Long-Term Campaign Building

I write a lot about new RPGs including reviews of the most recent releases. But what about that RPG a GM sticks with in a campaign lasting months or even years? Even though I play every other week consistently and have done so for over two decades I’ve only had a couple of campaigns that lasted over a year. What would it take to have a favorite campaign last for over a year and is it worth even trying to make it happen? I want to tackle the second part of that question first.

Map of The World Fantasy - Free image on Pixabay​

Is It Worth It?​

When I read the accounts of GMs and players of long term campaigns, the consensus is that the campaign is great and that returning to the same setting is rewarding. Of course, the sampling is biased since any players who dropped out are unlikely to post about playing in a long term campaign if they didn’t stick with it. But based on the GM feedback, I think it can be worthwhile of the player characters and the setting itself are interesting and fun. Like wanting that second season of Firefly we never got.

Does the GM Want to Make It Happen?​

This might seem obvious, but not every GM wants to run a long term campaign. A GM might want to play a variety of systems or campaigns or not have to worry about long term burnout. I tend to jump system to system in campaigns that last a few months for example. However, my current campaign of The One Ring (2nd Edition) intrigues me enough that this campaign is on track to last longer. If you as the GM don’t want to run campaigns of over a year there is still value in finishing step one.

Step One: Finish Existing Campaigns​

I used to have a bad habit of stopping campaigns in the middle and starting something new. In the middle might be with PC goals unfinished, the big bad undefeated, or even right in the middle of an adventure. I started working on actually finishing campaigns before I tried to run a long term campaign. I would rather play four campaigns in one year and finish each one than try to run two and stop both in the middle. If you can start to finish campaigns then I think the interest in running a longer campaign may start to develop naturally as you improve your campaign building and finishing skills. How to successfully finish a campaign is another topic all together and I might share my thoughts at that in a future article. It is an essential skill in any GM’s toolbox.

Step Two: Work with the Players to Finish at Least One Character Arc​

Not all my players have arcs for their characters. But for those that do, I also worked on helping them finish at least the one arc before finishing the campaign. For example, in the Alien game I ran one PC was actually planning to betray the group to her corporation. I made sure the end of that campaign also included the betrayal by that PC. It was intense and well worth the effort. And just maybe we’ll return for a second season of Alien eventually.

Step Three: Find a Setting That Inspires You​

This one took me a bit longer. I like the universe of Alien but it wasn’t until I ran The One Ring (2nd Edition) that I found a setting that inspired my creativity. I started out just creating various landmarks (location based mini-adventures) and running NPCs and cultures that interested me. This in turn hooked my players, whose Player-heroes started rebuilding the desolate lands around Lake Evendim. This led me to reading more about Eriador and Middle-earth and it inspired me with ideas for a year two to the campaign.

Step Four: Play the Next Season Instead of the Next Campaign​

If you get all the way here, you are on your way. If your players and you enjoy wrapping up a campaign arc, you don’t have to stop and start a new campaign. If your mind swirls with new adventure ideas and the players have more arcs to explore, you are on the road to running a long term campaign.

My Year One The One Ring (2nd Edition) campaign lasted three months, which is about normal for me. However, instead of starting something new, I’m working on what I consider a new season of our already existing campaign. We’re moving away from Lake Evendim to a new location and I’m bringing in some new NPCs and cultures hinted at in the first season.

Even better, these NPCs, landmarks, cultures, and locations were all hinted at in the first season. I’m continuing the campaign because these seeds are ripe to grow into full-fledged landmarks and adventures. My players get the reward of both seeing their Player-heroes continue to grow as well as getting answers to some of these teased mysteries they found in season one of the campaign.

Conclusions​

I’m never going to force myself to GM something except campaign conclusions and if a campaign seems to be wrapping up instead of rolling on, I plan to finish it with some kind of conclusion. If, however, like my Middle-earth setting, the campaign continues to inspire me I’m going to roll on and see what happens next. This excitement is similar to, but in many ways better, than the excitement that is generated by a new campaign kickoff. I don’t have to worry about learning brand new rules for example and I have many adventure ideas to offer my players instead of just a few. And some of these adventures stem from actions they have taken directly in game. I can’t wait to play and see what happens next in season two of our campaign.

 

[Reynard]

I don’t personally like the use of campaign to describe a persistent setting because there’s already a word for that, and so campaign should mean something different. It should be about the group of PCs and what they want to achieve. There’s no term for that beyond “campaign”, so it makes sense to me to use it in that way.

So how important is continuity in that?

For example, if PCs called A, B, C and D begin the campaign and C dies in the first dungeon and new character E joins. Later, B's player moves away and the party consists of A, D and E until F joins. A marries an important NPC from fairyland and retires, replaced by G. When D sacrifices themself to save the rest of the party, laving E, F and G, is it still the same campaign?

 

[prabe]

So how important is continuity in that?

