#RPGaDay 15: Longest Campaign Played

#RPGaDay2015

15: Longest Campaign Played

(looks at blog title)

As for why The Watch House was the longest campaign I ever ran, easily beating the time I ran The Enemy Within in high school as it came out, I discussed why the Buffy The Vampire Slayer setting helped a great deal in last year’s challenge here:

Modern monster-hunting plain-clothes superheroes who make jokes about popular culture as they fight the forces of darkness and rely on book-learning to save the world. Being a bit of a geek is a weapon against evil.  

And it’s a kitchen-sink setting with a very high Weird Level while still being relatable. Buffy had a silent movie and a musical caused by demonic powers. Angel spent most of an episode as a bloody puppet. Just about anything can fit in there with “a wizard did it” as a perfectly viable explanation. This helped make it the longest I’ve ever run a game - almost twice as long as GMing WFRP in high school for a captive audience of fellow pupils as the books came out. And on the flip side, an episode about dealing with a totally normal life event (with a special guest vampire to slay) fits just as well.

And The Watch House in particular succeeded because of the enthusiasm of a number of players, who came early, stayed late, brought adventure hooks and subplots, edited AP transcripts, and so much more.