Suggestion: keep it tough (maybe not TPK tough, but still potentially deadly) but offer ways out. Give your players options so that they can bail if they have to.
Yeah I am trying to avoide my go to advice "don't run published adventures"This and also make sure there are win conditions that don't require simply killing everyone on the "other side." (admittedly not easy when running published modules).
I guess that's easier said than done.Yeah I am trying to avoide my go to advice "don't run published adventures"
Well, we had a TPK last night and starting a new campaign at the players' request.Have you talked to your players about this? Let them know your concerns and see if they can help out?
Is there an issue with starting a brand new campaign with the assumptions that loot won’t be handed out willy nilly?
I guess but since I was homebrewing back in 1995 I got so used to just ripping apart adventures and not running out the box that I forget people actually try to run just published no home brew... and why I want trying to give more constructive advice.I guess that's easier said than done.
I mean yeah... my groups talk about Nerooney teh archmagus, and Praxton the Godslayer and the hoard of demons... but they also talk about the Tarasques and the mind flayers and the orcs and goblins...If I run my own adventures, what is the group going to talk to their friends about other than "We were lead into a trap by Geoff the Talking Mongoose, realizing too late that it was actually a nefarious trickster fey with a Ventriloquism spell on the animal."
that seems to weird to me... making my own adventure feel like the core of D&D to meIt's not that I can't write my own adventures. I've done it a few times, even had some stuff published. I'd go so far as to say I run my stuff better than I do published content. However, running an original adventure feels like "off brand" D&D to me.
I guess that's easier said than done.
There's the marketing push from publishers to promote the adventures, plus the communal shared experience to be able to tell stories about how a group defeated Strahd or brought an end to the Death Curse.
If I run my own adventures, what is the group going to talk to their friends about other than "We were lead into a trap by Geoff the Talking Mongoose, realizing too late that it was actually a nefarious trickster fey with a Ventriloquism spell on the animal."
It's not that I can't write my own adventures. I've done it a few times, even had some stuff published. I'd go so far as to say I run my stuff better than I do published content. However, running an original adventure feels like "off brand" D&D to me.
I would argue anything other then a 4 person brand new PHB only group isn't fully accounted for by written mods... and even then they are easy mode (I say having twice TPKed out of Curse of Strahd)The problem is, forgetting everything else, modern published modules just don't handle 7 PCs well. And, as you've experienced, trying to modify to handle 7 is often harder than just writing new stuff yourself.