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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ShinHakkaider" data-source="post: 9479949" data-attributes="member: 9213">Why do people buy commercial modules when early RPGs assumed the GM would make up the adventures?Because when I started with TTRPG's and D&D (1982-83) there actually WERE a bunch of commercial modules available. My intro to D&D wasnt through the ruleset, it was me finding a copy of B2 at a freind's house and becoming enamored of it. It belonged to his older brother who said that I could have it and I poured over it endlessly at first trying to figure out the rules and then just loving the "setting" of the Caves of Chaos and the The Keep. Commercial modules back then also provided a template for how to design your own adventures. At first I expanded from B2 but then I started writing and creating my own. There's a thing where, especially back then, commerical modules were a bit of a communal experience. A bunch of people played through B2. A bunch of people played through G1-3, or T1 (this was a few years before T1-4 would be published) so there was a common experience when talking to other players about what they did or how thier GM ran a certain encounter or character deaths at certain encounters. It felt like (this is going to sound super nerdy) adventurers sitting and talking about tackeling the same areas and comparing notes. Anyway a few people have insinuated that if you're not creating your own adventures youre not doing it right or that your game must be low quality (which are insulting things to say). But these days I run almost exclusively published scenarios / adventures. For ME, prep is easier. Maps: DONE. Monster / NPC stats: DONEMain adventure plot: DONENow depending on the adventure and the players involved do I go and tweak things? ABSOLUTLEY. I'm of the opinion that you SHOULD custoomize and tweak things for your players. There's still plenty of work involved in prepping a published adventure. I've literally been doing it since I was 12. I'm in my 50's now. And I've done it for different systems, D&D, Top Secret, Marvel FASERIP, Star Frontiers, TMNT & Other Strangeness, DC HEROES, Champions 4th and 5th Edition, Mekton, Cyberpunk, Star Wars, you name it, if it's had published adventuers? I've probably run it. I'm in the process of reworking an almost 20 year old dungeon adventure, THE WHISPERING CAIRN. It's the first chapter of the AGE OF WORMS Adventure Path for Pathfinder 1E. I've read the whole thing from beginning to end more than once and am pretty familiar with it. But I'm moving it out of Greyhawk and into Golarion (Pathfinder's setting). It's basically a reskining but anyone unfamiliar with the NPC's or the adventure isnt going to know any better. If I converted it to 5e? very few of the newer players are going to know it's origin. I think that people should do what's best and more fun for them. Insulting people by saying that their games must be low quality because they run published adventures is the sign of someone with low character. This hobby SHOULD have a different people with different playstyles. I dont have to like them or play in them for that matter, but I'm GLAD that they exist.</blockquote>

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