My friend group and I currently play in 3 different campaigns (all with each other). The campaign I DM meets about 1-2 per month .I am pregnant and once baby comes managing 2 campaigns and DMing one will be a little too much! I'd like to wrap up my campaign in September which leaves me with 7-10 potential more meetings. That will leave us about 1/2 way through what I had planned, and right when the story finally gets to the main plot line (it been a slow burn).
I've already asked my players how'd they'd prefer to end the campaign and they do not care, which makes the decision harder for me! Has anyone else been in the same situation and how did you handle it? Thanks everyone!
Without knowing the extent of your plot and what the players have discovered thus far, it's difficult to give you exact answers!
If the plot you've put together is one which you're invested in seeing played out to the end, and don't want to rush, then I recommend re-writing a new, shorter plot which fits in with what they've discovered already but will be played out in 7-8 more meetings (don't cut it too close, they might spend a whole session roleplaying and not progressing!).
So, for example (pulling things from nowhere here), they are finding hints that there is necromancy afoot - they've found a dead body which was supposed to be buried, and have encountered undead enemies, and they have been told that the fortress in the mountains, which should be abandoned, has lights in it. This was going to be leading to a confrontation with a necromancer, who was using the fortress, but would involve a dungeon crawl through the fortress, only to find the necromancer has escaped.
This would take some time, and you might want to use the original plot again in the future, so instead have the "necromancer" be a misguided apprentice who is desperately trying to fix their mistake, but keeps raising the dead. Give the party a quest to remove the power source for the book he's using, and save the day.
Alternatively, if you don't want to save your plot for another time, you'll have to cut out some of the intermediate bits to speed things up a bit, and talk to your players - tell them there's no way they'll get through it all if they don't play a bit quicker!
If the characters got to main plot right away would you beable to finish your story in time? If so just skip them ahead, tell them what happened, maybe level them up and go out with a bang.
Thank you! You are correct, knowing my plot line would help! It's a school based campaign (college level), they are currently finishing up their second semester. Ideally, each semester focalizes on the backstory of one character (5 total) and after that a major world destruction event happens which forces the players to use their resources gained via connections made throughout their semesters. They band the world together to defeat a great evil (I'm thinking a hoard of Tarrasques on steriods). Of course, the different world factions all hate each other and have their own inner turmoil the group will have to deal with before making world peace lol.
My current plan faces the issue of only have focused on 2 out of the 5 people, leaving the other three kinda shafted from my original plans. But! I can rework the plot to make the other three backstories integral after my Tarrasque rumbling appears...
Yeah... do the training montage scene... explain some of the things that happen and advance them so that you can end at the ending of the campaign and not have the middle ground where we usually wander around doing a whole lot of things. And no one turns down some free level ups and gear... and good luck on your future adventurer!
Do a fast forward. Like others are saying, figure out the highlights you can fit into the next 7 sessions (plan for the fewer number in case the baby (congratulations) is early). Then just play those through. It will turn things into a bit of a railroad, but I’d hope the players will understand.
Other thing you could do is simply pause the campaign. I have a similar rotating-DM situation with my group and we will often pause a campaign and let someone else run for a while when circumstances demand it. I'm just getting back to my own campaign after an 8-month pause myself. If you can get to a good stopping place, I'd consider this since you sound like you're fairly invested in the structure of the campaign.
I was in a similar situation where I was DMing while pregnant. I actually ending up just taking a 5-6 week leave and then resumed the campaign. But we play online which makes it easier. I can actually breastfeed while playing. And my husband takes care of him for some of the game time. Our session are also on the short side, usually around 2.5 - 3hrs but we do meet weekly. You do have 3 games going so that might be too much. Im just sharing cause you may not need to quit altogether. Especially if you only meet once a month.
I would first of all list out the various story threads you have running an determine the order of importance to the party to resolve, note this might not match your internal order lol.
Then rather then try and cram it all in I would run some of them to completion in game. After that I would have a final last session 0, where you gather your players together and narrate the stuff off screen that they won’t get to find out, answer any questions players have, spill your secrets and tell them what you had planned and how they could have resolved it.
Your players and you will get a sense of closure without that nagging feeling of “what if” and these are all things that will probably come out in conversation anyway over time so just get it all out on the table :).
Given your setting maybe jump to 5 years later at the graduation party and recount key story threads and how they where resolved. Maybe have some last fight with the players at level 20 as a chance to say goodbye.
