Let's Talk About Short Campaigns

[Ruin Explorer]

I think a short campaign can be described similarly to a short novel: length isn't really the defining factor of either. A novel is more than a long story or novella because of its complexity -- characters, subplots, etc... -- and similarly a campaign is more than a long adventure due to its complexity. I admit it is a little harder to pin down what that means precisely.

Yeah like the last campaign we ran was a very long Mothership adventure which was comparable in complexity to an SF novel, and took like six sessions, where most Mothership stuff takes 1, or occasionally 2 sessions, and feels like an SF movie or novella or the like, so to me that was a "short campaign", because it had like multiple stages and changing goals and so on (but only one location, albeit it with an insane amount of time-travel).

 

[payn]

I think it's a lot easier to sell groups on those.

Also I'm not really sure there's a clear delineation between "long single adventure" and "short campaign". Personally I quite like short campaigns so long as they have a pretty clearly defined scope, and aren't sold as something they aren't.

I had to think about it for a min because I dont ever sell something as a "short" campaign. In my mind if its a single adventure but takes 1-6 sessions, its a one shot. If its intended to being a series of adventures that may lead into an overall meta plot but takes 1-12 sessions, id consider that a short campaign.

So, I guess id put it at a matter of both needing multiple sessions, and having multiple adventures to qualify.

 

[TiQuinn]

Yeah like the last campaign we ran was a very long Mothership adventure which was comparable in complexity to an SF novel, and took like six sessions, where most Mothership stuff takes 1, or occasionally 2 sessions, and feels like an SF movie or novella or the like, so to me that was a "short campaign", because it had like multiple stages and changing goals and so on (but only one location, albeit it with an insane amount of time-travel).

We just finished Gradient Descent for Mothership, and I think it took us about three months - maybe 9 sessions total. Great short campaign that ranks now as one of my favorite megadungeons.

 

[Reynard]

It is very weird to hear people describe a multi-session game as a 1 shot.

Aside from that, lots of folks play once a month (or less). A year long campaign for them is something like 10 sessions with cancellations. I don't think it is fair to call that "not a campaign."

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It is very weird to hear people describe a multi-session game as a 1 shot.

I think 1 and change or 2 is fairly common because they may take longer than expected, but yeah, 10 sessions isn't a campaign at all? That seems wild to me.

 

[BookTenTiger]

While I was in college I would move back home during the summers and run short campaigns. They were usually about 6 sessions long. They were a lot of fun! Players get to make shorter commitments and as a DM I can focus on telling a single story well.

I ran three short campaigns that way running d20 Conan reflavored as a western. I still talk about it with my friends.

Some TTTPGs also lend themselves well to short campaigns. I've run three Ironsworn campaigns in the last few years, none of them ran over 10 sessions but they were all extremely satisfying and fun.

 

[payn]

It is very weird to hear people describe a multi-session game as a 1 shot.

Aside from that, lots of folks play once a month (or less). A year long campaign for them is something like 10 sessions with cancellations. I don't think it is fair to call that "not a campaign."

For me its the difference from running a war with many battles, and running a single battle. Though, if folks only play once a month and call a year a campaign im not going to tell them it isnt.

 

[Reynard]

For me its the difference from running a war with many battles, and running a single battle. Though, if folks only play once a month and call a year a campaign im not going to tell them it isnt.

I also think that "campaign" works well even for shorter endeavors if each of those sessions is episodic and/or stand alone.

 

[BJK Games]

I'm all for short campaigns. I am working on adapting the Starfinder "Year of Era's End" metaplot into a level 6-10ish 2e adventure path for my group. It has a very specific end-point in it that would wrap our campaign up right as Gen Con happens with the full launch of second edition.

It will come as a surprise to them, I think, but in a good way. Hopefully. That would give us about a total of 6 months on the campaign, which is about perfect.

 

[Neonchameleon]

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?

I love them and most of my recent campaigns, both run and played have been short ones although I've kept groups together for years on end running chained campaigns. I also find D&D and especially D&D 5e very bad at them. I'd rather use something more narrative (e.g. Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, Fate) or an indie system for one. Indeed Apocalypse World is purpose built for short campaigns up to about a dozen sessions. I think that Daggerheart is moving into my choice of "D&D-like for short campaigns", although my previous favourite Stonetop still has a place.

Essentially D&D is incredibly slow and the mechanics, particularly of D&D 5e, feel like wading through mud for good short campaigns. Off the top of my head:

• 5e combat is slow with very limited tension. It's almost dead time for plot or character development.
• 5e rolls are pass/fail and all too often roll-to-see-if-you-have-to-roll-again which doesn't really advance anything.
  • Literally none of the other systems I've mentioned do this; they all have success-with-consequences options and negative consequences for failures.
• 5e has very limited meta-currencies where you can emphasise the importance of a given roll by putting in extra effort.
• Hit points are an anti-tension mechanic. They are a pool of "you can be take this much damage with no lasting consequences" and 5e has a lot of them and a lot of ways to recover them. And the only long term consequence for most fights is death. Death is much more on the table for a short rather than long campaign of course.
• Classes and levels are an anti-development mechanic; it is very likely for a 5e martial character or even divine caster that after level 3 they only make a single character growth choice every four levels. (That or they multiclass)
  • By contrast Daggerheart gives you a new (domain) ability from a choice of four at every level up, and you also get two "advance ticks" that can be to a range of things from your six traits (stats) to your hit points, mana pool, evasion (AC), or more.

So yes I love short campaigns. And I dislike D&D 5e for them.