D&D General How often do you complete a campaign as a player?

[Hussar]

Another discussion spawned this thought. For me, as a player, I have a campaign completion rate of about 15%. IOW, about 1 in 8 campaigns that I've played in over the years have actually come to any sort of conclusion and not fizzled half way through. How about you?

Granted, as a DM, my completion rate is much higher. I've been pretty good for the past couple of decades and most of the campaigns I've started as a DM have come to a satisfactory conclusion. Some haven't, but, most have. But, as a player? The number of times I've actually completed a campaign I can count on my hands.

So, slapping up a poll here to see if I'm just a really unlucky player, or if there's a trend here. Note, you can define complete any way you feel like. Did the campaign feel complete to you?

 

[RoughCoronet0]

My group usually finishes are campaigns. I only recall one being abandoned, and that was more of growing issue between players and the DM that soured many of us to continue in that campaign.

 

[el-remmen]

Assuming TPKs don’t count as “finishing a campaign,” then two as DM and none as a player in 41 years.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Almost never (as player). It is why I'm a forever DM.
In fact this last decade I've declined all invites to games because I'm not making that kind of investment for nothing and I've been right 100% of the time.

Too many GRRM's around...

 

[TwoSix]

The majority of my tables have rotating DMs, so we usually run our game for a year or two, finish up the main plot, and then it's someone else's turn.

The only game I've had in the past 10 years that didn't finish (outside the current ongoing ones) was one where my friend had to step down from DMing due to health issues.

 

[payn]

Im in the similar boat and marked rarely. I do like playing, but nobody has staying power as a GM to complete a campaign. My track record is flipped when I am the GM.

 

[Hussar]

Still way too early days to see anything like a trend. But, a prediction:

People's approach to gaming strongly reflects their experience in completing campaigns. For example, I predict that there is a really strong correlation between players who deep dive into setting lore and those who play out entire campaigns. I wonder if this isn't one of those sort of "hidden" reasons why we tend to have so much difficulty discussing gaming strategies.

 

[Umbran]

So, slapping up a poll here to see if I'm just a really unlucky player, or if there's a trend here. Note, you can define complete any way you feel like. Did the campaign feel complete to you?

Historically, I'm a forever GM.

So, in the decade prior to the 2020 covid pandemic, I think I had been a player in one TTRPG campaign, and that one completed.

With the pandemic came a dramatic rise in online play, and I joined several games.

• Three of them fizzled within short times (but two of them generated character concepts I really want to play for real).
• One ran to completion, and then flipped over into a second campaign, which is still running.
• One is still running, nearing completion, and we are already talking about what we'll play next.

 

[TwoSix]

Still way too early days to see anything like a trend. But, a prediction:

People's approach to gaming strongly reflects their experience in completing campaigns. For example, I predict that there is a really strong correlation between players who deep dive into setting lore and those who play out entire campaigns. I wonder if this isn't one of those sort of "hidden" reasons why we tend to have so much difficulty discussing gaming strategies.

I think it's difficult to avoid "the chicken or the egg" problem, or determining what the confounding issues are, with this sort of analysis (not that it isn't worth analyzing!).

Like, I didn't finish a single campaign in my first 20 years of playing. Is that because I don't like long campaigns? Is it something about the nature of play in 2e and 3e? Was it my groups? Or was it just the fact I was in my teens and 20s, and my life was much more unstable compared to being in my 30s and 40s?

Now I finish campaigns much more frequently, but it's because I've been in groups where we play shorter campaigns (generally 18-24 months) and we rotate DMs. Is that what I prefer because I don't have a history of finishing long games? Or did I not finish games back then just because I get bored fairly quickly? ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Overall, I'd say it's on the order of 50% for me, maybe a little lower, like 40/60. Of course, several of those were with the same group, so that might not necessarily count. I'm also counting one that was effectively done, we all could see the writing on the wall and it was just a matter of the precise details of what would shake out.

As a DM, I'm technically at a 100% failure rate as my first game fizzled out, and my second game is currently ongoing (just started year seven...hard to believe it's been that long.) But I have hopes it will come to a conclusion in the next year or two, assuming the players are still interested. That would bring my failure rate down to only 50%!