TheRPGSite

I may be biased, I'll let you decide.

When I was a nipper, I couldn't afford too many game books. Modules were cheap, sure, but each module bought would have set me back weeks on the purchase of a new book. Weeks.

So I didn't buy them. I and my wee freinds would game entirely based on what was possible from my imagination and whatever rules we could find/not find to support our actions.

When I got older, I still didn't buy modules or predesigned adventures. Why should I? I had gamed for years without them!  I'd played a few, mainly at conventions, and found them boring and limited.

Now I am old and crotchety (ok... older and mean spirited) and finally clued into the world wide gaming scene. And what I realized is that I had more or less dodged a bullet.

For every Bargle story I hear, I find half a dozen 'Temple of Death' tales.  I hear about metaplots ruining games, and find that most of the metaplotting occured in those adventures that I never bought. Immortal Elves in Shadowrun? blame the modules.  

Then we get this entire 'Swine war' phenomenon. Is is not 'true' to suggest that a great number of forge darling games are nothing more than modules with built in rulesets?  My Life with Master seems to fit the bill, certainly.  I've commented that Burning Empires reads in many ways like a do it yourself campaign rather than an RPG book.  Now we have Poison'd, a game of much debate here, where the entire premise is 'You are pirates very near to being caught, what do you do in the meantime?'... again, a module with accompanying rules.

I've heard how people learned to play by the modules, learned what the game was about from the modules.

WTF man?  Doesn't the rulebook tell you how to play? Doesn't the core book tell ya what it's about? Is not the very beauty of this hobby that you can do any god damn thing you like with your RPG books? The explosion of imagination that comes from figuring it all out yourself? What happened to that?  

What about all those players that supposedly are bitter and disillusioned by the Temple of Death (or whatever the fuck it's called?) what about all those players who had the game 'destroyed' by the destruction of the Ravnos?

What about all those players who think Immortal Elves can go suck Jesus's cock for all they added to the game? For that matter, what about all those players in Chicago, who had set their games in Chicago and suddenly found themselves the center of Bug City/Neuclear strike!?

I'll tell ya what! Toss the god damn module/adventure model into the trash and burn the fucker.  The hobby doesn't need it. I don't need it. And I don't need players who think that the only way to play is reading some bad 'dialog' from a book. Gimmee back my limitless sandbox you damn dirty dogs!

Early D&D Modules are totally awesome.  B5: Horror on the Hill is the best D&D adventure ever. EVER!

:haw:

You need to look at the earlier exploration based modules, rather than the later narrative / "story" modules.

I think the Dungeon Crawl Classics from Goodman Games would be a good place to start if you don't want to find and use the old stuff.

Like any good rant, Spike's OP is a potent combination of personal bias, slipshod research, and undeniable truth.

What's wrong with Temple of Death?

My group had a grand old time with it as kids.

Indeed - I have quite a similar history to you. In the beginning, I didn't have the money to buy modules in addition to dice, basic rule books and so on, and later I was so skilled in adventure creation that I never needed them. There were a few that were included in zines and so on that I used when I ran low on prep time, but they never came close to my own adventures in regard of quality - let alone of interlock with the PCs, what can sometimes be easy to accomplish (generic dungeon with replaceable McGuffin and bad boy), sometimes a major pain in the ass (modules with intricate backstory that needs to be disassembled before you can make it your own).

Of course, when I get my hands on a adventure and I see an interesting NPC, dungeon, encounter, plot twist or something similar, I'm the first one to steal it and sneak it into my own adventures. However, I wouldn't run most pre-made adventures in their entirety.

Weird how some people see this as a binary phenomenon. I've never had a problem running someone elses material or coming up with my own. I have a cordial disdain for most incarnations of metaplot, although I've never found it to be a limiting factor when running with a setting. I usually personalise the shit out of anything I buy, anyway.

Sorry, I'm just not seeing it.

I like modules provided they don't railroad. Sadly, too many adventure modules have been "Railroad City". :(

I'm now cool with the Railroad... (!)

