Games spanning years in-game

What would it be like to play in a campaign that spans several years in-game?

I don't know about you, but most of my games take place over a couple of in game months, perhaps even less. We follow the characters quite linearly on their adventures. Perhaps there is a jump of a couple of months between some of the adventures, but nothing major. This creates a easy to follow story with a natural short-term character and world progression.

Recently I've been toying with the idea that between each adventure there is a gap of x number of years. Say 5 (or even 10!) years between each adventure. If I remember correctly the Pendragon RPG does something similar, and this post is loosely inspired by what I can remember from that game. You can find the Pendragon RPG over at chaosium.com. 

I think these jumps in time would create a totally different flow in the game. Characters would grow old, get apprentices and/or children. The slow change of the world would become more apparent. 

In turn, the threats or adventure hooks needs to be slower. Several major threats to a kingdom (or the world) during a year would defeat the purpose of this kind of structure. However, there are still plenty of cool adventures to be had! The GM can also foreshadow threats years in advance. For example the slow death of a forest, or a dungeon that is locked for 20 years.

Below is my take on this structure.

 

Adventures and Sessions: I distinguish between adventures and sessions here. An adventure is a journey or a quest the characters do in the world. A session is each time the players sit down and play the game. To benefit from this time-jump structure, a typical adventure should not be that many sessions. Perhaps 2 or 3 is good?

Characters: Each player creates a family, guild, or similar group of people. This is their pool of characters. For each adventure they select an existing characters or create a new one. Its nice if new characters are connected to the previously played character somehow. For example they could be the apprentice or son of the previous character. 

Jumps in time: Between each adventure, the GM and the players agree how many years they should jump ahead. I think 2, 5 and 10 years are some good options. Each player rolls on the table below, for every other year jumped ahead.

• Two years, roll 1 time
• Five years, roll 2 times
• Ten years, roll 5 times
  

Each player interprets the results and relays to the other players what happens in these years. The GM then narrates or does the same for any other relevant factions. 

Yearly events (d66)

11. Heretics	31. Debts	51. Plunder
12. A good harvest	32. Wandering guardians	52. Drought
13. Cold winds	33. Bountiful winds	53. Wandering bards
14. New inhabitants	34. People are leaving	54. Monsters (1 or 2)
15. Gifts	35. Poverty	55. Expansion
16. Magic phenomenon	36. Undead	56. New friends
21. A bad harvest	41. Religious blooming	61. Revolution
22. Unusual offspring	42.Flood	62. Sickness
23. Warm winds	43. Riches	63. Wandering teachers
24. Refugees	44. Monsters (small gang)	64. Monsters (big gang)
25. Diplomats	45. Strife	65. Peace
26. Insect swarm	46. Discover a new resource	66. New enemies

The next adventure: When it's time for the next adventure, a council is held in-game. One of the players faction summons the other factions to a meeting. In this meeting they decide what problems to handle - if any. 

The players then relay what problem they want to tackle, and the GM prepares an adventure for it. Each player sends one of their characters for this adventure, and may spend any resources they have available to aid in the adventure. 

I want to test this for a future series of game. But what about you folks? Have you tried anything similar? Tell me about in the comments!

Credits: Top photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash & Landscape photo by Bailey Zindel on Unsplash