GMs: How long is your typical campaign?

[Lord Mhoram]

I voted the 5 to 10. I've had one game run 13 years, a couple that ran in the 89 year catagory. Playing in a couple that are 5 or 6 years long.

The wife games as well. We do solo play. I ran some 1st Ed D&D characters for her from '86 until 3rd Ed came out. She's running a character of mine that has has been played (off and on) for 18 years.

I don't even feel like I know my character, personality, motivation, tactics, abilities etc... until about the 6th or 8th session.

In our group any game that is under 2 years is generally considered a failure.

 

[Evilhalfling]

6 months to a year is my most common length. 3-6 months is the second most common. A high school game ran 2 years, then restarted a few years later, and lasted another year.

My longest running 3.X game lasted a year going fro 2nd-12th level. We took a year off for other campaigns and other DMs then restarted for another 7 months 13-20th.

I get restless after 3 months of not running a game, apparently I'm addicted to DMing. This limits the length of games I am willing to play in, but my group does not seem to mind.

My Online games seem to run about six months. For these I plot a single clear story - 3 encounters and a conclusion, with the option to renew.

 

[Bluenose]

I voted for 6 months to a year, because that's how long I usually run any particular campaign for. But the same characters may make a return in a later campaign, and almost every game I run for my home group is in the same setting and often involves the consequences of the previous campaigns. Sometimes it's set a year or so later with the same characters, sometimes it's a generation later with their children (or entirely new characters) and sometimes it's contemporary events happening in a different part of the world (though I'll try to make some reference to the other events. If that makes it one campaign, then it's been going 28 years.