So long as the entrances and exits to the stations are clearly marked, so I know when it's time to go wandering around.

Also, if the train ride is too long, or too boring, and doesn't give me enough time to stretch my legs -- I won't enjoy the trip.

I'm not cool with thinking I'm someplace else, when in fact I'm on the railroad.  That is bad.

I too couldn't afford modules growing up, but I had a larcenous soul. As such, it sounds like my experiences may be the opposite of yours, as much of my gaming has come from adventures.

The important part of using any module is the same as the important part of using a setting or a rule book: keep what you like and trash the rest.

I tended to look at them in the store and I bought a few but I never used them straight.  I thought some people would have been better served to get a book of interesting NPCs, plot hooks, or something like that.  Something to get the imagination going without being spoon-fed.

I was against modules, a real die hard. Shadowrun modules especially soured me to the whole "module" thing-but then I started talking with some people. Online and off. Some people want to game, but their time is at a premium: kids, job, other commitments, you name it. So for them modules is an easy way to keep in the game, while not having to bust their ass making stuff from scratch each game.

I'd like to think I'll never run a module-I just have too many of my own ideas I want to run first, but I'm not as down on cats who run them anymore.

Good or bad modules are meant to be timesavers.

In my experience there people who don't buy adventures do one of two things.

1) They essentially write their own adventures. How complete that writing is depends on how much real-life time they have. But generally there some type of shorthand notation going so that if you look at a given DM adventure much of it will be gibberish or in his head.

2) They have stock NPCs/monsters, main NPCs/monsters, stock Locations, main location all in a pile and just make it up as they go. This is what some people call sandbox play. Watching a DM do this you will see much of the action take place in towns, villages, and wildernesses with perhaps a small cave complex or dungeon with a half dozen rooms.

The problem with #1) is time, the problem with #2 is that there certain elements, like Dungeons, of D&D style world that work better with a prepared adventure of a store bought module or a module of #1.

My personal style is very much #2. However I adapted it by buying adventures for areas that I want the detail. I learned how to break down an adventure and adapt for it for GURPS and my Majestic Wilderlands with a minimum of fess.

For example I am currently using DCC #12 The Blackguard's Revenge. http://www.goodmangames.com/5011preview.php

Basically the module location is an abbey overrun by a bunch of wights. I made into a Abbey of the Goddess Mitra and replaced some of the NPCs with some of my own that fit better with the Majestic Wilderlands. Now at this point I blew the $8 I spent on the PDF. Because I could do this myself.

The value of the money spent comes in all the little "bits" that are in the module. For example one part of the original backstory is that the Abbey guards the place where the Church of Mitra store dangerous artifact. Another part is the backstory of the BlackGuard. So by taking the various local bits and explaining them in terms of my own Majestic Wilderlands suddenly I get some that is cooler for the Majestic Wilderlands than the original module and something I just whipped up on the fly. And get my $8 worth and save a bunch of time.

My recent stint writing Badabaskor, and helping with Citadel of Fire, and Dark Tower just drives home how time consuming WRITING complete adventures is. And I am talking just the writing not the stat blocks, not the layout, or art. but putting words to paper.

Quote from: Serious PaulI was against modules, a real die hard. Shadowrun modules especially soured me to the whole "module" thing-but then I started talking with

I want to point out that when I adapt modules for use not just any module will do. The more generic a module is the better of adaptation it will be. By generic I mean the line the modules is part of not the contents. For example most of Dungeon Crawl Classics are supremely adaptable. While anything for Eberron I haven't been able to do jack with. Not to say Eberron sucks but it so tied to the world.

Alderac had a series of modules that I loved collection as well as Atlas Games. The initial run of 3.0 modules (Sunless, Forge, etc) were very adaptable. I have a series of 1st Edition Forgotten Realm modules I never been able to adapt successfully.

So you have to be "smart" in which module you use. My current favorite for adaptation are Expeditious Retreat's 1 on 1, and DCCs.

