Why I Prefer the DIY Approach

 I write my own adventures. Not for you to read and play, you understand, but for me to run at my table. When I say adventures I’m giving myself a lot a of undue credit. I have always preferred the term scenario in any case but I feel that it is more appropriate to what I do. Write some notes, draw or appropriate a map, roll on some random tables. We’re done. 

I see the advantage of buying and running prepared materials. Especially when I observe people who play a lot of different systems or game with a high frequency. There’s only so much cognitive space available for RPGs in one’s life. Using prepare material takes frees up some of that space for learning new rule systems or maintaining three weekly campaigns or whatever we’re trying to achieve. Or perhaps most of that space is already  taken up with work, social activities, family, stress factors etc. 

It doesn’t really occur to me to do this however. I do every so often strive to include more of other people’s materials in my games. Added diversity of ideas and making other people do the work for you so you can get on with the business of playing seem like wins to me. I don’t really enjoy reading rpg materials though. Scenario and setting creation is part of my hobby too. I like that element of the game in the same way that I don’t collect games for their own sake as some of my friends do. There are loads of ways to do RPGs as a hobby and none of them are objectively wrong.

Following someone else’s scenario seems limiting to me. When do engage in it I tend to use the framework of the writing as an adventure seed and go my own way with it. I suspect this is what most people do also but when I look back at times I’ve run published material it rarely looks even remotely like it does on the page.

Presentation matters too. Two column wall of text style just isn’t for me. I realise that some adventures are written with the intention of being reading material rather than to be run but I am not that demographic. If we get something like Wilderlands of High Fantasy with its brief hex descriptions; or something in the Necrotic Gnome house, style with its bullet points and  bold text for primary information, then we’re off to a good start.

Ultimately, it’s the sitting down with graph paper, pens and pencils and dice; these days it’s often my iPad, or notes I sketch during play. I might moan about GM prep but it’s an essential creative outlet for me. That’s why I’m DIY.