Dropped Campaigns
February 26, 2013
My name is Alonzo, and I’m a campaignoholic.
Every time I get a few games into a campaign, I start to get an itch. I get bored and frustrated with problems that keep coming up, and I think about how great it would be to start with a fresh slate. Then, I’ll get a great idea for another campaign. In my free time, I’ll start planning. Before I know it, I don’t even remember what I was doing in the old campaign, and all my time goes to the new one.
I stop playing for a few weeks, and say I’m too busy. It’s halfway true. The other half of the truth is that I’m sick of the campaign and don’t know if I ever want to go back.
Even when a campaign has been going a long time and everyone is enjoying it, at some point I suddenly get a miniature midlife crisis. Will I still be playing this two years from now? Is it going anywhere good? Are the best parts of it in the past? Is it holding me back from new and better things? All sorts of pointless questions like that.
A few weeks later I decide I want to play again, so I bring everyone over and tell them to make new characters. The sad thing is, they’re all basically used to it. They get mad at me when a character burns to death or gets hit with a harpoon, but when I tell them that their characters were erased from existence on a whim, never to be seen again, they nod and roll new stats.
I usually write these posts to give some kind of advice. Not this time. Right now, I feel like I need advice from other people.
Does anyone else constantly restart campaigns like this? Have you found a way to stop yourself? Is there a point when long campaigns pick up momentum and start to get easier? Has anyone played with a DM who does this? Is it entirely frustrating, or do you enjoy starting over too?
Sorry for all the weird overly personal insecurity posts lately. I promise I’ll get back to writing normal posts soon.
February 26, 2013 at 10:55 pm
You’re certainly not the only one to experience this. It’s called “gamer ADD,” especially when you’re switching systems, but even if you’re just switching between campaign ideas.
The best advice I can give is this:
1. In my experience, and from what I’ve read, the best games, where everything clicks and awesome stuff happens, happen a good ways into campaigns, after the players and party has gotten cohesion, the referee is familiar with running the setting and enough context has built up that victories, defeats and ongoing conflicts have a lot of meaning. This is something to remember to help you stick it out.
2. In the meantime, whenever gamer ADD strikes, make a record of your idea and write down enough information so that you’ll be able to act on it in the future. This makes it so that acting on your new idea isn’t urgent and you have a reasonable expectation of being able to run with it in the future.
3. If gamer ADD is really bad, it might be a good idea to run campaigns where you’re clear up-front that the campaign will be approximately X number of sessions long, or until a particular plot point is resolved, or whatever. That way you’ll see the end in sight and be better able to hold out and complete the campaign. Campaigns don’t have to be decades-long stories of PCs going from Level 1 to Level 20 or whatever to be successful. Purposely short campaigns are OK too, and are better than accidentally short campaigns.
4. Depending on just what your alternate ideas are, a plane-hopping campaign might be perfect. Figure out a reason why the PCs regularly move from setting to setting and you don’t have to interrupt gaming for a few weeks, nor do your players have to roll up new characters.
February 27, 2013 at 5:14 pm
Thanks. That’s some really good, advice. There’s really not much to respond to because it’s all very clear, logical, and straightforward, but I want you to know that your input is appreciated.
February 27, 2013 at 6:38 pm
Thanks. I appreciate that. ^__^
February 28, 2013 at 11:48 am
You keep changing games because you feel like you could do better. I think to help you should see other people be the DM, someone that has been the DM a lot before. To see what you are strong at and how you could improve. Find other players and ask what they like about their DM. I think you should just refresh yourself of why you were a player and became a DM.