Should you buy a module or create an adventure from scratch? What works best for you depends on…
- How much time you have
- Your experience as a dungeon master
- Your players’ preferences
- How much money you have to spend
Where do Adventures Come From? – Three Approaches
As a dungeon master, you have a lot of options when it comes to planning your adventures.
There are many different sources of material from which to draw when building an adventure, but they really boil down to one of the following three options:
- Use a Pre-Built Module
- Build onto a Module
- Create Your Own Adventure
Advantages of Modules
Quick & Dirty
If you need to get an adventure up and running quickly, a module is the way to go. You can go from zero to rolling dice with just a couple hours of preparation.
Creating an adventure from scratch typically takes 10-20 hours, so if you can’t commit that much time to it, use a module.
Are You a Veteran Dungeon Master or a Newcomer?
It’s inescapable. If you have played a roleplaying game for a while, at some point, your group will need a new dungeon master. Your current DM may want to take a break. Demands of work or school may rob them of time. The worst DM killer of all is often romantic interests or spouse demands on their time. (Fortunately, my wife is very understanding of my gaming addiction.)
Whatever the reason, for most roleplayers, at some point, it will be your turn to dungeon master. If this is your first attempt at playing as game master, a module has everything you need to get started. It’s less stressful than creating your own adventure because maps, characters, and story has been prepared in advance.
Many modules will include the stats of the creatures, so there’s less looking up creatures. Some modules even introduce creatures you won’t find elsewhere, providing new challenges for your players. If your players can quote the stats of every creature in the monster manuals, this can throw them a curve that they’re not expecting, giving them something new to battle.
I have created many new creatures for use in my own adventures, just to keep my players on my toes. To see the creatures I have created, click the link below.
Discover Many Creatures You Won’t Find Anywhere Else
Begin With Modules, then Advance Your Skills
Usually you’ll do better to run modules the first few times that you play as Dungeon Master. As your skills increase, you can either:
- Add Your Own Material to a Pre-Built Module
- Build an Adventure from Scratch
The Hybrid Approach
Build Onto a Module
If you want to go beyond what a pre-built module can offer, but you’re not ready to take the plunge and create an adventure from scratch, there’s a third option.
Start with a module and add onto it. Begin by making the NPC’s and enemies more interesting. Go beyond the basic stats of strength, dexterity, hit points, and armor class. Think of an interesting character quirk. This might be something as simple as a limp with a story behind it or as complex as a hidden agenda an NPC has in helping your party.
Try adding a new area to the module, building on a few rooms. This gives you practice in designing areas to explore.
It’s likely that at least one of your players will have read at least part of the module you’re running. Some players make a practice of it, some because they have considered running the module at some point, other intentionally so they know what’s coming next. You can make it more fun for those who know what to expect when you alter the module and delight them with a different (probably better) version of the module. It will keep them guessing and make the experience more enjoyable for both you and your players.
Use Modules for Ideas
One of the toughest things about building an adventure from scratch is coming up with the story concept. One thing you can try is to read through a pre-built module and borrow ideas from it.
You can make your map completely from scratch, modify theirs, or use it straight from the module. You can use a theme, a character, or a plot hook and build out from that. You can change as much or as little as you want. After all, it’s your adventure, so do what you want to truly make it your own… well, almost. 😉
Advantage of Adventures Built from Scratch
Deeper Story and Characters
Most modules are designed for beginner to intermediate dungeon masters. Their strength is that they are easy to run with minimal preparation. However, most roleplayers get to a point where they demand more from the game.
They want interesting stories that challenge them, makes them think, and engages them deeper. Very few modules can deliver in these areas because they’re intentionally not designed that way, because beginner dungeon masters find deep story difficult to handle.
Module non-player characters (NPC’s) are almost always flat, cardboard cutout simplifications of characters. This makes them easy to portray by beginner dungeon masters, but they’re seldom interesting enough to remember even a couple of weeks afterwards. If you want deep characters, those come from scratch-built adventures or adding your own flavor to a pre-built module.
Better Combat Encounters
Combat in most modules is pretty straight-forward. It’s meant to be easy to run as a dungeon master. Their combat encounters are seldom challenging and rarely memorable.
If you want to really engage your players with combat that they will be talking about years later, that’s not likely to come out of a module. I have created an series of articles that will teach you how to create really engaging, challenging combat encounters. Click on the link below to learn how.
Learn to Create Engaging Combat Encounters
Growing Your Creativity
Building your own adventures teaches you to think more creatively. The more you challenge yourself to create engaging adventures and exciting combat, the more you’ll grow as a dungeon master. It’s worth the effort.
You’ll learn to think on your feet and to be able to respond to actions your players take that you haven’t planned for. I learned to think so much faster that when I began roleplaying in high school, my grade point average increased a full letter grade. I went from a C+ student to a B+ student, while not increasing the amount of effort or time spent.
Money
Many gamemasters cite the cost of modules as the number one reason to build their own adventures. For me, it’s the least important of them, not because I have a lot of cash to spend (I don’t), but because the other benefits of building my own adventures are so much more important to my own enjoyment and to that of the players in my campaigns.
After all, if you build your own adventure, you’re probably going to put at least 10 additional hours into preparation time than you will if you bought a module. Since a good module usually runs under $20, unless you get paid less than $2 an hour at your job, you’re probably losing money for the hours you’ll spend creating your own adventure.
Become a Fantastic Game Master
How good of a gamemaster do you want to be? If you’re only doing the job because when your old DM couldn’t do it, you were the last person to say “not it”, maybe you should stick to modules. Developing your skills as a master storyteller will remain latent as long as you limit yourself to just running out of the box modules, however.
If you want to create really great campaigns… you know, the kind you remember years afterward, you’re not going to get there without really honing your ability to build a story, create memorable characters, and design combat encounters that challenge your players.
Helping others to create great gaming experiences that are worth remembering is why I created www.creativeroleplaying.com. Some of the best memories I have of my childhood involve good friends, a bag of dice, and a backpack full of D&D books. I hope this site helps to give back to the gaming community and helps you to build some great memories and friendships along the way. Now get out there and slay some dragons!
-Steve Myers