I write a lot about the various roleplaying games I'm currently refereeing and/or playing, since it's good fodder for posts. It's also because I know many readers enjoy learning about which games I'm enjoying and what I'm doing with them. Truth be told, I feel similarly. I love hearing about the games others are playing and what's going in their adventures and campaigns.
To that end, I'd like to return to some questions I asked here just a little over three years ago:
If you are currently playing in or refereeing a roleplaying game:
- What RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
- How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)?
- How often do you meet to play?
If you are not currently playing in or refereeing a roleplaying game:
- How long has it been since you last played/refereed?
Thanks in advance.
• B/X-O.S.E. (as referee)
ReplyDelete• 7 years
• Monthly.
I'm running a RuneQuest campaign set in Sun County and Pavis/ Prax/ River of Cradles, using the latest edition rules and a mix of newer and older material (RQ2, RQ3). The game is running since October 2022, so it's more than 3 years. We currently play monthly.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently a player in a weekly online game of Voyages of Zylarthen (OD&D-ish retro-clone) we are in at session 8, although I couldn't always attend.
ReplyDeleteI'm also running a "when we get the time to play" online game of Shadowdark that's lasted two sessions so far.
I'm planning/have been asked to run something for a bi-weekly online game. I'm planning to run something super-light, like Troika! or maybe Talislanta if they want something meatier.
I'm (remotely) playing in 1/. AD&D (rules cyclopedia) Island of Dread. 2/. A savage worlds linear adventure.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to run some one shot mothership adventurers for a new crew of locals before we (hopefully) settle into something agreeable to everyone.
Currently I'm playing a couple of games:
ReplyDelete- I'm a player in a Stonehell campaign that lasted more than 3 years. We are playing using a game that we made, inspired by B/X and ACKS. We play two times a month, online. Sadly this game seems We play two times a month, online. Sadly this game seems it's approaching its end.
- I'm a player in a The One Ring 2nd edition game. It began 4 months ago and we play once a month.
- I'm referring to an open table hexcrawl using Granujas, a derivation from Knave that I made (and published!). It's beginning (the first session was in January) and my idea is to play another two games a month. These games are physical, tho.
I was playing a Warhammer 4th edition campaign that sadly died because of the player's lack of involvement (card games are a powerful and jealous master between some of my friends).
What RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
ReplyDeletePathfinder 2e.
How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)?
Current ongoing campaign: About three months.
PF2e generally: Probably around mid 2022, after moving from D&D 5e.
How often do you meet to play?
Currently I GM two games; both are weekly. I play in one more, which is also weekly.
Runequest and 2D20 Conan. 6 years and 2 years. About every 3 weeks.
ReplyDeleteI'm not currently playing or running any games, though I have an AD&D campaign all but ready to go and a couple of other games I'd like to run in a holding pattern. Unfortunately, I don't currently have any players. The last game I played in was a few years ago now (2022 I think?), and the last I ran was maybe a year or two before that - certainly post-COVID. I should probably run something solitaire using Mythic GM Emulator.
ReplyDeleteFound my comment to a previous request of this sort on Grognardia, and it was indeed 2022. That Call of Cthulhu game has ended. I think we played into 2023, finishing up the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign.
DeleteGuess I'd add that I'd quite like to play in a Worlds Without Number game, or maybe even Godbound, though I'm somewhat less interested in blunt power fantasies like that latter.
Tomorrow will be our first session of the CoC campaign Children of Fear. I'd suggested playing a few short scenarios but one of our players wanted a full blown campaign.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be meeting every two or three weeks. ( I have a lot on with family stuff for the foreseeable future ).
Running
ReplyDeleteKnave 2e: bi-weekly since September 2024
13th Age 1E: bi-weekly since June 2023
WEG Star Wars: quarterly since February of this year (we have only met once to date but plan more)
Playing:
D&D 3E: play by email since spring of 2025, restarting campaign that had been on hiatus for a decade after 4 years of original play
I'm currently playing in a Pendragon campaign. We're three sessions in, about to play our fourth. We play online every Sunday evening.
