Why Nerdarchy Doesn't Run Official D&D Adventures
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- Why Nerdarchy Doesn't Run Official D&D Adventures
Nerdarchy discusses running pre-written D&D adventures both official and from 3rd party publishers of 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
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"The end of the corridor is blocked by a large rock."
"I seduce the rock!"
"The rock remains unmoved."
I smoke said rock.
And is concerned by your commitment issues.
My favorite part of these videos is how wobbly the table is. I can’t stop starting at it. Like some kind of furniture ADD.
After seeing this comment, I can't stop staring at the table!
It weebles and wobbles, but never falls down.
Nerdarchist Dave
exact same happened to me
Thank you for that now I can't stop staring at the wobbly table.
Mimics don't have to attack on contact, they could play for the long game... false sense of security
I have been running the Tyranny of Dragons series for nearly 2 years now and we are approaching the finale. If I didn't add homebrew side-quests and insert things tailored to the characters in the party and their backstories I feel it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable. The modules are a starting point in my view. It is a great bone structure of a campaign with certain beats that need to be covered but the meat and sinew of the story should be created by the influence the party and their individual stories have on the world. Just my opinion, this 2 year game is my first foray into being a DM.
Exactly this. Good for framework/structure which the group can expand upon.
Rather oddly, I've been GM'ing for 30+ years, and had never run a pre-written adventure before April this year.
My group needed a GM at short notice, so I grabbed a campaign online, and started running it, and it's a load of fun for me to GM without really knowing where the campaign goes next, as I haven't read ahead of each adventure they're on.
While it's great to create a story and lead your players through what you've imagined, it's also nice for someone else to have done a load of the work, so you can just sit down and game.
I don’t use modules really, I have a homebrew world. I have used the modules for ideas and maps though.
Good video
Glad you enjoyed it. We use them in the same way.
Nerdarchist Dave
I'm also a heavy improve DM. A lot of things I prepare for my game I don't even write down, and instead just ponder it during downtime and at work.
Yeah I don’t like to run modules honestly. Between adventures if you need time to develop the story then they are good, but I like making up new worlds.
In a recent homebrew I’m running a magic vs machine type of adventure where one half of a continent is steeped in the old ways, and the other half is obsessed with machinery and progress, both halves divided by a mountain range that spans the continent that some gods had summoned to stop an all-out civil war from destroying the continent.
I'm ashamed to say it, but sometimes I forget to stay nerdy. 😞
It is ok. Staying Nerdy all the time can be challenging.
Nerdarchist Dave
It's a full time job!
Campaign settings are for abstract rules and ideas. Tomb of Annihilation gave us rules for heavy armor in a hot climate for example.
I do like how things like that get added in. The underdark stuff in out of the abyss is fantastic.
Nerdarchist Dave
Homebrew is the best. Preparation is always useful even if ya run it on fly by seat of your pants. Adventures are good for ideas and playing with beginners
As you guys said, having a module to start with but its tweaked after every session is a really good balance between the improvisation of the table top genre, and the more structured adventures WoTC puts out. It also helps me plan forward by having a deeper piece of lore in the world so I don't break the logic of the story. Then again, I'm usually fixing the gaps in the module, so it's a great Yin and Yang.
I'd LOVE for you to share your thoughts on the Warhammer FRP 3rd Edition on your shelf!
They prefer to tell their own story... there... saved you 19:32... that being said watch it anyway >.>
Massive understatement
I'd imagine the pre-written stuff is most ideal for a DM just starting out and trying to get a feel for DMing.
As a brand new DM, I threw my hat into the ring after a bit of DMing issues with our previous DM. That's not to say he didn't do a great job, however there were some things I really wanted to see or try and do. Needless to say, I felt like I bit off more than I can chew. I think deep down I'm a player and not a DM. I am running Waterdeep Dragon Heist and sort of trying to figure out if I want to go into the Undermountain book, or let the party resolve this book and go from there.
I'll say that pre-written campaigns can be a godsend, and a curse. I had run into issues of like "how do I play this NPC" or "uh oh, they aren't going in the right direction, how do I steer them back on the right path".
I'll say, that if I was writing my own stuff, I feel like it might give me a leg up as to what I wanna do and how I wanna do it. In that same sense, there are times where I like that the book has it already made or laid out and all I gotta do is read certain parts. It's very mixed emotions and every time I step up to having to DM, I've been doubting my ability to do it and it's disheartening, even if my friends say I'm doing fine
Good stuff. And Dave always wearing stylish threads.
Thanks.
Nerdarchist Dave
I run a mix of Homebrew and prewritten adventures. For the prewritten adventures, I have taken to modifying encounters to make them better suited to the players' level. I also work out the main plot and side plots of the modules ahead of time so I know when to drop story hooks for the players. I also do a mix of improve when my players decide to go off the beaten path and find ways to lead them back to the main story.
