D&D 5E Do You Tinker with Adventures to Make Them "Winnable"?

[jasper]

1. Change. 2. No change as long as the party can run away. 3. BBEG no change with out more context.

 

[Fenris-77]

I only tinker with adventure to make them not suck, 'winnable' for whatever value you place on that is up to the players.

 

[jasper]

Pro player move: Knock down the walls, ignore the villain and the treasure, take the indestructible door.

Sell the the door with tracking device to another villain and repeat.

 

[jasper]

Icewind Dale had some nearly no win places. I enjoyed it.

 

[Retreater]

Nothing you describe sounds problematic to me, but what I want and expect out of a game are different from what your group seems to want. From the sound of it, the adventure in question seems better-suited towards some styles of play than others.

Inherently, there's nothing wrong with a sandbox-style of play. I think the main issues spring from the milestone XP implementation in the adventure and the lack of good information sources about what resources the party should have.

 

[Seramus]

If werewolves could (hypothetically) only be damaged by silver weapons, and the players did not have any silver weapons in a confrontation with werewolves, what would we reasonably expect them to do? Go get some.

Grab a shovel, and let's get diggin! We'll push the mangy bastard in and bury him right good!

 

[iserith]

Grab a shovel, and let's get diggin! We'll push the mangy bastard in and bury him right good!

Exactly. A pickup group of tier 1 PCs ran afoul of a wereboar in a random encounter in one of my games. They had no magical or silver weapons. They grapple-proned and disarmed him, then tanked what few hits it could land while blasting with spells.

Players will tend to figure out a solution, now or later.

 

[Don Durito]

The adventure in question sounds like it is probably best stripped down for parts.

Maps or locations that might be usable etc.

 

[Retreater]

The adventure in question sounds like it is probably best stripped down for parts.

Maps or locations that might be usable etc.

Yeah. I messaged my players today. I asked them what they thought the main story of the adventure is, what are their characters' goals and motivations, and how would they wish the story would resolve. Once I get responses, I'm going to attempt to curate something resembling a cohesive narrative from the parts in the adventure, shoring it up with extra material. Then I'll address and re-write the solutions to be feasible, identify a singular villain (individual or group) and give them motivations.
As it is, I agree it's better just as a grab bag of isolated one shot adventure locations. The module itself has three different villain factions that don't even play into each other and the titular villain's scheme is thwarted halfway through the book.

 

[cmad1977]

I have a philosophy that helps with these moments.

Play with the rules, don’t play by the rules.