Help! I lost interest in my campaign... again!

[Obergnom]

Okay,

I need help! Seriously... last week, something happend that happens to me again and again. I lost interest in my campaign. Burn Out? I doubt that. I love to DM. I just really have a problem with staying focused. I read something, and think, hey, I want to play a game like that... hmm, seems like I need to restart my game to achieve that...

Well, it certainly did not help that I had to invest 4 hours into treasure distribution before last session because my players need a total of 75k gp until they reach level 9. (Each of them is roughly 15k behind the sugested wealth for level 9 and they finished the first quarter of level 8 allready.)
And, last session did not went very well... but the session befor that one was fantastic, so I do not think that is really the problem.

This is what happend in my campaign so far:

The characters were drawn into the story to end a threat to Cormyr. They were send to kill a Hill Giant leader, who was uniting the giant tribes into a mighty army, that could overrun the kingdom. They were able to slay him, but discovered he was actually possessed by a Vrock demon.
At the same time, the kingdom is threatend by civil war, as many nobles refuse to follow the infant king any longer and try to use the giant invasion for their own goals. The invasion started, allthough the players were able to kill the leader of the Hill Giants. There must be someone else behind all this.
A mighty divination (Locate Creature) told them, the Vrock teleported to Mirth Galnorn. (The Name is in Drow, meaning refuge of revenge.) As they severly offended Baron Teuselle, a local noble and bastard descendent of the old King of Cormyr who was about to take over the town of Tilverton(The groups homebase) and all of eastern Cormyr, the small group of loyal followers of the crown (The local captain of the purple dragons, some old adventurers/now inn keeper, an elven Magic Item Shop owner, the local high priests of Gond and Sharress and the local sage) decided, it would be the best course of action, to send the Party of Adventurers into the underdark trying to find the Demon and maybe the true head behind the giant invasion, while they try to work on the political floor, weakening the baron in anyway they can.
The party started their descent into the underdark (Following a map they got from a lokal priest of gond), so far they passed the Grotto of the Troglodytes, making more enemies, by letting their Mind Flayer "Leader" escape.
After that, the players continued their descent and after a long time and some dangerous encounters, they finally arived at Earth' End, a place run by earth creatures, who go there to leave fearun behind, traveling through the local portal into the Elemental Plane of Earth.
The players did some information gathering, they discovered the likely location of the drow outpost. THe learned, for non earth creatures, to activate the portal a substance called "pure hope" is needed. "Pure Hope" is a very valuable substance, usually a gift from creatures living on the plane of Elysium, but the Kuo-Toa of Bhal-Hamatung trade with it, too. No one knows how theese creatures are able to harvest "Pure Hope"...
The characters traveled into the direction of the drow outpost, and the next session will probably see a lot of fighting against the inhabitants of the Drow Outpost.

(More about that can be found here: LINK )

Well, to be honest, I think I have a solid story going on, and after the drow outpost I planed to shove my players into Expedition to the Demonweb Pits... but... I seem to have lost the highlights... I somehow lost sight of things to look forward to.
I run this very story intensive and linear campaign, because some of my players prefere that style... I myself, while able to come up with stuff like that, allways have a problem with keeping my interest in campaigns like that. (I was a player in Red Hand of Doom, and hated it. The best module I was ever player in? Vault of Larin Karr)

I want player input into my game. I want them to build castles or buy an inn. I want them to supprise me. They usually do nothing like that. They are like ultimate consumers. (This difference in style originates in me having had a totaly different group of players for years, before moving out of my home town to go to university.)

It is not like all players in my current group are uninteressted in contributing. The guy who DMed Vault of Larrin Karr for example likes a free ride style, but he is not the kind of player that defines a groups style. He rather goes with the flow and is okay with that.

A good friend of mine, who is DMing the group I played with before moving, put it like this: "You have the perfect group to run any campaign you want. They will never make you change anything. They will never ruin your plots. You can plan today what to do in 6 month." - He was right, and I really hate that. How boring is that?

So, after boring you with all this, some questions.

Do you loose interest in your own campaigns sometimes? How to recover?

What would you do to change my campaign into a more "free form / site based style" ?

