Quote from: GnomeWorks;1080815I've been running my setting like this for close to 20 years, now.

Ran plenty of games, had... I dunno, maybe 30 or 40 people play in various games over the years. Each game winds up having an impact on the setting in some way, and the few consistent players I've had have taken the persistent setting to heart. For instance, in the last game I ran one of the guys played a character who was the nephew of an important NPC from a game eight (IRL) years earlier.

At this point I find it hard to imagine running games outside of the context of a "living" setting.

It doesn't help if the group jumps systems. In the 80's-90's we hopped from system to system, and genre to genre. Play D6 Star Wars for a while, then do some 2nd ed D&D, try some Cyberpunk 2020... etc.

Yeah, we started with 3e and moved to 3.5, but every game I've run has been d20-based. I've homebrewed the hell out of it over the years, but at its core I've been running the same system in the same setting the entire time.

In terms of 'living worlds', I tend to run a setting for a good many years at a time (possibly with breaks), then move on to a new one when it starts to feel 'played out' - major conflicts have been resolved, PCs are in the positions of power, situation is very different from the start conditions. Eg I ran Wilderlands pretty continuously from around 2009 to start of 2019, but been happy to take a break from that setting and run a new one - Primeval Thule - as well as return to two old ones - Forgotten Realms & Varisia/Golarion - keeping continuity (and a couple players) from the old campaigns, but in both cases moving the timeline forward 6 game-years and having new players join.

Sometimes I come back to a setting after a couple years; sometimes I don't. Really it depends on what grabs my interest.

Quote from: Skarg;1080362Campaigns worlds don't end.

That's my feeling as well.

Quote from: Vic99;1079834Mine typically run 6-18 months.  It usually ends when a particular goal or event is reached or when our group decides its time for something new.

I've been running my first Traveller campaign for a year now and I think this one might be the exception and go longer since there are so many possibilities to explore for this game.

If I'm GMing the whole thing mine is also usually 6-18 months or so. These days however we tend to rotate GMing, so I might do 1-2 months, then it rotates.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1079799How long do your campaigns generally go for? Also what is your ideal XP span (i.e. how long to you want it to take for characters to get to different levels).

My campaigns generally go for an average of 3-4 years, playing once every two weeks for an average of 7 hours.