Today’s topic is a quick one (as befits a weekend entry), Longest RPG Campaign.
As a designer, I don’t get a chance to do much long-term playing: Playtests aren’t usually long-term affairs. Plus, in the past couple of years, I haven’t had a local group for recreational RPGing, so I have to go back to my college years for the answer to this one, and, to be honest, depending on how you measure it, I have two answers.
The longest game in actual play sessions was a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign that I ran from the year of it’s release, 1991, until around 1994 or so, with basically weekly play (while school was in session — we took breaks between semesters).
The other longest game was a one-on-one game of James Bond 007, where a friend and I would play once every 6 to 8 weeks with a “new movie” (completely with an original soundtrack, composed by my friend — I’d give him the title of the next “film”, and he’d come up with a title theme, an action sequence theme, and either a sneaking-around or a romance theme). Eventually the time between films got longer, especially after he moved, but we kept it going during visits, making the adventures of Richard Deming, 001, last from around 1992 to around 1996.
So there’s my answer. Or rather, answers. Let’s check in with Dave Chapman, and today’s special guest, Robin D. Laws: