Is the average RPG campaign only six sessions long?

[MGibster]

I've been fortunate to have had a fairly steady group for the better part of the last decade where we meet on a weekly basis for some hot RPG action. We took a hiatus in 2020 for obvious reasons, but started meeting online in August when it became clear this situation wasn't just going to blow over. We started meeting face-to-face in June 2021 once everyone was vaccinated, but game night isn't reliable as we've had to cancel more often than we did in the past. I don't think my experience is typical, because I'm not sure most people have had a steady group like I have for so long.

I've never really given much thought into figuring out how long our campaigns last. For a number of years, I've planned for campaigns to last a few months before they were finished. I don't really plan it time wise, but I set goals for the campaign and once they're met we pick another game. Our typical campaigns can last anywhere between 6-20 sessions. One in a while a campaign just fizzles out because we lose interest.

Attempting to game with others outside my regular group has proven difficult. I've found a lot of gamers are somewhat flakey meaning they'll commit to being at the game and then they just don't show up. Some of this can be chalked up to compatibility issues, but when half the people don't show up on the first day it's not about compatibility.

 

[Mezuka]

My D&D campaigns lasted between 1 and 5 years. On the other hand campaigns with non-D&D RPGs lasted 1 to 8 sessions.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

In recent years, I've run Blades in the Dark, with a Blades of the Inquisition (Warhammer 40k fan hack) campaign lasting 10 sessions before the core group fell apart over one of the members arriving 2 hours late, drunk on vodka, and missing his character sheet. The other, a voice-only default Blades game on Discord started during the pandemic, is still ongoing and is close to 50 sessions already.

But yes, games will start and stop willy-nilly all the time if you have a constantly changing gaming group, which I did for some time. Even with a lot of regulars with GMing experience, there was a lot of experimentation with games that would last under 6 sessions. We tend to remember the successful campaigns and undercount the "failed pilot episodes" and "first season cancellations."

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

And the (hopefully few) session 0 failures, were really nobody buy the pitch and the whole group tries to avoid being one telling it to the pitcher...

 

[J.Quondam]

Was there any clarification regarding the source of the "six sessions" number?

It's a thing I recall hearing back in the 3e days, so it would be interesting know if this is truly based on research, polling, vtt report, or some other concrete numbers... or if it's a continuation of a "well, it's just common knowledge!" sort of myth.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've had most campaigns last considerable lengths of time, onto 50 or more sessions, but I've had a couple that failed out after a session or two, which would probably pull my average down more than would convey the reality.

 

[Malmuria]

For those of you running longer campaigns, can they be grouped (either intentionally or after the fact) into "arcs" or "seasons"? If so, how many sessions/episodes are in each arc? I think of my Blades game as happening in seasons, 10 episodes per season like a netflix show, for example. The advantage is also is that there is an easy end point if the group decides not to continue with the game.

 

[Umbran]

One point to make clear, all the "Well MY campaigns last..." are anecdotes, not data.

EN World is loaded with people so dedicated to the game that we post incessantly online about it - we are not what you'd guess to be a statistically relevant sample of gamers as a whole.

 

[Staffan]

One point to make clear, all the "Well MY campaigns last..." are anecdotes, not data.

EN World is loaded with people so dedicated to the game that we post incessantly online about it - we are not what you'd guess to be a statistically relevant sample of gamers as a whole.

Also, there's a difference between "most campaigns are short" and "most gaming is done in short campaigns".

 

[Umbran]

Also, there's a difference between "most campaigns are short" and "most gaming is done in short campaigns".

Only if you think there's a non-linear effect where folks get "more gaming" per session in a long campaign.

If we accept that "a session's a session", and the short campaigns dominate the distribution, that means short campaigns dominate gaming, overall.