Why do so many campaigns never finish? Genuinely curious what others think

payn · 2026-03-04T13:21:35+0000

AstroArtificer said:
Without that shared language, I think we end up at tables hoping for the best, and quietly disappointed when it doesn't happen.

Has this been your experience? What do you think actually kills most campaigns?

I think finding the right formula of playstyle and interest for completing a campaign is rare. For a long time you had rely on whoever you could find locally. The internet seemed to open up a larger pool for a GM, but it also brought a lot of the same local issues to your virtual doorstep. Meaning, it is still a challenge to find a group that works in the long haul. Even the folks talking open-ended never really end games that are years deep will admit they found the right combo of playstyles to make that happen.

While the folks who chat all day online about RPGs have the language to describe what they are looking for, I think the average gamer lacks that articulation. They might not even know what they really want and sometimes the only way to find out is to play. So, they sign up for things they dont truly understand and then find out they dont want it at your expense.

So, Ive changed to running/playing more one-shots and shorter games. Taking inventory of folks that I enjoy playing with and think could be candidates for that long-haul type game. Then, when I got the right players for it, I roll out the campaign.

prabe said:
I've been at a few tables where there were people I didn't enjoy TRPGing with, yes. I have a couple of really good friends who TRPG that I will not TRPG with--we are just fundamentally incompatible at the table.

Yeap, Ive found my best friends sometimes make the worst gamers.

GrimCo · 2026-03-04T13:51:58+0000

payn said:
Yeap, Ive found my best friends sometimes make the worst gamers.

I have very dear and close friend whom i love like a brother. Great guy. For very casual, goofy, beer & pretzels game of D&D, he's awesome, makes whole table cry from laughing. But for anything more serious, more dramatic, rp heavy, character driven, he is bad fit.

Artamo · 2026-03-04T14:22:18+0000

GrimCo said:
I have very dear and close friend whom i love like a brother. Great guy. For very casual, goofy, beer & pretzels game of D&D, he's awesome, makes whole table cry from laughing. But for anything more serious, more dramatic, rp heavy, character driven, he is bad fit.

Yep, I know folks who are really great to play with if we’re playing a game that focuses on PC builds or tactics, but are deeply uncomfortable in narrative games or if they have to resolve a spout lore roll in a game like Dungeon World. They’re always spoiling for the next fight, and you can see them get increasingly agitated or bored when the game doesn’t focus on miniature combat.

Gorgon Zee · 2026-03-04T14:49:46+0000

Lanefan said:
I misread this at first and thought you were saying you'd run twenty 30+ year campaigns, making me wonder just how old are you?

Heh. In all honestly, I don’t think I could run the same campaign for a decade even. I understand the appeal of the “I’ve been running the same D&D campaign since I was 12” guys, but for me it would be like always eating the same food for dinner. Sure, I like what I’m eating, but I’d miss out on all the other fun food!

For me, the fun of a campaign is often learning and enjoying a new set of rules. I’m currently finishing up a Pendragon campaign after ~50 sessions, and at session 20 of a One Ring campaign. Both systems have been challenging to learn and run well — in a good way! So for me, I have found that a 6 session mini-campaign is the perfect amount of time to try out a system, and 30-60 sessions seems to be the right amount of time for a full campaign.

Do other people find they have similar sweet spots for campaign / mini-campaign lengths? And are any of you thousand-year-old vampires who like to run 30+ year campaigns?

aco175 · 2026-03-04T14:53:49+0000

Gorgon Zee said:
I also don’t start campaigns without a 6 session trial. I run an arc that can finish comfortably in 6 sessions, and then poll my players to see if they want to continue. That guarantees at least a degree of interest and commitment.

I like this idea, especially for places where you might not have your long time group and know what they like already. I can see a level 1-3 series with plot introduction and things that set up the longer campaign. It is easy to have a few places like Goblin Hideout and Cragmaw Castle with clues to the larger stuff and see if the players like what is going on.

payn · 2026-03-04T14:58:17+0000

Gorgon Zee said:
Do other people find they have similar sweet spots for campaign / mini-campaign lengths? And are any of you thousand-year-old vampires who like to run 30+ year campaigns?

