D&D General How long do you like your campaigns?

[Lanefan]

What system(s) have you used? What are you using now?

Modified 1e all the way along, with modifications slowly ongoing.

 

[ccs]

I own two of them, Storm King (because the first half of my 5-year campaign was all about giants and I thought I could mine it for ideas and encounters, which I did) and Dragon Heist (because I thought a D&D heist sounded cool but, uh, yeah). It's been a while since I read Storm King, but it came off as kind of one-note overall. For such a long thing, I'd like more variety, but I don't have a good idea of how long it actually plays.

I believe SKT took us about 4.5-5 months of weekly 4 hr sessions. We started it roughly mid-August & ended late Jan/early Feb. Of course there were the several obligatory missed sessions over the holidays. And some sessions we were just farting about, on top of already "wasting" roughly an hour of play time each session anyways. So we could've probably shaved off a month if we'd been more serious/focused (but that'd spoil what we enjoy about our sessions....)

Dragon Heist (other than just feeling a bit miffed at it overall because of expectations) comes off as bothersome to run, which defeats the point of using it.

I know that feeling as I'm prepping to run it myself this coming session.
DH.... Has potential.
But it's one of those things that 1st you need to read the entire thing (in this case read most of it 4 times), pull it all apart, throw out the garbage, & reassemble the remaining bits in some order that makes sense to you & would entertain your table. (fortunately I'm pretty good at that)
If you run it straight? As written? You'll have boring disjointed railroady crap.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Depends.

In Star Wars we have a sort of “the campaign never ends” attitude. If 5 years pass between sessions in our Tapani nobles in the Unknown Regions campaign, we just have an ambivalent time jump, and start the session with a hook as if it were a season premiere.

In D&D , for whatever reason, we want a clear story with an ending. Usually we have goals and conflicts that will need high levels to fully resolve, and so games go well into the teens. As for how long they last in real time...couldn’t tell ya. Some are built to be short, telling a specific story arc over 1-5 sessions, while others have lasted a decade, or close to it.

 

[MNblockhead]

A little over a year to two years, playing 8-hour sessions one and rarely twice a month.

I've done milestone leveling where each session or two the players start at a new level with the understanding that years may have gone by and the party is called together one more time to confront some evil or another, with some plot lines that weave across the entire campaign. Allows us to play every level without having to commit to many years of play.

Curse of Strahd was played with modified milestone leveling for staring at 3rd level and ending at 9th. That lasted a bit over year.

Currently I'm running Rappan Athuk (Frog God Games), which started with session 0 in November 2018. The characters are at 8th or 9th level after 20 months of play with about 8 hours play per month. So 160 hours, but probably closer to 180 because some months we played an extra session and some sessions run long. At this rate, it'll take another two years to finish the campaign. If the party gets board with Rappan Athuk we have the entire Lost Lands setting and wealth of associated adventures to choose from.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Well, as an old curmudgeonly grognard here, I can honestly say that the concept of "when does a campaign end?" seems....odd. Probably because it's one of the things...top 5, maybe even top 3...that made me fall in love with RPG's back when I was a wee lad of 10 years old in 1980; "The game never ends..."

I mean, I have a character. Denakhan. He was 'born' in 1981, shortly after I started getting my footing in B/X D&D. I played/DM (we were kids and kinda took turns DM'ing for the first year...then I kinda just 'took the wheel' as DM)...anyway...6 years of constant 'play' later, moving into 1e AD&D, Denakhan is a 20th level Magic-User with a "God-Curse on him to not remember/use any of his Fighter stuff [F/MU]. About 5 or 6 years later, I made new friends and all that. Picked up Denakhan right where I left him (although only as a Player now). A decade or so after that, did a 'three-off' with him (same DM, couple different players)...picked up right where he left off). Right now, I guarantee I could go to my best bud's house and say "Hey, DM me for a few hours. Just wanna roll some dice and whatnot playing Denakhan", and my buddy would pull out the screen, and start with "Last time we played...I think you and Pic just exited the Bath House Dungeon in Birarwood, right? Oh, wait...no. It was a couple days later and that Brown Dragon with the disease-puke-breath showed up and you guys chased it off. Ok. Lets start...". Last time I played Denakhan? About 1997 or so I think?

So...it's the "same campaign", with the same characters, and the same timeline. It never "ends". We've made other PC's and played in that world and timeline. Different stories and whatnot...sometimes hearing of the exploits of our other PC's. It's what makes a "campaign" an actual "Campaign"....and not just s group of adventures that don't matter.

I guess the answer to "How long do you like your Campaigns to last?" would be: Forever.

HOWEVER...if we are just defining a "campaign" as nothing more than a series of adventures with the same 'story/PCs', as a self-contained "one-off campaign"...so a beginning, middle and definitive end... I'd say....two years. That's about right I think. Should be enough time to get a 1e PC from level 1 to about level 10 to 12.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Gorgon Zee]

When it comes to a D&D campaign -- a series of connected adventures with a consistent cast of player characters -- how long do you prefer it go on for?

I like it to be between 50% and 200% of the time that the person who pitched it said it would last. If they say "it's a six-session game where you track down a group of murderers" and we're ten sessions in with no end in sight, I'm disappointed that the GM is unable to control the pacing.If I have spent the time and energy to design a character for a 2-3 year Great Pendragon Campaign, and the GM concludes it in 6 sessions I'm also going to be unhappy.

 

[prabe]

I like it to be between 50% and 200% of the time that the person who pitched it said it would last. If they say "it's a six-session game where you track down a group of murderers" and we're ten sessions in with no end in sight, I'm disappointed that the GM is unable to control the pacing.If I have spent the time and energy to design a character for a 2-3 year Great Pendragon Campaign, and the GM concludes it in 6 sessions I'm also going to be unhappy.

I do not mean to quibble here, but how do you feel if a GM doesn't pitch a campaign length?

 

[TwoSix]

80 to 120 hours, which is 20 to 30 sessions. Then we're off to the next thing.

This. Although I'm starting to favor closer to 20 than 30. I like variety.

 

[Lanefan]

I do not mean to quibble here, but how do you feel if a GM doesn't pitch a campaign length?

Or if the pitched campaign length is 'unknown' or 'open-ended'?

 

[Draegn]

A campaign with a beginning, a middle and an ending.