Would you buy pre-made campaigns?

[Mercule]

I've bought several for Call of Cthulhu,

Well, yeah. But aren't those, like, 5 pages?

Page 1: establish PCs, motives, etc. Page 2: notice weird stuff and head off that way. Page 3: investigate and have a chance of sudden death. Page 4: lotsa death and a bit of insanity. Page 5: anyone still at the table goes insane.

 

[Gundark]

Mercule, its as if I'm looking in a mirror...LOL

Seconded....which is why the interest in this kind of product....publishers...hint hint.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

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

I own both of those as well. I plan on using the WLD as a plug n play device as well. I specifically don't mind purchasing those big ticket campaign items because

1) theyre reusable
2) I don't have to do most of the work, which is coming up with the ideas
3) all I have to do is tweak for my particular group.
4)Maps, Maps, Maps!!!

Case in point, right now I'm using the Hobgoblin Keep part of the VAULT OF LARRIN KARR with my PC's with a slightly different setup. I needed a way to introduce the element that actually kicks off the campaign (an "alien" skull found underneath the Keep) and the Keep was it. All I had to was upgrade the Keep's denzien to 3.5 and I was done.

I was even able to alter the PDF maps to create player's maps of the Quail Valley for the PC's.

Yeah, premade stuff is ripe for the picking...

 

[fafhrd]

Well, yeah. But aren't those, like, 5 pages?

Page 1: establish PCs, motives, etc. Page 2: notice weird stuff and head off that way. Page 3: investigate and have a chance of sudden death. Page 4: lotsa death and a bit of insanity. Page 5: anyone still at the table goes insane.

Jokes aside, some CoC adventures are positively huge. Beyond the Mountains of Madness weighs in at a massive 438 pages.

 

[Mercule]

Jokes aside, some CoC adventures are positively huge. Beyond the Mountains of Madness weighs in at a massive 438 pages.

I actually wouldn't know. My groups have always been of the mindset that if the PCs can't ride off into the sunset, there's no point.

Tragedy and horror are not universal tastes, much to my chagrin. :sigh:

 

[catsclaw227]

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.

Ditto for me. I am running my group through the first Drow War book and would love to run people through the Ruins of the Dragon Lord (Mongoose's Dragon Mountain).

I am also an IT guy with a wife and (hopefully!) kids to come soon. Already I feel strapped for time, but I am dedicated to my players to give good game. These mega-campaigns-in-a-box(book) are awesome.

FYI -- Drow War is quite fabulous and the party is really getting into it, entering the 4th chapter.

 

[devilbat]

If a ready made Campaign was both interesting, and easily re-locatable to whatever setting I'm interested in running, the I would be open to purchasing it. Like so many others said, it would be great to have a little more time away from prepping an original.

 

[Khairn]

Yes I would buy a campaign, as long as the setting really grabbed my attention.

RttToEE and Shackled City are the only ones that have done so to date.

 

[Ace]

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

There certainly is a market for this sort of thing. Its not my cuppa though. I am a homebrew only kind of guy

 

[Psion]

Double Ditto Spider Monkey and Mercule. I really like my campaign, but some sessions have not been going so well simply because I have not had sufficient time to plan it with the detail it deserves. I have Shackled City and it is a very slick production and is more than just one big dungeon as many previous packaged campaigns have been.