"The Demise of a Campaign" Topic

Just pulled the plug on my most recent AD&D Campaign. I posted some of my melancholy thoughts on the subject over at Dead Dick's Tavern.

angrypiper.com/gaming/?p=550

Comments welcome, there or here.

It makes much sense to stop if you are no longer enjoying it.

On buying and painting miniatures especially for a game, I wouldn't, particularly if they are unlikely to be of further use, unless I really wanted to (and they were few in number). Instead I'd use a substitute from something I had in stock.

I can only sympathise, it seems that as we get older we get less time to spare for gaming as everybody has so many other commitments.
My old group games about once/year, as that's about the only time we can get 6-8 of us together. Those folks with kids are generally spending their spare time ferrying them around to various functions.
I being sort of semi-single am the one that paints minis (including some PCs), and so therefore I have to run the game.
Inevitably when we meet (always at a family house), there are disruptions to the weekend gaming with family issues.
However, on the plus side it is good to meet up with old friends & get some gaming in, even if it is sporadic, but those long ago days of University fuelled gaming sessions have long gone.

Our gaming group has around 10-12 players in it, aged 40+ and we play on Friday nights.

We rarely (if ever!) get everyone together, put normally get 2 or 3 games running on a Friday, at different locations. We tend to play lots of single games and flit between rules – with various core rules being the common theme between parts of the group.

I can sympathise with the trouble of trying to get 5 people together regularly – I think if you want to run a campaign you have to have a mechanism so that you can play games with just a sub-set of the players available. What works best probably depends on your group. You could have all characters on the adventure, and those whose owning player isn't there follow some basic behaviours. Or they simply get left behind in the town, doing some research / magic item making / drinking.

As to the figures – we always used figures for our RPG games – but only ever bothered to have accurate figures for the PCs – and only used figures in fights, not in general interactions. And we were always happy to use some goblins to fill out whatever mob of monsters was required. I can understand why trying to paint up figures for all NPCs becomes a chore rather than fun.

I wanted all my players in order to run the game, because I wanted all the characters there for the story.

If you embrace the old school "story is what happens when the characters interact with the world" mindset, the show goes on with whoever is there. You don't have to worry about a "key" character not being present for an "important scene" or the like.

If each session ends with people "back at base" (whatever that is), it's easier to handwave why Fredo Boggins isn't on the next adventure, but it ultimately doesn't matter that much.

Maintaining a consistent playing time is more important than any individual's attendance.

With that in mind, it's also helpful to have a larger group. That way if one or two folks can't make it, the game continues.

Additionally, NPC retainers and hirelings are also helpful in that regard, as you don't *have* to have lots of PCs for an adventure to be survivable.

The coordination problem is the big problem that has to be solved, everything else is tends to fall into place after that; even though my usual game group are all relatively young (all under 30, though that changes this year!) we still have the same problem. Generally it's best to pick one night a week (or every other week) and stick to it. We try not to call a session unless we're down half of the group.

On a higher level, I actually find heavily-scripted campaigns to be the hardest to keep going. It's easier to run things as a Sandbox or semi-Sandbox environment, so if Bob can't show up tonight that's ok, Bob's character is sleeping off the last round of carousing at the tavern and misses this session. Trying to break up an adventure into chunks where you can play for 2-3 hours and then logically break also help.

As for minis, I play online more often now so that's not too big a problem, but I can't imagine trying to actively build a collection as I played a campaign, even using Bones or a similar low cost solution; I paint way too slow!

-Will

I read your blog, and it rings very familiar with me. I am also a gamer in his early 40s who has been playing since 1980. Now, that said, I only run my game with my wife and one other old friend in a homebrew world that I created back in 1992.

We have played a number of campaigns in this world, leaning towards the epic, high fantasy storylines. The characters have all been related to the characters that come before them, so now they are playing the great, great grandchildren of characters (or NPCs) who were important to the story first run in the world.

The problem is, after 21 years, I am starting to finally feel just tapped out. My stories are beginning to feel recycled, and it is getting old for me. My player who isnt my wife has a new job and a new girlfriend, and at 48, he just gets too tired if he doesnt get enough sleep. It is getting harder and harder to find time to get together. We used to play weekly, and not at all over the holidays (which you mentioned), but then after the holidays, we get back into the groove. Not this time. We have been gaming once about every six weeks, and it is starting to get harder and harder for me to get excited about keeping that game going. I can totally understand how your game devolved.

Angry Piper…I'm in the same boat with you….

Check out this link on my situation: TMP link

And then dont forget that this is an "update" to the original situation….

sigh…

Bummer man. But now you've got all these painted miniatures, so maybe you can switch over to some sort of rules-lite skirmish wargame to keep up the fellowship and camaraderie? Plus you'll need fewer players.

That's the main reason I back this RPG kickstarter, not enough players. Fortunately, this OSR game is geared toward one DM and one player. It can also be played solo.

link

I have run D&D campaigns since I bought my wood grain box set of the rules. Over the years I have learned a number of things when it comes to running a campaign. In no particular order here are a few I can think of that probably apply to your situation.

1) Plan on nothing going the way you think it will. This will help on setting too high of expectations and avoiding burn out and disappointment.

2) Plan on having twice as many players as needed. That way you will always have enough to play. It will be rare when they all show up but when they do try to make it a really big deal.

