Paul Farquhar
Legend
I’ve never had a campaign not complete, either as a player or DM.
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D&D General How often do you complete a campaign as a player?
- Thread starter Hussar
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R_J_K75
Legend
I can't remember ever finishing a campaign as player. I have found very few DMs that can hold my attention with an exciting campaign, know the rules to keep the game moving forward fluidly and most just don't make it through more than a few sessions before the game implodes. Thats when I'm more often inevitably asked to take over DM duties.
When I intentionally run games, I never plan out a long-term campaign, I just start with a general concept and then make things up as we go either on the fly or in between sessions. I basically just let the dice fall where they may. Truth be told I have zero interest in playing or running a long-drawn-out epic campaign for years on end.
When I intentionally run games, I never plan out a long-term campaign, I just start with a general concept and then make things up as we go either on the fly or in between sessions. I basically just let the dice fall where they may. Truth be told I have zero interest in playing or running a long-drawn-out epic campaign for years on end.
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
In general I find endings to be overvalued (I actually write about this some in my scholarly work), so for me and my groups even an ideal "ending" is just when we feel like moving on because I start most campaigns with the idea that it is "indefinite," which is to say, it will continue "forever" as long as it is physically possible and we are having fun (while understanding that it can never really last forever).
Sometimes we get to places that feel like an end point and decide to try something else. For example, my currently in-person group completed a campaign built around Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the U1-2-3 modules. When we completed those, we took a vote and decided to put those characters on hiatus and try something new with different characters (in the same setting), with the idea being of potentially coming back to the first group and/or combining the two campaigns. We did this after a little more than two years.
My "Out of the Frying Pan" 3E campaign (check out the story hour) went five years and after what became a "central plot" was resolved we ended the game with lots of loose threads to potentially be returned to (or allow for solo play), but aside from two reunion sessions about a year later, we never did.
Much more often, especially in the past, games either petered out/ended because a change of cast (people moving, new jobs, grad school, babies, new partners, loss of interest) or because of a TPK. But since I don't personally have an end in mind when I create a new campaign, while I am often disappointed in the dissolution of the game, I am not unsatisfied because the play is the thing for me and I am not necessarily trying to build a so-called "satisfying narrative" but exploring the world (physically, culturally, politically, spiritually, etc) and seeing what happens while we're doing it with these particular characters.
Sometimes we get to places that feel like an end point and decide to try something else. For example, my currently in-person group completed a campaign built around Ghosts of Saltmarsh and the U1-2-3 modules. When we completed those, we took a vote and decided to put those characters on hiatus and try something new with different characters (in the same setting), with the idea being of potentially coming back to the first group and/or combining the two campaigns. We did this after a little more than two years.
My "Out of the Frying Pan" 3E campaign (check out the story hour) went five years and after what became a "central plot" was resolved we ended the game with lots of loose threads to potentially be returned to (or allow for solo play), but aside from two reunion sessions about a year later, we never did.
Much more often, especially in the past, games either petered out/ended because a change of cast (people moving, new jobs, grad school, babies, new partners, loss of interest) or because of a TPK. But since I don't personally have an end in mind when I create a new campaign, while I am often disappointed in the dissolution of the game, I am not unsatisfied because the play is the thing for me and I am not necessarily trying to build a so-called "satisfying narrative" but exploring the world (physically, culturally, politically, spiritually, etc) and seeing what happens while we're doing it with these particular characters.
payn
He'll flip ya...Flip ya for real...
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
Of the times I've participated as a player in the last ten years, one campaign was completed out of five. Technically one other finished, but it was far from where the GM wanted to go, as everyone was thoroughly sick of the system.
There will always be more people that say they want to play than want to show up every scheduled session and more people that want to run a game than want to actually put in the work and commit to it, in my experience. Which is why I am so thankful for the two groups I've got right now. It took years to get to the point that both were filled with committed players that have the right chemistry together.
There will always be more people that say they want to play than want to show up every scheduled session and more people that want to run a game than want to actually put in the work and commit to it, in my experience. Which is why I am so thankful for the two groups I've got right now. It took years to get to the point that both were filled with committed players that have the right chemistry together.
Pawndream
Explorer
This summer will mark my 4th decade playing RPGs. As a player, I don't recall ever completing a single campaign, outside of a few play by posts, which I was able to complete or come to a satisfactory conclusion. But definitely no in-person or VTT games ever "completed".
As a result, I mostly GM, and run shorter campaigns. I like closure and most of my campaigns complete, on schedule.
As a result, I mostly GM, and run shorter campaigns. I like closure and most of my campaigns complete, on schedule.
This is mostly based on my experience, but I suspect that the biggest correlations with finishing campaigns has more to do with outside factors managing time and groups that fit well together.
There was a a point in time in my where I was trying different gaming groups and had a lot of games fizzle because of people's schedules changing or GMs having one set of expectations and players another.
Now I'm in a very stable group that's been gaming together for 10ish years, and have pretty much a 100% success rate for wrapping up campaigns with some kind of ending.
We rotate GMs, so we all have the same success rate, but there's a wide variety of investment in terms of lore and rules. A couple of us work in the industry, some are just players but read all the lore books, while some are much more casual and don't dive into lore beyond what's presented in the session. The thing we have in common though is that we all like each other and we all show up on game night.
Prior to playing online, 0 as player or DM but online, the 4e campaign ended because the players did not like the system and the face to face game ended because the players moved.
The other 5e campaign ended at 20 level, I may continue some short adventures in it, but I regard it as a satisfactory end. As a player one of my online campaigns is a continuation of a college campaign that have been running sporadically for over 30 years. The other petered out. The Dragonlance campaign had an ending I would have been satisfied with but the people running it continued with some of the same characters and a different DM. Not sure, if that counts as 2 campaigns or one.
Basically, I think that despite over 30 years in gaming, I have not had the opportunity to get a useful sample size for this and am a bit of an outlier.
The other 5e campaign ended at 20 level, I may continue some short adventures in it, but I regard it as a satisfactory end. As a player one of my online campaigns is a continuation of a college campaign that have been running sporadically for over 30 years. The other petered out. The Dragonlance campaign had an ending I would have been satisfied with but the people running it continued with some of the same characters and a different DM. Not sure, if that counts as 2 campaigns or one.
Basically, I think that despite over 30 years in gaming, I have not had the opportunity to get a useful sample size for this and am a bit of an outlier.
Wofano Wotanto
Hero
I'm not even sure how to define "complete" in this context, and I'm shaky on how long a "campaign" is as opposed to a story arc or adventure. Are we talking published products with defined endpoints here? Because no ongoing homebrew game I've ever played had a clear endpoint in mind even when the GM had a fairly coherent idea of where they wanted things to go over time.
I guess I've finished a bunch of deliberate one-shots, and some things that were meant to be one-shots and sprawled into two-three sessions - but I don't think those are campaigns for this thread even if we revisited the same setting with the same characters in the future.
I guess I've finished a bunch of deliberate one-shots, and some things that were meant to be one-shots and sprawled into two-three sessions - but I don't think those are campaigns for this thread even if we revisited the same setting with the same characters in the future.
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