What level should a campaign end at?

[was]

Ours usually fall apart around 12th or 13th level. Then we start a new one.

 

[Zweischneid]

I drop it at about level 15 usually.

That gives me as a DM 5 more levels of goodies for NPCs and Villains to keep the player challenged.

Lvl 9 Spells are plot elements IMO, not something designed for the players to have.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have no problems starting or ending a campaign at any level we feel like.

Besides accidents, like the DM or too many players don't have time to continue (and the game stops in the middle of a campaign), usually a campaign of ours ends when the DM's role change to someone else.

If I were to keep DMing myself all the time, I think there will be a time at mid-high level when I will start having serious practical problems handling all the PC's powers (such as plot-breaking divinations for instance), and I couldn't level them up anymore, so that would probably be a good time to end the campaign.
This can also happen to the players. IMO the game is more difficult at higher levels, and it shouldn't be played until the players are experienced enough; so if the advancement has gone far enough that the players aren't able to use but a few of their PC's powers, it could be a good idea to go back to lower-level play. This is especially true if the players want to try different classes when they replace their own PCs.

 

[S'mon]

I don't think there's a single answer, "when the story arc's done" or similar might be reasonable. I'm ending my current campaign with the PCs at 16th level, but in 1e I've happily GM'd games up through Lesser God level 100+ and would have been happy to continue. My impression of 3e so far is that its concern with balance, battlemats & number-crunching makes it much less suitable for very high level play than AD&D or BECMI D&D were, but maybe's it's just my different players or that I've changed. From my experience with D&D 3e over the past 4 years I'd say probably a good stopping level was 10th, assuming the world is designed that way (ie NPCs are capped at 10th too, so 10th level actually means something), but it will depend very much on the campaign and the world.

 

[Desdichado]

I prefer to start at about third, and I get very tired of the way the game plays once you're up in about the early teens. 3-10 is my ideal campaign range, I guess.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I think one of the reasons games end 'early' (like our original poster's 5th-7th level) is because it takes while to get to those levels (maybe a year or so, assuming that the players play once a week for a few hours). Players want to move to something else and maybe they lose interest (unless the game or campaign is really good). Then there is always the problem of players leaving the city you play in, work schedules changing, etc. Though a campaign that players really love is something they will desperately find time to continue.

For instance, I have been running a supers campaign for over ten years. Sure, new characters roll in and out and new cities become the setting but it is the same world. On the other hand, I have not been part of a D&D game that has lasted more than a year in a VERY long time.

 

[Silveras]

My take:
1) My campaign never "ends". The adventure arc may come to a conclusion, but there is often a new one just around the corner.
2) The cast of characters may change; there is no (practical) resurrection or raise dead in my world, so death for adventurers is often final.
3) There is no fixed "level" at which a campaign should end.

 

[MDSnowman]

To paraphrase, a campaign should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to be decent and short enough to be interesting.

Ahh true wisdom if I ever heard it.

I have Two campaigns that I've been planning for a while and I have wildly different ideas of where exactly they'll end.

Ravenloft: Legacies of Darkness: This is the low powered Ravenloft game I've been planning since the womb, advancement will be slow and it'll be very RP heavy. I'll be starting the players at Level 1 and the game will likely end somewhere around Level 10, by then the heroes are fairly tough, but I can still challenge them easily.

Warcraft: Shadow Quest: This on the other hand is the over the top D&D game I've wanted to run since I first picked up the Rules Cyclopedia at age 8. It'll be high on magic, high on action a real crowd pleaser (This of course after my World of Warcraft 2.0 game fell apart after the third session)The players will start at level 5 or 6 and the game will likely end in Epic territory.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Maybe it's because I'm an imcompetent DM, but when PCs reach about 11th-13th level, I have a lot of problems dealing with it, so the campaign usually doesn't go much higher than that.

Also, I suffer form ADDD&DC (attention deficit disorder for d&d campaigns). I end a lot of my campaigns because I get bored and want to try something different, which never happens to be that different, and so I get bored again relatively quickly.

As a player, if I'm playing with a DM that can handle high level play, I don't mind playing. I'm currently in two campaigns that have been going on for a while (3+ years) and we're at level 12 (approx.). We'd be higher if we hadn't died multiple times each in the last few sessions...

AR

 

[Belen]

A game should end when the fun ends. Some campaigns are fun for a very short time, while others can take years. It really depends on the group and how they are enjoying the game.