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Many Dungeon Masters like writing extensive stories for their world and want players to experience epic adventures like those from „The Lord of the Rings“. Often they start at low level and play over many sessions (sometimes for years!) up to level 10 or higher, until the big villain is defeated and the world is saved. Critical Role has brought many new players to the hobby with this type of campaign, who now consider this way of playing as the standard.
I myself ran a campaign that lasted several years and was set up in this style. Several problems arose that I wasn’t aware of beforehand:
Irregular Sessions
As is often the case with D&D, finding common times was a major problem. We actually had a weekly appointment, but it was canceled almost half the time. This is especially problematic with long campaigns, as they involve more sessions that can be canceled, and thus drag on longer and longer. It’s extremely difficult to keep a group together over several years, as people move, start new jobs, or lose interest. However, this leads to further problems:
Declining Interest in Characters
The longer the campaign lasts, the less characters can still develop. Even if a character has slowly changed over 10 sessions, they usually remain the same for the next 30. Of course, there are always new challenges they can grow from, but it often feels like the group and characters remain relatively unchanged. When many sessions are also canceled and details about character behavior are forgotten, it becomes difficult to keep the campaign interesting.
Missing Story Arc
We all surely remember the story arc from school: First the story builds up, then comes a climax and then the end (of course something happens in between too). This works wonderfully in a book, but in a D&D campaign it becomes difficult, as the players can influence the story. Nevertheless, you can roughly orient yourself on this and adapt the story accordingly.
In a years-long campaign, however, this becomes increasingly complicated. The solution often consists of “Story Arcs,” like in series, so smaller sections where the group might stay in a certain area or search for an object that’s needed at the end for the boss fight. But the longer the story becomes, the less it’s an arc and more of a small up and down. Additionally:
The Group Cannot Fail
We all know the situation when the main character in a movie does something dangerous, but everyone knows they’ll survive. This reduces the weight of actions and takes tension away from the story. In long campaigns it’s often similar. A character’s death should always be a possibility, but if someone dies every session, it’s no fun either. It’s also an unpleasant feeling when a character who’s been around for years suddenly dies from something minor. So characters are sometimes saved or can be revived (especially toward the end of the campaign). Alternatively, the next character simply joins the group and replaces the deceased, but the group really failing is not an option. Like in movies, this takes tension away from the story and decisions lose weight.
How can these problems be solved?
An alternative is One-Shots, adventures that last only one or very few sessions. A short story can be told intensively. This solves the problems mentioned above, because:
- Time planning is easier, as you only need to find one or a few appointments.
- Characters are always “new,” their decisions carry great weight, and they can present their development coherently. All events are present for all players, and small details are more noticeable.
- The story arc can be planned well and stretches over only a few interactions and fights. Here too it’s of course not always easy to deal with player decisions, but it’s much more plannable.
- The group can simply fail. If everyone dies, that’s just how it is. This makes risks “real,” and players know their decisions truly have weight.
My Conclusion on Long Campaigns
Long campaigns are not the only way to play Dungeons and Dragons. If that’s the way you want to play, then please do so. For my part, I’d rather run one-shots or shorter adventures because they solve the problems mentioned above for me. I don’t want a campaign that ends because players lose interest or we can’t find a date. I don’t want to feel like I’m forgetting parts of the story while we’re still playing it. Most importantly, however, it should remain an exciting story from beginning to end, where player decisions truly have weight.
So if you’ve never played a one-shot, why not give it a try!
