What has been your longest running campaign?
- Thread starter Roger_the_jolly
- Start date
Current campaign started in 2E, 1998 I believe, more or less monthly games. It started at level 3 and reached level 6-7. Once 3E came we switched to weekly, converting the characters to level 6, and it has been going on since then, reaching level 17 now. The collected campaign chronicles are getting to 600 pages (including rendered illustrations).
Mr. Wilson
Explorer
3 1/2 year campaign through college, ran from August through May, so it wasn't year round. 4-5 hours a week. Ran from level 1-14 in 3E. Started with 4 players, ended with more than I could handle, but I hated saying no since I was the only one willing to run DnD on campus (I think there were like 9 players at the end of my game).
Jeff Wilder
First Post
My longest-running campaign was Shadowrun, actually. Weekly (well, probably 40 sessions a year), for five to six hours a session, for four years. Call it 850 hours?
As for why it went so long ... hmm.
One, I really loved Shadowrun. I love D&D, for instance, but I find myself burned out on it after a fairly lengthy campaign. (My current campaign is edging past three years, and it's basically a race between total burnout and campaign finale right now.)
Two, I found it much more fun in Shadowrun to create adventures and NPCs, and I loved writing them up in mock real world fashion. (For example, I'd write up my PCs' contacts as detailed dossiers for handing out to them, complete with "security cam" photos and the like. No stats, just stuff the PC would know.)
Three, Shadowrun as a system rewards very smart tactics in combat, much more than games like D&D do. In that campaign, my PCs basically figured if a fight wasn't over (in their favor) in two rounds, they'd screwed up and needed to abort. Consequently, character death -- which I've always found to be a campaign jolt (at best) in most systems -- rarely happened in that campaign.
Fourth, the PCs were designed as "competent, but with room to improve" and with the potential for serious emotional development. The leader of the team was a non-cybered, non-Awakened investigator in a very noir vein. By the end of the campaign, he had -- with reluctance and self-loathing well-played by the player -- amped himself with cyber- and bioware so that he could survive and compete. On the other hand, the cybered company woman slid into a descent of alcohol-fueled nihilism which started when she was betrayed by the corporation she'd devoted her life to.
Those PCs, all of them, were by far the best developed PCs in any game I've ever participated in.
Fifth, we were all in college. Life didn't scatter us after a couple of years, which has happened a few times since.
As for why it went so long ... hmm.
One, I really loved Shadowrun. I love D&D, for instance, but I find myself burned out on it after a fairly lengthy campaign. (My current campaign is edging past three years, and it's basically a race between total burnout and campaign finale right now.)
Two, I found it much more fun in Shadowrun to create adventures and NPCs, and I loved writing them up in mock real world fashion. (For example, I'd write up my PCs' contacts as detailed dossiers for handing out to them, complete with "security cam" photos and the like. No stats, just stuff the PC would know.)
Three, Shadowrun as a system rewards very smart tactics in combat, much more than games like D&D do. In that campaign, my PCs basically figured if a fight wasn't over (in their favor) in two rounds, they'd screwed up and needed to abort. Consequently, character death -- which I've always found to be a campaign jolt (at best) in most systems -- rarely happened in that campaign.
Fourth, the PCs were designed as "competent, but with room to improve" and with the potential for serious emotional development. The leader of the team was a non-cybered, non-Awakened investigator in a very noir vein. By the end of the campaign, he had -- with reluctance and self-loathing well-played by the player -- amped himself with cyber- and bioware so that he could survive and compete. On the other hand, the cybered company woman slid into a descent of alcohol-fueled nihilism which started when she was betrayed by the corporation she'd devoted her life to.
Those PCs, all of them, were by far the best developed PCs in any game I've ever participated in.
Fifth, we were all in college. Life didn't scatter us after a couple of years, which has happened a few times since.
Wombat
First Post
My longest running campaign was Ars Magica (started under 2nd edition, ended under 3rd). The game ran for a bit over 5 years on a primarily weekly schedule (we missed times, due to finals, holidays, and the like, say 45 sessions a year); the sessions ran anywhere from 4 to 8 hours ... although there was the infamous session early on where I ran the game for 7 hours and then, after I left, the rest of the group ran the game another 6 or 7 hours to come up with their covenant charter and other details.
