Monday, December 14, 2009

Once A Month

Each of the games I run are generally being run once a month.

The reason for this is, primarily, that my current group consists of a fair number of Players who GM and/or GMs that Play. We also enjoy many different kinds of games and genres.

That said, I sort of wish I could run one of my campaigns with us doing two or three sessions a month. I miss those days and I realize my currents campaigns do suffer a bit for my not being able to run them that way.

There is a level of depth and intricacy that I feel I've been missing over the last year, largely because I only run one 6-8 hour session of each of my games each month. Now compared to my older campaigns which saw two or three sessions a month (or if you go further back in time, even more then three) that each averaged 8-12 hours, its obvious that I just can't cram as much stuff into the campaign as I used to. Faced with a more limited schedule, I feel like I need to 'get to the point' more often then not and the players get to explore and get to know the universe a bit less.

To me, this is a disservice to my players and to the overall campaign. One of the things I specialize in as a GM is weird voiced NPCs interactions, notes about local cuisine and other seemingly 'unimportant' elements that nonetheless make the game feel alive and complete.

What to do about it is of course the question.

Unfortunately there is really but one solution and honestly, it comes with its own difficulties. If I run the same game multiple times a month, I end up letting down those people you are currently involved in my other campaigns. There are only so many days in a week and all that. I won't be able to run everything.

Anyone else run into a similar problem? How do you or did you deal with it and how often do you run your game?

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Barking Alien





1 comment:

  1. One thing I've heard suggested is to make each session more episodic. This makes each session satisfying in itself, while allowing it to connect with the campaign as a whole.

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