Let's Talk About Short Campaigns

[Neonchameleon]

I thought I'd also expand on something. My current gaming club, The RP Haven thrives based on short campaigns (four quarter-long campaigns a year). We're only fifteen years old, and up to eleven branches (not counting the online branch) and happy to help set up more.

The short campaign model lets the RP Havens avoid both the common problems of D&D clubs that don't just collapse. The first is that very shortly you'll end up with a club that's basically two or three home groups, six months or more deep into a campaign that just happen to play at a shared venue. Neither can take new players so the club can't take new members and the club is going to break as life happens to the two or three groups the same way home groups break. The second problem is that clubs that avoid this trap then basically run one shots which are fine but one shots miss a lot of the benefits of campaigns. Oh, and it makes for a much lower barrier to entry for new DMs.

 

[aramis erak]

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

Not really - if it's a single module/adventure.

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."

Again, not if it's just one adventure...
When I ran Destroyer of Worlds (for Alien), it was one adventure. I don't normally game with that group. we didn't intend to continue past it. (and couldn't, really, either... only 1 PC made it out...). I do call it a 10 session 1-shot.

 

[Reynard]

Not really - if it's a single module/adventure.

Again, not if it's just one adventure...
When I ran Destroyer of Worlds (for Alien), it was one adventure. I don't normally game with that group. we didn't intend to continue past it. (and couldn't, really, either... only 1 PC made it out...). I do call it a 10 session 1-shot.

That's not the definition of "one shot" I am familiar with. That's all I said.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Not really - if it's a single module/adventure.

Again, not if it's just one adventure...
When I ran Destroyer of Worlds (for Alien), it was one adventure. I don't normally game with that group. we didn't intend to continue past it. (and couldn't, really, either... only 1 PC made it out...). I do call it a 10 session 1-shot.

I absolutely would not call ten sessions a one shot so much as a short campaign. I've had two session one shots but that's pushing the limits.

 

[aramis erak]

I absolutely would not call ten sessions a one shot so much as a short campaign. I've had two session one shots but that's pushing the limits.

It was 10 short sessions (~2 hours each)... had it been done FTF rather than VOIP, it would probably have been 5 sessions. It was never intended to run that long, but they wound up pursuing every sidetrack.

 

[TheSword]

I’ve become very fond of things that have a clear beginning, middle and an end. Whether it be TV series, novels or campaigns. Perhaps it’s a pushback against the endless TV series that seem to meander without destination or conclusion.

In TTRPG I look at the Paizo Adventure Paths and having ran or played in most of them the best work is always in the first three parts. There is usually/often a natural end point at the conclusion of book 3. Later APs even stuck to the 3 part structure. 12-16 hours for a Paizo module feels about right, fitting into that proposed Short campaign structure.

One of my favourite D&D campaigns as a player was Ghosts of Saltmarsh… short campaign.

In other words… can it work. Absolutely!