People were asking about any advice for how to run a successful RPG campaign for as long as I've run my 11+ year #DCC Last Sun campaign. Here's what tips I can offer.
#dnd    #ttrpg    #osr   

https://youtu.be/dRi9vPfPOS8

Lots of good practical advice. So naturally, no comments.

Always good to hear about your past campaigns, Pundit.  One thing I would add, which you somewhat touch upon at the end, you clearly enjoy the systems you run and the worlds in which you run them. It might seem obvious, but it really isn't, since people often run systems and settings they could take or leave.  Often this is from just following a trend, 'to get players' or other justification.

The intent to include a mix of stalwart and the casual players is something you don't hear very often.  You mention that a casual sometimes become more active, and the referee should "get them more involved."  What would that be?  Bring some elements into the campaign that spring from their character in someway? What did you do.

Well, yes, its absolutely true that one of the things that kills a campaign is if the GM didn't want to play it in the first place, or loses interest in it. So you want to be sure you keep the campaign interesting to you, as the GM.

As for getting people involved: in Last Sun, once newer/casual characters are clearly sticking around for at least a little while and are getting more committed, I try to have something or other focus on them, or go along with things they start doing as a way to help them to define their characters. How to do it will depend a lot on what the Player is interested in, and what the character is like. But basically, facilitate there being subplots in the campaign that focus on these characters.

Heck, I want to play in your campaign from that talk about motivating more casual players! ha  Very cool. 

Also, I can see that gradually bringing them more toward helping along the living campaign making refereeing easier, since ideas are coming from characters being more active. Glad to hear you usually mix recent low level in with higher level too, at least often.

My longest running campaign went for about 12 years, starting in 4th grade and continuing through about my second year of college. The group size varied widely, peaking in 11th and 12th grade with up to 13 people playing at a time.  The big thing that made it work was that we were good friends. Sure we loved to game, but if we hadn't been playing D&D, we would have been doing something else together.

Same group for nearly 30 years with over 12 people constantly playing. We now have kids of people who started with us.  It all requires constant communication, feedback, and someone to be the Cat Herder to get everyone together.   Cell phones made it so much easier.

My Wilderlands campaign has 18 years, 2006-present, if what counts is setting & timeline continuity. No single player has played for more than 13 years though, Chris first played in 2009 and did his last (so far?) ragequit in I think 2022, maybe 2023. One secret to longevity is I keep it fresh by moving the primary play area every few years, eg City State to Tharbrian/Western Plains to western Altanis around Bisgen to eastern Altanis/Ghinarian Hills to now northern Oricha/Northwatch River.  The longest was Ghinarian Hills 2015-2024, but that included both the initial Ghinarian Hills/Black Sun campaign and the follow-on Stonehell campaign.

Re new PC start level, my current thinking in my Shadowdark game is that new PCs start at 1st until the highest level PC is 7th+, when they'll start coming in at higher level. But when highest PC is 5th I'll give +50gp starting gold, +100gp at 6th. This will let new PCs begin with chainmail or platemail, rather than the leather of true noobs.

Well, that's fair enough. In my campaign usually the PCs give the newbies some stuff, figuring it will make them more useful.

Quote from: RPGPundit on October 07, 2024, 04:49:02 PMWell, that's fair enough. In my campaign usually the PCs give the newbies some stuff, figuring it will make them more useful.

I expect mine would too, but it's an open table game & I think players will be happier being able to buy their own chain or plate before entering play.

Quote from: S'mon on October 03, 2024, 02:12:35 AMMy Wilderlands campaign has 18 years, 2006-present, if what counts is setting & timeline continuity. No single player has played for more than 13 years though, Chris first played in 2009 and did his last (so far?) ragequit in I think 2022, maybe 2023. One secret to longevity is I keep it fresh by moving the primary play area every few years, eg City State to Tharbrian/Western Plains to western Altanis around Bisgen to eastern Altanis/Ghinarian Hills to now northern Oricha/Northwatch River.  The longest was Ghinarian Hills 2015-2024, but that included both the initial Ghinarian Hills/Black Sun campaign and the follow-on Stonehell campaign.

In that sense, the longest campaign that I've played in was in several of Janyce Engan's Call of Cthulhu campaigns. She started running Call of Cthulhu the year it was published in 1981, and she kept running games along the same timeline and continuity until 2018, which is 38 years. I started playing in 2007 and played for about a decade - with some off periods - until the end.

https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-24-chaosium-interviews-janyce-hill/

And similarly to S'mon, she would start with different groups of players with a different focus every few years, though she also kept up one fairly central one that would stop and restart from time to time. I played in three different campaigns over my time in it.

Sadly, it seems like the last campaign wiki is down, but there is still this earlier wiki:

https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=TheStarsAreRight:Main_Page

Quote from: jhkim on October 07, 2024, 06:38:18 PM

Quote from: S'mon on October 03, 2024, 02:12:35 AMMy Wilderlands campaign has 18 years, 2006-present, if what counts is setting & timeline continuity. No single player has played for more than 13 years though, Chris first played in 2009 and did his last (so far?) ragequit in I think 2022, maybe 2023. One secret to longevity is I keep it fresh by moving the primary play area every few years, eg City State to Tharbrian/Western Plains to western Altanis around Bisgen to eastern Altanis/Ghinarian Hills to now northern Oricha/Northwatch River.  The longest was Ghinarian Hills 2015-2024, but that included both the initial Ghinarian Hills/Black Sun campaign and the follow-on Stonehell campaign.

In that sense, the longest campaign that I've played in was in several of Janyce Engan's Call of Cthulhu campaigns. She started running Call of Cthulhu the year it was published in 1981, and she kept running games along the same timeline and continuity until 2018, which is 38 years. I started playing in 2007 and played for about a decade - with some off periods - until the end.

https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-24-chaosium-interviews-janyce-hill/

And similarly to S'mon, she would start with different groups of players with a different focus every few years, though she also kept up one fairly central one that would stop and restart from time to time. I played in three different campaigns over my time in it.

Sadly, it seems like the last campaign wiki is down, but there is still this earlier wiki:

https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php?title=TheStarsAreRight:Main_Page

That's a remarkable length of time for a Call of Cthulhu campaign.

What do you do if life changes in the group make it difficult to get the same group together anymore? Cut half of them? Meet way less often?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic on October 14, 2024, 08:57:37 PMWhat do you do if life changes in the group make it difficult to get the same group together anymore? Cut half of them? Meet way less often?

Well, that's a tricky subject, but I addressed that in the video. It's why I think that an ideal for long-term campaign survivability is the ability to be open to players leaving and returning later, as well as new players joining the campaign over time.