Is My Campaign Going Too Fast?

[FitzTheRuke]

Maybe my 5e campaigns are also blitzes? I've run campaigns like Rime of the Frostmaiden and Curse of Strahd to completion. They took around 6 months of weekly play - close to 20 sessions.

Sounds to me like you move fast. Maybe you're just super efficient?

At any rate, if I were you, I'd try to slow down a little (only because a player complained) but otherwise just keep going like others have suggested, and have a post-campaign discussion to see if it still felt too fast to that player (and find out if the others agree) and to what extent.

 

[djotaku]

games are almost never too short and almost always too long.

I don't know how big your table is, but if it's just 1 out of 5 or 6 folks who isn't happy, ask them to just go with it for this campaign and next time in session 0 you guys can decide if you want fast, slow, or medium.

 

[djotaku]

Maybe my 5e campaigns are also blitzes? I've run campaigns like Rime of the Frostmaiden and Curse of Strahd to completion. They took around 6 months of weekly play - close to 20 sessions.

how long per session? (that's a key element missing here) If I were playing weekly just because of my life circumstances I could not play 4 hours every week. With games I run and games I'm a player in, we basically budget 4 hours/month. So it's 4 hours at once, 2 every other week, or 1 every week. (Except for the game I run for my kids, the other games all involve adults who are 30s or older and have kids, spouses, etc hence the time constraints)

 

[Imaro]

With DH, my main concern would be are the players getting the time to explore their characters fully (both mechanically and narratively) and is a satisfying narrative taking place... if so you should be good.

I'm running a DH campaign right now and we've been at level 1 for the past 6 sessions (a sort of narrative prelude to give the characters a chance to familiarize themselves with the rules and get in the headspace to contribute more narratively to the game) and there are still roughly 4-6 sessions left at that level. Starting at level 2 I and the other GM are planning a level up roughly every 4 sessions... so about 40 - 45 sessions to reach 10th level but our goal isn't to necessarily play out all levels between 1 and 10 but instead to bring the characters narrative arcs to a satisfying conclusion.

 

[Retreater]

how long per session?

We average about 3 hours of actual play per session.

I don't include a lot of "fluffy" stuff. I don't use verbose, purple language to describe unimportant details. I handwave extended travel scenes. I don't roleplay shopping sessions. My players don't like to belabor social encounters or puzzles - instead, preferring to roll some dice after a few minutes of talk.

In short, we get a lot done.