I DM for two groups playing through saltmarsh. During session 0 I always ask my players to make truths about the world as they build. So I changed saltmarsh to match their truths of the world, stolen from Adam koebels award winning dungeon world.
I have found it very enjoyable to bend the adventure around the players than the other way around.
Thanks for the great video guys!
My old group used the pre written stuff as a guide . The other DM and I saw quick we would have to alter the stuff so much for our group that the end result was more based off the the The pre-written campaign with a lot of own stuff in it .
I couldn’t agree with this video more!
I have recently begun as a dungeon master running water deep dragon heist and whilst the story is ok, it seems my party favour all the parts that we have improvised in the moment and are actively seeking more of this out over the main story hook.
I must be careful to not railroad my own game. God being a dungeon master is hard! 😓
I think more open matrix, improve games providing maximum player agency for me in the future.
Keep up the good work fellas!
Last pre-written game I tried to run was Storm King's Thunder. Well we never made it out of chapter 1 because the game became about the players becoming the lords of nightstone and the calamities that came with it.
As you said you have two options: add stuff to the game that focuses on your players interests and character backstories, or just run the story as is. The thing I think should be pointed out is that that can also be done in fully homebrew campaigns. Good dms add stuff for their players in either instance (in my opinion). Having played dnd for the past 12 years and dm’d for the past 5 I haven’t encountered anyone outside of adventures league running a game “as is”. Even then most dms I’ve met that use the prewritten adventures use them in a half original stuff, half prewritten stuff kind of style. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with homebrew settings or stories, just that running prewritten adventures (with about half of homemade content) is also pretty fun. Pro tip for people who don’t run prewritten adventures but want to, you don’t have to read every little thing a thousand times, you just need to read enough that you won’t accidentally add anything that will invalidate an important story point or encounter that you think your players will really like.
I prefer using module adventures, and building off those. I get far too creative for my own good when doing my own setting and adventure, and I overthink way too much that I can't trust myself to do a homebrew game. I need that sort of structure to keep myself focused.
I am a prep style GM, but I was raised on all home-brew material when I started D&D, and that shaped the way I DM'd when I took up the reigns. As a storyteller, I much prefer to have my own story anyway. I would rather create custom stories that incorporate world lore and the characters my players bring to the table.
My problem with modules
Is that even tho the characters are heroes they never have any tangible impact on the world
@@conradkorbol In the imaginary game world, that might be more a group problem than the module. The module is a tool. The gm and players shape the world as much or as little as they try to shape it.
Oroku Saki wel in the base module they have no impact
Any impact they have is in fact homebrew
Which, is fine. I am just saying hombrew is inherently is more reactive
@@conradkorbol The base module is essentially prepared encounters and scenarios in a setting. You're right, any impact they have is homebrew, so the base module is essentially just a tool/aid and the players/gm can do as much or as little as they want within that prepared framework. The moment the characters step onto the stage, the adventure is homebrew. There's no module police saying the group can't impact a prewritten module, and as a matter of playing it in the first place, they players do indeed impact the world of the module, the scope and scale dependent on the group's imagination.
Oroku Saki the modules are designed for al and al you can’t add anything (I believe) but there are time contraints so you can take stuff out
So for the purposes AL (which is standard d and d 5e)
The characters have no impact
I agree that’s not how the game should game st home
But that’s not how they are intended and why I don’t personally like them
I prefer setting books. With monsters like water deep I think is the best module cuz it’s basically that
Great discussion... enjoyed it. I started running Dragon Heist about a year ago. Up until then, I've always homebrewed my games. What I found running my first module was that it required more "studying" to ensure I get the NPCs, Places, and Plots correct. What's funny... is nearly a year in and we are still in Chapter 2 of Dragon Heist. Our game divulged into more of a Waterdeep Homebrew and we have been exploring each character's personality as well as their backstories. It's been an amazing ride so far. So I guess, what I'm saying, for me... I like Prewritten adventures for the ideas and as a resource, but in order to include backstories and allow Players to roam the world, but I am more comfortable with impromptive DMing and homebrew.
Two things I like about the campaign modules. 1 - It gave me a good template for writing my own adventures. I basically write them in such a way that they could be published and anyone else could run them. 2 - Source material for locations. I have a nice big vinyl map of Faerun and I like the idea that my players can go anywhere on the map and I have material to draw from for those locations. I may derive some story ideas from the books as well. Like I got Descent into Avernus and now I have information on Baldur's Gate if my players go to Baldur's Gate.
I gotta get them all! Fifth edition dnd books are Pokémon!
Bunnies and Burrows!? I haven't seen that in more than 30 years!
These guys don’t get nearly enough love, thanks for the hard work Nerdarchy! Not a fan of modules at all, but have no problem with settings maps and the like.