ReplyDelete1. Still Playing Pathfinder. Sadly my daughter no longer plays RPGs since she hit her mid teens so no more Barbarians of the Ruined Earth. And the Black Hack game fizzled out. Not playing anything else despite the heaving shelves...the curse of being an RPGer with autism and social anxiety!
ReplyDelete2. Pathfinder for 7 years now.
3. Pathfinder has moved from one weekly session of 3 hours to one monthly session all-day Sunday...so maybe 7 hours with a break for lunch.
Have you considered online play?
DeleteI've been refereeing a biweekly B/X Stonehell campaign since the summer of 2022.
ReplyDeleteCurrently running 5.5E in the Forgotten Realms, Out of the Abyss published adventure. This campaign has been running for 2 sessions so far. We are intending to meet up every fortnight for a 3 hour session. Personally I would prefer to run B/X but other gamers at the board games cafe only started playing in the last 10 years. Previous campaign (Descent into Avernus) lasted about 2 years of fortnightly play.
ReplyDeleteI'm refereeing Mausritter for a group of 5 players for the last year or thereabouts. We try to meet weekly, but it's been a rough year of many missed sessions.
ReplyDeleteI'm also refereeing Mausritter for a separate group at work, also 5 players, but with a very loose schedule.
I'm playing in a Mythic Bastionland game, also very infrequent due to scheduling issues.
I've been running a nominally weekly game with a group of friends since 2014. Until the pandemic we played in person, running my homebrew B/X megadungeon campaign (partly inspired by Dwimmermount!). Once the pandemic shut down face to face groups, we tried to switch to online gaming but it was just too different and it kind of fizzled out. We switched to D&D 5e in June 2020 and I ran the Curse of Strahd campaign online. That lasted until the end of 2022. Then we started a 5e Spelljammer campaign, just in time for the OGL crisis to hit and take all the wind out of my sails (pun intended) for anything to do with WotC (although I was already getting disenchanted with 5e). After about a year I was getting frustrating trying to make 5e work as a sandbox with expectations of VTT maps, etc., and we did an abrupt transition to Goodman Games' 5e conversion of Castle Amber. That lasted another two years, and we just finished last month. Probably the last time I will ever run 5e!
ReplyDeleteI was immensely frustrated with the relatively crunchy system combined with the friction of a VTT with this particular player group (sometimes a single player turn would take minutes while we waited for someone to find the right button to press or find where their character sheet had disappeared behind other windows, etc.). So my goal now is to get an in person campaign going using Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG to satisfy my undying D&D itch, and keep the online group as mechanically lightweight as I can, eschewing the VTT as much as possible and doing everything narratively as "theatre of the mind". We ran a DCC one off last week that went well, and next week I am starting a short Trail of Cthulhu scenario. (I have hopes to run the long Eternal Lies campaign but we're trying a one off adventure first to see how everyone takes to Trail of Cthulhu and to the investigative horror genre in general.) I am looking forward to Trail of Cthulhu being a refreshing change from over a decade of D&D in one form or another.
I'm currently playing D&D 5e (2024).
ReplyDeleteWe've been playing the current campaign for about 7 months now, but I've been playing D&D 5e (first 2014 and later 2024 rules) with roughly the same group for about 5 years.
Our goal is to try to play twice a month (bi-weekly), but sometimes it's only once per month (or less) due to scheduling conflicts.
Currently running: Started in 2024, my Hyborian Age campaign, which is an amalgam of multiple sources. Rules are Adv. Labyrinth Lord, some AD&D 1st ed, and some house rules.
ReplyDeleteWe play once a month on average. Next session will be tomorrow night.
We alternate every 2-3 months on campaigns. This Saturday will be my last to DM until probably May. My best friend will then take up the reins for his campaign.
Been playing in his campaign for about two years as well. It's a home brew campaign world using the Hackmaster 4e rules.
