"RPG Character Real-Time Lifespan" Topic

Looking back I can honestly say that I've rarely had a RPG character last longer than 3 game sessions. Not necessarily due to death but the game group splits up, a new game starts, new GM requires new characters, loss of character sheet, other life responsibilities, whatever etc etc.

In general, how many adventures have your characters played in? Your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A lot.

Wow. So I've had a character that I played (off and on) since 1998…12 years. We've played almost weekly for that time, so I figure if I played the character half that time over the years, then somwehere around 312 sessions. This was for D&D 2e, then 3e/3.5e. Currently the character is "mostly retired" since we don't play D&D anymore (thanks the 4th)…

Damon.

Average is probably around two dozen sessions for me – three to four months of real time play. There have been a few games that ended after only a few sessions, and a few other memorable ones that ran for years.

"Back in the day" a bunch of us had characters that lasted around a decade.

Depends, normally once a "story" was over we moved onto another game.

Maybe 6 months unless we all really liked the game.

WFRP saw me with a character in over 300 sessions or about 8 years real time.

I had a Dark Sun half-giant back in the '90s that lasted the better part of a year, probably 20-30 games. Then our group disbanded…

From level 1 to about 5 or 7, when we always retired our characters, finding D&D wasn't as much fun for us above those levels. Could take several months of Saturday nights. That was during the dawn of D&D. Haven't played an RPG since.

I had a Champions character in a campaign that lasted at least 10 years. The game finally broke up for a multitude of reasons.

Depends primarily upon how often one plays any particular game. I envy those of you who have the time, as well as good group of people, to play a solid RPG campaign. Given infinite time, however, I think that most characters have a lifespan built into the lifespan of the campaign or story in question. I wouldn't want to play the same character forever, even given the chance. On the other hand, character development is one of the joys of roleplaying games, and a big part of what makes long campaigns such fun.
And yes, super powerful, successful characters do get difficult to enjoy eventually (and even harder to GM.)

every Saturday sundown to sunup for 2yrs. God, what were we thinking?

For about 7 years, every other week game.
Star Wars d6… And yea. The characters are PRETTY high level…
Gets a tad booring when they roll 10 dice for a easy roll (6-10).

every Saturday sundown to sunup for 2yrs. God, what were we thinking?

That it was AWESOME?

I mostly DM, so my characters usually only last as long as whatever half-baked campaign someone wants to try for a month.

I had a 2nd edition D&D wizard in a Ravenloft campaign that lasted the longest. 'course, he was missing an eye, some fingers and half his face by the time we were done.

Early in the 80's with D&D, Traveller, and Gamma World I would say an average of 5-7 sessions for a given character.

There were a few times that we used the legacy rule…carrying on the special items and wealth to a son or daughter (guys playing females still gives me the willies :)…so I would not count these per say, although the reason for the character in question not being used was not due to a group shutdown or player/GM shift.

But all that said, we played quite a few themed games…Traveller rules applied to Dune (1981-83) and Space 1999 (1982-83) for example…and these were meant to be short runs; 5-6 sessions and then move onto another book/theme.

Back in the 90's I played a Paladin for 7+ straight years- He got 'retired' when I moved away from the group. During that period however, I remember trying to start up a secondary character, and went through 3 straight characters of 3 game sessions!

In the late 70 and early 80s we had a few 3-4 year rpg campaigns that had a strong core group of players. We played 3 or 4 times a month for about 14 hours a session.

Now we play a lot more games in an ongoing rotation with multiple judges and a lot more miniatures. We don't start until our kids soccer, basketball etc is over and stop before the sun is out again.

Characters are more colorful but never get as high a level as they used to.

Because I was in the service when I was playing mostly, about 2-4 years.

That is about how long it was until it was time to transfer to another base and locate another group to play in (who inevitably had slightly different house rules or played in a setting in which my own PC does not "fit.")

My campaign started in 1978 and after college distractions such as careers and families shut it down. Then about 15 years later we picked it up where it had stopped with about 2/3s of the original crew.

Earlier this summer the last of the orginal PCs decided to retire. So that character lasted about 17-18 years.

Currently we have three characters all between 10-12 years with one of them getting close to being retired. The other two will still have a lot of play unless something very unlucky happens to them.

We had some that went on for about 6-7 years. They were for 1st ed and we got to about 12-15th level. Now in the current group it's all about the gear and not so much on character development stuff. They usually last 6-7 sessions (playing once maybe every other month) before some goof does something and they all die. I haven't been in a rush to play in that group.

I would have to say that like wargamer1972, few of my characters have been played in more than about 3 sessions. Like him, most weren't due to character death, but due to campaign death. Some on the other hand were played in at least 50 sessions. I've only got three characters that were played for that great length of time though, and a stack of character sheets in the 3 or less category. I really don't remember any in between those.

Probably three years.

We play weekly, so my characters seem to run ~13-20 sessions (however long the story lasts).

Famously when I was younger I would source and paint a miniature for my character, then within one or two games, he would die.

Also famously in the whole era of OD&D, AD&D, AD&D Oriental Adventure, AD&D2, etc, my whole group, everybody would run 2 characters, so there would be something to still do when one died. We would have parties of a dozen or 15 miniatures, and most players would have a low level and a mid level. There were always characters to stay and watch the horses, and the DM would run a quick low-level encounter for them so they could get some XP.

For many years now I've played monthly or less often. Successful characters may last as long as 20 sessions, but 10 is more usual and 2-5 is common also; furthermore it's rare for one campaign / set of rules to run that long. D&D 4e is actually more forgiving that way, although I had 2 characters last only 2-3 sessions, before my current one who is I fear getting close to his doom, as I've been running him for a year and a half or so.

A character who lasts for a year of real time weekly gaming is pretty long-lived for me. I've had maybe 3-4 of those.

4 years. Still going. single campaign (split into seasons – like a TV show), same GM and players.

Well, as of last night, RIP Loplop, kenku monk. You made it six months.

The longest character I've run lasted about 3 years, in a Forgotten Realms campaign with University friends.

Before that, the longest campaign I'd been in (as DM) lasted about about 3 years too but most people had a change of character in that time (which ended up being its downfall).

Generally, though- campaigns barely last 3 or 4 sessions before dwindling to nothing. Not sure why, but it's getting a bit disappointing.

Pendragon in the age of Arthur.
I have a character that has grandchildren.
He is still alive and that was at least 17 to 18 years ago he was rolled up and created.

What I liked about that game was the midwinter chance to create your next generation. Played regularly at least twice a month for years and then pull out the character now and again even today. We even have parallel characters in other games that would be long decendants from these original creations.