When gaming groups and campaigns collapse

[Steverooo]

I've seen campaigns fall apart due to:

1) Lack of Planning - No set time and place for the game, and instead of saying "Okay, meet back here, next Friday at 7" at the end of the game, someone said something like "We'll get together, later, and plan our next game". I objected that it would never happen (as it hadn't in the past), but was over-ridden... and it didn't! (We lost more good campaigns, that way!)

2) Playin' with People Who Aint Yer Friends - I played in a game with someone I thought was a friend, at one point, but he apparently didn't agree. I greeted him, when he joined, but he didn't respond. I thought that was odd, but shrugged it off. When his PC showed up, I welcomed him, and again received no reply...

Later, when I had to leave the game for a while (moving), I used the in-game excuse of my PC not wanting to pay the gate toll to enter a Human city... This prompted another PC to attack mine, then the "friend" to begin bad-mouthing my PC for the rest of the game (even after I had left it). The death of the campaign followed not to long thereafter.

Now there may be more to it than that, as (during the campaign) we discovered that some of the PCs in our group were spies for various organizations... but that's another point!

3) Player Distrust - Back in college, I knew three guys who were roommates who you NEVER wanted to invite to your games... They had back-stabbed each other in so many games, that they could bever trust each other!

In a campaign that I ran for almost two years, I succeeded all to well in attempting to induce an air of paranoia... I did such a good job, in fact, that when one PC lied to the group about where he'd been and what he'd been doing, and another motioned to his buddy (holding a finger to his lips, indicating silence, and shaking his head no, that what the speaker was saying was untrue), the other PCs assumed that the two of them were in cahoots, and somehow channelling them away from "the right answers" in solving the mysteries at hand.

The group then fractured into tiny little pieces. Two PCs had gone off, before, but come back after running out of magic and getting slightly hurt. After they'd gotten together, again, this one PC had taken off by himself, done some searching, and distrubed a bull, whose bellowing summoned the others. He then lied, claiming that he had been teleported.

When confronted, the other PCs sided with him against the two who they figured were in cahoots, said they were running things, now, blah, blah, blah! One of the two PCs sided against (the one who confronted the liar) then left the group. The other went after him, but never found him. A third PC went running after the second, then back and forth between him and the group. Another also went off by himself, remaining alone (and actually finding some useful information), until he was relieved of all his weapons. A fifth PC then lied about hearing a noise, and led the final PC off to "investigate".

At one point, every PC in the game was off running around by themself! Major GM headache, for me!

After some player drops, things calmed down, but the group never did get much of anywhere, after that... In the end, the BBEGs won, and the only survivors were the two PCs suspected of being in cahoots, who abandoned the quest and bugged out!

4) RL - Yes, I've seen this destroy otherwise-successful games, as well. Less so than other problems, though.

5) Bad GMs/Player-GM Disagreements on Style - Differences in style, especially when coupled with the below, often kills a campaign.

6) Too Few Players - You CAN run a game with just two people, but it's not that much fun! Even with three or four, there are always times when someone can't make it. With three people, and one missing for a while, it's doubtful that the GM and one player will go ahead!

7) Too Many Players - I have sat in a game with one GM and more players than I could count... In the range of 20, I believe... It was ridiculous. The GM could only deal with a few at a time, and everyone else sat around bored, waiting their turn. Fortunately, this was a one-shot, and the GM said "Never again!"

I'm sure there are other campaign-destroyers, too...

 

[Arnwyn]

I've never had a group break up, and I've only ever lost 2 players: one due to moving, and the other whose job's hours changed to the day the session is on.

So yeah, my anecdotal evidence shows real life being the biggest issue.

 

[Ashrum the Black]

Most of the breakups I've had happen were messy.

1) Had a DM suffering from DM burn out and some real life things he wasn't telling us about. He blew up at the group and we, unfortunately, didn't take it that well. We asked one guy to talk to him when they went to Gen Con and see about straitening everything out, that blew up too and the DM won't talk to anyone form that group any more. The crappy thing was he was a great friend, stood in my wedding, and now he won't even talk to me.

2) After that breakup we gamed with the aforementioned friend that we asked to talk to the old DM as the new one. This worked for about a year before he asked me to leave as I was bringing down the enjoyment of the whole group. I was ashamed that I had done this and bowed out. I then called all the folks in the group to apologize to each of them myself for my behavior. (I wasn’t sure what I had done specifically, but since my enjoyment level had been down for the campaign I felt I might have been transmitting it to folks and bringing them down.) I then found out that nope, nobody had a problem with gaming with me, and even the DM's wife had no idea what he had intended to do. So, at this point my anger boiled up over this, but I just decided to game with those that were willing to with me and we started a new group that gamed on an opposite night from the other DM. That way they could still game with him if they wished.

