At the table, the Dungeon Master's chair is a unique vantage point, offering the chance to weave epic tales, challenge brave heroes, and explore boundless worlds built from the depths of your own imagination. Yet, with this immense creative power comes a perennial question: should your next campaign be built from the ground up with homebrew creativity, or should you harness the structured design of official Dungeons & Dragons adventures? It's a decision that shapes not only the DM's potential workload but the very texture of the player experience. Your chosen setting and, perhaps more importantly, how you choose to approach it will define the time invested, the narrative arcs explored, and the lasting memories forged around the table. It’s an important decision to make, and one that warrants some deeper exploration.

Understanding Official D&D Adventures

Official Dungeons & Dragons adventures, often referred to as modules, are curated experiences developed and published by Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) or other licensed partners, providing a structured framework for storytelling, often set within established campaign settings. WoTC is the primary publisher of Dungeons & Dragons content, with output ranging from introductory adventures like Lost Mine of Phandelver, lauded for its accessibility and excellent design, to sprawling and challenging campaigns like Curse of Strahd, a masterclass in gothic horror, and Tomb of Annihilation, known for its deadly jungle exploration.

Official adventures benefit from a high degree of polish. They are typically written by experienced designers, meticulously edited, and feature professional artwork and cartography, including detailed maps and tools that seamlessly integrate into VTT platforms like Roll20. While D&D can just as easily be played around a table with pen and paper, the benefit of an official adventure run on a platform like Roll20 is a fully integrated virtual tabletop experience that takes all the guesswork out of prep and gameplay. Every map, token, and handout is preloaded, dynamic lighting features add depth and immersion, and automated character sheets and macros streamline gameplay, so you're never bogged down by rules or calculations.

Understanding Homebrew D&D Adventures

“Homebrew” refers to any content created by the Dungeon Master that is not officially published. At its simplest, homebrew might be a single homebrew adventure, or even something as specific as a homebrew item or NPC. On the other side of things, a DM may homebrew the entire setting, from its unique history, lore, magic system, and more. For the uninitiated, D&D might seem like a game defined by its specific settings and storylines within the Forgotten Realms, but the experienced DM knows that D&D offers so much more. At its core, D&D introduces the D20 die system, which can serve as the engine behind almost any world imaginable. This is where homebrew DMs flourish, creating completely original settings with their own geography, history, cultures, factions, and rules of existence. In many cases, the homebrew setting offers unparalleled depth because it can adapt to the players' interests. 

The world of Exandria, created by Matt Mercer using D&D’s ruleset, is a prime example of a homebrew success story. Over many years and many campaigns, Mercer and the Critical Role cast have together built and informed the world of Exandria, whether through their game design or their in-game actions. The result is a world that truly lives and breathes as DM, players, and even fans develop a personal relationship with the setting, unlike any other. However, be warned: Mercer’s world of Exandria is lauded not only for its play experience, but for the significant time investment and creative energy put into the development of the setting. 

Best Tools for Homebrew on Roll20

Between rolling up NPC's, creating maps, and writing out the adventure itself, homebrewing a campaign can be tedious work. Especially without the help of digital tools like those offered by Roll20's VTT platform. Rather than spending your time decorating and designing maps by hand, Roll20 gives you access to a marketplace full of drag-and-drop tokens and map art, along with the ability to upload custom art. Combining these tools, DM's can create epic set-piece locations designed to fully immerse players in their unique homebrew world.

Tools you can use to maximize your homebrew include:

• Roll20 Character Creator - Create, Organize, and Automate NPCs

Roll20 offers a character creator for both 5e and 2024's newest 5.5e rulesets, with streamlined character sheets that integrate seamlessly with your VTT sessions. Plus, with custom species options, designing unique characters that fit your setting is highly intuitive.

• Roll20 Macros & Mods - Customize Your Session

With a little know-how, getting the most out of your VTT sessions on Roll20 can be simple. With custom macro commands, you unlock the ability to create unique scripts that can automate various tasks and employ API capabilities for tons of exciting variety.

The Homebrew/Official Adventure Hybrid

There’s a sweet spot for any DM, whether designing their own setting or using anothers. Because the dichotomy between homebrew and official content is not absolute, many of the most successful campaigns draw on different game types, leveraging the strengths of each to create something truly special. One of the most common and effective hybrid strategies is to place an official module within your existing homebrew world, allowing you to retain the meticulously designed plot, encounters, and maps of the published adventure while enriching gameplay with your own lore, NPCs, and factions. For example, you could run Curse of Strahd not in Barovia, but as a cursed demiplane that has manifested within your unique homebrew world, connecting it to your established cosmology or historical events.

On the other side of things, DMs can take an official module and inject their own custom elements to create personalized adventure hooks that tie directly into player character backstories, develop unique NPCs who have relationships with the party, or design entirely new encounters that challenge the players in ways the original adventure might not. Even small additions can significantly enhance player engagement and make the official content feel more personal.

Using Official Modules as Inspiration for Homebrew

Published adventures can serve as excellent starting points for homebrew. You can use the basic plot structure, key locations, or even the general themes of an official module as a skeleton, then flesh it out with your own lore, NPCs, and original twists. For example, in my own homebrew world, I used the Storm King's Thunder campaign as a prequel adventure detailing the events that led to the extinction of Giants in my campaign setting.

The hybrid approach allows you to benefit from the narrative pacing and structural integrity of a published work while retaining the freedom to make it your own. Sometimes, the best approach is to treat official content as a vast library of inspiration. You might love a specific NPC from Tomb of Annihilation, a particular encounter concept, or a unique magical item from a lesser-known module. These elements can be "harvested" and plugged into your homebrew campaign, enriching it with well-designed components without needing to run the entire adventure.

Embracing Your Path to Adventure

The choice between homebrew and official Dungeons & Dragons adventures is not about one being inherently superior to the other. Instead, it's about identifying the best approach for your specific table and your own capabilities as a Dungeon Master. This is why the best thing you can do for your table before settling on an adventure is to run a Session Zero. The Session Zero is often overlooked and underrated for its aid in keeping a campaign on track. If you’re weighing how to run your next adventure, the best way to gauge what style of play is going to benefit everyone most is to start talking to your players. Find out what they envision from this campaign, and figure out how you can run an adventure that can satisfy the group at large. Not sure where to get started? Here are a couple of questions you can ask your table to help you decide what adventure is right for you:

• What kind of tone or atmosphere interests you? Getting a sense of what themes your players would like to explore will point you towards adventures that are natural fits, or alert you to the need to create something entirely unique.

• Do you prefer an open-ended story or a structured adventure? Your players may be a table more interested in exploring and socializing (a natural fit for homebrew) or may be itching for a direct narrative (ideal for published adventures).

• What is something you’ve always wanted to experience in a campaign? This will give you a great sense of player expectations, and can even be helpful down the line for blending official content or infusing homebrew into published adventures.

With direct communication between players, you can set up your next D&D campaign for long-term success by ensuring your setting appeals to everyone. Whether you’re weaving your own world from scratch or diving into the rich lore of an official adventure, what matters most is that the story fits the group’s shared style of fun. Take the time to ask questions, listen to player preferences, and build a foundation of trust and excitement, because the best campaigns, homebrew or not, are the ones that feel like they belong to everyone at the table.