Module or Self-made Realm?

[Chadd Lindsay]

This is the question I have...

Do you play a quest/campaign from purchased/downloaded mods or from a self made relm?

I for one have never liked purchased/downloaded mods. I have always played in the relm that i made 25 yrs ago. The world has growned and flurished in this time, tolal histories of past campaigns have set the stage for new ones. It is now a living world full of political intregue from several kingdoms to plenty of explorable landscape, or relic serching or snatch and grabs etc. I even have the back history of the continent that spans 18k yrs.

I find plenty of "stuff" to do. But back to my original question. I am curious to see if most people play off of purchased/downloaded mods or from relms they make themselves like i did.

Just curious.

[nathan blackmer]

Personally, I write everything myself, including monsters and magic items. I toss out the character wealth/level chart because I feel it forces the characters to rely too much on magic items for effectiveness...then again I prefer my emphasis to be on the STORY and not COMBAT.

I'm working on putting together a campaign right now actually, set almost immediately after the formation of the game world (I.E. the original "prototype" members of each race are still alive).

In my 18 years of DM'ing I've always found that, if you have the time, the sessions you'll be talking about for YEARS to come are the ones you write yourself. You'll have a harder time forgetting plot elements or summarily dismissing NPC's if you've had to take the time to create them yourself. Better knowledge of the setting/plot = better run game.

I'm a HUGE advocate of homespun stories. That said I'm playing in a campaign right now (War of the Burning Sky I think it's called) that's a series of mods and the DM is doing a good job with it...but there are times it still feels forced, and when we brake with how it's supposed to progress he can get flustered.

Just my 2....well, just my buck fifty I guess.

[Chadd Lindsay]

I totally agree with you Nathan. All my campaigns are openended. There is a loose story and plot for adventure but I like it when the party writes the majority of the story, ie: their choices on where they will go and what they will do.

With my world being so rich (and I know the intracencies because I wrote it) it is easy for me to adlib with their choices or ad-hoc the rest of the session to fit the party's playing style. I think it makes it more fun for all involved. Not to mention easier for me to DM/GM a session.

[TriOmegaZero]

Printed material all the way. As a new player, I haven't started writing my own material. This is partly due to being new and being military. I only stepped up to DM because I was the only one interested over the deployment.

[nathan blackmer]

That's a valid perspective. It's intimidating at first to GM. I guess it was a little different for me when I started playing. There weren't nearly as many modules, and the ones there were weren't available where I lived. I'm military too, for the record.

[Lord Fyre]

There is another issue as well. Many of us are "working adults" with other commitments on our time.

So, many of us look to published material as a good way to conserve our precious free time for actually gaming. :)

In answer to the original question: I rely heavily on published materials.

[Chadd Lindsay]

Yes I too am military 16 1/2 yrs Army...HOOAH!!!

I understand the daunting task of starting out as a DM/GM. It is a bit of an undertaking. All those worries... will the players like the world that they are imersed in... will the amount of role playing and combat be to their liking... Will my adjudications make good sense and how will they be taken by the players... etc.

I have always taken my dice and core rule bookes on every deployment I have ever been on... and trust me after 16 yrs they have been numerous.

I admire anyone that takes up the mantle of DM/GM. It's the hardest but most rewarding part of RPG's.

[dm4hire]

Usually I use premade settings, such as FR, DS, SJ, and the like from TSR and WotC. With Pathfinder we've decided to create our own using a modified version of Dawn of Worlds. We are planning on starting the world creation this Friday if all works out. I'm looking forward to letting my creative side loose upon an unsuspecting world. </evil laugh>

[varianor]

Happy to use someone else's game world or make one of my own. Unless I playtest someone else's adventure though, I write my own. I prefer the world to operate sandbox-style.

[stonechild]

I almost always play in either Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. Usually I run my own ideas but if I find an module or adventure path that I like I'll run it with a few modifications of course.
I spent 15 years in the Navy, before I got the boot, myself. And that's why I like modules, cause groups come and go. I'm loking forward to being in one place for enough years so I can properly run a long term AoW campaign.

[Chadd Lindsay]

Cool, I like this thread. Not cause I started it but because I am really getting a feel for how others play besides me and my group.

So far I would say it's 50/50.

[wraithstrike]

I have generally used publish campaign worlds with my own adventures/campaigns, but adventure writing is a time consuming process, so this year I started using pre-mades. I sometimes add things in or take things out. I would like to get back to writing my own stuff again. It is more flexible, but the time is no longer available.