How Many Actual Sessions Do Your Campaigns Last?

[uzirath]

I ran a single ongoing D&D campaign in college for four years, probably averaging 15 sessions per year. Advancement was slow, so the original PCs were in the low teen levels by the end of the game.

After college, I ran a long lasting GURPS campaign for about 10 years (interspersed with lots of shorter games). Characters were quite powerful by the end of it, and I remember that many players weren't even spending all of their earned points anymore. They were focused on the plot and their PCs felt fully fleshed out. Character points were banked for things that made sense in the story, whether small things (spending a point on Seamanship after an ocean voyage) or big things (adding a major new power after completing a big quest).

I took a hiatus for some years after that (new job, starting a family, moving across the country, etc.). Recently I've picked things up again. Ran a few short 5e campaigns, and then launched an 18-session DFRPG game. We might go back to it at some point, but we completed a major arc in that time. I'm now in the midst of another DFRPG game that's run about six sessions.

 

[aramis erak]

My current campaign will have at least 4 sessions more than I will have run... my eldest is sharing the GM seat. We're somewhere around 20 sessions in.

 

[John Dallman]

My current GURPS campaign, "Infinite Cabal", has been running every fortnight since late 2010. There was one gap of about a year, but I think we've had about 190 sessions, back-calculating from character point totals. It probably has about another year to go.

 

[uzirath]

My current GURPS campaign, "Infinite Cabal", has been running every fortnight since late 2010. There was one gap of about a year, but I think we've had about 190 sessions, back-calculating from character point totals. It probably has about another year to go.

I'm curious to learn a bit more about this. What point level did you start at? What are they at now? How have the challenges evolved over time?

 

[John Dallman]

They started at 300 points, and are now a little over 800. There has never been much combat: it's mostly exploration and discovery, with diplomacy arising out of it. The characters work for a Cabal lodge based on a world in the 1720s, where Isaac Newton's occult researches went rather well. This let me have a Cabal campaign that is less about plotting against each other, and more about discovering how the universe works.

 

[Lanefan]

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

See below...

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.

Agreed with the second part of the above quote - speeding up combat can make a big difference.

But the first bit I'd take some issue with. Sure, at campaign start the players/PCs might be presented with five objectives...but is that all they're allowed? What happens if they find (or invent) a 6th and a 7th?

I'll try to dream up an example here - forgive me if it's not the best:

At campaign start, during some exposition phase, the PCs and players learn their aim is to accomplish these goals:

1. Put an end to the Orc raids from the hills to the north - with a few exceptions their loot will become yours as your reward if you finish them off
2. Find out what became of Harold the Wizard, who vanished two years ago today - rumour has it he may have been captured by Orcish raiders and his family have offered a nice reward for info
3. Determine if the northern Orcs are being secretly supported by the neighbouring realm of Westmarch - your own realm of Larenth would reward you handsomely for solid proof here
4. If yes to 3, go into Westmarch undercover to root out and expose the source of that support - again funded and rewarded by your own realm if successful
5. If successful at 4, find out if this goes any further - is there yet another player seeking to cause instability between Larenth and Westmarch or is this all 'homegrown'.

(the GM already knows how this all ties together: Harold's been a secret agent all along and is now operating undercover in Westmarch; but he's actually working for a cabal of foreign wizards who would like nothing better than a war between Larenth and Westmarch so they can swoop in and take over two weakened realms afterwards - the party just have to connect the dots from some clues they (with any luck!) find as they go along)

So there's your five goals - but why stop there? If everyone's still into it after this all plays out (say, 10-12 sessions in) why not leave it open-ended enough that they can, should they so desire:

6. Investigate and then go after the wizard cabal Harold had been working for
7. Run diplomatic missions between Larenth and Westmarch, to prevent the war that you might otherwise have just triggered (maybe with different PCs?)
8. Follow up on rumours of some Giants slowly encroaching from the southeast
9. <etc. etc. etc.; and before you know it 10-12 sessions might have become a few years or more...>

 

[generic]

I tend to run 24* sessions per year for each campaign (of which I'm currently doing only one). Bi-monthly meetings seem to work for my group, but we may be able to switch to weekly sessions soon.


*Minus sick days and vacations, usually 20 sessions or so are left for play time.

 

[MNblockhead]

Other than D&D I run one-shots.

I'm on my third campaign since 5e came out.

First campaign. Homebrew setting. Twenty eight-hour sessions, one level per session.

Second campaign, Curse of Strahd, using a form of party-milestone leveling bases on locations explored, antagonists defeated, macguffins found, and quests accomplished. Were 9th level when they defeated Strahd. Ten 8-hour sessions.

Current campaign. Rappan Athuk. I have no idea. This could go for years. Leveling is based on training that requires XP, which is awarded on a 1 XP per 1 GP basis plus some milestone XP for particularly difficult encounters or accomplishments and the occasional level jump due to magic--this is an old-school gonzo setting. So far seven session, six 8 hours sessions and one 12-hour session, so a total of 60 hours played to date.

Note that for my homebrew campaign and for my current Rappan Athuk game, there is a lot of time playing downtime sub-system games between sessions. We take care of training and leveling between sessions. Downtime activities are played out by e-mail or the occasional one-on-one get together with a player. We are also using Matthew Coleville's Strongholds & Followers book and a significant amount of time is spent between sessions discussing the building, leveling, and other activities related to raising and supporting their strongholds.

 

[Scottius]

I have two groups that meet each week, around 3-4 hour sessions. When I'm a player most games run around 1-2 months it seems. Usually that's the time it takes to complete what was planned. I'm the longer term GM, my games can run months or often years. My current Wednesday night DCC game is running on two years now.

 

[ExploderWizard]

My 5E campaign just concluded this past week. It began in September 2014. We played 77 sessions over that time taking several breaks for other games and then picking the campaign back up. Average session was about 3 hours so a little over 230 hours of play. At some point in the future I plan to run an extension to the campaign. The PCs are all 20th level and I want to play around with some epic level stuff.