How long do your campaigns generally go for? Also what is your ideal XP span (i.e. how long to you want it to take for characters to get to different levels).
I'm not trying to be sarcastic here... My campaigns go until they're "done".
*DONE* means any one or more of the following:
Real Life Happens
Players lose interest
GM loses interest
TPK and the somehow the setting is rendered unplayable (yeah it's happened.)
PC PVP get waaaay out of control
Mutually Agreed End Point - which if things ended well, could mean we revisit the setting and pick up again from a new angle later.
Mine typically run 6-18 months. It usually ends when a particular goal or event is reached or when our group decides its time for something new.
I've been running my first Traveller campaign for a year now and I think this one might be the exception and go longer since there are so many possibilities to explore for this game.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1079799How long do your campaigns generally go for? Also what is your ideal XP span (i.e. how long to you want it to take for characters to get to different levels).
My longest campaigns usually run 6-8 months. If you consider a campaign to be roughly the same players in the same game.
One was Earthdawn, which ran from 1st to about 9th Circle. (level)
The other was 2nd edition Dark Sun, which ran from 3rd to 20th level. That wound up crazy, gonzo fun, but got horribly unbalanced towards the end.
My current thought for leveling is to start fast and then taper off. I use the standard XP system, and budget the adventures to take a session per level. So 1 session to go from 1st to 2nd level, 2 sessions to go from level 2 to level 3, etc... I like for the players to get some advancement early and develop their characters abilities to face greater challenges, and then taper off so they have something to work towards.
Sometimes it's not clear when a campaign ends - I GM'd Wilderlands from January 2015 to January 2019, with one PC going 1 to 20, but two PCs from that campaign/world are currently in my resumed Runelords of the Shattered Star game, which initially ran 2 years November 2015 to end October 2017 in 64 sessions, 18 levels, before resuming this February.
My 4e Loudwater game ran 1 to 29/30 in 5.5 years and 103 sessions. I think that's my longest continuous campaign.
I think about 2 years is a typical campaign duration for me. Speed of levelling will vary by system, I like 5 sessions/level in Mentzer Classic, 4 sessions/level in 4e D&D. Desired end level will vary by campaign & system; I think 5e suits play 1 to 20 more than other versions of D&D.
I often start in January and I often finish in August the following year, since an old friend visits in August and he likes the epic high level stuff. I recently started running weekly Primeval Thule with a houserule XP system designed to level every 2-3 sessions (I find 5e default XP levels much slower) which should put PCs to 20th level within 15 months if we keep up the rate; or I might need to go to fortnightly play at some point. Either way, looking at around 45-50 sessions to 20th level, and probably hoping to play around 60 sessions. It might end earlier if group falls apart etc - I generally find groups tend to fall apart after 2 years as people move away.
I prefer short-arc campaigns. I hate/hate/hate and extra hate when campaigns end as described by Tenbones. I vastly prefer a beginning / middle / end and I don't care if the PCs win or lose, the end comes and we close the book. Maybe there is new campaign in the same world in the future, but that's for another tale...with its own beginning / middle / end.
For me, the short arc campaign works best because it forces players to focus.
Here's my Mazes & Minotaurs mini-campaign: Olympus is struck by a divine plague, the gods are dying, if Zeus dies, the world of Athenos fades with him, but Lo and Behold! The cure for the plague exists within the Hidden Archipeligo where only mortals can thread.
Boom. Done. Go sail around the islands. Kick ass. Find the various bits to make the cure. Save the gods, or Zeus dies. I can easily tailor that to 6 or 12 or 20 sessions. We can get into a bunch of side quests for longer campaigns or just drive down the main highway.
And there's no railroad. Visit any island, deal with the NPCs as you like, wander about smelling the flowers, but Zeus dies on the night of the first Winter Moon if you haven't found the cure. That's on you, not me.
If I don't want a "big bad ends the world", then I just go for a timelock. I've run an OD&D campaign where portals to a dungeon-underworld opens once per decade for 30 days. The "real" world is terribly mundane, no magic or monsters, and the PCs vie to bring the most gold and magic and power out of the portal to set themselves up as lords. There are plenty of shenanigans in the camps at both sides of the portal, lots of intrigue, but it all ends in 30 days. Or 10 days for a very short campaign.
As for length, I get that sorted out as best we can with the players beforehand. Can we commit to 10-12 sessions over 4 months? Awesome. Then thats the length. Oh wait, we can only commit to 6-8 sessions? Then that's the length.
