What ruins a campaign?

[Mark Hope]

I'd agree with most of what has been said above. But these two are at the heart of many problems:

differences of opinion.

And the inability, or flat-out refusal, to work through them and reach a compromise.

Problems happen, both in-game and outside of it. It's not being able to work through them that is the killer.

 

[sckeener]

And the inability, or flat-out refusal, to work through them and reach a compromise.

agreed. I tend to see that problem a lot in mixed alignment groups (good/evil.)

 

[Lanefan]

Timely question, for me.

Long-term campaigns tend to die due to DM burnout and-or boredom, at least from what I've seen...and done. That, and the campaigns themselves can become so unwieldy that they just collapse under their own weight. Both have been happening to my Riveria game for the last while; I'm out of ideas, and the game has become *so* sprawling and overburdened that managing it has become more work than pleasure. So, one half of it shut down this past weekend, the other half will follow once their current adventure is done.

Perhaps we're lucky, but I've yet to see a game shut down due to lack of players...though it's been touch and go a few times in the past.

Lanefan

 

[Elf Witch]

Some things that kill a campaign are players telling other players how to play or they jump on the other players if they feel that they have made a mistake.

DMs who don't know the rules so they wing everything and it seems it is always in the NPC favor.

DMs who have wriiten a tightly scripted plot and gets bent out of shape if you want to do something different or if you don't figure out the clues.


Favortism at the table a DM allows his best friend, spouse, family member to have a character who gets all the spotlight, magic items and is just so much better than everyone else.

DMs make encounters so hard that you have PCs dying every session or the party is barely escaping with their lives with their tails between their legs.

 

[Ry]

arguments over the alignment system

 

[jollyninja]

My expectations ruin my games. I always try to run the best game that has ever existed. I inevitably am unhappy with what it turns out to be. I usually struggle on for a few more months (my games tend to last about 8 months to a year) and suddenly take a few months off before beginning again, new idea in hand. apparently they are fun though, everyone keeps coming back.

My next game is set in the distant past of George R.R. martin's songs of fire and ice series, using the world of darknes mechanics. It's got failure written all over it, but it just might be perfect.

I have also had personal incompatability between players, as in they just really didn't like each other, make a game less then fun. But after essentially having to choose between players, my friends still talk about how they wish i'd start that game up again but come on, how many times have you seen the old release an ancient threat to the existence of krynn at level 3 and spend the rest of your life trying to fix it while also participating in multiple wars and getting caught up in the politics of the lords of the nine storyline?

 

[Lanefan]

I've added numbers, in the quote:

1. Some things that kill a campaign are players telling other players how to play or they jump on the other players if they feel that they have made a mistake.

2. DMs who don't know the rules so they wing everything and it seems it is always in the NPC favor.

3. DMs who have wriiten a tightly scripted plot and gets bent out of shape if you want to do something different or if you don't figure out the clues.

4. Favortism at the table a DM allows his best friend, spouse, family member to have a character who gets all the spotlight, magic items and is just so much better than everyone else.

5. DMs make encounters so hard that you have PCs dying every session or the party is barely escaping with their lives with their tails between their legs.

3 and 4 are definite problems that can sink a game. 2 is only a problem if the DM is inconsistent with the wingings; but if one session's wing becomes next session's houserule then you're on solid ground. 1 can be a problem in that the game might lose a player, but that doesn't always kill the whole campaign.

5 is what keeps a good campaign going as a good campaign!

Lanefan

 

[Elf Witch]

I've added numbers, in the quote:
3 and 4 are definite problems that can sink a game. 2 is only a problem if the DM is inconsistent with the wingings; but if one session's wing becomes next session's houserule then you're on solid ground. 1 can be a problem in that the game might lose a player, but that doesn't always kill the whole campaign.

5 is what keeps a good campaign going as a good campaign!

Lanefan

I don't enjoy a game where you can never do better than the NPCs. The NPCs are always better equipped, they always come out ahead in every encounter. If you are dying in every other session so you never get to level you just feel like why bother.

So I have to say thay you have a strange sense of a good campaign. :\

 

[Lockridge]

What killed our campaign?
Lets see, we have three couples - six players. Two couples had babies and the third couple separated. Talk about a doomed game.
All within a year.

 

[cthulhu_duck]

Expectations that aren't met or delivered upon.