Anyone else NOT want to play in a long, epic adventure anymore?

[jaappleton]

My table has been playing Curse of Strahd for about 18 months now. We play weekly (occasionally missing a session, life gets busy), for about two and a half hours each session. Often three hours, seldom just two hours.

Now, maybe it’s because it’s CoS. Because the module, while good, has some issues. I won’t get into too many of them, but a lack of direction is one issue. It’s possible for the party to sorta wander aimlessly at times, into areas they’re far too low level for, unless the DM gets a bit railroady at times to prevent that.

Another issue is that because of the nature of the module, and similar ones like Avernus, due to the nature of the environment you’re facing particular groups of enemies very often. Undead and Fiends, respectively. That’s no secret. Well, because of that, certain character archetypes becomes subpar to virtually ineffective, and others becomes near God-tier.

As a player (I’m not even the DM!), we’ve been in Castle Ravenloft now for the endgame for the last eight sessions.

We’ve been trying to just end this for so long. Eight weeks we’ve been trying to just finish up. Honestly nobody cares anymore, we just want to be done with this module.

Our DM is a good DM. I want to state that. We’ve had a ton of fun. But I don’t think he’s.... read the room, so to speak, over the last few sessions where it’s just been a lot of frustration.

I am going to talk to him about this. But I do think a big issue with it is the adventure length. Maybe it’s because we live in an age now of instant gratification (Google the problem, answer is there immediately, for example) that spending so much time in the same adventure is so.... It’s not fun.

With home brew campaigns there is so much more wiggle room. One quest line can be outright abandoned as the story shifts, or new ideas become more fun and take priority for the group. A quest to fetch baked goods can become a quest to hijack a shipment of flour, which leads to the bandit life and next thing you know your daughter is knocked up and there’s money missing off the dresser. I’ve seen it a hundred times...

When it comes to published adventures now, I think I’m more inclined towards smaller adventures now like Ghosts of Saltmarsh or Yawning Portal. Not such a grand epic like Strahd or Avernus.

Anyone feel similarly?

[J-H]

I was concerned about this with the Castlevania game I'm running. So far, however, they've managed to "finish" a level/area about once every two sessions. Each area has a different set of enemies, a different environment, and different movement/navigation to deal with. They seem happy. The key is avoid same-y ness. If all of Castle Strahd has the same foes in the same geography with the same challenges - then it all blends together. Variety is the spice.

[Nagog]

I'd say that the books are very much the same thing time and time again, it's up to the DM to introduce interesting elements and further plot hooks along the way. If you just go straight "by the book" for too long, it gets stale.

[Daphne]

I really wish they released shorter adventures that are loosely connected instead of a big one. It doesn't need to be like Saltmarsh with around 8 adventures, just 3 or 4 are enough.

[Imbalance]

Duration can be a problem, especially if the last stage is the worst slog. Zombies are also one of the most boring things ever, and have been in everything for more than a decade. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm just sick to death of zombies. Maybe you are, too.

[jaappleton]

I really wish they released shorter adventures that are loosely connected instead of a big one. It doesn't need to be like Saltmarsh with around 8 adventures, just 3 or 4 are enough.

I know it can be super difficult there to sort out what’s worth your time, but there have been some pretty solid short adventures in DMs Guild for cheap money. Three to five page ones, by designers that have contributed to official WOTC products, so they have at least a decent idea as to what they’re doing.

[Sparky McDibben]

I know it can be super difficult there to sort out what’s worth your time, but there have been some pretty solid short adventures in DMs Guild for cheap money. Three to five page ones, by designers that have contributed to official WOTC products, so they have at least a decent idea as to what they’re doing.

Can you cite some examples? Always looking for solid adventures!

[Pex]

What's needed is a sense of accomplishment. The players need to feel they're succeeding on tasks; because of them things got better. There can be an overall adventure arc of a Final Goal, but in the mean time there are mini-arcs of missions and goals the players get to do that are not all necessarily connected to the main Final Goal.

