In June 2015 I started running a Zeitgeist campaign using 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. Today, nearly 2 years later, we are only in the early chapters of adventure 3. We play at maximum 2 times per month, 4th edition isn't the fastest system for combat resolution, and the Zeitgeist adventure path contains a great amount of story to tell. So we just finished the "Kaja and her Toys" encounter, I'm preparing the next session, and I'm reading the encounter "Mangled Golem". And at this point something in my head clicks and says: Why am I preparing a puzzle encounter in adventure 3 which only serves to prepare events for adventure 5, which for my group is probably another year or two ahead? The story of each single adventure is already so complex that my players have difficulties to remember all the stuff I told them about the adventure they are currently in. By the time I'm in adventure 5, they will certainly have forgotten this encounter in adventure 3. And right now it only serves as a distraction, an "unsolved mystery" as the text suggests, that risks the players spending valuable time on something that doesn't advance the current adventure.
I must admit I haven't read further than adventure 3 yet, because the whole campaign is something like 1,600 pages. But I am wondering whether there isn't a way to lighten up the campaign. To simplify the story of each adventure for a shorter, more streamlined experience in which the players are more occupied with what is currently going on than with what will happen years in the future. But I don't want to scratch the overall campaign story either, just keep it a bit more in the background. How did you guys handle this when playing the Zeitgeist campaign?
I must admit I haven't read further than adventure 3 yet, because the whole campaign is something like 1,600 pages. But I am wondering whether there isn't a way to lighten up the campaign. To simplify the story of each adventure for a shorter, more streamlined experience in which the players are more occupied with what is currently going on than with what will happen years in the future. But I don't want to scratch the overall campaign story either, just keep it a bit more in the background. How did you guys handle this when playing the Zeitgeist campaign?