End of another Campaign

Starting things is always fun. Ending them is always difficult.

I find myself once again terminating a campaign. I can say we're on "hiatus", or that maybe one day in the future we'll finish the story arc. But history has shown that it's not very likely. June, Melicertes, Roveles, Rosenkrantz, and Cyrus will be forever in the middle of their adventures. It's like they're immortal now.

I tend to blame myself, as the GM, for the lack of satisfactory endings for my campaigns. And perhaps if I had less lofty goals, and a more firm sense of pacing, I could be held more accountable. But looking back, I see that there were a lot of external factors involved too.

The first Star Wars campaign ended sometime after Scott left, and mainly because we found that Jedi and "regular" characters just weren't balanced with each other. So I'll blame the rules on that one, with a dash of player loss.

The second Star Wars campaign was all Jedi, all the time. But it turned out that the system was still rather broken, and silly situations arose because of the way rules played out. We also lost Rhett at the end of that campaign, and that catalyzed the next campaign. It also bears mentioning that I suffered some burnout, and Greg ran a few sessions where we played as vampires. We all enjoyed that so much that we had to continue the trend of playing monsters in the next campaign.

The first D&D campaign, entitled Minions, was a return to the classic system. D&D is a lot more solid than any other RPG in many ways, and it was easy to get back into it. We had a great run with this one. But then Lance and Angelique left town, and Greg had to leave because of allergies. It just wasn't the same, the bar had been raised too high by that point. And I just couldn't come up with a satisfactory ending with so many missing protagonists.

So we started the second D&D campaign, entitled the Heartlands. We took a step back to the early levels this time, and played as humans instead of high-level monsters. Things were going along rather nicely, but then Kevin and Jen had to leave. The last straw was the introduction of a brand-new set of Star Wars rules that appeared to balance out Jedi with every other heroic character.

So here we are. I've started a new campaign with the remaining three guys. It'll be a relatively short campaign, as I'll be stepping out for a real hiatus. I'm going to be a new father in a few months, and that will take all of my time and attention for a while. As always, real life intrudes on the game. But it's the contrast with real life that gives the game it's appeal in the first place.

I've really enjoyed playing with everyone in all of these campaigns, and I hope to game with you guys again some day. Always remember that Threatinum is the most dangerous of magical materials. Take care.