I've been very fortunate that I've had pretty much the same core group of friends that I game with for twenty-five years now. We've had our kids, seen them grow up, and they have kids of their own. We've have lost one due to illness a few years ago. We've all gone to cons together and shared in the fun.
Because of what we've shared we are like family. Every time when "Game Nite" gets closer and closer, I get that same feeling like when I was a kid. I don't know how to explain it. That feeling of belonging, of creating adventures, and making memories. It's this group of friends that keeps me coming back every month.
I'm DMing two first edition AD&D games. One is horror-themed, with Lovecraftian elements. The other is sword and sorcery, set in REH's Hyborian Age. Both lean into classic old school modules.
ReplyDeleteEach game has been running for 9 years. We play online and I move each game forward twice a week.
I'm currently running 5e in my Land of Azurth setting. We've been in this campaign for over 11 years now. We started at roughly monthly, I think, then went to weekly for a while during the pandemic, then settled back into about every 2 weeks for the past couple of years.
ReplyDeleteCurrently not playing or refereeing any game (sadly), last one was Warhammer Fantasy campaign (1st ed Restless Dead, but on 2nd edition ruleset) I ran through November 2024 to April 2025.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I aimed to run a Fading Suns oneshot, while waiting for one of the players to finish their personal things before starting the follow-up campaign, but alas, due to players disinterest and schedule conflicts neither happened.
In my local group, we’re playing 5e. I’m also prepping my annual Kolchak game using Daredevils, and a Mirror Universe Trek game using Flashing Blades, both for North Texas.
ReplyDeleteRunning 2 games:
ReplyDeleteShadowdark - Caverns of Thracia. About 20 weekly sessions in.
Dragonbane - Gods of the Forbidden North, about 8 sessions in and we meet bi-weekly.
Aside from a couple of one shots at an online convention last year, I no longer play since my group broke up in 2024. Finding a new one is... daunting.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind (and have the resources to) paying a DM/GM to run an online game for you (or instead get paid being a DM/GM and running online games for others), you might want to take a look at 'StartPlaying': https://startplaying.games/
DeleteI have no personal experience with the platform though, so I cannot tell you if it's actually any good or not.
Pay DM to run a game? LOL!
DeleteYup. And, depending whether you're on the paying or getting paid side of things, you may or may not be more willing to participate in that role.
DeleteI’m probably the outlier in the group. I only play online pay-to-play games. I’m currently in two campaigns. One uses Monte Cook’s Cypher System rules and we’re playing a superhero campaign that meets every other week. This group has been together for over a year, but we only converted to this genre two months ago.
ReplyDeleteThe other campaign is a weekly Vampire the Masquerade v5 campaign that also started two months ago.
I'm running a Coriolis: the Great Dark game at the moment, about six sessions in. It's a nice change of pace from our previous Barrowmaze game that sadly ended in a TPK.
ReplyDeleteOh, and we play weekly for two hours.
ReplyDeleteCurrently running a heavily homebrewed Original Dungeons & Dragons in Tudor England with fantasy elements superimposed with a certain "Camelot logic" as we call it, and certain deviations from history (mostly a result of the last campaign in the same setting). The campaign has been running for about nine months, meeting weekly almost without fail.
ReplyDeleteCurrently I've been refereeing Classic Traveller for our group about 3 years. We meet either in-person or online pretty much every Saturday night. This has been going on over twenty years. There are between 3–6 of us in the current group and we rotate GMing duties every week. My game is played every 6 weeks. Others in our group tend to run either 3.5E D&D or CoC.
ReplyDeleteMy own house ruled form of D&D, on and off for 20+ years, not regularly but 10 or 12 times a year I'd estimate. We usually do 2 hour one offs, not a campaign.
ReplyDeleteD&D 5e mash-up of Odyssey of the Dragonlords/Theros, 7 years if it makes it to June 2026 (we are close to the end). Once per month for 4-5 hours.
ReplyDeleteCyberpunk Red (morphed from Cyberpunk 2020): 7 years, has had a change of two players in that time, once every two weeks, about 2.5 - 3 hours.
