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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 3416273" data-attributes="member: 32740">My own experience is that very few games die away because of player ennui or apathy.&nbsp; My campaigns faded and died quite predictably with the changing seasons of the real-world calendar.&nbsp; When summer rolled into the Pacific Northwest my players bailed and went... OUTSIDE and stuff.&nbsp; When the weather turned colder, say around October, the players couldn't even remember their old PC's or story lines, and the roster would have changed by one or two players anyway, so I'd start another game.I've only ever had ONE campaign (as a DM) run to &quot;high level&quot; (meaning upper teens).&nbsp; That was my first full 3rd Edition campaign based on the Adventure Path modules and I began it with the specific intent that no matter what else happened it would close down by the time the PC's reached 20th level rather than going into epic levels.&nbsp; It ended several levels before that but I managed to keep it running for over a year in order to get there.&nbsp; The only reason it made it to those levels is due to the design of 3E making for rapid advancement.&nbsp; Previous editions wound up being MUCH slower (at least as WE played them) and maybe that WAS a problem.&nbsp; At the end of that first game though I had already come to feel that 3E advanced PC's much too fast.&nbsp; But I also have come to feel that I should have PLANNED my older campaigns much more, especially in anticipating they would likely END with the onset of summer weather and try to wrap story arcs to fit that schedule.&nbsp; I always assumed instead that EVERY campaign I started would and should age like a fine wine over a decade or more and never die.If you find that your games DO tend to fade and die on a regular basis then PLAN for it.&nbsp; Leave yourself open to the possibility that it will run forever, but otherwise organize your campaign to progress in a more episodic fashion.&nbsp; Think of it like a book or movie series where after one ends the next picks up with the same plot where it ended, or with the same characters and all new plots, or some new stuff, some old stuff to keep up some continuity...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 3416273, member: 32740"] My own experience is that very few games die away because of player ennui or apathy. My campaigns faded and died quite predictably with the changing seasons of the real-world calendar. When summer rolled into the Pacific Northwest my players bailed and went... OUTSIDE and stuff. When the weather turned colder, say around October, the players couldn't even remember their old PC's or story lines, and the roster would have changed by one or two players anyway, so I'd start another game. I've only ever had ONE campaign (as a DM) run to "high level" (meaning upper teens). That was my first full 3rd Edition campaign based on the Adventure Path modules and I began it with the specific intent that no matter what else happened it would close down by the time the PC's reached 20th level rather than going into epic levels. It ended several levels before that but I managed to keep it running for over a year in order to get there. The only reason it made it to those levels is due to the design of 3E making for rapid advancement. Previous editions wound up being MUCH slower (at least as WE played them) and maybe that WAS a problem. At the end of that first game though I had already come to feel that 3E advanced PC's much too fast. But I also have come to feel that I should have PLANNED my older campaigns much more, especially in anticipating they would likely END with the onset of summer weather and try to wrap story arcs to fit that schedule. I always assumed instead that EVERY campaign I started would and should age like a fine wine over a decade or more and never die. If you find that your games DO tend to fade and die on a regular basis then PLAN for it. Leave yourself open to the possibility that it will run forever, but otherwise organize your campaign to progress in a more episodic fashion. Think of it like a book or movie series where after one ends the next picks up with the same plot where it ended, or with the same characters and all new plots, or some new stuff, some old stuff to keep up some continuity... [/QUOTE]

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