D&D General How often do you complete a campaign as a player?

[amethal]

Since my University days (when we never completed anything), I think I've had two campaigns as a player that didn't complete - in one of them the GM got bored with the campaign after 10 or so sessions, and in the other I withdrew from the group as the playstyle of the other players didn't suit me (I was fine with the GM).

Every campaign I've run as a GM has completed, apart from one where I persuaded the group to try out Mutant City Blues but they didn't like the Gumshoe system, so we did a couple of sessions and then moved on to something else.

 

[TiQuinn]

Very rarely but then when we did complete a long campaign, it was back to back long games with the current group.

 

[Spudster]

If we are playing a module, I can't think of a time when we didn't complete it. If it's a sandbox style campaign, it's not a given that there is an "end". I still marked "Most of the time" because occasionally I've had a game I played in end after a session or three. I've run campaigns to 20th and played in 1.

 

[Hussar]

I do rather hope to see some more responses on the poll, but, presuming that the poll is in any way representational of gamers, I'd point out that about half of gamers are saying that they only rarely get to complete a campaign.

It does somewhat reinforce the point I was making that advice like "skip the gate guards" isn't totally off base. If half of gamers out there aren't completing campaigns, then maybe it might help if DM's were a bit more cognizant of pacing and add a bit more giddyup to their games.

 

[Hex08]

I have a group I have been playing with for decades and I am usually the GM and we almost always finish campaigns (more than 90+% of the time). A while ago I got bored running Pathfinder (about when 2.0 game out) and stopped so one of my players decided to pick up running it instead. He has only run about four short campaigns (not including the current one) and has finished them all. The last time this group had a regular DM other than me was around 2008 and he played with us for years until then (probably almost two decades) and he would only finish about 50-60% of his campaigns. I have periodically joined other groups as a player during the last decade and, while I usually had fun, never finished a campaign.

 

[payn]

I do rather hope to see some more responses on the poll, but, presuming that the poll is in any way representational of gamers, I'd point out that about half of gamers are saying that they only rarely get to complete a campaign.

It does somewhat reinforce the point I was making that advice like "skip the gate guards" isn't totally off base. If half of gamers out there aren't completing campaigns, then maybe it might help if DM's were a bit more cognizant of pacing and add a bit more giddyup to their games.

Agreed. I think some folks get caught in the sim hype and try and make every imaginable situation into a game moment.

 

[Hex08]

I do rather hope to see some more responses on the poll, but, presuming that the poll is in any way representational of gamers, I'd point out that about half of gamers are saying that they only rarely get to complete a campaign.

It does somewhat reinforce the point I was making that advice like "skip the gate guards" isn't totally off base. If half of gamers out there aren't completing campaigns, then maybe it might help if DM's were a bit more cognizant of pacing and add a bit more giddyup to their games.

I can't speak for anyone else but the number of times pacing has been an issue and caused a campaign I played in to fall apart is rare. Most of the time real life got in the way (jobs, school, family, etc.) and sometimes a particular DM enjoyed playing more so he would "pause" his campaign to "do some work on it and come back to it" and then we would move on to my campaign knowing that I would run a long campaign and we would never get back to the other. This is the same guy I mentioned in my prior post that only finished 50-60% of his games so his track record wasn't horrible.

 

[TiQuinn]

I do rather hope to see some more responses on the poll, but, presuming that the poll is in any way representational of gamers, I'd point out that about half of gamers are saying that they only rarely get to complete a campaign.

It does somewhat reinforce the point I was making that advice like "skip the gate guards" isn't totally off base. If half of gamers out there aren't completing campaigns, then maybe it might help if DM's were a bit more cognizant of pacing and add a bit more giddyup to their games.

The problem I’ve found isn’t pacing. It’s just real life. The campaigns that ended for me either did so due to people moving away, work or school schedules becoming untenable, and things just fizzled, sometimes not far into a game. Now you could always say speed things up and jump to the end for one last hurrah but personally I would’ve felt that was unsatisfying, kind of a letdown.

 

[Hussar]

I can't speak for anyone else but the number of times pacing has been an issue and caused a campaign I played in to fall apart is rare. Most of the time real life got in the way (jobs, school, family, etc.) and sometimes a particular DM enjoyed playing more so he would "pause" his campaign to "do some work on it and come back to it" and then we would move on to my campaign knowing that I would run a long campaign and we would never get back to the other. This is the same guy I mentioned in my prior post that only finished 50-60% of his games so his track record wasn't horrible.

But, that's kinda my point. For you, this isn't an issue because you almost always have enough time to satisfactorily complete your campaigns. So, obviously, pacing isn't an issue. Fair enough. However, there are some of us out there where this isn't true.

What's the solution? Simply accept that I only get to read the first three chapters of every novel I pick up, or switch to short stories? For me, I'd rather switch to short stories. Which brings me to the next reply:

The problem I’ve found isn’t pacing. It’s just real life. The campaigns that ended for me either did so due to people moving away, work or school schedules becoming untenable, and things just fizzled, sometimes not far into a game. Now you could always say speed things up and jump to the end for one last hurrah but personally I would’ve felt that was unsatisfying, kind of a letdown.

But, that's not quite what I mean either. It's not a case of running a regularly paced campaign and then jumping to the end. It's more a recognition that this campaign that I'm starting is on life support from day one. That it's very likely that there is a hard limit to how long it will have before real life steps in and steps on its neck.

So, again, the solution to me is to advise DM's to plan accordingly. If you're running a game for your university classmates - and everyone's buggering off for the summer break, that means you've likely got 8 months to run your campaign. It might pick up again after the break, but, most likely not. So, plan accordingly. Cut stuff out. Run tightly focused campaigns where you leave off the side bar stuff.

I imagine it's rather like running a season of Adventurers League really. ALthough, I'll admit, I've never played AL. But, if each adventure MUST be completed in 4 hours and you'Ve only got X number of adventures per season, those constraints are going to significantly limit what your advnetures look like.

 

[DragonLancer]

I'd say 5.5 of ours complete. Only one I can remember was one of mine that we started after Covid and I was rather rusty after 18 months of not gaming. That's the only one I can remember that ended prematurely.