I ran into my friends who are going to start a new pair of D&D 5e games. They don't want to play the recommended encounters per day, and want to also use milestone leveling.
I just can't understand why they buy 5e modules, then run them against 5e design? (Yes, most wotc modules are bad, but CoS at least can be run in the right way).
They would have so much more fun with Dungeon World, or an OSR system.
Give agency to the player:
Make their choices and decision points clear, and tell them the consequences of each path. You can put anything you like on that path, and they will be fine with it, because they actively chose it.
"This path is full of bear traps." "ok." PCs foot is cut off by bear trap "Well, yep. There's bear traps here."