Do you suffer from Post Campaign Depression?

[Darth Mikey]

Post Campaign Depression???

I just shut down my Star Wars D20 game and I almost did a little happy dance.

It ran for the better part of three years and as the gm I was not happy for most of them.

The players had problems with the restrictiveness of the system and I had problems coming up with scenarios, but the final nail in the coffin was when I realized that another player was deliberately manipulating both myself and the game.

Needless to say, he will not be able to do that again.

So, I'm glad that you are able to look back fondly on a game, even if it is over.

It sounds like you guys had a great run and that you did a great job as a GM. Congrats!!!

 

[Gold Roger]

So far I didn't have a chance to. Even our longest running campaigns where stopped to fast to really create the feeling, though a FR campaign run up to level 5 that was ended untimely for Eberron and a Eberron campaign run by a friend till a TPK at 7 and a bit more came close (campaign was "rebooted twice"). If I get enough sessions from my current one together I will suffer from a massive PCD though. It's a campaign world that I will propably never use again even though so far it oozed with just the right atmosphere. Granted, it will not only be the point where I end a campaign, but will also part way with all my friends(!!!), but it will still be hard loosing the campaign, never able to finish any of the bazillion story-threads I've woven at that time, made worse by the fact that I'll propably be unable to play for nearly a year after that.

 

[Thanee]

No depressions, just fond memories and the chance to try something new.

Bye
Thanee

 

[pogre]

My WFRP campaign ran for about five or six years before I ended it. It stopped an a high point, but yeah, I know what you mean about being at loose ends a little bit.

 

[scourger]

The amount of PCD I have is directly related to how the campaign ends and how much work I've put into it. A player boycott is the worst ending--when the players just stop attending a game. Thankfully, that's only happened to me once. One other game suffered nearly the same fate, but we sort of stuck it out. It was still unsatisfying (and a little depressing) because I put a lot into it. My solution is to minimize my investment of time & effort when I run a game. It feels much better to me to have a game succeed with minimal preparation than an even bigger success requiring more time & effort. I've also noticed that mini-campaigns have better satisfaction for me. One of the many books on GMing I've read suggested that a campaign needs to have a beginning and an end. So, I have an end on mind for my currrent game. I hope we're nowhere near it--maybe about 1/4 or 1/3 of the way after 6 sessions--but I will end once the heroes unravel the big mystery(ies?). I would like for the heroes to go on to other campaigns set in the future, but that's really putting the cart before the horse. I just need to address if & when we're playing next week.

So, I wouldn't have much PCD for a game such as yours that lasted so long and ended so well. I would miss the world of ERB, though. The immediate cure for you, I suggest, is to take a break and enjoy some non-GMing time to read, ponder and plot for your next game. Maybe enjoy playing for a spell. Read a new game system. These are things I enjoy between GMing.

 

[Mark Hope]

Anyone else suffer from PCD? Any tips or tricks on how to avoid it? Or should I just embrace, suffer and pass through this necessary period of my life?

Aah, the old post-campaign blues. If nothing else, they are a sign that you have crafted something magical - leaving it behind can only be poignant. Take a moment to bask in the glow.

I ran a D&D homebrew campaign that ran for 18 years straight, through three editions of the rules. Players came and went, but the final decade was pretty much a stable core group. When that ended, I missed it but I was also glad that it was over. Over that period of time, the campaign had developed its own set of styles and conventions and I was glad of the opportunity to craft something new and fresh that was totally free of those restrictions. I had also brought the game to a resounding finale and so was able to walk away with no lingering regrets or desires to have done something differently. It was a truly magnificent experience, but, as the saying goes, all good things...

Finishing that campaign gave me the time to get involved with the Dark Sun 3e project, for example, something I would never have had time for otherwise. It also allowed me to inject fresh life into my World of Darkness chronicle (which is now in its 10th year). And it also gave me the freedom and insight to develop another homebrew, which I am much more excited about than I have been about any other game that I have ever run.

To me, the post-campaign period is not one of depression - it's one of fond reflection, of celebration and of delicious anticipation of what is to come. As another saying goes, the more you do it, the better it gets...

 

[Theron]

Two of my past campaigns (played in, not GMed) ended due to inter-group personality meltdowns. After the first, I didn't feel like gaming at all for nearly two years. The most recent kept the remaining players away from the table for about a year and a half (I've just kicked off a new campaign for three of the old players and two new guys). Personally, if this one winds down in an amicable manner a year or so from now, I will be overjoyed.