Let's Talk About Short Campaigns

[Reynard]

This came up in another thread and i thought it would be interesting to discuss on its own.

How do you feel about short campaigns. Not one shots, or single adventures that might take a couple sessions, but actual campaigns (whatever that means to you) that run for a finite period of time of anywhere from a few to a (say) a dozen sessions or so?

For me, the thing that makes a campaign a campaign (as opposed to a long adventure) is that it has complexity. it is like the difference between a short novel and a ong story: what makes a novel a novel isn't its length, but its use of subplots and side characters and material not central to its main plot. A campaign is similar in that there are side quests and locations off the railroad and so on.

For my part, I really enjoy running short campaigns. I like developing a neat concept and then seeing where it goes for 6 or 8 sessions. I tend to run games that have strong themes and weak plots -- meaning, I improvise a lot off the player choices and PC actions, but within a pretty well defined milieu and situation.

Short campaigns let me explore different ideas without committing to or asking players to commit to dozens of sessions. it also helps a lot with GM ADD. I find the regional conventions are a good way to test out ideas to then bring to a full short campaign.

For published short campaigns, I often find that Savage Worlds "Plot Point Campaigns" can work well, since the GM is free to embellish as much or as little as they like.

What do you think? How do you feel about short campaigns?

 

[payn]

Im not opposed, but Im more in the one shot or long campaign camp. I have some distinct differences in approach to campaigns. I prefer more intention in direction, and less let the players fancy decide what happens. That is not to say I railroad or take away player agency, but together we have a discussion and form a structure in which we explore together. This both allows for decent prep by the GM so things are not so seat of pants, and players have some path to walk as opposed to just wandering around looking for adventures.

So, Id expect a pretty reasonable path for a short campaign. If it was west marches id just rather do a west marches campaign with no designation of length. It goes as long as it goes. YMMV.

 

[aco175]

My current campaign started with the latest box set- Stormwreck Isle. I goes to level 4 and has only like 4 places to explore. I added a few places and offered a few hooks to keep the PCs around for a few more levels, but they wanted to leave at level 5. The campaign could have ended since they completed the objective of the box set.

The players wanted to continue with the characters, so I added the after Icespire Peak series that takes place around the town of Leilon. When that ends, the PCs should be 12th level and not sure if the campaign will end or the players would want to still play the characters.

I guess that I'm playing two short campaigns loosely tied together in story, but same characters. Using the same characters in multiple campaigns, does that make it one campaign? Maybe if the end of the campaign I have the Pcs go back to Stormwreck isle and defeat the old red dragon buried under it.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I've never had a campiagn that was "short-term" on purpose, either as a player or a game master. There were plenty that came to an end before any of us intended them to, because people were no longer available or whatever, but I don't really plan for finite arcs.

What I try to do (since I entirely run published modules plus the occasional playtest for material I'm planning to publish, and pretty much all of it is for DCC RPG) is have each adventure/module feel self-contained but liked to an overall arc of character development and a living world. That was I guess I have the benefits of the "shorter campaign" inasmuch as there are self-contained stories that resolve before everyone just gets tired of them, but the players all still get the satisfaction of seeing their characters develop longer-term.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

When I bring a new system to my players (which happens quite a few times a year), they know by now that it means a short 2-4 sessions campaign. Just to get a taste of it. And they always have the option to say "We want more, let's keep going!"

Over time, I've grown to appreciate them for their focus. Prep is much easier, there's generally only single objective with a few locations. I can make everything pack a punch. There's no sowing to harvest later. It's happening now. It feels very concrete and straight to what make RPGs RPGs.

However, my heart still lies with long sprawling campaigns with emergent stories and character development. But my own experience has taught me that that's not something you can choose to have. It just happens. Sometimes the magic is there, sometimes it's not. And it often stem from factors that have nothing to do with RPGs (aka life).

 

[Professor Murder]

So I am at this point a big advocate for brief campaigns between longer ones. I'm not of the "This game has been going for 20+ yrs" school. More like 2-4 yrs max. Then on to something new. But a palate cleanser, with an eye to running a completely different game, is very much how my mind is going lately. So I wrapped up a Ravenloft campaign last year, and now the table is doing Star Trek Klingons, probably till years end. Then fingers crossed, the Victoriana 5e Kickstarter fulfills and 2026 onward is that.

 

[Reynard]

When I bring a new system to my players (which happens quite a few times a year), they know by now that it means a short 2-4 sessions campaign. Just to get a taste of it. And they always have the option to say "We want more, let's keep going!"

Over time, I've grown to appreciate them for their focus. Prep is much easier, there's generally only single objective with a few locations. I can make everything pack a punch. There's no sowing to harvest later. It's happening now. It feels very concrete and straight to what make RPGs RPGs.

Out of curiosity, what about these makes you feel they are "short campaigns" as opposed to just a single adventure?

 

[Reynard]

I've never had a campiagn that was "short-term" on purpose, either as a player or a game master. There were plenty that came to an end before any of us intended them to, because people were no longer available or whatever, but I don't really plan for finite arcs.

What I try to do (since I entirely run published modules plus the occasional playtest for material I'm planning to publish, and pretty much all of it is for DCC RPG) is have each adventure/module feel self-contained but liked to an overall arc of character development and a living world. That was I guess I have the benefits of the "shorter campaign" inasmuch as there are self-contained stories that resolve before everyone just gets tired of them, but the players all still get the satisfaction of seeing their characters develop longer-term.

Just for clarity, IMO "adventures" are not "short campaigns." A campaign made up of episodic adventures is still a campaign.

 

[DragonLancer]

Not opposed to the idea of a short campaign but I will say that my preference would be to play a full 1st to 20th if possible.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Out of curiosity, what about these makes you feel they are "short campaigns" as opposed to just a single adventure?

I'd say that I tend to use the terms interchangeably. But I definitely do not call it an adventure when we play for a year, and I definitely do not call it a campaign if we do a one-shot. So there's a threshold in there somewhere. But I know that I describe it as a short campaign when I propose them to do a few sessions. But you're right that the difference is maybe in the structure: multiple narrative arcs, a certain complexity, character arcs, time to see change in the world.

But again, when WotC releases a 100+ pages large hardcover that clocks at I don't know how many thousands of words, I have no idea why that's an adventure. An adventure is shorter in my mind. When I buy a small zine from the OSR with a map, a few factions and a few points of interest, that's an adventure. As we complete the dungeon and the players say they want to go over the next hill, it becomes a campaign?