How Many Actual Sessions Do Your Campaigns Last?

[Schmoe]

My current campaign has been running for 10 sessions or so and is hopefully just getting started. My previous campaign came to a premature end after about 8 sessions (due to the birth of my twins), and the campaign before that ran for well over 100 sessions.

I have a hard time understanding how people can estimate how many sessions a campaign will last. I have a hard enough time predicting where the party will be 2-3 sessions out, figuring out whether there will even be a campaign 20 session from now seems ambitious.

 

[Lanefan]

I have a hard time understanding how people can estimate how many sessions a campaign will last.

It's difficult to do before the campaign actually starts, in that despite best planning you don't entirely know how the player dynamics will mesh, nor what combination of PCs they'll bring in, nor whether your setting/ideas/etc. will gain any traction even if you've broached them ahead of time and got an OK.

Once things get going, however, it's pretty easy to at least educatedly-guess how long it'll go: you now have a vague idea of what the pace of play is like; you know vaguely what adventures you have in mind (to which the players will inevitably add their own as things go along, unless you're running a no-deviations AP); and you have a rough idea of how many sessions they take to play through a typical adventure. Spin those numbers out and you've got a rough estimate of how many sessions you're good for.

 

[R_Chance]

My game is a sandbox with adventures inseted into it. I've used the same setting since I started in 1974. It ends when the players change / move / etc. or decide to start new characters. The longest groups have lasted over 5 years (6 and 12 years for two I can think of). The shortest about a year, but that involved me moving. I have a couple of players who have played with me, on and off, for decades (moving out of town and then, years later, back).

Play time is variable. Generally from 1 to 4 sessions a month depending on my work and player schedules. Typically 6+ hour sessions. Play time has been very limited during the school year lately (I teach). I'll be retiring in a couple of years and then I plan on making up for that

 

[Maxperson]

My campaigns typically run about 48-70, 4-5 hour sessions.

 

[Maxperson]

I have a hard time understanding how people can estimate how many sessions a campaign will last. I have a hard enough time predicting where the party will be 2-3 sessions out, figuring out whether there will even be a campaign 20 session from now seems ambitious.

I don't bother. Sometimes the players do something and skip a large portion. Other times they putz around in an area for 5 sessions longer than I figured. I just roll with it until the campaign ends. My estimation here was based on the range of time my campaigns have historically lasted. They rarely go less than a year and we lose a few sessions due to life, so 48 on the low end, and rarely go past a year and a half, so 70 on the high end with more missed sessions due to life.

 

[dragoner]

I have a hard time understanding how people can estimate how many sessions a campaign will last. I have a hard enough time predicting where the party will be 2-3 sessions out, figuring out whether there will even be a campaign 20 session from now seems ambitious.

I know myself well enough that I get bored with a setting after about four years. Yes, though, the players often faff about, so it is impossible to really tell what will be going on at any time with any true accuracy. Even if I come up with a good little adventure that I know the players will go for, I often have to take copious amounts of notes, so I remember it all when they are finally ready to go.

 

[Zhaleskra]

Never actually counted. Actually, I think I've never actually run a campaign to its conclusion. Teenager - quickly shifting interests, Adult - scheduling, boredom with play by post games, losing interest.

 

[Scott Christian]

I do think there is a market for a campaign that lasts 10-12 sessions, with characters levelling from 1st to max; each session approximately four hours in length. This alleviates any fatigue in the setting, too much down time in the story, long combats (long, key word) that don't help drive the story, and character fatigue (players wanting to start a new character to try something different).

 

[Lanefan]

I do think there is a market for a campaign that lasts 10-12 sessions, with characters levelling from 1st to max; each session approximately four hours in length. This alleviates any fatigue in the setting, too much down time in the story, long combats (long, key word) that don't help drive the story, and character fatigue (players wanting to start a new character to try something different).

Levelling 1st to max in 10-12 sessions would mean level-ups about twice per session, thus your players would spend half of each session bookkeeping and rewriting their character sheets.

That, and such a campaign would have to be on a pretty hard railroad to prevent players from (oh the horror!) deciding to veer off-story and maybe explore the setting a bit deeper...

 

[Scott Christian]

Levelling 1st to max in 10-12 sessions would mean level-ups about twice per session, thus your players would spend half of each session bookkeeping and rewriting their character sheets.

That, and such a campaign would have to be on a pretty hard railroad to prevent players from (oh the horror!) deciding to veer off-story and maybe explore the setting a bit deeper...

You are correct if we are playing D&D. But, a system with 10 levels, completely doable. But D&D would not offer time. I agree.

As for railroading, if you have five objectives that they need to accomplish, have a system that doesn't make ever piece of combat an hour, and are know your world - this gives them plenty of time to steer the ship and delve deeper into the setting. Once you make combat 60 minutes out of the 4 hours instead of 120 or 180 minutes, you can dig pretty deep into the realm.