Traveller (Mongoose 2e): Pirates of Drinax campaign, 1.5 years, once every two weeks, about 3 hours
Those are ones I am running. I am playing in 2 D&D 5e games, one set in Eberron that has been running every other week for a couple years now, the other is fairly new, a replacement for a Delta Green game. It too runs every other week.
DeleteFinally, I am playing in a Solomon Kane using Savage Worlds that is only a couple of months old, and it too runs every other week.
not currently playing:
ReplyDeleteHow long has it been since you last played/refereed?
Haven't DM'd since last November - what I can best describe as a B/X for rules and modules + AD&D modules and I mash the modules up into a rather scatterbrained and disjointed megasetting campaign, but we have fun. Low-level irregulars, although had a patch where several made name level and had lots of fun doing fast and easy dominion play/adventuring. Haven't played a PC in years.
Currently:
ReplyDelete- playing in a Traveller online game, every 2 weeks, about 4 months.
- refereeing another Traveller game, occasional schedule, about 2 months.
Recently:
- dropped out of playing a monthly Pathfinder 2 game 3 months ago, maybe 3 months running at the time.
- put on hold refereeing a bimonthly D&D 5e game as winter is the busy season at my work. That has been a 4.5-year-long game, and is very close to an end.
"What RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?"
ReplyDeletePlaying 2014 5E, Call of Cthulhu 7E, AD&D (1E/2E hybrid), Traveler.
Reffing AD&D 1E, Champions, CoC 6E.
"How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)? How often do you meet to play?"
5E about 6-7 years, CoC about 5 years, Champions started in 2002. These three games alternate, and there have been some long gaps (I lived outside the US for almost 7 years), but we play one of them almost every week.
Traveler about 15 years - but there have been long gaps, and we only play about 4 times a year.
One AD&D game I have reffed sporadically (when I go back to my home town) since 1980. The other has been almost every week since 1986, so 40 years.
I run CoC about once a year. It's the same characters, but it can barely be called a campaign.
I just started running a new campaign (1E AD&D) earlier this week.
ReplyDeleteI am running what appears to be a CoC 7e campaign. it is weird, a new player is forcefully pushing people to keep playing, making dates, reminding people, etc. up to now, just one shots, with many of them never completing due to not getting a second session. so we completed it, and did the end-of-scenario skill updates etc. that my first, despite running probably 15 sessions. this is my new favorite player
ReplyDeletealso, for the first time, I am leaving the safe zone of a published scenario and running my own material. a lot of winging it, as players like to wander. mixed results, but the players are having fun. we play again next weekend.
one weirdness, one player (husband of a regular) missed the first session, and now "does not want to jump in, in the middle"
Currently running "Keep on the Borderlands" set in the D&D 4e default setting of the Nentir Vale using the Dungeonworld rules. So a real mashup...
ReplyDeleteI am running 5E game set in Mystara. I am converting basic D&D adventures in 5E, used the 5E Isle of Dread, and running Wrath of the Immortals.
ReplyDeleteThis campaign is about a year old; I took a break for a couple of years after wrapping up Ghosts of Saltmarsh (I also set that in Mystara/Karameikos). That game took about 3 years.
The group meets once a week on Tuesday and we play for 4 hours.
I also run Marvel Superheroes as a palate cleanser with the same group. We try to do that in the summer. The game is set in 1986. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel comics from the 80’s and it serves me well in this game. I buy Marvel heroclix only for this game.
I’ve been playing with the same group for over 20 years. My 22 year old son is now a regular player.
I'm playing in two games, trying to run a third.
ReplyDeletePlaying a Shadowdark campaign with my old high school group online. 13 sessions so far, usually weekly. This campaign started when our Shadowmercs campaign ended; that one ran for about 30 sessions.
Im playing in an AD&D 2E campaign every other week at the local gaming club. It's been running for about 8 sessions, IIRC. Hadn't played 2E in 25 years, but it is a lot of fun.
