...
A couple of years later, after three campaigns had ended in TPK after 1-3 sessions each, I was really struggling to come up with an idea for a forth campaign. So all of us in the group decided to try this brand new WotC-module; Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It ended with a TPK the second session...
There was picking the campaign up again with new characters; friends and relatives of the first group trying to figure out what happened to them was the idea, but I refused to do it. Frankly, running the module bored me immensely!
It's not that RttToEE isn't well written and full of cool ideas, it's just that there was nothing for me to do... Instead having my creativity challenged, I felt my role was reduced to "the guy who looks up stuff in the book".
I've never even looked at a module since that. It showed me that for me, the fun of DMing is in the creative process. Plus, a lot of the modules I've seen (before giving them up) seem to require some pretty heavy railroading of the PCs, so even the players are robbed of their creativity...
On a side-note, while running RttToEE I noticed that the author was the same guy that wrote those first two modules I'd used. I was mighty impressed; of all the modules I'd looked at, the 3 I'd actually wanted to use were all written by the same guy! I remember thinking I should keep an eye out for more of his stuff. Then I noticed I already owned three books with his name on the cover...
The two mini-modules from WotC I melded together; mixed them into one and ran them in one session as a sidetrack-adventure in a longer campaign. That was ok. This was shortly after the release of 3rd edt, my experience with RPGs was limited to playing in ONE campaign for a few months, so I downloaded EVERYTHING I could find on the web! I was already DMing my first campaign in my homebrew world, and I needed all the inspiration and input I could get back then...
A couple of years later, after three campaigns had ended in TPK after 1-3 sessions each, I was really struggling to come up with an idea for a forth campaign. So all of us in the group decided to try this brand new WotC-module; Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It ended with a TPK the second session...
There was picking the campaign up again with new characters; friends and relatives of the first group trying to figure out what happened to them was the idea, but I refused to do it. Frankly, running the module bored me immensely!
It's not that RttToEE isn't well written and full of cool ideas, it's just that there was nothing for me to do... Instead having my creativity challenged, I felt my role was reduced to "the guy who looks up stuff in the book".
I've never even looked at a module since that. It showed me that for me, the fun of DMing is in the creative process. Plus, a lot of the modules I've seen (before giving them up) seem to require some pretty heavy railroading of the PCs, so even the players are robbed of their creativity...
On a side-note, while running RttToEE I noticed that the author was the same guy that wrote those first two modules I'd used. I was mighty impressed; of all the modules I'd looked at, the 3 I'd actually wanted to use were all written by the same guy! I remember thinking I should keep an eye out for more of his stuff. Then I noticed I already owned three books with his name on the cover...
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caudor
Adventurer
I may be wrong, but I think one of the reasons adventures are not selling as well as they might is that the industry is not doing all that is possible to make the DM's job as easy as possible. My hunch is that most DM use modules to gain a well thought-out adventure AND save themselves effort in the process.
Going with tradition/trend, the industry seems to want to delivery adventures in mostly economical formats to reduce the risk (which is understable) or that provide a bulk value (hardbacks...even they they don't really make preparation easier). So what would actually make a DM's life easier?
One thing that come to mind is the long forgotten boxed set. I'm talking about battlemats, counters, player handouts, etc. Remember Dragon Mountain and The Night Below? These where only beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.
I think that avid players will shell out money if they have something to get excited about. If some company takes the risk and delivers something that blows everything else away...I think they will be rewarded.
Going with tradition/trend, the industry seems to want to delivery adventures in mostly economical formats to reduce the risk (which is understable) or that provide a bulk value (hardbacks...even they they don't really make preparation easier). So what would actually make a DM's life easier?
One thing that come to mind is the long forgotten boxed set. I'm talking about battlemats, counters, player handouts, etc. Remember Dragon Mountain and The Night Below? These where only beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.
I think that avid players will shell out money if they have something to get excited about. If some company takes the risk and delivers something that blows everything else away...I think they will be rewarded.
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Sir Whiskers
First Post
Psion pretty much summed up my take on modules. A few additional comments:
1. Modules should include short summaries of encounters and treasure. Similar to what Dungeon used to do, where I could look at a quarter-page chart showing all the encounters and encounter levels.
2. Certain pages from print modules should be available as downloads from the publisher's website. Maps, player handouts, important graphics (for instance, a drawing of a puzzle), new creature/new item write-ups are things I like to have separate from the module. Downloads save me having to go to Kinko's.
3. With so many free modules available on the internet, I don't buy just to get an adventure. Author and publisher don't matter either. What gets my dollar is how much of the module I can use in my world, even if I don't run the actual module. For my last campaign, I stole villages, npc's, a few plot hooks, and some other minor stuff from the Vault of Larin Karr; my group never actually ran through the module. But I feel I got my money's worth.