3) This new group has been going for the last four years pretty well until recently. We had one lady leave with a big blow up that I have yet to totally understand. I think it boils down to issues of playing style that she took out of the game and made personal. But I could be wrong.

One gentleman left to DM the old DM and his wife in shadowrun, and because he didn't like low level campaigns. Unfortunately I don't start folks out at high levels since I like long plots that mesh together so I never start over second or third level. In addition I like the character development that happens as play progress’s. When the last lady left, I had a sour taste in my mouth for the whole campaign. So I decided to start over and take things in fresh directions. He wasn't happy, and I can understand that, and decided to bow out. No hard feelings, and he's always welcome back.

Finally, we've had one gentleman bow out due to going back to college. So with three folks gone while the group goes on we've reorganized and restarted a brand new campaign (again), and it feels like a new group. We've been having a blast so we'll see if we can avoid any drama for the foreseeable future.


These have been my experiences with breaking up the group, and they, unfortunately, have not been good, or fun.

-Ashrum

 

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Real Life, check.
Evil Significant Other, check.

Here's one:
Wanker Player in a group of guys who are too non-confrontational to stand up to the problem - a real destroyer.

Groups that have been together for 1d2 decades :
To avoid the Dreaded Staleness, switch DMs, play PCs out of type, switch games (thank the Gods for d20Modern! - and we occasionally get out of the RPG box by playing nickel poker too). Try having "microCon" games where you invite all the folks who you don't have room in your group for, for a one-shot tournament style game.

 

[Silver Moon]

Here's one:Wanker Player in a group of guys who are too non-confrontational to stand up to the problem - a real destroyer.

Been there too. Thankfully the troublesome player then missed two consecutive weeks due to a family vacation, giving me time to bring the game back to normal as well as creating an opporunity for the other players to talk about both his playing style and how they missed "the way we used to play." After he returned they were all far more willing to stand up to him and he left shortly thereafter.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Here's one:
Wanker Player in a group of guys who are too non-confrontational to stand up to the problem - a real destroyer.

Another reason: replace "Player" with "DM"

For myself, it was more an inability to communicate with the DM and others within my gaming circle. In the beggining, I was more than happy to go along with whatever anyone wanted to do, since I was just happy being able to game. However, a few years down the line, I started discovering personality "quirks" between myself, the DM, and others within the group. Being the non-confrontational sort, I failed to bring my concerns before the group, which has ultimately resulted in my near-giving-up on DND and my recent quitting of said group.

I have felt a great weight removed from my spirit and rediscovered the joy of DND after leaving said group. After some thought, reflection, ranting on the boards, and helpful advice from ENworlders, I have come to the conclusion that my leaving the group was not any one person's fault, but the failure of the group in general to be "open" with one another in regards to our likes, dislikes, etc. as well as being respectful of each other's opinions and ideas.

For myself, I believe a key factor for groups breaking up is a lack of respect between people and a failure to communicate.

 

[JesterPoet]

Our group only split up because those stupid cops found all them bodies in my basement.

But now I done my time and none of my old players will even call me back!


Anyone looking for a gamer in the Detroit area?

 

[Blue_Kryptonite]

Once again, I feel truly blessed. My core group of players are my wife, my sons, and our closest friends. The SO of the oldest son tried gaming and doesn't want to continue, but has asked if she can come over and watch the story. Truly blessed.

That said, I have lost players over the years ouitside the core group for all the reasons listed above. One SO in particular ended up causing the player to abandon gaming, windsurfing, and Transformers, his three major hobbies that he shared with his family. AFAIK, its fifteen years later, he's still with her, and he still hasn't spoken to his father.

 

[JesterPoet]

...That said, I have lost players over the years ouitside the core group for all the reasons listed above.

Even the bodies in the basement?

 

[Wycen]

Death and being P Whipped have left the biggest marks on our games, but that's because in both cases the DM and player were our friends outside gaming.

But we've had DM burn out at least twice, campaign blow up once, and at least once we stopped for a reason I don't can't say, maybe it was real life intruding on multiple fronts. And the first 3E game I played in ended because a few players were tired of the DM's "style" among other things.