Do you prefer your adventures to be episodic or contiguous?

[Distracted DM]

I've found that my longest campaigns have been both, but at the same time those games have struggled to have satisfying endings— they usually end after a couple years from scheduling issues or they peter out and we start something new. I guess they'd be closer to episodic than contiguous?

The most "satisfying" campaign endings were finite contiguous/continuous adventures (haven't really thought which), Red Hand of Doom and Night Below. I guess RHoD is continuous, TNB is contiguous.

Which do I prefer... I think the answer might be continuous. They're finite. The game will end, but I really don't like taking modern DnD far into tier 3, much less t4... So a game can end satisfyingly with a continuous adventure and will stay relatively on track, it won't last 2-3 years where I struggle to keep my passion for the campaign alive. It'll finish and we can explore something new!

Buuut I always find myself doing contiguous campaigns, because patching together interesting fun modules is sort of what I default to in DnD.

 

[Kromanjon]

Like others have said it depends on the campaign. Straight preferences though I do prefer contiguous conceptually but find episodic to be more doable with adult life infringing on my game time.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I run a contiguous campaign, we are currently on year 9 and in the next year we will likely see the culmination of at least 4 APs (ToD, SKT, DiA and OotA). The campaign is not scheduled to finish but it will be good to close the chapter on these APs.

 

[GrimCo]

For short campaigns, contiguous. For long running campaigns, mixed or episodic. When i say mixed- 2-3 sessions per quest and then on to another, with light thread connecting them. With real life and stuff, there can easily pass few months between sessions ( for instance,we don't play from mid July to mid September , cause of vacations and start of school year). Jumping back into contiguous campaign after long breaks just isn't that practical.

 

[Li Shenron]

Pretty straightforward question. Episodic meaning that the action opens up at a point decided by the DM and closes at a point decided by the DM with indeterminate gaps in between. While contiguous means that the end of the previous session butts up against the start of following session in a continuous stream. At most in an episodic campaign the intervening space might be narrated - what have you been doing in the last three months? - but it certainly wouldn’t be played out. In a contiguous campaign some elements might be glossed over but players largely get to decide what they are doing on a continuous basis.

I like the idea of episodic campaigns but I always seem to slip into a continuous stream. Don’t mean to, it just seems to naturally fall that way.

Ideally neither, but rather a "web" of interconnecting quests running in parallel and crossing each other.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I'd say I run episodic adventures, with the "journey back home" or "return to base" parts tending to be glossed over or handwaved. The PCs do have downtime / between adventures activities after they get back to home base, but those are generally not played out the same way. (I have been known to run an occasional non-adventure adventure during those downtime periods, however.)

Often the downtime is not resolved at the table, but separately, one-on-one, or by correspondence.

My current "Brotherhood of Rangers" campaign is more episodic than games I've run in the past, a few of which have been outright contiguous. Also, it depends on the genre.

 

[coralwave]

most long form campaigns- continuous

for shorter ones- episodic.

also very dependent on the system

 

[DEFCON 1]

Always continuous.

 

[Stormonu]

A bit of both - mostly episodic with an over-arching story in the background that develops and comes more to the fore as the campaign proceeds. Usually the last few sessions are continuous in resolving some significant story path that winds the whole thing up.

A lot more of "previously, such-and-such happened ... and now" than "In our last session..."

 

[Piperken]

Pretty straightforward question. Episodic meaning that the action opens up at a point decided by the DM and closes at a point decided by the DM with indeterminate gaps in between. While contiguous means that the end of the previous session butts up against the start of following session in a continuous stream. At most in an episodic campaign the intervening space might be narrated - what have you been doing in the last three months? - but it certainly wouldn’t be played out. In a contiguous campaign some elements might be glossed over but players largely get to decide what they are doing on a continuous basis.

I like the idea of episodic campaigns but I always seem to slip into a continuous stream. Don’t mean to, it just seems to naturally fall that way.

The campaign I am presently running is continuous, but my prep for it has been episodic i.e. I have been converting or dropping in a plug-and-play one shot or a shorter adventure.

My hope is that with the broadening of the party's agency (i.e. they're in a place now where they've more ability to decide what they would like to do), I can introduce more narrative down beats so in game their characters have more meaningful breaks/down time.

I think I prefer episodes structurally, with longer fictive arcs that are open ended? The episode itself may be a discrete chunk, but at the end, elements from it could continue, get picked up later on, etc.