Thinking on it more I suppose I see the usage/non-usage of modules as something akin to acting.

There are some guys who only shine when they improvise. They need to feel their own creative juices flowing in order to be convincing. Give them a script and they come across as fumbling or wooden, largely because they don't have any personal investment in it.

Then there are actors who can breathe life and perspective into a centuries old manuscript, turning the tired and familiar into something stunningly new and inventive. They can even define a character for a generation. Ask them to do anything even remotely off the cuff and they fall flat on their arses.

So who would I consider better? More creative? The guy who can convincingly do both.

That's why I don't have a problem with modules. I think they can be just as creatively involving as scenarios designed whole cloth. They only differ from self-penned efforts in that they require us to access a different aspect of our imagination, one that comprehends and enlivens parameters.


And that's my analogy quota filled for the next year or so. Moduulz r gud. :)

In the end my rules is if you're having fun, you're doing it right.

Quote from: Serious PaulIn the end my rules is if you're having fun, you're doing it right.

Even if it's badwrongfun?

Quote from: Serious PaulIn the end my rules is if you're having fun, you're doing it right.

Yup. I just don't like the assertion (which I've yet to see in this thread, btw) that people who do use modules are creatively bankrupt.

Quote from: James McMurrayEven if it's badwrongfun?

Badwrongfun?! Perish the thought!! :haw:

Quote from: DrewYup. I just don't like the assertion (which I've yet to see in this thread, btw) that people who do use modules are creatively bankrupt.

I was one of those suckers. But I have seen the light! Now where can I get some of this badwrong fun? I want a double dose.

Quote from: jrientsLike any good rant, Spike's OP is a potent combination of personal bias, slipshod research, and undeniable truth.

Yup. My rant is composed of pure Win!

Always.

:D

I fell into the same boat, way back in the day.  I did manage to get a few modules, but they weren't really used all that much.  For me it was because of my enormous pre-teen/teen ego. :D

I did use them for inspiration though.  I'd read them to find new ways to structure my own adventures and I'm glad I had the few that I did.  B4 - The Lost City and B10 - Night's Dark Terror were very inspirational in my formative years.

Nowadays I buy a few published adventures here or there, mainly stuff from Goodman Games.  But again I do this more for the inspiration - and to crib interesting bits when I don't have time (which is almost always) ;)

Quote from: StuartYou need to look at the earlier exploration based modules, rather than the later narrative / "story" modules.

Yep. We made our own dungeons before we bought any. And they were awesome. But White Plume Mountain was awesome too; half-flooded hallways, a giant scorpion in a volcanic caldera, jumping over swaying disk above a pool of bubbling lava to the tomb of a magic-hammer wielding vampire, two effreeti brothers who try to catch you before you make off with the loot. That stuff was pure awesome to the mind of a 10-year-old.

And it's not just nostalgia. Caverns of Thracia is still frickin' cool today. So is the Vault of the Drow. And the Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan. No railroads or metaplot - just incredibly evocative and fun settings.

I like modules. As any other product, they may be good or bad, but I'm not against them on principle. Mostly, it depends on the game.

Quote from: HaffrungYep. We made our own dungeons before we bought any. And they were awesome. But White Plume Mountain was awesome too; half-flooded hallways, a giant scorpion in a volcanic caldera, jumping over swaying disk above a pool of bubbling lava to the tomb of a magic-hammer wielding vampire, two effreeti brothers who try to catch you before you make off with the loot. That stuff was pure awesome to the mind of a 10-year-old.

And it's not just nostalgia. Caverns of Thracia is still frickin' cool today. So is the Vault of the Drow. And the Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan. No railroads or metaplot - just incredibly evocative and fun settings.

Agreed 100%. The rewrite for Thracia was awesome.

I can still take many of the 70's/early 80's TSR modules and turn them into something viable and exciting even for today's jaded crowd. They're superbly written templates that can be spun in all sorts of different directions with a few cosmetic changes. Rotate the Isle of Dread map 90 degrees, set it in a subarctic zone, change the monsters accordingly and the players will never notice. The tribesmen of the southern peninsula become a settlement of cannibalistic Vikings, the dinosaurs are now wooly mammoths, rhinos and wendigo-inspired supernatural forces of nature etc. That sort of thing. The underlying structure allows for all kinds of cool reinterpretations.

