I need some DM advice here. I have been running the Shattered Obelisk for quite awhile now and the adventure is not really engaging anyone. Its a little too far over my players heads and some don't like the aesthetic of the mind flayers and the monsters etc..( they skew younger).
They are currently in Gibbet crossing and I don't even think they know why(memory and all etc.)
I want to do a soft reboot and reset the group . Same characters but maybe wipe the slate clean so we can start anew with a new direction/quest.
I would love to get some ideas on how to do a " time jump" or some other plot device without nullifying everything they have done in the campaign so far or am I stuck in adventuring purgatory with this module forever?
I have exactly zero experience with Shattered Obelisk's story, so I cannot help on that front. I can, however, offer some general guidance. If something is not working for you and your players, it absolutely is the right call to pivot to keep engagement.
For your particular case, it does not seem like a "time jump" is what you want. Time jumps back in time can have problems - they put your characters in a situation before they acted, placing them in a situation where their decisions in the future are no longer relevant to their present. A time jump forward can be one way of moving the plot to a different point - but it does not solve your underlying problem with the monster type of the campaign. After all, if you skip forward, you cannot just say "and the mindflayer threat was solved during the jump" - that feels bad for the players, like they invested a bunch of time into solving a problem and then you just hand waived it away by the power of the almighty DM. That means any time jump would end up in a situation where the mind flayers and such have been unchecked for quite a while, likely making them a bigger threat - and putting you in some of the same situations you are already in.
I think it makes more sense to use a plot twist to reveal a different, bigger bad guy. You then tie this into your campaign - the campaign up to that point was the result of the mind flayers trying to flee a bigger evil, or perhaps even them trying to take steps to protect themselves. The players actions, then, might have even contributed to whatever evil was being unleashed.
This allows you to pivot to a different type of enemy. A cunning, manipulative dragon. A necromancer (though that also skews older). A fallen god. An Archfey (could even be something kind of whimsical, if that is what your players like - the highly logical mind flayers were afraid of an archfey trying to reshape the world into pure chaos). Lots of different options to pick from - you just have to figure out what your players would want, then give a reason why everything in the campaign was building up to that.
I had a similar problem with Shattered Obelisk, the Lost Mines half was fine but the second half of the adventure feels so unrelated that my players just weren’t that interested. I cut it off at Zorzula’s Rest so never got as far as Gibbets Crossing but I did it by giving them a ritual to interrupt, they got to Rest and instead of the suggested encounter just gave them a group of cultists and a single Mind Flayer trying to summon something (I never even said what) and when they stopped the ritual it was “yay you stopped the mind flayers! Campaign over.” Take a look at the climax of Gibbets Crossing and then make that the climax of the campaign, then you can start any other campaign you fancy with the same characters and say they’ve been settled in Phandalin for a few months
I had a similar problem with Shattered Obelisk, the Lost Mines half was fine but the second half of the adventure feels so unrelated that my players just weren’t that interested. I cut it off at Zorzula’s Rest so never got as far as Gibbets Crossing but I did it by giving them a ritual to interrupt, they got to Rest and instead of the suggested encounter just gave them a group of cultists and a single Mind Flayer trying to summon something (I never even said what) and when they stopped the ritual it was “yay you stopped the mind flayers! Campaign over.” Take a look at the climax of Gibbets Crossing and then make that the climax of the campaign, then you can start any other campaign you fancy with the same characters and say they’ve been settled in Phandalin for a few months
If the players and the DM aren't having fun, it doesn't really matter how the game pivots so long as it pivots. "Fail fast" is a motto in industry: Try it, evaluate it, and if it's not working stop before you invest too much more. If the players really aren't having a good time, there could be value to just putting down the screen and saying "How do we all feel about dumping this campaign and shifting to a new one?" You and the players can talk out if it's a "back in time" or a "flash forward" or how they want to "resolve" the ongoing plot.
It might not be the same as creating an ending for the campaign, but it might get you off the hook sooner and into a game you'll have more fun with.
I need some DM advice here. I have been running the Shattered Obelisk for quite awhile now and the adventure is not really engaging anyone. Its a little too far over my players heads and some don't like the aesthetic of the mind flayers and the monsters etc..( they skew younger).
They are currently in Gibbet crossing and I don't even think they know why(memory and all etc.)
I want to do a soft reboot and reset the group . Same characters but maybe wipe the slate clean so we can start anew with a new direction/quest.
I would love to get some ideas on how to do a " time jump" or some other plot device without nullifying everything they have done in the campaign so far or am I stuck in adventuring purgatory with this module forever?
I have exactly zero experience with Shattered Obelisk's story, so I cannot help on that front. I can, however, offer some general guidance. If something is not working for you and your players, it absolutely is the right call to pivot to keep engagement.
For your particular case, it does not seem like a "time jump" is what you want. Time jumps back in time can have problems - they put your characters in a situation before they acted, placing them in a situation where their decisions in the future are no longer relevant to their present. A time jump forward can be one way of moving the plot to a different point - but it does not solve your underlying problem with the monster type of the campaign. After all, if you skip forward, you cannot just say "and the mindflayer threat was solved during the jump" - that feels bad for the players, like they invested a bunch of time into solving a problem and then you just hand waived it away by the power of the almighty DM. That means any time jump would end up in a situation where the mind flayers and such have been unchecked for quite a while, likely making them a bigger threat - and putting you in some of the same situations you are already in.
I think it makes more sense to use a plot twist to reveal a different, bigger bad guy. You then tie this into your campaign - the campaign up to that point was the result of the mind flayers trying to flee a bigger evil, or perhaps even them trying to take steps to protect themselves. The players actions, then, might have even contributed to whatever evil was being unleashed.
This allows you to pivot to a different type of enemy. A cunning, manipulative dragon. A necromancer (though that also skews older). A fallen god. An Archfey (could even be something kind of whimsical, if that is what your players like - the highly logical mind flayers were afraid of an archfey trying to reshape the world into pure chaos). Lots of different options to pick from - you just have to figure out what your players would want, then give a reason why everything in the campaign was building up to that.
I had a similar problem with Shattered Obelisk, the Lost Mines half was fine but the second half of the adventure feels so unrelated that my players just weren’t that interested. I cut it off at Zorzula’s Rest so never got as far as Gibbets Crossing but I did it by giving them a ritual to interrupt, they got to Rest and instead of the suggested encounter just gave them a group of cultists and a single Mind Flayer trying to summon something (I never even said what) and when they stopped the ritual it was “yay you stopped the mind flayers! Campaign over.” Take a look at the climax of Gibbets Crossing and then make that the climax of the campaign, then you can start any other campaign you fancy with the same characters and say they’ve been settled in Phandalin for a few months
This is exactly what I am going to do!
Another angle:
If the players and the DM aren't having fun, it doesn't really matter how the game pivots so long as it pivots. "Fail fast" is a motto in industry: Try it, evaluate it, and if it's not working stop before you invest too much more. If the players really aren't having a good time, there could be value to just putting down the screen and saying "How do we all feel about dumping this campaign and shifting to a new one?" You and the players can talk out if it's a "back in time" or a "flash forward" or how they want to "resolve" the ongoing plot.
It might not be the same as creating an ending for the campaign, but it might get you off the hook sooner and into a game you'll have more fun with.
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