What’s the right length for D&D campaigns? Are long campaigns better or worse – or does it depend on the campaign?
Our Small Embers campaign is well over 100 episodes long – by far the longest we have ever played (either for the podcast or elsewhere).
This has brought some amazing benefits – but there are costs too. Here are three pros, three cons and three things we’ve learned on this epic adventure.
Pro 1: Time to develop a rich, meaningful story
Making Small Embers has changed our lives. It’s where our podcast began – over three years ago, in a warehouse populated by four unfamiliar characters (listen to chapter one here).
Long campaigns – whether by design or accident – give the DM and players time to take the story where they like.
Fancy a lengthy dungeon crawl? Fine. Want to start a rebellion to overthrow an evil empire? No problem? How about a detour to a character’s childhood home? Go for it.
And all the pieces link together. Each story feeds into the others, and the adventure inevitably goes in directions no one could have anticipated at the start.
In really long campaigns, the characters, plots and places feel almost real.
Pro 2: Space for fresh starts
If a character or plotline gets stale, a long campaign provides space to go in a new direction.
Without risking spoilers, we’ve had player-characters leave the story temporarily and permanently. The causes have varied – from player choice to the roll of the dice – but green shoots have always sprouted afterwards.
And bringing a new character into a long-running campaign is a wonderful opportunity. You know the story and the group – and you can fill a gap or add a new dimension.
Pro 3: Satisfying pay-offs
When a plot takes a long time to mature – or an evil character finally gets their comeuppance – it can be very satisfying.
A patient DM can turn that to their advantage: Tom laid some breadcrumbs from chapter 2 onwards, and waited until chapter 86 for the Big Reveal.
This comes with risks (see below) but sharing a complex, engrossing, messy, magnificent story with your friends is something worth celebrating.
Con 1: Fear of failure
At the time of writing, our Small Embers campaign is nearing the end. We don’t know exactly when that will happen, but we know the final showdown is coming.
So the worry is this: what if we mess up the ending?
If you’ve committed vast time and effort to a long campaign, can you really play out the ending with the same freedom as those first steps?
If that’s been the spirit all along, you have to try. But it could be hard, especially if the ending might not be the glorious, moving conclusion the campaign deserves.
Con 2: Memory overload
It can become impossible to keep track of everything. Members of our wonderful Discord community, the DiceCord, have pointed out quite a few plot threads that disappeared without a trace.
Playing a TTRPG isn’t like writing a novel. The DM/GM might lay a trail of breadcrumbs. They might even load Chekhov’s gun. But the players won’t always pull the trigger.
Sometimes, things will simply get forgotten. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. To some, it may even be the imperfectly perfect joy of long campaigns.
If you prefer to leave no plot-thread hanging, long campaigns are likely to give you a headache sooner or later.
Con 3: Scheduling issues
The bane of every TTRPG group – from a home game with friends to (we assume) the biggest actual-play podcasts.
A simple point, this, but if you run long campaigns, you need to get everyone together regularly for a long time.
That’s wonderful if you can make it work. But life, the universe and everything can conspire against you – leaving long campaigns stuck in stasis.
What We’ve Learned 1: Take notes. But not too many
To keep track and combat memory overload (see above), you probably need some notes.
Some of our group love taking notes; others take hardly any.
Whatever your approach, the key is to keep your notes organised – so you can find what you’re looking for.
That could mean digital notes are better, but if you favour pen and paper just make sure to keep things neat!
What We’ve Learned 2: Mix it up
However good long campaigns may be, playing one exclusively may limit your time with other games, stories and characters.
So, we suggest taking breaks – dipping into other games, maybe with a different DM/GM and players.
We’ve massively enjoyed playing various one shots, all unrelated to our main D&D campaign.
And the unhinged nature of our Mothership adventures – known as Darkstar – perhaps shows how much everyone enjoys being freed from long campaigns for a short burst of chaos.
What We’ve Learned 3: Enjoy the ride
For all the pros and cons above – and the many more we could have listed – the important thing is to enjoy the game.
Even as actual-play podcasters, our main goal is enjoyment. If we don’t enjoy ourselves, we suspect the audience won’t either.
So, if you like long campaigns – or think you might – just roll the dice.
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