Why have you dropped campaigns?

[megamania]

Most of the time we stopped a campaign because we got to a high enough of a level we were not challenged and became bored with it.

I recently stopped one because three players had developed a drug problem and decided I didn't need my kids to see this so I canceled campaign and group.


Now I sit around wishing I had a group again. ugh.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am pretty happy that I haven't had fundamental problems with my players yet. But I am in a steady group nearly since I began playing. Most of the other players are older and more experienced in RPG than me, so my play style couldn't really differ so much from theirs that we could "collide".

Our group also has the rule that every player has to be GM or DM, and every week we switch the GM/DM. That has the severe disadvantage and destroying a lot of plot cohesion, since players tend forget what happened in the past session of the DMs campaign, since it was 4-5 weeks ago and each week, another story was followed.
But it has the distinct advantage of giving everyone enough time to prepare an adventure and everyone having a lot of time to play a character. None of our group members really has enough free time to be a steady DM.

Reasons why I personally stopped Campaigns:

- Lack of Stamina to bring a Campaign that I had planned to an end. I think it would have worked out, because it's not exactly difficult to steer our group in the right direction, as long as the adventures are entertaining enough. But at some point, I just didn't enjoy having to play through the things to the end. Maybe this is in part due to the complexity of the story and the rules, at which point fleshing out the adventures becomes too time-consuming, and no longer seems worth the reward.

- New Settings or Rule Systems that I want to try out.

I think it's usually a combination of both that I stop.
My first big Campaign was a Dragonstar-based campaign in a word I had in some shape or form in my mind even before I ever played Role Playing Games (but there are several variations of that world and its storyline in my mind). The campaign ended at a high level, with still a few plots in my mind I wanted to finish, but somehow couldn't bring myself to do it.
I then stopped to run an Arcana Unearthed/Evolved campaign. The campaign went also into high levels, and I had a pretty clear storyline (involving Virdella Thresham and her attempts to destroy the plane of the Diamond Throne to get more power). Just like with Dragonstar, I couldn't bring myself to really complete the story. Part of the reason here might also have been that I had aimed to end the Camapign Arc at a higher level, and thus meant I had to add more adventures in between.

My next Campaign was a D&D campaign with a homebrew setting. I had some ideas for a further adventure, but I became less interested in it. In addition, I finished my Diploma Thesis and took a full-time job, so I had less time to continue creating adventures.
So I picked up Iron Heroes and began to run "Dark Harbor". I am not certain I will continue beyond that adventure setting, since both Starwars Saga Edition and MonteCooks World of Darkness look tempting to try out.

So, I guess my best advice to myself would be to reduce the complexity and the time frame of the plot-lines I want to use. "Mini-Campaigns" instead of a plot that becomes more and more of a burden. (Maybe "Points of Lights" and/or the Pathfinder approach is the best way to go. Start small, with a lot of blank space and "Here be Dragons", and see how it goes...)

 

[Robert Ranting]

The only reason I have ever left a campaign has been personal conflict with other players or the GM.

I walked away from a 2+ year long Ravenloft campaign because of an incident that ended my friendship with the DM and his wife (who was also a player).

I left another game because I broke up with my girlfriend who was also a player. It was just too awkward for me, and there were a couple minor complaints I had with the campaign that made it easier to just leave. Eventually she and I got back together and worked things out, but I still haven't rejoined that campaign, because the DM had already given my slot to another player.

Robert "Gaming is Primarily a Social Activity For Me" Ranting

 

[Darklone]

Bitchy roommate/girlfriend of the host/gm.

`Seconded, Thirded, Fourwhatever and so on. I'm the DM, btw.

 

[scourger]

As a DM, I only lament dropping a campaign because of player boycott. I showed up one night to run a game and only one guy was there and he was hosting. The other five players had various excuses, including the guy who also lived there. Ridiculous. That campaign died that night. It's a shame, too, because one of my best stories came from that game. I also didn't run anything for the group for a year.

I prefer to run a campaign through its story-line. I feel my best games are those that had a (more or less) planned stopping point and reached it. I get bored after a while, so I need to move on to something new.

As a player, the only game I sort of dropped was one that followed the standard mode of hack & slash, kill & loot, same players, same characters, same style as several other games we had going or had killed off through the years. I guess I expected the same thing to deliver different results--crazy. There was a cancellation of the regular night followed by a surprise make up over three nights that went very late. I would have been hard pressed to make it, and I wasn't having much fun anyway; so I didn't go.

 

[Klaus]

Hey all,
Just reading the Bad 3E module thread. I noticed that many folk will drop a campaign because of a bad module. Generally I've only done dropped a campaign when I've lost an important player or had a TPK. I've rarely done this for other reasons. The only time I can remember was years ago: a Shadowrun campaign when my players were just being absolute s.

Over long anecdote in italics follows:
It got to the point where I was making all their decisions for them because they utterly refused to do any thinking. It had been like this for many sessions. Another friend of ours came into the room during a session and said something like: "Wow, you seem to be doing all the playing, PCs and NPCs both." I mouthed off loudly about how crap the players all were and how they only paid any attention during a fight and that I'd prove it. I turned to the players and said "So they start shooting." The guys jump into action, grabbing dice asking where the bad guys were and what were they doing. Despite this being a complete non sequitur in game terms and despite my just slagging them off. They had been paying that little attention for so long. So I shut the books and said campaign over. Then they whinged.

So anyway, I was just wondering for what reasons, if any, you would stop a campaign. In game or out of.

The exceitement in my 3e game got sucked dry by that sponge of repetition called Heart of the Nightfang Spire.

 

[pogre]

Never dropped a campaign due to a poor adventure. I usually run long-lasting campaigns. I can pretty much remember why every 3.0 and 3.5 campaign has ended:

Campaign One - two players moved out of state.
Campaign Two - tpk at level 5
Campaign Three - tpk at level 5
Campaign Four - Frustration with how play was progressing. Players seemed so distracted at times and it became a 4 hours of time for 20 minutes of fun campaign. I called it off at 15th level.
Campaign Five - still running.

 

[Kyuss Knight]

I've recently elected to drop the campaign that I was running for my group. The main reason for me is that the campaign in question was the my initial go at DMing. I made some mistakes and have learned a lot so I was just ready to start fresh with my newly found knowledge!

 

[dmccoy1693]

EDIT: Deleted

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Hey all. Thanks for the responses.

Obviously there's a fair variety of reasons for dropping games. I'm gald to say none of mine have ever been so bad that I've lost friends over it. And it's a shame for those of you who have.

As Robert Ranting said: gaming is a social activity. It'd be great if it always went well but I guess sometimes, like any social interaction, it can get stuffed up.

cheers all,
Glen