One word: asteroid. I’d go completely off script. An apocalyptic end that the party gets sucked into, but has absolutely nothing to do with their current adventure. That higher level group of posers failed and demons are unleashed. Tiamat is coming down the road - whaaatt!?. Asteroid strike and you just need to survive the next 24 hours of hell on earth to have, maybe, a chance of survival (future campaign?). Invading hoard - we can’t save everyone, but maybe we can save these here. Delved too deep? Survive until you all die or maybe make the surface and retire. Alien invasion.
Could someone else feasibly take over the job of DMing the campaign? If you have a few months before you need to wrap up, you might (depending on your energy, morning sickness, planning for new baby, etc) be able to teach someone enough about your world and house rules for them to step into the DMs chair. Plus, it might be fun to play a PC in your own world!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Could someone else feasibly take over the job of DMing the campaign? If you have a few months before you need to wrap up, you might (depending on your energy, morning sickness, planning for new baby, etc) be able to teach someone enough about your world and house rules for them to step into the DMs chair. Plus, it might be fun to play a PC in your own world!
Thank you everyone for the encouragement and awesome ideas! I have not considered a lot of them and it's really helping me plan out. My husband is one of my players and helped me with world creation, and he could actually take over as DM super easily! I had not even thought of that idea.
One word: asteroid. I’d go completely off script. An apocalyptic end that the party gets sucked into, but has absolutely nothing to do with their current adventure. That higher level group of posers failed and demons are unleashed. Tiamat is coming down the road - whaaatt!?. Asteroid strike and you just need to survive the next 24 hours of hell on earth to have, maybe, a chance of survival (future campaign?). Invading hoard - we can’t save everyone, but maybe we can save these here. Delved too deep? Survive until you all die or maybe make the surface and retire. Alien invasion.
I love your idea's... because so many of them are actually canon in my campaign! After the hoard of sterioded-up Tarrasques are unleashed into the world, each country will have their own means of dealing with them. One will summon Tiamat, another is summoning Asmodeus, etc... and the Tarrasques are coming from a portal to another dimension that players will have to close. Which is why the players will have to save the world from multiple world ending events hehe. And I've been hinting at sooo discreetly about all of these but they have not picked up any clues yet :)
I was in a similar situation where I was DMing while pregnant. I actually ending up just taking a 5-6 week leave and then resumed the campaign. But we play online which makes it easier. I can actually breastfeed while playing. And my husband takes care of him for some of the game time. Our session are also on the short side, usually around 2.5 - 3hrs but we do meet weekly. You do have 3 games going so that might be too much. Im just sharing cause you may not need to quit altogether. Especially if you only meet once a month.
So glad to hear from another mommy DM! I wasn't sure if it's possible to make it work but my group was 100% virtual before we all got vaccinated so we could always switch back after my "maternity leave"!
My friend group and I currently play in 3 different campaigns (all with each other). The campaign I DM meets about 1-2 per month .I am pregnant and once baby comes managing 2 campaigns and DMing one will be a little too much! I'd like to wrap up my campaign in September which leaves me with 7-10 potential more meetings. That will leave us about 1/2 way through what I had planned, and right when the story finally gets to the main plot line (it been a slow burn).
I've already asked my players how'd they'd prefer to end the campaign and they do not care, which makes the decision harder for me! Has anyone else been in the same situation and how did you handle it? Thanks everyone!
Without knowing the extent of your plot and what the players have discovered thus far, it's difficult to give you exact answers!
If the plot you've put together is one which you're invested in seeing played out to the end, and don't want to rush, then I recommend re-writing a new, shorter plot which fits in with what they've discovered already but will be played out in 7-8 more meetings (don't cut it too close, they might spend a whole session roleplaying and not progressing!).
So, for example (pulling things from nowhere here), they are finding hints that there is necromancy afoot - they've found a dead body which was supposed to be buried, and have encountered undead enemies, and they have been told that the fortress in the mountains, which should be abandoned, has lights in it. This was going to be leading to a confrontation with a necromancer, who was using the fortress, but would involve a dungeon crawl through the fortress, only to find the necromancer has escaped.
This would take some time, and you might want to use the original plot again in the future, so instead have the "necromancer" be a misguided apprentice who is desperately trying to fix their mistake, but keeps raising the dead. Give the party a quest to remove the power source for the book he's using, and save the day.
Alternatively, if you don't want to save your plot for another time, you'll have to cut out some of the intermediate bits to speed things up a bit, and talk to your players - tell them there's no way they'll get through it all if they don't play a bit quicker!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
If the characters got to main plot right away would you beable to finish your story in time? If so just skip them ahead, tell them what happened, maybe level them up and go out with a bang.
