Anybody completely bummed a quest so much that it might as well be something else?

[sorvan76]

This is what I've done, lol.

Legacy of the Crystal Shard. Took my PCs on this quest and introduced so many encounters and random stuff (related to what my players wanted to happen for their characters) that they're way and above the level required.

So, I inroduced other suff for them and tried to tie it in. Which has worked.

Now I'm buffing the baddies so much they're not recognisable as the same baddies.

And the story is no longer the same.

[twistedtechmike]

Sounds like you should consider milestone XP over combat XP.

[valeros]

Since it was "related to what my players wanted to happen for their characters", seems like you did a good job. To me, a fine example of why RPGs with real people have not been completely replaced by computer games. This seems to match a lot of DM advice I have seen about letting the game flow and follow the characters as opposed to a fixed DM path. No suggestions on how to fix (or even if you should), but a good problem to have.

[LordNova2]

I was just going to say the same thing twistedtechmike said, Milestone Experience.
I had a similar thing happen back when I ran the Emerald Spire, for PFRPG, but I had so much more I wanted to add in for side-quests and things to do other than the main dungeon. But they were starting to out-level the main dungeon so I had to stop the side-quests. Even when they were at the correct level they would just steamroll the stock dungeon bosses; but now we are starting to cover the topic of why I switched to D&D 5E, which is for another discussion... LOL

After that experience I decided to go with the Milestone Experience option, and I have not looked back since.
I have not gotten to busy on side-quests in this campaign yet (Tyranny of Dragons), as this campaign arc is rather linear, and gives very little down-time for the players to do their own thing. But when you get to the second book it gives a little more choice to the players on what they can do and when they do it in the main-story. And there is even some extra materials I plan to throw in at this point for the players to run through if they choose.

[ColinBuckler]

You can also get similar issues if you have less members in the party (as they get a bigger share of the XP pot) and the reverse if you have more members in the party (as they can dilute the XP).

To challange the party:

Dont forget to think like the enemy and review their situation - if they are fighting NPC's in room 1 - review if NPC's in room 2 hear and decide on how they would react... run to get help, prepare for battle...etc. My favorite is having wizards hearing a commotion next door and readying a spell for when the door opens. There is nothing quite like a fireball/lightning bolt going off in their face as soon as the PC's open the door, along with a force re-enforced, prepped with a volley of crossbow bolts.

The surroundings/positioning of the fight also add to the challenge. Take for example a game I ran recently where the 10th level party (6 players) were almost TPK'ed by kobolds (think Tuckers Kobolds). Why would kobolds build tunnels larger them them? they wouldnt.....

So a party fighting in a 3 ft high, 2.5ft wide tunnel is going to leave then restricted.constricted fighting. I declared in advance that fighting in tunnels grants the medium cratures disadvantage on attacks and advantage on being attacked - additionally only finesse/light weapons could be used. With tunnels that seemed to wind all of the time, the party struggled to get line of sight for any distance, or even see past other medium creatures as they created total cover. Finally it is difficult terrain for movement as medium creatures have to squeeze down the tunnels. This gave the kobolds a distinct advantage. Add about 75 kobolds and a few spellcasters/trapmakers and the party are struggling. Oh dont forget cave-ins, pit traps with spikes, poisoned needles all on pressure plates that the kobolds know their locations and do not trigger with the light footstep of a kobold.

[GavinRuneblade]

Anybody completely bummed a quest so much that it might as well be something else?

Yes all the time. I've had a group doing the Rise of Tiamat set in Mystara for err going on the last 2 years. The party leader is a pixie, and another major decision maker is a Diabolus which is the Mystara version of a Tiefling but they are totally chaotic and anarchist prone to doing whatever seems fun at the time. So they've brought in elements of princes of the apocalypse, storm king's thunder,, several 3e Eberron campaigns, the flying gnome city from Mystara, one of the old blackmoor high-tech crossover adventures from Dave Arneson's Temple of the Frog series. and poked one of the big bads from the Book of Elder Evils, visited the hollow world, crashed a neogi spelljammer trying to get out of the hollow world past Alphatia's skyship navy, looted the Tamochtlan shrine from Tales from the Yawning Portal, and one of the players did a guest DM session with an adventure I totally don't recognize involving a kidnapped nixie, a devil swine (mystaran version of a were pig with charm and mind control powers), and army of half-orc bandits.

Stuff wasn't all scooby-doo style no continuity. For example the Diabolus' personal story is that along the way he learned about BECMI's paths to immortality (I used the meaningless rambling about magical philosophy from the lich Renwick in princes of the apocalypse as the introduction. This lead him to re-evaluate some of the events and notes (and art loot they had in their packs but never paid attention to) that came from older adventures. As they headed to the snow for the chapters dealing with the white wyrmspeaker they had to pass by Ylarum the desert and they found some carvings on temple walls etc I linked in. In the Viking territories they heard stories that meant one thing to the locals and something very different to the Diabolus. When he went digging into the library in Xonthall's tower I planted information there based on his investigation and arcana rolls in a personal skill challenge. Again in Thay, they didn't just recruit the Red Wizards, the Diabolus went researching for more information.

And each of the player characters has a personal story that is linked to all the different chaos somehow. But it is really a lot like the TV show Supernatural where lots of stuff happens that is totally random because the Pixie and the chaotic devil decided "hey lets go this way instead!".

I do use milestone XP in all my games, but also I talk to the players about pacing etc and other forms of reward beyond exp during the session zero. Most of my players would rather stick with the same characters over longer time than do multiple campaigns with new characters. So we have worked out ways to prevent the official "it takes 52 days to go from level 1 noob to level 20 godslayer".