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Game Master's Laboratory

Public • 120 • Free

97 contributions to Game Master's Laboratory
How many campaigns have you played in/run that actually finished?
That is, how many TTRPG campaigns that you were a part of reached a conclusion where you'd say the fiction of the game was finished? Story told, done, complete, etc? Instead of fizzling out (due to scheduling conflicts, loss of interest, moving on to a new game, etc). I'm trying to figure out if my experience is typical or not. I've played in or run 20+ campaigns since I got into TTRPGs about 20 years ago, but I've only ever "finished" 3 campaigns. One-shots don't count! I mean something that was meant to be episodic and take a long time to unfold. (I made this a post instead of a poll because I'm interested in specifics if you have them!)
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New comment 2h ago
0 likes • 10h
@Jonah Fishel Its funny I mentioned this to one of the other players from that 8 man group that fell out of sync with my group last night and he can also list 10 finished campaigns that were also at least 10 sessions long. We normally can tell with in about 3 sessions if a system is not for us. Mousegaurd just wasn't hitting for us, even though we loved Burning Wheel for example. I for sure like the medium length, rather than the looooonnnggg drag out. Narrative cohesion tends to peter out after a while.
0 likes • 2h
@James Willetts honestly I just had to go with 10 to cut down my games. Ha.
What was the best Campaign you never finished?
I was curious what was the best campaign you never finished? Why was it great? Maybe the combats were engaging and cinematic? The world building was excellent, and you felt like you were really part of it. The role-play could have been dynamic, and fun. What was the reason it stopped? And most importantly what would you need to see the resolution? A final boss fight, or a more narrative focused ending to the story? For me I really loved a sequel campaign where a player slide into the dms chair and my character got to see the fallout of the decisions made in the first story arc. I was also the only recurring character, so it was interesting to go from a Teen Hero, to a defacto Team Leader. It was a splinter group and one player, who the current and previous dm (now a player) just was really hard to schedule around. I think I might broach the subject once we the DM isn't running a campaign to see if we can at least do a little wrap up arc. This was inspired by Jonah's post last week (How many campaigns have you played in/run that actually finished?) , (https://www.skool.com/game-masters-laboratory/how-many-campaigns-have-you-played-inrun-that-actually-finished )
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New comment 10h ago
2 likes • 13h
@James Willetts This client was a ton of fun to work with and my favorite sign story is him letting me teach him the complete rules to Ticket to Ride, and then playing it with him. He proceeded to crush us, and then admit that its a very popular game in the deaf community. So after playing a ton of games with us, he decided to shark us once, ha.
0 likes • 10h
@Jonah FishelI've been hearing about a "VVT only RPG" or two recently that is coming up. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/foundryvtt/ember-rpg Ember by Foundry is an example I have seen companion app for character creation like in Lancer. Basically you are thinking of an app that runs what would normally be a random tables job?
Tying it Together
Jonah and I have been talking a lot about strategies for wrapping up campaigns. Folks have talked about it once or twice here in the lab, but I'm curious about strategies people have used for ending a long-running campaign----how did you prep? Were there things you felt you needed to leave out? What was the highlight? Were there things you didn't cover in-game, but addressed in different ways?
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New comment 12h ago
0 likes • 14d
@Jonah Fishel Yup! It was allow us to answer some of the questions we would have been left with. It lets us close certain threads, and choose to actively keep others open.
1 like • 13h
@Jim Freeman I don't think we have formalized it quite yet but we pretty consistently have some buffer built in for it. My most recent campaign ended with a council meeting that the players got to vote in, which allowed us to have both in game and above game discussions. It was about keeping the multiverse open after someone cracked way out of the greater cosmology, and allowed connections to the other universes we have played in, most notably the Warhammer universe. So the Dwarf Daemon Slayer for example asked them to close back off, because as much as it would help them to have allies against chaos, it would also be unfair to every other universe to allow them to creep in. I am writing a Gming resource that talks about using some Session Zero tools through play, but I think a final feedback phase would be a good idea to add.
Introduction
Hello, my name is Jonathan. I’m from Denmark and relatively new to both being a player and a Game Master and I'm hooked. I’ve been a Game Master for my 11-year-old son and a couple of his friends for about a year. I’ve also been playing in a group with other adults for a year, where we take turns being the Game Master, and now it’s my turn. In both groups, we use D&D 5e. In this context, I’ve become very interested in proactive role-playing and think it makes a lot of sense to give the players more responsibility for the story. That’s why I’m here—to exchange ideas and seek advice. We’ve just had our Session 0, where we created character goals, and all the players are on board and excited for the next part of the adventure. Now I’ve started preparing factions, NPC goals, and the first possible encounters. I'm considering using proactive role-playing for my son's group as well. I might modify it a bit so they can engage with it. Does anyone else have experience using it with children? Looking forward to being part of this forum. And thank you for a great book and introduction to proactive role-playing.
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New comment 1d ago
0 likes • 1d
I think proactive role-playing is a great way to work with kids as well! I've only run for kids that are a little older, but I definitely want to use this the next time I run for that crew
Introduction
Hi, I'm Jim and I am a long time role-player, long time GM and owner of an FLGS so have plenty of experience running for and playing with complete strangers as well as friends groups. I played my first RPG 40 years ago (yup, I guess I'm old now) and it is still my very favourite pastime.
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New comment 12h ago
0 likes • 1d
How long have you owned a game store? I would love to one day.
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Briggs Schneider
5
207points to level up
@briggs-schneider-6564
The too many systems guy

Active 2h ago
Joined Aug 9, 2024
ENFP
Nashville, TN
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