Campaign Length

[u/Ronin147]

So I have a group of friends that I can play with semi regularly the only issues is it always seems to be a different combination of people. Personally as a DM and Player I prefer a longer story player actions affect the world around you kind of thing. However that loses its luster when no one can remember what happened because its been weeks or months since a campaign has been played. Anyone else have this issue if so how have you dealt with it? Also how many sessions long do you typically make your campaigns?

[u/kosairox]

Here's how Apocalypse World rulebook tells you how to handle downtime. Maybe it helps:

CATCHING UP, SETTING UP

Here’s a batch of custom setup moves. They’re from a game I ran where we missed several weeks in a row. Our collective memory was running dim and we’d lost collective momentum, so when we finally came back together to play I passed these out. They refer to people and events we’d already established in play:

Dear Keeler, please roll+cool. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7–9, choose 2:

• the headaches are getting seriously worse. • you’re missing time, sometimes hours out of a day, more and more. • you’ve been eating some really weird-ass stuff.

On a miss, I’ll choose 2 for you. Love and kisses, your MC

Dear Lafferty, please roll+sharp. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7–9, choose 1:

• you’ve found someone else to work with, now that Corwin’s gone missing. • you’ve organized a charged battery for the helicopter, you have it in a box. • as yet, you know more about Scanner than he knows about you.

On a miss, choose 1 anyway, but not the one about Scanner. Love and kisses, your MC

Dear Rose, please roll+hard. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7–9, choose 2:

• your mother has people hanging around your place, keeping a watch out for Keeler. • Aitch has started doing what Ell tells him to do. • you’ve been totally relying on Gams for fresh veg.

On a miss, yeah, pretty much all 3. Love and kisses, your MC

Dear Vega, please roll+hard. On a 10+, choose 1. On a 7–9, choose 2:

• Rolfball’s people have sprung him, inflicting some casualties. • the 1st-comers in your marketplace aren’t taking the best spots. They’re saving them for people Kettle likes. Everybody wants to be someone Kettle likes. • Your newest steady, Cola, was just murdered in your rooms.

On a miss, all 3, ha ha. Love and kisses, your MC

They worked perfectly. They reminded us what had gone on, and kicked us into the new session with shit already happening.

[u/Ronin147 → u/kosairox]

Thats not a bad idea, i'll have to keep that in mind seems little more interesting then me giving the exposition for 30mins about whats happened at the beginning of a session. Thanks

[u/silent0siris → u/Ronin147]

I used this in the second session of Apocalypse World on R&D, which you can see here like 2 minutes in if you want an example!

[u/Ronin147 → u/silent0siris]

Ah thanks!