Straight Answers to Honest Questions: The Big One

More questions in the mail bag today! This one is suspiciously similar to a previous one, but whatever. Let’s go!

How does 1:1 time account for things that genuinely take months or years? I understand that we can simply take busy PCs out of play for the duration, but this seems unsatisfying.

It’s up to the player. If you play the wizard Frobozz, you have to choose between adventuring with your frens, participating in Sir Homer’s epic mass combat campaign, and researching a powerful new spell for three months. There are tradeoffs for each option.

What’s unsatisfying is never getting to do spell research at all because 12 months of real time only explores two weeks of game time, never getting to operate independently because your assumptions about rpgs preclude it entirely, and campaigns that blow up after six sessions. Bah!

Playing your other PCs for the duration is fun because playing D&D is fun. You don’t believe this, but if you play this way not only will Frobozz’s choice shape the campaign, but it will still be going when he finishes working up his all-new spell. That’s satisfaction.

Playing this way is also more resilient and anti-fragile. Maybe Frobozz is not the most interesting thing you could be doing in the campaign given what all everyone else is putting into it. Maybe you will try out playing a thief or a ranger and find out that it’s actually way more fun. Maybe after three months, you will be really excited to get back to you favorite character. Maybe some days it will be more fun to play one of these characters and not the others. YOU DON’T KNOW. But if you don’t invest in other play options, you will not have them available in the event of your main character getting killed.

So, think ahead. And get used to everyone in your group opting to not put all their rpg eggs in one basket. It’s an objectively better way to run a campaign. Not only is it sure to last beyond today’s norm of six measly sessions, but time and again this format has proven it can GROW your gaming group.

Note: Your question basically boils down to “why should my campaign be meaningful?” Gygax answered this in the DMG. Read it!