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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Treebore" data-source="post: 1317240" data-attributes="member: 10177">It is not an issue of laziness. It is a lack of confidence in one's ability to be creative. It is a lack of ability to take responsibility for how good or bad your game is. If you make the module your "own" you have taken the responsibility for how good the campaign is. If you "run it by the book" you can blame the module.Besides, any DM who has done it knows the best games are when everyone makes it part of them. This only happens when the DM makes the game a "part of themselves" and conveys the richness and vitality, or life, the campaign has taken on in the DM's mind. When the DM makes this happen, and conveys it to their players, that is when it becomes an awesome game.The most effective way is for a DM to take any story, whether a module, book, or movie idea, and make it come alive, is to make the story interesting and exciting to themselves. Then they need to learn to pass on this "vitality" or enthusiasm to their players. When this is achieved they become the creators of a great game, a game their players eagerly return to experience again. So my disdain is that this reliance on modules that "do everything" for them, is that it slows down the rate at which they will become a better DM. Maybe I feel superior because I know what it takes to get there. Maybe I feel superior because i run the games where I watch may players bodies shake with their excitement and apprehension. I have heard their shouts of exultation. I have watched them slap each other on their backs and do their hi 5's because of their accomplishments within my game. I have seen my players cry with sadness while a member of their group sacrificed themselves for the rest of them. I have seen them whoop for joy when, despite all odds, the inspiration of said player, combined with incredibly lucky rolls, allows them to escape the death they should have faced.So if I am egotistical, so be it. I for one, have earned the right to appear to be so. My real goal is for as many players and DM's to experience the deep emotional gratification of such games.So putting your business models aside, I think it is more important to have modules that have a "core" of a good story idea that requires a DM to put some effort into making that story come alive. I have found the more you put into it the more you get out of it. Making it setting specific just takes out one more important dimension a DM needs to add from their own mind. It just takes out one more "connection" that can help the DM learn to run a more intense and rewarding game sooner in their gaming experience.From a business sense what you say makes sense and is probably very sound. I am not a business man when it comes to playing this game. I want more people to discover this very rewarding aspect within this game. The sooner this happens, and the more often this happens, the faster the popularity of this game will spread. Everyone enjoys the natural high of such experiences. That is why so many people seem to be "addicted" to this game, because at one moment or another, they have achieved this emotional involvement in the game. Then they strive to experience it again. The more often a DM is able to make this happen the better they are considered to be. Homebrews are probably so much more popular because those DM's probably achieve these levels of excitement with their groups a lot more frequently than those who use modules or pre-created worlds.So i think it is far more important to create modules that spark creativity rather than make it less necessary. So modules tailored to require less thought are something I see as weakening the gaming experience. Just like I see pre-made worlds to be a weakening element; unless the DM realizes that they are in no way obligated to run that campaign world in accordance with someone elses vision, but to run it according to their own vision. A vision that will be fed by how their players respond to what they do.Those of you have had the emotional experience i have described know what i mean. Those of you who know how to make it happen almost at will probably know exactly what i mean. So it is not ego that fuels me, it is a desire to share the experience.There, I think I have figured out what I wanted to say without being insulting.</blockquote>

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