Well, I had an answer for today’s question leap immediately to mind and I began writing, but in reality that answer is actually completely incorrect so I have had to start again. Let us get into it.
Day 15: Longest Campaign Ever Played
Mark:
My initial answer to this was going to be the Serpent Skull Adventure Path from Paizo for Pathfinder and I was well into the blog discussing it but then I realised that I was completely wrong. The longest campaign that I have ever run is a game of Earthdawn and it is still running!
It was 1993 when FASA released Earthdawn. It had connections to Shadowrun but was essentially FASA’s entrance into a fantasy game and it looked very interesting. I was known as a Shadowrun GM at the time but I shifted and said I would take a look at this new game for our group and after a couple of months of talking about it we all got together and had a game. It branched from there as my Shadowrun games dwindled, Earthdawn arose and the the area known as Barsaive came alive with my stories and designs, as well as weaving in a few of the iconic adventures that were released for the game. After about six years of running that campaign I had to move for my work but my players wanted to continue it so I continued the game as a Play by E-Mail game.
Over time the original players began to dwindle but we took on new players too until such time that all of the originals were gone apart from myself. But all the stories that I was wildly passionate about were still going! I have a thread of a story that has been playing out since around 1995 that is still a part of the game today.
Yes, I said today. The Play by E-Mail is continuing and while it is not bristling at the fastest pace ever (we used to do two rounds a week, now it is one every few months on a good round) it is continuing and the current batch of players are zeroing in on the realisation of what it is they are actually chasing.
The current campaign has the players chasing a Heart made of Oak that appears to be some weird kind of artifact that has drawn thieves, blood elves, horrors, sky raiders and others into their story. They have traveled the southern lands of Barsaive to Sky-Point/Vivane and now head North following the trail of the Oak Heart. A trail of corruption and decay that seems to bring the adventurers in contact with all sorts of trouble. Currently they are in a Kaer (an underground sanctuary used to hide from horrific astral creatures known as Horrors for over five hundred years) where five elders have been mystically holding back a Horror that breached the Kaer hundreds of years ago. The Kaer residents are all dead but the Elders seem oblivious to this fact as they fight the Horror in their midst AND the players, one of them who was marked by the Horror through a Horror construct on the way into the Kaer.
So, there you have it. The longest campaign I have ever run is at 22 years and counting. It is a game that I hold close to my heart and look forward to seeing the story I implanted so many years ago come to fruition. Keep rolling!