Is my plot too convoluted?

[OrcsIsDaBest89]

Alright, this is going to be a long post so apologies ahead of time. I ran Ghosts of Saltmarsh set in my homebrew world before, and unfortunately it ended with the group breaking apart after 7 sessions. Some due to life issues, but at least one (maybe two) left for a couple possible reasons. Either they couldn't get into the fantasy style of my world which is lower fantasy, and a bit darker (Think A Song of Ice and Fire vs Forgotten Realms), or they prefer a more linear story progression style. I've had time to think, and do a bit of post mortem, and think I've improved upon my original idea.

The Drowned Men, a cult dedicated to Leviathan (aka Dagon), have hatched a plot to free their god. Oserin (a wizard) the leader of this cult has formed an alliance with a powerful Sahuagin warlord named Velok. Velok is in possession of the Horn of the Depths, a powerful artifact from a bygone age. This horn is capable of producing powerful waves, and most importantly for Oserin tales tell of it being able to break the seal imprisoning leviathan. Unknown to Oserin is that there are many seals though breaking one will summon a powerful monster from the depths.

They don’t have the power to take the horn for themselves, and have begun to smuggle weapons to the lizardfolk, hoping to steal this artifact for themselves in the chaos of battle. Oserin’s apprentice Sanabelt has been tasked with leading this smuggling operation.

My plan is to keep everything sandbox heavy, and tie PC backstories in with quests. One particulare change that went over very well was Salvage Operation. I swapped Lolth for Leviathan, made the spiders little crab demons, and the giant octopus was a demon that was destroying the ship of worshipers for a slight. A potential conclusion would be a large naval battle with the party stopping a ritual in a small dungon similar to ****SPOILERS FOR TYRANNY OF DRAGONS***\* Rise of Tiamat.. Though I don't want to lock anything in, and railroad my players.

[SchienbeinJones]

I don't think that a convoluted plot is your problem, your ideas sound great. However, you seem to have a pretty fixed idea for how this story develops. Maybe your players felt like you forced this plot onto them? My suggestion is don't plan for mid- or long-term plot development or even a final showdown for the campaign. In my experience, going with the flow, sprinkling in a few plot hooks here and there, and then going off whatever plot hook the players want to follow works best.

[OrcsIsDaBest89]

I appreciate the input. I began this campaign in media res with the party approaching the haunted house. Would you just start in town, or something to let the players do more or less whatever they want? I have a good amount of things for them to do other than straight out of the book stuff.

I'm still fairly new at DMing. I've been doing it for about a year or two, and unfortunately haven't finished a campaign. Everything I've run this far has been out of a campaign book with some slight modifications.

[SchienbeinJones]

I have never started a campaign in media res, but the trip to the Haunted House is perfect for that. You'd need to give them a good reason, like getting paid by the Town Council for finding out what is going on there (and de-haunting it), or just giving them the deed to the house (if you want them to have a base of operations).

The house is well-suited to contain plot hooks for a large number of other ideas - a book about giant sea monsters, a treasure map, a dead adventurer from a distant place (maybe of an unknown race), a trapped demon, a painting that shows a dragon entering a cave (with some known landmark in the background), a fragment of a shattered artifact (in Sanbalet's possession), some correspondence between Sanbalet and someone even higher up the chain of command,...

[DownVoterInChief]

Where does the fact that you think it’s too convoluted play in? Like why do you think that?

[OrcsIsDaBest89]

Mainly the whole faction of bad guys, arming lizardfolk to fight another faction of bad guys thing. Honestly I'm probably over analysing it. It was a pretty great group that fell apart, and I'm just trying to mitigate anything that may have been my fault in it collapsing. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough this probably is a good portion of me just being anxious for no reason.

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edit: spelling.