I feel personally attacked by the beginning. LOLOLOL Yep. I literally have all of them but don't even DM. I just have to collect them all.
Yep, I have the pokemon syndrome too.
@@WaltRBuck You mean being a collector?
My experience is that pre-written adventures are absolutely awful for the amount of prep that they require to DM in the way that I want. I tried to run Rise of the Runelords in Pathfinder and I was shocked by how little material there was for me to use. I just don't see the point of using a pre-written adventure if I end up having to flesh out all the characters, fill out the quests, flesh out the cities properly, etc, myself. What is the point?! I might as well make my own damn campaign.
You two are completely kindred spirits to me. Long live the improv DMs!
I've been in campaigns where the DM follows an adventure as written and others where the campaign book is used as a base and modified for the group.
The second option is a lot more fun for players. Whilst I have enough experience to improvise an entire campaign I also like to take an adventure book and siphon encounters to make something new.
TOA is great to grab the best encounters and put them in the parties path rather than use the map as is. Even the tomb itself can be changed around to better suit the group. 😀
i run pathfinder and love the pathfinder adventure paths. i'm running multiple currently and plan to run more in the future. i love them because i find it a little easier, as i can just sit down and read the adventure the night before and have the book readily available to me during the session. personally i read through the entire adventure path before even doing session 0, this way i have at least a basic understanding of the campaign and the major plot points and themes. i also try to suggest to my players during session 0 how they can incorporate their backstories into the setting, and even the larger campaign. for instance, one of my players in Hell's Rebels wanted to play a pirate turned sailor, and there's a sailor captain npc in the campaign, so we incorporated him into that character's backstory. another of my players for Rise of the Runelords wanted to play a fortune teller, and there is a fortune teller in Sandpoint, the town the campaign starts in. this allows my players to have deeper connections to some of the npcs because they are incorporated into their backstory, and has made some memorable moments, like when (spoilers) Sandpoint gets attacked by giants and a dragon and the players all had someone from the town they were worried for after the battle. i find running pre-written content suites me quite well, but each DM is different, so if you're not sure if you should run one, maybe try a module, or a single adventure and go from there. thank you for attending my Ted Talk.
No matter how much I listen to that song, it never gets old for me.
I'm definitely a prep DM. So much prep lol. I've been running Curse of Strahd for 2 1/2 years now (my first foray into DMing), but my version is incredibly different than the module. The module has provided a great framework that you can make your own. There are no rules in the module about making a Vistana or Wereraven PC, but I've got one of each in my party. I also bumped Strahd's CR up by a significant degree (Baba Lysaga, too) in order to make him more of a challenge. I've created homebrew dungeons and villages within Barovia and more NPCs than I can count. I've woven into the world backstory bits from all of my players at one time or another, some of the seeds coming while that Vistana risks a short trip to the Material Plane. I recently rewrote the town of Vallaki due to a host of changes that occurred there. I often struggle to come up with ideas that are fully unique, but being able to bounce off the bones that are already in place has been super helpful. The modules aren't for everybody, but they're definitely great for people like me!
As a DM I like to have a solid pre-prep before running anything, so that I’m free to improv without worry that I’ve neglected some essential part of the narrative. I did more pre-prep for HotDQ than I normally do to “fix it”, but smoothing our the rough edges creates an even playing field.
As someone who is very new to DnD, playing as a character in both home brews and modulars. I very much agree with this video and other people’s comments. I think the home brews are better for tailoring the game to the players while I see the books as not only resources but also good starting ideas for new DM’s and players alike. The books are made to help the players story and end goals, but if you find a way to add in those elements, the modulars wouldn’t be better and more fun to play. Thank you for making this video!
I feel you, as much as I love dnd I havent been a big fan of the modules because I wanted to make my own story, which in my opinion is a lot more rewarding.
It is definitely a part of the game many DMs enjoy.
Nerdarchist Dave
I love you guy's content! Weird question to ask, abd probably a bad place to ask, but do you have any tips on how to run a fantasy western game? I'm running one for a few buddies of mine but I'm not sure how to approach it.
I'm actually trying to write up a game setting, it's "a drowned world, with a twist" and so I've just been writing up unique magic items, NPCs, locations, creatures, and monsters that are found in the world I'm writing up. I also wrote a primer for the lore and marked it as a prologue in the document. The magic items, creatures, NPCs, locations, monsters, and so on that I've written up just bullet points with little blurbs after them, nothing too in-depth. That all said, I am thinking of writing up an adventure or two in the document to sort of display how the world operates, my belief about everything is that very few people who actually get ahold of the resource I'm writing is that they will be doing more improv when they are running it. So, with that in mind, actual adventures present in the resource will be a sparse set of options. Instead, I'm just writing up materials to use later, and rules of the world along with clear statements about what races are clearly not in this world I am creating within the introductory piece, whether they be racial variants or just an entire race. I'm also trying to figure out how to properly write up one or two races that the players could potentially give a whirl, so I get to add that to the list of everything I'm trying to build up for this setting as well.
