How often do you restart/change campaigns?

[seasong]

When I was in college, they lasted exactly one semester . My standard campaign in recent years lasts between 9 and 14 months.

And when I say "campaign", I mean, "complete story arc". I've had a few setting/character combinations that I ran through more than one campaign in a row. The main one that comes to mind was the Edge of Night/Shadow Empire pairing (the first one was a Quest For The Whatsit, the second one was a political struggle based on the rising power of the characters from the first campaign).

I end campaigns when we finish the story arc.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Back in the days of 1st edition, I ran campaigns for years at a time. Same deal with 2nd edition. My buddies still ask me to run those characters but, it's nothing against them or the setting, it's just not the type of game style I'm into these days and their characters would lose a lot in the translation to the 'lower' powered stuff I tend to run these days.

I ran a quick campaign in the Sunless Citadel. Party member screwed that up with out of game garbage.

Ran NeMoren's Vault and Silver Summoning and Ghost Machine with plans on running other goodies but player issues again. More important than the player issue was the campaign setting. Fiery Dragon has always had the idea that more was coming but I can't stand frontier towns and I don't think there's a big city in any of those books so I went with...

Scarred Lands: First three times I ran this setting got TPK. Now we've stablized after another big issue with player and outside concerns but things have been going well for about three-four months with six party members averging about 4th-5th level with two older characters from the Karathis setting, one being 6th (4 monk 2 fighter) and the other 7th (6 mage 1 pale master).

Now however time is against me as I've got a class right before the game and don't know how much time I'll have to go into the campaign like I used to.

 

[Ravellion]

I am aiming for infinite campaigns, but always end up restarting after a year and a half...

Rav

 

[Piratecat]

We're closing in on 11 years. That was never the original intent; we just kept going because it was (and is) fun. Someone asked me recently how to make a campaign last for longer than normal. Here's what I think....


1. Stable players. It's almost impossible to do until everyone has settled down into regular jobs and out of college.

2. Changing up the adventure style. Too much of one type of adventure, and everyone gets bored. That's the problem with the middle of Monte's RttToEE and Bruce Cordell's RttToH; not enough variety, not enough fun side quests. Some horror, some high adventure, some political, some dungeon, some wilderness, some city. Include some adventures where the PCs gloriously kick ass, and some where they get thwarted. Make the plot move fairly quickly, glossing over boring parts and concentrating on exciting occurrances. Who really needs to know what happens every minute of every day or travel, anyways?

3. Long term goals. Set up long-term plot arcs, like the current White Kingdom adventure in my game right now, or Sagiro's over-arcing plot line (he's the best at this I've ever seen.) Intersperse them with short-term arcs, repeating enemies, and adventures based on PC plot hooks.

4. MOST IMPORTANT: Solicit player feedback to make sure that the game is mechanically healthy. If someone isn't being paid enough attention to, or they think combat is too slow, the campaign will never last. Get your ducks in a row, and then worry about plot.

5. Don't railroad or script adventures ahead of time. Embrace the chaos caused by smart players. Change the world based on what they do; statues of them might be put up, your long-term villian defeated WAY early and his sniveling underling takes his place, and so forth. Don't be afraid to destroy "sacred cows" if it will make an impression; got a boring city? Wipe it out with plague, or have an army invade. This sort of thing makes the world come alive, and if the players can see the impression that their actions make in it, they'll want to keep playing. A lot of times, public recognition is better than any monetary treasure.

6. Slow XP advancement. We go up levels once every 12 sessions, or twice a year. Decide how long you want the campaign to last and see how often you play; then prorate xp accordingly. Play every week, and want a 5 year campaign? That's about 250 sessions over 20 levels, so the PCs should level roughly once every 10-12 levels. Play every other week, and want a 5 year campaign? PCs level every 5-6 sessions. You should adjust XP gain based on this, dividing standard xp by 5 or 10 or whatever to reach the correct numbers. Make sure the players understand that it will be a slow advancement game.

7. Involve the PCs in the world. Build upon their plot hooks, surprise them, make their actions change the world around them. Once the players learn that their actions affect the world for both good and bad, they'll want to keep at it.

8. Only play with people who you'd want to hang out with outside of the game. If you don't like a person, you aren't going to want to game with them long-term.

 

[EarthsShadow]

Another problem that hasn't been stated is the fact that everyone in the gaming group wants to be a DM and there could be so many ideas circulating through all the minds within the group that when one is DM, everyone else who wants to be DM feels cheated. It's rare, but that is what causes our group to disintegrate a couple weeks ago, with rather bad feelings after its was all said and done.