[Dungeon-noob]

One big difference i note that makes me never run into that so far is that my group has longer sessions: we run from 13:00 to 22:00ish, so we make some seven hours of play (hour start of gamer time and an hour of break and dinner). We get much more done, so we need less sessions to get through the same amount of content. I've tried playing in another group that ran 4 hour sessions, and i did definately feel the difference. A 15 minute detour isn't that big a deal on my bigger sessions, while it can seriously effect what you can get done in a 3-4 hour session.

So my advice would be to make for longer sessions, makes it more worthwhile to get ready and in character, and you go through the content faster.

[Sigreid]

It seems they want to sell a big book for 30+ bucks instead of the small softcover modules you used to be able to get for a couple of bucks each.

[jaappleton]

One big difference i note that makes me never run into that so far is that my group has longer sessions: we run from 13:00 to 22:00ish, so we make some seven hours of play (hour start of gamer time and an hour of break and dinner). We get much more done, so we need less sessions to get through the same amount of content. I've tried playing in another group that ran 4 hour sessions, and i did definately feel the difference. A 15 minute detour isn't that big a deal on my bigger sessions, while it can seriously effect what you can get done in a 3-4 hour session.

So my advice would be to make for longer sessions, makes it more worthwhile to get ready and in character, and you go through the content faster.

While a good idea in theory:

We play online, via Roll 20. I’m in Boston and my DM is in the Pacific Northwest. So there’s already a three hour time zone difference plus I have four children.

However, you did bring up a solid point: Getting more done. I think that’s what is missing, that’s what is so frustrating.

We aren’t getting any sense of accomplishment often for 6+ sessions at a time.

[Temperjoke]

It could be that the group needs a break from the main campaign with a one-shot or something, that's a lot of time to keep doing the main campaign. It could be useful to the DM too, if the group needs a bonus level or an item to help them move on in the story (from the DM's perspective).

[False God]

From what you say, it sounds like your group just isn't dedicating enough time to getting things done. There could be a lot of reasons for this, but CoS, like all "campaigns" for 5E should fall right around the 9-month window of weekly ~3hr sessions, since it was designed to be able to be played in AL like everything else.

But it also has fewer "stages" of success than some of the other campaigns. And it's still Ravenloft, which is stressful and depressing on purpose. Even before 5E came out you needed people who were "into it" to avoid issues.

[Dork_Forge]

I've not gotten to play or run through CoS yet, but after some Googling it seems like your groups has been in the adventure longer than what I'm seeing (EnWorld and Beyond threads) and that the campaign is also scaleable based on its design. Going off that it seems more like a DM/group issue than an adventure based one, how often does the group find themselves not knowing what to do or where to go?

[Chronic]

I don't necessarily mind long adventures, but I like adventures that aren't straightforward. When adventurers are fixated on defeating the BBEG for 30 session straight,the goal can become somewhat boring. In the other hand, when people run fairly diverse adventures that somehow progressively connect and lead toward an overarching story, it tends to keep player interested.

[Tawmis]

This is my problem with the current set of "modules" that Wizards releases.

Rather than the short "one off" modules that could stand as their own, or be connected (if the DM so wished, B1, B2, B3, etc of the "olden days"), players end up "locked in" to the module settings.

When I read "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" before running it - I thought, "This will be an amazing module to run!"

Then I tried to run it.

Not so much. The module, for example, requires the party to be stealthy, quite a bit, or risk serious danger (when they're in the giant's castle, especially; and even in the town before the castle).

My players tried stealthy, for awhile - before they got bored of it, and wanted more action.

This led to characters attacking.

Now, realistically, this would end the players. The town outside the castle could easily alert the folks in the castle. In the castle itself, it's even worse, because there is literally nowhere to run if you're "discovered" to be who you really are.

I was fudging the actual events of the module so much, that it became utterly pointless, just to make sure my players were enjoying a game that was more akin to their style. So while Hoard of the Dragon Queen made for a great read (and potential story), it did not (for me) translate well into a module. That was the first and only time, I ran my games through a module for D&D (in 5th Edition).

I now run another game, all home brew, no modules.

