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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8058 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Jun 2023 : 05:34:09
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The DM and his ever-changing group of participants simply call this "The Game". It's become a fixture in their lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-ehbVQYxI
(I've known about this for a while. Maybe I first heard about this on Candlekeep? I can't recall. But if so, sorry to repeat the topic, lol.)
...
Personally, I ran a few D&D campaigns which lasted about a year each. And participated in a large number of others which usually lasted months. Back in younger days when we played pretty much every weekend but didn't really have enough attention span to focus on any single game.
Sometimes enough of the old gang gets together to pick up old characters and stories, and run through another session (or even an all-nighter or a weekend). Not so often in recent decades, we all have lives and wives and jobs and families and higher priorities than playing games, lol, these rare sessions are more about socializing and nostalgia than about D&D.
I also played in (and was sort of an ad-hoc "Assistant GM" at times) in another campaign for over 5 years, though admittedly we only played one scheduled session every month. This campaign had been going on for years before I joined, it apparently continued for years more after I left the game.
Does anyone else have any long-lasting campaigns under their belts?
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[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 07 Jun 2023 05:38:40
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
735 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jun 2023 : 09:18:16
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I've been playing a lot more Call of Cthulhu than (A)D&D in the last decade or so, so did not run, or play in, a long D&D campaign.
However, my friend and I have been the core of a group since 2008, mostly playing Call of Cthulhu, mostly Delta Green. Our Delta Green adventures all share a universe (NPCs appear in multiple adventures, and retired (*cough* barely recovered from insanity *cough*) PCs revisit as NPCs. He has run around 200 sessions in that universe over a period of 15 years, with the longest single adventure running 72 sessions over two years. We even transformed our notes from that adventure into a podcast.
He and I are currently taking turns running CoC campaigns (set in different timelines), which have been running in parallel since early 2020, so we would have been running around 40-50 sessions each in those respective campaigns. |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4494 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jun 2023 : 11:06:06
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A couple for our group.
•Us in the Realms: This campaign started in 2006. We all statted ourselves as each person's stats/class were basically voted on by everyone else. Once we had that, we were transported to the Realms via a Mystical book bought at a pawn shop. The campaign has changed two editions since and still going strong.
•Cormyr/ Shadowdale/ Anauroch: the big super adventure put out towards the end of 3.5, we started at 1st level and they're actually just about completed with the whole thing. They're now all level 16.
•4e Spellgard campaign: To showcase 4e for a few new people in our group in 2019, we did a bunch of pre-made adventures for 4e starting with Escape from Sembia then went to Loudwater for the FRCG adventures. That played into the Scepter Tower of Spellgard adventure. By then, they adventures for Cormy and even into the Halruaa wilds. |
Diffan's NPG Generator: FR NPC Generator
E6 Options: Epic 6 Campaign |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3768 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jun 2023 : 21:50:21
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-Longest D&D game I've ever been in lasted I'd say about two or three years. Same group of 4-8 people on and off every Monday back in the early-2000s. Also had a d6 and then d20 Star Wars game that was every Friday with basically those same people, that lasted for a few more years from the late-90s to the early-2000s, maybe five?
-Longest game I ran personally lasted a little less than a year? Me and two other people, every week, started during the pandemic. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know) |
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DoveArrow
Learned Scribe
134 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jul 2023 : 23:18:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
The DM and his ever-changing group of participants simply call this "The Game". It's become a fixture in their lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-ehbVQYxI
(I've known about this for a while. Maybe I first heard about this on Candlekeep? I can't recall. But if so, sorry to repeat the topic, lol.)
...
Personally, I ran a few D&D campaigns which lasted about a year each. And participated in a large number of others which usually lasted months. Back in younger days when we played pretty much every weekend but didn't really have enough attention span to focus on any single game.
Sometimes enough of the old gang gets together to pick up old characters and stories, and run through another session (or even an all-nighter or a weekend). Not so often in recent decades, we all have lives and wives and jobs and families and higher priorities than playing games, lol, these rare sessions are more about socializing and nostalgia than about D&D.
I also played in (and was sort of an ad-hoc "Assistant GM" at times) in another campaign for over 5 years, though admittedly we only played one scheduled session every month. This campaign had been going on for years before I joined, it apparently continued for years more after I left the game.
Does anyone else have any long-lasting campaigns under their belts?
I'm not sure what the longest campaign is that I've ever been in. Usually, they last no longer than 1-2 years.
Keep in mind, though, I came up on 3E and cut my teeth on campaigns that have more of an overarching storyline. It's hard to keep that going for more than about 1-2 years. I have played in episodic campaigns too, but they tend to fizzle out around the same time.
I'm always impressed with people who say they've been running the same campaign for 10 years or more. They must level their players at an unbelievably slow rate or play at obscenely high levels. Either way, that's a lot of work and my hat is off to them. |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2548 Posts |
Posted - 06 Jul 2023 : 03:55:15
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The longest campaign I've run as DM was the 4e Neverwinter campaign, that lasted for about 6 years, with a few of the players reuniting in recent years from time to time to play a few one-shots that take place "after the end" of the story. I'm trying to find all my notes about the original campaign and maybe turn them into a fanfic.
As an eternal DM, I have never had the chance to play in a long campaign, just in one-shots and a few short campaigns. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
Edited by - Zeromaru X on 06 Jul 2023 04:08:15 |
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SilenceOfLolth
Acolyte
8 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2026 : 00:03:22
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quote:
Originally posted by DoveArrow
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
The DM and his ever-changing group of participants simply call this "The Game". It's become a fixture in their lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-ehbVQYxI
(I've known about this for a while. Maybe I first heard about this on Candlekeep? I can't recall. But if so, sorry to repeat the topic, lol.)
