Hi All,
After a brief break I am here with the penultimate article on the survey. In today’s installment we are looking at the responses dealing with campaign length and structure.
One of the reasons i was excited for this section was that I had no idea how other people ran their events. It’s rare to see multiple crusade campaigns going on at once so this gave me a chance to tap into the minds of other GMs and players. I wasn’t surprised to see that the un-structured category was so high it is the simplest way to enjoy a campaign, especially if you don’t want the hassle of making a coherent story. That being said I was happy to see how many events have a defined story (54%). Whether you have an end-date or not it takes work, but can be quite rewarding.
This question is moderated by the fact that it really hasn’t been that long since the release of 9th so this answer may change over time. Judging from this chart it looks like 2-3 months is the most common length of time, but is it what players wanted?
| Length of Campaign | Was too short | Went on too long | Lasted the perfect amount of time |
| No defined time span | 10 | 1 | 38 |
| Less than a month | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 Month | 13 | 2 | 2 |
| 2-3 Months | 31 | 8 | 50 |
| 4-5 Months | 11 | 2 | 29 |
| 6 Months to a year | 5 | 4 | 21 |
| More than a year | 2 | 1 | 9 |
If you look at the percentage of people who said their campaign lasted “The Perfect amount of time” it’s interesting to note that the 4-5 group had a higher percentage (69%) then the 2-3 month group (56%). Curiously enough, the most satisfied group were those that player without a specified time length (79%). This puzzles me a bit. I guess it does give you a great opportunity to get a lot of leveled up units.
This is another result that surprised me a bit, I thought people would have the most fun in the initial rush as you create backstories for your characters and your initial rosters.However the middle of the campaign is the most popular point. Perhaps this has something to do with it being one of the more balanced times when units haven’t reached their max level and you get to flesh out your roster?
The final graph confirms a lot of what I suspected as I went through the results. I think people largely give GW the benefit of the doubt and try to play the game like it says on the tin. In our final article we will look at “house rules” but many people seem to be sticking with the established formula: a non-specified end date, relying on power level for the rosters. Not that this is a bad thing. Most people have been satisfied with their experience and it seems to be providing a positive experience for players. I don’t know about other GMs but I have the constant drive to try and fix these rule sets when I see possible edge cases and holes in the rules. It may be possible that the rule set is holding up fine without the need to tinker with it. Maybe we will dive into this next year!
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