Congratulation on the upcoming baby as well!!
Thank you! You are correct, knowing my plot line would help! It's a school based campaign (college level), they are currently finishing up their second semester. Ideally, each semester focalizes on the backstory of one character (5 total) and after that a major world destruction event happens which forces the players to use their resources gained via connections made throughout their semesters. They band the world together to defeat a great evil (I'm thinking a hoard of Tarrasques on steriods). Of course, the different world factions all hate each other and have their own inner turmoil the group will have to deal with before making world peace lol.
My current plan faces the issue of only have focused on 2 out of the 5 people, leaving the other three kinda shafted from my original plans. But! I can rework the plot to make the other three backstories integral after my Tarrasque rumbling appears...
Yeah... do the training montage scene... explain some of the things that happen and advance them so that you can end at the ending of the campaign and not have the middle ground where we usually wander around doing a whole lot of things. And no one turns down some free level ups and gear... and good luck on your future adventurer!
Do a fast forward. Like others are saying, figure out the highlights you can fit into the next 7 sessions (plan for the fewer number in case the baby (congratulations) is early). Then just play those through. It will turn things into a bit of a railroad, but I’d hope the players will understand.
Other thing you could do is simply pause the campaign. I have a similar rotating-DM situation with my group and we will often pause a campaign and let someone else run for a while when circumstances demand it. I'm just getting back to my own campaign after an 8-month pause myself. If you can get to a good stopping place, I'd consider this since you sound like you're fairly invested in the structure of the campaign.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Hey!
I was in a similar situation where I was DMing while pregnant. I actually ending up just taking a 5-6 week leave and then resumed the campaign. But we play online which makes it easier. I can actually breastfeed while playing. And my husband takes care of him for some of the game time. Our session are also on the short side, usually around 2.5 - 3hrs but we do meet weekly. You do have 3 games going so that might be too much. Im just sharing cause you may not need to quit altogether. Especially if you only meet once a month.
I would first of all list out the various story threads you have running an determine the order of importance to the party to resolve, note this might not match your internal order lol.
Then rather then try and cram it all in I would run some of them to completion in game. After that I would have a final last session 0, where you gather your players together and narrate the stuff off screen that they won’t get to find out, answer any questions players have, spill your secrets and tell them what you had planned and how they could have resolved it.
Your players and you will get a sense of closure without that nagging feeling of “what if” and these are all things that will probably come out in conversation anyway over time so just get it all out on the table :).
Given your setting maybe jump to 5 years later at the graduation party and recount key story threads and how they where resolved. Maybe have some last fight with the players at level 20 as a chance to say goodbye.
One word: asteroid. I’d go completely off script. An apocalyptic end that the party gets sucked into, but has absolutely nothing to do with their current adventure. That higher level group of posers failed and demons are unleashed. Tiamat is coming down the road - whaaatt!?. Asteroid strike and you just need to survive the next 24 hours of hell on earth to have, maybe, a chance of survival (future campaign?). Invading hoard - we can’t save everyone, but maybe we can save these here. Delved too deep? Survive until you all die or maybe make the surface and retire. Alien invasion.
It's been done to death, of course but... maybe they could wake up and find out it's all been a dream?
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Could someone else feasibly take over the job of DMing the campaign? If you have a few months before you need to wrap up, you might (depending on your energy, morning sickness, planning for new baby, etc) be able to teach someone enough about your world and house rules for them to step into the DMs chair. Plus, it might be fun to play a PC in your own world!
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Thank you everyone for the encouragement and awesome ideas! I have not considered a lot of them and it's really helping me plan out. My husband is one of my players and helped me with world creation, and he could actually take over as DM super easily! I had not even thought of that idea.
I love your idea's... because so many of them are actually canon in my campaign! After the hoard of sterioded-up Tarrasques are unleashed into the world, each country will have their own means of dealing with them. One will summon Tiamat, another is summoning Asmodeus, etc... and the Tarrasques are coming from a portal to another dimension that players will have to close. Which is why the players will have to save the world from multiple world ending events hehe. And I've been hinting at sooo discreetly about all of these but they have not picked up any clues yet :)
A classic... so simple! And it would be funny!
So glad to hear from another mommy DM! I wasn't sure if it's possible to make it work but my group was 100% virtual before we all got vaccinated so we could always switch back after my "maternity leave"!
Baby is now 6 months and we are still playing weekly!
I salute your stamina, madam! 😉
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.