By generations I mean characters who have children, and players who then run those children who in turn have children and so on down the line. The primary campaign I've played in this style has been on-going for 28 years real-time and 80 years or some in-game time.
I've encountered a number online who do something similar, I different from most in the following two ways:
- No Skips: Skipping is a methods suggested in Pendragon and to a lesser extent Ars Magica . Skips are "let's advance thing 10 years and pick things up when...". That's not the method I'm talking about, but rather continuous play of the campaign advancing the time line naturally through play. One may 'skip' or abstract a month of travel, but not years just to get to a new generation of characters or a new point in time.
- Seamless Play: Children will enter play along side older characters, and sometimes even go on the same adventures with them. They interact as families do, not displaying the 'new group of character' mindset common to most campaigns.
Doing this successfully requires a different approach to combat, skills and character advancement. I've found that nearly every game system on the market crashes attempting this type of campaign. I'll cover some of these issues and how I've addressed them in my campaigns as the series continues.
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One thing I think very few games touch on that is kind-of a prerequisite for a generational game, are good rules for sex and procreation, as well as rules for getting old.
I do this all the time. My old AD&D to 3E to 3.5 campaign spanned many generations with the Elves and Dwarves playing sons and daughters but the Humans playing Grand or Great Grandchildren.
I've used this concept in Star Trek, Traveller and Superheroes less often)as well. This is actually my goal when creating a campaign sometimes. That is, we hope it lasts long enough to do this.
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Barking Alien
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@Helmsman: I agree on the need for Aging rules, but disagree on the rest except perhaps for a basic table (i.e. sibling number) or two.
@Barking Alien: More than likely we're talking about two related but different campaign concepts- unless of course you've found a way to have 20th and 1st level characters on the same battle field exposed to the same foes in a meaningful and challenging matter consistently.
If so, I'd love to hear how that was possible.
As well as the number of rules you needed to add (or supplements you needed to buy) to deal with characters not at their prime, and other related matters.
I envy you the longevity of your campaign and group of players! This has always been an ideal of mine but have never had so stable a game environment to foster it.
Cheers!
@Ragnorakk: To be fair, the single 28 year line belongs to my bud's campaign that I play in.
Mine is ran the same way, but I've moved to multiple states over those years and thus changed primary groups although we still hook up from time to time.
There are 2 or 3 original players from that 1980 start date, now outnumbered by those who came later.
However both his and mine have always been ran in this style, for both the original people and those who have joined us.
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