Campaign Truism #1: Every campaign ends.

Campaign Truism #2: Most end early.

When a Game Master starts a campaign, he usually has some idea of the endpoint. Sometimes, the endpoint is an overarching meta-plot. Other times, it's when the player characters reach a certain power level. It might simply be a timing issue (this campaign must end when the semester is over). There might be a consensus endpoint (we'll just keep having adventures until we want to play something else).

Unfortunately, many campaigns never reach the original goals as thought out by the GM. Many factors can play into this. The players may lose interest in the campaign and are either bored stiff or becoming disruptive. Real life is starting to interfere with the game, allowing for only half of the expected sessions to actually take place. A mystery story may have dragged on for so long that the players have forgotten not only half the clues, but also what they were supposed to be solving. The original party of adventurers that swore an oath to complete the quest is long gone; all replaced by other characters that really don’t care about the kingdom in peril. And then there’s GM burnout.

It happens to the best of us. You've been running a campaign for a long time and you've done everything you've felt you can do with it. The players are still interested in it (and may even be enjoying it more now than when they started) but you've run out of ideas. You attempt to inject some new life in the campaign, but everything you add seems like something you’ve already done before. The tenth supervillain that wants to hold the world hostage seems just like the last nine. The werewolf that you've planted in the adventuring party has similar motivations and goals as the doppelganger that you planted in the party four sessions ago.

Sometimes you can resuscitate your campaign and move forward. Sometimes, you just have to let it go.

A little over three years ago, I had an idea for a column. I named it "Keeping Kosher" partly in honor of my Jewish wife and partly because it was the general theme of my column. I wanted to write articles that would reflect my experiences as a GM and share some of the solutions that I either used or felt should have been used (while I've never been an advocate of "the one, true way" there are certainly some solutions that are better than others).

Three years is a long time. Over the last few months, it's been increasingly difficult for me to come up with new column ideas. For every one that I've written, I've struck down four or five as "having done that already." I don't want to repeat myself or revisit old topics. In addition, I haven't been GMing as much as I used to (or, more accurately, most of my current campaigns are prepackaged adventures). While I've never used this column to promote my own projects, astute readers have probably seen my work in the PDF market. The fact is that I spend more time now writing material for publication than running games.

So I've come to the realization that it's time to let go.

I've had a lot of fun writing this column over the last three years and I've learned a lot about writing in the process. I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Good Gaming!

Although Walter didn't promote his own projects with this column, I'm happy to. You can find several of them at the RPGnet eShop. If you've enjoyed Walter's writing here--and I can't imagine otherwise--go take a look at what he's doing professionally. --ed