I love modules, precisely because I like to improvise: almost all modules (almost all adventures/games) are railroaded, if not through plot, then through morality. Our group always plays parties of mixed alignment; the typical expectations of a D20 game simply can't cover the range of decisions available to these characters. We derail plots constantly.
But that's where modules come in handy: if I wrote up an adventure for our group, I could railroad it; in fact, it would take a great effort not to: I know the characters too well (and the players even better). Using other people's work foils my instincts: the situations that they offer are of a different kind than anything I would ever present. I can prepare somewhat for what the group may do, faced with certain circumstances, but I would never have come up with these circumstances on my own.
I mean: rescue someone? or take down some amusin' cult? No way! I would have everybody setting up a drug conglomerate or orchestrating the downfall of the state or something.
This doesn't mean that I enjoy modules indiscriminately. The modules produced by WoTC baffle me: I have no idea how anyone could possibly enjoy them; they resist my best efforts at perverting them, too; they're just utterly bland.
Green Ronin's Freeport modules (or the first three, anyhow) were excellent: easy to run; good balance of action and investigation; just the right amount of detail. But I chalk most of this up to their being little more than Call of Cthulhu knock-offs.
Hell in Freeport was stupid--a nearly pure 2nd edition feel, only worse, because it took place in the planes without Planescape.
I haven't run Black Sails yet, but it reads well and certainly conveys that 1st Edition "go around and pick up a bunch of crap" feel (but with video-game references!). The finale looks like hell on a plate for the DM, however.
I think Monte Cook and Bruce Cordell had exactly one good adventure each: Dead Gods and Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Everything since then has been dorkily disappointing.
Converting first edition modules is a pain, but they're so weird that it's occasionally worth it. Plus, it's neat to re-discover all those details of the ToEE and the Slavelords that I'd forgotten (the instructions for role-playing romance in the latter are a hoot).
I like some of Necromancer's stuff, too. All atmosphere, no plot--that's fine, when they get the atmosphere right, which they usually do.
But that's where modules come in handy: if I wrote up an adventure for our group, I could railroad it; in fact, it would take a great effort not to: I know the characters too well (and the players even better). Using other people's work foils my instincts: the situations that they offer are of a different kind than anything I would ever present. I can prepare somewhat for what the group may do, faced with certain circumstances, but I would never have come up with these circumstances on my own.
I mean: rescue someone? or take down some amusin' cult? No way! I would have everybody setting up a drug conglomerate or orchestrating the downfall of the state or something.
This doesn't mean that I enjoy modules indiscriminately. The modules produced by WoTC baffle me: I have no idea how anyone could possibly enjoy them; they resist my best efforts at perverting them, too; they're just utterly bland.
Green Ronin's Freeport modules (or the first three, anyhow) were excellent: easy to run; good balance of action and investigation; just the right amount of detail. But I chalk most of this up to their being little more than Call of Cthulhu knock-offs.
Hell in Freeport was stupid--a nearly pure 2nd edition feel, only worse, because it took place in the planes without Planescape.
I haven't run Black Sails yet, but it reads well and certainly conveys that 1st Edition "go around and pick up a bunch of crap" feel (but with video-game references!). The finale looks like hell on a plate for the DM, however.
I think Monte Cook and Bruce Cordell had exactly one good adventure each: Dead Gods and Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Everything since then has been dorkily disappointing.
Converting first edition modules is a pain, but they're so weird that it's occasionally worth it. Plus, it's neat to re-discover all those details of the ToEE and the Slavelords that I'd forgotten (the instructions for role-playing romance in the latter are a hoot).
I like some of Necromancer's stuff, too. All atmosphere, no plot--that's fine, when they get the atmosphere right, which they usually do.
And campaign settings are something I like to buy a lot, but they seem to be more expensive....
