50% for long-form campaigns - I'm not counting the ton of 1-4 session short games I've run. I ran a campaign back in college and one in grad school that didn't finish. My more recent two campaigns - a 5e levels 3-20 game that went for 3.5 years, and a 13th Age levels 1-9 game that went for a bit over 2 years - both finished successfully. They didn't have pre-defined endings, but they came to a point that closed out the events of the campaign well. I'll admit I blitzed through the final few levels in both though - could have ended at an earlier level, but wanted the players to get to use some of those cool high-level powers of theirs (and in the 5e game, the level gain was also being imposed by an in-world force and serving as a timer to the characters exploding).
D&D General What's your Campaign Success Rate?
Recently I took a group of noobs through the Essential's Kit adventure, Dragon of Icespire Keep. I'd consider that both a long adventure and a short campaign. We completed it in 21 brief sessions. However, the players have decided they want to continue...so technically we've gone from having completed a short campaign to now playing through an uncompleted long campaign. Meddling kids!
pogre
Legend
I am 3 for 5 in the 5e era. One of the ended early campaigns was due to the Pandemic and we may resume it or not this summer. I tried 4e, but my group did not like it. I completed a fair number of 3.x campaigns. I also have completed a few WFRP campaigns.
In the early days of the 70s and early 80s I did not really think in terms of completing campaigns - it was always open-ended. Some of those lasted for years, but it was all open-ended without a finishing point game-wise.
The only reason we complete a campaign these days is because we play until level 20. Even then, I usually run a few epic sessions so the PCs can have fun with their super powerful abilities.
It has been interesting watching my youngest son (Freshman in HS) trying to get an ongoing campaign started with his friends. Last minute cancellations are driving him crazy and has made him realize my weekly game where everyone shows up every time is not really the norm. Old Man voice: "Back in my HS days we had nothing better to do than sports and D&D and we liked it!"
In the early days of the 70s and early 80s I did not really think in terms of completing campaigns - it was always open-ended. Some of those lasted for years, but it was all open-ended without a finishing point game-wise.
The only reason we complete a campaign these days is because we play until level 20. Even then, I usually run a few epic sessions so the PCs can have fun with their super powerful abilities.
It has been interesting watching my youngest son (Freshman in HS) trying to get an ongoing campaign started with his friends. Last minute cancellations are driving him crazy and has made him realize my weekly game where everyone shows up every time is not really the norm. Old Man voice: "Back in my HS days we had nothing better to do than sports and D&D and we liked it!"
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