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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 11:13:17
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Greetings!
This is a spin-off of another thread asking about epic end-game plots and events; it got me thinking about how long it single continuous campaigns can run, and all that.
So, what's the longest/most successful/most memorable game you've ever run or played in? Got any war stories to tell?
The longest game continuous campaign I've ever DMed ran to just shy of two years before it collapsed under the weight of tangled sub-blots and re-writes that had accumulated during the run. I seem to recall that I started the game as a spin-off/continuation of a previous one that ended shortly after switching from 2e to 3e.
The longest campaign I've ever managed to fully complete I think went to about six months and a bit, involving a zombiepocalypse and Lovecraftian horrors.
My longest running character would have to be my first and favourite: Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise! Started him when I was first introduced to the game and I didn't even know what a cleric was, I was just told we needed one in the party. He had a nervous, bookish personality, got very cross with the rest of the party for desecrating tombs and accidentally blundered into becoming an international spy and major political figure. Also, he was constantly haunted by a ghost named Mr Blobby, but nobody else could see him (DMs idea, not mine)...
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Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
ALL HAIL LORD KARSUS!!!
Vast Realmslore Archive: Get in here and download everything! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl
2e Realms book PDFs; grab em! - http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-around-purge.html |
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Alisttair
Great Reader
Canada
3054 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 14:25:09
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| I DMed a group of Dwarf PCs for about 4-5 years in 3-3.5E. They got to about level 13 I think before the campaign drifted off (due to one guy having an unpleasant wife and another guy not caring about playing anymore). |
Karsite Arcanar (Most Holy Servant of Karsus)
Anauria - Survivor State of Netheril as penned by me:
http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/172023 |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 14:41:09
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My longest running campaign of 8 years actually only began as a one-shot FR campaign which was supposed to be just a month-in-duration. By the end, however, the game eventually came to include sojourns across practically every TSR-published setting of the time, a number of non-TSR settings, and a few of my many home-brew creations. Pre-established adventures, characters, items, objects, locations and almost everything in-between all ultimately found their way into my main game at some point.
It was a LOT of fun! |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Riverwind
Learned Scribe
133 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 14:42:58
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Well I'll tell you about my three favorites
1. We played in Lankmaar and the DM changed it up a bit. The city's underworld was controlled by 7 "Families." So it was D&D meets "Goodfellas." So anyway we were part of one of the "families" starting out as street thugs. Eventually, a power struggle within our "family" killed us, as we picked the wrong side.
2. Right after the 2nd Edition book came out on running a humanoid campaign came out, we ran a campaign as orcs. I think we just stopped that one, but it was alot fun being on the other side.
3. Was playing Riverwind, she was the best. I never have been so lucky rolling dice as I was with her, from when I first rolled her up, to getting saving throws, or that needed hit. She really should go to Vegas. When the group split up due to real life, we retired the characters, and now she's raising a family (heck, one of us should be.) |
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
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Snowblood
Senior Scribe
Australia
388 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 15:13:32
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| still playing....started 1st march 1985.....now into its 25th year....highest level character Mage 28/Psionicist 24/Fighter 13/ Priest 15......plus some other goodies......oh started out as a sword for hire pressed ganged into a war against dark elves & retired as a 1200 year old moon elf and part of the High Fire Crown....... |
Aryvandaar, Ilythiir, Arnothoi, Orva, Sarphil, Anauria/Asram/Hlondath, Uvaeren, Braceldaur, Ilodhar, Lisenaar, Imaskar, Miyeritar, Orishaar, Shantel Othrieir, Keltormir, Eaerlann, Ammarindar, Siluvanede, Sharrven, Illefarn, Ardeep, Rystal Wood, Evereska are all available here for download:http://phasai.deviantart.com/gallery/
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Cleric Generic
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
565 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 15:57:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Snowblood
still playing....started 1st march 1985.....now into its 25th year....highest level character Mage 28/Psionicist 24/Fighter 13/ Priest 15......plus some other goodies......oh started out as a sword for hire pressed ganged into a war against dark elves & retired as a 1200 year old moon elf and part of the High Fire Crown.......
BWAHAHAHA!!! a level 80 character? And I thought level 15 in 3e was a pain in the trousers...
How exactly does a game play at that level? Or was it more of a cosmic RP exercise than more traditional DnD behaviour? |
Cedric! The Cleric Generic and Master of Disguise!
ALL HAIL LORD KARSUS!!!
Vast Realmslore Archive: Get in here and download everything! http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archfr/rl
2e Realms book PDFs; grab em! - http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/07/working-around-purge.html |
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Darkmeer
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 20 Apr 2010 : 16:25:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Cleric Generic
8 YEARS?! uh, woah...
Also, in long term games, how much character and/or player turn over do people get?
KnightErrantJR and I get a lot of turnover where we are. It's a college town, so about every year to 3 years we at least change one player, maybe more. Heck, for a few years I didn't game at all due to my son's illness (he's better now).