The party is on a "long, epic adventure" - but it's not a forced feeling. Long story short ("Too late!") they were indirectly responsible for releasing a fallen angel who has flown to the west and begun raising hell (in the utter most literal sense). They, however, as they go west to stop him - have seen no sign of him. Instead, they're helping a town fight the undead, helping a town stop a local Ettin that has become more brazen, tracked down a necromancer's son and recovered a powerful book, helped save a fallen town from an undead dragon; but they keep hearing stuff about the guy they released, but have had no interaction with him or his deeds yet. They've just been tracking him down doing side quest after side quest (if you will), building up their characters. This allows me to easily adjust to what the party may be in the mood for (and also do special events - such as what I did for Halloween (http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-notes/adventure-notes-the-arrival/adventure-notes-the-arrival-01-10/the-arrival-adventure-notes-03) and Christmas (http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-notes/adventure-notes-the-arrival/adventure-notes-the-arrival-11-20/adventure-notes-the-arrival-16)).

[PracticalM]

I find that I have to adapt all the 5th edition book modules to make it more interesting or in some cases just make it actually hold together. I think following the book leads to problems.

I have actually been playing Tomb of Annihilation straight and I can tell that the GM has been following the book and the tomb itself is obvious deathtrap or thing there was never even a clue for.

I'll probably go back to building my own campaigns though I might take some of the things from Saltmarsh and put my own spin on it.

[ThatoneGuy84]

This is my problem with the current set of "modules" that Wizards releases.

Rather than the short "one off" modules that could stand as their own, or be connected (if the DM so wished, B1, B2, B3, etc of the "olden days"), players end up "locked in" to the module settings.

When I read "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" before running it - I thought, "This will be an amazing module to run!"

Then I tried to run it.

Not so much. The module, for example, requires the party to be stealthy, quite a bit, or risk serious danger (when they're in the giant's castle, especially; and even in the town before the castle).

My players tried stealthy, for awhile - before they got bored of it, and wanted more action.

This led to characters attacking.

Now, realistically, this would end the players. The town outside the castle could easily alert the folks in the castle. In the castle itself, it's even worse, because there is literally nowhere to run if you're "discovered" to be who you really are.

I was fudging the actual events of the module so much, that it became utterly pointless, just to make sure my players were enjoying a game that was more akin to their style. So while Hoard of the Dragon Queen made for a great read (and potential story), it did not (for me) translate well into a module. That was the first and only time, I ran my games through a module for D&D (in 5th Edition).

I now run another game, all home brew, no modules.

The party is on a "long, epic adventure" - but it's not a forced feeling. Long story short ("Too late!") they were indirectly responsible for releasing a fallen angel who has flown to the west and begun raising hell (in the utter most literal sense). They, however, as they go west to stop him - have seen no sign of him. Instead, they're helping a town fight the undead, helping a town stop a local Ettin that has become more brazen, tracked down a necromancer's son and recovered a powerful book, helped save a fallen town from an undead dragon; but they keep hearing stuff about the guy they released, but have had no interaction with him or his deeds yet. They've just been tracking him down doing side quest after side quest (if you will), building up their characters. This allows me to easily adjust to what the party may be in the mood for (and also do special events - such as what I did for Halloween (http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-notes/adventure-notes-the-arrival/adventure-notes-the-arrival-01-10/the-arrival-adventure-notes-03) and Christmas (http://tawmis.com/kneurth/adventure-notes/adventure-notes-the-arrival/adventure-notes-the-arrival-11-20/adventure-notes-the-arrival-16)).

I'm running Hoard right now.
My players actively split the group a couple times, actively triggered multiple areas at once, and 2 PCs died and made new chars and we keep moving.
Because of party size, I have only modified to make it harder. I dont feel the need to fudge anything, if they TPK I will chuck them straight into Avernus without any hesitation or gear, and they can play that long enough to either come back and finish (which will be insanely easy for them if they complete avernus) or die again and the next DM in our group will run a game.

I never hesitate/make it "easier" on modules, just plan for if they TPK and have a continuation or we start the new game.

