D&D General How do you deal with long breaks in your campaign?

[not-so-newguy]

Welp, I had to send this message out today:

Sorry guys, but I need to take a break for a month. Start up again in February.

This 100% has to do with Covid safety. I work in a restaurant and this Omicron variant is extremely contagious. We currently have four people out because of exposure (no symptoms yet. Not even sure if they tested positive). Even though i'm vaccinated + booster, I'm limiting my interactions with friends and family. I think it would be smart to wait and see if we have another surge of infections.

In the meantime, I will be messaging fart jokes and pics of my sweetass dungeon tiles.
As always, feel free to ask question or discuss things

I'm grateful we got a chance to play in-person as long as we have, but I'm putting the campaign on hiatus. I said a month, but it may extend beyond that. To be clear, VTT is impossible for us.

So how do you deal with long breaks in your campaign? Do you do anything to keep interest up?

 

[el-remmen]

My two groups have a discord for downtime logistics and activities and we even handle some RP and investigation via chat using individual channels so that when the group reunites several PCs have info or developments to share with everyone else. This is in addition to the wiki we use just to have a record of everything. This is also an opt-in thing individualized thing, so players who just want to wait because any form of online play is not for them don't feel obligated to participate and don't miss out on the main goings-on.

We also played remotely for over a year (not a VTT, I used zoom and a table camera).

 

[not-so-newguy]

My two groups have a discord for downtime logistics and activities and we even handle some RP and investigation via chat using individual channels so that when the group reunites several PCs have info or developments to share with everyone else. This is in addition to the wiki we use just to have a record of everything. This is also an opt-in thing individualized thing, so players who just want to wait because any form of online play is not for them don't feel obligated to participate and don't miss out on the main goings-on.

We also played remotely for over a year (not a VTT, I used zoom and a table camera).

A wiki, now there's an idea that would interest the group.

 

[Lanefan]

A month or two break shouldn't be a campaign-killer by any means.

Email can be your friend here, and there's a few things you can do to keep the game in mind:

--- use email for a group discussion about rules: does the system work for people and if not, what can/should be changed
--- email individual players to sort out any outstanding details regarding their PCs e.g. background fill-in, downtime activities, etc.
--- depending where you are in the campaign (best if it's at a "talky" bit rather than a combat) you could even take a stab at play-by-(e)post.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

 

[el-remmen]

A wiki, now there's an idea that would interest the group.

Here's ours: Ghosts of Saltmarsh+ - Ghosts of Saltmarsh

 

[Yora]

In practice, it usually comes down to starting a new campaign three month down the line.

 

[not-so-newguy]

In practice, it usually comes down to starting a new campaign three month down the line.

I'm running Isle of Dread and the players were planning an ambush. We may rewind things back to the Tanaroan village (their home base.)

 

[aco175]

A month is not that bad. Maybe get an idea where players want to go and get some loose plans made.

 

[Lanefan]

In practice, it usually comes down to starting a new campaign three month down the line.

Both as player and DM I've been involved in campaigns that took breaks of way longer than a month* and then picked up where they left off. The longest I can think of was closer to a year.

* - the most common reason for which back in the day was too many games, not enough nights in the week, thus one or two got squeezed out and shut down for a while.

 

[Yora]

Yeah, a month is really not that long.