Quote from: architect.zeroI did use them for inspiration though.  I'd read them to find new ways to structure my own adventures and I'm glad I had the few that I did.  B4 - The Lost City and B10 - Night's Dark Terror were very inspirational in my formative years.

Nowadays I buy a few published adventures here or there, mainly stuff from Goodman Games.  But again I do this more for the inspiration - and to crib interesting bits when I don't have time

This is what I do as well.

I'll buy modules from the local used book store and critique them to see what works and what doesn't for me. Then use that info in the next game I prep for. If the module sucks, I'll just sell it back to the used book store (although I've kept a few sucky ones as a reference of bad examples).

If a module is a good adventure or set of adventures, with sufficient information to give you a story without over-burdening you with someone elses idea of what makes NPCs interesting, then its a useful tool. You don't have to use them just as written, and they can be very entertaining to use.

In my current (D&D) campaign, with two sets of PCs, I've used B2, B3, elements of B4, B5, B7 (heavily modified), X1, X2, X3, X4 and 5 together (again very modified), XL1, CM1, CM2, CM3, CM4, M1, M4 (modified) and DA1. But inbetween there have been loads and loads of other adventures, in fact comfortably the majority of adventures are of my own devising.

I think that my campaign is richer for using the best of published adventures as well as my own material.

Quote from: SpikeI'll tell ya what! Toss the god damn module/adventure model into the trash and burn the fucker.  The hobby doesn't need it. I don't need it. And I don't need players who think that the only way to play is reading some bad 'dialog' from a book. Gimmee back my limitless sandbox you damn dirty dogs!

Go and get Keep in the Borderlands, module B2 for classic D&D. See how a module can be constructed such that it provides weeks of gaming, has enough info so you can end up constructing a whole campaign from it, and how the organisation of creatures within a cave complex setting can be done so that its believable, interesting and challenging. And all without 'boxed text' to read out to the players.

Or failing that go and get module X3 (Curse of Xanathon), giving you a city setting with a complex but achievable set of problems to solve and a good balance of combat, thinking and social interractions, again all without having to read lots of stuff out.

Maybe CM1 (Test of the Warlords) will suit you better; its a module that covers an entire year of game time, detailing what you need for a set of high level characters to claim baronies in a wilderness kingdom, multiple mini-adventures giving them a chance to defend their territory, extend it, make allies and discover some fundamental truths about the world, all culminating in a major war using the War Machine rules in whicih the PCs can have a major impact in resolving, ultimately dictating the fate of a whole kingdom.

Modules, done well, are great. Done badly... Well, just leave 'Return to the Keep in the Borderlands' well alone, eh?

The only thing I really liked about the old D&D modules were the maps!  Same goes for the boxed sets.  Sure, I could have drawn Waterdeep or Undermountain, but since someone had already saved me the trouble, I wasn't going to pass it up.

But other than those, I have never purchased modules or adventures for any other game.  Core books for me all the way.

I've had issues with just about every module I've read. Somewhere along the way there would be several things that just didn't make sense to me, like the plot becoming utterly unbelievable.

Still I do get a lot of mileage out of adventures, usually for the maps, NPCs and overall hooks and ideas.

I get the feeling the railroad story-modules of the 2E era have soured lots of folks on modules. Or they don't know how to customize and bring a setting-based module to life.

Old-school modules =/= stories; they're keyed maps to an evocative and tactically-challenging setting. Nothing more. They may have elements with great potential for story - the insane mage looking for a lost staff, the hostility between the lizard-men and the gnolls, the tale of a civilization's downfall told through wraith-haunted tombs and ancient scrolls - but they presuppose no story.

