The Dungeon Master holds the most critical role at a Dungeons & Dragons table, as they are the person with the daunting task of running the entire adventure that the other players embark on. While writing an original homebrew adventure can result in a fun and unique campaign that the group will remember forever, it’s also a massive undertaking. Luckily, pre-made adventures are also an attractive tool.
Between describing locations and characters, setting the scene, effectively communicating the hazards the players face and adjudicating all the rules, the DM has a lot to keep track of in and out of game. Running a pre-made adventure alleviates some of these responsibilities, as well as providing other unique benefits that can make running a game less of a chore.
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Less Prep Work
A pre-made adventure won’t run itself, but it does the work of creating a general story and setting for the DM. While DMs will still have to put in prep time, getting ready for a session of a pre-made adventure is more about reading what is already written and (if necessary) making adjustments to fit your game. While the specifics vary from adventure to adventure, one can usually expect major NPCs to be included along with guidelines for portraying them. The adventure will also include all major combat encounters served up on a silver platter, typically with high-quality battle maps.
Additionally, pre-written material is typically balanced for the average party, meaning the DM won’t have to spend as much time worrying that an encounter will be way too easy or deadly. Of course, no adventure is perfectly balanced, and difficulty sometimes boils down to human error and the wildly varying effectiveness of individual parties, but making adjustments from a pre-determined starting point is much less daunting than starting from scratch.
A Common, Shared Understanding
While every player’s understanding of the setting will inevitably differ, using a pre-made adventure in an established setting eliminates much of the ambiguity inherent in an imaginative game like Dungeons & Dragons. Between the information included in the adventure book, online articles and Player’s Companion materials, many pre-made adventures come with a massive amount of lore that everyone can be privy to when creating characters, pursuing certain objectives, judging NPCs and their motivations, and even making crucial decisions about what to pursue next.
Though this level of shared understanding is possible in a homebrew campaign, a pre-written adventure that draws upon an official setting thousands of players are familiar with simplifies things for everyone — including the DM. This background knowledge can help them understand why a character is behaving in a certain way. For instance, the information that an NPC belongs to an faction like the Harpers says a lot about this person’s ideals and beliefs, informing how they will act in response to what happens during play.
Different Perspectives and Ideas
It’s important for Dungeon Masters to learn as much about the game as possible, as the game is always growing and evolving. Running a pre-made adventure can simply expose DMs to things they may have otherwise overlooked. Whether it’s seeing how adventures are formatted, being asked to use uncommon monsters, referencing more obscure rules or simply telling a story that the DM wouldn’t otherwise tell, pre-written products force DMs to step out of their comfort zone.
For example, an adventure they specifies what kind of skill check is necessary to uncover useful information in a certain situation can help a DM understand when to call for an Investigation check instead of Perception. A DM running a pre-made adventure might also discover a new favorite monster and gain a better understanding of how a campaign is formatted, something they can use down the line when writing homebrew adventures.
Additionally, learning more about a game like D&D works and how to write original adventures makes it easier to branch out to other tabletop RPG systems, especially those with less pre-written content. Pre-made D&D adventures are a great way to learn about what works, what doesn’t and why a particular group enjoys (or doesn’t enjoy) certain things about the game. This knowledge can only help a DM grow, allowing them to run better games overall.
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