We tried the idea where each DM would run their game once a week, but everyone else got tired of making characters so much (me, I liked it because I was actually playing a character in a Star Wars game, Judge Dredd game, and a couple of D&D games), so then we tried that a DM can run a game for two to three weeks straight. That worked for a month and a half. It failed with this group because once our characters gained a level and we saw them start to develop a little, another DM was quick to point out it was his turn, so we stopped that one and went to another.

So, after I got done running a 6 month campaign that ended 10 months ago because the others felt I was trying to control the group by taking up so much time, I ended it and we tried the other options, non of course satisfying to a group of 6 DM's that all want to be DM and only one or two really wanting to be a player, not only did our campaigns end, but so did the group.

When looking at campaigns, I guess also look at group and who wants to be DM, and what kinds of ideas are floating around. I have yet to play a game since then, and I have a good Shadow Chasers idea for d20 Modern, but so far when you lose 5 others to a stupid argument, its hard to find another group of players that want to play.

Thanks for letting me speak this, its been inside a long time and I know it wasn't exactly on topic, but I feel better and I hope you all don't mind.

Congratulations to any person in a group that can stay together for longer than a year, to me that's just amazing.

 

[Desdichado]

We purposefully plan our games to last only a few months or so. At that point, the GM will have had a run, but may have a hankering to play instead, and/or the GM/group may want to switch genres and play a different type of game.

 

[Orryn Emrys]

There seems to be an incredible amount of variety here! I'm fascinated by the sheer dynamics revealed by Morrus's query. Over the course of a 16-year gaming career, I've become known for running long, stable campaigns, but I get the impression that that's more of a statement concerning the DM's with whom I have associated over the years than it is concerning me.

I have striven, generally quite successfully, to employ a "two-year campaign strategy" for each of my games. They don't always last so long, of course, but I have enjoyed considerable success in this regard. I spend a lot of time planning my stories just so, generally with an appropriately-timed climax to cap off the campaign and get the players ready to start again.

For some reason, this hasn't worked on my current campaign. We're going on 4 years this January! It's been incredibly invigorating; my entire campaign has transformed considerably from my initial intentions. I blame 3E; it kinda brought new life to the gaming table (and, obviously, this campaign was converted at the tail end of 2001). Even though only two of the current PC's were there at the actual start of the campaign, the players tend to go to great lengths to make the characters integral to the campaign.

Generally, my overall strategy involves planning a series of climactic and dramatic scenarios intended to be included at key points throughout the campaign, then map out as many possible ways to connect these points as possible (oftentimes allowing the exclusion of certain events to accomodate the story) to allow the PC's to select their own way. I don't believe in railroading, but allowing for these kinds of options will invariably present new ideas and new inspiration to help drive the story.

Well, not to ramble, but the current tale has veered considerably from the intended path, and now we're staring down the barrel of Epic-level advancement! I never expected this, but it's been an incredible ride, and I've had opportunity to expand the game into realms I never had the chance to explore with my "two-year" formula. Although I'm already looking forward to the next campaign. (I hope none of my players read this....)

 

[Drew]

Four years and counting! The original characters began at first level, and have now reached 14th. After we hit Epic Levels and retire, I'd like to start something a little shorter, maybe a year or so. Bear in mind that we only play a couple of times a month.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Well...

My current campaigns are about 3 months long and we have no signs of stopping. With a group of guys that all met thru these very boards. The one I DM is spycraft and the other is a planescape-inspired homebrew.

Before this group, most of my campaigns were on the short side as I would usually get this "great new" idea for a game. The longest one I've personally been a part of lasted about two years but was ran on an irregular schedule.

I now construct my campaigns to have a clear end. How long that may take differs but it provides me with focus. When too much time passes between game sessions is when I start thinking about a new campaign.

 

[DM with a vengence]

I can rarely get a game to last more than 2-3 months. The problem is that I am at high school and even though I have 3 games, all of which I DM, they still won't last very long.

1) Friday, at lunch. 30 minutes a week, and lasting only 9 months is not very long. On the upside, its a small group of dedicated people with no bad habits and lots of free time.

2) Wednesday, last period. One hour, seven people. This one is actually going somewhere, but I started off at too low a level for the scope of the campaign, and I have doubts about them finishing since we'll have to restart at the end of the semester for various reasons.

3) With Friends. This sounds like it might work, right? Unfortunantly, my friends have slipped down that steep slope of insanity known as extracurricular activities and AP classes. Even if they had the free time to game, they would be too busy muttering to themselves to actually play. Besides which, they have far too many bad habits to make playing enjoyable. (PvP tendancies, ignoring obvious plot hooks, attacking the town their staying in etc.)

I wish I could have a good game.