Quote from: Sacrificial LambI like modules provided they don't railroad. Sadly, too many adventure modules have been "Railroad City". :(

I've actually found that I'm more likely to railroad when designing my own adventures, because I've invested valuable time and don't want to see it wasted. I'm far more likely to let the players veer off the tracks if it's someone else's creation that I've purchased. Plus, statting up NPCs is my least favourite part of the RPG experience.

Yeah, I wish I hadn't missed the days when a module was simply an exhaustively-mapped little segment of a campaign setting. "Griffin Mountain" for Runequest is an excellent example (and available as a reprint from Moon Design) - plenty of opprtunities for adventure, but no railroady plot.

Quote from: HaffrungOld-school modules =/= stories; they're keyed maps to an evocative and tactically-challenging setting. Nothing more. They may have elements with great potential for story - the insane mage looking for a lost staff, the hostility between the lizard-men and the gnolls, the tale of a civilization's downfall told through wraith-haunted tombs and ancient scrolls - but they presuppose no story.

Absolutely.  My favorite module of all time, in terms of atmosphere and set design, is Shrine of the Kuo-Toa.  It just oozes weird and creepy.

And it's a module the PCs can simply walk through (literally!) if they play their cards right.

I think you guys are missing the point. There are plenty of great modules out there, sure as sure. I've got most of the Into the Underdark line I inhereted from my first GM, Shrine of the Kuo Toa... stuff like that.  

Hell, I like having maps. I LOVE having maps, cause I can't map for shit on my own.  NPC's can be a blessing too. Heck, I've got a few game supplements that are nothign BUT maps and NPC's... almost.

But:

Modules and prepackaged adventures, far too often tell us 'how the game is meant to be run'.   And this goes back to the beginning in some ways. Can you imagine what D&D could have been like if 'dungeon crawling' hadn't been fed to us with a spoon? I can. Every once in a while I've played with someone, or listened to someone talk about their games where dungeoneering was something they'd never even considered! And generally their ideas were pure AWESOME.  

RPG rulesets are a tool.  With a good set of tools you can build almost anything.  But, with modules people get addicted to having blueprints and patterns. They limit our play by showing us 'the way'. When we stretch our wings, we don't explore new territory nearly as often as we simply recreate what we know.  And what we know is the dungeon crawl, the 'Shadowrun with betrayals', the 'mad mage with revenge fantasys... in a dungeon'...

I've got a game, a little bitty thing of a game, produced with love by some schlub on a mac in the mid to late nineties.  It gives me a setting, it gives me conflicts and ideas.  What it doesn't do is spoon feed me 'how to play'.  And when I first got it I was overwhelmed, stunned.  I was confused for a moment, lost, unsure what to do with this thing I had before me. Sure, there was a crap mini-adventure in teh back.  I could cops with it, sure. But by the time I got there I had so many other ideas in my head, so many other things I could do with it that the adventure was a let down, a crash and burn from the high I had floated on.

Its that sense of boundless wonder that comes from absolute freedom to come up with my own way that I am trying to preserve. How many other people picked up that little game and saw the adventure and dismissed the entire thing as 'future cops', or played it and liked it, until they got bored with 'future cops'?   How many people started to get that same euphoric high I had, but it wasn't robust enough to survive the encounter with the prepackaged 'adventure'?


I weep for the death of countless dreams.

Quote from: SpikeThey limit our play by showing us 'the way'.

Or they can fuel our imagination with awesome ideas and examples of excellence.

Really, why are modules any more limiting than reading Conan stories, or watching Sinbad movies? Because all of our inspiration comes from somewhere. It doesn't just beam into our heads from the ether.

Quote from: SpikeModules and prepackaged adventures, far too often tell us 'how the game is meant to be run'.   And this goes back to the beginning in some ways. Can you imagine what D&D could have been like if 'dungeon crawling' hadn't been fed to us with a spoon? I can. Every once in a while I've played with someone, or listened to someone talk about their games where dungeoneering was something they'd never even considered! And generally their ideas were pure AWESOME.  

