No interest in modules probably because i like to tie everything to the game world.
I found early tsr modules so random and gonzo that using the dmg random dungeon genetator was just as good and much cheaper.
I did like thieves`s world and lankhmar more adventure hooks that complete stuff and i have used the book of lairs to throw up ideas for sessions.

So an article that throws up 50 adventure hooks for undead,or goblins, or elves is propably more useful than a 30page dungeon.
Masks of nylathotep might be the only exception.

D&D Modules have have always been nearly completely useless to me, too long, too boring and almost always with single room encounters that should have been an entire adventure in my eyes. One beholder is enough thanks, I don't need dozens of the things.

The original Ravenloft was perhaps the one I liked best, although it too had it's faults.

I had better luck with Shadowrun and Deadland modules, but again just had to cut down on the number of encounters and battles and yank out the railroad element. Typically I'd end up completely reframing the module and swapping NPCs.

In the end, the only real gain is the maps and a bit of inspiration.

Quote from: jibbajibba;633214No interest in modules probably because i like to tie everything to the game world.

Likewise, I rarely buy modules but I keep a half dozen in-setting one shots handy in case a player or players can't make it, like flashbacks or character memories. They're quite popular since rewards gained are kept by the characters.

I use modules as a resource for a few things:

1) Ideas
2) Creatures or Races
3) Starships
4) Magic Items
5) Maps & Deckplans
6) Puzzles or Mysteries
7) Situations
Whole Adventures

Some modules are good and some are bad. Some of the best offer a little bit of all of the above. They are not all good or all bad as a group.

Quote from: Zak S;633140I never understood the idea that modules save time. Prepping a module always takes me more time than writing something new.

Whether or not the actual content is any good, the way they are laid out, written and presented is usually so disastrous that it ends up being a net loss at the table.

Your Mileage Has Clearly Varied.

Apparently it has. I'm not sure how prepping a module takes more time than writing something entirely from scratch. I can understand it with a module like Ravenloft, which involves familiarizing yourself with a new plane, spell effects, and so on. But something like The Keep on the Borderlands provides a generic keep and caves complex to drop into an existing campaign. The maps alone seem a time-saver.

+1 to what is said here, I am pro-module, and not just for D&D.  Shadowrun, Chaosium games and a wide variety of other games have really great adventure supplements, even those stinky swiney storygame RPGs.  Marvel Heroic's Annihiliation event was heavily played to great acclaim at this year's Dreamation in NJ which I attended.

On the Trad game side, Paizo has built it's strength IMO not from it's core rules set, but from it's adventure paths. There's a ton of great Pathfinder content that's ready to play.  Great mods are a god send for time strapped GMs.

Quote from: Replicant2;633304Apparently it has. I'm not sure how prepping a module takes more time than writing something entirely from scratch. I can understand it with a module like Ravenloft, which involves familiarizing yourself with a new plane, spell effects, and so on. But something like The Keep on the Borderlands provides a generic keep and caves complex to drop into an existing campaign. The maps alone seem a time-saver.

Well, for me prepping for a game from scratch involves jotting down a half dozen notes on a sheet of paper.  Prepping a module involves reading the whole damn thing, much more work.

Use everything: modules, side treks, books, movies, cartoons.  Everything.

Just don't use anything unvetted.

I suspect that almost no one uses plain vanilla modules.  A good GM is always going to add something, so how about everything?

Just to throw a bleeding seal into the shark tank:

Modules are great but adventures suck.

Quote from: Replicant2;633304Apparently it has. I'm not sure how prepping a module takes more time than writing something entirely from scratch. I can understand it with a module like Ravenloft, which involves familiarizing yourself with a new plane, spell effects, and so on. But something like The Keep on the Borderlands provides a generic keep and caves complex to drop into an existing campaign. The maps alone seem a time-saver.

The Keep  is a fine example of a module where I don't get how it could save anyone time.

Here's almost every single thing in the Caves:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/caves-of-chaos-is-one-page-dungeon.html

Here's the Keep:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/keep-cheat-sheet-tekumel-violence.html

Here's the wilderness map:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-been-30-years-they-still-havent.html

All the content not on those three maps could fit in 3 module pages but the whole thing is muuuuuuuuch longer than that and written in paragraph form.

