How often do you change campaigns?

[Gnarlo]

I was reading through some older messages and came across a number of people prefacing their answers and opinions with such things as "when I start a homebrew" or "in my new campaign", and it sprung the question into my mind: How often do people start new campaigns?

In my 23 years of RPGs, I've only had 4 settings that I campaigned in: Greyhawk in the beginning few years (still have the gazeteer and those 2 huge, beautiful maps ), a brief stint in Middle Earth using the I.C.E. modules and settings with Rolemaster, a homebrewed "great kingdom under peril from the evil forces surrounding it" campaign that lasted several years, and for the last 2 years the Forgotten Realms.

How often have you swapped campaigns, how long have your campaigns generally lasted, and why did you swap? The people that talk about starting a new homebrew especially intrigue me, as much as I enjoyed working on and running my players through the Kingdom of Earlinushe, I moved to the Realms simply because finding time to play can be a hassle these days, much less finding the time to lavish my love and detail on a blank world

 

[dren]

Campaign world

I've been running a homebrew for the past 10 years.

In that time I've changed "current" campaign, (due to total character change, different players, new locales, changing levels, or TPD) a countless number of times. I've DMed my current group around 2 years, with three major adjustments. I rarely let the players get past level 15, before the major story arc is finished. Then I get the players just as excited as I am about starting over at first level again in a completely different location in my homebrew. But now, with Epic, I think that it's time to go beyond the usual levels.

 

[Arnwyn]

Same setting (published, with expected homebrew tweaks) since I started gaming (more than 11 years now). No intention of stopping.

Edit: Ignoring the silly Gygax comment on the poll, of course.

 

[Desdichado]

I've got too many ideas -- one gets stale to me after six months to a year, and I like to do something different. I'll come back to an older homebrew, but as an all new campaign, usually with all new characters.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

This was hard for me to answer.

Over the past 24 years of my gaming career I've played in more campaigns than I can remember.

Some have lasted for 10 years or so (a Champions campaign that just kept going and going).

Some have lasted for one session (I can remeber some campaigns that a lot of time and effort were put into setting up, only to have them meltdown in the first session [this seems to happen mostly with sci-fi and cyberpunk games in my groups]).

So there is no easy answer. I guess statistically speaking, our average campaign lasts about 18-24 months or so...

 

[EricNoah]

My "typical" campaign is 18 months or so. Some have been a little shorter, the current one is turning out to be longer, but that's about the "right amount of time" in my experience.

 

[seasong]

I come up with at least one new setting idea every month. If I continue to like one for more than a few months, and generate a few tens of thousands of words about it, I eventually run it.

My campaigns usually last for a year. I almost always change settings after a campaign ends. Sometimes I go with a new setting I've developed, sometimes I go with an older one that was particularly popular.

For fantasy settings, I try to keep them fairly different from each other, and I try to fit ideas into already existing settings I've made before making the idea into a whole new setting. That still leaves me with six major fantasy settings (cinematic-wuxia-gods, gritty-low, "realist" middle fantasy, D&D World, mythic feudal Europe, fairy-tale-world).

For sci-fi settings, I usually go with my Timeline setting as the base, and then modify it to suit the campaign (anime, shadowrun-style-magic, alien invasion, whatever I feel like).

 

[Mercule]

I've changed groups more often than I've changed settings.

I've _played_ in four fantasy settings (FR, GH, and two homebrews) for any length of time (more than 2-3 sessions). I've only run two (GH and my homebrew) seriously (more than 2 sessions).

Come to think of it, I've used 3-4 systems (Hero, Aria, 1E/2E, and 3E -- which is different IMHO) for my own home-brew world, so I've changed systems more often than I've changed settings.

Now, if you branch into other genres, I've diverged considerably more in terms of settings/systems (usually synonymous). I've run serious games of Shadowrun, Champions, and WoD with short forays into several others. I've also played in all of the above plus West Wild (out of print, now), Shatterzone, Ars Magica ala Hero, a 3000 AD Champions game, Star Frontiers, and Twilight 2000.

 

[Olive]

i'm on my first campaign, but it's only been going for a year or so, so it's too soon to tell how often i'll change.

however my previous DM had been using the same hombrew for about 20 years... fairly immense level of detail at times.

 

[barsoomcore]

Like seasong, I always change settings after a campaign. My campaigns last longer, however.

Had one lasted ten years. Barsoom's been going for four now, I think. Or three. Or something like that. There's probably a few more years in Barsoom, at least. And I'm starting to think about running another campaign in it, different time frame or something....