GMs: How long is your typical campaign?

[Fallen Seraph]

I've run a mess of one-shots and three finished campaigns: one 2 years, one 3 years (before I handed it off to another DM), and one 16 years. I'm currently running two 4e campaigns that I expect to be 6 years long each.

Piratecat from reading your ongoing plot and how your weaving a fun story I wonder with your multiple year campaigns. Do you stick with a single story arc the whole way through, or is it less the campaign is the story arc and more simply the stories the PCs get involved in.

I also wonder how you keep the feel of the campaign. This is one of my biggest reasons for running 6 month to a year campaign. I find running another story after a previous one can mess up the mood, themes, atmosphere established in that story and that is also the focus of the setting. Maybe I am just really over-possessive of such aspects but that really bugs me.

 

[C_M2008]

I tend to lose focus(or get bored) and get distracted with other material after 1-2 years of running the same campaign so that is typically the maximum length of any game I run.

 

[Mallus]

1-5 years.

Our 4e campaign, let's call it The Chronicle of the Codpiece God, is 6 months old and going strong (this Friday we righteously kill the world's worst playwright!).

Our on-hiatus 3.5e campaign, which is the basis for the Chronicle of Burne, and Some Others of Lesser Importance Story Hour, is 4.5 years old and in need of finishing.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

The longest campaign I ever did was 2 years long. On average, my campaigns last 1 year... Unless you count the fact that my campaigns follow the same back story and exist in the same game world that has been altered by the last games PCs actions. If that's the case then I started my "Campaign at age 12 and it's still going.

 

[thatdarnedbob]

Since I've run a college game for the past few years, my campaigns have been all approximately nine months long, although the last two have been with mostly the same players in the same campaign world. I've played in a few shorter ones as well, though I'm looking forward to getting some stability and starting a campaign that will last for a much longer time.

 

[weem]

1-5 Years here

Though I have never had a campaign go over 2 years, I had one go up to 2 years and a few others go 1-1.5.

For me, 1.5 - 2 years is probably perfect at the current rate we play (2 times a month or more).

 

[Lanefan]

I voted "5-10 years" but on reflection probably should have voted "10+ years"; I design for 5-10 but they seem to run about 10-12.

I'd be really interested in seeing a corollary poll to this one where it is asked:
"GM's, when designing an average campaign, how long do you intend it to run?" Design reflects intent, and I sometimes wonder with all these short campaigns I hear about whether they're intentionally designed to be short, or instead designed to run longer but dying early for other reasons.

@thatdarnedbob - I'd count those last two as one campaign, particularly if there was any character/story overlap.

Lanefan

 

[El Mahdi]

All of my campaigns have been in the few months to a year category. Having been in the military until recently, the groups I was a part of were mostly fellow military. Due to permanent change of stations (PCS or reassignments) and Temporary Duty assignments (TDY - deployments), high turnover in the groups was the norm. (Especially in Korea, everyone I gamed with - except for me - would be there on one year tours. I was there for 4 1/2 years - guess I was just a glutton for punishment.)

Now that I'm retired and actually settled down for an extended period of time, I'm hoping to put together a stable group of 4 to 6 people and run a much more extended campaign. I should finally get the chance to play around with all of those ideas I've had bouncing around inside my head.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I'd be really interested in seeing a corollary poll to this one where it is asked:
"GM's, when designing an average campaign, how long do you intend it to run?" Design reflects intent, and I sometimes wonder with all these short campaigns I hear about whether they're intentionally designed to be short, or instead designed to run longer but dying early for other reasons.

While I can't say for everyone obviously for myself it is very much intentionally. I run my campaigns and develop my settings to unveil the story. Once that story is done the campaign is done and a new campaign and setting is developed for a new story.

While the time that it takes for a story arc to finish can vary I find 6 months to a year is about the norm.

 

[kitsune9]

Hello Game Masters!

I'm curious to know what the proportion of short-run to long-term games there are. If you are a GM, please respond to this poll by selecting the option that best describes your game (or games). The options are fairly self-explanatory. If you're unsure, just pick the one that seems right to you.

All game masters are encouraged to respond to the poll, no matter the game system you use or the length of your game.

And, of course, you're also welcome to tell us about your game!

Thank you for your participation.

For me it's 2 to 2.5 years with an average of 8 hours played every two weeks going from 1st to low 20's.

I recently ran the Age of Worms set in Kingdoms of Kalamar and that took 3 years and went from 1st to 22nd level when it ended.

The campaign before that was a short one as we wanted to start fresh when 3.5 came out so I ended at 11th level with Banewarrens as the end game.

The campaign before that was capped with Tomb of Horrors (converted the 2nd edition box set) which ran for 2.5 years and it ended at 24th level.

My current campaign uses Pathfinder ruleset set in Kingdoms of Kalamar, but I'm writing this campaign which I plan to end around 15th level. I expect that it will take 2 years.