Tell them that you love their ideas.

Have you ever seen an adventurer hit a perfect idea?

Tell them that their ideas are fine but the life of an adventurer is chaos and that is what will most often happen but that it isn’t a judgment on them or their imaginations. As a matter of fact, the chaos is part of the fun.

Talk to your friends and tell them you like their brains.

The story is what happens at the table.

Hero party rivals are fun but make sure you are making them to create a fun antagonist for your evil characters and not as some kind of punishment.

If this isn’t what you want in a game, talk to your friends about it. You might have to start over; you might find that there is a new angle here that is not what you had planned but is still interesting.

Might be worthwhile to look up picaresque fantasy stories if this is the campaign’s new direction.

Good luck! I hope you find a direction everyone can enjoy.

Leader is a changeling who had the same thing happen to her when she was growing up, so she has a soft spot for this kid (but will also be hard on her to drive her to do her best work).

Do they get their intel from a network of shapeshifters, out to stick it to the world that spurned them?

Want thieves to feel less scummy? Show rich nobles for what they were – make them disgusting pits of privilege and state violence.

I’m going to suggest an exercise that might help.

Imagine one of your one-shots. Think about what the players achieved, the consequences of what they did. How would the world react? What new enemies would stir to act against them? What heroic folk would rally to celebrate their victory?

Think of those one-shots as stones in a pond, sending out ripples that effect the world. How could those ripples inspire further adventures?

Don’t feel like you have to start a long campaign knowing how it will end. You don’t know and that is okay. Your players are going to surprise you with their creativity. Take delight in their imaginations.

I hope that helps.