As for long games, majority of ours have been extremely long (we play 7 hour session, 1 per week)
One friends homebrew setting was 1-13, next game was 2-20 with different DM (massive homebrew multi tier dungeon crawl) And this one I'm currently running (Hoard and Rise or Hoard and Avernus depending how they do)

My groups been playing 12+ years with some people leaving / new people joining ect, and the same 3-4 Dms/players

[Sigreid]

My group did CoS actually in just a couple of months of 1 3 hours session once per week if we could get to it. Here's the thing though, it's a very, very aggressive party. Once they realized they were stuck there, they started immediately identifying targets and going for it.

[Nikushimi]

Well, since I read the title I assumed you meant adventures in general. Whether Homebrew or not, but after reading I see this is more of a module thing than anything.

It seems you guys want a change of pace. What my group does is every so often we'll have a one shot in some other setting or game. Especially when not all of us make it. For my 5e group we often did a bit of a small, one off side game that wasn't even related to 5e, but was mainly roleplay improve to kind of get us working into rp'ing and storytelling more. It is good to have breaks.

Now, because of scheduling and DM burnout, we are currently switching between two 5e games every other, other Monday. We get to play maybe twice a month, with each game having a different DM (we have 2 DM's, one per game), but the switching it up can help when things become a bit repetitive.

Maybe you guys just need a break.

For me, ever since I started DnD about 7 or so years ago with a group that played 2nd edition our campaigns rarely ever got anywhere, and more often than not we ended up trashing it or the DM would basically press the reset button on the world. Whether through Time Travel or some weird god like intervention.

Moved to 3.5 after a while, and we never got past level 8 cause of DM burnout.

Now in 5th edition we currently haven't gotten past level 5, and the current group I am playing with has been notorious for being unable to get past level 5 before a reset was made on the world or the DM changed to a different DM in a different campaign. The longest their group (before I joined) went for though was from level 1 to level 20, and that took them years (I think it was 7 years?) of gaming, or possibly longer. Can't remember.

So, for me. I've never experienced long campaigns even though I've been playing for a while. I always have new character ideas and thoughts running in my head that I want to do (one reason I plan on DM'ing in the future so I can do a lot of stuff and fulfill my creative side).

So, I would personally actually love a long, epic adventure. Something that lasted. Went from level 1 to level 20. Though, the sessions would have to be close together because right now it feels like our group is in a slog. We stared 5e a little over a year ago I think, and we are only level 5. So...yeah. It's been taking a LOOOONG time to do anything, and it feels like we really haven't gotten that far. So, I hope our group can play more continuously, and with the group playing two different campaigns that switch off every other, other Monday...it takes a while to go anywhere, so I feel your pain when it comes to wanting to just be done with it. Especially since we maybe get 3-4 hours of play every other Monday. So...Takes a while to get anywhere.

I hope you guys are finished with it soon, but I believe that you need to take breaks, or switch it up every once in a while just to break up the slog. A one shot or one off of another game or roleplaying session might help with that.

It also depends on you, the players. If you are having trouble deciding where to go, or figuring out where to go then perhaps you need to talk with your DM to give you more clues, or perhaps just learn to enjoy the wandering. I plan on DM'ing a Dark Souls inspired campaign which is going to be a wander fest because the world is not as ordered as it once was. So the players decide what they want to do and where they want to go and deal with those consequences.

TL;DR: Talk with your DM. Maybe you guys need to break things up every once in a while. Play a one off or one shot in a side system or a smaller campaign. Maybe you just need to end it if things become a slog and enter into a new campaign. My groups have been known to do that, abandon campaigns and worlds. But I feel your pain with the slog. A little over a year of playing 5e, and my group is only level 5. Mainly due to scheduling and our play sessions being few and far between. So, just talk with your DM, and if you, the players, don't know what to do, maybe just enjoy the wandering. Ask your DM to invent things for you. Spice things up instead of using exactly what's from the module.
END TL;DR

Idk if any of that was helpful, but good luck to you and hope you're able to find enjoyment again!