For example, if PCs called A, B, C and D begin the campaign and C dies in the first dungeon and new character E joins. Later, B's player moves away and the party consists of A, D and E until F joins. A marries an important NPC from fairyland and retires, replaced by G. When D sacrifices themself to save the rest of the party, laving E, F and G, is it still the same campaign?

There are, as your question about what a campaign is implied, different sorts of continuity, any of which can make campaign. It could be the same players (mostly) or the same characters (mostly) or the same setting (broadly) or some other thing that holds play together. I think the specifics will vary instance-to-instance, and trying to nail them down threatens to get in to Ship of Theseus stuff, which--being philosophy--has no answers, just more arguments.

 

[Reynard]

There are, as your question about what a campaign is implied, different sorts of continuity, any of which can make campaign. It could be the same players (mostly) or the same characters (mostly) or the same setting (broadly) or some other thing that holds play together. I think the specifics will vary instance-to-instance, and trying to nail them down threatens to get in to Ship of Theseus stuff, which--being philosophy--has no answers, just more arguments.

I think message boards are a perfect venue for philosophical game discussions.


And not much else, really, if I think about it.

 

[payn]

I think message boards are a perfect venue for philosophical game discussions.


And not much else, really, if I think about it.

If only my college online courses had this traffic.

 

[Gilladian]

This thread raises an important question: What is a "campaign"?

Is it a single "story" -- basically one long adventure. That is what the term has come to mean since the early to mid 2000s when Paizo perfected the Adventure Path. WotC published them ina different format, of course, but they are essentially the same thing.

Is the "campaign" a setting instead? If so, many groups have multi-decade campaigns because they return to the same world over and over, whether that world is a published one or not.

Is it continuity of characters? If so, that's got a bit of a ship of Theseus problem as some characters die and are replaced, retire, etc... If none of the original PCs are present any longer, does it become a new campaign?

My definition of a campaign is a series of interconnected adventures involving some or most of the same players and characters, in a mostly contiguous string of events, such that a more-or-less coherent “story” emerges. Also, meta- the PCs do not begin over at starting level. New PCs integrate with the party, and everyone agrees it is the same game. If everyone dies, leaves the game, or throws in the towel and we roll up all-new characters, it is a new campaign. Typically, a new campaign will shift to a different geographic location, have a different raison d’etre, and may shift somewhat in time as well.

 

[Reynard]

My longest campaign lasted 20 real world years, included 2 editions of D&D as well as a different game entirely, and spanned 3 generations over 2 eras of history. But I consider it one campaign not 3 because a) it involved the same core players whose characters regardless of era were b) deeply ingrained in the setting meta story.

 

[hawkeyefan]

So how important is continuity in that?

For example, if PCs called A, B, C and D begin the campaign and C dies in the first dungeon and new character E joins. Later, B's player moves away and the party consists of A, D and E until F joins. A marries an important NPC from fairyland and retires, replaced by G. When D sacrifices themself to save the rest of the party, laving E, F and G, is it still the same campaign?

There’s still some consistency there, even with the turnover. Any time a new character is introduced, there are remaining characters. There’s always some way to connect it back to the beginning without actually breaking the chain, so to speak.

I suppose we could put forth the idea of a TPK and then a new group being created as a result. Would their adventures be considered the same campaign? It would seem so to me, given that there would be other persistent elements, very likely including a goal of some sort, assuming that the new group kind of picks up where the old one left off.

There seriously are a lot of ways that we could label it. However, I think that it’s most useful for the persistent story of a group of characters, even when some turnover takes place. The reason being that if we instead use it to describe just the fictional world… the setting… then there’s no word to describe Tony and Frank’s group versus Jason and Sue’s group.

Running two different campaigns in the same setting. How is this described if campaign is synonymous with setting?

 

[Lanefan]

All of these are campaigns to me, but the third one "continuity of characters" is probably the strongest link. One of the main reasons I struggle with Call of Cthulhu "campaigns" is due to the level of character churn.

As long as that ship is continuous it doesn't matter to me how many of its parts get replaced along the way.

Hell, by the end of the second adventure in my current campaign the entire party had turned over twice. Same players, though, and same (sort-of) story.

The weakest I'd say is setting as a campaign. I certainly would not see a story told with one group of characters and then another in the same setting as the same campaign. Even in the case that one story changes the setting for the next batch of characters would be separate campaigns to me.

To me that's all one campaign, particularly if those disparate characters/parties can interact and-or interweave at some point down the road.

The bigger differentiator for me is in-setting time. As long as everything's happening in roughly the same time frame (e.g. three different parties all adventuring in setting-year 1084 who could and probably will all meet each other in 1085) that's the same campaign. But situations where a new party forms and runs many in-setting years or decades after the first lot isn't the same campaign (even if it involves meeting long-retired PCs from the original campaign); as while the physical setting might not have changed much its inhabitants and storylines will have, to the point where it basically becomes a matter of starting new.