How Long Is YOUR Campaign?

[kitsune9]

Campaign Lengths

Since 3.0 came out in 2000, my campaigns have been more stable in that I ran several from 1-20+ levels whereas in my 2nd and 1st edition days, the best I could do was end after 7 or so levels though I did run a Top Secret game years ago that spanned two or so years. Nowadays, the length of my games are once every two weeks for 8 hours averaging 24 sessions for the year. We finished the Age of Worms Adventure Path and that took 3 years to play including side adventures to keep the party leveled up for the next scenario. The one was my longest as that took 3.5 years. Both these campaigns went from levels 1 to low 20's.

I'm running our the newest campaign using Pathfinder RPG and plan on ending this one around 15th level, so I'm shooting for 2 years.

 

[The Ghost]

I have a 2E game that started in 1994 or thereabouts. We played fairly regularly until 2001. And maybe a couple times each year since. I have only had one 2E character in that entire time. Malcolm share rule all - eventually!

I have a 3E game that started in early 2005 and is still going strong. We had previously had another 3E game last two and a half years. And about a dozen false starts (games lasting under three months) in there as well.

I have a 4E game that started, well, this past week. Only one false start with 4E so far.

 

[Jhaelen]

My current 3E campaign is running for about 5 years now. On average we're playing about once a month. Average session length is perhaps 11 hours. So, we have about 660 hours of gameplay under our belts.

Effective party level is 12 right now. I was originally aiming for a final level of about 15. We'll see... If we manage to finish the campaign until the end of next year I'll be happy. I'm already eager to get a 4E campaign started

Previous campaigns didn't last as long but then we've been playing more often back then, so it probably evens out.

 

[VectorSigma]

I'm glad the OP asked, because I don't think I've ever really sat down and thought about it.

Most Recent Campaign (BESMd20): Three years, five players, playing on average 6ish hours every other week. (Married, child in the house) The characters topped out around 18th-19th level.

The One Before That: (AD&D 2e): Two years, six players, playing on average 8ish hours every week. (Single, right out of college) The characters topped out around 13th or 14th level.

The One I Played In, Didn't DM: (AD&D 2e): One & a half years, four players, playing on average 8ish hours a week. (Single, during college) I think the characters made it to 9th-ish level.

And Before That: (AD&D 1e, transitioning to 2e midstream): Five years, five players (with various "sixth man" players on occasion), playing on average 8ish hours every week, not counting marathon-type stuff. (This is the starting-in-high-school game, hence the marathons) The one character from the original group who was still around at the end was beyond 20th level.

And simultaneous with the beginning of the previously listed game (I'm a player, not the DM): (AD&D 1e): off and on for maybe two years? This is a looong time ago...

The interesting thing for me in looking back at this kind of stuff is that it tells me a lot more about how I pace my games (xp-wise, etc) than it does anything else.