Well, we just finished a 4 year long run of the Dead Gods adventure last night. I added a lot of content in between each scenario in the adventure, which is why it took so long. This was the biggest and most epic adventure I've DMed. I'm pretty bummed out though. The PCs failed to finish the last chapter as heroes and they did not "save the day".
As DM, I could have probably done some things to 'give the players a break', but this was supposed to be the big finally. So at the time, I was thinking that whatever they choose to do, I will not deviate from the events that are supposed to be happening behind the scenes.
I did everything I could to let them know they needed to be prepared, even to the point that I thought I might be annoying them by reminding them to buff, use their resources, and to work together as a team to win the day. They seemed very confident & sort of dismissed my advice (it seemed). When the time came, they did not do anything to improve on their tactics, and it took my NPCs only 2 rounds to send their PCs fleeing for their lives.
This last event was on a time frame. The master was on his way and the PCs knew this. So they knew they had to defeat the BBEG and take (or destroy) the artifact before his master arrived. The problem was, they left the major artifact that they came to retrieve (or destroy) in the room that they fled, which allowed the enemy to simply walk over, pick it up, and hand it to his master once he arrived.
So they expected to flee, lick their wounds (in their defense, they did get their butts handed to them), and then come back and try again. But the time frame did not allow for this. The BBEG did not care about the PCs; he only cared about getting the artifact for his master. So when they fled, all he had to do was pick it up and that's that (game over).
I guess they had a decision; focus on their survival, or try to stop the BBEG from taking the artifact. Obviously their survival was more important (not a problem, but not heroic either), and they really didn't give any thought about what happens to the artifact if they flee. So they made their choice, they lived, but they failed big time.
This is the first time I've seen such an epic fail before. So now I get to sort things out and figure out where to go from here. I honestly can't think of anyway for them to redeem themselves. So I think it will have to be chalked up to the bad guys won the day, and the PCs will just continue on with their lives (and the adventures I've been preparing). If anyone has ideas or advice for me, let me have it. I honestly don't know if the way I handled things was good or not. I also don't blame the players, they made a choice that they thought was best. And as far as they were concerned, they were prepared for the fight.
What are your thoughts about allowing the PCs to fail a mission? Does it happen in your campaigns? Do you think it's better to fudge things to help them succeed?
I feel guilty whenever a PC dies (heck, one died in that last fight due to a freak teleporting accident as they fled). But I feel guilty in a totally different way seeing as how it's 4 years later and everything they did was a at a loss.