D&D General Ideal Length for a "Short" Campaign?

[Retreater]

First, this is a vague and completely subjective question. I'm just curious what you would think would be a satisfying amount to spend in a short campaign. Maybe it's something outside what you'd normally want to play in D&D (like science-fantasy, historical Ancient Rome, etc), maybe it's to try out character types you don't normally play, etc.?

My games all tend to feel very samey because I've been afraid to take risks, and we never get to a good end point before they fizzle out without closure. Campaigns these days are also massive 1-15th level affairs.

 

[commandercrud]

Take some risks then.

 

[iserith]

My campaigns never run longer than 30 sessions and frequently come in at 20 sessions. These are 4-hours per session and my group moves fast. There is no time wasted, so we do a lot more content in a shorter amount of time than many groups I've seen.

I firmly believe the campaign can only be helped by having an idea of when it's going to end in real time then designing toward that goal. Fewer people these days want a multi-year campaign anymore as it used to be back in the day and a campaign with no end in sight is frequently going to fizzle. So I set the level range I want, the number of sessions, and create and present content accordingly.

There's also nothing wrong with running a single adventure, however long that takes. Or one-shots that take place only during one session. Those are great for learning how to design, too.

 

[MNblockhead]

Depends on the system and whether you want to see full character growth for the system.

Generally, outside of my main campaign, I prefer one shots (6 to 8 hours).

 

[payn]

Adventure modules feel like the ideal short campaign. Most of them cover about 3-4 levels of character progression and take about 3-9 sessions or so to complete depending on system.

Many systems dont have leveling at all. Those go more by feel and can certainly give you a shorter campaign experience.

 

[Laurefindel]

First, this is a vague and completely subjective question. I'm just curious what you would think would be a satisfying amount to spend in a short campaign. Maybe it's something outside what you'd normally want to play in D&D (like science-fantasy, historical Ancient Rome, etc), maybe it's to try out character types you don't normally play, etc.?

My games all tend to feel very samey because I've been afraid to take risks, and we never get to a good end point before they fizzle out without closure. Campaigns these days are also massive 1-15th level affairs.

A season (or school semester).
You can fit a dozen sessions in without straining your schedule too much, and most people’s schedules are reasonably foreseeable within that time frame. It’s long enough to feel like a campaign, not long enough to get bored of it.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Ten sessions. Nine is far too short, and eleven is far too long.

 

[Bawylie]

The ideal length is however long it takes to satisfyingly conclude a conflict. That could be as little as one session or as many as fit in several years.

You may benefit from deliberately structuring your campaign so that it includes important dramatic turning points that your players’ brains will experience the same way they experience stories. (That’s not to say you have to pre-plot the campaign and put them on a railroad).

Plan for your campaign arc to include:
1.) Introductory Exposition (a single encounter or session that lays out the greater theme of the campaign - like defeating an evil cultist would be on theme for a climax of defeating the demon that cultist worships).
2.) Call to Action wherein the players are confronted with the central conflict of the game (for example, they find the cultists’ correspondence that lists all the components they need to summon their demon so the players learn what they’re trying to stop and how long they have before it happens).
3.) Fulfill the Promise of the Premise (whatever the theme is here, we need to spend about half the play time living up to it. If the campaign is stopping cultists, we’re gonna have a few encounters or adventures where we do just that. If the campaign is about pirates looting treasures, we’re going to do some piracy).
4.) Crisis Point (where everything goes wrong. The demon gets summoned or the cultists get all their stuff in order to perform the summoning, or having been thwarted they go for revenge on the players’ allies, friends, and loved ones - in which case, get personal).
5.) Climax wherein players resolve the central conflict of the campaign. (I didn’t say ‘win’). They fight the cultists and/or the demon. Or whatever this campaign was about.
6.) A Closing. Star Wars medal ceremony. The smallest close is “and they lived happily ever after.” Or you can do the LOTR “here are 5 more chapters of ending, we’re having a party, going home, fighting in the shire, writing a book, having kids, sailing to the west, more sailing to the west, and so on.”

You could do this in as little as 5 encounters spanning one long-ish play session, 5 adventures spanning 5-6 sessions of play, 6 play sessions into which you reserve session 6 for the Climax and Close no matter what, or whatever.

I favor 6 sessions for a small campaign. That’s A goal. THE goal is the complete structure. If it’s completed, it will feel like a story and that should feel satisfying. My first session is the Introductory Exposition and it ends with a Call to Action. Sessions 2, 3, and 4 fulfill the Premise. Session 5 looks like it’s going to be like 2, 3, and 4 but it ends in Crisis. Session 6 is the final showdown and the medal ceremony (or funeral!).

for bonus satisfaction, adhere to this same structure within each adventure/session of play. Block it out in six 30-45 min increments and keep moving forward rather than staying put in the block you’re in.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'd say around 6th level. That way everyone gets their 5th level fancies and a chance to use them. Maybe that equals 3-6 months, depending on how much you play?

 

[el-remmen]

Funny, I was just thinking about posting something about how if D&D ended at 10th level I'd be fine with it (I've never run a campaign past 11th in any edition) and as a player I'd probably be happy ending around 6th! That said, I love long multi-year campaigns - I just like slow progression and the chance for players (and DM) to learn their characters (and shape them) at each level before moving on. In my current game, the PCs just recently hit 4th level after 15 sessions.

That said, I have done mini-campaigns before that range from two sessions to nine. Sometimes they are even related to the long-term game, like jumping back to play some 1st level characters through a dungeon connected to the main PCs plot of the campaign. Once while the PCs were off in a distant land taking care of some mission, all their henchmen and hangers on had to do the D&D equivalent of Jarvis protecting the mansion against the Masters of Evil while the Avengers are away kind of thing and I split the NPCs among the PCs. Big fun, but just one session.

I don't know if that helps, but the answer really depends on group playstyle and goals. Look at it this way: Aiming to finish your campaign at 5th, allows you to move on to something else when done or develop a sequel for levels 5 to 10, if everyone ended up loving the characters or setting, for example. In other words, you can always aim low and then add on. .