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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 3985672" data-attributes="member: 7006">I think you're all missing my point.  I'm not saying that long games aren't possible... of course they are.  I'm DMing one and am playing in two right now.  But what I'm saying is that we have cultivated this mentality here at ENWorld that any game a DM puts together is expected to be thousands of posts and run for years on end.  They decide they want to run a game and have set it up in their mind that it's going to be this long-term thing either by stating outright their own rules on things like prestige classes (even when their game is starting at Level 1), or choosing daunting tasks like trying to run Return To the Temple of Elemental Evil, Age of Worms, or other huge modules.As Malvoisin himself said "I guess my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, to use a metaphor from the culinary world."  And this is true for probably 95% of every single game that gets started here.  Only 1 out of 20 games will ever actually reach probably a year of posting... it's just a fact of life here on ENWorld.  Would it be nice if every game that was started and advertised as a multiple-leveling big module campaign actually went the distance?  Of course!  But the fact is that it (mostly) DOES NOT HAPPEN.What exactly is wrong with trying to cultivate a culture here that tells potential DMs that it's okay to run a small adventure that shouldn't probably last more than one to three months?  Because it is a much easier bite to swallow... both the players and the DMs know they only have to last a short while so that if the game isn't going well on either side, they can at least see their actual end-point and make a decision to possible stick it out to the end... and if- *IF*- that first game finishes just as the DM advertised and everyone was happy, the decision could be made THEN to continue.  And the players all get the satisfaction of knowing that they actually finished at least one game they've ever played in.But you cannot tell me that DMs advertising most of their games on ENWorld as long-term events only to see them die out within a month because the players and/or the DM flaked out is a good thing.  Because it isn't.  It sucks.  And it's all because we keep setting unrealisitic goals for ourselves and people end up feeling guilty and bolting when they cannot reach them.So please, for the love of God and to whomever is reading this (especially players who have never DM'd a PbP game here before)... just because a few games here on ENWorld are a thousand posts long, it does not mean that your HAS to do that too.  Don't bite off more than you can chew.  Start small.  Find out if DMing is really your speed on a short adventure that is only meant to least maybe lasts a couple months.  Find out if the players you chose for your adventure are mature enough to keep posting and not disappear.  Find out if you can actual finish something you start.  And then if/when that happens... THEN decide to pull Return To Undermountain off your shelf to run for five years here.  And if you're lucky, you'll maybe reach the end of Year One before it also dies a slow, painful death.</blockquote>

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