3) Make sure there is a "Plan B" for every scenario/mission you want to run because "that" guy won't show up when you need him to.

4) Try to have a regularly scheduled time when you always run a game no matter how many people show up. That way the guys that have a lot of potential conflicts that really do want to show up will make an effort.

5) Plan on people dropping out no matter what you do. I had a guy that played every session except a handful for 11 years then just stopped showing up. Fell off the face of the earth.

6) Plan on not being appreciated. No matter what you do and how much effort you put in the vast majority of your players don't understand or maybe even care. Hopefully you find the enjoyment in painting because you like it or designing dungeons because its fun for you. Any appreciation past that is gravy.

7) Keep an eye out for new players. In my campaign it has run so long that kids were born during it and are now or were active players. Frankly, I get the biggest kick out of their enthusiasm because it reminds me of how I felt about the game when I was that age.

In your particular situation I wonder why you didn't look into buying any of the 1,000+ pre-painted plastics that are available. That's not a knock, just a question. While they are not always cheap they are huge time savers and usually "good enough" for the game.

I gave up on the rpg days last year when the last attempt failed with just 3 of us (I was a player not DM). If only the books had some value that I could recoup.

Assuming you aren't completely burnt out on RPG campaigns, perhaps you could try an "Episodic" campaign. "Episodic" in the same way a TV series is. For example, if you were running a "not-Star Trek" kind of game, you'd try to make adventures that would be suitable for about two players and that could be resolved in one or two sessions. This way, assuming your play group was supposed to be four players, as long as half the group shows up that night the game can go on. If the adventure is roughly of the simplicity of a TV script (like the original Hawaii-50, or original Star Trek) it might be possible to finish in an evening's play and so not have any loose threads for next time.

Much like a TV series, you can still have longer "two-part" episodes if you want something more elaborate. Also, a nemesis (either an individual or organization) can be used to spice things up. Not all episodes would involve the nemesis, but you could slowly introduce the players to the idea that something bigger is going on in the background as the campaign progresses. For example, if this was a crime drama, the players might think the kidnapping of the mayor's daughter was politically motivated, but later as several other kidnapping cases show the same m.o., figure out something bigger is going on.

A suggested starting point for an episodic fantasy campaign. An adventurer's guild organized much like a mercenary unit. Prospective employers would visit the guildhall either to post jobs or hire directly. The players would be some of the assorted guild members for hire. Also, they would be subject to some form of discipline if they cause too much trouble and make the guild look bad. An advantage of this format is that having the party change composition adventure to adventure isn't hard to explain: simply a given character wasn't hired for this job. It's also easy to introduce a new character as well. (It also provides plenty of redshirts if cannon fodder is needed in an episode …) Game continuity is provided by the characters working for the same organization, and maybe out of the same city.

Now I've never used this format myself, so I don't know how well it works, but I mention it since it is meant for smaller games. Good gaming.

In our games, if one player doesn't turn up, then their character just doesn't participate in that session. Sure, it can be a bit odd if one week ends on a cliffhanger, and then the next week they miss the big fight, but never mind. It's better, IMO to game as much as you can,. rather than cancel sessions just because you can't all meet up that week.

Also, if you have a night where two or three of you are missing, just play something else. You've got all those minis, so how about a quick game using them, or perhaps you've got a card game or a board game you could try out. It's about keeping the momentum up. If everyone's used to keeping Sunday nights free for games, then people will usually turn up, and avoid scheduling other things on those nights. If you go for three weeks or a month with no games on, then people start to make other plans, so they miss another week, so the momentum's gone.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

The decision only to run the campaign if everyone was present was mine and mine alone. I really wanted there to be enough continuity from session to session to sustain a good story. However, much like AndrewGPaul said, if you miss a few sessions because one person or another can't make it, then you lose momentum and the game suffers.

Murphy: I tracked back your original posting, and I've decided I want to play in your Call of Cthulhu game. :) I ran a campaign a couple of years ago…seven linked adventures. I had a full group for about 5. It was frustrating.

Doctor X: I enjoy painting miniatures a lot, and truth be told, I came up with a few ideas for the game just by browsing miniatures online. I'd see a new release or a miniatures line I never saw and the light bulb would go off. I just didn't count on how much work it would be to paint on a deadline. I'm not a pro, after all, so it became more like work and less like fun.

Ancestral Hamster: Actually, this kind of adventurer's guild is exactly the mechanism my friend uses in his GURPS Fantasy game. It works great.

AndrewGPaul: We've decided to take this approach from now on. Whoever makes it, makes it, and we play whatever we feel like playing. I've recently run a couple of GURPS Western scenarios for my friends, and was vindicated in my decision to pull the plug on the AD&D campaign by the fact that both times I didn't have a full group for the westerns.

I have to agree with Dr X.

I agree with a lot of the points here. The big sticker for me is the miniatures. I had the SAME problem you did. My biggest thing was people just do not understand the time it takes to paint zillions of miniatures needed for it. It also makes the cost go through the roof. My next campaign (in the planning stage) is going to be 1" square grid maps (hand drawn by me) using cardstock miniatures I got for free. I don't remember the site, if I can track it down I'll msg you, but I got like 1000 unique flats from it.