How fast does a full campaign usually go/how to make it slower?

[Kyris]

So, I haven't ran any campaigns of TTB yet, only doing one shots. However in the fall I'm planning on running a full campaign for my college's board game/RPG club.

 

I've heard that campaigns tend to progress very quickly, but there are methods for slowing it down. Now, that kind of concerns me because I kind of need a campaign that can last at LEAST 5 play sessions, maximum up to 15.

 

So, how would you all more experienced Fatemasters suggest doing that? I'd prefer breaking the story down term to term; so I guess the best way to put it is I'm looking for a method of making three 5 episode "seasons" for the campaign. But I want to make sure that the characters don't progress too quickly or run out of things to do or advance. It'd suck if they're able to take on Master level characters halfway through.

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

I'm already 4 sessions in and they can barely handle 4 crooked men (zombie miners)

By session 7 I doubt my crew of 5 could take on a master or his henchman. Consider the fact that masters are RIDICULOUSLY powerful and as such should really be avoided at basically all costs. 15 sessions and things should be fine.

[Kyris]

1 hour ago, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

I'm already 4 sessions in and they can barely handle 4 crooked men (zombie miners)

By session 7 I doubt my crew of 5 could take on a master or his henchman. Consider the fact that masters are RIDICULOUSLY powerful and as such should really be avoided at basically all costs. 15 sessions and things should be fine.

Well, actually fighting against masters was just an exaggeration to get the point across. I don't intend on actually having them do that....Well, maybe towards the end, see how it goes.

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

Presently, my group of Fated are looking for Marcus, and based on their tendencies for violence I feel that a battle between the 2 parties is the inevitable...

[Claymore65]

So, for pacing, the game suggests the following:

Each session should feature one of the Fated's Destiny Steps. Each Fated has five Destiny Steps, so campaigns are assumed to take around Five sessions per Player. So, for example, I have five players, so I can expect around 25 sessions to get through each character's destiny.

Note that the term "session" isn't strictly a play session, it's more like an adventure or major part of the adventure. For example, my players usually took two play sessions to get through each "Act" in one of the pre-made adventures, which is roughly supposed to be one session. It's up to you and your group decide if that pace is good, or if you need to speed up or slow down.

If you'd like to extend the game by RAW, you should add an additional session for each rank a player wants to take in an Advanced pursuit. There's also nothing stopping you from running sessions not featuring a character's destiny step, or including multiple destiny steps in the same session to make the campaign shorter.

As far as power gain, I think it's pretty good. Characters get noticeably stronger each session, but they won't outclass all the enemies immediately. Keep in mind that the Fated are generally competent and effective the whole way through. They don't get ridiculous without a highly optimized build or after a lot of play sessions, in which case the destinies of each character should be mostly wrapped anyway.

[Mason]

It's important to not think of your characters like DnD adventurers; they're not going to end every fight on the ropes with resources exhausted and barely any hit points left.

Think of them more like the protagonists in a western or action movie: they're going to get into fights and generally win them. Occasionally, PCs will die, but the system generally works in their favor to keep them alive so that they can finish their stories.

Masters will pretty much always slap Fated around, simply because their stats are so high. They're not unkillable, but it's going to be a tough fight, especially if the master has backup from minions and enforcers (which they probably should). If you get onto a hot run of cards, though...

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

Though a Master for a group that is feeling cocky about their strengths would be a good way to remind them just how squishy they are... muahaha

[Undercover_Guildsman]

I've been interpreting the 'session' fairly loosely.  The one-shots are turning into two-night sessions at this point as the game world is becoming more evolved and the Fated are making new friends (and enemies) and starting to do a lot of self-directed activity.  I basically state that after each adventure's end there is a month to six weeks of 'down time'.  As they live at a Saloon (and do side jobs for the owner to reduce the rent) they need to pay bills (relieving them of Scrip), work on finding cures for their ailments (the last adventure had the Showgirl come back with Haunted +1 so she needed to investigate how to remove this), and any other 'regular' jobs that pay the bills (the Doctor has a Guild contract to attend public executions and sign the death certificates if another doctor can't make it).

The way I approach this is to run the two sessions (one adventure), and then the next session becomes a series of smaller scenes for down time, book-keeping, and other interesting hooks that allow me to foreshadow the next adventure (or the one after that).  We advance Pursuits, etc during this session too.  It's handy because whilst I'm dealing with one player's narrative (I have a three player group) the others are rummaging through source books for the more mechanical aspects.  It seems to work really well at the moment, but I would understand that larger groups might need to devote an entire evening to the 'bridging' or down time as I suggest it.

Hope this is useful.