How long do your D&D 3.X campaigns tend to last?

[Bardsandsages]

I tend to run campaigns with epic storylines, and they will run a year or so at a time. The shortest campaign I ever ran was a RIFTs game. It lasted four months, then I just couldn't take it any more. I'd look up something in a book and it would say "This power works exactly like (fill-in-the-blank)". But the fill-in-the-blank power was explained in ANOTHER book. So if I went to that book, it would give a brief description and then say "see X power for more information." But X power was explained in ANOTHER book.

I just couldn't take it anymore and scrapped the whole game.

 

[diaglo]

edit: since the poll has changed my answer is no longer valid. i withdraw my post.

 

[delericho]

They either fold very quickly, at level 2 or so, or they run for some months.

To date, I have two campaigns that reached levels 11-13, and one that reached level 19, since the start of 3e. There have been numerous other games, but I don't count the ones that failed (nor the one-offs, non-D&D games, or anything else I've been involved in).

 

[ThirdWizard]

Campaign 1: 12th level and still going (4 years running, started in 2e and converted)
Campaign 2: 22nd level or thereabouts (4 years running)
Campaign 3: 5th level (nobody liked it so it was canned early) (6 months running)
Campaign 4: 10th level (player moved away so it was canned early) (2 years running)

So, if we get a campaign going that we like ala #1 (which I have plans for epic) or #2 (which hit epic), then we take it really high level. If we don't like the campaign, we have no qualms about just ending it.

 

[Yair]

Lately, my campaigns seemed to last about one adventure. Which is why I retired from active DMing for a while...

 

[Kid Socrates]

My campaign has gone from 1st to 15th level, and is going very strong. My average is pulled way down from the one-or-two-levels-gained campaigns that everyone else has run over the last few years, with the game ultimately falling apart for some reason or another.

 

[penance]

usually, i start my characters between 3-5th, and they go till maybe 10th. my RL campaigns usually are not with very experienced DnD'ers, so I have to fight to hold their attention and choose mostly simple storylines.

That part of the reason I'm very much so looking forward to the PbP thread im starting up; people that understand my complex storylines! Wonderful!

 

[Patlin]

I think 11 to 15 is typical (modal), but 16 to 20 is average (mean) given the campaigns that have gone epic.

 

[Cor Azer]

I think it averages out to 4-6 levels for me, but I actually have very few that actually fall in that range. Much like new tv series that don't get picked out, a lot of our campaigns get 1-2 levels under their belt and then get dropped because folks aren't getting into the campaign, but occasionally we'll hit a gem that runs up to the 16-20 range.

 

[eric mcloins]

The pcs in my current AE campaign are now levels 8-9 and will hopefully get to 12-13 level before it is done.
The previous campaign has been a planescape 3e version that ran up to levels 10-11.
Previous to that I ran a 2e planescape campaign up to level 12.
The memory of even more ancient campaigns is gone now...