I'm much an improv DM, mostly because I only have very few official campaign resources at my fingertips, the only official campaign setting I own currently is Tomb of the Devil Lich (and that's written in the 3rd edition format) but was never able to get a group together to actually run it and this point I don't even want to. Also, I have very poor experience with players actually following through on what the developers expected. The intro campaign for 3rd edition, which I still have stashed away, was pretty basic but only about half my 5 players were classes or archetypes the author thought would actually be running through the encounter. It even got to the point where the players spent 10 minutes on how to take the giant golden frog statue, which the campaign book literally said "cannot be moved" by any character or group of characters (I actually had to show them the text box saying that because they thought me saying they couldn't move it no matter what they did was ridiculous and wouldn't actually be written into adventure) before taking a look at what everyone's combined strength and what everyone could do (one of the players was a Psion with the ability to manifest Skate) so we worked out a defined weight for the statue and let the Psion manifest Skate to lower the weight to a point where most the party could push it with assistance from each other. I wanted to see where this could go, and thought it could make for some amusing scenarios, and allowed it. Just so you know, and to refresh the memory of anyone who vaguely recalls this beginner adventure, the golden frog is a magical artifact that causes anyone who touches it to roll a D8 to take advantage of one of its 8 effects, one of which is actual healing and another being turning the character invisible, after Skate was manifested all the characters who were not the Psion touched the frog to move it and rolled up invisibility, the Psion got a bonus to Intimidation when they ran into some goblins on the return trip. The Rogue actually pushed the frog as an attack action at one of the goblins, I rolled healing for when the frog hit the goblin so it basically stood back up after being knocked to the floor to point where it should have been close to dying. Still the most creative use of an artifact I've seen to date.
Of course experienced DMs wouldn't typically run premade stuff, but I have to say they are a great way to start out as a DM. It gives good examples of how to start, the rhythm of everything, good ideas of rewards and encounters, etc. Once you get the feel of it, it's a much smoother transition to make your own adventure.
It’s the prep time that’s the killer, especially if you work long hours. Personally, I use pre-gen sandbox campaigns but then add in my own sub plots and encounters depending on the directions the players are going in. I recommend “Razor Coast” from Frog God games for a really good sandbox campaign.
Back in the 80s and 90s when "modules" were single adventure dungeons, we played almost all of them. They were the shared common experience at game cons. "Hey dude, did you ever run through Tomb of Horrors?" These campaign in a book "modules" are too much for me. I don't like to require my PCs to follow a set path. I have two of the 5.0 ones and have used the NPCs and general ideas plus a few of the maps. That being said, I am about to run the Steading of the Hill Giants (the new version in the 'Portals book of old modules updated) but almost more as a memory lane thing because my current group is all people I used to game with close to 40 years ago.
We also love to improv when running a game. These adventures can be useful for all the things you talked about including story hooks, unique monster stats [ we all needed the battle stack Goblins from Tomb of Annihilation ], store and inn names ect. Great video guys!
I like using the pre-written adventures as a template but then allowing the players to make any choices they want and improv any decisions they make that go off the beaten path of the pre-written adventure.
So if I'm running the waterdeep dragon Heist and the players decide that they don't feel like looking for the treasure but instead rather try to kill the quest Giver they can do that and then we will have an adventure where they are on the run from the law.
I could always find a way to bring it back around to that anyway. Perhaps the leader of the local Thieves Guild says that if they don't work and help them find the treasure they will turn them in for the bounties that are now on their head so even if they're evil they won't be helping because they want to be good guys they'll be helping because they don't want to die.
I just like the base that the pre-written adventures give you for improving.
I also add extras just in case anybody thinks they're going to be smart and look up the module before we play lol.
First time watching the channel, but I definitely can empathize with your reasoning. One of the main reasons why everything I do is pretty much all Homebrew is going back years and years while running a game a couple years after Forgotten Realms came out, I was creating some things beyond the core books on the fly and I had a player decide to get into a lot of disagreement with me that the area that way we're going into was not the way I was presenting it.
This is based on their having read printed materials on it, while I had not read that particular set of expansion that was available. That largely turn me off to use the anything pre-created after that point.
The least prep-necessary adventures that I have run are the ones by Art Of The Genre's The Folio series. It's just set up really good for DMs.
I really wish I had more time to prep each week but between school and work that isn't happening anytime soon so I've found it's a ton of fun to read through these adventures and either take ideas from them or tailor them to the PCs that I am getting. It saves me some time while allowing my players to interact with a more fleshed out world. If they go off the rails then that's OK too since I enjoy improv.
Really good video topic. Much more like what I have enjoyed in the past.
