D&D 5E Length of peoples Campaigns?

[Tony Vargas]

When AD&D 2E came around, and The Assassin was no longer a class, the Assassin's Guild was closed in Faerun.

Really? That's just funny. No rogues available for stealthy murders or evil fighters for blatant ones? Of course, wasn't an Assassin kit released pretty early?

When 4E came around, and Vancian spellcasting was temporarily suspended in the Realms, it was a result of Mystra's death.

Except it wasn't: wizards still prepped spells - it was just a unique ability at that point. The spellplague brought the Realms closer to the "Points of Light" tone as a setting, and that meant dialing down the high-magic, archmage overpopulation, and general NPC focus of the setting - so less about mechanics, more about theme or tone.

What I really want to know is, what happened between 4E and 5E that caused the many magical weapons to lose their enchantments?

For that matter, what caused the epidemic of incompetence, as experts in fields went from having +20 or 30 in a skill down to +8 or 11? And why is the top of every profession a Bard or Rogue?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Really? That's just funny. No rogues available for stealthy murders or evil fighters for blatant ones?

Sure, but they weren't part of the official Assassin's Guild, and since they didn't get that specialized training it meant that they weren't as good at it.

Except it wasn't: wizards still prepped spells - it was just a unique ability at that point. The spellplague brought the Realms closer to the "Points of Light" tone as a setting, and that meant dialing down the high-magic, archmage overpopulation, and general NPC focus of the setting - so less about mechanics, more about theme or tone.

Which was reflected in the mechanics. The mechanics of 4E did a pretty good job of conveying the tone they wanted, but Forgotten Realms in particular needed an in-game justification for how that came about.

For that matter, what caused the epidemic of incompetence, as experts in fields went from having +20 or 30 in a skill down to +8 or 11? And why is the top of every profession a Bard or Rogue?

I think most of the skilled people died out. The age of Epic Heroes is gone, and none shall ever match their power.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Which was reflected in the mechanics. The mechanics of 4E did a pretty good job of conveying the tone they wanted, but Forgotten Realms in particular needed an in-game justification for how that came about.

While the PoL tone was one that called for heroes being relatively rare (possibly just the PCs), there was little mechanical support for it beyond the "protagonization" (being the stars of the show or 'protagonist') inherent in being PCs. That's why I made the distinction: FR went through the wringer to be made into a PoL setting, perhaps ill-advisedly, more than to adjust it to mechanical changes.

Really, as long as mechanics are fairly flexible, setting shouldn't need to change to accommodate them.

I think most of the skilled people died out. The age of Epic Heroes is gone, and none shall ever match their power.

Sounds good. Maybe they were buried with their magic items, or took them with them on White Ships or into the Astral Sea or something.

 

[the Jester]

My current campaign extends back to the mid-90s, albeit with many different groups of pcs, and ties to my old Oerth campaign (in which Tharizdun ate the multiverse) via time travel related shenanigans. That game started in, hmm, about 1981.

Typically, I run a given group until we're done with them- either via TPK or some kind of natural conclusion. 4e is the only version that actually had a built-in end point for me; various 1e pcs went up to levels in the 20s (and in one case to somewhere around level 43), 2e pcs reached into the high teens or maybe low 20s, 3e pcs came into the high 30s, and my 4e game wrapped up around 27th to 28th level.

Of course, not every group of pcs goes all that high, and often I'll run multiple parties for the same players concurrently, and we'll periodically switch back and forth. Sometimes they'll end up mashed together; at one point, after running two-sorta-three different groups of pcs for a while, I had each player choose one for the next phase of the game.

But yeah, I definitely consider it all one campaign. It's all the same setting (well, plus the Oerth stuff, but it's all tied together on a very deep level that pcs have influenced and interacted with in major ways), there are certain broad themes that have run through it, and the pcs have made lasting impacts on the world, both good and ill.

 

[Werebat]

Pretty much all of my campaigns (the ones I DM in as well as the ones I play) are multi-year. Over the last fifteen years, I have been pretty much continuously DMing, and I have run five campaigns during that time, averaging about three years each. Two of these were 2nd Edition (homebrew world I made in college and then Dark Sun), one was 3rd Edition (set in a largely rebuilt post-apocalyptic world where Warhammer type skaven were rising up to menace humanity), one was a 3rd Edition E6 game (as I found I didn't like DMing 3E very much after level 7 or so) set in Eberron where the party were mostly orcs and goblinoids and the main villain was a Daelkyr lord with an affinity for worms, and the last was a Pathfinder E8 game based largely on the Age of Ice mod for Civilization IV (using the kingdom building rules from Kingmaker).

 

[Alkavian]

My typical campaign usually is meant to run levels 1-20. But the overarching campaign tends to be cobbled together from a couple 2-3 smaller adventures which span 5-8 levels. My current "campaign" has a desired end state, but I do not focus on that far down the line because the party is level 2 right now. The current adventure will last until about 8th level. I will then weave it seamlessly into the next stretch that I envision lasting until around level 13. I'll probably then run the next portion until 18-20 range. My players have a lot to do with how something flows because I prefer to not dictate how they reach my desired end state. Some adventures I play to last 5 levels end up only going 3, while others might stretch out 10 levels or more. My last major campaign ran in 3.5e from levels 1 through 24 (epic level handbook). That party held together for 7 years in real world time.

I generally always envision a campaign as a long-haul end game to reach max level. How it is broken up and how long it takes varies.

 

[Ricochet]

Mine is in its eighth year (and will conclude sometime this year).

Had another one run 5+ years too. Otherwise they are about 6-12 months.

 

[Flamestrike]

I DM campaign worlds not campaigns. My campaigns generally dont end. They just flesh out different bits of the world. PC's only retire when the player decides to. Open ended.

I do agree with the OP though. Playing a campaign till 'the end' is an alien concept to me, and a relatively new one.

 

[Grainger]

I DM campaign worlds not campaigns. My campaigns generally dont end. They just flesh out different bits of the world. PC's only retire when the player decides to. Open ended.

I do agree with the OP though. Playing a campaign till 'the end' is an alien concept to me, and a relatively new one.

Yeah, I do that too, really. I run "seasons", just so players can have a break, etc., but storylines interweave, some finish, others continue. I call it my campaign (singular). The campaign will end when I (or my players) get fed up and stop playing!

 

[Flamestrike]

Yeah, I do that too, really. I run "seasons", just so players can have a break, etc., but storylines interweave, some finish, others continue. I call it my campaign (singular). The campaign will end when I (or my players) get fed up and stop playing!

Yeah we end up getting broken up (via PC death, players leaving to form other parties) into multiple parties on in the campaign world of different average levels.