My con game playing with Dave Arneson years ago really changed my view on leveling. His view as "survive the adventure, gain a level" and I've used that many times with zero trouble. Does it make sense? No. Zero sense. Do players like it? Most love it, especially as I tend to run high-fatality campaigns.
But overall, I only care about "PC advancement" as much as the players. If they want some "zero to hero" action, I am happy to oblige. If they want a minimal power curve to occur, that's cool too.
I usually aim for 12-18 months of gaming.
I'm looking for the "I AM a Jedi. Like my father before me." moment, in a game.
I also try to leave the door open for returning characters in new campaigns, too.
Didn't we have a similar thread on this last year?
As noted prior. Ive been in a Spelljammer campaign that has been going 8 or more years now. Think 9 now. Up untill it was put on hold by player RL problems was in a 5e campaign that had been going 3 years now. And been in a few other ongoing ones that lasted quite a while.
As a DM I dole out EXP as normal and overall it tends to work out as the players tend to be prone to lots of non-EXP gaining endeavors.
Usually 1 or 2 years. For 1 year, it usually goes from level 1 to level 6. For 2 years, usually level 1 to level 8.
My games trend toward long-term; usually about a year or so at a go, with occasional breaks. In general, I like to start at the very bottom and play until the players are calling the shots in the setting; after that, I tend to have a big explosive climax session as a sort of send-off for beloved characters.
Usually for multiple years and a hundred or more sessions. And often they don't really end. We just stop playing those characters, or that setting, or that system because we (often me) want a change. Or life happens and someone moves away or something. Sometimes we come back to those characters later, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we see those people again later (or play via Skype). Sometimes we don't.
I tend to think about campaigns as what happens to the characters. So I don't often have any sort of ending in mind or even think about the game as having a beginning, middle, and end or a literary climax. I don't think I've ever said, "OK that's the end of this campaign." It's more, "hey I'd like to play something else (system or setting) or someone else (different characters in the same system and setting) for a while. What do you think about X?"
Depends on the campaign. Sometimes I go several years with hundreds of sessions, or did when back in high school. These years I get a day a week of DMing and games have been known to crumble due to players schedules and so on. I have one campaign on hold right now because the 2 players are too busy fighting with each other. Man, I miss school days.
In campaigns where I can sustain a weekly schedule, longer. Up to 1 year and more.
Otherwise, somewhere between 3 to 6 months.
Really depends. I've had campaigns where there was a very clear end-goal in mind, most of which lasted about 8-10 sessions. But then I've run a sandbox campaign that continued for a year... and I'm currently in the middle of another one. I think I probably prefer the latter style of play; it lets you get more attached to factions, characters and NPCs, and I find there's a more organic pacing.
Quote from: Omega;1079875Didn't we have a similar thread on this last year?
.
My memory is shot, but probably (and for all I know I stared the thing last time around).
Quote from: Bren;1079904I tend to think about campaigns as what happens to the characters. So I don't often have any sort of ending in mind or even think about the game as having a beginning, middle, and end or a literary climax. I don't think I've ever said, "OK that's the end of this campaign."
Funnily enough my longest duration campaign, the 103 session & 5.5 year 4e Loudwater campaign, was based around a planned arc with fighting Orcus in the final battle. 4e D&D seems to suit (loosely) planned arcs. But I generally find 'open' campaigns without a planned arc to be easier and more fun. I like seeing the emergent story develop in play, without me as GM having much of an idea where it'll go. Currently I'm especially enjoying the 5e Primeval Thule 'Heroic Narrative' system as it gives the players a lot of input into campaign direction within a generally traditional RPG/D&D context, no meta stuff. The Thule book has other tricks too, such as the list of Patrons & Enemies (a single list, which is extra clever) for players (& GMs) to pick from.
My group and I agreed that 16 sessions is a good length for a campaign. I award XP heavily and out of all proportions in the rules, as do the other folks when they GM. We like games with a beginning, middle and end.
Quote from: tenbones;1079829PC PVP get waaaay out of control
That's half the fun -- and the draw -- in my games!
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1079799How long do your campaigns generally go for? Also what is your ideal XP span (i.e. how long to you want it to take for characters to get to different levels).
My last campaign ran for 13 years, campaigns before than ran for 5 years and 3 years. My current campaign has been going for under a year.
We play RQ/HQ/D100, so we don't have levels.
A weekly game that lasts about a year is the sweet spot for me. A two-year campaign has been hard to come by with my most recent groups. Running mostly OD&D, it's takes us about one year to get to name-level.
