Campaign Length

When it comes to any form of writing, one piece of advice has always stuck with me: a story should be like a woman's skirt, long enough to cover everything it should but short enough to still be interesting. This holds true for rpg campaigns. Depending on what type of game you're running you will want to adjust the length of the campaign.

When most people think of an rpg campaign they think about these long, epic games with story lines that will take months to get through. Story lines like this usually consist of several smaller issues that the characters must overcome to complete their ultimate objective or dealing with complications that arise because of forces working against them. The ultimate objective will be difficult for a beginning group of characters to overcome but will be easier once the characters have more experience. These campaigns incorporate many different aspects of the game into the story arch and use the diversity to keep the characters guessing about what will happen next. This type of campaign is generally best suited for players that are looking to experience all aspects of the game or for large groups that need and can handle a large array of issue that arise. A GM working on creating a campaign like this will need to focus on establishing several plot points and key adversaries to keep up the level of interest.

My group has recently gotten into running short campaigns. They generally consist of campaigns that may last only a few weeks. These types of campaigns are usually more focused on a clear objective. The level of the characters tends not to be as important as the game will be finished before too much experience is gained. Campaigns of this sort tend to focus on one or two aspects of the game but explores them in much greater depth. This type of campaign is great for smaller groups that wish to really engage a particular part of the game. It is also nice for groups that tend to lose focus quickly but have no issue playing a game several times in different incarnations. A GM working on a campaign of this nature should do plenty of research into the various aspects the players wish to explore and keep the game topical.