4. Making modules hardbound and full-color to increase the profit margin to an acceptable level might make sense to publishers. For myself, if modules become more expensive, I'll just be more selective. In the end, if I don't see enough value to cover the cost, I won't buy. Basic economics.
1. Modules should include short summaries of encounters and treasure. Similar to what Dungeon used to do, where I could look at a quarter-page chart showing all the encounters and encounter levels.
2. Certain pages from print modules should be available as downloads from the publisher's website. Maps, player handouts, important graphics (for instance, a drawing of a puzzle), new creature/new item write-ups are things I like to have separate from the module. Downloads save me having to go to Kinko's.
3. With so many free modules available on the internet, I don't buy just to get an adventure. Author and publisher don't matter either. What gets my dollar is how much of the module I can use in my world, even if I don't run the actual module. For my last campaign, I stole villages, npc's, a few plot hooks, and some other minor stuff from the Vault of Larin Karr; my group never actually ran through the module. But I feel I got my money's worth.
4. Making modules hardbound and full-color to increase the profit margin to an acceptable level might make sense to publishers. For myself, if modules become more expensive, I'll just be more selective. In the end, if I don't see enough value to cover the cost, I won't buy. Basic economics.
Desdichado
Legend
Likely not much. It's the whole concept of modules that I don't really need, after all. I've got a few, and they've been marginally useful, but not worth picking up more, for the most part.Treebore said:
Wombat
First Post
I have rarely run across modules that fit the flavour and style of my worlds. Once in a while there is one that does, but most are designed for a "standard" D&D world, which has much more magic, many more monster types, and many more "break down the fourth wall" puzzles -- puzzles that are solved by players, not characters, and sometimes even based on 20th C. knowledge, rather than fantasy world information.
So, for the most part, modules do little or nothing for me.
So, for the most part, modules do little or nothing for me.
Crothian
First Post
Treebore said:
You are right, not all of them are, but most fall in that category. I do have a lot of modules, but I only pick them if I was very impressed with earlier work (and only Ed Cha is currently in that category) or if I catch them on sale (my local store has had Monkey God's stuff half off or more since December).
Another problem is none are really creating any buzz. Again only Ed Cha's I've really seen people express leaps of enjoyment about. So many modules just fail to capture the imagination. They aren't bad, but they just don't have the extra something that makes them great.
Ycore Rixle
First Post
I buy modules. In fact, they're my favorite thing to buy.
I like to buy things that I use, and use directly, in my game. I like to buy things that sit open on the table in front of me on the table, or that have handouts that I give to the players, or have art that I can show them, or have monsters, traps, encounters, items, or puzzles that I can present to the players. Modules are by far the most likely thing to do that.
One thing that puzzles me is people who say that they don't buy modules because they can't fit them into their campaign, and yet they buy tons of sourcebooks and campaign setting books for wildly different settings. I find it much easier to integrate a module - even an FRCS module into a non-FR world or the like - than it is to use, say, Nyambe and Player's Guide to the Wilderlands and Midnight all in the same campaign.
I also am leery of DMs who exclusively write their own adventures. Frankly, I think I'm pretty decent at writing my own adventures, and yet I know I don't have time to adequately prepare all the time. The DM's that I have played with who categorically refuse to use prepared adventures were some of the most frustrating and boring DM's I've had. In some cases they've thought they were telling a "better" story than what you would get from "just" a pre-packaged module, but in fact they weren't telling any story at all. I can recall specifically thinking, "Please just run the adventure, please just run the adventure" as the DM trailed off onto yet another fruitless tangent. Just my two cents' worth, and as always your mileage may vary.
I like to buy things that I use, and use directly, in my game. I like to buy things that sit open on the table in front of me on the table, or that have handouts that I give to the players, or have art that I can show them, or have monsters, traps, encounters, items, or puzzles that I can present to the players. Modules are by far the most likely thing to do that.
One thing that puzzles me is people who say that they don't buy modules because they can't fit them into their campaign, and yet they buy tons of sourcebooks and campaign setting books for wildly different settings. I find it much easier to integrate a module - even an FRCS module into a non-FR world or the like - than it is to use, say, Nyambe and Player's Guide to the Wilderlands and Midnight all in the same campaign.
I also am leery of DMs who exclusively write their own adventures. Frankly, I think I'm pretty decent at writing my own adventures, and yet I know I don't have time to adequately prepare all the time. The DM's that I have played with who categorically refuse to use prepared adventures were some of the most frustrating and boring DM's I've had. In some cases they've thought they were telling a "better" story than what you would get from "just" a pre-packaged module, but in fact they weren't telling any story at all. I can recall specifically thinking, "Please just run the adventure, please just run the adventure" as the DM trailed off onto yet another fruitless tangent. Just my two cents' worth, and as always your mileage may vary.
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