Recently I have run a few games as pay-to-play. They have all been one-shots that ended up running a few sessions. By my understanding that's not really a one-shot, at least how I understand it, a one-shot is played out in one session of 4 to 8 hours. I personally like running a game that might only last 4 to 8 weeks. It allows for new players and not everyone can join in for a year-plus-long campaign. Yet when I went looking most places when listing games seem to go with a one-shot or a campaign. As seen in the title above I have started calling these shorter, 4 to 8 week games, adventures. I don't currently have clue what I will call a 3 to 12 month game. For me I know I don't have the time in my life to run a long campaign but I don't want to disappoint people by posting as if I was running a campaign or a one-shot when by my understanding of these terms I am not running either style game. When I play in person this was not an issue as I would just tell people this is what I run. When posting online language matters as you have a limited amount of space to both share your game and who you are as a DM.
I am curious what others' thoughts are on this topic?
How do you define One-shots, Adventures, ?, and Campaigns? (I have no idea what to even call a "?")
Do you feel having a clearer idea of how long a game may last makes a difference?
And just for fun ... I am going to try a poll ... lol
And thank you all for any posts to come. I am looking forward to seeing what the community has to say.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Discord: MasterWitch#2965
My World Anvil account if you're interested. Work in progress.
A one shot is a single quest or mission intended to last one session. It might run over due to player agency or circumstances, but the intention is to be one and done. In comparison to a TV show, it is an episode. At a push, it is a two parter.
An adventure is a self contained story arc. Your character progresses and levels up. Usually it goes from L1 to L8-13ish, although it's quite fluid. WD:DH only does L1-5, for example, while WD:DotMM does L5-20. Both are adventures. I'd compare it to a season.
A campaign is the entire story, from beginning to end, of a party. It is a collection of adventures. I'd compare it to a series.
I don't really have a term for the one you're missing.
Personally, I wouldn't play any of the options. I have a family, and finding 4 hours to play a session is nigh on impossible. 8 hours is not even something that would be under consideration beyond maybe a complete one-off.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Variety is the spice of life, and I'm a firm believer that any D&D is better than no D&D.
That being said I voted for long campaigns because I like to actually play one character a lot and fully develop them as a character, flesh out their personality through different situations and experiences, pursue long term goals, progress them mechanically through levels and develop their style, technique, etc organically as I tack on new abilities, and generally have a grand scale approach that I can look back at and say "That was epic."
Still, one-shots can be fun ways to explore and feel out different character concepts, races and classes as well as different types of play style and settings. They make great "test drives" to try stuff out without committing to one thing for long term. Short campaigns/adventures of four to ten sessions can be an extension of the one-shot approach to get more into something but also allow for eventual change-ups to keep things fresh. My thoughts on "mid-length" campaigns are that they ask more than shorter plots and don't deliver as much as longer ones; if I'm going to commit past an at least generally defined short term scope I might as well go all in for the big epic adventure of a long term campaign.
For reference, I'm currently a player in three games and they're all set up as long term campaigns. One started at first level (though I joined on the third session when the party had just hit second level) and has been going for about nine and a half months now (while there have been a few instances of one player or another missing a session here and there the group has met and played every single week over that time) and we're currently tenth level; everything feels like it has evolved naturally and our characters are well established, we're all fully invested in pursuing our goals, and we feel very real frustration at setbacks and triumph from our successes. The second game is also set up to be a long term campaign though the group has some scheduling issues and we're lucky to play about every other week; we're seven sessions in after about three months but when we do meet we're well on track to the epic feel with our party feeling cohesive with comfortable inter-character dynamics and while the plot still young we're starting to build up enough experiences to feel like we're hitting a groove and getting invested and every session we manage to meet for ends with us feeling satisfied. The third game is mostly with the same group as the first one (one player is different, the other three and the DM are the same) and it's been going for three months this week (also meeting every week with two times of one player missing from either being sick or other obligations); we started this one at third level and are just hit fifth, our characters are all vastly different from the other campaign as is the setting and while we're still developing into a greater plot our characters are feeling a bit fleshed out and getting to know each other and (much like my other two games) each time we get together it feels like we're resuming an epic journey.
I think short campaigns would be the sweet spot for me. Covers about one tier of gameplay, and lasts less than a year. Long enough to explore and enjoy the character without getting bored of them or the plotline.
I do welcome an occasional oneshot or standalone adventure though. Very much so.
