The Best Game for A Long Campaign

[Reynard]

What do you personally think is the best RPG for running long (5+ years) campaigns in. Why? Have you done so? Are you still doing so? How's it going? If you aren't running or playing in a long campaign, have you ever? Do you want to?

 

[pointofyou]

We have found the current edition of D&D to work pretty well for long campaigns without predefined goals. We just wrapped up a game of over 125 sessions that played fortnightly took us five years to play. Seems to me that long campaigns need a game where PC advancement is suitably gradual. Cypher tends to be too quick I think. PbtA and FitD is even quicker.

If you go with the current edition of D&D for this I think you need to do advancement by something other than XP. Let the characters stay at a given level for longer. We generally do fiat advancement but I recognize not everyone prefers that and I'm not exactly recommending it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would say something with slow or no advancement would be key. OSR games typically advance pretty slowly, but games like Traveller don't have characters advance at all. Either would be ideal. And games like Pendragon are built on the idea of long campaigns that span multiple generations of characters and a long arc of English (legendary) history. Ars Magica also works over an extremely long time scale.

I think modern games, which often have predefined story arcs, are probably a bad idea generally. Scum & Villainy, for instance, has a predictable arc at the end of which, the characters will have transformed their sector of space and those characters are expected to retire. Monster of the Week has characters eventually need to retire before they die, once their luck runs out.

 

[payn]

I have found Traveller to be great at it. The flattened character progression takes the stakes off getting stuff and abilities and enemies doing the same. It's been my experience that players tend to focus more on developing relationships, engaging the plot hooks, setting goals etc...

I'll note that I have seen close to equal numbers of players revolt from Traveller because they like killing things and getting their stuff. Nothing wrong with that of course.

 

[CleverNickName]

Another vote for 5E D&D, especially if you use the "slow advancement" option in the DMG. The longer the characters stay between 3rd and 10th level, the better.

 

[Reynard]

Another vote for 5E D&D, especially if you use the "slow advancement" option in the DMG. The longer the characters stay between 3rd and 10th level, the better.

Makes you wonder why they have level 11+ at all...

 

[pointofyou]

Another vote for 5E D&D, especially if you use the "slow advancement" option in the DMG. The longer the characters stay between 3rd and 10th level, the better.

We didn't have major problems at higher levels but we also might have had players who weren't looking to exploit stuff and a GM who was comfortable with the game. Different experiences and preferences are different.

 

[CleverNickName]

Makes you wonder why they have level 11+ at all...

I mean, what "they" do and what "you" do at your own table don't have to be the same, right? There's nothing wrong with you capping the characters at 10th level, and giving out feats (or some other cookie) every few thousand XP.

 

[billd91]

The best game for a long campaign is the one you (and your players) can keep generating content and interest for. If that's D&D, Mutants and Masterminds, Traveller, or anything else, I think you're good.

We've had our longest campaigns with D&D, various editions, because that's what we keep coming back to and keep generating new interest for. I think the fact that it's SO VARIED in monsters and settings (dungeons, towns, wilderness, planar escapades, etc), as well as readily plunderable published material, that it lends itself well to keeping things fresh.

 

[Lanefan]

We've had good success with 1e D&D but you'll need to make one fairly big - but trivially easy - modification: no more xp for treasure. This slows down levelling to a point where you can go long-term and not get beyond the game's playable range (which IME caps out at about 10th-12th level).

There's a few other mods you might want to make (rework the surprise rules, the initiative rules, and maybe simplify combat a bit by knocking out weapon-v-armour-type and weapon speed, remove gender-based stat restrictions, etc.) but that's up to you. It's a fairly easy system to modify in any case due to its modularity, and some of the mods have already been done for you in some of the OSR systems.

There's loads of adventure modules out there to use, plus you can come up with your own - finding new things to run will never be a problem!