Campaign Duration

[El Mahdi]

My campaigns last as long as my groups last. I don't plan for an ending in my campaigns. They are ongoing, and last as long as the group lasts. Typically, my groups lasted until I pcs'd, or most of the group had pcs'd (military acronym - stands for Permanent Change of Station - basically when one gets orders and permanently transfers to a new duty location). Now that I'm retired from the military, I'm in unfamiliar RPG territory. So I imagine my current campaign will last as long as I live here, or as long as my group lasts, or I become too old to DM - I figure about age 100.

 

[Akaiku]

Another one for "as long as my group lasts" though with a bit worse a caveat: that time period seems to be about 6 sessions on average with 3 outliers. A slapstick game that ended with "Rocks fall everyone dies no save" after like 3 years, a 'normal' game that ended with saving the world after 7 years, and another game that disintegrated to moving and ooc drama after 2 or 3.

Sadly it seems as if those are moving up the average nowadays.

 

[thastygliax]

I tend to plan for campaigns of indefinite length, but I've also run several one-shots and "mini-arcs" of a handful of sessions. I've run three campaigns that lasted for 3 years: my college AD&D 2E game; a fantasy GURPS game; and the solo BESM game I'm currently running for my wife (my longest at 3.5 years and counting, but that's a very special case). Except for those, my longer-term campaigns usually go for 12-18 months before we have to call an end to it for some reason or other. The one I'm about to wrap (D&D 3.5) is one of the luckier ones: it's ending after 15 months of play because the party has finally cleaned out my huge sandbox-style dungeon!

 

[Sunseeker]

Generally, I run things in the 6 months to the one year category. Given 3 full sessions a month, that's 36 sessions, which is a pretty good time for a short, simple game for me.

When playing, it depends on the pacing. Though I like to keep it 2 years or less, if gaming sessions are irregular, ie: bi-monthly, and missing some of those, I tend to drop the game because honestly, too little gets accomplished for my tastes.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I voted 2-6 years. That is how long my current and previous campaigns have lasted. My current campaign is almost at the 2 year mark and will probably run for another year at least.

The previous campaign actually only lasted 18 months but it only ended due to 2 players quitting the group and the remaining players and myself deciding to start a new campaign. If it had not been for that then the campaign would have gone on for at least another 12 months.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Lanefan]

Ignoring one-offs, the two significant campaigns I've run went 10 years and 12 years. The one I'm on now ought to be good for about that again provided there's people who want to play it.

For the few who run much longer games, I'm curious to hear how you pace it and how you keep it going that long. Nothing perjorative intended. I've just never been in a game that has run anywhere near that long and can only guess how you do it, especially for the over 10 year long ones

A few tips:

1. Slow down the level advancement.
2. Let players cycle characters in and out to mix things up a bit. Better yet, run multiple parties in the same world/campaign and let players and-or characters jump from one to the other now and then.
3. Accept the fact you'll have player turnover.
4. Slow down the level advancement.
5. Spend lots of time on world design, but don't tell the players all of it - let them explore the world slowly. (example: in my current campaign that's been going for coming up three years, my players finally saw the regional [i.e. continent-scale] map only two weeks ago; before that, all they saw were local maps. However, that continent-scale map they just saw was in fact the very first map I drew in the design phase; everything else was based off it)
6. Give the world enough history to be able to mine said history for stories when you need them. Go all the way back to the creation of the universe and birth of the gods if you have to. Come up with 6 or 8 key historical figures and determine how or if their influence is felt today.
7. Storyboard out a projected sequence of adventures and story arcs. It'll never work out like you storyboard it, but it'll give you an idea of whether you've got enough material lined up or not. Also keep a list of stand-alone adventures to one side, for when the players don't go where you expect.
8. Slow down the level advancement.
9. Give the players time to explore if they want to. Never rush from combat to combat without filling in some details about what they see in between and-or giving them choice about which way to go. (this depends somewhat on your group's preferences and whether you have to lead 'em around or not)
10. Right from square one, tell yourself you'll run this campaign till you drop.
11. Whatever edition or system you start with, stick with it all the way through. Suggestion here says go old-school; the newer editions just aren't as well suited for long campaigns and to make them work you'll have to put in a lot more effort.
12. Did I say to slow down the level advancement? Even if you do nothing else, doing this one thing will greatly extend your campaign.

Lanefan

 

[Bluenose]

Typically I plan for about twenty sessions. We'll usually get that done playing every other week in about a year. If we're trying a new game, two or three sessions is typical.

 

[Joshua Randall]

If I discount the abortive "campaigns" that went nowhere, then I'm perfectly average, with my campaigns typically in the ~18 month range.

Which is exactly what WotC's market research showed in the lead-up to 3e, IIRC.

I do think that the 4e DMG has some of the best advice ever in one of its sidebars: "Know where your campaign is going, and don't be afraid to end it when you get there." Whether that's 3 months or 30 months doesn't matter.

 

[karlindel]

It depends on how you define campaign. Also, an average can be misleading as my games will rarely come at the average.

There are 3 main game lengths for games I run or play in: One shots (probably don't count as campaigns), mini-campaigns (generally 4-8 sessions), and long term campaigns (if they get off the ground, they tend to last about 2 years).

 

[Ulrick]

My longest campaign ran for around 11-12 years. The players were close friends who all got along. The campaign ended because of real world obligations.


My shortest campaign lasted for 30 minutes. The players were a bunch of mooks who sabotaged the campaign in the very first encounter where they attacked an administrator (who was a source of information) who was under the protection of the local baron. The players thought I was being unfair when I had the town guard show up and try to arrest them. After a few minutes of arguing, I folded up my DM's screen, packed up my books, and left.