For you, what is the key of a successful campaign?

For you, what is the key of a successful campaign?

Party dynamics.

All your work as a GM is worth shit if you don't have a group of PCs who don't get along or at least have an interesting dynamic. Those personal relationships and connections are what keep people grounded through whatever crazy bullshit they go through, and without them nothing that happens in the campaign will have any real impact.

a campaign where people have fun

These two are the most important, I think we can all take that as granted.

But in terms of subjective stuff that makes or breaks a campaign for me... I suppose intent to finish/how much the DM wants to do this

Like, you can have the best characters with the best stats and being played by good friends and having a great time, but it still leaves a taste of disapointment in my mouth whenever a campaign gets scrapped for a reason less serious than "all of the PCs were killed and for contrived reasons a new group cant take their place."

I think variety is also important. I'd rather place an average-to-good game in an underwater setting where the main race are uplifted manatees and we're trying to uncover a pedophile ring at the heart of Big Kelp, rather than play an extremely well written "Pseudo-Medieval Western mythos fantasy setting #288978776" even if it's really really well done

Also it's better if the DM isn't a total dick with a holy-gospel interpretation of the rules. Being a DM is like being a good parent, you have to know when to break the rules a little bit so your kids feel special without killing them

Sleeping with your players.

If my players are genuinely excited for each session, and talk about the game even when it's not happening, that is a successful game.

Fun is cheap, I'm going for memorable

The key is to find good players willing to play in character, even if you don't go for heavy RP. The ones who feel too awkward to get into character will never remember anything about the world. They won't take it seriously, and by extension they won't feel the need to think or plan for future campaigns.

Just find people willing to talk from their character's perspective, especially if they use the tone they should.

>fun
can you stop using buzzwords? or are you just a troll?

The best is when it becomes a fond memory- A 'Remember that time?' kind of story.
Most particularly when it isn't a combat story.

Players who'll stick around for more than two sessions.

>Sleeping with your players.
Couldn't you just invite them to an orgy?

Party who like each other and a good spirit.
My game is a complete nonsensical mess of random rules, homebrew, and third party shit with every plot and setting splattered in there somewhere. But a year later and the game is going strong just because the players are awesome people.

Get your mind out of the gutter.
The point is a sleepover.
The campaign is so exciting that the players refuse to leave and wait for next week.

Can't be an attentive DM when everyone is going at once.

Players who have more plans and expectations from the campaign than just shenanigans

Eh, I can see where you're coming from. But the campaign i have the most from of that was my first one with serious players. They basically asked me how crazy they were allowed to go, I told them to the max.
The campaign was utter shit. But it's a great story. "Man at least it's not like that star wars campaign.." and the like. It's a good memory, but shit campaign.

Character interaction. Ideas. Freedom. Consequences.
The character interaction to have a fun and healthy enviroment for ideas and good storytelling to thrive and the freedom to be able to act on those ideas if they are good. And the consequences of the actions derived from those ideas. No matter if the ideas were good, or bad. But having a world that reacts to what the players do is the entire point of a TTRPG. If the world does not react to what the players do, they don't have true freedom, if they don't have true freedom then the ideas can become mostly background noise and if players cant affect their surroundings then the character interactions matter less.

i'm oversimplifying. But I still think those factors are important.

GM willpower speaks for a lot but your ideas regarding "variety" are pretty goddamn fucking picky.

Having complaints about the stockboard fantasy setting, I can understand, but complaining that you wouldn't want to play it "Even if it's well done" is just horseshit.

The common genre of fantasy exists to give authors a springboard. There are great works that derive from the base memes and tropes. It's also not the only flavor out there, but regardless it's still all fantasy.

Even if you just greet your GM's work with a sigh and an eyeroll, you could be sabotaging the entire attempt. If ONE player is unenthusiastic, it can drag the whole game into the mud for everybody else, unless that one player is extracted.

You shouldn't ask a GM to break their back and reveal a magnum opus just because you deigned to sit down at their table. It's unrealistic, and disgusting.

Scheduling so that everyone can make it.

Any game that gets off the ground without that guy, PVP or fizzling out by the third session is successful in my book.

That's a good one. The good campaigns always come up as nostalgic discussion topics when we're all together.

Solution: Don't recruit at the LGS.

Fun isn't a buzzword.

But buzzwords are fun.

>Fun is cheap, I'm going for memorable

I like this. My most recent campaign drifts into these waters, and it's exciting to have ,y players so pumped about the setting and what's going on that they chat about it regularly, not just at the game table.

These all play a part, as well. It's the aforementioned Pseudo-Medieval Western Mythos Fantasy #288978776, but the party dynamics are good, everyone is enjoying themselves, there's a certain degree of variety, and details about the world and each others' characters stick in their minds enough to extend beyond game night.

Character interaction

Whether between PCs and other PCs, or PCs and NPCs, I consider the conversations that characters in my campaigns have with each other to be the main selling point.

Not wanting to carve out my brain through my ears with a spoon because people at my table have to force some form of comedy when all I want is a good old escapist session where I can assume my borderline edgy ranger persona.

That has not yet happened since and I have lost all hope it ever will.

A satisfying ending to the story.
Nothing else really matters.

I said "I'd rather" not "I won't." I'll play anything, and I'll give it my best, but genre fatigue is a real thing no matter how good the actual product is, just look at the current state of movies

You should really learn reading comprehension if you're going to be involved in tabletop gaming

>no matter how good the actual product is, just look at the current state of movies
No, the current movies simply are not good, genre fatigue or not.
Hollywood is suffering from the worst case of intellectual incest. But it's a rather prevalent problem throughout most of modern media.

I won't deny Hollywood is sewer deep in a creative circlejerk, but to state that there are -no- good works produced in the modern era that have been overlooked because of the overwhelming amount of product consumers have to choose between is fallacious at best, nostaliga-fagging at worst

>I want people to take things DEAD SERIOUS when they're pretending to be an elf wizard

Yeah man, no jokes or fun allowed on the weekend evening activity you spend hanging out with your buddies doing.

Are you fucking autistic or something?

You don't see fantasy writers making constant jokes in their novels, or movie producers spending millions of dollars to make fun of Orlando Bloom putting on pointy elf ears.

I can understand user's desire to actually roleplay in a roleplaying game. Sometimes you just want to be immersed, and too much OoC humor fucks it up

>to state that there are -no- good works produced
I did not do that.
If you feel that I did then it's because I responded to your general statement.