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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bullgrit" data-source="post: 5694559" data-attributes="member: 31216">What are the best/worst ways you've seen or participated in thoroughly wrecking a classic [published] adventure? Did the PCs join the bad guys? Did the PCs kill the important NPC ally? Did the PCs go off on a completely unrelated plot hook?I'm not suggesting that taking unexpected directions or actions is necessarily a bad thing. But if the adventure is written for the PCs to covertly invade the slaver lair and free the slaves, it does drastically change the published premise, (and all the pre-written encounters), when the PCs decide to stand outside the fort and call out a challenge for a one-on-one duel with the slavelord.* * *In my own experience:I was playing a PC in the Forest Oracle adventure. Our 3rd-level party was ambushed by wererats while we were bedded down in the forest inn. The next morning, our investigation lead us to believe that the innkeeper was in league with the wererats. Things came to a head and we attacked the innkeeper and anyone who stood up for him.By the adventure text, the innkeeper wasn't in any way working with the wererats. But, then, the whole ambush scenario, (and the whole module scenario, really), was just completely stupid, plot-wise. That adventure fell apart at that point and we never actually went further with the published material.Another time, I was playing  PC in the Temple of Elemental Evil adventure. Our group had explored most of the first level of the dungeon, and had just started dipping our toes in the second level. Then, when between forays, we were shacked up in Nulb for a couple of days. Our 4th-level cleric came up with the idea for us to attack the Nulb assassins guild.He was all worked up on the concept, (Destroy Evil!), but the rest of us thought it was a bad idea. Surely our 3-5th level group couldn't really destroy a notorious assassins guild. But, we tried.Although we killed several low-ranking assassins, we failed to do any lasting harm to the guild. Those of us who didn't die in the initial siege, ended up dying individually from assassin strikes in the following nights.The assassins guild isn't even written up in the ToEE text. It is just mentioned to exist. After that first attack on it, we never got back to the ToEE, and the campaign died with our PCs. (This is possibly the saddest loss for me as a D&D Player: to have never gotten to fully experience the ToEE.)Bullgrit</blockquote>

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