I've been playing ttrpgs for about 10 years now, mostly as a DM, and after I had yet another campaign go up in flames a couple months ago, I got to thinking about the whole thing. The more I look at this hobby, the more it seems like a great idea on paper that is simply unsustainable in reality, with a few exceptions like solo play, one-shots, or extremely short campaigns.
Running a full campaign from start to finish - one of the most basic premises of the hobby - is nearly impossible to achieve. Even if you somehow found people dedicated enough to stick to a simple weekly schedule, you have a couple months at best before Something™ inevitably happens, and the group can't play anymore. And it's not like I'm asking for some epic decade-long saga either - in my opinion, a full campaign should last about a year, and the closest I ever got was about five months. I just don't have any motivation to play or prep games anymore, because what's the point? It's like starting a TV show when you know it's gonna be cancelled halfway through, without even a tie-in comic to wrap things up.
Did I just get extremely unlucky with my previous games? Are TTRPGs simply not for me?
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I suggest you follow whatever path will prevent you from having to blogpost on /tg/.
Play West Marches style then.
Group failure happens because you are married to the group as a concept
Only two people make it one week? OK then have them generate fresh characters and do something else in the setting. If you keep track of in game time they can maybe even meet the other characters one day. Or you can play another game altogether. Adapt
Quit your job, spend at least a few months vetting players from the area, if no winners hit then move. Repeat this until you either die penniless in the gutter or find a good group. Then get a job with the sole intention of using work hours to do game prep. Integrate yourself with your players, become their friend, their closest friend, their life partner even. Push your tendrils into their lives so that there is no way to flake, no way for them to leave you. Use what precious few seconds of free time you can squeeze to develop immortality, lock your party in a sealed concrete room, game forever. Either devote yourself fully or give up, no half measures.
>not just starting a cult
lmao do you even dnd
five months should be plenty for a meaningful campaign. assuming you play weekly and 25% of games are cancelled that's still 15 sessions. If you make every 'arc' in the story 5 sessions you can have a couple of subplots before the grand finale.
is this online or in person?
What's your idea of a campaign? I find far too man GMs want to tell their fricking LOTR saga sometime. Build shorter campaigns and connect them together like chapters.
Have you ever read a book and before you stop you want to end at the next chapter? A good place to end it? When you do shorter stories/campaigns, players are more willing to get to the end of it with you. And then you can make it part of a bigger story or not. Quit ultra planning everything out.
You should try more games that aren't D&D, just to make sure. Give solo gaming a fair shake, too; that in particular has helped me.
This guy () gets it. Explore all your options before giving up.
ttrpgs were meant to be played with friends in the same way my father used to have a weekly card game. However that has changed over the last 20 or so years and it has made it increasingly difficult for many. I have noticed that people are less apt to get together over time, and it can't all be attributed to growing up and real life responsibilities. Hell my fathers weekly games lasted more than 40 years well after my own sons were born. Things really started to change around 2005 that's when I noticed the big shift away from people getting together face to face.
Lower your standards a little. You have to find the right people that can commit to a year long campaign. Look into the open table style, or make your campaigns shorter.
The latter helped me out. Once I stopped planning for lengthy campaigns and just made short arcs of 3-4 sessions and oneshots I started to enjoy things again
>It's like starting a TV show when you know it's gonna be cancelled halfway through, without even a tie-in comic to wrap things up.
Be harsher in creating your ideal group. If folks cannot make it regularly, tell them you don't think its working out and start inviting randos until you find one who doesn't reek of desperation and is reliable. You'll go through quite a few but it will happen.
>Are TTRPGs simply not for me?
I think life isn't for you. I think you're a homosexual nihilist and you're doing what every weak-willed butthole does when things don't go exactly as they had imagined in their utopian fantasy.
