Most RPGs address the idea of breaking your game into discrete blocks, typically one or more campaigns, each of which is composed of several adventures.
Some groups play multiple campaigns with the same PCs, with each campaign having a distinct endpoint. Others play one long campaign, with smaller endpoints throughout. And there are games that have definite endpoints built right in (many indie RPGs do this).
There’s a sweet spot in there somewhere — the Goldilocks spot, if you will, where each story arc or campaign is just the right length for your group. So how do you find it?
Although this is a tricky question (and one without a single, definitive answer), there are several ways to make sure you’re on the right track.
Make it part of your social contract. If you have a social contract discussion with your group before starting the game, this is a great issue to bring up. Are they interested in one long campaign? Several smaller ones? Story arcs that span a few sessions?
Set realistic expectations. Does your group tend to abandon games after a few months? Are they in it for the long haul? Whatever the case may be, plan accordingly. (Just make sure to leave enough wiggle room for them to change their minds, and stick with it for more or less time than you expected.)
Adjust your approach during play. Have expectations is all well and good, but they might not survive contact with reality (and your players). Son’t be afraid to change the formula a few sessions in — just be sure to consult your players before making the shift.
Get feedback. Getting feedback from your players is always a good idea, and this is no exception. If you’re not sure the current setup (whatever it is) works for them, just ask.
Keep tabs on the game’s momentum. If you use a Loved, Blah, Hated List when you play, watch out for multi-session doldrums and other symptoms of large-scale pacing problems. Not all players enjoy giving feedback, and this is one good way to take their pulse about the structure of the game.
Where’s your group’s Goldilocks spot? And what have you done to find it — or are you still looking?
We discussed game length explicitly when choosing our current off game. Despite a personal desire to try out short form games, the majority of the group was interested in something longer, with more extensive character development time.
The natural length of “long” campaigns in our group are 36-50 sessions (usually two a month)– if we go longer, no one will mind, but interest wanes and many systems break after a while.
In general when I GM I’m telling a story. That story has a definate end and I try to get to that end before the interest wanes in the game. This lets my group get through a lot of systems (WOD, DND, SVG, BESM) and I try to do one shots in between of other systems to keep things fresh and check out stuff.
In general we do about one campaign a season in something and switch games. This is about 4 big games a year, but we meet every week if we can. So at 3 to 4 months it’s about 13 to 16 sessions per campaign and a I give out a lot of experience since it’s so short.
I just went down to origins and something that I’m highly thinking of doing with the one shots is drawing up characters myself and gearing them to archetypes, that way the characters fill niches since we aren’t playing a long time and the players don’t have to try to learn every single bit of character creation for something they may not like. If we like it and continue on then we change characters or carry them on with modifications per player.
Once or twice we’ve run a year long or so campaign, or series of campaigns. More often than not people tend to feel it drags on and want something new or a different core plot. We’re also the people who dislike inuyasha and dbz because they drag on forever on doing simple things.
You’re both much better at planning this stuff than I am! And much better at delivering on your plans, it sounds like. I often find game-length plans hard to stick to, for one reason or another.