Campaign coming to a standstill, need some advice [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign coming to a standstill, need some advice [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mern
06-01-05, 05:01 AM I've been running the same campaign with the same players for close to 3 years now. The game has progressed so far, that the players are about to hit epic in the near future. (Started at level 1)

The setting is all made up by me, and it's was right from the start high-magic and highlevel. I could go on to write in more detail, but that would make for a VERY long post, and wouldn't really help much in understanding my problem.
Let me just say that both me and my players like the storyline, and I have more then enough "story left in me" to last at least another 10-15 levels. But problems I've been having lately are motivation to write down the specifics of the next encounter, and the will to actually keep track of all parts of my story-time-line.

At the moment, I have to keep track of the actions of 2 large armies, 4-5 countries' politics towards each other, and something like 20 epic npc characters with their own agendas in the midst of it all, in addition to what my players are up to. This basically means that I have increased my preperations for the next gaming session 10-fold, compared to what I started with.

So... what I'm really asking for, is this:
Have any of you fellow DM's run into some similar problems with your ongoing campaigns? And how did you handle the problems?
Szat
06-01-05, 05:39 AM Absolutely. Currently my campaign is just breaching that mark. We're reaching the high teens and I'm finding it a labour of love to keep all the notes that I need intact and up to date.

Honestly, I'd say take a break from the game for a bit and run something light. The reasons I say this are two-fold.

First, it'll allow you some freetime to add stuff to the epic game at your leisure. You won't feel so hardpressed and it'll give you a good chance to build up some encounters and some gameplay information.

Second, it'll give your group and you some downtime to decide what they want to do next. Do they maybe want to try a different campaign and move on? Or do they want to break for a bit and try an interim campaign.

My current plan for my campaign is to run until I conclude the "pre-epic" storyline and then play a 1-10 level interlude game while I regain my stamina to run a game of the magnitude required.
MortalPlague
06-01-05, 06:01 AM Oh man. I'm hitting sort of the same thing, in so far as keeping track of NPCs and events, and my players are getting through 7th level. I don't think I could ever run something Epic. :D

But yeah, taking a break sounds like very good advice. Personally, I'm going to park this campaign at the conclusion of the story arc, which will probably happen in a level or two. Afterwards, I'll let someone else run, or I'll DM some d20 Modern. We've been meaning to try out Modern, and the one-shot adventure I ran with a couple of my players while bored was very fun.
VerinBlod
06-01-05, 06:40 AM Yeah I sure as hell know that problem :) And to make matters worse my players almost never finishes a story completely. They leave so much open endings and let NPC's escape or what not. And ofcourse this leads to a series of new adventures while the main story lines are going on. :D

The best thing to remedy this is keeping your notes up to date like you said or like others said take soime break if it is beginning to get too much. Maybe focus on ending some plot lines oir somesuch.

Hope this helps.
Morka
06-01-05, 12:15 PM If you want to run a low-level campaign, just the time to take a breack of those 20 major NPCs and 5 countries, here is a suggestion.

Your epic PCs are probably living in a Castle, perhaps are they governing a town or even a large city, or at least they should have some kind of stronghold. Have an peasan comes up, saying there is "rats in the sewers." What does an epic character when there are "rats in the sewers?" He hire a few low-level PCs.

So pre-generate about 15 low-level characters, don't show the stats to the players. The Epic PCs will have to interview them to find which ones are better for this cleaning mission. In the end, each player will have to choose 1 low-level character for the "rats in the sewers" mission. The Epic PCs are temporarely NPCs.

Using this, you can restart at the basis and you can keep a few major NPCs (the ones you like the most). If the players and you like this, you can continue, until you have a major idea for a threat that require the epic PCs.
BlueSlaad
06-01-05, 01:15 PM I would take a break or even move on to a new campaign permanently. My players don't like campaigns to drag on for too long and I tend to agree - better to make a climactic epic ending and start something completely different. I had a lot of success with d20 Star Wars in that capacity. Plus, if the players are to attached to the characters in this campaign to say goodbye, you could always run some short epic adventures once in a while to keep them happy.
Mern
06-02-05, 01:51 AM Thanks for the input.

I've been thinking about taking a break from DM'ing at all this summer, and hope that my will to continue the campaign comes back after a while. The problem about this, is that I don't know of anyone else where I live that could DM a decent campaign while I was "away". And as far as I know, the players really want to play, and to be honest, it would be nice to be a player for a change.

While the suggestions for low-level campaigns sounds both fun and interesting, I know that both me and the players would sometime want to see the epic campaign through. Like one said, they have come to like their chars, and I've actually come to like several of the npc's and the whole setting.

Anyway, I guess a break is in order. I just hope that I will find the energy to pick things up where I left off sometime...