[Tawmis]

I'm running Hoard right now.
My players actively split the group a couple times, actively triggered multiple areas at once, and 2 PCs died and made new chars and we keep moving.
Because of party size, I have only modified to make it harder. I don't feel the need to fudge anything, if they TPK I will chuck them straight into Avernus without any hesitation or gear, and they can play that long enough to either come back and finish (which will be insanely easy for them if they complete avernus) or die again and the next DM in our group will run a game.
I never hesitate/make it "easier" on modules, just plan for if they TPK and have a continuation or we start the new game.


Oh, I don't mind bringing down the wrath, when it calls for it.
But when a module is forcing your players to do something they enjoy at the start (being sneaky, not fighting, gathering info) - but when that stretches for too long, and the actual PLAYERS are getting bored of no combat, so they invoke combat just so they as PLAYERS can have fun - then there's no point in bringing down any form of wrath. This is a module setting that simply doesn't work with my players, and I should have recognized that (having been playing with them for YEARS), that this probably wasn't going to be a good fit. I was just too into them unfolding the story as a DM to see the module's flaw for my player base. Now that's not to say the module is horrible or anything; others may be able to do what the module asks of the players. But too much of it is railroaded (something I hate, myself) when I see it being played out (that I, again, as a DM was too blind to see when I was reading it). This is why I say, it feels like for my player base, it'd make a great story, not so much a great module (for them to go through).

[Luccan]

If you've been doing largely the same thing for a year and a half (of weekly play, no less), I can understand getting bored with it. I feel that even for a big damn quest campaign, you still need some variation on individual adventures. Modules like CoS don't really offer that because D&D traditionally tends to slot certain foes into certain types of plotlines and settings. Sometimes it makes sense (it'd be a bit weird to get a lot of things that weren't fiends in Avernus), but then the module itself probably shouldn't be written to take up as many levels.

[Waazraath]

My table has been playing Curse of Strahd for about 18 months now. We play weekly (occasionally missing a session, life gets busy), for about two and a half hours each session. Often three hours, seldom just two hours.

...

When it comes to published adventures now, I think I’m more inclined towards smaller adventures now like Ghosts of Saltmarsh or Yawning Portal. Not such a grand epic like Strahd or Avernus.

Anyone feel similarly?

Yes. But, at least for me, it's more because something about how real life changed than something inherently 'wrong' about the modules. When in high school and university, but also when just doing easy jobs, there was plenty of time to play once every week for 5, 6 hours. Now, with responsible job, family, and other stuff, once a week is luxury, and we also have sessions that are often no longer than 2-3 hours, as you mention.

That is not enough for the modules. I DM'ed Princes of the Apocalypse for about 2 years, then all players got an extra kid. End of campaign. I'm playing Out of the Abyss now with a bunch of friends, we played for about 1,5 years and just hit level 5.

That's hard. Difficult to remember what is going on, remember facts, while its enough work to remember your characters personality and traits for roleplaying.

So: yeah, at the moment short adventures work better. But I hope that in time, we'll have time again to play long and epic adventures.

[jaappleton]

An update:

Talked with a couple other players. Talked with the DM. Everyone is in agreement.

It’s been our DMs first time running ANY published adventure. Prior to that he’d run some home brew campaigns and he’s done great. Early on in CoS it was spectacular. Death House in particular was a wild ride, that’s so well done.

So he’s been running CoS purely as written. No adjustments. To give a peak behind the screen a bit, here’s some underlying issues:

1. There’s a lot of locations in the module. Lots of quest givers. Very few quests don’t take you across the whole map to solve a problem. Lots of travel time.

2. The locations of certain items and enemies is dependent on the drawing of the Tarokka deck. Pretty sweet idea.... in theory. The issue is that without items being placed in certain specific locations. Without quest items being placed there, some locations become fairly empty and pointless. This means spending hours traveling around, searching high and low in areas that don’t serve a purpose.

Because of the two issues above there’s been times where out of frustrated boredom, a lack of a sense of accomplishment, the party took a more.... direct and violent... approach to solving certain problems >_>

Another major issue: Strahd’s Monster statblock is weak sauce. It is. His Lair Actions? Hot garbage levels of Overpowered. So the DM has been trying to balance that by treating Strahd as a hit and run skirmisherer but.... This doesn’t harm him, that doesn’t do anything, can’t find him, the castle is too big for its own good when you’re ticked off and just want to STAB and end the frustration.

