The Dungeon Masters' Foundation

[Mordmorgan the Mad]

This place coudl probably get alot spicier if soem of our old members woudl get here... We had 700+ posts back in the old thread.

BEHOLD! THE RETURN OF MADNESS!

Err...ahem. Sorry. Catoblepas blood doesn't come off as easily as you'd think .

Anyhow, is Xen going to be making an appearance?

 

[Dyne]

Man, just got back, and there's already two pages to this.

ChaosEvoker, why am I not on the Members List?

 

[Piratecat]

Okay, time to step in here. Quit hijacking this thread with discussions about "newbie." It's a lousy way to greet and welcome new members, and it's pretty much irrelevant. These folks will catch on to our culture soon enough if they haven't already, and they've been nothing but friendly -- so please be likewise.

ChaosEvoker, thanks for removing the color tags. I've taken the unusual step of deleting the extraneous posts on colors and "newbie" so that your thread stays on topic. Feel free to email me (address in the Meta forum) if you need to discuss it.

Hey, where did the DMF host their discussions previously?

 

[Piratecat]

So, let's get a real topic going here:

DO you guys find it difficult to keep a long term campaign going? WHat things do you find that help you keep it going, keep interest? what snags have you run into, and how did you get around them, or how was your campaign destroyed by them? What advise can you give or what advise do you need for campaigns?

My campaign is about 12 1/2 years old and still going strong. Same world, same PCs. A few things have helped with the longevity.

- Slow advancement. PCs level approximately every six months real time, which is every 10-12 4-hour sessions.

- Story-based plots. Lots of role-playing rewards in addition to "treasure" rewards.

 

[Acid_crash]

You can put me on the list if you want, I wouldn't mind joining a group like this. I am a GM and player, and I can always use more knowledge and skills to learn to get better.

I know you are aiming at just D&D, but I see most of this as just advice for GMing in general that will work for anybody who reads this, so I commend you for bringing this group up.

Couldn't this get Stickied or something...

My first real question to the group is this... How do you successfully advertise for a game that will get people to want to play it? I find that just listing the game and your name and number just doesn't work all that well.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I'd like to join as well.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

So, let's get a real topic going here:

DO you guys find it difficult to keep a long term campaign going? WHat things do you find that help you keep it going, keep interest? what snags have you run into, and how did you get around them, or how was your campaign destroyed by them? What advise can you give or what advise do you need for campaigns?!

I ran a campaign that had it's shaky beginnings in 1991, and came to full fruition in 1998 or so and ended with an epic finale the summer of 2000. It was very easy to keep that one going, because for the most of it, I only had a small number of players (others came and went, but the "core three" stayed all the way through it from 1992 until the end. The players really got behind the concepts of their characters, and worked as hard as I did to flesh out the setting.

They also created long term goals for their characters, knowing there was always a chance they might not achieve them. But it gave them, (and me) a foundation to build adventures around. So the campaign (which was completely homebrew, by the way) was a group effort, with me at the wheel.

In 2001, I tried to start another, but this time I made the mistake of having a "vision"; an overarching story line that would take the players from adventurous beginning to epic end. It was also my second attempt at a 3e campaign (the first crumbled after only a few months when I had to move back to Arkansas from St. Louis) and I think my unfamiliarity with the rules at the time and realizing the players didn't have the same "vision" I did caused me to lose complete interest in it. I should never have tried to railroad them into a story line, because my players had become accustomed to more freedom in choosing their adventure paths. The PC's made it to about 14th level, but we've played this campaign one time this year. One time. My players have expressed interest many times in continuing, but I just can't get excited about it. I've promised we would finish it, and we will, though it will be after Christmas and New Year's before we do.

Another factor in the loss of steam is the fact we are all in our thirties (at 41, I'm the oldest), about half are married, and three of us have children. My son, at 11, is old enough to start playing with us now, but the others still have very young children. Add to this jobs, vacation schedules, family time that doesn't include gaming, and other interests, 2004 has been a very dry year for gaming in our group. A couple of the guys have run other games, such as CoC d20 and another D&D campaign, so where I've dropped the ball others have picked it up to a degree.

But I think the biggest factor contributing to the fizzling of this second campaign has been sheer burnout on my part. I've DM'd nearly excusively for over 15 years, and I think I've begun to run out of steam creatively. A 9 years-long campaign, even with terrific input by the players, can take a lot out of a person creatively, and I think I should've taken about 2 years as a player before putting on the DM hat again.

I guess if I had any advice about running a long-term campaign would be to let the players contribute. Don't let them dictate the course of the game, but pay attention to what they want as characters. Players can many times give you ideas for great adventures that you just want to beat yourself up over because you didn't think of them. And once you finish a long term game, take a break. Don't try to start another right away.

There, I think I've rambled on quite enough.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

This is way too reminiscient of the various "guilds" and "foundations" of WotC forums. I don't think ENWorld needs this. *shudder*

This thread camne from the WOTC forums after the creator did not like the policy there regarding foundations.

EDIT: Woops, he beat me to it.

 

[velm]

this looks interesting. can I play? Granted, I have not actually done anything in a while, but it is always good to share ideas.

But, I have found it to be difficult to run a long term game. My most rencent groups had two different problems with a long run scenario. Group 1 had the problem of connecting the dots together. It really was not difficult, I think taking a step back, they were more 'combat' orientated. There is not much wrong with that to me, as the game is about fun, and they were having fun. One of the guys was really new, so he was still getting the feel for it. Group 2 had a different reason(s) for a long term adventure failing. One reason was skeduling (I think I spelt it wrong), just really difficult to get everyone together at once. The other reason was I think I was putting too much into it. It was a mistake that I made, and I learned from it. Getting a long term adv is like baking a cake. There are a lot of things you can put in it to make it good, but too much of one thing and not enough of another can ruin it.

I really only wanted to play, but as time went on, it got to be more and more difficult to find a person to run games, so I stepped up to the plate and got the DMG and started to read. Now that I look back at it, I like to run and play equally as much. When I run, I get to have control and be a story teller. When I play, I get to just be 'free' and forget about alot of stuff, and it can be a good break.

Some of the best compliments I can get is when a player will say something about an NPC they met a few months ago in the past. That is always heart warming, they either loved that NPC (to a degree, as they found them helpful or just stuck out in the players mind) or despised them (as an antogonist).

 

[ChaosEvoker]

We're growing fast once again:
New members
Acid Crash
Frukathka
velm