That was us, back in the day. Sorry, fellow grognards, but TSR-published dungeons bored us to tears. I've meanwhile changed my mind on that one, but it took me a quarter-century. But back then, we made up our own Lankhmar. This in spite of the fact that none of us had read Leiber and that the TSR book was very spotty. But it had that awesome color map, and that was all we needed.

Quote from: HaffrungOr they can fuel our imagination with awesome ideas and examples of excellence.

Really, why are modules any more limiting than reading Conan stories, or watching Sinbad movies? Because all of our inspiration comes from somewhere. It doesn't just beam into our heads from the ether.

As usual, Haffrung speaks the truth.

When we started out, we played through a few published modules as well as homemade stuff.  Some of the homemade stuff was inspired by the modules, but I remember games clearly inspired by (read: ripped off; we were young!) Clash of the Titans, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Hobbit, Conan stories (ah, Pete, why did you burn it all?), the Belgariad, etc.  Most of our DMs never ran a dungeon/underdark adventure, ever.

Modules were just more grist for the adventure mill.

I ran D&D/AD&D for twenty years. I had three major dungeons, one of them from a module. The third one was enormous, though - a gigantic tesseract dungeon. It took two years to get a third of the way through it, and it was never cleared. Most of the time the PCs were in the cities or wilderness, with an occasional mini-dungeon - one or two small levels of caves or tunnels - thrown in. I hardly ever used published modules. I made my own world, and did my own thing. In fact, as time went on, I bought less and less modules, because they became more and more specific to some plot or place that just had no counterpart in my world.

-clash

Quote from: SpikeModules and prepackaged adventures, far too often tell us 'how the game is meant to be run'.   And this goes back to the beginning in some ways. Can you imagine what D&D could have been like if 'dungeon crawling' hadn't been fed to us with a spoon?  

You mean where the main action in the module is political, wilderness based, city based, in fact anything but a dungeon? Lots of the classic D&D modules cover things other than dungeoneering.

Quote from: HaffrungOr they can fuel our imagination with awesome ideas and examples of excellence.

Bad product will always suck the life out of a game.  Good product can always breathe life into one.  Modules, adventures, rules supplements, what-have-you -- all alike.

!i!

I frankly think "creativity" in the sense implied by the original post is highly overrated, and not often present in the volume suggested.  

I can spend hours poring over making a stock fantasy world for my D&D game, or I can buy Wilderlands and have far more detail than I'd ever care to bother with on my own.  The only difference is the sense of personal ownership, and a well written setting or adventure should allow enough liberty with the material as to render even that difference nonexistent.  

I like gaming.  I want to actually game.  The biggest reason I've never really GMed is because I don't want the workload.  Some people love it, and that's good for them.  I can enjoy it in small doses playing about in my spare time occasionally, but by and large I don't care.  

I can spend hours and hours of labor on something that isn't gonna be all that impressive in the end anyway, or I can take something someone else has done, tweak it for my own purposes, and actualyl get to the game table with a hell of a lot less work.

This is a hobby, not a career, and hobbies should be fun.  I'll save that kind of time and effort for my actual career goals, and use the gaming to blow of steam and have a little fun.

Quote from: ancientgamerI tended to look at them in the store and I bought a few but I never used them straight.  I thought some people would have been better served to get a book of interesting NPCs, plot hooks, or something like that.  Something to get the imagination going without being spoon-fed.

Absolutely. And I'm still surprised MOST modules/adventures aren't exactly this. That's all I've ever used those modules for anyway, to stripmine for my own use. And by then, it has little, if any, resemblance to the original idea.

Quote from: KazAbsolutely. And I'm still surprised MOST modules/adventures aren't exactly this. That's all I've ever used those modules for anyway, to stripmine for my own use. And by then, it has little, if any, resemblance to the original idea.

Seriously, if more modules and settings were written like Wilderlands, I would've been eating that shit up for years, especially at the cheap price of most adventure modules.

Shrug.

When I started playing there were no such things.

Then I swore I'd never use one.

