3.5 Campaign Fatigue

[Scorponok]

Re: Campaign Fatigue

Just wondering, in your opinion, how long should a campaign last? I run a weekly session, and the players are loving it so far. It's been going for over a year. I took a break for the summer to start preparing for the next year, but was wondering if any of your players ever experienced campaign fatigue? Should a campaign last a certain amount of time and then end?

[flappeercraft]

Not really, it all depends on how much your players enjoy the campaign.

[Dancingdeath]

Until everyone feels inclined to move on. There's no expiration date on a campaign. I have seen instances where the DM is the only one sick of a campaign but the players are still enjoying it. When that's the case I've suggested finding a new DM as it's not fair to stop a game everyone else is enjoying because of one person. Or sometimes table those characters and run a short campaign and go back to them to cleanse the pallet.

As always good communication is key. Ask the players if they're still having fun and enjoying the characters and campaign. I've seen games go on for a while well after the time where anyone was enjoying it because no one said anything.

[rel]

In my experience 3.5 breaks down completely at high levels.
I find you reach said levels after about 1.5 to 2 years of weekly play.
That said, if you can modify things to head off the issues or carefully play around them there should be no upper limit on how long a campaign can last.

[Endarire]

It depends. My experience has taught me that the GM is the key component to this, for as the leadership goes, so go the people. As long as the GM is enthusiastic about and well-prepared for the campaign, the campaign is likely to go well for all.

[Ivanhoe]

Ideas...

Signs of campaign fatigue setting in:
- people have less time/there are more often sessions when players are missing/it takes the GM longer to prepare
- people want to change their characters to try out something new and/or are disappointed with there current characters
- real life discussions take up more and more time during game sessions
- silly game moments and absurd player actions increase

Ways to counter campaign fatigue as a GM:
- rotate GMs or involve players in campaign-creating aspects from time to time
- do in-game things that make people change their characters (time travel to a time when the pcs are way more powerful/less powerful; letting players fall asleep and awake in the bodies of completely different characters in a different setting and they have to get their way back etc.)
- do a modular campaign approach: have a general idea where the campaign might go up to level 20, but start out small and prepare more only if the players want to. Plan some break-off/decision points ahead. (say 4 sessions for a starting adventure; then 8 more sessions for the sequel and/or to get the group to a more complex environment; then as an option some one-on-one separate way/background sessions for individual players ) and only after this suggest a longer campaign/story (but again, not the whole thing yet). And so on.

[Pugwampy]

Should a campaign last a certain amount of time and then end?

Yes . When the players are bored make a new one . I think its unfair to expect a DM to host a campaign for more than a year. Let someone else take over and give him some fun too .

If everyone is having a great time and DM still wants to keep going thats cool too of course.