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Recently I have run a few games as pay-to-play. They have all been one-shots that ended up running a few sessions. By my understanding that's not really a one-shot, at least how I understand it, a one-shot is played out in one session of 4 to 8 hours. I personally like running a game that might only last 4 to 8 weeks. It allows for new players and not everyone can join in for a year-plus-long campaign. Yet when I went looking most places when listing games seem to go with a one-shot or a campaign. As seen in the title above I have started calling these shorter, 4 to 8 week games, adventures. I don't currently have clue what I will call a 3 to 12 month game. For me I know I don't have the time in my life to run a long campaign but I don't want to disappoint people by posting as if I was running a campaign or a one-shot when by my understanding of these terms I am not running either style game. When I play in person this was not an issue as I would just tell people this is what I run. When posting online language matters as you have a limited amount of space to both share your game and who you are as a DM.
I am curious what others' thoughts are on this topic?
How do you define One-shots, Adventures, ?, and Campaigns? (I have no idea what to even call a "?")
Do you feel having a clearer idea of how long a game may last makes a difference?
And just for fun ... I am going to try a poll ... lol
And thank you all for any posts to come. I am looking forward to seeing what the community has to say.
Discord: MasterWitch#2965
My World Anvil account if you're interested. Work in progress.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/land-of-the-fallen-7Blandfall7D-masterwitch
I prefer 1 year+ campaigns, but I understand that that's a tall order for most groups. In the end, it's best to do what's feasible.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
To me:
A one shot is a single quest or mission intended to last one session. It might run over due to player agency or circumstances, but the intention is to be one and done. In comparison to a TV show, it is an episode. At a push, it is a two parter.
An adventure is a self contained story arc. Your character progresses and levels up. Usually it goes from L1 to L8-13ish, although it's quite fluid. WD:DH only does L1-5, for example, while WD:DotMM does L5-20. Both are adventures. I'd compare it to a season.
A campaign is the entire story, from beginning to end, of a party. It is a collection of adventures. I'd compare it to a series.
I don't really have a term for the one you're missing.
Personally, I wouldn't play any of the options. I have a family, and finding 4 hours to play a session is nigh on impossible. 8 hours is not even something that would be under consideration beyond maybe a complete one-off.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Variety is the spice of life, and I'm a firm believer that any D&D is better than no D&D.
That being said I voted for long campaigns because I like to actually play one character a lot and fully develop them as a character, flesh out their personality through different situations and experiences, pursue long term goals, progress them mechanically through levels and develop their style, technique, etc organically as I tack on new abilities, and generally have a grand scale approach that I can look back at and say "That was epic."
Still, one-shots can be fun ways to explore and feel out different character concepts, races and classes as well as different types of play style and settings. They make great "test drives" to try stuff out without committing to one thing for long term. Short campaigns/adventures of four to ten sessions can be an extension of the one-shot approach to get more into something but also allow for eventual change-ups to keep things fresh. My thoughts on "mid-length" campaigns are that they ask more than shorter plots and don't deliver as much as longer ones; if I'm going to commit past an at least generally defined short term scope I might as well go all in for the big epic adventure of a long term campaign.
For reference, I'm currently a player in three games and they're all set up as long term campaigns. One started at first level (though I joined on the third session when the party had just hit second level) and has been going for about nine and a half months now (while there have been a few instances of one player or another missing a session here and there the group has met and played every single week over that time) and we're currently tenth level; everything feels like it has evolved naturally and our characters are well established, we're all fully invested in pursuing our goals, and we feel very real frustration at setbacks and triumph from our successes. The second game is also set up to be a long term campaign though the group has some scheduling issues and we're lucky to play about every other week; we're seven sessions in after about three months but when we do meet we're well on track to the epic feel with our party feeling cohesive with comfortable inter-character dynamics and while the plot still young we're starting to build up enough experiences to feel like we're hitting a groove and getting invested and every session we manage to meet for ends with us feeling satisfied. The third game is mostly with the same group as the first one (one player is different, the other three and the DM are the same) and it's been going for three months this week (also meeting every week with two times of one player missing from either being sick or other obligations); we started this one at third level and are just hit fifth, our characters are all vastly different from the other campaign as is the setting and while we're still developing into a greater plot our characters are feeling a bit fleshed out and getting to know each other and (much like my other two games) each time we get together it feels like we're resuming an epic journey.
Tbh, I consider 6-12 months a campaign already - most official modules will rarely take more than that and are advertised as campaigns.
I, personally, like that length - it's usually how I run. I feel like, you can tell a good story and don't get tired of playing the same character.
For me a 1,5 years+ is a tall order.
I think short campaigns would be the sweet spot for me. Covers about one tier of gameplay, and lasts less than a year. Long enough to explore and enjoy the character without getting bored of them or the plotline.
I do welcome an occasional oneshot or standalone adventure though. Very much so.