Do you prefer long running campaigns, short arcs, or one shots when you run or play a game? Is your answer different for when you are a PC as opposed to when you are a GM, and if so, why?
I've found that my approach has changed. In the past, I'd plan up a long campaign and then dive in. Sometimes it lasted a few years, sometimes it died out after a few months. These days, I prefer to get started and play a one-shot or brief (3-5 sessions over no more than 2 months) campaign to see if the game and the group of players assembled for it appeal to me. If so, I take the effort of extending it into a long campaign. If not, I let it die and move on to another game and/or another group. As a player, I go the same way with taste-testing games before committing for the long haul.
I run short arcs and one to a few shots. (In recent years, many of these are just "improv" utilizing a few die rolls on tables or other similar mechanics, player input, etc)
Think of a collection of Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser, or Conan stories. Same characters, with some short adventures, some longer. Small adventure locations.
I like variety in place and "plot", so no Megadungeons or Adventure Paths or Epic Save the Worlds! (though I do enjoy reading such material for ideas or to tear apart)
A longer campaign comprised of short, module-based arcs, except I don't view the megadungeon, at least the way I run it, as a problem at all. It's simply there in the background for the party to explore as desired in between other adventure interests, not as a must-run-every-single session-for-years device.
I prefer to run multiple campaigns in a setting with each campaign ideally having a rotating cast of characters that may do almost any kind of adventures. The campaign probably has a theme that indicates what kinds of characters and adventures are central, but outside those nudges it could go anywhere.
Exceptions are play testing--whether my home brew stuff or a system new to our group. Then we'll do whatever one-shots or very short campaigns makes sense for us to quickly get a sense if the system is working for us.
As a player, I have no preference whatsoever.
We tried a megadungeon and hated it. It was so redundant <after> a session or two.
our dm was not very descriptive and I think that was part of the issue.
Campaigns with an agreed end. Like, we play this until the Duke dies or we play this until you reach the Illustrious City of Wotsit.
That way, we can change GMs or systems easily and without fuss, or continue the campaign until another agreed milestone. It's great because everyone has a slightly better idea of what the commitment is and nobody gets offended when we shuffle GMs/systems.
One shots are great for online with strangers, but they really lack depth and you don't get to enjoy the whole system or world. I'm done playing DCC funnels online. They were fun for a while, but now I don't see why I should care about these scrappy level 0s cos I'm never going to see them again.
While I run the occasional one-shot that is Halloween-themed or for a conference, or as a filler between other campaigns (mine or someone else's), I've almost always run open-ended campaigns that run over a year of real time and over 50 play sessions. Some have run much, much longer. I'm currently planning to go back to the setting from a campaign I last ran about 15 years ago for my new Runequest Glorantha game. Until the mid-eighties when I ran Pendragon I'd never even considered running a campaign with an intentional end point.
I prefer running and playing in long-running campaigns.
Quote from: Bren on December 10, 2020, 12:42:10 PM
While I run the occasional one-shot that is Halloween-themed or for a conference, or as a filler between other campaigns (mine or someone else's), I've almost always run open-ended campaigns that run over a year of real time and over 50 play sessions. Some have run much, much longer. I'm currently planning to go back to the setting from a campaign I last ran about 15 years ago for my new Runequest Glorantha game. Until the mid-eighties when I ran Pendragon I'd never even considered running a campaign with an intentional end point.
Partly depends on how you think about "campaigns". I've run what I consider a campaign with a definite end point but then turned around and immediately run another campaign in the same world with most or even all of the same characters. Some people would consider that an open-ended, single campaign. The distinction matters to us because we make it a point not to introduce house rules or new options within a campaign unless absolutely necessary.
Quote from: Bren on December 10, 2020, 12:42:10 PM
While I run the occasional one-shot that is Halloween-themed or for a conference, or as a filler between other campaigns (mine or someone else's), I've almost always run open-ended campaigns that run over a year of real time and over 50 play sessions. Some have run much, much longer. I'm currently planning to go back to the setting from a campaign I last ran about 15 years ago for my new Runequest Glorantha game. Until the mid-eighties when I ran Pendragon I'd never even considered running a campaign with an intentional end point.
