Happens in published campaigns just as much, but you can at least use the book as a hammer and keep slapping them with it until they’re back on the rails.
Homebrew is fantastic because you can steer where your players go, provided they go somewhere interesting.
Published campaigns IMO are at their best when they’re like, “here’s a detailed world with interesting NPCs and here’s the villain’s master plan and the steps they’re taking to enact it”, and at their worst when they’re like “by now your players should have done A, B and C so they should go do D now.”
My favourite published campaigns are the most sandboxy. The Lost City had a sanctioned hardbound 5e conversion by Goodman Games. It’s just this underground city with dozens of temples and other locations in immediate proximity to one another, and you can sort of do them in whatever order. But there’s hints and suggestions about where to go next.
I started looking at OSR campaigns/scenarios after getting annoyed yet another time with far too verbose settings and constrained scene-to-scene flows. And how boy are they refreshing. Think they may be right up your alley.
Happens in published campaigns just as much, but you can at least use the book as a hammer and keep slapping them with it until they’re back on the rails.
Homebrew is fantastic because you can steer where your players go, provided they go somewhere interesting.
Published campaigns IMO are at their best when they’re like, “here’s a detailed world with interesting NPCs and here’s the villain’s master plan and the steps they’re taking to enact it”, and at their worst when they’re like “by now your players should have done A, B and C so they should go do D now.”
My favourite published campaigns are the most sandboxy. The Lost City had a sanctioned hardbound 5e conversion by Goodman Games. It’s just this underground city with dozens of temples and other locations in immediate proximity to one another, and you can sort of do them in whatever order. But there’s hints and suggestions about where to go next.
I started looking at OSR campaigns/scenarios after getting annoyed yet another time with far too verbose settings and constrained scene-to-scene flows. And how boy are they refreshing. Think they may be right up your alley.
Woodfall is one I recently got through a Kickstarter and been loving reading it. https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/258469/woodfall