Mern
75RD Drum Clip
06-02-05, 02:26 AM In my campaign which is homebrewed FR I have found that having the players maintain multiple characters in differing parties helps to avoid burn out on one particular storyline or character. I switch DMing duties with another player, thus I maintain multiple characters in different parties. As for the nag of writing things down, I found that when I am DMing I keep a notebook or campaign journal to keep notes of things that party does while adventuring and also jot down ideas I get for in game consequences or new missions, etc. By writing in it bit by bit over the course of the advanture, I end up with more information, than if I tried to summarize it all at the end.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mern 06-01-05, 05:01 AM	I've been running the same campaign with the same players for close to 3 years now. The game has progressed so far, that the players are about to hit epic in the near future. (Started at level 1) The setting is all made up by me, and it's was right from the start high-magic and highlevel. I could go on to write in more detail, but that would make for a VERY long post, and wouldn't really help much in understanding my problem. Let me just say that both me and my players like the storyline, and I have more then enough "story left in me" to last at least another 10-15 levels. But problems I've been having lately are motivation to write down the specifics of the next encounter, and the will to actually keep track of all parts of my story-time-line. At the moment, I have to keep track of the actions of 2 large armies, 4-5 countries' politics towards each other, and something like 20 epic npc characters with their own agendas in the midst of it all, in addition to what my players are up to. This basically means that I have increased my preperations for the next gaming session 10-fold, compared to what I started with. So... what I'm really asking for, is this: Have any of you fellow DM's run into some similar problems with your ongoing campaigns? And how did you handle the problems?
Szat 06-01-05, 05:39 AM	Absolutely. Currently my campaign is just breaching that mark. We're reaching the high teens and I'm finding it a labour of love to keep all the notes that I need intact and up to date. Honestly, I'd say take a break from the game for a bit and run something light. The reasons I say this are two-fold. First, it'll allow you some freetime to add stuff to the epic game at your leisure. You won't feel so hardpressed and it'll give you a good chance to build up some encounters and some gameplay information. Second, it'll give your group and you some downtime to decide what they want to do next. Do they maybe want to try a different campaign and move on? Or do they want to break for a bit and try an interim campaign. My current plan for my campaign is to run until I conclude the "pre-epic" storyline and then play a 1-10 level interlude game while I regain my stamina to run a game of the magnitude required.
MortalPlague 06-01-05, 06:01 AM	Oh man. I'm hitting sort of the same thing, in so far as keeping track of NPCs and events, and my players are getting through 7th level. I don't think I could ever run something Epic. :D But yeah, taking a break sounds like very good advice. Personally, I'm going to park this campaign at the conclusion of the story arc, which will probably happen in a level or two. Afterwards, I'll let someone else run, or I'll DM some d20 Modern. We've been meaning to try out Modern, and the one-shot adventure I ran with a couple of my players while bored was very fun.
VerinBlod 06-01-05, 06:40 AM	Yeah I sure as hell know that problem :) And to make matters worse my players almost never finishes a story completely. They leave so much open endings and let NPC's escape or what not. And ofcourse this leads to a series of new adventures while the main story lines are going on. :D The best thing to remedy this is keeping your notes up to date like you said or like others said take soime break if it is beginning to get too much. Maybe focus on ending some plot lines oir somesuch. Hope this helps.
Morka 06-01-05, 12:15 PM	If you want to run a low-level campaign, just the time to take a breack of those 20 major NPCs and 5 countries, here is a suggestion. Your epic PCs are probably living in a Castle, perhaps are they governing a town or even a large city, or at least they should have some kind of stronghold. Have an peasan comes up, saying there is "rats in the sewers." What does an epic character when there are "rats in the sewers?" He hire a few low-level PCs. So pre-generate about 15 low-level characters, don't show the stats to the players. The Epic PCs will have to interview them to find which ones are better for this cleaning mission. In the end, each player will have to choose 1 low-level character for the "rats in the sewers" mission. The Epic PCs are temporarely NPCs. Using this, you can restart at the basis and you can keep a few major NPCs (the ones you like the most). If the players and you like this, you can continue, until you have a major idea for a threat that require the epic PCs.
BlueSlaad 06-01-05, 01:15 PM	I would take a break or even move on to a new campaign permanently. My players don't like campaigns to drag on for too long and I tend to agree - better to make a climactic epic ending and start something completely different. I had a lot of success with d20 Star Wars in that capacity. Plus, if the players are to attached to the characters in this campaign to say goodbye, you could always run some short epic adventures once in a while to keep them happy.
Mern 06-02-05, 01:51 AM	Thanks for the input. I've been thinking about taking a break from DM'ing at all this summer, and hope that my will to continue the campaign comes back after a while. The problem about this, is that I don't know of anyone else where I live that could DM a decent campaign while I was "away". And as far as I know, the players really want to play, and to be honest, it would be nice to be a player for a change. While the suggestions for low-level campaigns sounds both fun and interesting, I know that both me and the players would sometime want to see the epic campaign through. Like one said, they have come to like their chars, and I've actually come to like several of the npc's and the whole setting. Anyway, I guess a break is in order. I just hope that I will find the energy to pick things up where I left off sometime... Mern
75RD Drum Clip 06-02-05, 02:26 AM	In my campaign which is homebrewed FR I have found that having the players maintain multiple characters in differing parties helps to avoid burn out on one particular storyline or character. I switch DMing duties with another player, thus I maintain multiple characters in different parties. As for the nag of writing things down, I found that when I am DMing I keep a notebook or campaign journal to keep notes of things that party does while adventuring and also jot down ideas I get for in game consequences or new missions, etc. By writing in it bit by bit over the course of the advanture, I end up with more information, than if I tried to summarize it all at the end.