Long campaigns?

[the-croupier]

Actually, 'campaign' was probably the wrong word to use, since it usually implies one cast of characters, and that's hard to keep going over time given character advancement, as just about everyone's pointed out. The two examples I gave have had many different casts of PCs over the years, including children of previous PCs becoming PCs themselves.

I probably should've framed the question more in terms of one continuous setting or gameworld. (Or one continuous timeline, though with GURPS you always have to allow for Infinite Worlds.)

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by the-croupier

Actually, 'campaign' was probably the wrong word to use, since it usually implies one cast of characters, and that's hard to keep going over time given character advancement, as just about everyone's pointed out. The two examples I gave have had many different casts of PCs over the years, including children of previous PCs becoming PCs themselves.

I probably should've framed the question more in terms of one continuous setting or gameworld. (Or one continuous timeline, though with GURPS you always have to allow for Infinite Worlds.)

Well ... if we're talking the same gameworld and a linear timeline, then other than the few years break I took in the 1990s to LARP, I've been running the same campaign since 1978, through three changes of game system. But I think that even with changing casts of PCs and players, a "campaign" can still be a definable thing. I've identified 21 "campaigns" in my records, more or less based around the sessions meeting on X day in Y area. Some have been ephemeral; nine have lasted less than a year. Two have gone seven.

One of my group's has had two PCs who've played on and off since 2009 (as recently as last year), while another current PC's been running on and off since 2013.

[Purple Snit]

My wife and I co-GM a campaign that started as a Call of Cthulhu game, migrated to GURPS, and now looks more like Scion. We started in 1995. The players have rotated in and out, but it's still the same core world and npcs. And it's amazing how many world notes accumulate in 28 years...

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by the-croupier

I probably should've framed the question more in terms of one continuous setting or gameworld. (Or one continuous timeline, though with GURPS you always have to allow for Infinite Worlds.)

Well, my Super San Diego world has been running since the early '90s. And it got rolled in with our BattleTech game from the '80s (because multiverse). Bobb's Character, Simon Cross, has been in since the beginning of Super San Diego.

[thorr-kan]

I started an AD&D 2E Al-Qadim campaign some time after 05/2001. We've been playing on and off since them. We've lost one player, picked up two more and lost them (players' kids; they hit puberty and finally moved out after college). All the original PCs are still alive, though not for lack me trying. Level is 9-11, depending on class.

[Ultraviolet]

Back in august 1994 two guys from my high school gaming club started a Cliffhangers campaign. It was intended as a weekly thing for about half a year, as things used to go back then. And it fizzled out as expected.

But then it was restarted during a summer vacation by obne of the original GMs, and eventually became a steady campaign played every other week by the other GM for a logn time, until we startede rotating.

It has run since, with changing players.

The campaign strated in 1930, and eventually we neared the real-world start of WWII, and that would limit our globetrotting adventures. One guy GMed a 'forward in time' adventure, where our characters all had evolved and attained most of out respective goals. This set things in perspective, and we all agreed on a reboot: New characters, start back in 1920 (or '25, I forget), and a switch to 4th ed.
The new campagn has run since then, and although I cant' remember excately when we did the reboot, I think the new campaign has run for longer than the old one.
COVID meant we played online via messenger. One player moved away during this time, and he is on a screen while the rest of us sit around the table.