Question said:
Why not drop the whole tournament thingy and run it as a normal dungeon crawl?
I certainly could do so......but I have a couple of reservations.
First, do players want to take the time needed to create 15th level characters, knowing full well that there is a great chance that they will die? As CB said, ownership of the characters is lacking when pregens are used. In a killer dungeon like this, I think that's sort of the point. No tears shed when your PC gets summarily wiped out.
Second, the adventure is designed in a way that it assumes that once the characters enter, they don't leave until they win or they're dead. There's no opportunity to rest, to recover spells, etc. You've got to survive based on the abilites and items presented. My feeling is that if the players are allowed to make their own characters, a lot of the built-in balance will be lost.
I think that, if I do decide to run this one, it will be with the pregenerated characters. Having said that, I have not yet made up my mind that this is the DCC to run. I should have a decision made, and subsequent recruiting thread posted, within another day or two. (The holiday weekend is a bit busy for me with family stuff).
As always, all feedback is appreciated! Thank you!