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Aotrs Commander
2017-10-26, 11:32 AM
Something my sister forward to me today.

Ladies, gentleman and Small Furry Creature from Alpha Centari, I think that this gentleman (https://www.facebook.com/greatbigstory/videos/1754558394846586/), has, in fact, Won Dungeons & Dragons Forever.

To you, sir DM - who I suppose, even has an outside chance of being, perhaps, even among us - I salute you. You are simply beyond us lesser mortals and immortals.

(Even my starship obession pales in comparison.)

*full Aotrs military salute*

supergoji18
2017-10-26, 01:35 PM
I aspire to be as great a DM as he is

Bogwoppit
2017-10-30, 03:53 AM
This used to be the norm.
I've been running the same campaign since 1991. Changed game system multiple times over the years, swapped players in and out, had a bunch of different BBEGs, but at its core, it's the same campaign setting.

Angelmaker
2017-10-30, 05:46 AM
Collecting over 20.000 miniature is not the norm for me. We also switched campaigns and GM's around quite a bit and people flying around the country to join the game is quite extraordinary too. :) our longest running campaign was a year and it was epic already.

I enjoyed that video, thanks for sharing. May his reign last even longer.

DigoDragon
2017-10-30, 07:15 AM
If he 'Won', then that would imply the game is over and that seems not to be the idea he wants. :smallwink:

But kudos for running such a long campaign. Quite awesome!

Chronos
2017-10-30, 12:21 PM
How many generations of characters have his players gone through? I assume that they're playing until they get to some suitably high level, and then retiring in favor of new characters.

Jarawara
2017-10-30, 12:36 PM
I don't understand - what is special about his game, other than the length? My game has been running since 1980-ish, though we've had a few breaks from time to time. So he's got me beat in total years of play, but there are plenty others who have got far longer lasting games.

Edit: Oh! There's a video! OK, I be an idiot, it makes more sense now! Still, while commendable, it's not entirely out of the ordinary. He's got a larger miniatures collection than me. My friend compares better, as he's crossed the 10,000 mark in his collection. I collect more paper stock - magazines, books, pre-made adventures, and the like. And I'm less organized than either of them (my friend or the guy in the video), as they have well set up game rooms, while I have to move all my starship game stuff to make space for my D&D games.

So Kudos for him, he's got me beat but he's not the record holder. This kind of gaming was commonplace back in the day.

EccentricCircle
2017-10-30, 04:06 PM
I wonder how this ongoing game actually works. And what continuity of players and characters there is? Is it the same characters and plot that he started 35 years ago? Or is it a living campaign, where the setting evolves based on the actions of the characters, but people cycle through different characters, and different stories as time goes on?

My longest continuous "campaign" turns ten next year, but it all comes down to definitions. I count it as one campaign because in each game the actions of the players shape the world and that ripples on into the next story. There is always some continuity of players and PCs, and of course of setting and NPCs. But we've done several different story arcs over the years, with numerous new characters being created in the process.

New players have joined and older ones don't always play as often, some have dropped out completely, despite being central to earlier games. So the group isn't the same as the one that started it. Likewise most of the characters from earlier games are important NPCs now, with newer parties of PCs picking up the torch every few years.

I only consider it "continuous" because we've done something with it every year since it started, and the world has evolved organically during that time. We certainly haven't played every week...

This style of campaign can be kept going more or less continuously, so long as players who know the world keep coming and gradually introduce new people to the setting.

Arguably all my games are set in the same world, so even when I randomly start a new group of people is it, by some definitions, part of the same "campaign"? By that logic my "campaign" would actually be a few years older, as its in the same setting as earlier games I ran, although only a couple of players remain from those days, and there was only limited cross over of characters.

I'd be interested to hear how others with long campaigns have defined these things, and what is "typical" in the community.

Bogwoppit
2017-10-31, 03:04 AM
Over the years the term "campaign" has seems to have changed in use.
Back in the 80s, we used it to mean what is now called a "game setting". A campaign would continue as long as the setting was the same, and PCs would be swapped in and out all the time. There'd be lots of loosely connected adventures and interweaving stories, and the setting would change with the outcomes of those adventures.

Now it seems to mean more like an "adventure path" - a short set of adventures following the careers of a particular set of PCs.

wumpus
2017-10-31, 10:58 AM
This used to be the norm.
I've been running the same campaign since 1991. Changed game system multiple times over the years, swapped players in and out, had a bunch of different BBEGs, but at its core, it's the same campaign setting.

I have to admit that both 1984 and 1991 are extremely impressive, although a 1984 campaign is likely edging into the realm of lasting longer than Grayhawk and Blackmoor (assuming Gygax and Anderson ran theirs until death. I strongly suspect Gygax did).

Have many such campaigns published their house rules and have they been successful? I suppose that if you "change game systems", this isn't likely to be as applicable, but I'd suspect that AD&D and 3.x rules lasted long enough to develop some extremely specific customization.

There was a story about a campaign at Id Software. In something similar to a deck of many things, the players were betting on the fate of the world. They made too many bets and the world (and campaign) ended. Presumably no one was interested in starting again from scratch (including a different world) and it was never touched again. Thus *losing* D&D forever is much easier (especially considering the ways a [N]PC can lose a soul). TPK is bad enough, can you imagine a "Total Party Loss of Soul"? Completely possible in the Abyss and other nasty places.

kyoryu
2017-10-31, 01:36 PM
Over the years the term "campaign" has seems to have changed in use.
Back in the 80s, we used it to mean what is now called a "game setting". A campaign would continue as long as the setting was the same, and PCs would be swapped in and out all the time. There'd be lots of loosely connected adventures and interweaving stories, and the setting would change with the outcomes of those adventures.

Now it seems to mean more like an "adventure path" - a short set of adventures following the careers of a particular set of PCs.

Yes. Once DragonLance hit, that shift started occurring.

The open-table style of game is far more stable and tolerant of player churn than the "One True Party" style (which doesn't necessarily make it better, as it has other advantages and disadvantages as well).