Tabletop is not about the end. You have never met somebody in your life that has said "Yeah I tabletop'd. I had 3 campaigns end, and I'm looking to tabletop again with a 3 year campaign". Tabletop is not defined by group stability, or campaign endings, or any of that auxiliary shit. Tabletop is about rolling dice and telling stories.
To go with your show analogy, I don't watch shows because I know they'll get 2 seasons of well written plot and a satisfying ending and yada yada yada. I watch a show because I know or have been told that the episodes of the show are entertaining to watch. A show doesn't become fun because I saw the ending, a show is fun because it's entertaining while I'm watching it. Would I like multiple seasons and a good ending? Yeah, but that's not what my enjoyment hinges on and you'd be mistaken in making that your goal.
Pretty much what said.
Also you might be setting yourself up for disappointment by planning out year long complex campaigns. You could try doing minimal prep. Know the vague direction of the overall campaign but only put in the hard work on the next session or current arc and allow yourself to be flexible and reactive as the players do things. This way you don't have your heart set on some big grand cool thing that's 30 sessions away that you'll never get to. Put the coolest shit you got RIGHT in front of the players now rather than waiting.
>Tabletop is not about the end
>Tabletop is about rolling dice and telling stories.
>long ago in a distant land, there was a prince who left the life of royalty to search for a legendary item
>and?
>and what lol
> the prince is captured by a pirate crew.
> the pirate captain teaches him to enjoy sucking wiener and pleasuring men.
> the prince becomes a trap princess.
> the adventuring party hears about a princess captured by pirates and goes to rescue her.
Imagine a DM who subverts everything he doesn't like that the players come up with into nihilism.
> Players want to go to a tavern.
> The tavern is closed down because of a local law prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcohol.
Giving up? I never even played one!
Every group I've been in that finished a campaign gave up on weekly games and just got together whenever everyone had a free day. It took years and sometimes it'd be months before schedules aligned, you just have to hold out.
I don't see anything wrong with one shots and really short campaigns when you can get a game together and solo when you can't.
Enjoy what you can play rather than lament over what you can't.
>Did I just get extremely unlucky with my previous games?
nah, this is normal in the hobby
If you aren't having fun, don't force yourself. This hobby is supposed to be fun. Try some other things. You can come back if you can't find anything else.
I have only played short campaigns and oneshots and I still manage to have a lot of fun.
If you truly must have something going long term then consider a west marches style campaign. Players can drop in and out without it messing up that feeling of progress.
I haven't personally played one but I have heard a lot of good things about them for people with inconsistent player groups.
You can also have short adventures in a persistent world. One shots and short campaigns that have effects on the world and it's history but are largely self contained otherwise.
Honestly yeah. If anyone reading this is in college, you'd better be getting in some epic campaigns. You'll be lucky to get in a one-shot once everyone has careers and kids.
I didn't read but everyone is gay now, so unless you are gay too you're probably better off not playing social games.
Such is life now.
Just play solo bro
Try something like Fiasco or TechNoir that are really made for more episodic, short play arcs you can string together. Also the group storytelling dynamic of both systems help GMs as they require much less planning and prep.
I mean, you still have to get three to six living persons together in a real or virtual space, but...
I feel the same way as I get older and play more and more campaigns. RPGs are a fantastic hobby in theory - probably the coolest hobby around - but in practice they're too often frustrating and unsatisfying. They never quite live up to the Platonic ideal you have in your head. Sometimes I think about giving up the hobby altogether, but I know I would miss it too much if I did.
> a full campaign should last about a year
I wish more people thoughts as you did, I'm suffering a similar issue but from another angle: Whenever my friends DM they stretch out campaigns to like 2 years + and I feel bad because eventually something comes up and I cant commit to the campaign past a year and it makes me feel like an unreliable dickhead but also angry that my DM is just dragging out time. We have a 4 hour session every week so its not like we cant wrap up a good story in a year, but whenever I post around asking about ideal campaign lengths I get the impression others in this hobby can play one campaign for like 5 years or something and that just makes me think I should leave as well.