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Well, it looks like the campaign is a bust. GM had a lot of individualized plotlines running and didn't feel he could salvage it with a party mixup. It looks like we're headed towards a different campaign with different group.
It's the first campaign I played in that ended so abruptly, so I guess I'm looking for help disentangling myself from the old game. I get pretty invested in my character and the game's plot and now that mental energy lacks direction.
Well, it looks like the campaign is a bust. GM had a lot of individualized plotlines running and didn't feel he could salvage it with a party mixup. It looks like we're headed towards a different campaign with different group.
It's the first campaign I played in that ended so abruptly, so I guess I'm looking for help disentangling myself from the old game. I get pretty invested in my character and the game's plot and now that mental energy lacks direction.
Would you be able to take the reins as the DM and continue it?
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Adventure Paths are easier to pick up after hiatus.
An adventure log, and digital copies of character sheets allow for instant pick up.
Using a campaign tracking site like http://www.obsidianportal.com can allow you to keep all the information together and easily accessible to all.
It also allows you to keep track of any houserules.
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My group's not a big fan of APs. We have a good supply of creative GMs who enjoy crafting detailed campaigns in their own worlds. This does make it difficult or impossible to table a campaign. It wasn't such a big deal while we are all in university and had predictable class schedules - the biggest problem was a temporary cancellation due to exams . Now some of us have jobs, and a shift change can throw off our game night long term.
Would you be able to take the reins as the DM and continue it?Well, it looks like the campaign is a bust. GM had a lot of individualized plotlines running and didn't feel he could salvage it with a party mixup. It looks like we're headed towards a different campaign with different group.
It's the first campaign I played in that ended so abruptly, so I guess I'm looking for help disentangling myself from the old game. I get pretty invested in my character and the game's plot and now that mental energy lacks direction.
No. It's a good idea, but the schedule was such that we wouldn't have had enough game time or would have lost too much of the original group to maintain story integrity. And even if it wasn't a scheduling problem I wouldn't feel comfortable running another GM's campaign. I may start a different campaign.
I'll look into obsidian portal and other campaign tracking sites. Could be a useful tool in the future, especially with the level of complexity in the average campaign we play.
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U and ur mates can use a chat program like Team Speak / Ventrilo or if money is tight there is Raid Call. For maps and dice rolls i use Game Table. Game Table allows u to create layered maps that the DM can show gradually as the players progress, save dice macros, and have butt loads of pogs to represent players, enemies, points of interest, ext. The people i game with use these programs all the time for the last 6 years gaming at least 2x a month with work schedules, school schedules, and college schedules with no hitch.
Dotting for later. I have had this happen a lot and I get horribly invested in my characters.
No. It's a good idea, but the schedule was such that we wouldn't have had enough game time or would have lost too much of the original group to maintain story integrity. And even if it wasn't a scheduling problem I wouldn't feel comfortable running another GM's campaign. I may start a different campaign.
When I invest a great deal of time/energy into a game that dies faster than a teenaged girl's self esteem I make sure to use that PC as an NPC in my next game. That way I don't feel like a complete chump for the time I put in, and get to enjoy the interactions my ex-PC/current NPC has with the party.
It's like therapy.
On that note I make sure to murder the ex-DM's favourite NPC in a horrific way, but that's mainly to be passive agressive.
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Two of the players are already joining in long distance. The online tools help, but they can't make up for the fact that we need to be around the table at the same time (and the fact that the long-distance players are in different time zones doesn't help).
Considered but decided against play by post or anything else based on not having the whole group participating at the same time.
I've dep't with this situation alot, one guy in our group loves to dm, comes up with great plot lines, but then gets bored of it, or doesn't have everything worked out, he's not our only dm but we let him try from time to time. Other times the person running the game just gets burned out of dming and we switch to someone else. Anyway you can try talking to the dm to see if he will tell you the remainder of the story or see if you can keep your old character in the new campaign
Well, it looks like the campaign is a bust. GM had a lot of individualized plotlines running and didn't feel he could salvage it with a party mixup. It looks like we're headed towards a different campaign with different group.
I've been through it, most recently one that went from 1st level to almost 15th over two and a half years. I was so stressed about it. One player moved away, and the DM didn't want to simply swap him out with someone else, as everyone had integral storylines.
You move on. Start a new campaign and you'll get over it.
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Yeah, we were just shy of level 13 and planning on taking the campaign all the way to 20. After putting half a year and twelve levels into him, I'm worried it would feel weird to start him from nothing. Besides, I'd already pre-planned my character for the next campaign. My last three have all been support casters, so I'm wanting to try a pure melee type. Maybe I'll try re-working the character as a PC for the game after that, or introducing him as an NPC in the next game I DM (I'm about due).
The DM did fill us in on the rest of the plot when the campaign was declared dead. It was a sweet plot, too. There was even an important quest to subdue a powerful foe and perform an exorcism on them that my character (an Inquisitor with a Merciful weapon and Cast Out) was practically made for.
Every campaign world I make has all of my former PCs running around in it.
It has become a game for my groups to try and find them. Sort of like where's Waldo.
Keep the character as an NPC for any game you run. And who knows you might can use him again in the future.
We've been lucky in that the GM went to a local university and lived nearby. People have gotten jobs, but they have found that gaming at the University Center is possible.
If the University is near where you all work, maybe you can still meet there to game.
The best alternative is finding someone's house to game at(your house is open 24 hours unlike the University :D
In the end, it all comes down to finding the time.
My gaming group built a campaign to fix this, by compartmentalizing the regions by historical flavor, and implementing rules for a "Rotating GM" system, so no GM ever gets burned out, and the party makeup can change every few months.
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ngc7293, it's not an issue of having somewhere to go, it's that we literally cannot find the time. One guy got a shift change and is only available weekday evenings, another has to get up at 7:30 for an office job, and two of us are on the west coast with the other two on the east coast, such that the only time we're all available is three hours on Thursday night. I don't think we've ever had a game session shorter than 5 hours.
Azaelas Fayth, one of my groups' DMs has a pair of PCs-turned-NPCs that appear in almost all of his games. We love the cameos.
@Weirdo: just a pair?... mine numbers in the 50s...
Our Council of Thieves run got interrupted/cancelled when I told my DM that it's too much trouble playing with him (long and painful story), and my fellow Players soon followed. I'd say that try and fit in your old PC in some other campaign or just focus on another character. I sadly am not able to provide much more help, since it seems that the circumstances between our campaigns being interrupted are quite different. I also picked up Kingmaker as a DM soon after leaving.
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Just a pair, his favorites, from his old high school group. It's a very good idea, though, and I think I'll do that for sure. Gives me a place to start with NPCs and plot hooks for my next campaign, too. This PC would make a great in-town support NPC, and I'd love to send the players to find the loopy, runaway elf princess I played a few games back.
Icyshadow, sorry to hear that, but you're right that the circumstances are a little different and are focused a bit more on keeping as much as we can of a solid group together.
My NPC count (not just my PCs turned NPCs) is in the 200s.
I might suggest asking if you can take parts of their campaign and incorporating it into your own campaign(s).