I think a bit of this comes down to the gaming group too. I know I'm a narrative focused DM and my players have a very similar outlook. I've run two multi-year home-brew campaigns for 5th edition. I've run out of steam because I didn't have a firm end point to aim toward. But when it comes to the mini-campaigns I've run, those always feel exciting and engaging the whole way through. My players and I like to have a goal to focus on and achieve, and it feels like it keeps the energy going through the mini-campaigns. But I also agree that a DM shouldn't hold on too tight to that end point. If the campaign shifts focus, then shift the end point along with it. But having that end point may keep things from getting into that stale slog where everyone is there and having fun.. but not really having fun anymore.
Our group has 2 of us that DM and we rotate running based on our story arcs. We are currently finishing up the other DMs current campaign, and I will start running my tier two (5-10 lvl) arc while he preps for a whole new campaign in Ravenloft that he wants to run. Then we will flip back. This really helps with DM and player burn out.
I've run a few games now that exploded VASTLY beyond the scope of what I had planned. In these cases, even with players taking over DMing and doing some months on and off... I just got tired of what I had been running. Don't get me wrong, I still loved my players and ESPECIALLY their characters, but the stories and places I had set up months or years beforehand, the prewritten stuff I had labored over adapting to our world and playstyle, none of it appealed to me anymore. Wondering if you have any thoughts on how to wrap up these cases where everything looks and feels good on paper and you hate to break the players' hearts sending off beloved characters, but your heart just isn't in the game you created earlier in life.
I mean the only fully successful game I've ever played we kept going long after we beat the bbeg and eventually the dm had to be like we're having an epiliogue session and starting something different.
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I think a bit of this comes down to the gaming group too. I know I'm a narrative focused DM and my players have a very similar outlook. I've run two multi-year home-brew campaigns for 5th edition. I've run out of steam because I didn't have a firm end point to aim toward. But when it comes to the mini-campaigns I've run, those always feel exciting and engaging the whole way through. My players and I like to have a goal to focus on and achieve, and it feels like it keeps the energy going through the mini-campaigns. But I also agree that a DM shouldn't hold on too tight to that end point. If the campaign shifts focus, then shift the end point along with it. But having that end point may keep things from getting into that stale slog where everyone is there and having fun.. but not really having fun anymore.
Our group has 2 of us that DM and we rotate running based on our story arcs. We are currently finishing up the other DMs current campaign, and I will start running my tier two (5-10 lvl) arc while he preps for a whole new campaign in Ravenloft that he wants to run. Then we will flip back. This really helps with DM and player burn out.
I've run a few games now that exploded VASTLY beyond the scope of what I had planned. In these cases, even with players taking over DMing and doing some months on and off... I just got tired of what I had been running.
Don't get me wrong, I still loved my players and ESPECIALLY their characters, but the stories and places I had set up months or years beforehand, the prewritten stuff I had labored over adapting to our world and playstyle, none of it appealed to me anymore. Wondering if you have any thoughts on how to wrap up these cases where everything looks and feels good on paper and you hate to break the players' hearts sending off beloved characters, but your heart just isn't in the game you created earlier in life.
I mean the only fully successful game I've ever played we kept going long after we beat the bbeg and eventually the dm had to be like we're having an epiliogue session and starting something different.