What brought us back? Well, deep involvement in the world and the characters, including NPCs. The game ran for 45+ years of "game time" as well as some flashbacks to earlier times. We had multiple generations of NPCs running around. The shock that came to the players when one of the NPCs simply died of old age was amazing. This was a deep world with lots of nooks and crannies; everyone felt they had a stake in it. While certain players (and characters) came and went, the core group remained absolutely intact and when we closed the campaign with a suitably apocalyptic finale, everyone felt satisfied.
This was more than rolling dice, killing monsters, and taking treasures -- this was an epic tale of love, hate, fear, and nobility. I was so proud of that group.
What brought us back? Well, deep involvement in the world and the characters, including NPCs. The game ran for 45+ years of "game time" as well as some flashbacks to earlier times. We had multiple generations of NPCs running around. The shock that came to the players when one of the NPCs simply died of old age was amazing. This was a deep world with lots of nooks and crannies; everyone felt they had a stake in it. While certain players (and characters) came and went, the core group remained absolutely intact and when we closed the campaign with a suitably apocalyptic finale, everyone felt satisfied.
This was more than rolling dice, killing monsters, and taking treasures -- this was an epic tale of love, hate, fear, and nobility. I was so proud of that group.
The Green Adam
First Post
Another really long campaign for me was one of my Star Trek games using the original FASA system.
We played Star Trek alot (A LOT!) between 1983 and 1985. In truth I've run Star Trek more often then any other setting or system from 1983 on. Often, we used it for pick up games that only lasted 1 to 5 sessions. I have run several longer ones, say a years or so, but my Fedifensor campaign ran the longest at just over 2 1/2 years and being played anywhere from 12 to 24 hours a week.
Details on one of our more incredibley fun campaign arcs can be found in this old thread of mine - http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-30-years-weird-strangest-campaigns-ever.html .
Star Trek was and is my favorite gaming subject, largely because I'm a Trekkie but also because it just really fits my gaming style. It avoids so many pitfalls of most gaming since a power gamer is not going to matter, a rules lawyer is going to put the book down when meeting Q or a similar omnipotent entity and if you hack and slash your going to get yourself disintergrated. Its about character, conflict, story, role playing and yes action (I'm more a TOS/Wrath of Khan/DS9 Trek fan) and not killing guys and taking stuff. Alot of what Wombat describes in his post about Ars Magica (another favorite of mine btw) is what kept us playing Star Trek and often brings us back there.
Ooh...new movie coming...new MMORPG...hmmm...time to dust off the ol' frickin' huge loose leaf notebook of campaign material...
AD
We played Star Trek alot (A LOT!) between 1983 and 1985. In truth I've run Star Trek more often then any other setting or system from 1983 on. Often, we used it for pick up games that only lasted 1 to 5 sessions. I have run several longer ones, say a years or so, but my Fedifensor campaign ran the longest at just over 2 1/2 years and being played anywhere from 12 to 24 hours a week.
Details on one of our more incredibley fun campaign arcs can be found in this old thread of mine - http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...-30-years-weird-strangest-campaigns-ever.html .
Star Trek was and is my favorite gaming subject, largely because I'm a Trekkie but also because it just really fits my gaming style. It avoids so many pitfalls of most gaming since a power gamer is not going to matter, a rules lawyer is going to put the book down when meeting Q or a similar omnipotent entity and if you hack and slash your going to get yourself disintergrated. Its about character, conflict, story, role playing and yes action (I'm more a TOS/Wrath of Khan/DS9 Trek fan) and not killing guys and taking stuff. Alot of what Wombat describes in his post about Ars Magica (another favorite of mine btw) is what kept us playing Star Trek and often brings us back there.
Ooh...new movie coming...new MMORPG...hmmm...time to dust off the ol' frickin' huge loose leaf notebook of campaign material...
AD
The_Warlock
Explorer
Thirteen Years, playing 5 to 8 hours a week, with DM downtime yearly from just before Christmas to end of January so I could look at all the hooks the PCs were on and make a framework for the coming year. Just playing at the table, not counting time I spent each week prepping stuff, or my annual prep, hmm, the calculator is telling me...3384 hours.
Well, darn.
It began as a dungeoncrawl with opportunities for different sorts of adventures, and turned into a quest to stop a horrible prophecy which killed a god, and shattered the world's timeline. It started in a mix of 2nd and 1st ed, transfered to 3E, then to a home rewrite of 3.x.
I had great players, crazy players, irksome players, but in the end, players who had fun and stepped up to the challenges.
