Quote from: David RThis has worked for my players and me for a long time. The only way to run games as far as I'm concerned

Regards,
David R

It works fine until I hit a "wall".  At that point, more material is helpful.  I do feel that it is my favorite way to play when I'm on my game (I just wish that I was on my game more often).

WFRP is the only game where I try and keep the setting intact, but that's because I love the setting.  Most other systems that we play are actually pretty hard to really define a specific setting so it's hard to stray from something that isn't defined.    

Actually now that I think about it there are more, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Mechanical Dream, Feng Shui, Earthdawn and even World of Darkness are games wehre I generally stick to the setting, or at least the setting for the books I've purchased.  

I think it comes down to if the rules are for a generic setting like D20 or if the rules come bundled and are based around a setting/metagame.  If the rules really are designed to work in a given setting there are often too many little quirks that don't work outside of that setting so deviation is harder.

But I guess it does depend on how strict you get in defining 'use a published setting'.  I may change names and places to suit a specific goal but I try and keep as much the same as possible, it makes adding supplements easier.

In the Early Days, I decided I needed a game world, and since I didn't have Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms was not yet a box, I made my own. I drew a map, then I needed to name all the places. I turned to DRAGON Magazine for names, and there was a series of articles by Ed Greenwood, (Pages from the Mages, 7 Swords) that would eventually become the Forgotten Realms. I took all the names and used them for my towns and cities, without much attention paid to what was a city or a country in the article, it just needed to sound cool.

So players come to my game, hear some familiar names, and decide they must be in the Forgotten Realms. Only my game world is very little like the realms they know. So it's new and exciting yet slightly familiar at the same time.

With other modules and settings- ESPECIALLY ones that the players are familiar with, I might include the map, but change the location (or trigger) for the secret doors, or the main hero might be the main villain. Anything to say, "you shouldn't have read ahead. NOW you actually have to PAY ATTENTION, because what you thought you knew...is wrong."