So, I'm running the Complete MoN that came out in 96 for my home group and they've just reached London. Now, what I'm leaning towards doing is cutting out the side stuff like the snake man and the werewolf. My reasoning is this is a bi monthly game and as much information as there is to keep track of already, the less they have to keep track of the better.
My question is to those that have ran it before, do the side missions add a whole lot to the game or am I fine dropping them? I was curious as to what people's actual play experiences were with them, and what if they were memorable. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
In the globe spanning campaigns that I have read, run, and played the side adventures are included as a break from the main action. Whether including them will enhance or detract from your group depends on a lot of stuff we don't know.
If you are concerned about having enough time to finish the entire campaign or with maintaining continuity of the main action with a group that meets biweekly then skipping the side adventures won't hurt the main action.
You can use the side adventures if you don't have the full group of players some week. You could even use have them create different PCs for the side adventure. Those PCs could then become replacement characters for any lost PCs in the main campaign.
Another option is to rework the side adventures and use them later.
Yeah, I debated on re-working the serpent man side quest; it's a matter of getting the time to do it. The werewolf one I'm not sold on. It just seems kind of a waste of time. Excellent idea on using them as a filler for when the whole group isn't there. Thanks for that.
Yeah, you can totally skip it if you're worried about time constraints.