Cutting it Short

Back when I wrote up my goals, one of them was to "Complete the "Star Wars Saga Edition" campaign, and begin my next "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay" campaign." At the time, the plan was for this campaign to run for 20 sessions (of which we had, and have, played three), before coming to an end that would also neatly set up a sequel campaign for next year.

I had also envisaged that that would essentially be the pattern of the year: two campaigns per year of about 20 sessions each, with as many as 12 Saturdays skipped due to band competitions, illness, family commitments, or for other reasons.

It turns out that this is vastly over-generous. We haven't managed to get together for the game for almost three months, and there are fewer than half a dozen Saturdays between now and mid-September in which I am free, never mind the rest of the group.

Fortunately, I am never without a backup plan, and so the new pattern is as follows: in mid-September, I will start a new campaign, slated to run through until the end of April. Allowing for missed weeks due to various commitments, I am estimating we should manage about 25 sessions in those seven and a half months.

During the 'off months' of the band competition season, we'll try to get together for the odd game or two, but these will take the form of one-shot games (or maybe a 'mini-series'), but not a full-blown campaign.

And so, come September, I expect to start up the new "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay" campaign mentioned in my goals. Between now and then, I hope to post a few things about the world-, adventure- and campaign-building that I am doing for this campaign (to break up the monotony of the Experimental Cookery, the Grand Experiment, and my moaning about whatever I feel like ranting about on any given week).

As for the "Star Wars Saga Edition" campaign? Well, I have a backup plan for that too, which I call my "Writers' Strike solution": I'm going to run the campaign for four more sessions in between competitions, and bring it to a suitable mid-season break. At that point, which I hope will be nicely game-changing, I'll stop the campaign, with a view to picking it up next September for continued play.

(Unfortunately, carrying the campaign through to the full 20 sessions would probably not get it done until December, which would leave us with the same problem next year. And expanding it out to run right through to April doesn't work - preparing these things takes quite a bit of time, such that it's easier to cut short than it is to extend.)

Anyway, that's the current plan. The first of those four remaining sessions in due to take place on Saturday. It promises to be quite exciting; they've just been captured by Imperial forces, and look set for torture and eventual death. Unless, that is, they can contrive a means of escape...

#23: "Pathfinder: Dragons Revisited", by Mike McArtor