 

[Erywin]

Kinda funny, this happens to me every once in awhile with the campaign I run. The players are very much like your group I think. I can plan 6 months ahead and not have to change a thing along the way, they just follow the plot like good little adventurers. Now this is great from a planning perspective but I always wish they would get more into the game, still haven't figured out how to do this and it kinda frustrates me For character backgrounds, I usually have to club them over the head with plot hooks... (We ended up doing backstory sessions to flesh out the current PC backgrounds, worked to some extent, gave me a bunch of bad guys to play with ) If I find anything that works, I will let you know. But for now, don't be discouraged, write up some interesting encounters/hooks that you enjoy making and throw them at the PCs, see how they respond and work from there.

Cheers,
E

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Stop creating "campaigns." Run adventures set in the same setting. That way, if you decide you loooooove the githyanki next week, you don't have to end The Campaign to do it. Just have a githyanki adventure.

 

[kaomera]

Okay,

I need help! Seriously... last week, something happend that happens to me again and again. I lost interest in my campaign. Burn Out? I doubt that. I love to DM. I just really have a problem with staying focused. I read something, and think, hey, I want to play a game like that... hmm, seems like I need to restart my game to achieve that...

I get this too. For me I think there is an element of "burnout" to it. There seems to be tendency for a lot of the people I've gamed with in the last few years to want to just "go with the flow" and follow along on whatever story I'm trying to tell. (Compounding the problem is that they do want a story. Just running a series of unrelated adventures bores them. There is a middle-ground, but it's hard for me to consistently achieve.) I tend to put a lot of work into creating a cool setting, and I then expect the players to go out and create adventures in it. Having to push a story along adds to my work and tends to frustrate me, which leads to the effort:fun ratio going in the wrong direction, and that's where the burnout comes in. (So, not exactly the same situation you're finding yourself in, but close.)

I find that taking a few weeks off can help. It may work better if you plan these breaks, and have something in mind to do in the off time (board games, etc). Running shorter campaigns with a definite ending point could help, but for me (and my players) it's proved unsatisfactory. You could try giving the PCs a mobile base like an airship or a spell-jammer. This would let you tie adventures together a bit, while still being able to go off to another area for a different kind of adventure...

One of the most frustrating things I have found with my group is that they want to have recurring NPCs, but won't do anything to actually encounter the same people again. Specifically, they will travel to new cities / locations, effectively changing the setting of the game, and then expect that all of the NPCs from the previous setting should still be "in play". I've given serious thought to introducing some kind of D&D cel-phone to the game somehow.

 

[jdrakeh]

One of the most frustrating things I have found with my group is that they want to have recurring NPCs, but won't do anything to actually encounter the same people again. Specifically, they will travel to new cities / locations, effectively changing the setting of the game, and then expect that all of the NPCs from the previous setting should still be "in play". I've given serious thought to introducing some kind of D&D cel-phone to the game somehow.

Your players probably assume that the NPCs travel, too. You obviously have decided that they're firmly planted at fixed locations. I think that you may need to quit treating your NPCs like pre-determined dungeon encounters and start treating them like living, breathing, people who may, on occassion, move about

 

[kaomera]

Your players probably assume that the NPCs travel, too. You obviously have decided that they're firmly planted at fixed locations. I think that you may need to quit treating your NPCs like pre-determined dungeon encounters and start treating them like living, breathing, people who may, on occassion, move about

I'd prefer to think that I'm thinking of them as living, breathing, people who may, on occasion, stay put; rather than pre-determined hangers on who follow the PCs across continents just in case they might be needed...

 

[Mercule]

Stop creating "campaigns." Run adventures set in the same setting. That way, if you decide you loooooove the githyanki next week, you don't have to end The Campaign to do it. Just have a githyanki adventure.

This is my advice, too. It's a revelation I've had recently. I'm about halfway through a three+ year campaign that was supposed to be a farewell to my 25 year old homebrew. Great, world shaking events and all that.

Well, I had most of the arc planned out in my head and it seemed really great. Unfortunately, it's playing out long after I've wrapped it up in my mind, and the ongoing prep work is a killer. I finally realized that I'm getting burned out because I've already told the story to myself and I'm just dragging the players along (occasionally, kicking and screaming) with me.

My next campaign will go one of two ways. Either completely from a "campaign in a box" or completely loose. I'm running a secondary campaign, using Age of Worms, and actually enjoying that one more than my primary game. I'd scrap the primary if I (and the players) didn't have so much invested in it.

