D&D General [rant]The conservatism of D&D fans is exhausting.

[Micah Sweet]

Its hard to say. I was around then, and while ongoing campaigns were not unknown then, I don't recall seeing any that went for more than a couple of years. On the other hand, most of the people I was interacting with either in person or via other means weren't sticking with the same game system for that long, let alone the same campaign, but even when they were sticking with the same game system and setting, it wasn't really the same campaign in most cases because there would be things like time gaps and such that disconnected them from the prior one except in a historical sense.

My campaigns don't tend to last for years on end, but they are always presented open-ended; I don't run adventure paths, but ongoing explorations of the setting with a firm starting point. It's just that real life concerns of one kind or another eventually lead to the end of active play, and at some point a new game starts, often with a slightly different set of players (and occasionally a new GM).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Makes sense, but I'll have to take your word for it. @Hussar blocked me a while back.

Ah, well, its something I deal with a fair bit here.

 

[Thomas Shey]

My campaigns don't tend to last for years on end, but they are always presented open-ended; I don't run adventure paths, but ongoing explorations of the setting with a firm starting point. It's just that real life concerns of one kind or another eventually lead to the end of active play, and at some point a new game starts, often with a slightly different set of players (and occasionally a new GM).

Well, that's just a normal sandbox style campaign, far as I can tell. While those aren't as common as they once were even within the D&D sphere, I'd hardly call it really unusual.

 

[Hussar]

And I very much suspect that longer-running style of play was considerably more common - particularly among groups of friends, as opposed to gaming clubs and RPGA play - back in the day than you're giving it credit for.

Well, there's no real way to know. I mean, going back to the old WotC surveys, the average half life of a campaign was something like 12 months. That's why 3e was designed the way it was - so that you could get the full game experience (1-20) in something like 12-18 months.

There's no real evidence I've ever seen that suggests that these multi-year campaigns were common. And, considering how rare it is for anyone to live in the same city for that long, I'd say it's a very rare occurance. Most people move away from home after high school - go off to uni or whatever - and probably move two or three times, at least, after that. Never minding how many people drop out of the hobby as well. With the number of people in the hobby remaining more or less static from 1985 to about 2015, there's a pretty strong suggestion that multi-year campaigns were nowhere near common. No one stayed in the hobby that long.

Or, at least, not enough people stayed in the hobby that long.

 

[Hussar]

I think we'd probably all benefit collectively if we stopped looking to be offended all the time.

I'd suggest that we'd probably all benefit collectively if people took responsibility for their means of communication instead of blaming everyone else around them for "looking to be offended". When you use a term you absolutely know is going to antagonize people, you don't get to look around innocently when people get antagonized.

 

[Hussar]

Its hard to say. I was around then, and while ongoing campaigns were not unknown then, I don't recall seeing any that went for more than a couple of years. On the other hand, most of the people I was interacting with either in person or via other means weren't sticking with the same game system for that long, let alone the same campaign, but even when they were sticking with the same game system and setting, it wasn't really the same campaign in most cases because there would be things like time gaps and such that disconnected them from the prior one except in a historical sense.

That's a good point too.

We used to bounce around systems A LOT back then. Part of having so much more free time I suppose. But, thinking back to the 80's and into the early 90's (basically high school and uni), I must have played more than a dozen different systems.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's a good point too.

We used to bounce around systems A LOT back then. Part of having so much more free time I suppose. But, thinking back to the 80's and into the early 90's (basically high school and uni), I must have played more than a dozen different systems.

I still tend to do that, though the campaigns last 18-24 months because a given campaign only gets run every other week, so by the time I'm done I want something fairly different usually.

 

[Maxperson]

If you think that people accepting someone's slightly different use of a word is the equivalent of the sun rising in the north... well, I don't know if I can think of a better display of the thread title than that.

We weren't talking about that. We were talking about people being okay with disparaging comments just because you say you don't intend them to be insulting. The world doesn't work that way for the vast majority of people.

Well, some are earned to one extent or the other. Many others are not. But this is kind of beside the point, and could veer into potentially dangerous territory as far as topics go, so I think it's probably best to leave it at that.

Yeah. That's why I've been tiptoeing around being pretty vague with my statements.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, actually, yes it makes perfect sense. Very, very few people have ever played in these open, multi-year campaigns. Even back in the day, it was very uncommon for people to play that way. It's not like there weren't serial adventures back then - GDQ, A1-4, the U series, just to name a few. And, the setup of AD&D lends itself very strongly to retiring characters after name level, that's why you got a keep and all that kind of stuff. That told players it was time to retire.

The Desert of Desolation series is my favorite. Even more so than the GDQ series.

 

[Umbran]

Sorry, @Lanefan… despite explaining your view, I’m afraid that’s no longer the commonly accepted definition… so despite my understanding of your preferences and why you have them, I’m going to ignore that and pretend that each time you use the word, you mean it how I expect it to be used!!

Then, I’ll blame any resultant breakdown in communication on you!

Makes sense, right?

Mod Note:
A couple folks have gotten threadbanned recently...
The site owner himself warned people about being constructive...

And what comes to your mind is... being snarky?
Please do that again if you are bucking to be the next person threadbanned.

Everyone: Respectful. Kind. Constructive. Or, you know, go to twitter or something - they like the jerkish drama over there, I hear.