Clint_L
Legend
OP, if you're going to put the campaign on a rail, put it on a rail. Sometimes there are good reasons for this, such as when you are playing with beginners who are still learning the ropes, or somewhat passive players who prefer to react to a fairly obvious plot rather than exercise a ton of agency. The latter is a valid preference for some players, so I'm not criticizing it.
Pre-published adventures (and Pathfinder is lousy with good pre-published adventures) can do railed campaigns very effectively.
And if you're gonna sandbox, as you claim, then you gotta let the players legitimately have significant agency and story control. As others have suggestions, prepare various story kernels and react to what the players do. Collaborate with them.
But from how you describe the situation, your campaign was neither fish nor fowl. You had a very meticulously plotted out arc, which suggests a railed campaign, but then you gave the players some significant story latitude, which suggests sandbox. So of course they went way off script.
Since you've asked for advice, I would suggest being much clearer about the structure of the campaign right up front. As well, I don't know about their party structure of a cleric of Asmodeus and Paladin of Serenae battle for hearts and minds. I mean...I kind of love it, but that's a really hard dynamic to pull off and sort of demands serious roleplaying chops, which doesn't necessarily fit with how you describe your group.
Pre-published adventures (and Pathfinder is lousy with good pre-published adventures) can do railed campaigns very effectively.
And if you're gonna sandbox, as you claim, then you gotta let the players legitimately have significant agency and story control. As others have suggestions, prepare various story kernels and react to what the players do. Collaborate with them.
But from how you describe the situation, your campaign was neither fish nor fowl. You had a very meticulously plotted out arc, which suggests a railed campaign, but then you gave the players some significant story latitude, which suggests sandbox. So of course they went way off script.
Since you've asked for advice, I would suggest being much clearer about the structure of the campaign right up front. As well, I don't know about their party structure of a cleric of Asmodeus and Paladin of Serenae battle for hearts and minds. I mean...I kind of love it, but that's a really hard dynamic to pull off and sort of demands serious roleplaying chops, which doesn't necessarily fit with how you describe your group.
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