My ideal timeframe and frequency is twice a month for 1.5-2 years. I find that’s an adequate time to pursue a campaign to completion with interesting character development.

Mustrum_Ridcully · 2026-03-04T15:02:16+0000

Morrus said:
GM burnout. Especially when something new and shiny is on the horizon.

I am not even sure it's a burnout, or just "new shiny". I experience that as a player, too, wanting to play a different character because I have found some new interesting character concept or powergaming fantasy or whatever, and so one character gets retired.
And such retired characters can also lead to campaign basically stopping, because the campaign was built around the character (or at least some significant part of it), and the GM doesn't really have good inspiration for what to do without them.

Other factors are easily that the group might just not live long enough. Work or family will sometimes just leave no time for an intense hobby, and even if you still pursue it, you might need to move or the scheduling stops working for the current group. If some key players - or the GM - leave the group, continuing a campaign might not make sense anymore.

Also, ending a campaign can be hard, finding the right way to give justice to the story so far, but also realizing a good time to end it. Because you don't find a satisfying end, you rather put it on hold and do something else, hoping to come back later, but later never comes.

However, consider this: How many TV series are cancelled before the time. (And that was a thing before streaming!). Wouldn't be surprised if it was worse. I don't know how it is about book series, but Song of Fire and Ice is probably not the only one where the author is rather doing something else than trying to finish.

prabe · 2026-03-04T15:40:13+0000

payn said:
My ideal timeframe and frequency is twice a month for 1.5-2 years. I find that’s an adequate time to pursue a campaign to completion with interesting character development.

I've run a couple of D&D 5e campaigns levels 1-20, every other week for 5+ years, and I'm in the middle of a couple more. The first two wrapped up in just over 130 sessions, I'm curious to see if that holds up with the second two.

djotaku · 2026-03-04T16:28:45+0000

Great discussion here. There are also lots of YT videos and articles that talk about the many reasons things fizzle out and ways to keep it from happening.

I think the best thing you can do - don't try to have forever campaigns. Don't try to be BLM or Matt Mercer or anyone else. They are doing a job. They HAVE to be there day in and day out. Your friends/acquaintances do not. Matt Coleville has a nice hour-ish video about how campaigns are "new" in the hobby in the sense of one long story. Before it was just a bunch of adventures chained together so you could always end after any adventure.

Second best thing you can do - make sure scheduling doesn't become the issue it is in every subreddit, enworld thread, etc. Two ways to do this: 1) ALWAYS run your game even if people don't show up or cancel. This respects the people who moved their schedule around to be there. It creates FOMO with those who missed out, especially if you send a summary email after the session. 2) Do not let everyone leave the house or sign off Discord until you have scheduled the next session. This means everyone will have committed to a day that supposedly works for them. This create a social and honor pressure to meet the date. If everyone picked 20 Mar because that's the only day Johnny was available, then Johnny will feel like a jerk if he skips that day. Really, once you have agreed on a date the only reasonable excuses are sickness of player or family member, sickness of GM/GM's family, or something unavoidable like a car accident or if you work the type of job where you don't know your schedule and your boss schedules your shift on top of the TTRPG date.

I think if you do those 2 things you have the best chance of having your adventure and/or campaign finish.

Bonus thing: make your group purposely 1-2 more people than your ideal size so that when one or two of them drop out, it doesn't kill the game. This seriously helped me in my Cosmere campaign.

Not a Decepticon · 2026-03-04T17:04:09+0000

Scheduling issues and system boredroom. I had a strong D&D campaign going but one of players got bored of the system so we switched to Mage. I doubt we will ever pick the D&D game up.

Still, I have somewhat succesful ratio of finished games as a GM - 3 finished campaigns, one likely put on infintie hold so far.