Lots of people have this dream of having a grand epic campaign with the same players for ages where the characters start at first level and over a decade of play all become 18th level demigods and... it rarely happens.
A long time ago on rpg.net I did a survey asking how long people's campaigns lasted for. I specifically asked them to exclude the one-session fizzles - you know, where a bunch of players who don't know each-other meet up, roll up character and then never play again. It was basically 10-18 sessions. After 3-6 months you get Tenbones' scenarios where the game fizzles out in some way. That left a sour taste in my mouth too many times, and it puts people off gaming again for a while.
With that in mind, I thought: if the campaign is going to end, why not plan for it to end? In the decade since then, I've just run closed-ended campaigns - "We'll do this for 12 weeks, and after that have a week's break and then do something else." I've found I get greater player commitment that way, better attendance - anyone who was a bit disgruntled by session 6 will hang out till the end and usually have fun, whereas if it'd been open-ended they'd just walk.
This year I'm doing it with the school terms, so it's basically 4x 10 week campaigns.
The only disadvantage of a closed-ended campaign is that towards the end some players will be fucking idiots. "The game's ending soon so I don't care if I die, in fact I'll try to go out in a stupid and funny way." Up to the GM whether they put up with this, try to talk to them, or just don't invite them to the next one.
I just looked up the first logs for the Spelljammer campaign. My mistake. Its been 10 years now... :eek:
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1080323Lots of people have this dream of having a grand epic campaign with the same players for ages where the characters start at first level and over a decade of play all become 18th level demigods and... it rarely happens.
I'm more worried about the pace of advancement in 5e D&D causing PCs to level out of the campaign prematurely. I set up my current campaigns for fast advancement - the 2-3 sessions/level 5e default - but now I'm worried that the weekly Primeval Thule game will hit 20th in under a year and I'll have to stop playing with all these wonderful PCs and players! :confused: Not sure about the best way to handle it - slowing advancement, using multiple PCs per player, playing demigod-level campaign punching Cthulu in the face...
PCs die when they die. Could be turn 1 of their first combat. Almost never is.
Campaigns worlds don't end. I'm running some characters now in my first campaign setting, from 39 years ago.
Campaigns do sometimes end, but often they just stop being played.
The best ones ran steadily for 5 to 7 years, with occasional replays from time to time thereafter.
Shorter ones focused on single adventures lasted as long as the adventure took to conclude.
I recently ran one group that died in their first encounter in their first session, in a random encounter.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1080323Lots of people have this dream of having a grand epic campaign with the same players for ages where the characters start at first level and over a decade of play all become 18th level demigods and... it rarely happens.
A long time ago on rpg.net I did a survey asking how long people's campaigns lasted for. I specifically asked them to exclude the one-session fizzles - you know, where a bunch of players who don't know each-other meet up, roll up character and then never play again. It was basically 10-18 sessions. After 3-6 months you get Tenbones' scenarios where the game fizzles out in some way. That left a sour taste in my mouth too many times, and it puts people off gaming again for a while.
With that in mind, I thought: if the campaign is going to end, why not plan for it to end? In the decade since then, I've just run closed-ended campaigns - "We'll do this for 12 weeks, and after that have a week's break and then do something else." I've found I get greater player commitment that way, better attendance - anyone who was a bit disgruntled by session 6 will hang out till the end and usually have fun, whereas if it'd been open-ended they'd just walk.
This year I'm doing it with the school terms, so it's basically 4x 10 week campaigns.
I like the idea of a campaign
world , where players/characters can drop in and drop out, but the campaign will still be there. Without planning for it, that's how I'm treating my current 2nd ed Dark Sun campaign. One player (my brother) is a constant, but others have drifted off, and so it's a situation where I'm going to keep the state of the campaign until we get another group.
QuoteThe only disadvantage of a closed-ended campaign is that towards the end some players will be fucking idiots. "The game's ending soon so I don't care if I die, in fact I'll try to go out in a stupid and funny way." Up to the GM whether they put up with this, try to talk to them, or just don't invite them to the next one.
Heh. In one game, we were wrapping up a campaign, but the group was sticking together. One player decided his thief would steal everyone's stuff just before "retiring'.
