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

Lanefan · 2026-03-06T21:31:06+0000

Toe Knee Nose said:
For me, that has nothing to do with agency. Spending 3 sessions (twenty HOURS?!? of game play) as a rabbit would be so mind numbingly boring that I would very likely be one of the ones dropping out of the game. Cool idea that would get old REALLY quick.

But, yeah, if you're basically never giving XP, then sure, I guess you can play hundreds of sessions without characters leveling up.

The question then becomes, would this in itself be a bad thing?

What if you started the characters at a certain halfway-competent but still mortal level (say, 6th-ish in 1e or 8th-ish in 5e) and said up front "that's it, there's no advancement in this game, we're instead playing for character, story, and fun". Provided the players can shake things up by retiring one character and bringing in another, that could last for ages with the right group and an engaging setting and-or long-term story or stories (which don't all have to come from the DM).

Warpiglet-7 · 2026-03-06T21:39:03+0000

In my experience, people get bored.

In our youth when we could play frequently, someone would say I would like to play X…usually after things had been stagnant a
While.

Maybe a few weeks break in time and then “let’s play evil guys/good guys/theives/holy rollers” whatever. Someone usually would have a character idea they wanted to try.

Lanefan · 2026-03-06T21:44:35+0000

chuckdee said:
That's just a campaign of Theseus.

The New York Yankees have existed since 1913 (as the Yankees, they were some other name before then). They've turned over their entire player lineup who knows how many times in the 113 years since, never mind ownership and management turnover, and yet they're still very identifiable as the Yankees.

That's how I see a big sprawling campaign. Individual pieces come and go but the underlying identity of the whole remains.

GrimCo · 2026-03-06T21:58:36+0000

I would argue that sports club is more like a setting, but individual seasons with that seasons roster are campaigns. Never watched baseball. But in football analogy, AC Milan is setting. The Invicibles (91-96 under Capello) was campaign, with legendary defensive party of Maldini, Baresi, Costacurta and Tassotti and their epic confrontation and win in 94 CL finals over Cruyff's Barcelona was climax of that campaign. New generation came, new party, new rivalries, new campaigns, but same setting.

The Sigil · 2026-03-06T22:43:24+0000

It's been said previously, but... trying to schedule something with multiple adults is nigh impossible.

payn · 2026-03-06T23:21:46+0000

The Sigil said:
It's been said previously, but... trying to schedule something with multiple adults is nigh impossible.

Dannyalcatraz · 2026-03-07T01:43:50+0000

Toe Knee Nose said:
Something I don't get about these sprawling multi-year campaigns when using D&D (any edition).

How are the PC's not like 100th level?

I was part of a long running campaign that started in AD&D, converted to 2Ed, and fizzled out during the 3Ed PC conversion process.* In that era, there weren’t really good rules on advancing beyond the tables, especially in the context of nonhumans having class level maximums. (Those could be exceeded, but only at great expense.)

So we played our high-level PCs in the campaign with XP getting awarded only on occasion. We also ran mid- and low-level games set in the same campaign world, with the higher level PCs functioning as NPCs in those sessions.

And TBH, it wasn’t an issue. We were basically fantasy superheroes fighting divine avatars in some of the adventures, and more PC levels wouldn’t have really added to the fun. They might have actually reduced it.

* The 3Ed Conversion Guide Booklet was a great help, but there were simply certain PCs that you couldn’t directly translate into 3Ed. Major character revisions would be needed. We settled on modeling PC capabilities rather than precise duplication of character class & level.

Von Ether · 2026-03-07T04:01:35+0000

Staffan said:
I think there's a difference in people's ideas about what a campaign is.

The currently prevailing idea is that a campaign is a specific "story" (even if that story in some cases is mostly apparent in hindsight) featuring a mostly static set of characters. But I think those with super-long campaigns see the campaign as the world itself – more of an eternal soap opera. Characters come and go – some retire, and others semi-retire into positions where they don't do much adventuring anymore, and those characters are replaced by others. So any given character probably doesn't have a huge number of hours under their belt, even if the campaign as a whole does.

Also, back in AD&D leveling up was a lot slower, particularly at high levels. I think I've seen a reference to the expected pace being hitting 9th level ("Name level", where you start considering building a keep/temple/tower/guild) after about a year of regular play, and the pace after that slowing down to about a level per year – partially because of high XP costs, and partially because once you settle down you're going to be doing a lot less of the kind of activities that give you XP.

Agreed. And the word, "campaign" has become more of an adjective than a definitive noun these days.

And honestly, I almost see all the levels D&D offers as a bait and switch, especially when some complain game "X" doesn't support long term play, just how long term are you talking? Because most of us are lucky do a one year game.

My current GM is a completionists and will get every product for a game line but then he will want us to play through it all. He'll have us play every intro adventure available before we play a campaign arc and then wonder why we are either already overpowered or slightly jaded by the time we get to the main course.

AstroArtificer · 2026-03-07T04:09:59+0000

titus171 said:
Thanks man! I definitely learned a lot from you. In case you wanna write about it, I'll send you the the quickstart when it's finalized.

Totally down, feel free to DM me here or on my socials!

aramis erak · 2026-03-07T04:18:32+0000

Toe Knee Nose said:
2 (ish) year campaign and 11th level? Sure, no worries. Totally get that. I'm talking about these ten year plus campaigns where the characters are around 11th level. Heck, my campaigns hit about 11th level at the two year mark. That's totally understandable AFAIC.

That's actually slow by my D&D experience, but we did XP for GP, as well as for magic items, and random treasure... and a 1 level per session hard block on advancement. the dragon killed by first levels meant the next three sessions were a level each...