I've also been trying to start up a Shadowdark campaign on the opposite weeks from the 2E game, but weather and health issues have kept interfering. Nil desperandum, I just keep trying. This will be set in the City State of the Invincible Overlord and the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, starting pretty much from scratch, avoiding all my old campaign materials and starting anew with just the original Judges Guild material and seeing where it takes us...
I'm running a DCC game for Jaquays' Dark Tower. I started it in November with co-workers (8 players), and we try to play monthly or bi-monthly, on a day we all have off. So far it's been fun and challenging. I never DM'd Dark Tower back in the day and am finally finding out how complex and complicated it really is. The DCC mechanics make it wild and really rewarding.
ReplyDeleteWhat RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
ReplyDeletePathfinder (1e), three different groups/campaigns.
How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)?
Campaign #1 about a year, following that group's previous campaign which took 3-4 years. The group (in one form or another) has been playing "D&D" together for over 20 years now.
Campaign #2 is in its 2nd year, and I joined that group 5-6 years ago. Before I did, they'd been playing D&D together for at least 20 years.
Campaign #3 and its group have only existed for a few months now, but the DM and I have known each other (from Group #1) for years.
How often do you meet to play?
Campaign #1 every Saturday for 3-4 hours (on Roll20). Campaign #2 every other Sunday for 5 hours (on Roll20). Campaign #3 every other Sunday for about 8 hours (in person).
- Tales of the Valiant
ReplyDelete- Games master
- 1 year (2 years as a gaming group, but second campaign)
- Weekly for 3 hours
- Pathfinder 2
- Games master
- 3 years (gaming group has been together for 6)
- Weekly for 2 hours
- Stardrifter
- Player
- 2 years
- Fortnightly or monthly
- Warhammer
- Campaign master and player
- 4 weeks (5 years aa a gaming group)
- Weekly for 2 or 3 hours
#1-Running Star Trek Adventures (Modiphius), a hybrid 1st and 2nd Edition campaign titled, 'Star Trek: Prosperity', set during the TOS Era. Bi-weekly, I GM, there are 4 Players/PCs, and its in its 12th year (yes, 12 years of real time).
ReplyDelete#2-Running Meteor City - Star Rainy Days, a Japanese Small Press TRPG . Cozy Sci-Fi Comedy. Weekly. I GM, there are 4 Players/PCs. 5 sessions so far.
#3-Playing Hogwarts/Wizard World homebrew created and run by a friend. Students at Hogwarts now in their 5th year. Bi-Weekly. Friend GMs, I am one of 4 Players. Going roughly 7 years now.
#4-Playing City of Heroes (setting based on the old MMORPG) using the Cypher System. Superheroes. Weekly. Friend GMs, I am one of 4 Players. Going since October of 2025.
Occaisionally running or playing the Smurfs RPG with some folks who were part of the kickstarter for that game, which is do out in April or May of this year. No campaigns really, just one-shots, though I did play in one long adventure that last 5 sessions. Usually a Storyteller and 3 to 5 Players/PCs. No fixed schedule. Been playing off and on since September of 2024.
The last RPG I played was actually Pendragon, like a year ago. The game sort of petered out over the summer, which is a shame because I think it was my longest-running game.
ReplyDeleteWhat RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
ReplyDeleteOSE with some hacks and a mixture of homebrew and modules both old and new.
About 3 years so far, meeting weekly (remotely.)
Thank you for continuing to keep this blog alive! I found it what feels quite late (maybe 5 years ago) and it has been awesome catching up on the old while keeping up with the new.
Currently running a 2E FR campaign; from Apr 2020 we've played Mirtul 1357DR to Ches 1358DR.
ReplyDeleteTrying to play through my 1 & 2E FR collection; finishing up the H series with a climatic battle with the demon thrall arch-lich Prelate Samson of Heliogabalus.
We generally meet at least twice a month; weekly when able but usually a session a month. We have a secondary "Minions" campaign when the main group can't get a quorum which allows an adjacent but separate series of one-shots.