So, now I'm finally back to Gaming, and I'm in a bi-weekly Council of Thieves game in Golarion with KEJR. It's a lot of fun, and we've got a good group 
As far as longest campaign? Non-realms we've had an Earthdawn (3rd edition) game going since 1998 or so. I started playing in that campaign in 2002, and there is a lot of fun plot work going on there. If only we could get everyone back together... perhaps at GenCon one of these days...
D&D-wise, the longest campaign I've had as a DM was about 2 years. It was a great campaign, and lasted from level 1 to level 14 or so.
As a Player, I think it's about the same amount of time. Actually, I think KnightErrantJR's Mistledale campaign was the longest running I've played in. That campaign spawned my current favorite character... Grim Greycastle.... and a fair bit of "oh no he didn't just do that" from KEJR.
/d |
"These people are my family, not just friends, and if you want to get to them you gotta go through ME." |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 04:42:41
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I ran a character in one campaign for five years, playing twice weekly, to over 20th level, and I DM'd a campaign, starting shortly after that one wrapped up, for another five years, with the PCs achieving similar heights of greatness... it wrapped up just before 3E came out, and after that, the campaign I'm playing in right now has been the longest continuing one I've been involved in, and it started just over two years ago.  College was much better for a stable gaming environment. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Alystra Illianniis
Great Reader
USA
3750 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 05:34:22
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Well, my longest running campaign was about 8 or 9 months, and was a re-boot of the standard campaign I run in my homebrew world. I always start the players in the same town to start off a campiagn, and since my hubby is the only consistant player in my games, it's always new and different. One time it veered WAAYY off into another part of the world entirely, and they had a heck of a time dealing with the cat-allergy/attractant curse, daylight-immune vampire, and other stuff they ran into. The latest incarnation ended with the group being recruited by a young CG red dragon (yes, you read it right- he's an NPC I borrowed from one of WotC's Eberron game-hooks) to slay his mother, who was building a cult of Tiamat in the region. He wanted to see if people really did make heir own futures, or if fate was preordained, so he was conducting experiments on manipultaing sestiny using adventurers. At the end, I was about to send them off to rescue a young paladin-in-training who had been kidnapped by vampires hoping to use him in some evil ritual. Sadly, it never got that far.
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The Goddess is alive, and magic is afoot.
"Where Science ends, Magic begins" -Spiral, Uncanny X-Men #491
"You idiots! You've captured their STUNT doubles!" -Spaceballs
Lothir's character background/stats: http://forum.candlekeep.com/pop_profile.asp?mode=display&id=5469
My stories:
http://z3.invisionfree.com/Mickeys_Comic_Tavern/index.php?showforum=188
Lothir, courtesy of Sylinde (Deviant Art)/Luaxena (Chosen of Eilistraee)
http://sylinde.deviantart.com/#/d2z6e4u |
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Victor_ograygor
Master of Realmslore
Denmark
1072 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 06:26:14
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12 years The Heros from Water deep.
Picture shown in the Gallery of Faerûn: Arik Witchson
12 years is a long time and when considering that I only got to level 13 :O).
Victor O'Greygor (the x assassin) went through 2 edition and into start 3 edition and at level 9 I got my guild secretly nobody in the group knew that I had a guild and there were always secret notes going over the table between me and the DM, always keeping an eye out for evil :O)
We went through Times of trouble helped Mystra and many other things. In the end we had a lot of trouble because many former priests of dead goods were seeking us out and we had to run all the time. But all in all it was very fun playing the same character so long and real fun playing with others how had played the same character fore so long too.
When talking of an end game, we in the group see it like this: No need for an end game because a character can be put aside and played again, whey make an endgame when we have used so much time creating these characters – Personality, drawings and so one.
Of cause sometimes you just run into a group wipe out, and that that the dices rule as I say :O)
The group the returned (Eberon) 2 years made a mistake we killed a noble and then surrendered to the city, and got the death sentence.
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Victor Ograygor The Assassin and Candel keeps cellar master
Everything I need to know about life I learned from killing smart people.
Links related to Forgotten Realms
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9571
Adventuring / Mercenary Companies / Orders / The chosen from official sources
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11047
Priests in Forgotten Realms.
http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9609&whichpage=1 |
Edited by - Victor_ograygor on 21 Apr 2010 06:27:40 |
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Elfinblade
Senior Scribe
Norway
377 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 07:17:09
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Our longest campaign have lasted around 10 years or so(we've been playing less and less the last couple of years as several of our gang has moved away etc), and i'll go ahead and assume you mean in real life, not game time.
