Would you buy pre-made campaigns?

[Gundark]

No I'm not talking about settings. I'm talking about pre-made campiagns like the shackled city or the age or Worms. I think that much of the reason that premade adventures supposedly don't do well is that they are kinda "fire and forget", you know... you play them and it's done. I sometimes buy Dungeon magazine, it's hard to make a campiagn from all the one shot adventures that you find there (I'm not making a comment about quality of the adventures, IMO I find the quality to be good for the most part). But these adventure paths in Dungeon that I'm seeing as of late have really got my attention.

So is there a market for pre-made campaigns?

OTOH there is those who don't like to focus their campiagn on a single villian/plot

 

[SpiderMonkey]

No I'm not talking about settings. I'm talking about pre-made campiagns like the shackled city or the age or Worms. I think that much of the reason that premade adventures supposedly don't do well is that they are kinda "fire and forget", you know... you play them and it's done. I sometimes buy Dungeon magazine, it's hard to make a campiagn from all the one shot adventures that you find there (I'm not making a comment about quality of the adventures, IMO I find the quality to be good for the most part). But these adventure paths in Dungeon that I'm seeing as of late have really got my attention.

So is there a market for pre-made campaigns?

OTOH there is those who don't like to focus their campiagn on a single villian/plot

A while ago I would have said, flatly, "no." I felt that the point of DMing was exercising your creativity and tailoring things to fit the needs of your group, their style, and their characters. Now I'm a grad student and work full time besides. So..."yes." I would love a pre-made campaign

 

[Mercule]

A while ago I would have said, flatly, "no." I felt that the point of DMing was exercising your creativity and tailoring things to fit the needs of your group, their style, and their characters. Now I'm a grad student and work full time besides. So..."yes." I would love a pre-made campaign

Ditto, more or less. Once upon a time, I was a college student and stayed up late into the night, spent a lot of time alone in my dorm room, and skipped classes -- all to work on gaming stuff.

Now, I'm an IT professional, have three kids and a wife, and a whole bunch of stuff that must get done. I don't have the time to do full-on homebrew anymore.

I'm currently running two campaigns, alternating each week or two. One is Age of Worms in Eberron. The other is homebrew in my homebrew setting. Age of Worms is my "padding time" to get stuff worked on for my homebrew. If I had it to do again, I'd have run Shackled City (due to timeframe) rather than homebrew, and I doubt I'll run a homebrew campaign (setting is a maybe) for many years, if ever. If I didn't consider this homebrew campaign something of an aria for my twenty-plus year old homebrew setting, I'd probably just drop it entirely in favor of Age of Worms.

So, I totally agree that the "campaign in a box" model is an excellent idea. It has to be done right, though. I just happen to think that Erik Mona and company are doing a great job. I look forward to the next adventure path.

 

[Alzrius]

I think there's a market for this sort of thing, as from what I understand The Shackled City is doing quite well.

 

[rom90125]

Now, I'm an IT professional, have three kids and a wife, and a whole bunch of stuff that must get done. I don't have the time to do full-on homebrew anymore.

I'm currently running two campaigns, alternating each week or two. One is Age of Worms in Eberron. The other is homebrew in my homebrew setting. Age of Worms is my "padding time" to get stuff worked on for my homebrew. If I had it to do again, I'd have run Shackled City (due to timeframe) rather than homebrew, and I doubt I'll run a homebrew campaign (setting is a maybe) for many years, if ever. If I didn't consider this homebrew campaign something of an aria for my twenty-plus year old homebrew setting, I'd probably just drop it entirely in favor of Age of Worms.

So, I totally agree that the "campaign in a box" model is an excellent idea. It has to be done right, though. I just happen to think that Erik Mona and company are doing a great job. I look forward to the next adventure path.

Mercule, its as if I'm looking in a mirror...LOL My group only meets (on average) once a month and its all I can do to keep up with the DM'ing responsibilities. Even though we are running our campaign in an established setting (FR), I still find there isn't enough time to add the level detail I feel I owe the players to every encounter. I finally had to take two mega predesigned adventures and weave them into the central plot because I was falling behind. Thankfully my players have been very understanding and have offered to help with some of the 'paperwork' side of DMing. This all makes me feel like I'm failing myself and the players, but, RL has a way of taking precedence.
I've already purchased Shackled City for our next campaign. I just don't have the time anymore...

 

[Voadam]

Yes.

I bought GDQ the 1e megamodule, B1-9 the basic set one, the 2e silver anniversary dragonlance compilation one, and RttTEE which is a 3e mega-module. I like long story arcs and things that can go for a long time. I'm playing in an Age of Worms and Drow War pbp game so I won't be getting either of those however. I also only get pdfs now so while that excludes WLD, Ptolus is a possibility in the future as are others.

 

[Crothian]

I have the first of the three Drow mega campaign books by Mongoose and reading some bits from one of the playtesters of the rest of the books I am looking forward to them. I also have Mongoose's Dragon mountain (not the name) campaign box set. Shackled City I hope to pick up at some point and should have at Gen Con.

So, ya, I think there is interest in this type of book. However, it won't take many to saturate the market since most groupos don't need more then one.

 

[jcfiala]

I've bought several for Call of Cthulhu, and at least one for D&D. I think they're a great way to save my time and increase the fun for my players.

 

[IronWolf]

I would readily buy pre-made campaigns. As several have already said, time is a precious commodity and it just seems I don't have as much as I used to! So the ready made campaigns can be a great help. And for the time I do have I can tweak or add to the storyline as I need to help add more flavor or fit in with where I am running it or even the characters who are involved.

 

[shaylon]

Absolutely, in fact I own Shackled City and WLD.

Time is a key factor for me. While I don't DM anything currently that is always subject to change. I don't know about running through say the entire WLD, but rooms in the WLD can fit in other dungeons of my choosing. I think they are a wonderful place for ideas, and something that you can run "on-the-fly".

-Shay