As for stocking, the monsters are straight outta vanilla central: kobold goblin ogre gnoll etc.

I mean: it is a fun module to play, but someone taking more than 5 seconds to think up "3 Goblins" and write it in a box is baffling.

Modules are great in helping to learn how to play the game.  Not so good, otherwise. Would rather have a campaign setting. I have all of the Judges Guild adventure modules, but never use them, except to mine them for ideas. I have B1 of course, and would own B4 Lost City if I could find a copy... and also have Forge of Fury. That's it for modules though. Much better to make up original dungeons and mini-settings, especially considering most of the players have either;

1) Gm'ed the module themselves, so know all of the "Surprises"...

...or

2) Played in the module setting one or more times already, so there is nothing new for them there.

Homebrew has the big advantage of putting all of the players on a more-or-less equal footing when it comes to learning about the Dungeon or Setting locale.

Quote from: Zak S;633367The Keep  is a fine example of a module where I don't get how it could save anyone time.

Here's almost every single thing in the Caves:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/caves-of-chaos-is-one-page-dungeon.html

Here's the Keep:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/keep-cheat-sheet-tekumel-violence.html

Here's the wilderness map:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-been-30-years-they-still-havent.html

All the content not on those three maps could fit in 3 module pages but the whole thing is muuuuuuuuch longer than that and written in paragraph form.

As for stocking, the monsters are straight outta vanilla central: kobold goblin ogre gnoll etc.

I mean: it is a fun module to play, but someone taking more than 5 seconds to think up "3 Goblins" and write it in a box is baffling.

Okay, you raise some good points about the relative shallowness of KOTB. Though I don't think you quite do justice to the Mad Hermit (the flavor text and Erol Otus illustration make that encounter unique, and more than just numbers on a map). Maybe not a good example on my part.

Still, I remember the first time I played through In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and having my mind blown by the fact it started you off naked in a dungeon and required you to fight your way out with thighbone clubs and shields of giant crabhide. Imaginative touches like that are stuff not every garden-variety DM can think up him- or herself.

Quote from: Replicant2;633385Still, I remember the first time I played through In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and having my mind blown by the fact it started you off naked in a dungeon and required you to fight your way out with thighbone clubs and shields of giant crabhide. Imaginative touches like that are stuff not every garden-variety DM can think up him- or herself.

That is probably true, but I find the ubiquity (at least on line) of the ideas that:

1. Modules are a great way to learn to GM (for everybody!)

and

2. Modules are a great way for theoryheads to figure what a game is "supposed to be about"

...depressing.

Making up your own stuff with no help from anyone is and always should be one of the things that goes on in the RPG hobby. It's not for everyone but I think it is for, say 50% of GMs, and I wouldn't want anyone with a head full of ideas who finds modules a stumbling block to keep getting the advice that that's the best way to go and that they're missing out if they don't "get" them.

When we had our show, I was floored by the amount of mail we got from people to whom it had never even occurred to them that an average joe DM would just make something up. And I thought that was pretty sad.

Nothing is The One True Way. Some folks need to do one thing and some need to do another.

Quote from: Zak S;633388When we had our show, I was floored by the amount of mail we got from people to whom it had never even occurred to them that an average joe DM would just make something up. And I thought that was pretty sad.

For real?  Crazy.  Well, definitely good work help those folks.  

Back in the day, it always made me wonder why I was using the Greyhawk boxed set, when all I ever used was the names of places from it.  Even the map was too cumbersome to use at a session.  So, it was just used by me to gauge travel times prior to game.  Let alone using modules.  We would buy them, and they would sit in a stack unused, since we were occupied with our own things.

Heh. I'm almost the same way about the various Greyhawk sets, except I actually do use the maps. My S.O. got a craft shop to put the Darlene maps on foamcore for me, and they're just above my desk.

In the PbP I'm running, we're traveling to Ekbir at the moment, and I've made up pretty much everything about the caliphate except a few landmarks and the name of the ruler.

I have a bajillion Greyhawk modules, pretty much all the ones ever published, and I've yet to run a single one all the way through.

That said, I may run Beyond the Crystal Cave or Night's Dark Terror sometime soon.