Two characters survived from the beginning of the run to it's close. Approximately 30 characters died over the 13 years, with only 4 character deaths in the last three years, one a self sacrifice by a paladin who wouldn't let anyone else let their soul be snuffed utterly out of existence.
I've played in many campaigns that have lasted 2 years or so (D&D, Traveller, RIFTS [never again]), but most petered out as the GM either lost interest in the campaign, burned out, or changed the scope of the run so much that the players were no longer interested.
Unfortunately, I usually get tasked to DM, which leaves very little time to play.
Going forward, I'm probably going to stay to shorter arcs for a while, at least until I stumble upon something that makes me want to start a new epic campaign.
Well, darn.
It began as a dungeoncrawl with opportunities for different sorts of adventures, and turned into a quest to stop a horrible prophecy which killed a god, and shattered the world's timeline. It started in a mix of 2nd and 1st ed, transfered to 3E, then to a home rewrite of 3.x.
I had great players, crazy players, irksome players, but in the end, players who had fun and stepped up to the challenges.
Two characters survived from the beginning of the run to it's close. Approximately 30 characters died over the 13 years, with only 4 character deaths in the last three years, one a self sacrifice by a paladin who wouldn't let anyone else let their soul be snuffed utterly out of existence.
I've played in many campaigns that have lasted 2 years or so (D&D, Traveller, RIFTS [never again]), but most petered out as the GM either lost interest in the campaign, burned out, or changed the scope of the run so much that the players were no longer interested.
Unfortunately, I usually get tasked to DM, which leaves very little time to play.
Going forward, I'm probably going to stay to shorter arcs for a while, at least until I stumble upon something that makes me want to start a new epic campaign.
Last edited:
Roger_the_jolly
First Post
Hi,
I just wanted to say thank you all for all your responses.
I'm amazed & humbled by, but mostly jealous of the amazing story your tell
Here is hoping my next campaign will be half (hell, 1/10) as successful hehehe
Roger the Jolly
I just wanted to say thank you all for all your responses.
I'm amazed & humbled by, but mostly jealous of the amazing story your tell
Here is hoping my next campaign will be half (hell, 1/10) as successful hehehe
Roger the Jolly
For me, I guees it was four years. Back in high school with AD&D 1.
After that, I guess we have been playing Living Arcanis for four years now, so it's nearly a tie.
Otherwise, the problem I often met was campaigns collapsing because of old players leaving / new players replacing meaning it was not really the same anymore ... reboot.
After that, I guess we have been playing Living Arcanis for four years now, so it's nearly a tie.
Otherwise, the problem I often met was campaigns collapsing because of old players leaving / new players replacing meaning it was not really the same anymore ... reboot.
Iron Sky
Procedurally Generated
My longest game was the first 2nd edition game I ran. We played 2-4 nights a week after middle- and high-school for 3-5 hours for about 3 years, then we'd sometimes to 5-7 hour sessions on the weekend. It ended with the players near 2nd edition level caps (10-12ish).
So, say conservatively:
3 hours x 2 nights a week + 5 hours 1 day a week = ~11 hours a week. x 3 years is about 1600 hours, maybe more?
There was alot of goofing around and probably 50 characters died in the course of that game (back in the days before we knew what "fudging" and "level-appropriate monsters" were).
We had a d6 Star Wars game that I ran along the same timelines. Probably at least 800 hours on that one. Tough to say since these were all about 10 years ago and we'd do random pick up games of just about any game we came across at a moments notice.
More recently, I don't think I've run a game that lasted longer than a year. I don't think I've ever played in a game for longer than the 4e game I'm in now (which we've been playing since about 2 months after 4e came out, whenever that was).
So, say conservatively:
3 hours x 2 nights a week + 5 hours 1 day a week = ~11 hours a week. x 3 years is about 1600 hours, maybe more?
There was alot of goofing around and probably 50 characters died in the course of that game (back in the days before we knew what "fudging" and "level-appropriate monsters" were).
We had a d6 Star Wars game that I ran along the same timelines. Probably at least 800 hours on that one. Tough to say since these were all about 10 years ago and we'd do random pick up games of just about any game we came across at a moments notice.
More recently, I don't think I've run a game that lasted longer than a year. I don't think I've ever played in a game for longer than the 4e game I'm in now (which we've been playing since about 2 months after 4e came out, whenever that was).
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