Trouble Keeping a Party Together

[CAFargo]

My friends and I all love to get together and try to play an adventure of D&D. The trouble is, once we run through about half of an adventure, the steam runs out, and we stop playing the adventure. A few weeks later, we repeat the whole process. It is very, very frustrating.

However, one of my friends finally figured, "Hey, lets just ask, say, someone at the Comix store for advice!" I am familiar by how awesome EN-World is, even though they don't believe me (grumble grumble), and figured I would come to you guys for my aid.

Please help!

 

[fba827]

is it lack of focus/interst on the adventure itself? or is it that people are bored with their PCs and want to keep trying something new?

if it's the adventure itself then shorten them (2-3 encounters each - if you're using published adventures, see what sorts of middle stuff can be removed, having an intro, middle, and culmination) and make it part of the campaign where they are sent out for short tasks by their guild or something

if it's bordeom with the pcs and wanting to try something new, then maybe they each player has 2 pcs and can choose which one to use at the start of each adventure. though there is some stuff you'd have to figure out like how will xp be handled for the pcs that aren't used, and magic items and stuff like that.

 

[airwalkrr]

Maybe you can be a little more specific. What is the age range of your group? How many of you are there? What are you interests? You might also want to consider that it is possible your group just has lots of fun rolling up new characters. That's a very popular aspect about D&D, especially as the editions have advanced and characters become more detailed and builds become more varied. There is nothing wrong with that, and maybe you might find an advantage in simply running short adventures from week to week so people in your group can try out different character concepts. Perhaps eventually they will settle on one or two they like and you can begin a long-term campaign with those. But not every group really enjoys long-term campaigns.

Edit: You know there was a really great idea posed forth in the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana (that might have actually originated somewhere else; I'm not sure) about a campaign spanning different worlds where your players play a different character on each world, but each character is somehow tied to the others. For instance, you might play a character named Teela, who is a human bard on Faerun, a half-orc fighter on Oerth, and a gnome illusionist on Eberron. Each week you have an adventure on a different world, with a rotating schedule, but all of the player's characters gain XP at the same time, as the two characters not being played are considered to be taking part in other activities in the meantime. As DM, you can weave a common thread through some of your adventures if you want a more cohesive plot to the campaign, but it isn't necessary. This idea might work really well for your group if your players like playing different characters from time to time and like building multiple characters at once.

 

[Pbartender]

My friends and I all love to get together and try to play an adventure of D&D. The trouble is, once we run through about half of an adventure, the steam runs out, and we stop playing the adventure. A few weeks later, we repeat the whole process. It is very, very frustrating.

However, one of my friends finally figured, "Hey, lets just ask, say, someone at the Comix store for advice!" I am familiar by how awesome EN-World is, even though they don't believe me (grumble grumble), and figured I would come to you guys for my aid.

Please help!

The solution, of course, is to come join my group... see the link below.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

My friends and I all love to get together and try to play an adventure of D&D. The trouble is, once we run through about half of an adventure, the steam runs out, and we stop playing the adventure. A few weeks later, we repeat the whole process. It is very, very frustrating.

However, one of my friends finally figured, "Hey, lets just ask, say, someone at the Comix store for advice!" I am familiar by how awesome EN-World is, even though they don't believe me (grumble grumble), and figured I would come to you guys for my aid.

Please help!

More information is needed.

Is the same person DMing each time? Perhaps a change in DM is needed?

Are you playing a module, or perhaps an adventure path? Maybe they just don't appeal to your expectations of the game.

Perhaps you need a different game? Someting more skirmish based, rather than adventure based?

Maybe you are just insane

 

[Doug McCrae]

How about running shorter adventures, just one or two sessions long. Probably no more than ten encounters, less if it's just a one session adventure. So by the time the 'steam runs out', the adventure is over. Then in a few weeks, when your group feels like playing again, you run another short adventure for the same PCs. That way you'll get more continuity. The later adventures can refer back to the previous ones so you get recurring NPCs and locations, villainous overarching plots, etc.

It may be necessary for the DM to write the adventures himself but they are short so it should be fairly easy. Just pluck a few monsters out of the monster manual, a colourful NPC to talk to, a bit where you have to be stealthy, a puzzle or whatever. Tie it all together with a half-baked plot. Stick in a couple of references to previous sessions. That's a kickass adventure, right there.