RPG Campaign Styles

This week's Game WISH is about Campaign Styles

Do you prefer campaigns to be limited-plot, with a definite ending, or open-ended, so that they can continue indefinitely? What about things like "convention campaigns" where people meet irregularly to pick up old characters and game together? What are the pros and cons of each sort of game? Which is more common in your gaming experience?

I see three forms of game structure:

Over the years I've had experiences of all three; there was the long-running AD&D Spelljammer "Vikings in Space" which fizzled out before any final conclusion, my equally long-running GURPS Kalyr game which did reach a final conclusion after 5 years, and an largely episodic Runequest game. Since then much of my off-line gaming has been convention-style one-shots.

I have some experience of "convention campaign" games; so far I've played three day-long sessions of an interdimensional Fudge-based game called "Guardians of Dimension", and expect to play a fourth this Easter. On-line games are different again; most have been of the 'open-ended' format, even though a typical long-running PBeM or message board game only gets though as much actual plot as a convention one-shot. So far I've only ever played in a single on-line game that's run to a conclusion, all others have either fizzled out or are still continuing, although many ran for two or three years before folding.

My preferences are for games that come to some sort of conclusion, either one-shots or short, focussed campaigns. If I want something long-term I'll go for an episodic format, but I do find one of the big advantages of one-shots is that they give the opportunity to play in a lot of different genres.