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View Full Version : Advice for Long Camps



Twilight_Crow
2010-06-05, 01:30 PM
I think most of us have been there at one point or another. You've been doing a new game. Things seem to be going well. The GM is enthusiastic, you're getting into character, and you're genuinely having a good time. Then, something happens. Maybe your GM is absent a week. Or maybe half the group can't make it. Or maybe someone just plain likes this other idea better.

So you shelf your character and move on to the next idea that only makes it through a couple play sessions.

This is a problem that constantly plagues me. When I run games, I try to make them fun and enjoyable and long enough that everyone can try to accomplish at least parts of their goals. The problem I keep having is that people lose interest after a while. It's worse when others run games: I get maybe 4 sessions done before we move on to something 'bigger and better.' It's especially taxing because I tend to plan things for my characters, and 4 sessions is barely enough for me to get a feel for party dynamics.

What I'd like to know is if anyone has ideas for keeping things going as a player. I can keep things going as a GM well enough, and I do enjoy GMing, but I can only handle so many one-shots and cut off camps.

Ideas?

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mucat
2010-06-05, 02:38 PM
I would talk about this with your gaming group before the next campaign starts. Tell them that you miss the continuity and character development of playing in a long campaign, and ask what it is about past campaigns that has made everyone feel like starting over so often.

If the group can figure out what a campaign would have to offer for them to want to stick with it, then take some time to think the next campaign out in advance and make sure it offers those things. (This advice obviously applies to the DM, but also to the players. If they spend time designing characters who they like individually and as a group, planning where they want to go with these characters, and conferring with the DM about all this stuff, then they'll be more committed to the long haul.)

Of course, your group might just say "We like short campaigns and one-shots." If you're the only one who disagrees, then you need to either find a new group, or explore what shorter games have to offer.

That latter possibility might actually be fun. Part of the frustration you are feeling is because you design your characters with a long-range view to how they will evolve, and then the campaign folds before it can happen. Try instead designing a character who is on the brink of a crucial decision or turning point in his/her life, and think of the campaign as the story of that turning point. Essentially, you and your group are writing a short story (one-shot) or novella (four-to-six session campaign) about the characters, rather than an epic cycle of novels.

Short stories aren't better or worse than longer ones, but they do need to be designed differently. What you've been getting, on the other hand, is Chapter One of a long novel which then just ends. It's no wonder you don't find that a satisfying story.

Then if the campaign does end up lasting past that crucial moment of truth...well, write a sequel. :smallwink:

Ormur
2010-06-05, 04:15 PM
I've only been involved in three campaigns and all of them have run for many sessions and are still running. Level 1-13, level 4-10 and level 2-6. What has caused the biggest hiccups are long pauses between sessions where people forget the storyline, loose interest and stop attempting to schedule sessions. It has put the first on one on hold and caused a few players to drop out of the last one (among other things).

I haven't experienced campaigns ending to be displaced by new ideas or one-shots. One shots are just that and don't preclude you from just continuing with the campaign next week and constantly planning new campaigns seems like a lot of work.

Having an overarching plot that the players want to resolve and the excitement of levelling and seeing your characters getting more powerful is what I suppose has kept the campaigns alive. Having someone bothering to schedule sessions is also important. Just take the initiative if you feel things are dying down or prod someone to do so.

Another thing may be that my community of D&D player we have access to is pretty big and if someone wants to try a new game he can just recruit some other players for it without leaving the old campaign. There must be more than ten ongoing and semi-ongoing games among D&D players I know and then one big campaign where most of us play in.

Twilight_Crow
2010-06-05, 04:35 PM
I've only been involved in three campaigns and all of them have run for many sessions and are still running. Level 1-13, level 4-10 and level 2-6.

...envy.


One shots are just that and don't preclude you from just continuing with the campaign next week and constantly planning new campaigns seems like a lot of work.

They shouldn't, but the fact is that what usually happens is that one shot becomes something others want to continue (again, new and exciting system is usually the cause) and we abandon the old idea to go with the new.

Anyway, I'm thinking of just taking a break for a while. Bad sessions combined with constant turnover of games makes me frustrated. Maybe if I have an earnest desire to just play again, it'll work out better.