Failed Campaigns

[pogre]

Has not happened for several years, but my best example would be collapsed under its own weight I think - tried to run Ars Magica with a group that just wanted to show up and play. For me, Ars is not that kind of game. So, I went back to WFRP and all was well.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I have had only one campaign fail. I have had quite a few end in a TPK, but that is simply a hazard of the hobby.

The one I had fail was a Gamma World 1st ed game (80-81, IIRC) One PC managed to wipe out the party (all but one PC) while I was finishing up the flavor text for the campaign start-up.

Physical violence then ensued.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I have had only one campaign fail. I have had quite a few end in a TPK, but that is simply a hazard of the hobby.

The one I had fail was a Gamma World 1st ed game (80-81, IIRC) One PC managed to wipe out the party (all but one PC) while I was finishing up the flavor text for the campaign start-up.

Physical violence then ensued.

Sounds like Total Player Kill

 

[BookTenTiger]

I designed a 5e game based on Dogs in the Vineyard, but with the idea that the characters are knights hunting the demons and their worshippers who cause plagues.

Whenever a mortal makes a deal with a demon, it creates an opportunity for disease. Pox, blight, madness, all these are signs that a devil has infested a community.

The characters would show up in a plague-infested town and try to figure out who was making a deal with a devil. They'd find the devil and battle it, banishing it or trapping it in an object or small beast. Then the plague would end, and the town would be saved.

I called it Plague Dogs.

I threw together a group of six friends and played out four sessions, completing one adventure. The problem was that nobody could commit to multiple sessions in a row, so by the end of the adventure each player had only been to 1, 2, or 3 sessions. I was the only one who had witnessed the entire adventure.

That's where the campaign died...

I still want to bring it back some day! Of course, this was before COVID so I'm not sure how it would feel running it now!

 

[Jd Smith1]

Sounds like Total Player Kill

It was mind-boggling, to be honest.

 

[GwaihirAgain]

I wish my players would give that kind of feedback. I get a chorus of 'whatever you feel like running'.

Sometime I feel like there is a disconnect between the game group I want and the game group I have...

So true.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

TPK
TPK
TPK

A couple failed to launch (mostly the ones I run because my ideas aren't fleshed out enough to support a whole campaign.)

The longest two just ended because we moved away and, back in the day, the technology wasn't there to support online play.

 

[aco175]

I seem to have campaigns that maybe not fail, but fizzle. A lot of the recent campaigns come to a natural place to end them and we continue playing them. So, I create a new arc to last a few levels to try and play on something from a backstory or a piece of the campaign that was overlooked or forgotten about. This might be cool or ok, but after a while one player, mostly my father, get tired of playing the higher levels (10-14) and wants to start a new campaign.

We had one 4e campaign that I created that failed in concept. We had another player at the time that could only meet every other week or three, so I created a campaign where the PCs are part of an adventurer's guild and each player created 3 PCs and each week we would have a closed game lasting just one night. The idea was to play all three PCs on a rotating basis and create varied parties each week. The regular players all kept picking the same PCs and the random player stopped coming after a few months, so we just made a longer campaign with the 'normal' group of PCs.

 

[payn]

I seem to have campaigns that maybe not fail, but fizzle. A lot of the recent campaigns come to a natural place to end them and we continue playing them. So, I create a new arc to last a few levels to try and play on something from a backstory or a piece of the campaign that was overlooked or forgotten about. This might be cool or ok, but after a while one player, mostly my father, get tired of playing the higher levels (10-14) and wants to start a new campaign.

We had one 4e campaign that I created that failed in concept. We had another player at the time that could only meet every other week or three, so I created a campaign where the PCs are part of an adventurer's guild and each player created 3 PCs and each week we would have a closed game lasting just one night. The idea was to play all three PCs on a rotating basis and create varied parties each week. The regular players all kept picking the same PCs and the random player stopped coming after a few months, so we just made a longer campaign with the 'normal' group of PCs.

The fizzle struggle is real.

 

[johndesmarais]

The fizzle struggle is real.

I think the fizzle may just an omnipresent potential when playing with people who have "adult life" commitments to work around.