Ive only just started DM'ing, and even though i'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver, ive already found myself tweaking things, adding additional encounters, removing others. So far to great success. I think i will be tweaking pre-written and mish-mashing others until i build up my own campaign, within an existing campaign world setting.
I am also an improv Gm and agree you can have minimal prep and still have a great game. I like to have a good idea of the player's locations and a selection of NPC in the area pre-made or I splice pre-written adventures into my own campaign. I ran a Conan 2D20 game for over a year and several sessions came about purely on the back of roles from a carousing table (Table that player's roll on for events that happened between adventures)
When you plan only the opening. Place details of the setting, maybe one encounter, dialogue of NPCs and, objects that are nearby. Now you can more easily transition into an impromptu style of DMing.
I had a group of band new players. I'm thinking "Okay, I'll run some Candlekeep adventures. They're fairly simple and self contained." Almost immediately, they wanted to go off the rails, perhaps leave the keep, do some exploring. I wasn't prepared for that.
So I went home and developed a world for them to explore using a map of Nehwon and encounter ideas from Crypts and Things. There's a clockwork wizard [artificer], a necromancer, Northern barbarians with werewolf leaders. We'll see how it goes, but there's very little in terms of pre scripted material. Besides the basic framework, it will be mostly on the fly. Good thing I'm familiar with running games from decades ago, and sourcebooks, even non D&D ones that I can adapt and work with.
One danger with pre-written modules is that some players may already be familiar with the material. "Open the third crypt, there's a magic sword in there. Don't open the first one, it contains a wight." That kind of thing.
Roleplay through encounters?
Rogue looks at Bard: Seduce Me!
Fighter: Question
Artificer: What's your question, fighter?
Fighter: I teleported bread.
@@oOPPHOo
Artificer: you did what?
Fighter: I've done nothing but teleport bread for 3 day's
Groan.
Nerdarchist Dave
When the video started I was like “uh oh but you guys just did a Kickstarter with your own created adventures...” but then the explanation of pre written content saved it at the end.
As another 25-year vet DM I've also not run any of the prewritten adventures for pretty much the same set of reasons. I'm keen to try someday though, particularly Curse of Strahd.
I like having the module the bones of an adventure. As players give you stuff for their characters ect you start to bend the bones to fit and that can be something you do on the fly. I'm running a solo player through The Oracle of War and we've had bits I've dropped or replaced, characters have done things geared for them but the basic adventure line is there to fall back on when the game needs to move forward a little. If you're very free with how you use the material and changing stuff as the game goes along it just becomes easier.
Great stuff, guys...
I started out thinking it was coming with a punchline about you being "Old school grognards" and how horribly the adventure modules were written back in the TSR days...
Some have probably already read the story, but I started with just ONE ragged old DMG and a handful of dice. We played with that for YEARS with little or no trouble. Our early games were simple by rote... but we played. As we grew older, the games got more and more sophisticated, and the stories got bigger... AND eventually, I could afford a PHB and Monster Manuals... wow.
I could finally afford a brand new (in the plastic wrap) module when I joined the Navy. It was 1994, and that thing was AWFUL!!! It was absolutely chock full of dead-ends, choices or streets in town that ceased going anywhere. Without work, and I mean SERIOUS work, it was just about unplayable... and your players would be better off just holding Story-time and letting the GM read a novel.
I (personally) collected two of the basic Forgotten Realms modules, and one Dark Sun, of which we finally played through (more than half) the Dark Sun module... Desert Elves of some damn where... It was fun for about "that long" {holding up a forefinger and thumb to measure around half an inch between them}.
BUT there were interesting resources in modules... no "real" adventures to be sure, but some interesting resources. I don't despise them, nor avoid them outright. I only bother getting them second-hand, though... since I have no earthly interest in bothering with running one "officially as written".
I'm a "Homebrew and Improv" GM by origin and nature, so it's an old hat and habit. Prep isn't exactly "easy cheesey and shorthand" to be done on a handful of minutes with a single sheet of paper... BUT only in the case you're including ALL the world-build, cities, geography, mapping it out and putting together the politics and surroundings down to window-dressing NPC's for the streets.
The adventures can be roughly hewn from one or another conflict left over from earlier games, an inspiration from some medieval movie or TV show... or just because the damn Mage in the group went and insulted a local high priestess with a boast about his "wand size"...
The other side of the mess with modules comes with Seasoned Players from other Tables. They've seen the thing before, and either A: know what's coming from having been there and done that (T-shirt not included)... OR B: They've just had a GM who did that thing SOOOooo much better...
It's why I kind of steer away from anyone's published "canon", if we're all being completely honest. I'll steal from some of it, but avoid the whole "Let's remake Conan the Barbarian"... I don't mind you even being a Barbarian named (or nicknamed) Conan. I just try to avoid invoking the whole world of someone else's writings because I can guarantee pissing someone off "who's a BIG fan".
