Something less convoluted next - please

[amethal]

You should just run Dungeon Delves or one-offs. Or find yourself some more committed players: the current bunch sound like they're talking you for granted.

Hopefully, he is happy with his current group and isn't looking to do something that drastic!

Judging by the first adventure, the maps and battlemaps are very pretty, and I'm sure could be used to run a more straightforward campaign that was more to the players' tastes. In that case it would probably be a good idea to wait until the entire adventure path was publsihed before doing that. (Heck, I believe it is always a good idea to wait until you have the whole adventure path before running it.)

 

[gideonpepys]

You'll be waiting a while for that.

 

[Is_907]

I'll have to second [MENTION=79141]gideonpepys[/MENTION] -- TALK with the group.
After playing a lot with the same people, it never hurts to just take 15 or 30 minutes to say "Hey, what do you guys enjoy about the style of games we play? What do you want to try that we haven't?"

Maybe you'll find they surprise you and want to try something complex and layered. Maybe they enjoy the delve-style games.


If you're running 4e, I'd recommend the official WotC adventures--they always seemed easy to run, enjoyable, and straightforward.
(However, I haven't played 4e since early 2009, so I can only speak for the first year's worth of published modules.)

 

[Riastlin]

Disclaimer: I have yet to get a chance to actually read the first adventure (hope to have it read by next week).

That being said, I too hope that in general they stay away from the more standard fare -- i.e. relatively simple stand alone adventures. First, there's plenty to choose from on DDi (though admittedly it can be difficult to find quality adventures there, though they do exist).

More importantly though, I think the intrigue-style adventures and campaigns are among the most difficult to craft and run, and thus, its great to have a source of inspiration to pull from. I'm a firm believer for instance, that the mystery is the hardest story to tell effectively. Its an extremely fine line between making the mystery obvious and impossible to decode. Getting it just right in the middle is very difficult. Having examples to use for inspiration (or as straight adventures) is thus a godsend.

Additionally, it sounds as though this path will be a really good example of how to build up NPCs that last throughout a campaign. NPCs that your players continue to recognize and most importantly, NPCs that evolve with the campaign. Its easy enough to have the patron that always seems to be handing out missions and advice, but at some point, that patron needs to evolve or simply fade away as eventually the party will ask "Why don't you just do it?" Or, more to the point, the patron eventually ceases to be authoritative over the group "Sure, two years ago when we just started our adventuring career you seemed extremely powerful, but we're Demigods now!"

So for all these reasons, I really like that Zeitgeist is presenting a much more involved story, even though that won't be all that exciting for some groups. No adventure or campaign will ever satisfy everyone, and until En Publishing can afford to be publishing several adventures/paths at the same time, I think they are wise to carve out a niche. Hopefully, the path will continue to be as interesting as the previously released guides and teasers. I don't know for sure that I will actually run Zeitgeist, but I know that at the very least, its likely that I'll be pulling inspiration from it.

 

[Zaukrie]

This is actually an interesting post to me. I'd like an adventure path that was shorter than 3 years worth of play....like 3 adventures long, not 8 or 10. I only get to play every month or so, and it's hard for me (DM) and the players to remember what is happening over that much time, so I share the OP's concerns. As for "easy to find", I'm not sure that's true. The DDI adventures are just a series of skirmishes to some extent. Outside of my friend Matthew, there aren't that many other options out there. I think there is space for a well produced, shorter AP.

That said, I'm certainly looking forward to buying this one, stealing from it liberally, and maybe running parts of it someday. The quality of the work is outstanding (I'd just like to see that quality in shorter pieces).

 

[Morrus]

This is actually an interesting post to me. I'd like an adventure path that was shorter than 3 years worth of play....like 3 adventures long, not 8 or 10.

We have a section in th campaign guide about running abridged versions of the campaign (we did that in WotBS, too). Maybe not quite as short as 3 adventures, but certainly 4-6 adventures.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

There was a recent thread in General about how epic adventure paths would do better by being tier based. That way you gain 1 level per module, with about 14 'encounters' per module. Each tier has a different feel and caps nicely into the next. You could thread three campains accross all thirty levels and avoid the skipping seen in a mega camapign.

My WoBS group levels 2 at a time between modules because I don't have enough play time in sessions. {4 hour sessions once a month..just starting module #9 and started back when the first one was published...}

So in a way I agree with Retreater, but I love the complexity. I would rather a 11 level path that focused more into each level.

A side thought, perhaps [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] could sponsor a Zeitgiest 'side trek' contest..getting fan submissions of encounter style adventures within the setting?

Sent from my SPH-M900 using Tapatalk

 

[amethal]

A side thought, perhaps Morrus could sponsor a Zeitgiest 'side trek' contest..getting fan submissions of encounter style adventures within the setting?

That would be fun.

The adventure I entered into the WotBS 3.5 edition adventure competition still means a lot to me, as it's the only thing I've ever had published.