Now, at age 52, it's "I barely have time to game with a prewritten adventure.  It's this or nothing."

Times change, situations change, people change, and your mileage may thingummy.

I'm in my 30's and juggling a job, a fiancee, an upcoming wedding (11/3), and a fairly new house all at once.  I'm sure this is less than some others have, but sometimes I don't have much time.

While I'm able to prepare original material for my 1/week games, it takes quite a bit of time to do so.  There are days & weeks where I just don't have that much time.

Good pre-written modules are a godsend.  Sure, I can come up with something as complex and detailed if I spend the time to do it, but in most cases I have something else I should really be doing.

Also, frankly, some modules do stuff better than I'd be able to do myself.  Unless I spend a good deal of time on writing, I tend to do things quick & dirty - low amounts of NPCs, small dungeons, and so on.  I don't have the patience anymore to create huge, multi-level dungeons and populate them; I'd rather have someone else do the heavy lifting and let me tweak it to my campaign.


I've done both, and I like doing both.  The simple reality is that I'd have less time for all the other things in my life if I didn't have store-bought modules to fall back on every once in a while.

-O

Interesting that people use modules as the less time intensive model.  

I don't spend a lot of time on prep work, sure. Okay, any really. What time I do spend is entirely within my head, so I can do it anywhere. At work, while driving, whatever. Maybe... if I think about it... I'll take a note or two somewhere along the line.

On the other hand, running a module generally requires reading the damn thing first, maybe a few times. I can't imagine that running a game from a module that you haven't gotten fairly familiar with is any easier or 'smoother' than just making shit up as you go along.  Thus Modules still require a time outlay so you don't have to spend ten minutes flipping through the damn thing to figure out if that hallway the players just walked blithely down is trapped or not.

Yeah, I'm sure ten minutes is an exaggeration, but consider just about every action the players take is going to come to a dead stop as you have to read up on the new area and you will very easily blow past that ten minute mark in aggregate over the course of a single evening.

And this is a time saver?

Quote from: SpikeInteresting that people use modules as the less time intensive model.  

I don't spend a lot of time on prep work, sure. Okay, any really. What time I do spend is entirely within my head, so I can do it anywhere. At work, while driving, whatever. Maybe... if I think about it... I'll take a note or two somewhere along the line.

On the other hand, running a module generally requires reading the damn thing first, maybe a few times. I can't imagine that running a game from a module that you haven't gotten fairly familiar with is any easier or 'smoother' than just making shit up as you go along.  Thus Modules still require a time outlay so you don't have to spend ten minutes flipping through the damn thing to figure out if that hallway the players just walked blithely down is trapped or not.

Yeah, I'm sure ten minutes is an exaggeration, but consider just about every action the players take is going to come to a dead stop as you have to read up on the new area and you will very easily blow past that ten minute mark in aggregate over the course of a single evening.

And this is a time saver?

Well, obviously I'm completely mistaken that modules take less time for me to prepare than making my own material.

Your example from your life has convinced me.

-O

Quote from: SpikeInteresting that people use modules as the less time intensive model.  

I don't spend a lot of time on prep work, sure. Okay, any really. What time I do spend is entirely within my head, so I can do it anywhere. At work, while driving, whatever. Maybe... if I think about it... I'll take a note or two somewhere along the line.

Spike, you play 3.5, right? Can you do those stat blocks in your head, too? Because, if I did, that would be the major attraction of published modules for me--not to have to deal with that crap after 10pm.

Oh, yes, Obryn... I was talking solely to you. Follow me to enlightenment my child, I, and only I, am the path and the way.


Pierce: Not so much unless that is the only thing I can get players for (I play D&D more than I run it...) and when I do I cheat horribly. NPC's get HP, AC and BAB and that's about it... :D  Maybe a save bonus if the PC's are particularly tricksome....

In that case, you're prepping exactly the way I do. :D

Quote from: SpikeOh, yes, Obryn... I was talking solely to you. Follow me to enlightenment my child, I, and only I, am the path and the way.

:D Sounds good to me!

-O