We're only lvl 14, which is the highest lvl characters we've ever had. This is due to the fact that our playstyle is vastly more lore based and political than action packed (not that there havent been the odd dragon or grey render :P), and we tend to establish more winery's and inns around Cormyr than hunting down monsters. |
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Snowblood
Senior Scribe
Australia
388 Posts |
Posted - 21 Apr 2010 : 14:21:11
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| high level campaigns on a political level involving a lot of planar travel...before settling in Myth Drannor at its height and role playing through the events as players in the events of "Elminster in Myth Drannor"....... |
Aryvandaar, Ilythiir, Arnothoi, Orva, Sarphil, Anauria/Asram/Hlondath, Uvaeren, Braceldaur, Ilodhar, Lisenaar, Imaskar, Miyeritar, Orishaar, Shantel Othrieir, Keltormir, Eaerlann, Ammarindar, Siluvanede, Sharrven, Illefarn, Ardeep, Rystal Wood, Evereska are all available here for download:http://phasai.deviantart.com/gallery/
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Basil the Geek
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 06:57:19
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Friends of mine began a round robin Realms campaign that started in 1996 that’s been ongoing ever since, although, these past five years we’ve campaigned much less due to economic concerns and distance.
Of the original seven characters only two survive to this day with one being my own aging has been, fallen Cormyrian Knight now prospector, guide, bounty hunter and occasional brigand, Bill Rumson. He’s near circled the globe with the other survivor, an ex Zent spy and Cyricist named Avon. Actually Avon is still a spy, but for whom I have no idea. He probably works for several factions but I guess mostly for himself. He claims to be retired, reformed of his treacherous Cyricist ways and is now a fat and wealthy merchant and discreet Archivist somewhere in Sembia much sought after by adventures heading to the Far East where we both spent some years among the folk there.
Last I saw of Avon, he was raising his family with the Shou Princess Bill once loved and brokering deals between the Shades and some Sembian cartel. Meanwhile, Bill wanders, headed whichever way the wind blows him. He’s not been right since losing a lot of friends to the Horde due to a treacherous and cowardly Sembian noble who he later murdered.
I almost forgot there’s another character, actually an NPC, that’s survived from near the beginning; Bills horse Curmudgeon. He’s an awakened Bedian charger of exceptionally rotten first impression much like Bill but he’s really not all that bad. Curmudgeon has lately complained of getting long in the teeth and wanting to retire although he too aches for one last shot at redemption.
A multitude of other guest players have come and gone leaving a core of around a dozen surviving regulars and a good many that have passed on.
The game started 2e during the 1340’s using the old zero level rules and today is 3.5e. I think the year is currently 1381. We intend to game again in a few months.
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Joran Nobleheart
Senior Scribe
USA
495 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 08:32:23
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| I've been playing my character Joran Nobleheart since May of 1999, and he's gone all the way from level 1 to where he is now in that time. I thought he was retired for the most part when he hit level 24 (well, level 23 but I found a Book of Exalted Deeds that gave him one more level as a nice way of "kind of" retiring him with a "free" level), but recently had a chance to play him again this past weekend. I still use him as an NPC in my sessions, mostly in the role of an advisor or someone that my players like to go to and just talk about things. There was a seven month period where he wasn't played at all, but thankfully that's all behind me now. All the way from 2nd Edition as a paladin to 3.5E where he's now a saint is quite a distance, and it's been a real pleasure for me to get to play him all this time. |
Paladinic Ethos
Saint Joran Nobleheart |
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BlackAce
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
358 Posts |
Posted - 22 Apr 2010 : 09:01:36
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I've been gaming with the same group of people (more or less) for twelve years now. Though its been far from a smoothe ride and we've stopped and started more times than I can remember.
We were all in college together and used to kill our freetime by hanging out in a particular snug in the student bar and playing card games and drinking. We eventually settled on a D&D game set in FR, (we'd originally planned a greyhawk game but Baldur's Gate has come out and so most of the RPG newbs were more familiar with it. We played originally along the sword coast and western heartlands and we wrapped the game up in our last year. It was great fun while it lasted. (I ran another game with another group while in uni but I never really had the time for that one and the faces changed fairly often at the table.)
Still the college group had enjoyed themselves, so much so that when I ended up leaving the RAF prematurely, moved back home and started bumping into old school and college friends regularl,y they were always asking if I ever planned to do another game. Eventually I gave in during a friends birthday party and I broke out the handful of 3rd edition stuff I'd picked up at that point, (this was 2003). So here we are, seven years later, still meeting... though life has thrown us a few curveballs and we do more chatting than playing... and we game monthly rather than weekly... we're still enjoying ourselves. |
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Nicolai Withander
Master of Realmslore
Denmark
1093 Posts |
Posted - 10 May 2010 : 21:37:22
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We have been playing since 2002 with these characters... and im lvl 24. Wizard 15/ Arcane Avatar 5/ Arch Mage 4.
After I reach 5 arch mage level im gonna go 5 levels of Word Bearer!!!! Thats gonna rock!!! |
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the Iron DM: How long have your games run?
