So I am wavering between starting one of two different APs for my next campaign, and given that my group only plays two Sundays a month, our campaigns tend to have a lengthy run time (about 2-2.5 years). Because of this, I am trying to get some vague idea as to the run times of the APs I am considering, and maybe trying to run the shorter of the two first. There may not be a clear answer on this, and I know other groups might have different play schedules, but I was wondering if anyone might have some idea of which AP would be faster to run through. Even if you just have an opinion rather than actual experience with either AP, I would appreciate hearing it.
The APs I am considering are Kingmaker and Strange Aeons.
Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Have you tried asking the the forums specific to these APs?
So, short answer, is that by the book Strange Aeons is pretty much guaranteed to be the shorter of the two if you do everything at the table, and you don't cut stuff out.
Kingmaker has a kingdom building system that will take up whole sessions if you handle it in person only. Doing it over e-mail does knock some time out of that, but there's a LOT of exploration and mapping involved. As a player in one Kingmaker campaign and a player in another, it's several years to complete without cutting a lot of the exploration and kingdom building, and events out. The campaign I'm running is going on about three and a half years, and we meet three times a month or so, playing for about 4-5 hours. We're just now entering the sixth book. A little bit through, we've moved Kingdom building entirely over e-mail, and with the exploration, it still takes a while.
The less sandboxy APs like RotRL and (from looks of it) Strange Aeons, run faster because there's more rails to ride. I've been running RotRL two times a month, for about 4 hours per session, and we've completed the first two books in about 4-5 months? Later books might take longer but that puts AP time at about 1.5-2 years?
I ran a Runelords campaign that lasted three years, and we only got about halfway through before real-life issues caused the group to fall apart. We played weekly with 3-4 hour sessions.
So, short answer, is that by the book Strange Aeons is pretty much guaranteed to be the shorter of the two if you do everything at the table, and you don't cut stuff out.
Kingmaker has a kingdom building system that will take up whole sessions if you handle it in person only. Doing it over e-mail does knock some time out of that, but there's a LOT of exploration and mapping involved. As a player in one Kingmaker campaign and a player in another, it's several years to complete without cutting a lot of the exploration and kingdom building, and events out. The campaign I'm running is going on about three and a half years, and we meet three times a month or so, playing for about 4-5 hours. We're just now entering the sixth book. A little bit through, we've moved Kingdom building entirely over e-mail, and with the exploration, it still takes a while.
The less sandboxy APs like RotRL and (from looks of it) Strange Aeons, run faster because there's more rails to ride. I've been running RotRL two times a month, for about 4 hours per session, and we've completed the first two books in about 4-5 months? Later books might take longer but that puts AP time at about 1.5-2 years?
Thank you, that is very informative.