SO I play with and in "Worlds LIKE so-and-so's World"... or series... or whatever. ;o)
So I'm still a new dm. Currently coming up to the end of my first adventure (lost mine of phandelver). I wanted to run a module to get the hang of the role first, then working on my own campaign for after that. I tend to play modules more than wanting to run them. I'm just about at the end of ghosts of saltmarsh, then I'm gonna be playing baldur's gate. However, I do absolutely try to work my pcs back stories into the adventure because why have a bank story if it doesn't mean shit to the story? You might as well just play a pre-gen. Personally, I'll probably end up switching between module and homebrew. There's some modules out there that I really want to run, like curse of strahd, princes of the apocalypse, hoard of tiamat, etc.
I'm an improvisational DM with the short term memory of a moth. I also have very little time free to consider prep. So these published adventures become stat blocks and maps that I can use on the fly to challenge my players. Secrets of Saltmarsh, for instance, was a great resource when my players took to the open water to chase down a foe. Rules for watercraft and underwater dungeons? Absolutely!
I've run entire games from my iPhone via PDFs and a dice roller app, and having the resources available to prep a huge game aren't always available. Improvisation all the way.
Interesting. I prefer home brew also. However, it is at least three times as much prep work since I spend the time to write out the modules/encounters. Word documents, maps, handouts, NPCs, cities, etc. That is incredibly time consuming. I'll run a session and then ask at the end of it, "Where is the party going next?" and then spend the week writing up the encounters from where they are to where they need to be. This gives an open world, well planned encounters and villains, but still allows a consistent story and not needing to wing everything at the table. If they get past what I've prepared or go "off track", it is easy to prepared. Finally, you have written content to re-use if you need to run it again.
It is nice to see this kind of video. I personally don't run premade. I have in the past used pieces of premade (modules) adventures, but Since 5th ed came out and all their adventures are as expensive as rule books I feel kind of upset about that. In fact, they put more effort into making adventures then the actual rules and settings. Like I want a Ravenloft book, not a Curse of Straud book. But to each their own. I prefer running on the fly because some people do everything in their power to not follow a premade adventure. I have liked elements out of some modules and when I first started DMing I tried to do an entire campaign going through modules. But I felt forced in one direction.
Homebrew adventures require a bit too much from your DM. It's like writing a novel...
I work a lot so I have to use premade. But I do not get to read them i put in one headphone and listen to them. I try to listen to playthroughs that keep close to what I want to run and read what I need for the night.
I agree with you. Time investment is huge and I'd rather use a setting where the npc's are statted out and the DC's are already set. And, in the inevitable event that the party turns into murder hobos, they can burn the world to the ground and I can just open a new module.
Whoa! Dave has his long hair back already! Is this man a wild magic sorcerer or what? xD
Next time he will be a plant, I am sure of that!
I dmed part of Curse of Strahd last year after not DMing for ages and realized how railroady modules are and how much I don't like running them. With rare exceptions of course. I ran Night Below back in the days and we had a lot of fun.
I run them once when they come out without reading the material. I prefer building my own world and playing a reactive style using my prepared lore, but I love seeing what others do. Plus, some cool things in each book.
Improv DM is so much fun and it's so refreshing when you can do it alongside prep
Yeah as a new GM I bought 2 adventures on Roll20 for quarantine. I like the set skeleton of the adventures and all the stuff is set up on roll20. But now going to session 3 I have changed so much already to wrap the story around my players backstories.
I ran my last campaign in Chult. Tomb of Annihilation helped a lot in preparing for it but I didn't wind up using much other than the knowledge of the terrain and local flora & fauna.
2 minutes in and I'm going to pause to give my opinion on official adventures. I think they are a great starting point. New players and DM's alike can benefit from running a published adventure or using an official campaign setting. New DM's can learn the mechanics of the game and have all the tools they need at their fingertips. Both new players and DMs learn how the game playes and how all the pieces fit together. Busy DM's can use these adventure modules to cut on prep time, savy DM's will go through published settings and modules and take things they like and put them into their own games. So even if you don't like to play the official adventures, they are still a fantastic resource.
I’ve never ran entirely out of a book, players will always change something or I’ll have to change something like you both said. I describe more and do other things. Basically I read the book, write my own version with allowing role play changes
For my current campaign I'm technically using pre-written modules... technically. I just had the setting, maps and basic premise of Dragon Heist and homebrewed an entire story for Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and let the players run wild. I'd love to run my own adventures, but between work and grad school, I just can't find the energy.
I mine the pre written modules and Adventurers for ideas and puzzles in my home brew games. However I will be running Descent Into Avernus for my home group starting later this month.
I don't normally run wizards of the coast adventures, but when I do, it is Curse of Strahd.
What can I say, I'm a sucker for the demi-plane of dread.
Dnd Adventure Books, they got what plants crave!
Electrolytes...
