Campaign Q&A

A few days ago Alex posted a list of questions, exploring how peoples' ongoing campaigns were progressing. Here are my answers:

How many sessions have you been playing, more or less? I'd guess about 40

How long have you been running this campaign? About a year and a half. We try to play weekly, but in actuality it works out to a little more than twice a month.

Have you had long breaks? If so, how did you pick it up again? Not really, there have been gaps of about a month around holidays etc. but no longer breaks.

How many people are at the table when you play? How many characters are in the party when you play? We have a consistent group of six players (the DM makes 7). Occasionally, someone won't be able to make it and we'll play with five. A couple of times we've run with four.

How many players have you had in total over that time period, not counting guest appearances? It's been the same six, for the whole run. 

Have you had guest appearances? How did it go? Did you gain regular players that way? We've played one shots with a mix of regulars and other players a couple times but not as part of the main campaign. 

What have the character levels been over time? The party is now at level 5. I guess I'm stingy with leveling.

What classes did the players pick? Did you add new classes over time? I made a bunch of pre-gen characters at the beginning (all my players are new to D&D) and they are still playing them (with one exception). We have a paladin, a rogue, a druid, a cleric, a wizard and our ranger died and was replaced with a barbarian. 

Tell me about some adventures you ran over that time that I might enjoy hearing about? Two  arcs of our campaign stand out for me: 

The initial dungeon crawl began with the party battling skeletons before be-friending the dungeon's necromancer. Then, they proceeded by accepting a commission from said death-wizard to clear Skaven-like ratmen from the tunnel's under his lair. In the rat warrens they uncovered a casket that contained the sleeping-beauty preserved form of the keep's long lost heir. They have allied with him and now seek to return the keep to his control. 

The second memorable arc was the "Swine Dungeon" that I've posted about on this blog. I modeled it after a level from Darkest Dungeon and it was a big success. 

Have the rule changes over that time? Do you maintain a house-rules document? This campaign is by-the-book 5e D&D. 

Has the setting changed over time? Not yet, but I think I need to re-focus it. My sandbox is too big.

How much in-game distance did the party cover, how big is the area they have visited? They haven't been more than a couple days travel from their starting locale. 

Have you used proprietary setting books? Like, could you publish your campaign or would you be in trouble if you did? It's a real mish-mash of original and borrowed elements. There's parts that are original enough to stand alone but as a whole too much is a copy or pastiche of recognizable other things.
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I hope that was interesting. I like to get glimpses into how other people run their games and so I'm happy to share a small window into mine. If you have any follow-up questions, fire away!