D&D General Ideal Length for a "Short" Campaign?

[toucanbuzz]

Short is relative, but levels 5-6.

Short campaigns occupy about 1/3rd of my gameplay given long-term campaigns stretching over a year can be exhausting if you don't do all the things necessary to keep those going (e.g. same people, breaks to do other things like board games or, some day, movies).

For our most recent foray into Dark Sun, that's been 3 months and roughly 40-45 hours of gameplay split across 10 sessions. There was a fixed focus (take out the immortal despot sorcerer king Kalak), a lot of twists and turns, and now the finale (wherein we paused our last session with a player about to take a shot with an artifact spear).

By levels 5 to 6, players have gotten a pretty good taste of their class and experienced the core abilities that they have to offer. Knowing the limited focus of the campaign, it's hard to keep that momentum going into higher levels. Gee, another setback so we can't stop the king? But, it's been great because we've gotten to play something exotic, with massive half-giants, mindbenders, defiling magic, and the alien thri-kreen.

 

[nevin]

Don't run a campaign. Run a game in an established area where you know all the players. Throw out some adventures and let things go from there. Let em be the A team. solving problems for hire or some such thing.

 

[Odysseus]

we never get to a good end point before they fizzle out without closure.

I had the same problem. What I started doing to fix this is, have an ending in mind when I start.
I still do sandbox campaigns , which can go anywhere,but there is still a tendency to fizzle.

 

[aco175]

I agree with @Laurefindel with about a school semester. Levels 1-5/6 is good as well, which should be about the same time as a semester. This gives you 10-12 sessions to get the base story and only 1 BBEG to save the town or whatever. Good for new DMs and side breaks for the regular DM to recharge. People can try something or the group can try a single class/race or whatever knowing that there is only limited time. There may also be more risk in knowing that it is a temp PC and you do not mind sacrificing yourself for the greater good and then come back with a new PC next week.

 

[werecorpse]

To me a campaign is something where the characters have a chance to significantly level up and experience that new levelling up in play. A short campaign (as distinct from a single adventure) needs also to have at least a secondary “exploration” element able to be resolved be it a second dungeon, a B plot or whatever. To allow players sufficient scenes or opportunities to more thoroughly invest in their characters than in a one shot and to feel some level of mechanical character progression in D&D I would say about 5 levels would be enough as going from any level to that level+5 in pretty much any D&D gives that sense. (In say Call of Cthulhu or a skill based system it would be maybe 6-8 “downtime” chances to progress in skills should be enough).

 

[Shiroiken]

Depends on how you want to look at it, either time IRL or level. I would say 8 sessions (2 months) or level 5 would be a descent amount without stretching it too far. IMO, however, a short campaign simply needs a short story arc, with time and level being irrelevant.

 

[aco175]

How long does it take to run either Phandalin box set? These seem to be a good measure.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My measure was actually based on my current campaign of Dragon of Icespire Peak. I'm guessing we've got maybe a month more in the campaign, which would put us at four months in duration.

How long does it take to run either Phandalin box set? These seem to be a good measure.

 

[Marc_C]

A short campaign for me would be the length of a multi-session single adventure. Between 6-8 sessions. 2 sessions to get going. 2-4 sessions exploration. 2 sessions for the climax build up and the wrap up.

 

[aco175]

Is there a difference between a short campaign and a few nights of gaming with the same PCs? I have played in a few 1-shots where the DM told us to bring a 5th level PC for an adventure that turns out to be only a few nights of play. I would not call it a campaign though.