So....I've only played a few times and that was over 20 years ago.  Looking to get back into it and got a buddy of mine, my sister and my cousin to sign on.  We're going to do it remotely since we all live in different states.

I had planned on writing my 1st adventure for them, as a way that they meet.  I was going to do a 0 session to get their characters created and take notes on each one.  I was going to do this individually so they really wouldn't know the other characters for what I have planned.  I also plan on starting them all out at level 1.

I plan on making "scrolls" as invitations for each of them and mailing them out.  These will be the invitations they receive for the adventure I am writing, which is essentially a battle royale.  They've been summoned to this mountain fortress by an unknown being.  They show up with others that have been invited but they are all strangers.

It'll be 3 on 3 - for 10 matches - with maybe a short rest between each match.

All of their opponents are going to be randomly selected through a dice roll.  1 for goblin, 2 for acolyte, etc.  Until the 10th round where they fight ONE person, a Grung who happens to be the World Champion, his stats will be based on a homebrew wrestler that someone else has already created.  His name?  H'ulk Toad'gan.  I'm still fleshing things out and waiting to buy some more source books and adventures.

My questions is:

Do you guys generally create your own adventures or do you use the pre-written adventures?  I only plan on writing this one, because I wanted something more fun than the "you meet in a tavern".  After that, I was planning on using the books.

Thanks!

I tend to write my own adventures. But I also almost only do one-shots where the characters already know each other and have a set goal. That way there is no awkward introduction and Everybody can play around with new characters and ideas. But I also only do it occasionally in case our regular DM is not available or didn't manage to plan the next session.

I do half and half. For the same reasons you’ve outlined.  Writing a full campaign is time consuming.  Writing a one-shot is less so.  Prepping and altering something prewritten even less so. Plus, there’s a collector’s mentality players can get, where playing through a published hardcover is like having read a book for us.  “Have you played GoS?“  “No, but I want to.”  I want to give players the ability to say ”Yeah, I have.  How did your group handle...”

I'm trying to run a prewritten campaign for the first time in ages, and I'm struggling :-) Next time will be homebrew again - much less effort, a lot more fun!

But I read a lot of settings and campaigns to get ideas and steal like a raven. It's just much easier for me to have full control of the setting and the story, and not relying on remembering details from a book. I guess it's both about DM'ing style and certainly what I'm used to, but I find it a lot more fun and easier to just create it myself.

And I never ever writes a campaign up front. I have som ideas, some troubles I introduce, and then I see what the players go for. How their characters' actually work in play, then I try to build the campaign around that. I guess my initial "campaign" often is more like a setting and an idea than a story in itself. That's because I like to build the story around the PC's, and not build a story and then have my players create some characters.

And yes, I've mostly been playing other RPG's than DnD :-)

I like to write my own campaigns, but i sometimes use pre-written campaigns for larger groups that i want to go longer. The downside i have to pre-written ones is the fact that to effectively DM it, you have to pore over every inch of it. I dunno. It's kinda 50/50

I write my own adventures, I stay away from specific clichés, but I do use other materials for minor ideas sometimes with my own material. I write out an over arching theme first, then I include characters and enemies whom are involved in the 'main theme/plot'.

After that I create quests and interactions based on the interaction with either the 'evil' characters or 'good' ones, but not necessarily in a direct fashion, thatd be considered the main. For example, a town is going hungry after their food supply is dwindling from traders being afraid of travelling through dangerous areas that are war-stricken or perhaps a town needs help fighting off bandits as most of their guards have had to move to a larger city to assist with the king or queen's army.

After that I usually pepper in more things going on in the form of reactions and consequences of either the secondary themes or the characters I created to flesh out the town. Perhaps a NPC is sneaky and a theif, a town store may be getting robbed as a result and need the party to find the culprit.

The story I create usually starts with a theme followed by interesting characters and backstories for them that are used to guide their likely actions in the world and the world's reactions to these things.

The books are wonderful if you want a campaign that you can talk about with other people, cause they'll be more aware everything you're talking about. It is also a long, tiresome and fluid process to create an entire story and sub plots and side quests from scratch and actually keep people entertained, and knowing that you may have to once again recreate certain pieces and keep them all straight.

Between the two it doesnt matter, but creating your own like you are is good practice for your wit and will also aid with the books.