 

[Obergnom]

I gave the whole thing a few more thoughts. First, I really love creating a setting. Not homebrew worlds, but bringing a setting to life, creating NPCs on the fly, the players will remember and interact with.

My campaign startet out in Tilverton. I have put work into the Gond Temple (and Olaf, its High Priest), the players "love" to be raised from the dead by the priestesses of Sharess (The Goliath even converted after that experience...). They like the ExAdventurers who run their favorite Pub, the Captian of the Purple Dragons has got this old, wise policeman thing going on and they loath the Baron who tries to overthrow the king. These were some of the best parts of my campaign, and I created them on thy fly. No prep work at all.

Everything was good, but I was to embeded into the idea of running a campaign at that time. So I sticked to my plan, my bad, have to see how to get out of that one.

What I really dislike though (and was a reason why I, at that time, thought the trip to the underdark might be a good idea) is, these NPCs (even in the players eyes) have more character, style or however you want to call it, than most of the PCs. They have more motivations too. I'm quite tired of players playing to "level up". I just do not know how to change that. They seem unable to develop motives of their own... I thought (as this was allways the case with my old group) sticking the PCs together without anyone to talk to, presenting interesting challenges, but no "do RP with the DM" encounters, would make them act out their characters among each other. (Base of this thought: I can understand them not doing so much RP among each other, when half the session is consumed by RP with NPCs, because they want to get to the action, too. But I thought, if I do not present them RP opportunities, they would create those themselfs. It has allways been so in the group I grow up with. But they do not seem to feel the urge to have at least one memorable line per evening.)

Stop creating "campaigns." Run adventures set in the same setting. That way, if you decide you loooooove the githyanki next week, you don't have to end The Campaign to do it. Just have a githyanki adventure.

Yep, would be a good idea. It is just, that my players want to be told a story. And stupid me, gave them what they wanted...



We need solutions!

Okay, some ideas I came up with. Please give me your thoughts:

All involve: Stick to the plot, until they finish the Drow Outpost.

The question is, where to go from there?

1. Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. My original plan. The easy solution, but I fear I might not be able to finish it.

2. Do the basic EttDP thing, but stretch it, make Sigil the campaigns knew homebase. What I like about that? I allways wanted to do a Planescape Campaign. What I dislike? I think my players would feel cheated. They went to the underdark to stop the Giants. They would not stay in Sigil if there is nothing immediately related to the Invasion to do there.

3. After the Drow Outpost is done, so is the whole plot. The giant invasion is over. The players may return to the surface and do what they like. For me, that would mean, start from scratch.

4. Variant of 3. Use Against the Giants - Liberation of Geoff for a Cormy overrun by giants while the players were in the underdark scenario. Drawback? It is a campaign, again. Advantage. They players would be forced to finally do something on their own initiative. I would not give them some Commander who decides for them what to do. I would simple have them emerge from the underdark and see that during the month they stayed there, Cormyr has been overrun. They have the opportunity to be part of the resistance, or they could leave this contry behind.

What do you think? 3 seems to be the best immediate solution. 4 seems to be a bit of a gamble. It could maky my players help create a story instead of just consume, but it could totaly overwhelm them. I have no idea how to pull 2 without telling my players "THis is the deal, the old campaign is over, we play in and around Sigil now". 1 might work only, if I find a good way to motivate my players to contribute more. Just running though that adventure would bore me, I guess.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd prefer to think that I'm thinking of them as living, breathing, people who may, on occasion, stay put; rather than pre-determined hangers on who follow the PCs across continents just in case they might be needed...

Well, in that case, you'll need to come up with some reason for the PC's to stay put as well. For example you can base the adventures/campaigns all around one city - or give the PC's some non-game-breaking ability to travel away from home for the adventure and then return. I've found that this does the trick very nicely.

 

[White Whale]

Do you loose interest in your own campaigns sometimes? How to recover?

What would you do to change my campaign into a more "free form / site based style"?

What if you at the beginning of the campaign/adventure tell the PCs the entire plot (through an NPC, background stories, prophesies...). That's it! You haven't planned anything else. Now it's up to the PCs to find a way to overcome the problem. Essentially, you will need a problem with several ways to solve.

Of course, unless you are an exceptional DM you need some prep time. So when the PCs have made a plan, end the session and make encounters according to their plan. Alternatively, present the plot by email, let your players decide upon what to do, and then plan.