DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Until we get tired of the story. If the story goes on, so does the characters and the campaign. Once we get tired of the story and PCs, we move on. Usually this takes 2-5 years IRL.
D&D General How long do you like your campaigns?
For me it depends less on IRL time than it does the story of the campaign. A campaign can have a single story, or multiple story arcs that may or may not connect. Something I hate is when a campaign reaches the conclusion its story, but then continues on aimlessly. An episodic campaign can be fun for a while, but probably not more than a dozen adventures or so.
schneeland
Hero
Typically our campaigns have last about 18 month - after that, they were either finished or people lost interest. Strangely, this seems to apply no matter how often we play (university: once a week; now: more like once a month). So I try to keep campaigns between 12 and 18 month, and occasionally also throw in one or few shots.
R_J_K75
Legend
I prefer campaigns to be relatively shorter rather than years long. I dont run adventures anymore and we've had alot of player turnover over the years for various reasons. So we tend to set a goal with the group of PCs and play until that goal is reached or they die, the campaigns usually dont last past year. Once one campaign is over we start another and dont continue the last though I may throw in a few Easter eggs in from campaigns passed.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
Shorter rather than longer campaigns for me. Life makes stable groups hard to come by, so I won't assume a game can go on longer than a year, if not less. I also like to see story arcs resolve rather than dissolve. The only practical way to address both those is to aim for short campaigns.
Bonus: Short campaigns allow for experimenting with more campaign concepts, different story arcs, other rules systems, and so forth.
Bonus: Short campaigns allow for experimenting with more campaign concepts, different story arcs, other rules systems, and so forth.
R_J_K75
Legend
Tell me about it. The pizza delivery guy was astounded to see us playing actual P&P D&D in my garage. Said him and his father used to play, so we're looking to recruit them. Doubt it'll happen, but you never know.
ccs
41st lv DM
As a player? As long as it's interesting.
If it's going to be a long lv.1 - lv.15+ game I'd prefer it if it weren't all one long plot beginning to end. Such as found in a PF AP. Or one of the 5e adventures. It's not that I don't enjoy larger adventures, but it's not the ONLY thing I want to do with a character.
As a DM? As above, I like to provide a variety & stuff tailored to PC interests/actions. But time wise, after around 18 months or so, wether this campaign will be continuing or not, I need a break. So someone better have something on tap & plan for about 6 months.
If it's going to be a long lv.1 - lv.15+ game I'd prefer it if it weren't all one long plot beginning to end. Such as found in a PF AP. Or one of the 5e adventures. It's not that I don't enjoy larger adventures, but it's not the ONLY thing I want to do with a character.
As a DM? As above, I like to provide a variety & stuff tailored to PC interests/actions. But time wise, after around 18 months or so, wether this campaign will be continuing or not, I need a break. So someone better have something on tap & plan for about 6 months.
the Jester
Legend
I prefer forever, with multiple groups of pcs whose actions influence each other and determine the world's direction and character over time.
EDIT: Just to be clear, my own campaign has been running since the mid-90s and is a sort of successor game to my earlier campaign, which began in the early 80s and ended when the pcs failed to stop Tharizdun from waking up and eating Nature.
EDIT: Just to be clear, my own campaign has been running since the mid-90s and is a sort of successor game to my earlier campaign, which began in the early 80s and ended when the pcs failed to stop Tharizdun from waking up and eating Nature.
Viking Bastard
Adventurer
I'm struggling with this question these days, actually. And I don't really know what I want.
Back in the olden days we'd have long and intricate campaigns, made up of multiple shorter adventures, that would run its course in less than a year. But we were young and carefree and game-obsessed. We would sometimes game for days at a time.
Today, noone has that kinda time, and if I had it, that's not how I would choose to spend it. But a part of me longs for those epic, convoluted messes of campaigns from back when. Last year we finished a just-short-of 5 year long campaign, but with one 4 hour session every two weeks (and it's share of cancelled sessions) and while that was a fun campaign, where I was in part able to recapture some of that "long epic run" of yesteryear, in RL time 5 years was too damn long. It hit a couple of lulls over its run, which hit much harder in the slower, more intermitten, style of play.
We took a hiatus after that as I started working on a follow-up, but I realized I was creating a way too overloaded mess of a thing, crammed to the brim with all the ideas and concepts that I wanted to play with that didn't fit into my last campaign, and it would immediately crash under its own weight.
So I scrapped it and went back to basics. Strong opening adventure (I hope), with a few different options for follow-ups and just see where it goes. Maybe it will be long campaign, maybe it will be a series of one-shots. We'll see. That campaign was supposed to start earlier this year, but alas, the world decided to go down in flames instead.
So yeah. I'm trying to find some middle ground here, I want to run a campaign that's satisfying for me and long enough for everyone to develop their characters, but not something that's half a decade long.
Back in the olden days we'd have long and intricate campaigns, made up of multiple shorter adventures, that would run its course in less than a year. But we were young and carefree and game-obsessed. We would sometimes game for days at a time.
Today, noone has that kinda time, and if I had it, that's not how I would choose to spend it. But a part of me longs for those epic, convoluted messes of campaigns from back when. Last year we finished a just-short-of 5 year long campaign, but with one 4 hour session every two weeks (and it's share of cancelled sessions) and while that was a fun campaign, where I was in part able to recapture some of that "long epic run" of yesteryear, in RL time 5 years was too damn long. It hit a couple of lulls over its run, which hit much harder in the slower, more intermitten, style of play.
We took a hiatus after that as I started working on a follow-up, but I realized I was creating a way too overloaded mess of a thing, crammed to the brim with all the ideas and concepts that I wanted to play with that didn't fit into my last campaign, and it would immediately crash under its own weight.
So I scrapped it and went back to basics. Strong opening adventure (I hope), with a few different options for follow-ups and just see where it goes. Maybe it will be long campaign, maybe it will be a series of one-shots. We'll see. That campaign was supposed to start earlier this year, but alas, the world decided to go down in flames instead.
So yeah. I'm trying to find some middle ground here, I want to run a campaign that's satisfying for me and long enough for everyone to develop their characters, but not something that's half a decade long.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Ideally, open-ended and slow-advancing enough to, if interest holds and the rules system doesn't collapse, last for the rest of my life.
In practice the good ones always make it past ten years. This of course means loads of character turnover and also less-frequent but still significant player turnover as time goes by. Interweaving parties and stories and dramas - think Game of Thrones style - where each "chapter" (adventure or adventure-series) might focus on a different party than the one before.
My current campaign is approaching 11.5 years. There's been a total of 12 players, not including the person who lasted for exactly one session, of which two have been in all the way through from start to now. Something like 200+ PCs have seen action, quite a few of which died quickly, a number more of which "sailed into the sunset" when their players left the game, and about 30-ish of which are still out there either currently* active or available to become so.
* - or would be were it not for disease-caused hiatus.
In practice the good ones always make it past ten years. This of course means loads of character turnover and also less-frequent but still significant player turnover as time goes by. Interweaving parties and stories and dramas - think Game of Thrones style - where each "chapter" (adventure or adventure-series) might focus on a different party than the one before.
My current campaign is approaching 11.5 years. There's been a total of 12 players, not including the person who lasted for exactly one session, of which two have been in all the way through from start to now. Something like 200+ PCs have seen action, quite a few of which died quickly, a number more of which "sailed into the sunset" when their players left the game, and about 30-ish of which are still out there either currently* active or available to become so.
* - or would be were it not for disease-caused hiatus.
Similar Threads