The campaign began a few years prior to Apr 2020 when a close friend found some ancient goldenrod AD&D Character Sheets and we returned to the pre-Troubles (NEVER Troubles) FR, and a wonderful group of old friends gaming.
Now running a 1e AD&D Campaign with four players all in their 50s. We started about one year ago and meet every two weeks. Two players join me in person and two more participate via What’s App. We’re on our third set of characters. The previous set perished in White Plume Mountain! The current set just finished the Death Vault of the Chosen from Barrow Maze and is now 4th level.
ReplyDeleteOops! Forgot to list my name on the previous.
ReplyDeleteNow running a 1e AD&D Campaign with four players all in their 50s. We started about one year ago and meet every two weeks. Two players join me in person and two more participate via What’s App. We’re on our third set of characters. The previous set perished in White Plume Mountain! The current set just finished the Death Vault of the Chosen from Barrow Maze and is now 4th level.
What RPG(s) are playing/refereeing?
ReplyDeleteOSE, AD&D 1e, and homebrew B/X-like
How long have you been playing this/these particular campaign(s)?
A few months, 13 years, and a year respectively
How often do you meet to play?
Once a week, once a week, and once a month respectively
No playing of RPGs since the ‘90s. Up to a year ago I was regularly playing board games in a club and outside, including long ones like Civilization. Illness has curtailed my participation, but I still hope to attract some of those players into a biweekly old-school sandbox campaign of Classic Traveller (but my own setting), Bushido, or the Heroic Age of Tékumel (but in classic EPT setting). The latter might be a hard sell given Barker’s extracurricular activities.
ReplyDeleteCurrently running Spire: The City Must Fall, that's probably only a few sessions away from ending (online, every other week, about two hours a session with some play by text between). Planning on running Mythic Bastionland next.
ReplyDeleteCurrently playing Mothership--we've been at it for about two or three months now after about two years of Swords & Wizardry. I personally haven't been in the referee seat for about a year (except for running local convention sessions), but after the palate cleanser genre-shift to sci-fi, I've been cultivating some ideas again so I think I'll be refreshed and ready for some more dungeon delves when we rotate back to "D&D" fantasy. We meet weekly.
ReplyDeleteBack during Covid-lockdown a group of us started an online RPG session once a fortnight which is still going nearly 6 years later. We began with the old SPI Dragonquest game and then moved the campaign to.a draft set of rules written by the DM which worked really well. This was finally rested last year. We've begun a new campaign using Dragonbane but have had a brief diversion into The Fantasy Trip for organisational reasons (the DM wasnt acailable tonrun the game for a little while), but are now returning to Dragonbane again.
ReplyDeleteMy other real-life gaming group is pretty much a tabletop wargames/boardgames group but we've recently started a 1st Ed AD&D campaign purely for the nostalgia value and we're loving it!
2014 5E for 3 years and Shadowdark for 3 months meeting every second week
ReplyDeleteI'm refereeing The Enemy Within Campaign in a heavily house ruled WFRP 4e. We're on the 4th part of the campaign (though I plan to end it on this one) and have been playing for 4 and a half years, we play face-to-face probably once every 2 weeks on average. Its the only rpg I play unless you count the occasional solo journaling game :)
ReplyDeleteOnce a month I run a Twilight:2000 game. We've been playing about eight months.
ReplyDeleteEvery Wednesday the Tuesday Knights (we had to switch days) plays online. Currently we're playing a traveller campaign. We change GMs and games about once a year.
Every other Monday I play a Pathfinder Game with the neighborhood guys (we also play poker together) known as The Dorkbags. This is an agonizingly slow game. We spent one calendar year in a 12 room dungeon. It's been going on for about 12 years and we're only half way thought Rise of the Runelords. It's a beer and pretzel game.
Running: OSE (home-brew setting, but using lots of published dungeons, etc.)
ReplyDeleteDuration of current campaign: Oldest character goes back 45 years, but latest extended, continuous period of concentrated (weekly) play has been about 7 years, with some extended (multi-month) pauses to play another game (LE-TFT).