So the DM has been frustrated too. Not just the party.

Speaking with the DM, he’s going to just kinda end the game next session. Wrap it up. A bit heavy handedly if absolutely necessary. Not “rocks fall everyone dies”, but certain story centric NPCs could show up and just tell us how to end this. Which seems so railroady but I believe we’d very much welcome that right now.

——

A side issue I’ve come to develop with CoS and Avernus is that due to their heavy focus on specific enemy types, it renders some subclasses nearly useless (Fire Dragon Sorc in Avernus? Good luck!), and others nearly God-tier OP. So between feeling useless, and another party member being nearly super powered, that’s a whole different slew of issues to deal with.

[Wildarm]

An update:

Talked with a couple other players. Talked with the DM. Everyone is in agreement.

It’s been our DMs first time running ANY published adventure. Prior to that he’d run some home brew campaigns and he’s done great. Early on in CoS it was spectacular. Death House in particular was a wild ride, that’s so well done.

So he’s been running CoS purely as written. No adjustments. To give a peak behind the screen a bit, here’s some underlying issues:

1. There’s a lot of locations in the module. Lots of quest givers. Very few quests don’t take you across the whole map to solve a problem. Lots of travel time.

2. The locations of certain items and enemies is dependent on the drawing of the Tarokka deck. Pretty sweet idea.... in theory. The issue is that without items being placed in certain specific locations. Without quest items being placed there, some locations become fairly empty and pointless. This means spending hours traveling around, searching high and low in areas that don’t serve a purpose.

Because of the two issues above there’s been times where out of frustrated boredom, a lack of a sense of accomplishment, the party took a more.... direct and violent... approach to solving certain problems >_>

Another major issue: Strahd’s Monster statblock is weak sauce. It is. His Lair Actions? Hot garbage levels of Overpowered. So the DM has been trying to balance that by treating Strahd as a hit and run skirmisherer but.... This doesn’t harm him, that doesn’t do anything, can’t find him, the castle is too big for its own good when you’re ticked off and just want to STAB and end the frustration.

So the DM has been frustrated too. Not just the party.

Speaking with the DM, he’s going to just kinda end the game next session. Wrap it up. A bit heavy handedly if absolutely necessary. Not “rocks fall everyone dies”, but certain story centric NPCs could show up and just tell us how to end this. Which seems so railroady but I believe we’d very much welcome that right now.

——

A side issue I’ve come to develop with CoS and Avernus is that due to their heavy focus on specific enemy types, it renders some subclasses nearly useless (Fire Dragon Sorc in Avernus? Good luck!), and others nearly God-tier OP. So between feeling useless, and another party member being nearly super powered, that’s a whole different slew of issues to deal with.

Currently playing CoS. We've been playing Bi-weekly(3 hour sessions) for 10 months now and have visited most areas in Barovia and accomplished a lot. Still have the Amber Temple and a 2nd (and hopefully final) trip into Ravenloft to do. In terms of fighting Strahd, sounds like your DM is doing it right. He should be un-defeatable until you confront him in the location revealed in Tarokka and hopefully you have assembled some of the tools and allies needed. Focus on the setup for that event and let it play out. We're expecting a last stand there with whatever minions and dirty tricks he has at his disposal. I expect we'll be done of the campaign by the summer based on our current rate of progress but it could all go south in either of the remaining locations. Sounds like your group is onboard with the wrap up. Good luck on your final battle with Strahd! "ALL WILL BE WELL!"

[prabe]

I think there's a weird incentive that comes into play when a group starts a big published adventure path (by any publisher), in that finishing the adventure--or at least getting to the "good parts"--becomes a priority. It changes how people play their characters, and it changes how GMs run the game. Eventually whatever fun there might be in the adventure is replaced with a grim determination to finish the thing. That has happened to one of the groups I'm playing in, with a side-helping of someone accidentally breaking the logic of the adventure by asking one question ... Oops.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Having run a few now, I can say that the big published adventures require a lot of extra work from the DM to really shine. It's not that they're bad or anything, but their greatest potential can't be realized if you follow the book like a prescription; they're all too open ended for that.