Welcome to Baldurs Gate, I love you.
I'm finishing up with WOTC prewritten campaigns permanently. I'm currently running Storm Kings Thunder and Tomb of Annihilation. There is to much reading required and study, players didn't like when I homebrewed stuff into the game, they wanted it raw. I'm over all the walls and walls of text. The books currently being released need to have heavier editing, they are missing information, it just takes up to much time to prep. For my third game I'm running a homebrew New World of Faerun game, I pull parts of lore and history change it and then build my encounters around that. It takes up so much less time and the players get more out of it. I've been using Index Card RPG and have adapted alot of the plugins into my homebrew game. Runehammers way just make more sense. I'm planning on moving my tables over to ICRPG for the future and the players are happy with fresh new game ideas to play without abandoning the D20 light mechanics. I miss the old 32 page TSR style books, you could almost pick them up and run them without very little prep.
That's why I watch/read DnD material! It sparks inspiration that I can bring up in my minimal prepped games.
Thanks for articulating that. I might have a sentence or two written down. Maybe an image of an NPC.
I started my group with a premade adventure and we've slowly begun veering off path. I think they are great for brand new GMs and players but more useful as reference guides for experienced gamers.
I don't know why but I noticed that table shaking a bit when you rest your arm on it, Dave. I hope that thing is stable.
A lot of the adventures Wizards puts out I find aren't really my style. I notice a lot of them are kinda dark and grim. Abyss, Strahd, Princes, Descent, and Tomb are all very heavy on the very rough, very stressful, very dark end of things, with demons, undead, the Underdark, nightmares, and a heavy, heavy implication that the players can and probably will die. Hoard I've heard is really bad, to the point where they're remaking it, and Rise I hear is alright, but is weakened by Hoard and being tied to it. The one adventure that has caught my eye that I'd really, really like to run is Storm King's Thunder, because that seems a little bit more my style - a little more high adventure, a little more grand in scope, a little more over the top and maybe not WACKY, but a little lighter and more cheerful when you get right down to it. I'd love a little more of that. I've studied Thunder a lot in the hopes of being able to run it when I'm a better, more capable GM.
Is planning on getting Rapan Athuk from frog god games soon. I have the 3.5 books for it but want to update to 5th edition. 😓 just needs to save the $100 for it
Here's my question. For the Homebrew, fly by the seat of my pants crowd, how do you handle dungeons? I like making up my ideas, but dungeon building is really time consuming. It's a big reason why I use the hardbacks as my base and then homebrew off of it.
For example, tonight I start a planescape, find the rod of seven parts, game. I'm taking a bunch of old adventures and reskining them to meet my needs. I do this to save time.
Our group doesn't do many dungeons.
Nerdarchist Dave
That's interesting. I have a hard time imagining what that looks like. I guess I would have to watch one of your games to get a better understanding of your process.
If your Charisma based characters are talking thier way out of half your combat encounters, you may need to reconsider how Persuation works. It's not Charm Monster.
I just with they had some smaller modules like 2nd and 3rd. For those of us who just dont have time.
I love improvisation, but that also means that I'm not good at long term planning. Prewritten campaings are great for having a setting with history and with plot twists, hooks, cliffhangers, and sense overall. If players do something unexpected you can always change it on the fly, and if they go in some direction totally different from what the book was expecting, so be it. But at least you have this base to take and work from there
Cool insight. Now, I am curious how your approach changes for an event like D&D in a Castle, where, if I am not mistaken, you get in touch with the players several weeks before the game to mold and merge characters and their backstory elements with your idea of the campaign. Does that involve more planning? Do you maybe restrict player choices somewhat to make for a smoother campaign? Or does your spontaneous approach allow you to create your mini campaign for that event (more or less) on-the-fly as well?
We had an outline of campaign ideas and some sandbox elements, and largely improvised the sessions.
More planning than we've done in a long time. But we were trying have three different tables work off of the same or a similar plot line. At the end we brought the three tables together for a mega boss battle.
Nerdarchist Dave
Great discussion! I do a lot of the same. I dig through all of D&D's published campaigns and pick the encounters that my players and their characters would like (Dave and Sarah will like this one, Sean's Cleric will dig on this...). I finished a campaign a couple months ago that was a blend of Curse of Strahd, Out of the Abyss, and Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords. One of my favorite encounters is "Silken Paths" from chapter 2 of Out of the Abyss. I've run it 5 or 6 times for different groups but I always customize the two goblins for the story and my players.
I have been playing/runnign D&D since 1981. I am definitely an improv DM. I do run pre-written modules, but I take them and fit them in my multiverse. Every fantasy setting is in my multiverse. I connect everything using Spelljammer and a homebrewed variant of Shadows (Alternate Prime Material Planes via Chronicles of Amber).