Quote from: S'mon;1080335I'm more worried about the pace of advancement in 5e D&D causing PCs to level out of the campaign prematurely. I set up my current campaigns for fast advancement - the 2-3 sessions/level 5e default - but now I'm worried that the weekly Primeval Thule game will hit 20th in under a year and I'll have to stop playing with all these wonderful PCs and players! :confused: Not sure about the best way to handle it - slowing advancement, using multiple PCs per player, playing demigod-level campaign punching Cthulu in the face...
My reccomendation is to slow down advancement. Especially at "name level" (9).
Dunno about you, buy my games tend to get ridiculous at high levels. Tossing demon lords and demigods at the players gets stale.
Quote from: Ratman_tf;1080369My reccomendation is to slow down advancement. Especially at "name level" (9).
Dunno about you, buy my games tend to get ridiculous at high levels. Tossing demon lords and demigods at the players gets stale.
Yeah, at level 10 Primeval Thule pcs get their 'Name Level' Heroic Narrative benefits and are high enough level for any published PT adventure. But are still very playable within the setting. So I think maybe halving rate of advancement could work, and maybe slowing it progressively in the teen levels as the game becomes more political and less dungeon bashing - pretty much the opposite of default 5e xp.
I want to play through the published adventures levels 1 to 10 which pretty much requires standard rate of progression 1 to 10, but for open ended play beyond 10 no need to stick with that.
Let's see, my niece turned 12 this year so... twelve years on my current campaign; somewhere in the neighborhood of 360 sessions. As our epic level mains have turned most of their attention to building their respective realms (which in turn led to some time skips where a half-dozen campaign years ended up passing in a couple of months play time) we've started running their retainers and now teenage heirs more, but we still break out the adults on a pretty regular basis (though its typically for political head-of-state level interactions and summits... leave the ground level implementation of policy to the young).
Four-foot-1!
Quote from: Ratman_tf;1080367I like the idea of a campaign world , where players/characters can drop in and drop out, but the campaign will still be there.
I've been running my setting like this for close to 20 years, now.
Ran plenty of games, had... I dunno, maybe 30 or 40 people play in various games over the years. Each game winds up having an impact on the setting in some way, and the few consistent players I've had have taken the persistent setting to heart. For instance, in the last game I ran one of the guys played a character who was the nephew of an important NPC from a game eight (IRL) years earlier.
At this point I find it hard to imagine running games outside of the context of a "living" setting.
Quote from: GnomeWorks;1080815I've been running my setting like this for close to 20 years, now.
Ran plenty of games, had... I dunno, maybe 30 or 40 people play in various games over the years. Each game winds up having an impact on the setting in some way, and the few consistent players I've had have taken the persistent setting to heart. For instance, in the last game I ran one of the guys played a character who was the nephew of an important NPC from a game eight (IRL) years earlier.
At this point I find it hard to imagine running games outside of the context of a "living" setting.
It doesn't help if the group jumps systems. In the 80's-90's we hopped from system to system, and genre to genre. Play D6 Star Wars for a while, then do some 2nd ed D&D, try some Cyberpunk 2020... etc.
Yeah, we started with 3e and moved to 3.5, but every game I've run has been d20-based. I've homebrewed the hell out of it over the years, but at its core I've been running the same system in the same setting the entire time.
In terms of 'living worlds', I tend to run a setting for a good many years at a time (possibly with breaks), then move on to a new one when it starts to feel 'played out' - major conflicts have been resolved, PCs are in the positions of power, situation is very different from the start conditions. Eg I ran Wilderlands pretty continuously from around 2009 to start of 2019, but been happy to take a break from that setting and run a new one - Primeval Thule - as well as return to two old ones - Forgotten Realms & Varisia/Golarion - keeping continuity (and a couple players) from the old campaigns, but in both cases moving the timeline forward 6 game-years and having new players join.
Sometimes I come back to a setting after a couple years; sometimes I don't. Really it depends on what grabs my interest.
Quote from: Skarg;1080362Campaigns worlds don't end.
That's my feeling as well.
Quote from: Vic99;1079834Mine typically run 6-18 months. It usually ends when a particular goal or event is reached or when our group decides its time for something new.
I've been running my first Traveller campaign for a year now and I think this one might be the exception and go longer since there are so many possibilities to explore for this game.
If I'm GMing the whole thing mine is also usually 6-18 months or so. These days however we tend to rotate GMing, so I might do 1-2 months, then it rotates.
Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1079799How long do your campaigns generally go for? Also what is your ideal XP span (i.e. how long to you want it to take for characters to get to different levels).
My campaigns generally go for an average of 3-4 years, playing once every two weeks for an average of 7 hours.