It sounds like overkill, but besides reading the adventure book front to back, I also write up cheat sheets and make sticky notes and prepare for specific events. I do a bit of a character study on all of the NPC's I don't think I can get away with using my trusty stock characters to fill out. I really zero in on events I think are too weak or too strong, aiming for a smoother experience as best I can. And I try to think of all the ways my players might try to do other things, or what they might enjoy doing that happens to be beyond the bounds of the published adventure. For Curse of Strahd, I put off starting the game for nearly three months while I read and prepared things, and I was still reviewing notes all the way to the final stake was driven into Zarovich's chest.

You really can make these books into something special, but it does take a lot of effort to get them there. Unless you're an amazing ad libber, of course.

[ProsecutorGodot]

We've been going through Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage since they release (missing probably 10 weeks since) so the campaign has had about 70 sessions and we've only recently hit level 70.

It's heavily altered. I think we'd have lost interest ages ago if our DM wasn't make constant changes, reintroducing old quest lines, changing upcoming ones. Several prior characters have become NPC's that have driven the narrative in a certain direction.

The most recent addition, which I can only assume is not actually part of the adventure, has introduced us to the problems in Shadowdusk hold, and my Paladin has started taking steps to perhaps bring any living redeemable members of the family outside of Undermountain back to Waterdeep. We brought it to the open lord and she decided that now would be time to push back against Halaster's expanding influence so we're extensively clearing out danger in the early levels of Undermountain down to Skullport. I think the goal of this is to get some first hand researching done by some Wizards of repute (we don't have a high level arcane caster in our own party) who can find out what influence would force them to remain in Undermountain.

My point in bringing this up? I guarantee you, once this is said and done and I can finally do my own reading of the campaign to compare my experience with the books guidelines, that it will have none of that, and the goal for that floor would be cut and dry "you can maybe help the not immediately hostile Shadowdusk woman you find, or just kill them and deal with them respawning as Death Knights forever and ignore it going down to Halaster's Tower"

My point being, written modules are a good starting point. A lot of the legwork is done for you, but if you're planning on playing that prewritten module to completion for an extended period I think the DM needs to start getting a feel for making adjustments, because when I ran CoS I tried to keep it as close to the book as possible (other than an unfortunate Deck of Many Things introduction at level 3) and it was a pretty bog standard by the books "speedrun" of the campaign as their Tarokka reading was so stacked in their favor Strahd really never stood a chance. If I could do things differently, I'd have vetted the Tarokka reading ahead of time and adjusted encounters during travel to be less random and more targeted towards their objectives, more NPC's would have interacted with them to get them more invested in how dreary and awful Barovia is, and Strahd definitely would be pulling much more intelligent tricks that don't actively endanger him rather than struggling to maintain his foreboding presence against a stacked party.

EDIT: I feel like I rambled a bit, so I'll leave a simplified version of my point: I'm not burnt out of my long and epic adventure because my DM has done a good job of making my actions feel impactful, even if we sometimes end up spinning our wheels for a few pointless sessions of side questing and shopping. I'm not saying that your DM has done a poor job, but it requires extensive effort to keep people invested in a game world that has its ending written already. Sometimes a DM makes the right choices, sometimes despite their best efforts it doesn't pan out and the climax arrives with a thud rather than applause. My Strahd campaign ended miserably, incredibly anticlimactic, but it was a good lesson for when I do take up DMing again, and my DM (who played in that campaign) had obviously learned from my mistakes as he hasn't fallen into the same pitfalls.

I think that the longer a campaign goes in real time, the more off the prewritten module you should lean towards. There should be some level of understanding between player and DM at that point to help shape it into a personal climactic victory rather than "You beat Strahd, for now, you win!"

[Laserlight]

My player group tends to get tired of a campaign after about six months, whether homebrew or published book. "Sense of accomplishment along the way" is good but doesn't seem to keep them in that campaign.