I players have only recently discovered access to thge Eberron setting muuch to the shock of the higher level plane travellers who discovered it.They retained their knowledge but were forced to start anew at 1st level. They are currently running through ToA. The two ex-high level characters are trying to rebuild their power so they can get out of Eberron.
They entered via the Viel of Dreams and most of the gear/loot got hung up in transit . . .I can be so evil . . . accordign to my players anyways. I did warn them before they brought those particular characters in.
Thank you for editing the shit out of this video. Nerdarchy tends to ramble. *Sarcasm*
I find I pick apart campaigns and modules, look for the underlying core of the adventure, then look at how the writers are steering towards each key point. Once you have that core you can do that more easily and then figure out what you would need to do with your party. Essentially you are re writing the adventure yourself, styled to your tastes and your group but based off of the kernel of an idea from the module. I have to say though that it is more rewarding with older modules, rather than newer campaigns which seem less open to adaptation for some reason. Another thing is that the old modules seem to fit into an existing homebrew campaign very easily, it is bizarre sometimes. Maybe they deal with more universal tropes that cross more boundaries and are thus more open to individual styles of parties and GMs..? Who knows, it is fun to do though.
I don't know if I agree with your takes on this.
My group is playing through Out of the Abyss (have been for a few years now),, and the DM is totally able to fit in character backstories and custom content. He said the custom content beefs us up a bit more than the book expects us to be for specific encounters, so he just injects those encounters with some steroids as well.
Pre-published games in 5e are great largely because they are few and far between, meaning that the ones which get published are generally very good, especially compared to an edition like 3.5e where there were dozens upon dozens if not hundreds.
You do realize you just agreed with everything they said by saying your DM has worked all your character background stuff in.
@@ElenaAideen I was referring to their avoidance of prepublished adventures on that basis. Players wanting to have their PC backstory onto the campaign is normal regardless of which campaign is being run.
I have a very different reason for never running or playing in premade campaigns out of a book. Without fail, every single time I ever joined one, I'd hear a minimum of two people mention that they've run the quest in question previously, and say how much they love it in an attempt to get me excited. What they never realize is that this is now a red flag to leave, because without fail, it's ALWAYS followed up by a declaration of, "Don't worry, I'm not going to metagame." That's red flag number two, and if I wasn't already leaving the group, I have at this point. Every time I ever stuck around, eased by the knowledge that nobody was going to metagame... they always, without fail, metagame.
We need to find a certain journal? The player(s) who played this campaign in the past 'just so happen' to know where to look. We need a certain item for the dungeon ahead? Oh, look, the player(s) who played this campaign in the past 'just so happen' to have that specific item. There's an NPC who only speaks a super obscure language that nobody has any reason to learn to speak? Oh, look, the player(s) who played this campaign in the past 'just so happen' to know that obscure language that nobody has any reason to learn to speak. The objective is to deliver a simple letter from one town to another with no indications that there'll be any combat? Oh no. The party was ambushed. Oh, look, the player(s) who played this campaign in the past 'just so happened' to stock up on healing and combat items before we left town.
Every single time, someone has to metagame, and it just infuriates me. Ever since 2015, I've sworn off official campaigns for good. I gave them one final chance in 2016 with a LOT of convincing, and after just four sessions, I dropped out; three guesses why.
A benefit of running pre-written adventures from time to time is that it can force you out of your DM comfort zone. Just started Dragon Heist with one of my groups and there are NPC's and situations that I would never have considered for a homebrew.
My current campaign (the first I've run in 5e), used Curse of Strahd for the first half of it. The players are in homebrew territory now.
I think I get what the guys are saying here. Homebrew requires some time to be spent on things that published adventures don't, but you also tend to save a lot of time as well by "working" at odd moments.
I prefer random caotic creation on the fly than preparation.
Your friend who's out of town for the weekend is kidnaped and you find the dungeon by tracking a peddler who tries to sell your friends stuff. Or cohesion I guess.
I am newly back to the roleplaying scene after many years away. Attended Gencon for the first time in 20 years and sat in on 12 different roleplaying sessions. Not a single person roleplayed their character they just rolled dice and moved figures. Is that all it is now?
So, does anyone else wave at Ted when he does his intro and do the hand thing when he says "a tune to the notification bell"? Just curious
Currently running a game that is a mash up of the first few adventures of ghosts of Saltmarsh and the old Age of Worms 3 Ed campaign but altered to fit a nautical campaign. Love taking a premade and altering it to fit my needs
Are you going to run any on the channel from your Out of the Box encounters?
They've been threaded throughout things we've done in home games.
Nerdarchist Dave
I like modules there is a purpose why I am there. I am a hero with a quest. Most homebrew games are a sandbox and the DM is like, what do you want to do. I being a hero need a goal or purpose a reason for being there. Modules are great and have legendary stories to remember that is why they have reprinted some for 5e. The starter set adventure has become a classic module.