My main group has multiple people who like to GM but only sufficient time to play one campaign. So, we have alternated over the years and find that deciding in advance when a campaign will end is an elegant way to manage it. And not to get too pedantic, the concept of a campaign traditionally does have a clearly defined goal and therefore a knowable end, whether successful or not. It doesn't mean that the same party can't go on another campaign later.
Short Arcs, and One Shots.
We run medium to long campaigns that tend to run about 2-3 years before we start up a new campaign.
Quote from: rytrasmi on December 10, 2020, 04:08:16 PMAnd not to get too pedantic, the concept of a campaign traditionally does have a clearly defined goal and therefore a knowable end, whether successful or not.
If we are being pedantic, then with the exception of Call of Cthulhu I rarely run what you call campaigns at all since there is no defined goal or knowable end. I use campaign as a shorthand for the combination of a particular system, a specific setting, and a set or sets of player characters who interact in and with that specific setting. I could call it a world, but then the description would fail for settings like Star Wars or Traveller where there are many worlds.
I and several others in my group will DM, but it's usually just me and one other who do so regularly. We favor long campaigns, switching off when one of us gets fatigued (the worlds/campaigns are separate with different characters). We've had some that only lasted five or six sessions, when we all decided that the setting or premise wasn't working out. Others have gone much farther: we are in the middle of a campaign in the other DM's world where we've played our characters up from 1st to 15th level. It's taken more than a year. So I'd say we mostly play long campaigns.
A long time ago on the Big Purple I put up a poll asking people how long their last campaign lasted. Once I excluded the one-session fizzles, it was 10-20 sessions. And there were lots of regrets expressed, and at the same time some resentment when people got stuck in longer campaigns they weren't happy with.
Given that most campaigns die off in that time, and that if players are unhappy they might take longer than that to say so, it seemed prudent to plan limited length campaigns. And so I stuck to 12 session campaigns, allowing a few less or more based on what the players did. Then there's been a 1 week break from it, and after that, the next campaign.
If a campaign was insanely popular, I ran a sequel to it next time - with all previous players welcome.
Limiting the length I found made players stick around for longer - they might like the game but not the group, or vice versa, and knowing it'd end in X weeks made them willing to see it through. And the players had a chance to leave gracefully if the game or players annoyed them ("well, it's the end of the campaign...") and be able to come back another time months or years later. The new campaign gave us a chance to bring new players in, too.
It also forced constraints on my campaign design, I had to design only what was strictly necessary and not a single page of notes more. This tighter design was a better one, I tended to go for deep (detail all of one village and surrounding hexes) rather than broad (draw the kingdom map, list all the deities, etc).
Quote from: Kyle Aaron on December 10, 2020, 11:19:01 PM
A long time ago on the Big Purple I put up a poll asking people how long their last campaign lasted. Once I excluded the one-session fizzles, it was 10-20 sessions. And there were lots of regrets expressed, and at the same time some resentment when people got stuck in longer campaigns they weren't happy with.
Given that most campaigns die off in that time, and that if players are unhappy they might take longer than that to say so, it seemed prudent to plan limited length campaigns. And so I stuck to 12 session campaigns, allowing a few less or more based on what the players did. Then there's been a 1 week break from it, and after that, the next campaign.
If a campaign was insanely popular, I ran a sequel to it next time - with all previous players welcome.
Limiting the length I found made players stick around for longer - they might like the game but not the group, or vice versa, and knowing it'd end in X weeks made them willing to see it through. And the players had a chance to leave gracefully if the game or players annoyed them ("well, it's the end of the campaign...") and be able to come back another time months or years later. The new campaign gave us a chance to bring new players in, too.
It also forced constraints on my campaign design, I had to design only what was strictly necessary and not a single page of notes more. This tighter design was a better one, I tended to go for deep (detail all of one village and surrounding hexes) rather than broad (draw the kingdom map, list all the deities, etc).
Lot of good food for thought here. Thanks!
In the last 10 years I preferred running short arcs, usually 6 months in duration ( 5e D&D, d20 Modern, COC). Then I found Mongoose Traveller 2e and I've been playing my own universe for 2.5 years - last week was actually session 100 - Traveller is really the prefect game to fuel creativity for me. Will continue that for the foreseeable future. I did just picked up Free League's Alien and hope to run the occasional cinematic one shot with that.
Also want to introduce my kids to D&D. Going to run B/X.