...
Personally, I ran a few D&D campaigns which lasted about a year each. And participated in a large number of others which usually lasted months. Back in younger days when we played pretty much every weekend but didn't really have enough attention span to focus on any single game.
Sometimes enough of the old gang gets together to pick up old characters and stories, and run through another session (or even an all-nighter or a weekend). Not so often in recent decades, we all have lives and wives and jobs and families and higher priorities than playing games, lol, these rare sessions are more about socializing and nostalgia than about D&D.
I also played in (and was sort of an ad-hoc "Assistant GM" at times) in another campaign for over 5 years, though admittedly we only played one scheduled session every month. This campaign had been going on for years before I joined, it apparently continued for years more after I left the game.
Does anyone else have any long-lasting campaigns under their belts?
I'm not sure what the longest campaign is that I've ever been in. Usually, they last no longer than 1-2 years.
Keep in mind, though, I came up on 3E and cut my teeth on campaigns that have more of an overarching storyline. It's hard to keep that going for more than about 1-2 years. I have played in episodic campaigns too, but they tend to fizzle out around the same time.
I'm always impressed with people who say they've been running the same campaign for 10 years or more. They must level their players at an unbelievably slow rate or play at obscenely high levels. Either way, that's a lot of work and my hat is off to them.
Early 3e still had an expectation of episodic adventures. Look at the original line of 3e adventures. But yes, by the time 3e came along, more story-driven, longer modules were becoming the expectation, it began in 2e. But nothing about 3e neccesitates this kind of play and in my experience it works well with any approach to the game. I think the three designers did a good job at creating an edition that catered to all of the various playstyles that had become popular by the mid-late 90s.
In any event, even with 3e, when one story arc dies down after, say 1-2 years the DM can start up another one with the same characters or a new group of PCs, but maintain the world consistency and plotline. This is typically what people who are running decades long adventures are doing. Many adventuring groups, sometimes even several groups of actual players.
I don't watch a lot of Youtube and the streaming of other people's games, especially virtual ones does not interest me. However, I do watch Lord Gosumba's channel. He has been running an ongoing Greyhawk campaign for 45 years with the same group of players. They play in his basement and have an amazing setup of terrain and miniatures and run a hybrid of 1e/2e rules.
Further, he has interviews and guest players in his game with many big names from throughout TSR and WotC history, including Ed Greenwood (often), Eric L. Boyd, Erik Mona, Larry Elmore and many others. Great channel. He has various groups of new players who play online, although he runs it from his basement tabletop even then. But I enjoy watching his in-person group play and the various interviews with old TSR/WotC figures. Some of the Greenwood and Boyd interviews should be of particular interest to people here. |
Edited by - SilenceOfLolth on 07 Jan 2026 00:06:05 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
8058 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2026 : 04:14:14
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quote:
Originally posted by DoveArrow
I'm always impressed with people who say they've been running the same campaign for 10 years or more. They must level their players at an unbelievably slow rate or play at obscenely high levels. Either way, that's a lot of work and my hat is off to them.
My much-too-late reply to this ...
Long-running campaigns tend to focus on many characters. Each player accumulates a "stable" of characters. PCs are sometimes polymorphed into NPCs. NPCs and henchmen are sometimes upgraded to PCs. New PCs are sometimes created (and are sometimes destroyed) at various levels for throwaway adventures or for prologue/intermission/epilogue narratives linked to the main adventure.
The main purpose of the game is fun, entertainment, narrative, participation, socialization.
It's not a ladder race which grinds out ever-higher numbers with ever-diminishing returns like computer RPGs. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Icelander
Master of Realmslore
1871 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2026 : 11:39:55
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Strictly speaking, I've never played a D&D campaign which lasted more than a couple of years. AD&D, there I might have reached a decade.
I have been running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms using GURPS since 2004, so that's 21 years and some change. Two of the original PCs still live, though one of them might have been Raised by a High Priestess of Eilistraee. The official story is that he was only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive, so the priestess simply cast Heal, not Raise Dead.
This distinction matters a great deal, because if someone dies, their heirs inherit. No matter whether they are later raised or not, they can't claim their estate again after it has been divided between heirs who accepted the bequests in good faith. |
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Forgotten Realms fans, please sign a petition to re-release the FR Interactive Atlas
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SilenceOfLolth
Acolyte
8 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2026 : 20:19:21
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quote:
Originally posted by Icelander
Strictly speaking, I've never played a D&D campaign which lasted more than a couple of years. AD&D, there I might have reached a decade.
I have been running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms using GURPS since 2004, so that's 21 years and some change. Two of the original PCs still live, though one of them might have been Raised by a High Priestess of Eilistraee. The official story is that he was only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive, so the priestess simply cast Heal, not Raise Dead.
This distinction matters a great deal, because if someone dies, their heirs inherit. No matter whether they are later raised or not, they can't claim their estate again after it has been divided between heirs who accepted the bequests in good faith.
Is this game documented in any way on the internet? Does your group still met in person regularly?
Further, I would love to sign the petition in your signature but it seems to no longer be valid. |
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Icelander
Master of Realmslore
1871 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2026 : 03:46:53
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quote:
Originally posted by SilenceOfLolth
Is this game documented in any way on the internet? Does your group still met in person regularly?
Further, I would love to sign the petition in your signature but it seems to no longer be valid.
Unfortunately, no online documentation (first few years had paper notebooks), but we still meet, yeah. Last session was 30.12.2025, so a couple of weeks ago.
And I probably ought to clean up that signature, it's showing my age... |
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Forgotten Realms fans, please sign a petition to re-release the FR Interactive Atlas
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Longest-running D&D campaigns
