How often do you reset?

[Remathilis]

Personally, I've been through 7 campaigns as a DM. Tack on numerous games that didn't fly, and you get the idea.

My current DM is cycling between 6 different games right now, in a variety of genres. One game has been played on and off for 10 years, but the others are mostly newer. When he burns out, he switches games.

So fairly often, but we rarely actually start something completely new, just cycle between different games and settings.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I don't think I like the wording of this question.

I've been in numerous campaigns that only lasted a half dozen sessions but I've been in 5 campaigns that lasted multiple years. The long campaigns far outweigh the short ones in "percentage of gaming career" but numerically the short ones outnumber the long ones by probably a 6:1 ratio.

So, how should I answer?

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

The idea of fast resetting has given me a bit of an inspiration.

My problems with my own homebrews has always been a loss of focus after a while - usually about a year and a half or thereabouts. Not a bad run, but, it's always been a disappointment to me as a DM that my camapaigns have usually ended with a limping whimper rather than a bang.

Here's my new idea. Campaign Vignettes. Short term campaigns - longer than one off's - more like 15-20 sessions to complete. Plan the campaign ahead of time to end in a very short while. With that timeline, you're looking at 3, maybe 4 levels of advancement max. Wash, rinse, repeat. I can see this being especially appealing with a published campaign setting.

I've always found that I had FAR more material than I could ever use when I got into a setting. Mostly because my campaigns would center around this or that area, last for a year and a half, and then restart. By the time I got to the restart, I was sick of the setting and wanted something new.

This way, I can pick and choose points in the setting, use the background for the setting and plunk the party down in medias res into this or that campaign arc. I finally get to use a large amount of the material gathering dust on my shelves! As an added bonus, the players get to test drive lots of different characters. Something is broken? Ah well, doesn't matter that much, we're going to reset in a couple of weeks anyway, enjoy being God for a while. Hand an artifact to that 4th level party? Why not? Sure, it'll be wonky, but, then again, it's not like you are going to be sticking around to see the fallout.

Different vignettes could interact, at least at a background information level. Players in this vignette could hear stories about what they did in the last one. That sort of thing. It also alleviates the problems of PC death quite a bit as well. Since I am restarting so often, it's not like PC's get any sort of plot protection. They die when they die. If they can afford the res, so be it. Otherwise, build in replacement characters into the vignette.

I'm really jazzed about this idea. I'm bouncing the idea around in my head for a while and eventually, I'm going to apply it to Scarred Lands. Since I run online games over OpenRPG, it's pretty easy to pick up some part time players as well.

Thanks guys. This has really juiced my batteries.

I had a very similar idea recently that my group has not yet implemented: shared DMing duties in shared campaign world with really short stories per "campaign." When I say really short, I'm talking 10 sessions at most. Rotate DMing duties among four or five of our group who like to DM.

Reasoning:
1) Every game I've played or DM'd to significant length has reached a burnout point LONG before "the story" was complete.

2) Several of us want to DM, but no one can seem to "keep it together" for the long haul. I played in my longest campaign (as a player) and the game lasted about 30 or so sessions before the DM reached a breaking point. I'm currently running Drow War (session 21 last Friday). I'm near burnout now.

3) I like to do lots of different stuff. So do other people. Running the same character for years . . . eh, not so interesting.

4) High level play is not as fun as mid and low level play (for most of my group). After 20 or 30 sessions . . . well, we're getting into the upper end of mid levels and the fun:work ratio deteriorates for DM and players alike.

So, we work together, invent (or borrow from a published setting) a compelling game world and then tell stories at various times/locations in that world creating a shared history, stories, mythology, etc.

Ideas for short run campaigns:

1) Pirates! I really want to play and/or DM a game where the PCs are pirates. I can't see running a long-term (years) campaign doing this, but five or six sessions would be cool!

2) Thieves Guild: again, a short run of all the PCs being members of a thieves guild has lots of appeal.

3) WAR! Let's have a war . . . let's let the PCs be commanders/decision makers in this war . . . but let's not have this be PCs that were 1st level neophyte adventurers 35 game sessions ago.

4) Political Manuevering: how about a little PvP action on the political scene a la World of Darkness . . . only we're not vampires . . .

5) Dungeon Crawls: there are tons of great dungeon crawls out there that we'll never use because they "don't fit the campaign!" Screw that . . . let's make up a group of PCs just to run this one cool dungeon crawl.

Eh, you get the idea. All those really cool stories you see/hear about, but never get to do because they don't fit in your campaign . . . who cares, now they fit . . . somewhere/sometime, so run the story and have fun!

 

[The Thayan Menace]

One Scenario to Rule Them All

Personally, I've been through 7 campaigns as a DM.

As a player, I have only actually completed ONE campaign ... City of the Spider Queen.

-Samir

 

[The Thayan Menace]

One Scenario to Rule Them All (x2)

Personally, I've been through 7 campaigns as a DM.

As a DM, I have never finished a campaign ... although I am currently in the process of doing so.

-Samir

 

[tylerthehobo]

I'm currently running two campaigns; both set in Eberron. Previously, I'd run 2 greyhawk campaigns, each with different groups - one a group of late 20 early 30 somethings who lean towards beer and pretzels roleplaying, and one of folks in their late teens who lean towards munchkinism. Interesting (at least to me) is that I've run pretty much the same adventures with both groups and each group has turned the campaign and mods into something wildly different. The beer-and-pretzels group has an almost Terry Gilliam-esque take on things, while the younger folks want to go for epic power and world dominion.

The Greyhawk campaign ran about 10 sessions for each group, and the Eberron is nearing on 12 or so for each, I believe. (Offhand #'s). We're getting ready to wrap the Eberron campaign for the younger group in September or so to start Ptolus.

Myself, I find that especially with players who are playing solely for power, it is necessary to restart at Level 1 every 15 sessions or so - otherwise, it turns into a joke of folks who have crafted magic items defeating every enemy you throw at them - something I try to avoid. I'd rather wrap most campaigns at an Arthurian Level 10 than go into ludicrous epic-dom just for the sake of epic-dom. When the players in a group act serious enough about their role in the campaign at such levels, I am jazzed to do so, though.

Just my $0.02. Flame on.

 

[Hussar]

By reset, I mean starting back at level X and starting a new campaign, not replaying the same campaign. Sigh, must always be sure to be absolutely crystal clear. ...

Brent_Nall, that's more or less what I'm contemplating. My current group has five players plus me and five of us are part/full time DM's in other campaigns. That's lots of experience to draw on.

I'm not sure about 10 sessions, but, then again, my sessions are only three hours. YMMV of course. I'd likely draw it out to 15-20, but, we'd have to see. My plan is for everyone to use the same setting (Scarred Lands) and then we can all work together to build on the setting.

 

[Piratecat]

14 years, 350+ sessions and counting!

 

[The Hound]

The link to the marketing research article in the first post no longer works. The old Enworld post that it links to is there, but the link in that post goes to a missing page. Is the article online anywhere else, or does anyone have a copy?

 

[Keldryn]

It's been about twelve years since I've been involved in any long-term campaign that lasted more than ten sessions. Every couple of years I get an itch to DM a game, we start up, play 4 or 5 sessions once every two to four weeks, and then we miss a couple sessions in a row and... next time we play, it's a year later and we're starting from scratch again.

I tried playing (not DMing) in a weekly game a couple of years ago, but I'm just not at that place in my life anymore where I want to commit to a game session every week. Once or twice a month is all I can do -- and the same with the people I game with. Problem is, we always lose our momentum after 4 or 5 sessions and end up resetting the next time we get together.